Satou: YAY! Amme Moto reviewed my fic! And she hates Annka! YAY! -
Kish: o.0;; You know, Annka's just going to beat you up in school for writing that.
Satou: ... Oops... - My bad!
Kish: You seem happy o.o;;;
Satou: Do I nya? Teehehehe! -hugs Kish- Nyah! .
Chapter 10
"So, Ryou! You've been acting kinda weird lately... All cooped up in your lab and not coming out. Is something wrong?"
It had been 3 days since the last fight, aka Chapter 9, and Ryou had been cooped up in the lab where he sat a watched the video Chibi had taken of the fight. He replayed Kaji's blowing up of Chibi over and over which was seriously beginning to worry poor Cupcake.
"Nothing's wrong." Came Ryou's reply followed by a miserable sigh. He and Cupcake were in the kitchen waiting for the others to come to work. Cupcake was always early because her parents didn't want her fired from her job. Cupcake was sitting on the counter in the middle of the kitchen with Ryou standing right next to her.
"Yeah right, Ryou. You've been acting really weird lately. What's going on?" Cupcake asked all this with a bit too much concern in her voice, enough to make even Ryou feel bad about keeping secrets.
"Well... The Phoenix project was supposed to end with Satou becoming our Phoenix Mew..."
"You know what? This whole project seems really centered around Satou. She's got all the DNA and is the center piece of all your plans. Plus you always worry about her and not me or Maonaka."
"What about Meron?"
"We ALL worry about Meron. ALL the time too. She's insane."
"You should talk…" Ryou muttered, trying to hide his amusement in the fact CUPCAKE had said this.
"I know I should nya. That's why I did nya."
Ryou chuckled quietly at this. Cupcake had an odd habit of putting him in a good mood with her randomness, just like Satou could cheer him up when she was like Ichigo.
"So... Did you just end the Phoenix project?"
"Kind of... I was going to stop research until I noticed the fire girl Chibi took videos of."
Cupcake blinked. "And...?"
"I want her to be the Pheonix! I realized the reason Satou couldn't handle the Pheonix DNA is because she can't control fire so... This fire mistress is perfect!!!" Ryou now seemed very determine and happy. Cupcake just stared at him. This seemed to have made his day. This was also a major Ryou-Out-Of-Character-Moment but please live with it.
"Why is this project so important to you nya?" Cupcake finally asked "You've worked so hard."
Ryou turned to Cupcake and sighed. He didn't want to tell anyone but he might as well get it off his chest. Knowing Cupcake, she'd probably forget it in five minutes anyways. "Well... I guess it has something to do with my parents... When they died their only goal was to make me happy and complete the Mew Project."
"But you completed it nya! Isn't it getting boring?"
"Heck no. It's really stressful. Me and Keichiiro are the only ones who can help to save the world."
"HMPH!" Cupcake glared darkly.
"And you girls. Ichigo, Purin, Minto, Retasu, Zakuro, Berri, Ringo... They were like Goddess'."
"So why'd you fire them nya?"
"They did their job. They battled Deep Blue and he wasn't supposed to come back. They were so happy with their free lives that I decided to drag new people into the project... People who I wouldn't feel bad about ruining the lives of."
Cupcake just twitched and punched Ryou. "THAT'S MEAN NYA!"
Ryou glared back and held the part of his face Cupcake had just punched. "Well sorry! I didn't expect you guys to be so much... fun."
Cupcake just giggled and fell over. "We're fun we're fun we're fun we're fun we're fun we're fun we're FUN!"
"....."
"Fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun..."
Ryou smacked Cupcake and she sat up. "DON'T FIRE ME!"
"Am I the only one who realizes that the other 3 are LATE?" Ryou said rather loudly. As if on cue, Keichiiro burst through the ktichen doors.
"It's that fire girl, Ryou! She's in Tokyo! At the tower, actually. The other three are holding her off!"
"WHAT?!" Cupcake yelled in surprise "We've gotta go!"
"Bye Cupcake!" Ryou called as Cupcake ran off "Nice talking to you!"
"Nice talking to you too nya!!! Hey, WAIT! You need to come too nya! You can talk to the fire lady about becoming a Mew!"
Ryou sighed and nodded, running after Cupcake. "Perhaps we should take my car..."
