Hi, sorry for the long wait... extra long chapter as an apology
I don't own Tokyo Mew Mew

He wondered for how long he had been running, minutes? hours? did it really matter?, either way he felt like it had been days, he was sweating profoundly, his clothing pretty much soaked by now, and yet, that did little to cool him off.

He stopped at the base of a tree to take a breath, it wasn't like he couldn't stop, no one was chasing him; and now, finally registering his own exhaustion, he was angry that he'd wasted so much energy on running like a damned fool.

The tree felt moist at touch; pretty much like everything else that surrounded him; even the air, had he not known better, he would have thought he was breathing water itself, for how thick and humid it felt. This was why sweating didn't help at all, after all, what good does it make, if it just won't evaporate.

He panted hard, trying to see if it helped in any way on cooling himself. Exhaustion had finally driven the panic stricken mind back into soberness, of course, who wouldn't get scared if he suddenly found himself in the middle of a forest, and a deep forest at that. Trees grew so close one to another that their branches and leaves nearly intertwined together, creating a vault which made it feel like a miracle that any light made it through.

And in the space between the trees, grew all sorts of different plants, from gigantic leafs that seemed like umbrellas, to nearly any plant you could imagine or even dream of, but grass.

It was rather astonishing, how green everything was, not even the trees had much brown in them, all their trunks green with either moss, lichen or climbing plants; so much so that their trunks seemed to be furry. And the ground itself was hardly any different; he was really amazed he had been able to advance at all in its thickness

Having regained his breath, he decided to continue, this time walking; carefully pushing his way through the dense vegetation. His footing was unsteady, the ground beneath him moist and with a layer of rotting leaves; he wondered how he had managed to run up till now without falling every two steps.

"Woah!" Koji nearly tripped, beneath his foot, what he had thought was a firm surface of leaves, had actually felt like stepping into air. Curious Koji pressed the surface, which easily gave in; then he took his foot back, seeing in awe as, like a cushion, the leaves returned to their previous firm looking position.

After a while of pushing the leaf cushion up and down, trying to decipher only by doing so what was beneath the leaves that made such movement possible; he concluded it was probably some roots or twigs, and decided to continue walking; after all, it wasn't like if solving that 'mystery' would help him get out of here...

Not long after, he found himself in front of a really muddy patch of soil, the terrain on his left inclined upward, and from the looks of it, there was probably a minuscule water spring somewhere up there, which left the wet path of soil along its downward flow. Unfortunately for him, that also meant he would probably have to climb a rather long way up to find some place where it wasn't slippery to pass.

Sighing, Koji decided to try and jump the patch; it wasn't that large a gap after all. He took a few steps back and sprang into full run, taking as much impulse as he could; clearing the visible part of the wet area, he nearly yelled in achievement as his feet reached the other side of the drenched path.

"Gyaaaaah!" that you can't see it, doesn't mean it's not there; the instant his feet had touched the ground, the mud beneath the leaf covering had given in; Koji found himself rolling down the cliff, desperately trying to grab into something, to stop his fall.

He finally stopped near the base of the cliff, wondering how he had managed not to collide with any trees on his way down; he didn't bother on standing up though, just trying to calm his still racing heart.

Koji took his time, to check his condition; to check if he had hurt himself, or broken something; and finally noticing everything was there, and even though everything was sore, he really wasn't hurt he sat up, just now noticing how extremely dirty he was, from dirt to dead leaves in different states of decomposition pretty much covered his entire body. He shook off as many as he could before attempting to get up; he couldn't remember ever being this dirty in his entire life

There was a small tree, not much thicker than a broom stick, growing just within his reach, and he decided to use it to help himself up. That was another mistake though; the tree itself would have easily supported his weight, but not so did the soil beneath it; like if the tree hadn't even been rooted at all, it went loose and fell, together with the kid

"How is such a thing even possible? Did it not even have roots at all?" bellowed Koji, more than just slightly angry at having fallen yet again.

