While Retasu and Leon were sorting things out, Zakuro had decided to take a walk around Kanagawa and secretly scout out for any possible clues that would lead them to the source of the new breed of Chimera Anima…
Suddenly, Zakuro noticed two women in front of her on the same sidewalk she was walking on, one leaning against the wall, the other standing near her partner and glaring at Zakuro with her hand on her wooden katana. Zakuro immediately realized the one leaning against the wall had the short hair and fox-like facial features the witness had told her and the others about…
"Well, if it isn't one of the magical girls! One of the Tokyo Mew Mew, I presume!" Mitsune said…
Zakuro took out her Mew Pendant out of her purse and kissed it. "Mew Mew Zakuro! Metamorphose!" she shouted, and her transformation sequence happened. It wasn't until said transformation sequence ended that Motoko drew her sword and stepped in to fight her…
"Why didn't you just attack her during her overly long transformation?" Mitsune asked her accomplice…
"That would be cowardly" Motoko replied…
"Correction: That would be smart" Mitsune said…
Motoko charged at Zakuro with a loud scream. Zakuro attacked Motoko with her flaming whip as well. Both weapons clashed with more or less equal force, causing a thunderous sound…
"What? She blocked my attack with a sword made of wood?" the surprised Zakuro thought…
After deflecting Zakuro's attack, Motoko resumed her charge. Zakuro was barely able to jump out of the way of Motoko's slash, but she watched in horror as the nearby metallic streetlight pole got sliced as if it were made of butter, falling loudly onto somebody's parked car…
"Ribbon: Zakuro Spear!" Zakuro shouted, launching a whiplash in a flaming spiral that ignited everything on its way towards its target. Motoko screamed as she slashed powerfully with her wooden sword again, completely stopping Zakuro's attack without receiving any damage. However, all the fire and flashiness of the attack was used as a smokescreen by Zakuro to flee the battle…
"I hate cowardly opponents!" Motoko complained angrily, putting her sword back to her waist…
"Not cowardly, smart. She immediately understood her chances of winning the battle alone were not optimal. She probably went to bring her friends to back her up" Mitsune explained…
"Anyone who doesn't fight bravely until the end is a coward" Motoko said…
"Anyway, we've now assessed the strength of the Tokyo Mew Mew. Looks like they're not threatening individually" Mitsune said…
"What about the cyborg?" Motoko asked…
"I don't think he's any big deal. Let's go back to the house for now" Mitsune said…
Andr found himself in a dark and empty entrance hallway…
"This is…" he thought as he immediately recognized the entrance hallway of Tokyo University…
Andr was standing inside. The sky was dark and with no moon or stars. He stared at the entrance and spotted another person his age outside, who also happened to wear nerd glasses, although more a square shape than Andr's. His hair also looked a bit messier compared to Andr's…
The other person outside, almost entirely obscured by the darkness of the night except for his glasses shining white due to reflected light, seemed to desperately attempt to get inside, stopped by what appeared to be an invisible door Andr could somehow see through. This person banged on the invisible door like his life depended on it, the sound being loud and echoing in the empty and silent hallway…
Andr then saw a number of female-shaped shadows creep behind the person outside. They all latched onto that person all over his body and violently dragged him away to the Gates of Hell…
"Noooooo!" Andr screamed, trying to reach for the poor victim outside but unable to get any closer no matter how much he ran after him…
And after the victim was fully dragged into Hell, Andr noticed a young girl with short blue hair on the other side. He tried to reach for her as well, but the Gates of Hell suddenly slammed shut with a loud, echoing thud…
Andr woke up and immediately sat up on the bed inside his bunker, covered in sweat and breathing heavily…
"That dream again…" he thought…
"Oh, you're finally awake!" Bu-Ling's voice sounded, but Andr didn't see her anywhere…
Then suddenly the monkey-like young Chinese beauty entered the room riding on a unicycle and juggling the food and stuff that she landed perfectly on the plate she later gave to Andr. The young scientist's face before this impossible feat was pure "WTF?"
"The others are waiting for you upstairs, Dr. Seto" Bu-Ling said happily before starting to roll her way off…
"Wait! How did you do all that stuff? Even for a professional circus artist it'd have been impossible to not at least spill the coffee!" Andr said…
Bu-Ling stopped for a minute and looked back at Andr with a smile. "Oh, that? It took me my entire life to master it. You didn't think I was born with that skill or that I suddenly woke up one day knowing how to do it, did you?"
