Chapter Thirteen:
In the alternate dimension, the glowing blue orb known as Deep Blue was starting to get annoyed.
"Pie?" The child-like voice called out. "Where are you, Pie?"
"Here."
The voice came before the body of the alien as his body rose into the dimension, already kneeling before his Master, the 'floor' rippling like water as he rose through it.
"Master Deep Blue-Sama, I am here," Pie said, raising his head slightly.
"Report the result of the Chimera Animal infused with a human," Deep Blue ordered in his child's voice. He didn't sound intimidating, fearsome or anything to be revered. But Pie thought all these things of Deep Blue.
The savior of the Cyniclons.
"Yes," Pie said, rising to his feet slowly. "I have analyzed all data that was logged during the battle with the prototype," He explained. "It is very unstable and has flaws that I am currently searching for solutions. However, there seems to be no true, apparent problem. With a few, simple modifications and the perfect spirit, it will be insuperable. I have also begun a search for a compatible match. I have found a few suitable options, but I am searching for more. My end goal is to have plenty of spirits and Chimeras." He smiled darkly as he thought of the green-haired Mew. How she infuriated him… "The vermin will not be able to withstand that amount of power. And then Earth will be ours."
"As it rightfully should," Deep Blue said, a tint of pride in his voice. "Go then. I expect another progress report in the near future."
"Of course," Pie said with a bow before sinking through the 'floor', leaving only ripples behind.
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Lettuce and Ichigo entered the Café to find a very annoyed Mint, who in the absence of the other two girls was forced to actually work.
"About time," She snapped, her arms crossed over her chest. "What took you so long?"
"We got held up," Lettuce said.
"And what she means by 'held up' translates to 'got chased around by a mini, blond menace," Ichigo said irritably, dropping her bags in the kitchen, followed by Lettuce. "But we finally got rid of her."
"What happened?" Keiichiro asked.
The girls explained the situation. Keiichiro frowned.
"Funny, I didn't think your ribbons would pop out, Lettuce. Ichigo's ears, yes, but not your ribbons," He said.
"There was this shark puppet and I thought it was real for a moment," Lettuce admitted, blushing some. "I guess the marine animal in me freaked out at that."
"She kept wanting to know how to get the ribbons and cat ears," Ichigo said, rolling her eyes. "I tell ya, that kid's a little weird. She'd do anything for her performance…"
Mint's brow furrowed.
"There's got to be some reason why a small kid would do those sort of things," She said. "I mean, why would a child think having cat ears or being a mermaid would get her more money? And why is she looking for the money to begin with?"
Lettuce and Ichigo's shoulders slumped, feeling guilty for getting upset with the girl. What was her reason for being so desperate to get money?
"Lettuce? Ichigo? Something wrong?" Ryou asked.
"No," Lettuce muttered. "Nothing."
With that, they both depressingly head for the locker room.
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Pie watched as the human woman crumpled to the ground of the back alley. He looked at the crystal of a human spirit in his hand.
"This one is not what I desire, either," He said with a snarl, clutching his fist around it. "The spirit required for this Chimera needs to be pure…" He glanced down at the unconscious woman. "However, this will have to be sufficient for now."
With that, he leapt into the air, disappearing into the night.
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Lettuce couldn't stop thinking about the girl from the park. She absentmindedly did her chores, went to school and worked in the Café.
"Lettuce, are you alright?" Ichigo asked. Lettuce didn't answer, just absentmindedly swept.
"Lettuce."
She glanced up at Ryou, who had his hands tucked in his pockets. Then he held out one hand for her.
"Come with me."
Lettuce took Ryou's hand and let him lead her down stairs to the basement, where Ryou's 'lab' was, and he told her to sit at a table. Ryou then placed a cup of tea in front of her and a piece of her favorite Café Mew Mew dessert, key-lime pie drizzled with white chocolate.
"What's the deal?" Ryou asked.
"I can't stop thinking about the girl," Lettuce muttered. "I feel so bad that I snapped at her like I did… but I was just so tired. And I keep wondering why she was so desperate for the money. The way she tracked me down for a tip, that couldn't just be feeling cheated, could it?"
"I don't know," Ryou said, sipping his coffee. "But I do know this. You regret the words you said. So you should already know what to do."
"Huh?" Lettuce asked, her brow furrowed.
"Like I said, you know what to do," Ryou said. "You just need to act on it."
Lettuce thought for a moment and smiled with a nod. Ryou grinned.
"That's my girl," He said, tipping his mug towards her before taking a sip. Lettuce turned scarlet and quickly shoved the key-lime pie in her mouth.
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That evening, Pudding walked on her ball around the fountain of the park. Unexpectedly, she fell off, hitting the ground, landing on her stomach.