"Oh my gosh! You can drive!? COOL!"
"I'll drive." Keichiiro offered "Let's go!"
"ALRIGHT NYA! Fighting bad guys at Tokyo Tower meow!"
"Where is she?!" Mew Satou asked angrily as she shoved a Kirema Anima turkey away with her Sugar Chime "I can't take much more of this nya!"
"Me nether na no da!" Meron added as she banged her symbols together to stun the turkey Satou was fighting. The turkey stoped dead in its tracks and Maonaka jumped down from the tower.
"Ribbon Midnight Star Rush!" She cried out. The turkey, now beaten and battered, fell over and Satou cured it of its alien parasite with her Sugar Wind Ring attack.
"Nice going, Mew Mews!" Taruto called happily as Kaji threw a fire ball at the turkey "Let's have roast turkey!"
"Haven't you done enough damage?" Satou spat. Meron grabbed the turkey and moved it away from the fire ball and the turkey dug its claws into her yellow mew outfit, desperate to stay alive and safe, though clinging to the utterly insane Meron probably wasn't the best way to do this.
"Ribbon Sugar Wind Ring!" Satou cried angrily. The flames Kaji was building up went out when her strong winds licked them away and Kaji narrowed her eyes at the pesky neko.
"You should keep your nose OUT of other people's business!" Kaji spat angrily at her when she dove at Satou with a flaming fist.
"Ribbon Midnight Star Rush!" A rush of stars moved between Satou and Kaji and caught fire when Kaji's fist touched them.
"Oh crap!" Satou yelped "Meron, move! The stars are falling nya!"
"Oh cool! Falling stars! Make a wish, Turkey-chan!" Meron said happily while watching the stars fall. Meron's new turkey friend moved around frantically and Meron looked up. An ice cream truck was passing!
"Ah! Turkey wants ice cream! Come on." Meron carried her turkey over to the ice cream truck and the stars hit the place she'd been. Luck was on Meron's side!
"DOOOOM!" Cupcake screamed. A pile of frosting built up on the flaming stars and eventually the fire went out. "Sorry I'm late! Fire-lady, you go talk to Ryou nya!"
"Why should I?!" Kaji asked angrily "And my name's Kaji!!!!"
"Ryou has a present for you!"
Kaji paused and looked over at Ryou. Maybe she could kill him while his guard was down. "Sure. Whatever." She muttered in disgust before floating down to Ryou. She knew very well the flying blessing Deep Blue had given her would wear off if she touched the ground so just hovered next to Ryou.
"Hello, cutey. Whatcha got for me?" She asked in flirtatious voice. It was the best way to get a guy's guard down.
"All I want is for you to become a Mew Mew." Ryou said simply "So don't try flirting with me."
Kaji glared and charged up a fist of fire before making an attempt to punch Ryou but he dodged the attack and grabbed Kaji's arm. Not her fist, but her arm since Kaji couldn't heat up her whole arm.
"Been studying some videos of you." He said "I know where you can't get fire too."
"Well obviously you haven't thought this through." Kaji said firmly when she grabbed Ryou by the throat with her other hand and started heating up her fist.
"Kitty powa! HIIIIYA!" Satou screamed, falling from the sky and kicking Kaji away from Ryou. She landed perfectly and dusted off her hands.
"Shirogane-san is a good friend of mine nya. I don't like watching people pick on him nya."
"SATOU! What was THAT for?!" Ryou asked angrily "I can take care of myself! I need to get her to become a Mew."
"Hmmm? Oops, my bad. I'm SO sorry, Kaji-sama!"
"Apology NOT accepted." Kaji said angrily when she got to her feet. She darted forward and tried to punch Satou but Satou jumped out of the way and landed behind Kaji.
"Please don't fight nya! I'm really sorry nyan!"
"Don't think so!" Kaji yelled in fury. She tried to kick Satou this time but the neko was blessed with good luck and managed to dodge yet another attack. This just made Kaji even more angry and she grabbed Satou's tail and yanked her back.
"No more play time." She said firmly "I'll just kill you off now."
"Nooo! PLEASE NYA! I've been good!" Satou protested "Besides, I know you're a good person nya! You'd make a great mew nya! We can be friends meow!"
"Not likely. The only person I consider is a friend is Deep Blue and you killed him!"
