Thanks to princessmiddleast for your constant encouragement. It means a lot. And the romance is coming up! I promise. I know it's taking a while, but the next chapter will be the beginning of the romantic parts of the story. So hopefully they will be to your satisfaction. I personally always get more into a story when the romantic plot begins to form, so I hope that it will make the story more enjoyable for you as well. So look out for the next chapter!

Seven

There was nothing but silence. Pudding felt tears well up as she figured she was probably dead. She slowly opened her eyes and was surprised when she found that she was still in the mall. The snake creature was gone; only sparkly dust covered the floor. The shoppers around her were staring in what seemed to be shocked silence. Pudding looked beside her, expecting to see Painappuru. But Painappuru wasn't there. Pudding franticly turned around, looking for her friend, but only saw Mint, Kinezumi, Yuki Tora, and Lettuce running over to her.

"You defeated your monster? Wonderful!" Lettuce said.

"Where's Mew Painappuru?" Kinezumi asked, looking around.

"I… I don't know…" Pudding said in a scared, quiet voice.

"But, wasn't she fighting next to you?" Mint asked.

Pudding nodded. "But then the snake tried to bite me, so I closed my eyes. When I opened them again, she was gone."

"Gone…?" Yuki Tora repeated, stunned. "She can't just disappear! We have to find her!" She looked over at Kinezumi, whose face was full of concern for her best friend.

"Let's start looking around the mall," Lettuce said, taking charge of the group.

"If she is shopping at a time like this…" Mint muttered.

"She's not!" Kinezumi growled. "Mew Painappuru wouldn't do that! She wouldn't scare us like this!"

"Everybody, let's try to calm down," Lettuce said. "Let's look around and if we don't see her, we'll call Keiichiro and Ryou." They all nodded in agreement to the plan and split up to search the mall for their missing friend.

Mint and Lettuce looked on the bottom floor while Kinezumi, Yuki Tora, and Pudding searched the top floor. They checked all the stores, dressing rooms, bathrooms, and eateries. Painappuru was nowhere to be found. They even asked the few people who were still in the mall if they had seen her. No one had. They regrouped and decided it was time to call Keiichiro and Ryou.

Lettuce pulled out her cellphone and hit the second speed dial. "Hello Keiichiro," she said when it stopped ringing. "We have a terrible situation here."

"What's the matter Lettuce?" Keiichiro asked on the other end.

"Mew Painappuru has disappeared. We can't find her anywhere in the mall and no one has seen her." She felt worried tears start to well in her eyes and she bit her bottom lip to keep them from falling.

"Disappeared? Just a minute Lettuce." There was silence for a minute then he came back and said, "Ryou is here as well. Tell us what happened."

Lettuce told them about the snake monsters and how Painappuru had split them up to make fighting faster. She told them how Pudding had shut her eyes to brace herself to be attacked and then noticed Painappuru was gone when she opened them again.

"This is really strange," Ryou said when Lettuce finished clarifying everything.

Lettuce could hear rapid typing coming from their end. She figured Keiichiro was doing something on the computer. "What should we do?" she asked helplessly.

"Come back to the café," Ryou said. "It's obvious she's not there. Come back here and then meet us in the basement so we can all discuss this and figure everything out." With that, he hung up.

Lettuce turned to her team. "We need to go back to the café. Ryou and Keiichiro want to talk to us."

The group nodded and then started running from the mall back to Café Mew Mew. It didn't take long for them to get there. They reverted to their human forms and then rushed down the basement. Keiichiro was sitting down, typing away furiously on the computer. Ryou stood beside him, observing. When the girls entered the room, Ryou turned around.

"We have some good news," he said.

"What is it?" they all cried with excitement.

"Painappuru is alive." Everyone let out a sigh of relief. "The transmitter in her Mew pendent tells us that she is, in fact alive. However, we haven't been able to tell where exactly she is or whether or not she's safe."

"But we are working on it," Keiichiro said without turning away from the computer. "Don't worry. We'll bring her back."

"In the meantime," Ryou continued, "we think it would be best that we get a hold of Ichigo and ask her to come home. We can't afford to be short so many Mew Mews. If there is another attack, you might need more help. And when we find out where Painappuru is, we are going to need all of you."

"What about Zakuro?" Mint asked. "Should she return as well?"

"She should," Ryou said, "but whether or not she will or can is a whole other matter. She is all the way in Hawaii. I don't know if we will be able to get a hold of her. And if we can, I'm not exactly positive that she will be able to come back anyway." He sighed. "One of you please just call Ichigo and ask her to come back."

"Why don't you call her?" Mint asked, crossing her arms. "Why do we have to tell her?"

Ryou grinned. "You think I want to be the one to break it to her she has to cancel her 'romantic road trip' after one day? No chance in Hell." He winked at the girls. "You guys can be the ones to break her heart and potentially piss off her boyfriend."

I'm really interested in what you have to say and what you think will happen. Also, suggestions are always welcome! Please, tell me what you think! The more reviews I get, the sooner I'll update! Hooray! ;) Thanks for reading!

Mew Painappuru