"Owie…" She muttered. "That hurt, na no da."
She sat up and felt her head and groaned.
"Still no kitty ears or mermaid ribbons, na no da," She said sadly. She shook her head. "Pudding won't give up yet, na no da!"
Her shoulders slumped some.
"But how is Pudding going to get them, na no da?" She muttered.
"Oh, little human girl…"
"Huh?" Pudding muttered, her brow furrowing as she looked over her shoulder, standing up as she did so, seeing a tall, older-boy with messy dark gray/lavender hair and long, pointed ears floating in mid-air.
"So," Pie said. "It is ears that you desire. And it is ears that I can give you."
"Who are you, na no da?" Pudding asked, her eyes wide and wary.
"Consider me," He paused for a moment both for dramatic effect and to recall the human term he had heard. He gave her a small smirk. "Your guardian angel."
"That can't be, na no da!" Pudding protested. "Angels don't have ugly faces, na no da!"
Pie's mouth fell into an 'o', his eyes narrowed and his shoulders slumped. This girl was already wearing on his patience.
"Do you want ears or not?" He demanded in a growl.
"As long as they don't look like yours, mister, na no da," Pudding said, shaking her head slightly, her arms folded over her chest.
Pie's right ear twitched, as did his right eye, his annoyance shining through his usual emotionless demeanor.
This was not a good sign.
Pie was fuming as he raised his hand. Pudding's eyes widened and she took a step backwards, preparing to flee as his hand started to glow.
"Insolent fool!" He snarled. "For your rudeness, I will take your Spirit!"
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In the darkening twilight, Lettuce paused as she walked past the park from the day before.
"I wonder if that girl is here," She muttered to herself. Then she spotted the small figure, the orange she wore reflected off the streetlamp.
But something was wrong, she could see that even before Mini-Mew popped out screeching, "ALIEN! ALIEN!"
Lettuce could only watch as the girl was thrown into the air, held there by some force radiating from Pie's hand. His cold eyes only stared up at her pained face in indifference.
"This would be much less painful if you would stop fighting and give me your spirit," Pie said in an almost bored tone, his large ears tuning out the girl's panicked screams.
Lettuce felt herself tremble with anger, her eyes narrow at Pie.
"Mew Mew Lettuce, Metamorpho-sis!" She hissed.
Pie, oblivious to what was going on behind him, smirked as the spirit finally began to come towards his hand.
"This is the best spirit I have found yet," He said. "With this spirit, I will capture Earth in the name of Deep Blue!"
"Don't count on that!"
Pie turned just in time to get smacked in the face by a large ball, toppling over with a cry of shock, his eyes wide with confusion and surprise.
Pudding fell to the ground on her knees, panting. When she looked up, she saw a beautiful older girl with long green hair in a green dress glaring at the alien, who sat in the air with a snarl.
"Pie-San, how could you?" Mew Lettuce said, her eyes hard and her lips curled into a frown. "Attacking a small, harmless child? Isn't that a cowardly thing to do? I will not let this pass by so easily!"
She put a hand on her hip and the other hand in the air.
"For the future of Earth, I will give my all!" She declared.
Then, Pudding saw it.
The ribbons emerging from the girl's scalp, twisting and curling around her.
Pudding gasped.
"Mermaid Onee-Chan, na no da!" She gasped.
"This is a change of usual events," Pie said, now on his feet and floating in the air, the ribbons curling and unfurling behind him. His eyes were just as hard as Lettuce's. "You came to me this time, Sashimi."
"I didn't come for you!" Lettuce snapped.
The corner of Pie's mouth curled into that infuriating hint of a smirk yet again. Lettuce was really starting to hate that and was thinking she preferred it when he kept his face blank.
"You still came," He said tauntingly. He then became serious again. "Did you know that only a few spirits could become Chimera Animals? They can only be used for such when the spirit is pure. Unsurprisingly, there are very few pure spirits on this planet full of wretched humans. However, her spirit happens to be the purest of them all. Which is why I will have it."
"Not happening!" Lettuce yelled.
The hint of a smirk was back as his eyes lit up.
"I was not seeking your permission," He said, leaping for Pudding, whom Lettuce snatched up under her arm and started running with, her legs still aching from her marathon the day before.
"As Pudding thought, na no da!" Pudding said happily as Lettuce ran. "Onee-Chan is amazing, na no da!"
"Please be quiet, Pudding-San!" Lettuce begged, a glance over her shoulder telling her what she already knew. That no matter how fast she ran, Pie was still faster as he flew behind her, hot on her trail.
"I will not let you escape!" Pie yelled, throwing glowing balls at her. Lettuce ducked the explosions as best she could, but she knew she couldn't keep being so lucky.