"Did not nya! I've never met the stupid creep nya!"
"I don't have time for this!"
"Yes you do nya!" Satou yelled, flashing Ryou a desperate "Help meeeee!" look. Ryou just stared and watching Kaji, amazed by how well she controled fire.
Kaji now had grabbed Satou's arms so that she couldn't move and was planning of burning the cat girl's arms right off. Cupcake was busy fighting the kirema anima crow Taruto had created and Maonaka was fighting Taruto himself while Meron ate ice cream with her new lucky turkey.
"HELP ME SHIROGANE-SAAAAN!" Satou screamed in pain "THIS REALLY HURT NYUUUU!"
"Huh? Ack! Mew Satou!" Ryou called "Attack her!"
"I can't nya! I can't summon my chime and even if I could I can't shake it nyaaah!" Satou screamed "HELP ME DANGIIT!"
Ryou nodded and ran over to Kaji in order to get her to let Satou go but the clever pyromaniac hovered in the air higher then before and just continued to burn Satou.
"This is what you get" Kaji hissed angrily at Ryou "for trying to make me a Mew!"
Satou blinked, now noticing a tear sizzling on her arm. A tear from Kaji? Well, no one else nearby was crying.
The clouds in the sky suddenly darkened and a gentle shower of rain was released from the gray poofs of cotton candy.. I mean from the clouds. Satou winced as the cold water hit Kaji's burning hands and the hot fire sizzled out. Kaji hissed angrily and flew higher and closer to the tower with Satou, hoping to get out of the rain and burn the Mew's arms off there. But Satou took her chance of Kaji's arm being cold to bite her and was almost instantly dropped.
And who should appear out of seemingly no where but Kish! Satou was caught by her "boyfriend" and Kaji teleported away while swearing endlessly at the pink Mew. Taruto eventually decided to leave as well and peace was 'restored' to Tokyo.
"That was weird." Maonaka muttered "Never thought I'd be happy for rain. Let's go back to the Cafe then, ok?"
The whole team nodded and headed off. Meron, who was already back to her normal form, wandered off with her new pet Turkey and suddenly received a very creepy look from Cupcake.
"Does this mean we're all having turkey for dinner nya?" The little leopard Mew asked.
"HECK NO NA NO DA!" Screeched Meron "This is Fredstir, my pet turkey. He's lucky, ye know."
"Oh really?" Maonaka asked with a giggled. Yes, Maonaka giggled. The Fennec Fox Mew had become a lot more friendly around her "family" now but it was obvious something wonderful had happened to her recently.
"Kisshu-kun, why's Maonaka-chan so happy?" Satou asked. She was still being carried by Kish 'cause the idiot had forgotten to put her down. Kish just smiled.
"Welllll... I did see her with one of the aliens on the ship." He said with a bit of a smirk. Satou blinked.
"Really? She's got a boyfriend nya?!"
"I think so. His name's Tenchi."
"That's awesome nya!"
"What's awesome?" It was Cupcake again, who couldn't stand having Kish carry Satou to far "Satou, you're so mean! Making Kish carry you all the way to the Cafe!"
"I never asked him to nyaa..."
"Oh... Then why hasn't he put you down nyaaa?"
"She's a bit hurt right now... In case you didn't notice Kaji trying to burn her arms off." Kish said firmly. Cupcake nodded sadly and then faked a trip.
"Owy! I hurt my leg! Carry me Kisshu nya!" She said, a huge smile on her face as she sat there holding her "hurt" leg. Kish sighed and shook his head. As if on cue, Ryou walked over! Yay for him!
"I'll carry her..." Ryou offered.
"No no no no no!" Cupcake said while shaking her head rapidly "Kish has to nya!"
Kish sighed and nodded, putting Satou down. "Get up here..."
"Yay!" Cupcake cheered. She instantly got to her feet and jumped into Kish's arms and hugged him "Thank you Kish!!!"
"Only a little ways, though. Satou's the only one really hurt."
"I'm fine nya." Satou lied. Cupcake looked very happy when Kish was carrying her "It's just my arms nya. I can still walk."
Ryou glared at Satou, knowing she was probably hiding something. She was, after all, limping on one leg. He sighed and walked over to Satou and picked her up. Kish glared. Ooooh! What was this? Jealousy? Doubt it...
