Depression Chapter 14:
Café Mew Mew Disaster
Ichigo slept on the floor that night, and woke up the next morning to check on Kisshu. He was still sleeping, so she went to take a shower. When she came back, Pai was standing over Kisshu, a hand on his forehead. "Is he okay?" Ichigo asked.
"He's fine, and he should be awake in about two hours," Pai said. "Can you stay? I think he'll want you here when he wakes up."
"Sure," Ichigo said. She sat down in her desk chair as Pai left, and picked up a book.
Two hours later: Ichigo was still reading when she heard a soft noise from the bed. She looked up, and saw that Kisshu was stirring. She came over and sat next to him, and he opened his eyes. "Koneko-chan?" he asked.
"I'm here," Ichigo said. "How are you feeling?"
"Fine," Kisshu said, sitting up. "How long was I asleep?"
Ichigo looked at the clock, and said, "It's been 24 hours. Do you want to get breakfast?"
"Sure," Kisshu said. "I'm starving."
Ichigo smiled, and Kisshu got up, following her to the kitchen. Pai and Sakura were in there, and they looked up. "Kisshu, you're awake!" Sakura said. "Are you hungry?"
"Yeah, I'm starving," Kisshu said.
"There's some pastries on the counter," Sakura said. "Help yourselves."
"Thanks, Mom," Ichigo said, and took an apple turnover. Kisshu took one too, and they sat down with their food.
"The grand opening is two days from now, are you two ready?" Pai asked.
"Do we have uniforms?" Ichigo asked.
"Yes, Keiichiro gave them to me while Kisshu was sleeping," Sakura said. "They're in the living room, you should go see if they fit."
Kisshu and Ichigo finished their turnovers, and went to the living room. There were two boxes on the sofa, one labeled 'Ichigo' and the other labeled 'Kisshu'. "Let's go try these on," Ichigo said. Kisshu nodded, and Ichigo went to the bathroom while Kisshu changed in her room.
A while later, the both came out. "Mine fits," Ichigo said.
"Same here," Kisshu said. "Let's go show Sakura."
They went downstairs, and as they entered the kitchen, Sakura looked up. "You two look great!" she said, coming over.
Ichigo was wearing a red dress with an almost knee-length skirt, and a frilly white apron that tied in the back with a large pink ribbon. The dress had three-quarter length sleeves with frills of white lace on the cuffs, and a scoop neck with a white frill around it, and a pink bow right in the middle. She was wearing white knee socks and a pair of red Mary-Janes. (A/N: those shoes that look like flats, except with a strap over the foot.) She also had a little frilly headband.
Kisshu was wearing a pair of black slacks, a white button down shirt with a green bowtie, and a dark green vest. He also had a pair of black dress shoes. He was fiddling with the bowtie, and said, "I don't like this thing…"
"You look great, though," Ichigo said.
Kisshu blushed. "You look great too," he said. "I hope I don't have to scare too many boys away from you."
"You'll be too busy avoiding all the girls who come in," Ichigo said teasingly. "If even I think you're hot, everyone else is going to agree."
"Great…" Kisshu said. "I guess I'll have to make it clear I'm not interested."
"Still be polite," Ichigo said. "And try not to get too irritated."
"I'll manage," Kisshu said.
Two days later: It was the day that Café Mew Mew was reopening, and Ichigo, the other Mews (except for Mint), the Cyniclons, Keiichiro and Sakura were waiting. Keiichiro and Sakura had been baking for days, getting ready for the opening.
At about noon, the preparations were done, and the Café was ready to open. Keiichiro opened the doors, and they noticed there were quite a few people waiting outside. There had been an article in the paper that announced the reopening, so everyone knew about it.
Keiichiro stepped forward, and said, "Thank you all for coming to our reopening. There have been a few changes since this Café was last open, so I'd like to tell you a bit about it. The previous owner, Shirogane Ryou, has disappeared, and I've taken over as owner of Café Mew Mew. I have a new assistant, and I'd like you to meet Momomiya Sakura. She is now the assistant chef here."
Sakura bowed slightly, and some people clapped. Keiichiro waited a minute, then said, "Due to some complaints before the reopening, I also need to tell all of you that anyone harassing our servers is going to be asked to leave. They work hard to make you happy, I think you'll agree that they deserve respect. And with that said, please come in, and I hope you enjoy your food."
