Happy Valentine's Day!
Chapter Twenty-Eight:
"What? You can't find R2000?" Keiichiro said with a frown as the girls told him what happened at the battle and the lost robot.
"Yeah, after the fight was over he was nowhere to be seen," Ichigo said with concern.
"Mini-Mew has never been by himself," Lettuce added in a soft voice.
"Could he have gotten lost because of a glitch, na no da?" Pudding asked.
Before Keiichiro could even process Pudding's question, Mint said,
"That Chimera was eating everything in sight. You don't think Mini-Mew got eaten by it?"
Lettuce felt all of the blood drain out of her face as Ichigo exclaimed "No way!" She hoped that wasn't true.
"Don't worry," Ryou said as he entered the dining room, laptop tucked under his arm. He sat down at a table, opening the computer and beginning to type on it. "We can track Mini-Mew's signal. It's still strong, so it doesn't appear like he's damaged."
"Then where is he?" Lettuce asked, coming over to look over Ryou's shoulder. He glanced away from the screen briefly to look at her, which she pretended not to notice. She couldn't deal with her feelings about him right now, not with Mini-Mew missing.
"Well, it looks like even though the signal is strong, it's not clear," Ryou explained, turning back to the screen, feeling no indignation. Lettuce had every right to be mad at him, he knew. He wasn't going to contest that.
"So, what does that mean?" Ichigo asked, coming up to look over Ryou's other shoulder, Pudding right behind as she stood on her toes to look over Ryou's head.
"Another dimension?" Keiichiro asked, eyes suddenly sad.
"Yeah," Ryou said.
"What does that mean?" Mint asked as she poured a cup of tea.
Lettuce's heart sank as she saw the look Ryou and Keiichiro exchanged.
"Mini-Mew is with the aliens, isn't he?" She said sadly.
Ryou nodded.
"They'll pay for kidnapping Mini-Mew, na no da!" Pudding said, leaping away to drop into a kung-fu fighting position. "We're gonna rescue him, na no da!"
"But how do we get into that other dimension?" Ichigo asked.
"Could there be something like a door, like what I found to rescue Ichigo, Mint and Pudding a few weeks ago?" Zakuro asked.
"Maybe," Ryou said. "I'll run the scan again. Maybe we can find something…"
Lettuce bit her lip. She couldn't help but feel guilty. Mini-Mew was her first real friend, and a friend she had treated horribly the day before. She hoped Ryou found the door soon.
Oh Mini-Mew… She thought sadly. I hope you're okay.
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Tart was flipping through his book, trying desperately to figure out what was wrong with his Chimera. But he could find nothing in his book on plants and Chimeraism that was helping him or the poor Chimera, that was now hacking behind him. His ears twitched at hearing something hit the floor and closed the book, jumping to his feet.
"What's this?" He said, picking up the green, fuzzy blob by its tail. He studied it for a moment and said to the Chimera, "Is this the thing you ate that gave you a tummy-ache?"
The green blob started twitching and pulling away from Tart.
"Let Mini-Mew go! Mini-Mew will fight! Mini-Mew is strong!" It chirped.
"You're that thing that follows around those Mew Mews…" Tart said with recognition. He scrutinized the robot, holding up Mini-Mew so that the robot's eyes met his own, then said, "Well, I can't let you go back to them, 'cause you'll just cause me and Kish trouble next time we attack. But you're worthless here. So I'll just throw you away."
With that, he threw the screeching robot towards the blazing fire at the other side of the room. However, before Mini-Mew could pass into the fireplace, he was grabbed by the tail by a pale, thin hand.
"Don't be wasteful like a human, Taruto," Kisshu said, flicking Mini-Mew over his head, then catching him in the other hand. "This thing might still be useful around here."
"How?" Tart demanded.
Kish smirked.
"What you're forgetting is that we're at war, Otouto," Kish said condescendingly. "And we just got our first prisoner of war. A very useful prisoner of war. Now, tell Onii-Chan how our little prisoner is useful, Taruto."
Taruto glowered at Kish, snarling some but suddenly his snarl became a smirk.
"It follows around the Mew Mews," He said. "That thing is probably full of information about them."
"Exactly," Kish said. "And I think Pie will be more than happy to let us borrow some of his toys in order to get what we need out of this little ball of fur. Well, okay, Pie won't be happy, but what other choice does he have?"
Tart's smirk grew. A chance to learn how to beat those annoying Mew Mews and play with Pie's usually off-limits equipment? This had just made his day.
"This is going to be fun." He said.
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"Pie, let me and Tart into your lab, will ya?"
Pie glared up at Kish.
"Over my dead body," He said coolly.
"Okay, let me rephrase this," Kish said. "Give me the passcode to enter your lab."
"And why the hell would I do that, Kisshu?" Pie demanded.
