Disclaimer: Don't own it. That's final.

Note: Thanks for all your reviews, peeps, I really appreciate it. It gets me motivated, you know? Lol. I'm trying to progress with a few new plot ideas I have recently had but I'm still not sure what I'm going to end this with. Ah well.

Lyrics by Pagan's Mind.

Chapter o4 – Openings

Concentrate, you elevate
An ancient art reveals
The spirit self begins its journey
Freed from the mortal shell

SMASH!

Ichigo awakened immediately, body on high alert with Iriomote cat ears and tail present on her head and at the end of her back. The sound of something falling, hitting the floor and shattering met her ears with full force.

Having such high senses in her semi-cat form, the sound resonated throughout her mind, leaving a painful sting behind as it sought its way through to her consciousness.

It took seconds before she realised she was sitting up already. Had she done it on instinct or had she already been sitting up when she awoke?

The confused cat-girl decided with the former, as it was much more likely. Albeit nothing in her life could actually be defined as "likely" or "normal." She shook her head in frustration.

'Have to check the time,' she said to herself sleepily. Ichigo crawled to the blinking red light of her digital alarm clock.

She recognised the crimson numbers on the clock. It read 3:00 am. Damn, she thought to herself whilst yawning, too early to be up…

Ichigo went to pull the covers back over her head. For some reason, however, she couldn't get a grip on the sheets. She sat up and tried countless more times before she gave up and moved to switch on the light.

Her touch-lamp didn't respond to the feel of her skin on its surface as usual. Ichigo's face twisted in puzzlement. What was wrong with it?

The cat-girl had learnt that nothing in her life was to be taken as a coincidence and this was no exception. She stood, pushing down her nightgown. It complied.

'Well, at least there's one thing that's not playing up,' she murmured to herself. How a nightgown could malfunction was beyond her, but it was three in the morning, so nothing really made sense then.

Neither does this, she thought.

She turned just as a bright, silver light flooded the room for a brief moment. In the next second, Ichigo shuddered.

A deep vibration had just ran from her head to her toes. It was not unwelcome, however, and happened to be very pleasant yet quite unsuspected.

Ichigo looked down at herself and her eyes widened in shock.

Around her waist was a beautiful length of cord. It was shining silver in colour and lead attached her to what seemed to be her bed.

Ichigo investigated further. Being on the other side of the room, she couldn't see what it was attached too until she was at the side of it the bed. She approached carefully.

And what she looked down upon was one of the most shocking things she could ever witness.

She was looking down at her own face.

At herself, to be precise. Her body was sleeping serenely in her bed, untouched. It looked just like it did whenever she stared at herself in the mirror, only the image was not a reflection and the body present in the bed was apparently in REM.

Ichigo looked at her hands again. She narrowed her eyes at them when she realised that they were glowing slightly. A small radiation, almost undetectable to the naked eye.

The completely befuddled cat-girl moved towards her mirror, determined to find out whether or not her eyes were deceiving her.

But sure enough, it was a lost cause. As Ichigo looked in the mirror, she saw…

Nothing.

There was nothing there. She had no reflection.

Her eyes widened once again.

What's happening to me? She didn't understand anything about this. It was too confusing.

Why don't I have a reflection? Why are my hands glowing? Why can't I touch stuff?

And what's with this damn cord?

The length of silver rope hadn't dispparated when she moved. In fact, it had grown longer.

Ichigo walked towards her door. Sure enough, the cord lengthened. She went to move the doorknob clockwise, but her hand went straight through it.

'What the-?' She then moved the rest of her body closer to the white-painted wood.

And, abruptly after, she found herself staring into the hallway of the second story of her house.

She turned around sharply. Her door was closed.

Yet she had walked through it as if it was open.

The strawberry shook her head. No, this wasn't happening.

Whatever it was… it wasn't happening!

Despite how many times she told herself this, Ichigo knew that it, in fact, was. This was too real to be a dream…

Please be a dream… please be a dream…

Ichigo decided after a moment that freaking out wasn't going to solve anything. If anything, she should get back into her room and next to her "body" as soon as possible.

It took only twenty seconds for her to suck up her fear and walk through the closed door again. Whilst doing so, she found herself wondering.

What if I'm dead? I've died and now I'm a ghost? It would sure explain all of the characteristics… Walking through walls, glowing, and no reflection…

It's like an episode of Supernatural! Although I don't see Sam or Dean anywhere.

She didn't notice the stranger until she had taken a couple of steps into her bedroom.