He looked at the base of the tree, and the place where it had originally been planted; a rather big amount of soil clung to the roots of the tree, almost perfectly reflecting the hole in the ground.

Curiosity getting the best of him, Koji looked into the hole; it really wasn't deep, hardly the length of four fingers to the deepest part; in its sides, in an almost perfect succession of layers you could almost literally see how the leaves faded, until they became soil; rich black soil(aka compost). Though, even more interesting was, at the bottom part of the hole, instead of that rich soil, was an orange sleek surface; clay.

No wonder the tree came down, the roots were still to superficial; clay is too hard, and as for nutrients, it doesn't work that well. If you were to take away all the leaves and black soil, it wouldn't be weird for the trees to suffer from lack of nutrients. The leaves that fall also work as micro climates for billions of insects and other small and mysterious creatures; then they would decompose and become soil, returning their nutrients to the ground for the trees to feed again; a perfectly balanced, and mostly auto-sufficient ecosystem.

Finally snapping out of his scientific trance, he mentally knuckled himself; it had always been a habit of his to space out into anything that perked his interest; even to the point of forgetting everything other than that he was inspecting; just like that while earlier, when he had stepped on the leaf cushion; he had even done so once he had slipped and bruised his elbow, fascinated, looking at the small drops of blood slowly seeping out from the bruise while somehow ignoring the sharp stings it gave him.

Either way, this really wasn't a moment to be spacing out like that. He took the tree up, and with some difficulty broke it to a size similar to his own; he didn't want to trip like that again; then, finally standing up straight and stable, he looked around and frowned 'did the light get dimmer?'

Under the dense vegetation, there was no way to be sure about in, but it did seem to be dimmer than a while before, "this is bad..." the words escaped his mouth

"basic survival skills... basic survival skills" Koji mumbled to himself while lightly hammering his fist against his forehead, like if trying to shake an idea into appearing, 'geez, why does no one ever teach things like these?'

"Fire!" he yelped finally remembering something 'animals are afraid of it! And it will keep me warm at night!'. Koji patted himself up and down; 'matches, where?...' Of course he didn't carry matches; what kind of teenager does, he didn't smoke... who else would carry such...

'Matches are rather new, how did people make fire before...? Wood... stones?' he looked around no stones to pick on, but there was quite a lot of wood. 'Rubbing sticks is another way, right?'

"tsk..." 'You have got to be kidding me!' Koji fumed to himself finally giving up on the fire, both his hands sore and probably even blistered. He had been too foolish to think he would actually achieve it any way. 'So you can't start a fire from wet wood, and guess what; there's nothing but wet wood around here.' he thought while giving the discarded utensils a somewhat murderous smirk

He had had too few time, either way; he knew that he had felt the time to be a lot shorter than it actually was; since he had been running against time, but even as short as it had felt, it couldn't have been more than half an hour since the moment he was certain the light was dimming, till he was completely enveloped by darkness

Koji slumped back against the tree that was just behind him. His eyes moving from one side to the other, hoping they would get accustomed to the intense darkness soon enough, there wasn't much he could do now either way.

'If I nearly killed myself while still being able to se, moving around in this darkness would be blunt suicide'. He tried nearing himself as much as he could to the trunk of the tree, somewhere in his mind hopping it would be like a little cave to protect him
'A shelter, I needed a shelter...'. The teen stretched a hand to take the improvised staff, wincing slightly at the pain of his now raw hands.

A mighty lightning crossed the sky, momentarily illuminating the scenery; 'a thunder storm?... I... if only I had a shelter...' Koji slumped back even further into the tree, making space in between the leaves, if just, slightly hopping that when rain started to fall, they would block at least part of the water.

Thunder followed, and suddenly, all noise stopped. In any other situation, Koji would have immersed himself in his curiosity; why, even though the night is so much quieter than the day, even though normally at this time even the smallest sounds seemed so loud... how can it be that there is complete and utter silence; something he was certain he had never heard; as if all living forms had stopped breathing, as if time itself had suddenly stopped

Then a deep and powerful roar exploited from somewhere in front of the boy. His heart made a painful throb in his chest and he nearly forgot he had his staff, his makeshift lance, it nearly falling from his now opened, paralyzed hands.