"Uh… No, of course not" Andr said…
"Okay. See you upstairs!" Bu-Ling said happily as she rolled away on her unicycle…
"Wait… That explained nothing!" Andr thought…
The sun was setting. Andr dressed up and went upstairs. In the living room he found Leon, the Mew Mews, Masaya, Ryou and Keiichiro…
"Good morning, Dr. Seto" Ryou greeted…
"Sorry, guys. I think I don't have enough spare bedrooms for all of you" Andr said…
"I know. Keiichiro and I are opening a temporary café here in Kanagawa while we carry out our mission" Ryou said…
"Just when I thought I'd have a little break from serving people at the café" Ichigo complained…
"You don't have to work if you don't want the pay" Ryou replied to Ichigo, frustrating her yet again…
"I'm sure you didn't come here just to tease your employee" Andr said…
"Right. It's time for the feature presentation" Ryou said as he opened his laptop and showed a map of Kanagawa prefecture…
"I have a bigger screen in my bunker if you want to use it" Andr said, since not everyone could clearly see the laptop's small screen. They took his advice and connected Ryou's laptop to Andr's lab computer via USB cable, showing the map on the larger screen for everyone in there to see…
"The thing that has been bothering me from the start is the fact that the Parasite Aliens have been genetically altered by our new enemy. In order for that to be possible, said enemy needs to have a laboratory somewhere in this city" Ryou said…
"We also caught on an interesting local urban myth. Some 'Legendary Inn', as the townspeople calls it" Keiichiro said. The last statement horrified Andr for some reason…
"Legendary Inn? That's what that old lady told me about during my first visit here at Kanagawa! You mean the one that has the power to get anyone into Tokyo University?" surprised Retasu said…
"That's one of the many mystical properties that people have been attributing to it in the past seven years. Sounds like nonsense to me. Just because you stay at an Inn it doesn't qualify you for Tokyo University. Study does" Ryou said…
"Recently, the local girls have also been attributing it with powers such as making a romantic relationship successful if you confess your love behind the inn, or the power to turn karma against cheating boyfriends. In any case, only women ever go into that Inn" Keiichiro said. Andr clenched his first, which started to tremble. Some of the Mew Mews noticed this…
"That last one sounded interesting considering the recent Chimera Anima and their justifications for their murders. So, while you were fending off the Chimera Anima, we did a little research on our own and found this place" Ryou said, and marked a spot on the map. The screen changed to show a satellite image of a hill near a forest. The hill had a long stone stairway leading all the way to the top, where an inn was located. There was also a teahouse halfway up the stone stairs…
"No! That can't be the place!" Andr reacted with uncharacteristic anger. "Check again! This has to be a mistake"
Ryou, Keiichiro and the Mew Mews were astonished at this sudden explosion from the normally calm and easy-going Andr. Leon, however, lowered his head and closed his eyes calmly and somewhat sadly, knowing exactly what was going on with him…
"This is no mistake, Dr. Seto. We scanned that hill and detected a high concentration of Parasite Aliens in it" Ryou said…
"That's a lie!" Dr. Seto screamed, scaring everyone except for Leon. "That's the place where she's living!"
Retasu then gasped in shock "Dr. Seto, do you mean…?"
Ichigo soon started connecting the dots as well thanks to what Retasu had told her earlier, and the look in her eyes started to sadden…
"Dr. Seto! Calm down!" a surprised Ryou said…
"The Parasite Aliens can't be coming from there!" Andr yelled, getting the metaphorical knot in the throat as he started crying. "She can't be part of all this! That cannot be!"
Andr then broke down, fell to his knees and cried, raining tears on the cold floor of the bunker. Retasu immediately felt the need to comfort him…
"The person Andr loves the most in the entire world lives there" Leon said, shocking everyone with the revelation, but especially Retasu…
"You mean Dr. Seto's girlfriend might…?" a horrified Ichigo said…
"No!" Andr interrupted her…
"I agree with Dr. Seto! I'm sure that a woman that deserves his love would never do something so horrible! Maybe she's being held prisoner against her will or something!" Retasu said…
"There is only one way to find out" Ryou said. "We're going to infiltrate and investigate both the inn and the teahouse at the halfway point of the stone stairs, since that's the place where the desperate girlfriends have been getting their 'lucky charms' from the woman with the fox-like face"
"Be very careful. This afternoon Zakuro-san encountered a powerful swordswoman working for the enemy" Keiichiro warned the other Mew Mews…
"That is correct. You should avoid confronting that woman on your own. If you see a woman with black hair and Kendo clothes wielding a wooden sword, get help from teammates or run away" Zakuro said…
"But Zakuro-oneesama! You're the strongest of us! Even you couldn't beat her?" Minto said…
"Our forces were equal. It was 50-50 odds of me winning or getting killed. Too risky to continue fighting" Zakuro said…
"A kendo fighter? Maybe I should go too!" Masaya said…
"Are you nuts? You lost your powers five years ago!" Ryou reminded Masaya…
"But who's going to protect Ichigo? Besides, Kendo is second nature to me! I'm the one best suited to hold that woman off while the others complete the mission!" Masaya said…
"Ryou is right" Ichigo admitted, surprising her lover. "If you died, I wouldn't have the strength to go on with my life. It's better for you to stay back, Masaya-kun"
"What about you? I can't lose you!" Masaya said, hugging Ichigo…
Andr stood up. "I think I can work out something. I just want to ask for a favor…" he said seriously…
"Yes, Dr. Seto! Anything!" Retasu said to him…
"If you see a timid and sweet girl with short dark blue hair… please rescue her from that hell!" Andr pleaded with tears in his eyes…