But when she was knocked out her reverie by realising she had walked through the door again, Ichigo received the right of her life when she spotted him.

A serene smile was plastered on his handsome face. His eyes, completely black, stared at him, they were smiling as well, despite their darkness.

When he blinked again, just like before, they reopened as crimson red.

'It's nice to see you again,' he spoke. Ichigo blinked, not believing what she saw in front of her.

What is he doing here?

It was a very peculiar place for someone like him to be. The likes of her bedroom seemed to be too informal for him, dressed in the attire he was.

Ichigo paid more attention to his clothes this time, after having already meeting him previously. He was clad in a dark cape, black, like his eyes previously were. Underneath that cape Ichigo could see a faint hint of dark red shirt and long, jet-black pants. The cape, she saw, seemed to be thicker than the pants – leather, perhaps.

'I'm here to give you something. You left it in the dream realm.' He held up the red stone he had left her with previously.

Ichigo couldn't help but blurt out: 'What is it?'

The figure, of which she still hadn't thought up a name for, cocked an eyebrow, 'It's a stone.' Ichigo snorted and rolled her eyes.

'I know that, but what does it do?'

The Red Knight.

The name suddenly came to her, just like that. The Red Knight. She liked it. It suited him in an odd, coincidental way.

He stood. It took only a moment for him to walk over to her. Once he reached her, he gripped her hands with his own.

Heat flooded through the cat-girl's body. She felt her cheeks radiate with warmth. The white glow she had surrounding her faded into a hot pink. She continued to look into the Red Knight's eyes, mesmerised by the red irises he possessed.

'W-Who are you?' She couldn't help but repeat the question from her dream.

The Red Knight released her hands. When Ichigo reopened them, she found that somehow, he had placed the firestone in it without her noticing. She was most probably too preoccupied to realise.

'I wish I could tell you, querida, but trust me when I say your better off not knowing…' He spoke in a whisper, barely audible.

Ichigo frowned at his answer, 'Will you at least tell me what querida means?'

He shot her a look. It was a cross between amused and flirtatious. It was quite alarming to see as he gave off the impression of being completely serious. Ichigo wondered for a brief moment if querida was some rude word in another language.

'I'll give you a hint, it's in a language you human's call "Spanish."' He winked at her.

Ichigo felt her face burn red, even though he was no longer touching her. He took a step back and her cheeks were still flaming.

The Red Knight held out his hand to her. She stared down at it for a brief second of temporary dumbness then, hesitantly, placed her own hand inside of his.

Her fingers were so small compared to his. In fact, her entire hand seemed twice as small as his. He enclosed his figures around hers and she immediately felt a spark of heat fill her body once more. 'Come,' he whispered.

He guided her over to her body. The cord around her waist shrunk.

'Do you know how to get back in there?' He asked. She shook her head.

'No,' was all Ichigo replied with. She was too occupied in her thoughts. Should she be letting him hold her hand? Did he mean anything by it? Did he want to take advantage of her? Was he really trying to help her? What if he was working for the enemy?

Despite her thought pattern, Ichigo decided to give him the benefit of the doubt. He did, of course, save her from that shadow person. Or whatever that thing in her dream was.

To be precise, her dream realm. That was what he had said, wasn't it?

'I'm here to give you something. You left it in the dream realm.'

Yes. He had definitely said, "dream realm." Ichigo briefly wondered what that meant.

'Do you want me to tell you?' His soft tone bought her out of her daydream.

'Of course,' she replied. She looked up at him right then, noticing that he was at least two heads taller than him. Wow… she thought, smiling vaguely… he's really tall.

His grip on her hand tightened, but not enough to hurt her. 'I'll show you.'

'O-okay.' Ichigo's face, if possible, grew even warmer. 'What do I have to do?'

He grinned at her, 'Remove the cord from your waist.'

Ichigo blinked, suddenly facing a mental blank. 'How do I do that?' It seemed there was no way to loosen, not to mention remove, the silver rope.

'Let me.' Ichigo stepped back, surprised at the request.

Instead of his hands moving around her hips, he moved towards her sleeping figure. Ichigo watched in fascination as he untied the rope from around the waist of her inert body.

The cord fell to the floor. There was another bright, silvery light. When the strawberry heroine looked down at her waist, there was no longer the length of cord. She blinked up at the Red Knight, perplexed.

'What now?'