ANYWAYS!
"Nya! Ryou, you really don't have to nya!" Satou yelped in surprise.
"If you can't fight then I'm going to need to infect more girls with animal DNAs and ruin a few more lives. I don't feel like doing that right now." Ryou replied rather coldly "Now don't move, you'll make your injuries worse."
Satou nodded shyly and tried to keep her cat ears down. This was so embarrassing!!!
"Awww.. How kawaii!" Meron squealed in delight "Looks like we're the only ones not being carried or carrying... Except me. I've got Fredstir."
With that said, Meron put Fredstir on the ground and sat down next to him.
"Carry me na no da!"
Maonaka couldn't help but giggled in delight and then picked up Meron. At this time Fredstir hopped onto Meron's lap.
"YAY!" Meron cheered "Maonaka-oneechan is going to carrying Meron! YAY!"
Maonaka nodded, though in side she really wanted to be carried by her boyfriend in stead of carrying her "little sister" around.
It took a couple minutes but eventually the team got back to the Cafe. Eventually. Maonaka, Ryou and Kish instantly collapsed on a couch and the other three took care of the Cafe for remaining hours of work. After all, it was nearly nightfall now.
"Fredstir, stay here na no da." Meron ordered the Turkey, who was now sitting in the kitchen "And tell me if Keichiiro teleports around..."
The Turkey nodded and then watched Meron leave. Crazy hyper thing she was...
And so the last hours of Cafe time went by quickly. During this time Kish moaned about how heavy Cupcake was and Maonaka complained that Fredstir was fat and made her load even heavier then Kish's. This eventually broke out into a match of rock, paper, scissors and Maonaka was the victor.
Satou struggled to keep up with orders and Cupcake spent a couple minute spying on Kish and looking at those photos she obtained in Chapter 7. Meron performed, as she always did, and put random trackers on Keichiiro's shoes every time she passed through the kitchen. Fredstir fell asleep 5 minutes after Meron left.
The only one who didn't seem tied up in the chaos of the Cafe was Ryou. Unlike the others he'd locked himself up in his lab to think about the day's events. Obviously, Kaji didn't want to be a Mew Mew. No other fire-power girls had sprung up recently ether so Kaji was the only choice for the Pheonix Project. The way things were looking Ryou's Project would be crushed before it had time to get very far...
"Ryou?" The quiet voice of Cupcake broke Ryou's train of thought and he turned around to see she'd come up with some cupcakes for him "Nyaaa... Are you sad about what happened with Kaji nyo?"
Ryou didn't answer but Cupcake walked closer and offered him a cupcake. After looking it over for a minute he noticed Keichiiro's signature frosting-style and felt it was safe to eat.
"Keichiiro helped me make them nya." Cupcake said happily "We're both really worried nya. You've been acting really depressed lately nyu."
Ryou nodded but still didn't say anything.
"Are you ok nya? I'm sorry about what happened with Kaji. I'm sure things will work out in the end nyu."
"I'm fine." Ryou answered bitterly "Nothing's wrong."
"Yeah right nya! Don't worry! She'll come around nyo!"
Ryou couldn't help smile a bit and nodded "Sure thing. Thanks for the food."
"Your welcome nyan!" Cupcake replied with a giggle of delight.
Meanwhile, deep in space, Kaji was kicking a wall. Why? Because she was mad! You see, Kaji knew no good life other then the life she'd spent with Deep Blue. He was like her father now, even if he was stuck in the body of a little boy.
"Stupid Mew Mews. How dare they try to make ME one of THEM!" She yelled in anger.
"Getting a bit worked up now aren't we, Kaji?" Murasaki's cold voice echoed in the empty chamber Kaji was beating the wall of. Kaji looked up and glared at her.
"Why do YOU care?!" She snapped.
"I'm in a good mood, that's why." Murasaki replied "Is there someone you want revenge on?"
Kaji just continued to glare but did nod. "Duh. Those rotten Mew Mews! The blonde guy wants ME to be one of THEM. So I decided to burn the arms off the pink mew but then it started raining and the stupid rotten thing got away from me!!!"
"Which pink one?" Murasaki asked boredly. Cupcake had pink genie pants and pink hair so was just as "pinky" as Satou.
"The stupid one!"