"Because if you don't, I'll tell Deep Blue that you're interfering with my and Tart's progress in doing what you failed to do. And if Deep Blue knew just how much trouble you were causing us, how much of a hindrance to his plans you are, he'll send you home. And we don't want that, now do we?"
Pie wanted to rip Kish's smirking lips off his face.
But he irritably sacrificed the code.
"Now, that wasn't so hard, was it?" Kish said sweetly, patting Pie's head as if he was a dog. Pie snarled and Kish walked away in glee. Suddenly, though, he paused.
"Don't you even want to know what we're doing?" Kish asked over his shoulder.
"No," Pie snapped, returning his attention to his book.
"Shame. I would have thought you'd love to know that Tart and I are about to extract all the information we need to defeat the pathetic humans. And all thanks to that little puffball of the Mew Mews." Kish said.
"You captured that irritating little robot of Mew Lettuce's, then?" Pie said.
"Yep. You wouldn't have thought of that, now would you?"
Pie didn't say a word. No. He hadn't thought of that. But he couldn't admit that to Kisshu.
But, unfortunately, Kisshu once again left victorious.
Was it wrong that Pie hoped Kish got a Ribbon Strawberry Check to the groin the next time he tried to make a grab for Mew Ichigo?
No, he told himself as he heard the nearby sound of glass breaking and a not-so-remorseful 'Oops'. Not at all.
He then spent the next fifteen minutes waiting for his brothers to make themselves comfortable in his lab before sneaking in the other, hidden entrance that he had. He had an extremely pleasant wait, though, imagining Kisshu getting painfully struck with the Mew Mews attacks.
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Inside the lab, Kisshu had hooked the small robot up to several wires and set it on a pedestal. He then brought up two control panels and adjusted them to his height as well as Tart's.
Kish rested his elbows on his panel while Tart eagerly awaited Kish's command. Kish stared at the little robot for a moment, then said,
"Taruto. Analysis Option Type H, Number Six."
"Okay!" Tart said, activating the panel.
Kish watched as lights flashed and the robot remained motionless. He glanced down at the screen on his panel and frowned. Nothing. He sneered at the screen before saying,
"Change it to Option Type M, Number Seven."
Kish smirked as Mini-Mew twitched under this new setting.
"Mini-Mew won't talk!" The green fuzzball yelled at Kisshu and Taruto. "Mini-Mew won't say a word!"
"Hmph," Kish said, somewhat impressed. "That thing is tougher than I thought."
"Or just doesn't have a brain," Tart said with a grin.
"Shut up, Tart," Kish said, eyes fixed on Mini-Mew. "And increase to Number Eight."
Tart's grin grew some.
Pie watched from above, studying the scene from a safe distance, keeping his face in the shadows. Even though the restrictors were still on his wrists, that didn't stop him from climbing one of the tall pillars that were found everywhere in the base.
Pie's eyes narrowed.
What exactly were those two up to? And, more importantly, was it going to work?
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It was late at night, and Ryou was still searching.
Keiichiro set down a mug of tea in front of the blond boy and said,
"Any luck?"
"No," Ryou said, rubbing his tired eyes. He had to find Mini-Mew, if only for Lettuce. He owed it to her, after the other day. Maybe it wouldn't be that great of an apology, but it'd be a start.
Keiichiro studied Ryou. He knew something was going on between him and Lettuce. He just wasn't sure what.
"What happened, the other day when Lettuce came down here to talk to you?" He asked.
"Nothing," Ryou said, fingers flying over the keys.
"Something happened," Keiichiro countered. "Because she came downstairs and immediately left here in tears."
Ryou didn't say anything. He was saved by the beeping noise.
"What is it?" Keiichiro asked as Ryou frowned at the screen.
"An SOS from R2000," Ryou said. "We can find the door by tracing that signal." His eyes widened as he found what he was looking for almost instantly. "Found it! It's not too far from here."
Keiichiro nodded.
"I'll call the girls," Keiichiro said.
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Lettuce tossed and turned. She couldn't get to sleep. She couldn't stop thinking about Mini-Mew, and how much she was worried about him, and how much she hoped Ryou and Keiichiro could find him. She felt so bad for snapping at the little droid the night before, and felt even worse for not apologizing. How ironic. The first time in her life she didn't apologize to someone, and now they were in danger, possibly hurt or dying. That thought just made her feeling of guilt increase.
She squeezed her eyes shut, eyes welling up with tears. She just felt so awful.
She was glad, then, to hear her cellphone ring. She quickly grabbed it and held it to her ear.
"Moshi-Moshi?" She said, sitting up. She immediately threw off the covers at Keiichiro's voice. She was on the phone for only a moment.
The next moment, she opened up her bedroom window and brought her pendant to her lips.
"Mew Mew Lettuce, Metamorphosis!" She whispered before she dropped down. She was running the second her booted feet touched the ground. She didn't stop running, and noticed she was soon joined by the other four Mews, already transformed.