Before she could refuse or register what was happening, the Red Knight swept her off her feet. He had one hand behind her head, securing her neck area, and the other underneath her knees. 'A-Ano…' Ichigo began, blinking furiously.

By then, she was sure her face was completely on fire. The backs of her knees and her neck radiated with intensity.

All she could say, as he moved closer to her motionless cadaver, was a high squeak of: 'A-A-Don't drop me!' The Red Knight pulled her over her body, at least a meter above it…

…And then released the grip he had on her.

Ichigo fell.

The neko-girl received the shock of a lifetime when she woke. It was so sudden, the last thing she remembered was the sense of falling, and of blackness.

Firstly, she looked around, trying to detect the presence of the Red Knight. She had a bone to pick with him. He had released her, not so gracefully, and just dropped her!

The Iriomote growled at the memory. The fall had hurt. Now she received the pain from the injury – a ghastly headache that warped her mind. She grunted in anguish.

The second action she executed was standing, just to make sure she really was in her body. The Wildcat looked down at her hands.

No ghostly glow? Check.

She then stalked over to her mirror. Reflection? Check.

Finally, she turned to her door.

And attempted to walk through it.

Ichigo squealed in pain as her head collided with the wooden surface of her door. She fell back on her butt, hard, and glared at the entrance with russet eyes.

'Inability to walk through doors? Check.' She groaned, her headache increased by the thousands.

The strawberry banged the back of her head against the carpet floor. This action increased her headache by the millions.

She scowled to no one in particular.

'I hate furniture.'

Ichigo's alarm clock went haywire moments later.

Her eyes widened, which hit a nerve and a shot of agony blasted through her mind.

'Shit!' She groaned, the day's pre-planned events came to her all at once.

She was late for work – again.

'You had an out of body experience?' Mint remarked sceptically later that day when Ichigo informed them of her discovery. 'What did you do?'

Ichigo, who had previously buried her face into her arms, which were crossed on the table before her, lifted her head and glared at Mint, 'What do you think I did? I got scared as hell. I thought I was awake until I stared at my bed and found that I was looking at myself!'

'Sheesh, no need to direct your anger at me,' Mint responded, slightly taken aback at the mew leader's snappish reply. 'I was only trying to help.'

'Riiiiiight,' Ichigo muttered, her tone was full of pent-up sarcasm.

Mint frowned, sending a death glare in the direction of the pink mew, 'What is with you today?' There was a glass cup present in front of her. She picked it up and sipped at the tea inside. A disgusted expression crossed over her face and she sloshed the tea around for a moment before calling: 'Lettuce!'

The poor, clumsy Finless Porpoise came through the threshold of the Café, the same on leading off to the kitchen where she and Zakuro had been washing and drying the dishes.

'Hai?' She replied sweetly, shy voice full of content.

Mint scowled at the third teenager in the room, ignoring Ichigo for the time being to scold Lettuce. 'I asked for tea that was warm, not freezing cold!'

Lettuce's face grew red, 'A-Ano, Minto-san, your tea was warm, but you have been yelling at Ichigo-san for so long that it has grown cold.'

The blue-haired adolescent stared at Lettuce, slightly surprised at her friend's boldness. Usually she would just apologise and fill her glass anew.

'Well, just pour me some more.' Mint handed Lettuce her cup and the girl disappeared into the kitchen to bring her friend more tea.

When Lettuce arrived back into the diner to hand Mint her newly filled cup of tea, she looked worriedly over at the depressed Ichigo sitting opposite to the now contented Mint.

'What's wrong, Ichigo-san?' Mint looked up to see that Ichigo had once again slumped in her chair, head thunked onto the desk.

'I couldn't get to sleep last night and when I finally did, I had this dream and then after the dream I woke up and realised that I wasn't in my body for some strange reason,' Ichigo groaned at the caprice of it all.

Lettuce looked thoughtful, 'It sounds like you Astral Projected…' She shrugged at the two then made her way back through the threshold to the kitchen where Zakuro had started to call on her.

'Wait! Lettuce, what's…Astral Projection?' Ichigo asked in all curiosity to the retreating Porpoise. Lettuce turned around to greet her friend again.

She shut her eyes momentarily, trying to think of the best way to go about explaining what the two words meant. 'Basically, it's what you described. Astral Projection is another way of saying you had an OBE. The person's spirit may accidentally or purposely leave the body for a short amount of time while the person is sleeping.

'You may or may not remember if you Astral Project but if you do, it's nothing to be afraid of. Nothing can hurt you in the dimension you roam.' She looked thoughtful again. 'Ichigo, did you have a cord tied around your waist, leading you back to your body?'