Have you ever had one of those moments where you tell a friend something and they misunderstand? Like you're looking at kittens in the window and your friend asks "Which do you like most?" and you say something like "The cute one!" and your friend doesn't think the one YOU like is cute and thinks you're talking about the one she finds cute? Welcome to the situation we're in right now! You see, Murasaki thought Cupcake was as dumb as they come and Kaji thought Satou was the definition of Stupid so, of course, Murasaki thought Kaji was talking about Cupcake.
"I'll be back..." Murasaki said rather coldly "Don't destroy the ship while I'm gone."
"Where are you going? You aren't allowed out without permission."
"When I bring Deep Blue a live Mew and idiot I doubt he'll care." Murasaki replied simply before teleporting out.
"Don't move."
"Nya?"
Ryou and Cupcake had been sitting alone for a while in the staff room. All they did was talk, of course, since talking to Cupcake helped Ryou get his mind off the Phoenix Project. And trust me, talking to Cupcake for entertainment is a really desperate measure.
"What's going on nya?" Cupcake asked. Ryou became quickly annoyed by Cupcake and put a hand over her mouth so she wouldn't talk and stared hard at the little heart shaped window in front of him.
"Why are you still looking at that window? Haven't you heard of a back entrance?" Asked a cold voice. Murasaki. Ryou turned around to face the vampress who showed no traces of amusement, sorrow or anger... Just a dull face.
"What do you want?!" Ryou snapped. Murasaki just moved closer to the pair and stared hard at them. Her eyes were enough to make anyone dizzy... Just dizzy and tired. Cupcake was first to faint from the dizziness.
"I'm here for you two." Murasaki replied coldly "Don't worry, it'll only be a minute longer before you faint too."
"NO!" Ryou yelled, mainly yelling just to attract attention.
Ryou's yell must've worked because Satou looked up from cleaning a table and headed right for the employee only lounge. Her cat ears were already out and she was holding her henshin locket tightly. She could transform at a moment's notice.
"Shirogane-san!" Satou yelled as she flung the door open. Much to her surprise... No... Horror. Horror fits better for the mood of this... Much to her horror the room was empty. All the windows were broken so there were no clues as to which one the kidnapper had entered and which had been exited. The couches were torn up and one of them was even on fire. Slices of butchered fabric were scattered across the room and the lights were flickering since the light bulb had been smashed. It seemed that there'd been one heck of a struggle during those 46.7 seconds it took Satou to get into the room after hearing Ryou's call. But if the signs of a true struggle weren't enough to make Satou worried about her manager the last parts of the horror scene would worry her to death.
The first one was red. The reddest of red. And it smelt horrible. Blood. Hand prints on the walls, streams coming from a toppled vase... Blood was everywhere. It showed no traces as to which window had been exited ether. A drop of blood fell from the ceiling and hit Satou's nose to wake her from her horrified daze but she was still unable to scream for help. In stead she looked up at the ceiling and just screamed in horror.
"SHIROGANE-SAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!"
"What was that?!" Maonaka asked quickly. She and Kish had been playing a game of crazy 8s for the sake of it while Satou cleaned. At least, they thought Satou was cleaning. They'd been too caught up in their game to notice her run by.
"Sounds like a cow died na no da." Meron commented after hearing Satou's scream.
"How would you know what that sounds like?" Maonaka asked Meron.
"Don't even answer." Kish replied quickly while getting off the couch. Cards from the game fell to the ground and he walked quickly to the room he'd heard the scream from. Only one person screamed like a dieing cow and that was Satou. Maonaka and Meron followed quickly.
"Koneko? What's wrong?" Kish asked when he noticed Satou was just standing in the doorway and looking up at the ceiling. He peeked over her shoulder and got a glimpse of the lounge, which answered a couple questions.
"Whoa... What happened here?"
Satou's didn't reply. She was far too horrified by whatever was on the ceiling.
"Satou-oneechan na no da? Were you trying to paint the room na no da?" Meron asked softly. Maonaka pushed Kish out of the way and hurried into the room to get a good look at the ceiling and her mouth dropped. Out of simple curiosity, Kish and Meron walked in and looked up.
"Oh my..." Meron finally said "This can't be real na no da..."
"Well, something sure did die..." Maonaka said quietly.
