Cream leaned back thinking about the soul stones as she sat in class. At the same time she fingered her necklace under her shirt. She felt strangely protective of it. Almost as if anyone who saw it, would want it and try to steal it. She hadn't even showed it to Cherri yet. She knew her friend would be upset, but it had become Cream's most precious possession.
She still was stuck on the explanation Cherri had given her on the Soul Stone. It had filled Cherri with strength and left her feeling like she could take on anyone and anything. And it had helped her to defeat Kukki. Cream could see the danger of the aliens getting any of them. But on the other side, if they got ahold of them then the mews would be stronger.
"Shiromitsu." Her teacher interrupted her thoughts. "Come up and answer this question."
"Yes sir." She got up. Luckily it was an easier problem and so she didn't have to stress too much. At least it helped her reposition her thoughts to the class. But every now and then, thoughts of the soul stones would pop up in her head.
By the time she got out of school, she had come up with a new plan for searching. "Cherri!" She waved as they headed towards the café. "Hey!"
"What's up?" Cherri smiled.
"How did you find the soul stone?" Cream asked as they walked into the changing room in the back of the café.
"It was just luck. Being in the right place at the right time." She shrugged as she changed.
"Hmmm… I was hoping there would be some easy way to find them."
"I'm sure Ryou can figure out a way." Cherri said. "Now stop worrying about it, and let's go get to work."
"Okay." Cream followed her out into the café main area and started to help serve the customers. When Cream was halfway done with work, Ryou approached her.
"Cream, can I talk to you?"
"Sure." Cream put down the town she had been using to dry dishes. "What do you need?"
"This is for you." He handed her a small electronic device that looked similar to a watch. "It's for finding soul stones."
"Oh!" Cream smiled and put it on. "How does it work?"
"It will beep when you are close to one…. Unfortunately it won't pick up any strong soul stones."
"Why not?" Cream blinked. "Wouldn't it be easier for us to find stronger ones?"
"That's what you would think." He nodded. "But Soul stones are part of nature and the strong soul stones are more capable of hiding within nature, which makes them harder to detect. Keiichiro and I are working on creating a device that will be able to pick up stronger ones. But we need some more information first."
"Alright." Cream nodded. "I'll head out now and start to search." She glanced down at the watch. "I'll see you tomorrow then."
"Be careful…. I've giving the device to the others, so you aren't the only one searching."
Cream nodded. "Don't worry about me. I'll be fine." She headed to the changing room to get changed into her normal clothes.
Cherri walked up behind Ryou. "You really like her don't you."
Ryou jumped and looked over at her. "What?"
"Too bad she's not interested in you. She's got a boyfriend already." Cherri shrugged. "We all can tell you like her, and we know you should give up on her."
Ryou frowned. "Stay out of it Cherri….. It's none of your business."
Cherri frowned. "Fine then, I was just trying to give you a piece of advice." She turned and walked off, grumbling to herself.
Ryou looked away and looked off as he noticed Cream leaving. She was smiling and humming happily. He knew Cherri was correct, but he didn't want to give up on her.
Cream fingered her necklace as she walked. It was beautiful, and it made her think of Kaoru and all the moments they had spent together. The stone flickered silver freckled light onto her shirt. It was a wonderful find and she was happy that Kaoru had thought of her when he had found it.
She paused as her watch suddenly started to beep slightly. "Wow, already. It's my lucky day!" She looked around. "Alright, Cherri said it was a small black stone…. Let's see…"
"Looking for this?" A voice chuckled. Cream looked up and spotted Kukki in a tree watching her. In his hand was a small smooth black stone. Cream froze and Kukki laughed. "Now what should I do with you, little mew?"
Cream quickly when to transform, but was interrupted by a small blast from Kukki. She jumped out of the way and blinked seeing the alien holding a small glowing ball of energy that he had gotten from the stone.
"I'm going to kill you little mew!" He continued to throw the energy balls at her. Cream jumped around, trying to avoid them and transform. But every time she started to transform, she would be interrupted by having to jump away.
Cream landed again and tried to transform, only this time when she was interrupted it was a blast to the chest. Everything suddenly seemed to move in slow motion as the blast nailed Cream. She could feel the pain and was aware of Kukki laughing. The next thing she knew, she was flat on her back and she could hear the other mews voices.
"CREAM!" That was Cherri's voice. She could feel hands helping her sit up and Cream let out a grunt of pain. "Cream!"
"Is she okay?!" Ichigo asked. Cream was starting to regain her senses. The pain wasn't as bad as she had thought it, not to say it wasn't bad. It was only a dulled throbbing in all her muscles.