His eyes darted to the direction where the roar had come from, wide and terrified, trying to scan the area in front. Then there was a muffled sound of leaves being pressed, a wet twig bend-breaking softly, and silence again; 'a step'.

Remembering the improvised weapon, Koji lowered his stick, pointing it in the direction of the sound, and pressing himself even closer to the trunk of the tree behind him, if that was even possible. There was no running away, he couldn't move around the tree, being trapped in a canal the irregular tree trunk made, and even if he could, without being able to see, he wouldn't get anywhere...

There was another muffled step, Koji strained to pinpoint the exact location of whatever creature was there; a low rumble resonated through the air. Koji could barely hear it above his own heartbeat, pulsating in his ears. He clutched the staff/lance with all his strength, his brain no longer registering the pain his raw palms felt at the contact.

Lightning parted the sky yet again; like if it had been waiting for the start signal, the hulking creature sprang towards the kid in a swift yet blundering motion. The thunder followed, even though the light of its creator was still illuminating the scene; the powerful sound extinguishing the small in comparison roar of the grotesque creature that now seemed to be gliding in mid air, and the yell of the kid as he readied himself as best he could for the creatures attack

Koji woke up with a startled cry, nearly jumping out of his bed in the process, movement he regretted doing that very instant as pain shoot through his entire body like electricity. Involuntarily, his entire body tensed due to the pain, shooting yet another wave of pain through his system.

A low growl escaped his mouth, causing him to tense yet again. He forced himself to strangle the yell in his throat; somewhat fearing whether it would have even sounded human at all.

He forced himself to relax, grunting as he laid back into the bed. By this moment his body was sweating like if he had been running, and his respiration was hard and erratic. Koji focused on his breathing, trying to breathe as deep and slowly as his ribs would let him, in order to force himself to calm down further. Koji frowned; 'I can't remember it hurting this much last night... then again, I can't remember much of last night either...'

Carefully, he lifted his left arm, not daring to rotate his hand, in order not to move the wound. He made a meticulous check of the features of its back; no fur, no claws... trying his luck, he softly started to turn his hand, to see the palm; no pads... no blisters either. He sighted, a bit relieved.

Then, as a second thought, he reached for his head; he had just remembered, the instant when they had rolled down the cliff and in different directions, just before the chimp charged against him, he had seen his reflection on the vending place's window; the video they had shown in the vet hadn't been able to catch it, but he had seen it all to clearly. In his reflection, he had seen a pair of round furry ears

He reached for his ears, and indeed there they were; his human ears that is... He had expected as much; the fact he had woken up in his own room and not in a research facility or something like that being somewhat proof, though he had certainly doubted it for an instant when he had woken up at the vet.

Carelessly he let his arm slide back down, the movement pulling something in the wound. Once again a shot of pain jolted throughout his body; another growl escaping in between his clenched teeth

'Growling... I'm, freaking growling...' Koji huffed hardly as he tried to regain his breath and relax; still a thought kept nagging at him, not really letting him rest. 'What the hell am I...?'

'A puma...' he trailed again, remembering the second reflection he had seen in the window. 'How the hell did I end up like this?...' Koji sighed. Any normal person would have just thought of that as a dream, a hallucination; and he himself would have thought either of them, had he not seen the video, and if it weren't for his broken ribs

He could have had seen the fight, and his mind could have made it so he remembered it like he was the one fighting, 'if the mind can make you see yourself like from a third person perspective, for sure the mind can do the other way around' he had thought back then, but there is just no way an overly active imagination can explain broken ribs where the chimp had hit while being a puma... or his growling...

Deciding he wasn't going anywhere in this trail thoughts he changed his thoughts to trailing his steps at the zoo, trying to think of anything odd happening, other than the chimp escaping, to try and find the cause. 'The chimp escaping was the trigger... no, fighting it was the trigger but... I already felt different before that...'