Ichigo blinked, surprised at Lettuce's accuracy in explaining to her exactly what she had experienced. 'Hai… It was silver and it led me back to my body. When I tried to untie it, I ended up waking up normal.'

Lettuce nodded, 'You severed the ties between yourself and your real body. To stop yourself from ending up in a coma for the rest of your life, your spirit reacted instantly and you woke up, finding yourself back in your body.'

Mint grimaced at the two girls, annoyance spreading across her features, 'Okay, Let's get this straight. Is there any proof that this wasn't just a dream?'

Ichigo and Lettuce stared at each other. There wasn't, actually, except what she had felt, and either girl didn't have to be telepathic to know what each other was thinking: Mint would definitely not take Ichigo's word for it.

'Thought so,' Mint cooed proudly, taking the girl's silence as a no. 'Ichigo just had a rather strange experience in her dreams that is all.'

Something crossed Ichigo's mind. 'No. It was real. I have proof.'

She withdrew the red stone from her pocket.

Before either girl could react at the beauty of the fire-crystal, Pudding bounced into the Café. 'Sorry I'm late, na no da!' She raced into the locker room before any of the three girls could tell her otherwise.

She sprung out a moment later, dressed from head-to-toe in her Café Mew Mew attire.

Lettuce smiled weakly at her, 'A-ano… Pudding-san, the shop has been closed all day.' Mint cocked an eyebrow, obviously amused at the scene. Pudding just grinned back at them.

Nothing else could be said then as Zakuro crossed the threshold into the dining room right then. 'That doesn't mean there's no work to be done. You can come and help me with these dishes if you want, because Lettuce is busy talking to these two.'

Zakuro pointed to Ichigo and Mint. The latter's face burnt bright red yet the former did not respond at all, her head was slumped onto the table again, due to lack of sleep.

Horror spread over the jade-haired waitress' face, 'G-Gomenasai, Zakuro-san!' Lettuce bowed before the Purple Mew. Zakuro shot a smile at the shy girl.

'Nevermind, Lettuce. Pudding's here now, so the job will still be done.' She turned on her heel and left. The Monkey Mew skipped up to Lettuce, still smiling.

'Pudding will help! Pudding will help!' The vibrant young girl then followed the elder Mew into the kitchen adjacent the main hall.

Footsteps came from the laboratory. A moment later, Keiichiro emerged, beaming at the three remaining girls in the room. 'Ichigo, Mint and Lettuce, what a pleasant surprise. Where's Zakuro?'

'Doing the dishes with Pudding,' Lettuce answered his question almost immediately after he had asked it. Like the Neophocaena Phocaenoides had asked the cat-girl previously, Keiichiro's eyes were at the brink with concern.

'Are you alright, Ichigo?' He asked her. Ichigo looked up at him and nodded.

She spoke imperceptibly, 'Yeah, just a little tired.' She thunked her head back down on the table. 'Didn't get much sleep last night,' she added in a mutter.

Keiichiro nodded then moved towards the hallway of which connected the diner with the corridor leading to the basement. At the exact time he left, Zakuro and Pudding came from inside the kitchen.

'Zakuro onee-chan and Pudding are finished, na no da!' She gave the three girls the peace sign before pulling up two chairs for Zakuro and herself to be seated on.

Mint cleared her throat, 'I don't think you are.' She motioned to her teacup sitting on the table before her. Pudding didn't complain, but grabbed the cup and raced for the kitchen again, happy to be working further.

'Hey! Be careful with that! It's real china!' A crash could be heard from out in the dining room. The noise caused Keiichiro to come running back up the stairs.

'What happened?' He asked, troubled by the clamour.

Pudding came through the arch once again, grinning sheepishly. She apologised to Keiichiro. 'Sorry Akasaka onii-sama… Pudding was washing Mint's teacup when it fell and broke. It was an accident, na no da!' Keiichiro smiled back at her.

'That's okay. Did you clean up the mess?' Pudding nodded.

She returned to her seat at the table, then contented herself in asking the other Mew Mews how their day had been.

'Mews, Ryou needs you downstairs,' Keiichiro closed the front door of the Café just as he said this. The five girls had been seated around one of the red and white tables, still in their waitress outfits.

Eventually, after further coaxing on Keiichiro's part in motivating the tired girls to make their way down to the laboratory, all five Mews were staring at the large, black screen of which Ryou Shirogane was standing before.