"I-I'm okay." Cream shifted slightly and flinched. "Nothing's broken… Only bruised…"
"Let's get her back to the café." Zakuro said calmly. "We'll let Ryou know what happened."
"At least we managed to get the stone back from Kukki." Mint said, holding up the little stone. "Unfortunately it's out of power."
"Come on." Cherri said as she untransformed and helped Cream up. "You'll be okay."
"Let's just get back to the café so I can sit down and rest." Cream smiled painfully.
"Cream will be fine." Ryou sighed, after checking on her. "You're lucky, that blast should have injured you more than it did."
Cream smiled. "We'll I'm glad I'm lucky… I have no idea what I would do if I was in worse condition… What would I tell people?"
Ryou sighed. "This isn't good…. That alien was smart… He attacked Cream while she was alone and unprotected… From now on you girls need to travel in pairs."
Cream frowned. "How about we just always make sure we aren't traveling alone… If there are other people around us in general then we don't need to worry as much."
"Don't worry Cream; none of us are going to follow you on your dates." Ichigo laughed. "I know how you feel, I don't want any of you coming on my dates either."
Cream smiled. "Thanks Ichigo."
Ryou frowned, but Keiichiro spoke first. "Just as long as you girls are always careful it should be fine… But I don't think Cream should be fighting for now… Just rest and heal up."
Cream nodded, but frowned. "Now I feel useless…"
"Don't worry." Keiichiro smiled. "You'll be healed up in no time, and then you can deal with the alien that attacked you."
Cream nodded. "Well…. I'd better head home then…" She sighed.
"Here, I'll give you a lift." Ryou said getting up. "Let me help." He slid his arm under hers, to help support her to the car.
"Thanks Ryou." Cream said as Ryou started up the car.
After a bit of driving Cream told Ryou to turn left. "I thought you and your brother living that way?" Ryou frowned.
"My brother still does… But since my schedule has gotten busy… and he's still busy as well… I decided to move out and get my own apartment."
Ryou frowned. "I don't like the thought of you living alone."
"Oh calm down, I can take care of myself fine." She leaned back and sighed. "Besides, I don't want my brother to learn about me being a mew… And sometimes when I get back late he would get suspicious."
"…You could just tell him you were on a date with your new boyfriend…"
Cream laughed. "That would only make it worse… Plus I moved out before Kaoru and I started dating."
"Kaoru huh…" Ryou said as he pulled up in front of the apartments. "Do you need help getting to your apartment?"
"No, I should be fine." Cream said getting out of the car slowly. "I'm not in that bad of shape. I'll see you tomorrow."
"No…. You stay home and rest." Ryou frowned.
"I have school." She frowned.
"Call in sick… I can call in for you if you need." Ryou said calmly. "You need your rest. Go get some sleep."
Cream sighed. "Alright… Goodnight." Cream headed inside and sighed. She lay down gently on her bed. She closed her eyes and sighed. Now her head was feeling fuzzy. She gently fingered her necklace, not noticing the stone glowing black for a moment.
"Hey Pai!" Kukki smirked floating behind the purple haired alien. "Guess what I just did!"
"Leave me alone Kukki. I don't care." Pai frowned. He was working on studying a soul stone Kisshu had found.
"Oh… Is that a soul stone?" Kukki asked. "Who found it?"
"Kisshu." Pai said calmly. "I'm currently working on a way to harness the power of the stone to help Deep Blue regain his strength."
"Hmmm." Kukki frowned. "Why not use it to just destroy the little mew mews first. I defeated the little mew snow."
Pai froze. "You attacked one of the mews with a soul stone… Where is it?"
Kukki froze. "Well…uh… I kind of drained it…. But I managed to get rid of a mew. So that was good." He smirked. "If we take out the mews first then we won't even need Deep Blue at full strength."
Pai frowned. "Go out and find more… Those mews are strong; I doubt she will be down for long."
"Spoil sport." Kukki grumbled, and then floated off.
"You're right about the mews." Taruto said floating down next to Pai. "But I don't see how… You haven't even come out to battle in a while. What have you been doing?"
Pai paused, between looking for soul stones and working to help Deep Blue he had been seeing Cream. He still didn't want to tell his brothers, that wouldn't go over well. "I will battle when I am done with my current experiments."
"Alright whatever!" Taruto shrugged and floated off. "But you'd better hurry. The others are getting annoyed at you."
Pai went back to his experiment. But his thoughts were on Cream, and for some reason he felt concerned and worried.