"Onee-Chan! In front, na no da!" Pudding said as Lettuce looked over her shoulder. Lettuce turned her head and grinned at seeing Mew Mint and Mew Ichigo just a few feet away.
"Mew Mint-San! Mew Ichigo-San!" Lettuce cried with delight.
Mint called her bow to her hand then drew back the string.
"RIBBON… MINT ECHO!" She called, letting loose her arrow at Pie.
Lettuce ducked with a squeak and Pie flew higher to avoid the arrow, all getting the backlash of the explosion, causing Lettuce to trip and both her and Pudding to bounce across the stone pathway with cries and squeaks of excitement, pain and fear, the latter two in particular coming from Lettuce while the former was only given by Pudding.
"Ow!" Lettuce muttered, rubbing her rear-end, that she knew was going to be bruised by morning. Pudding was unharmed and rather excited by it all.
"That was fun, na no da! Can we do it again, na no da?" She asked exuberantly.
"NO!" Lettuce exclaimed, her eyes wide.
"Are you two okay?" Ichigo asked as she and Mint helped both girls stand up.
"Guess so," Lettuce said, still rubbing her sore bottom some.
"Everyone is here now, it seems," Pie said, floating back down to the ground. "This shall make getting that spirit harder than before. But, perhaps that will not be the case." With that, he pulled out a small crystal and a parasite, bringing them together.
A large lizard-like creature with maracas appeared, grinning widely and chanting something about samba dancing.
"What is that?" Mint demanded, pointing at it with wide-eyes.
"A lizard, I guess?" Ichigo said, wrinkling her nose. Mint shut her eyes, shaking her head.
"I hate lizards!" She declared.
"Then please stay with Pudding-San. Pie-San wants her spirit to make a Chimera and we need to protect her," Lettuce said.
"I'll take babysitting over touching that slimy, scaly thing any day," Mint said, curling her lip in disgust at the Chimera.
Lettuce nodded.
"Mew Ichigo-San, come on!" She said, running towards the Chimera.
"Right, nya!" Ichigo said, running after Lettuce.
"Wait, Onee-Chan!" Pudding yelled, wide-eyed.
The porpoise and cat Mews tried to attack the lizard.
"STRAWBERRY BELL!" Ichigo called, the bell appearing in her hand. However, before she could use it, it was knocked away by the lizard Chimera.
"LETTUSTANETS!" Lettuce called, but those were knocked away too, the tail hitting Lettuce and sending her skidding across the pavement.
"Lettuce!" Ichigo cried with wide-eyes.
Meanwhile, Mint was trying to restrain Pudding.
"It's dangerous!" Mint said. "Stay over here, okay kid?"
"Wait, na no da!" Pudding called to the other girls.
The lizard hit both Lettuce and Ichigo, sending them rolling across the ground, leering over them.
"What do we do now?" Ichigo asked.
"I don't know," Lettuce said. "We need a way to get it to stay in one place, no way to knock away our weapons."
"How are we going to do that?" Ichigo demanded. Lettuce remained speechless.
The lizard-Chimera raised its maracas.
"SAMBA!" It sneered threateningly.
Pudding broke free of Mint and ran, not stopping for a split second until she was in-front of Lettuce and Ichigo.
"No!" Pudding yelled, throwing her arms wide.
The blast from the Chimera hit the girl… or didn't really as it turned out, as a large, stone rose up out of the ground, blocking the blast.
"What's with the stone?" Ichigo asked, blinking a few times.
"Is this heaven, na no da?" Pudding muttered.
Lettuce looked up and her eyes widened.
"Pudding-San!" She said with a gasp. "Your ears!"
"What about them, na no da?" Pudding asked, her eyes still closed.
"Pudding-San, what you needed wasn't cat ears like Ichigo-San, or ribbons like me. You didn't need a magic spell or do anything to get that sort of thing," Lettuce said, smiling. "You just needed to be yourself. Your perfect, energetic, abnormal self."
Pudding's eyes opened and she moved her hands to the sides of her head and her brown-sugar eyes widened at feeling the orange fuzzy ears that were there.
"WAAAAH!" She exclaimed. "PUDDING HAS EARS, NA NO DA!"
She turned to Lettuce and Ichigo with watery eyes.
"PUDDING GOT CAT EARS, NA NO DA!" She said excitedly.
The girls' smiles grew broader.
"Not cat ears," Lettuce said. "Those are monkey ears. No other human in the world has those. Those are all yours, Pudding-San. And I think it's a good fit for you."
"Look at her forehead!" Ichigo exclaimed. Pudding crossed her eyes upward, trying to see what Ichigo was pointing at. There, on her forehead, was a glowing mark with two monkey tails curved together to form a heart. "She's the fourth member! With the ears and mark, there's no way she can't be!"