'What did you call us down here for, Ryou onii-chan?' Pudding asked gleefully. Keiichiro entered the lab right then and answered Pudding's question.

He said, 'We have something to show you.' Ryou moved towards a desk before him. He picked up a small, rectangular object, black, and pressed what seemed to be a button on the control.

The screen behind him whirled to life. At first, it looked like the desktop of a computer, DELL branded, Ichigo noticed, like hers. In the next few seconds, the white pointer that was the mouse moved across the screen at phenomenal speed to a folder entitled Archaeology, which bought up a range of subfolders.

Some of these subfolders had numbers for titles, others words that had no specific meaning. Ryou, whom Ichigo was convinced was controlling the machine, double clicked on the one entitled, "22.5.06."

Instead of further subfolders, various .jpg, .gif and .bmp images became present on the screen. The thumbnails were too small to decipher what the pictures actually were of, but, as the original folder had described, Ichigo had a hunch it was something to do with the ruins Ryou's father and Keiichiro had found five years ago.

Her hunch was proved to be wrong in one aspect. Ryou cleared his throat, 'This tablet was found in Giza, Egypt, less than a week ago.' The mouse made its way to the first picture.

With a double click, a blown up image of the thumbnail Ichigo had seen filled up the screen. The Mew's stared in wonder, gasping in unity.

The tablet Ryou referred to was absolutely beautiful. A dark grey, it was worn and almost split into two slabs of rock, yet the aged appearance only made it more stunning.

There was writing carved into the middle of the stone. It was in a language Ichigo was sure none of them understood. The carvings looked like nothing she had ever seen before.

Surrounding the text were deeply ridged cuts embedded into the grey surface. They incised further into the plaque than the words, giving them a darker impress.

The cuts were curved, some of them were exaggerated waves with four, maybe five different semi-circles all bound into a grey water upshot. The effect was striking.

The mouse moved down the screen as the Mews were studying the image, and pressed on a forward arrow. The picture changed.

Ichigo assumed it showed the back of the stone. There were no more words present on the back, yet the deeper cuts continued, in different patterns this time.

Ryou didn't waste much time in showing them this one. He pressed the arrow key once more. The third picture was exactly the same as the second, yet parts of the architecture of the stone were circled and highlighted.

One was highlighted pink, blue, green, yellow and finally, purple. It hit Ichigo hard as she began to recognise some of the symbols in the stone.

The symbols were theirs. Ichigo could see her heart symbol, Mint's winged symbol, Lettuce's dolphin symbol, Pudding's similarly heart-shaped symbol and Zakuro's wolf symbol. Each was highlighted in the girl's corresponding colours.

Pink for Ichigo, Blue for Mint, Green for Lettuce, Yellow-Orange for Pudding and Purple for Zakuro.

However, there was another outlandish symbol highlighted. This one was circled in red, and it looked similar to Mint's with the wings.

On the contrary, these wings were larger and in the middle, where the two beginnings of the wings met, was what seemed to be a diamond. It was the same burgundy as the rest of the symbol.

'Whose symbol is that, na no da?' Pudding asked the question that was on everyone's mind.

Keiichiro shook his head. 'We have no idea. We haven't yet been able to find someone who can translate the text, but Ryou recognised one of the words in the passage on the front of the tablet.'

'I'm not sure if it really has any association to the symbol, it's just a hunch, but I'm convinced that whoever the symbol is related to could be the second most important weapon we have against the enemy. The first, of course, being Tokyo Mew Mew.' Ryou smirked at the girls, who glared at him for calling them weapons.

He continued. 'They could very well be even more powerful than you all combined. It is of the utmost importance that we find whomever this mark belongs to. If the enemy finds them before we do, it could spell destruction of our planet.'

The mouse moved, once again, towards the forward button. This next image was of one of the words in the strange writing. It was highlighted in red, as was the unknown symbol.

'So what does it say?' Zakuro asked, again voicing another question all the Mews wanted answering. Keiichiro and Ryou looked at each other for a moment then averted their gazes back to the curious supergirls.

Ryou began slowly. 'It says…' He stared at the word in the foreign language, somewhat sceptically, as if he didn't believe it said what he thought it did.

'Harcesis.'

End Note: OMG. TOO SHORT. I'm going to have to update super-fast now -groans-… I've already finished 1/4 of chapter five, so stay tuned for it soon.

Again, hobo-fied - Spare a review?

Love,
exangeline