"No wonder this place stinks." Kish muttered under his breath. Stuck the ceiling was simply some flesh. Yeah, flesh. Bloody flesh. Yay! Let's not fill our mind with the nasty image. Oh! But fill your mind with the words because Murasaki had carved a message on the ceiling.
"Here lies the dumbest blonde and a snow kitty..." Maonaka read aloud "They couldn't mean..."
"Cupcake-oneechan!" Meron sobbed as she hugged Murasaki and stared to cry "Onee-chaaan!"
"And Shirogane-san.." Satou said softly "It's all my fault nya. I should've come sooner."
"No, Satou, it isn't." Kish said quickly.
"It's that fire witch's fault, isn't it?!" Maonaka said angrily as she pointed accusingly to the burning sofa "This is all her fault!!!"
"Kaji would never do this nya!" Satou protested. Tears were already running down her cheeks running in with drops of blood that had landed on her face "Kaji isn't like that! I know it!"
"Satou... Kaji really isn't very nice..." Kish said with a sigh "This is her type of thing to do... Break the rules..."
"What nya?"
Kish sighed again and nodded. "Deep Blue's orders are that we don't kill any Mews since we can use them to upgrade our own Mew Mews."
"So why would she go so far?! Killing Shirogane-san is something I can see happening but killing CUPCAKE?! She's not worth it!" Maonaka yelled bitterly "THAT WITCH!!!"
"Has anyone seen my chicken?" Keichiiro asked as he made a sudden appearance. It didn't take long for Keichiiro to look up and figure out what had happened.
"There's my chicken." He said softly "It's up on the ceiling."
"WHAAAAAT?!" Maonaka asked in a cross of relief and anger "So she didn't kill anyone?!"
Keichiiro shook his head. He'd obviously been listening to the whole conversation since he knew what was happening.
"She probably did this so you guys would give up hope and not go looking." Kish explained "She must be holding them hostage."
Satou sighed in relief and leaned against Kish's shoulder "Thank goodness..."
"I'll go see if I can sort things out." Kish offered.
"Really nya? Thank you, Kisshu."
"No problem. Have a good night then." Kish pushed Satou off his shoulder and teleported off.
"Normally I'd make you guys clean this up on your own..." Keichiiro said with a smile "But tonight I'll have the robots clean."
Everyone stared.
"Robots?"
"Yes. We've had robots to clean up for us for a while now."
"Yet you make us stay here late to clean up the Cafe nya?"
"It's Ryou, no me." Keichiiro said quickly "Anyways. If Kisshu discovers anything he'll probably return here and, well, there are a lot of spare rooms."
"Really? That's great." Maonaka said with a forced smile "I'll call my mom and tell her I'm spending the night."
"Me too na no da... I wanna know if Onee-chan is okies na no da..."
"Count me in too then nya." Satou said in a sad voice "This is my fault to begin with."
"Kuroneko-dono, this isn't your fault." Keichiiro said rather firmly "Just get a good night's sleep and I'll wake you if Kisshu comes back."
"Show us to our rooms na no da?" Meron asked. Fredstir was now walked over to her and the little monkey eagerly picked up the turkey and hugged him.
"Sure. Follow me, ladies."
Keichiiro led all the girls to their rooms and gave them some sleeping dresses (WHY DOES HE HAVE THESE THINGS I ASK?!) which they took without complaining. The girl were sleeping in a spare room across from Ryou's and next o Keichiiro's, though Keichiiro was in the lab trying to trace Cupcake and Ryou without much luck.
"It sure was nice of Keichiiro to let us stay here tonight..." Maonaka said sadly "I'm so worried, though."
"They'll be fine na no daaa..." Meron said softly. The girls were curled up on a large bed in tons of blankets. They were all staying close to each other for comfort, though. The day's events were beyond frightening. It was impossible to get a good night's sleep now.
"If only I'd been there sooner nya..." Satou murmured as she drifted off to sleep "I could've done something."
"We all could've done something." Maonaka yawned. Meron was already asleep so had no important note to make. After a couple minutes of quiet Satou started to sob lightly and Maonaka also broke out in a light fit of tears. After having a good cry the two remaining girls fell asleep in hopes of waking up to find this all to be one, big nightmare.
Satou: Dun dun duuuuuun! Yay yay! Okies then, sorry for the lack of updates lately nya!