Suddenly, Mini-Mew appeared above them, opening his mouth. Out popped another golden pendant, and it landed in Pudding's cupped hands.
"I think so," Lettuce said with a nod. "Mew Pudding-San, just act on what comes naturally."
Pudding smiled before calling out:
"MEW MEW PUDDING, METAMORPHO-SIS!"
She brought the pendant to her lips and gave it a quick kiss before moving the stone to her forehead. In a flash of light, she disappeared.
She reappeared wearing an golden yellow sleeveless jumpsuit that cut off short on her thighs with legwarmers and soft shoes. She had orange fingerless gloves and yellow armbands, choker and garter around her left leg. She also had a curling orange tail to match her ears.
"A monkey?" Pie said, his arms folded over his chest as he scrutinized Mew Pudding. She was a child, more so than the others. What threat did she possess? It was time to find out. "Samba, attack!"
The Chimera leapt for the girls.
"Pudding can feel the power surging within her, na no da!" Pudding said, grinning, her hands in fists. She looked at the other girls briefly. "Leave it to Pudding, na no da!"
With that, she was off, leaping over and around the Chimera, confusing and angering it.
"Those aren't going to hit Pudding, na no da!" Pudding said with a slight giggle as the Chimera went after her with its maracas.
Finally, the Chimera was ready to get in a good, once-and-for-all strike. But then it looked confused. Where did she go?
"Pudding's here, na no da!" Pudding called from above, making the Chimera look up.
The monkey girl flipped in midair while calling out,
"Pudding Rings!"
In her hand appeared a large ring that when she brought it behind her back and hit it against her rear-end in a playful manner, it separated into two rings. She grinned.
"RIBBON PUDDING RING… INFERNO!" She cried.
Suddenly, the Chimera was incased in flan, immobile.
"Mew Lettuce Onee-Chan, na no da!" Pudding called, still grinning.
"Okay!" Lettuce said, a bright smile on her face. She brought her arms over her chest, the gemstone on her bracelet glowing.
"Lettustanets!" Once they were in her hands, she clicked them before bringing them together above her head. "RIBBON… LETTUCE RUSH!"
The flan dissolved and the Chimera separated, Mini-Mew quickly collecting the spirit and parasite.
"You did it, na no da!" Pudding cheered.
"All thanks to Mew Pudding!" Lettuce said, hugging the girl.
"I was very confident in my Chimera today," Pie said, his eyes betraying his anger while his face remained blank. "But it appears that I will have to further my attempts. Spirit-Chimera Experiment 002, failure due to… unforeseen circumstances. Data has been logged for entry and flaws have been noted. You will not defeat my next experiment, mark my words, little Mews."
With that, he disappeared.
"AND DON'T COME BACK!" Ichigo yelled, pointing at the spot in the air where Pie had been just seconds before. There was a slight pause. "He'll be back, won't he?"
"Yep." The other three girls said together. Then they all laughed.
The next day, Pudding stood proudly in her new orange and yellow Café uniform, looking extremely adorable.
"What kind of monkey is Pudding-San?" Lettuce asked Ryou.
"Golden Lion Tamarin," He answered, his arms over his chest. He took a deep breath. "Can't say it doesn't fit her."
That was an understatement.
Just as Lettuce was getting hopeful that the workload at the Café was going to get easier all around, Pudding's performance antics proved her wrong.
Pudding rode her ball around the room, spinning plates as she went. She did her flips and tricks and, for better or for worse, breathed fire.
As Ichigo and Mint chased the monkey girl around the room, the latter laughing excitedly and the older two begging her to stop and calm down some, Lettuce could only sigh happily.
She wouldn't want Pudding any other way.
Ryou and Keiichiro stood in the doorway, watching the chaos.
"Four down," Keiichiro murmured.
"One to go," Ryou said.
"You gave it to her already, didn't you?" Keiichiro asked.
Ryou gave a short nod.
"Was that… wise? Letting her find out on her own?" Keiichiro asked softly.
"Ichigo did, that turned out alright," Ryou said.
"We didn't set up for Ichigo to discover on her own," Keiichiro reminded him. "Can she handle it?"
"Lettuce will be fine," Ryou said, watching the green-haired girl try to stop an argument between Mint and Ichigo. "She has handled everything so far amazingly. Couldn't ask for anything better. She's amazing. Wonderful. Not to mention kind of cute."
Keiichiro chuckled, smirking some.
"That wasn't the her I was referring to," He said. With that, he walked away, leaving Ryou with his cheeks tinged pink.
Oh, what's this? What mischief has Ryou gotten into? What will happen next?