'The moment I entered the zoo... I felt weird... but that... that was more of a gut feeling, I guess; so the zoo itself was not the cause; I mean, things like transforming just don't happened spontaneously and out of no reason...' he frowned 'but I did quite spontaneously transform...' Koji sighted heavily at this.

'When did I start feeling different?...' figuring out the zoo wasn't the cause he pondered, then he remembered, just before the fight 'I was telling Kein something' he thought hard, trying to clear the fog that clouded his memories '... a week ago... the day of the Red Data exposition', he literally felt like a light had just switched on, dispersing all the fog and clearing his doubts.

'The Red Data Exhibition! That day ...'

Hi guys, I have been rather busy lately, don't think I had thought of abandoning this story; I just couldn't find the time to continue it (and a bit of writer's block came to me too)

However I received a really inspiring comment (guys, that's why it's good to leave comments) that chased away my writer's block, so I'm currently squeezing some time out of my days to continue

I tried describing a rainy forest, just in case my 'very wet forest' wasn't understood as one...

(I cut this line from the end of my ramble, just so you don't have to go all the way down there to find this) - Please leave your reviews, be it question, just simple comments (though I like long reviews), or even threats not to ramble as long as I just did.

-** biiiig big ramble with some educational content, read at your own discretion **-

******* about the sunset
I'm not kidding when I say the lights went out in just half an hour; lights pass from a 'quite enough light, yet not enough to hurt' amount of light to a 'night black' in a matter of 30min to an hour tops. From the moment the sun touches the horizon, it's about 20 min till it hides completely. So to say, right now, at 5:10pm it's still rather clear, and 6:00pm it's already night, without a single trace left of daylight... and it's even faster when inside a forest, since the trees stop the already dim light to begin with.

It surprise me a looot when I have traveled to upper latitudes, that it would take hours for the sun to set, and sometimes even at 11pm the sun wouldn't have completely set, the night still rather clear... I suppose just as surprised/amazed as the other way around could be...

******* about forests, fire, and survival
I like forests, but I certainly wouldn't manage inside one, probably not a single night. Ever heard stories where forests are mentioned as nearly mythical beings that can swallow people whole, well, welcome to the real forest.
Such forests still exist, not a year ago I saw a poster of people looking for help to find a friend that was pretty much 'swallowed by the forest'. They never did find him

here, I got a bit carried away (ok, a lot) while describing some rainy forests I've gone to (no, I've never gotten lost in one, but it's still quite the achievement sometimes, not to fall, even when following marked trails (and not getting lost too)).

Making fire is not easy, even with matches and fire-made-easy implements, it's really hard if the wood is wet, and don't fool yourselves, if you have never even tried making fire with sticks and stones, you won't achieve it on a first, especially if you don't even know the proper way to try making one (I've tried, not life depending tries but still tried; still hasn't work...)

******* about the soil
Ok, I must say this, I might have exaggerated a tiny bit about the soil things, since I'm not well versed in agronomy; but the fact is that, forest reserved terrain is 'reserved' because it really doesn't work for any other purpose. If you cut down the forest, you won't be able to plant there for long, since the nutritious part of the soil is only a really thin part.

Forest can persist in this kinds of terrains, only because the forest feeds itself; and that goes away when people cut it down to make plantations; since plantations (or rather farmers) don't work as efficiently in reutilizing everything, and due to the system used for plantations, where most of the earth is exposed, the fertile soil washes away rather easy.

The roots of the young trees first colonize the rich and soft soil; later, when stronger, they root into the hard clay (clay isn't sterile, it does have nutrients, just not as many as the composted black soil, it's a rather harsh soil to grow, if alone (also keeps too much water)) otherwise they would probably fall with just a breeze... here I'm mostly talking of mountain forests, not completely sure if all mountains though, nor if only counts on mountains, think it's a bit different in valley/plain forests; or at least the fertile soil tends to be a lot bigger

I'll stop here, before I end up with a chapter long ramble and or, someone decides to kill me for rambling so much...