Everyone clapped as Keiichiro and Sakura headed back to the kitchen, and then started to come in. The Mews and Cyniclons were kept busy seating people and handing out menus, and soon after, taking orders and bringing them out.
Everyone was kept busy until about six, and then the rush of people slowed down. After closing, Ichigo and the others sat down at different tables. "I think I like having you here," Ichigo told Kisshu, Pai and Taruto. "I don't end up doing everything."
Kisshu smiled. "Glad we can help," he said.
"Some old lady pinched my cheek and told me I was 'cute'," Taruto grumbled.
"Old ladies have a tendency to do that," Ichigo said. "Pudding, don't you get that sometimes?"
"Yep na no da," Pudding said. "Pudding puts up with it, so Taru-Taru can too, na no da!"
Taruto sighed, as Keiichiro and Sakura came out of the kitchen. "Good work today," Keiichiro said. "It looks like we'll be as busy as ever. For now, you can go home, and we'll expect you back at 11:30 tomorrow morning."
"Okay," the others said. Everyone started heading out, and Pai and Kisshu teleported Sakura and Ichigo home, followed by Taruto.
The next morning, they all got up ready for another day at the Café. Little did they know, this one was going to be quite different.
It started out normally, but everyone was startled when the doors burst open, revealing Mint in Mew form. She looked really angry, and the customers got scared. "You're going to pay for killing Aoyama-kun!" she screamed at Ichigo.
"You're insane," Ichigo said. "I don't even know you, why would you think I killed Aoyama?"
Keiichiro poked his head out of the kitchen, saw what was going on, and called out, "I'm asking all the customers to leave, it's not safe in here!"
For once everyone was happy to obey, and they ran out the back exit, Keiichiro and Sakura directing traffic. When they came back, Mint smirked. "Well, Ichigo, now you can feel my pain," she said, summoning her bow, and pointing it at Sakura. She loosed an energy arrow- but before it hit, Keiichiro pushed Sakura out of the way, and it hit him instead!
Pai ran over as he fell, and looked at the wound on his arm.
Meanwhile, the others noticed that Zakuro was radiating fury, and then she screamed her transformation. Fully transformed, she said coldly, "Mint. You're going DOWN!" Then she summoned her weapon, but to everyone's surprise, she had a sword rather than the energy whip. She immediately ran at Mint, slicing another arrow in half in the process. Still radiating fury, she kicked the bow out of Mint's hand, and said, "You've gone too far." Then she stabbed Mint through the heart, and threw her off the blade. Then she let the blade disappear, and walked back to the others, who were seriously freaked out.
"Um… what brought that on?" Kisshu asked.
"Keiichiro and I have been dating, and I don't like seeing people I care about hurt," Zakuro said. She detransformed, and looked over at Pai, who was just about finished healing the injury on Keiichiro's arm. She waited till he was done, then came over and said, "Will he be okay?"
"Yes, he just needs to sleep off the healing spell I put on him," Pai said. "Healing people tends to put them to sleep. You can stay with him, though."
"Thanks," Zakuro said softly. She and Pai carried Keiichiro back to his room, leaving the others downstairs.
"I didn't know they were dating," Ichigo said.
"Shouldn't we do something about Mint's body?" Lettuce asked.
"I'll destroy it," Kisshu said, and took out his swords. Then he went over to Mint, and formed an energy ball, then incinerated her body. He let his swords disappear, and walked back to the others. Ichigo went over to her mom, and asked, "Mom, are you okay?"
"I'm… fine…" Sakura said. "I'm sorry Keiichiro got hurt protecting me…"
Ichigo hugged her, and said, "Keiichiro knew what he was doing, and Pai said he'll be fine when he wakes up. Don't blame yourself. He knows that you have to stay alive, now that Dad's not here for me anymore."
"I'm surprised Mint didn't go for Kisshu," Lettuce said.
"She probably knew he could defend himself, and Mom can't," Ichigo said, as Kisshu came over and hugged Sakura too.
"Well, she's gone now, and that's what matters," Pai said, coming down the stairs.
"Yeah," the others said.
Kisshu and Ichigo let go of Sakura, and Kisshu said, "Should we go home?"
"Good idea," Sakura said.
Kisshu took her hand and Ichigo's, and teleported back to their house.
I KNOW it's short, but I can't think of anything else for this chapter, and I'd appreciate some suggestions now that I've killed Mint off. I'll go update other things while waiting for suggestions, k?