Together, the five girls leapt onto the top of a building near where Ryou and Keiichiro said the entrance was.
"It's got to be around here," Zakuro said after they jumped onto the roof of the next building, running across that one as well.
"What do you think it looks like?" Ichigo asked.
"I don't know, but I think it's just across that next ledge," Lettuce said, putting a little more speed into her step.
The girls leapt…
And were glad that there was a ladder leading to a tall satellite on the next building, as they grabbed hold of the rungs.
Lettuce gripped the rung hard, trying hard not to cry.
They hadn't found the door.
But, there was a sound, a sound that told her maybe they were very close.
She looked up to see, on the building across from them, was Taruto and his plant Chimera, laughing.
"It's you girls again! Looking for something?" He said.
"Not you again, chibi!" Ichigo snarled. "You've got some nerve kidnapping Mini-Mew!"
"Mini-Mew? You mean that puff-ball robot of yours?" Tart said. "I didn't kidnap him. He jumped in all on his own!" Tart gestured to the Chimera's big mouth as emphasis.
"That's nonsense," Mint said with a sneer.
But, as Lettuce thought about it, it wasn't nonsense. The achiness in her chest only got worse.
"I'm telling the truth," Tart said. "He tried to take on my Chimera all on his own! What a silly little thing."
No, Lettuce realized, her stomach twisting. It wasn't silly.
Because what was Mini-Mew upset about only the day before?
That they had been questioning his worth on the team, and recognizing that he couldn't help them actually fight.
So what did he try to do?
Fight the Chimera.
"I don't mind sending him back," Taruto said, shaking Lettuce from her thoughts. "But Kisshu insists on analyzing him. He was talking about taking him apart and breaking him, even. Kish likes to do things like that…"
Lettuce couldn't hold back her anger at that point and launched herself through the air at the young alien boy, who dodged and weaved her punches and kicks. Before she could get out her Lettustanets, the Chimera took a swipe at her, sending her skidding across the roof over towards the other Mews.
"Lettuce!" Ichigo gasped as she helped Lettuce to her feet.
"How about I go check on him for you?" Taruto taunted from the air beside his Chimera. "Since you're so worried."
With that, they both disappeared.
Lettuce grit her teeth and wrenched herself away from Ichigo. She was about to go after the chibi alien when a voice stopped her. Ryou's voice, coming from her pendant.
"Something has happened," He said grimly. "Mini-Mew's signal. It's… it's stopped."
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It rained the next day. It fit Lettuce's mood.
She stared out the window, watching the rain, during school. She couldn't stop thinking about Mini-Mew. She had heard Ryou and Keiichiro both reassure her that they'd keep searching, maybe there was just a problem with the equipment. But their voices sounded like they were underwater. Not clear. Not focused.
She felt like nothing would get her focused ever again.
Her first friend. Her first real friend, even if it was just a puff-ball, parasite-eating, alien-alerting robot. And she let him down.
How was she supposed to protect all of the people of Earth if she couldn't even save Mini-Mew?
She turned her head as the next teacher came in. It was her last period before school was let out, and it was her favorite. Literature class. But she didn't feel like she'd enjoy it today.
That is, until she saw who exactly walked into the room.
It wasn't Sensei who walked in. But him.
The man from earlier.
The same young man who had helped the older man in the wheelchair two days previously. The same young man Lettuce had bumped into the day before at the library.
It was him, who suddenly had Lettuce's heart pounding.
Instantly, everyone was quiet and staring at him in fascination. Even the Ayas were in quiet awe at his handsomeness.
"Ohayo," He said cheerfully. "I'm Norihiro-Sensei. I'm a graduate student who is going to become a high school literature teacher. As part of my training, I've been asked to teach your class for a few days while your usual Sensei is out of town."
Lettuce about fell out of her chair in surprise. And, for the first time since she became part of the Ayas' circle, Lettuce's notes weren't requested for at the end of the day.
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All of the good feelings that Lettuce had had when Norihiro-Sensei entered the classroom were gone the second he left. It didn't help to arrive at the Café to hear Ryou swearing at his computer in the basement and to see the sad but compassionate look on Keiichiro's face when Lettuce asked how things were going.
"Failed," Ryou growled as the computer made another noise. "They detected R2000's SOS."
"So what do we do now?" Ichigo asked with a frown. "Those two alien jerks have got to be torturing Mini-Mew right now…"
"Why did he suddenly want to fight that Chimera Animal?" Mint asked.
"Yeah, he doesn't usually join in, na no da," Pudding said with a frown and a nod.
"He was worried," Lettuce mumbled. "Because he doesn't usually fight. Maybe he was worried that we thought he was useless. So he was trying to help, to prove that he isn't useless to us and the team."
Ichigo put a hand on Lettuce's shoulder and gave her a smile.
"We'll rescue him," She said reassuringly. "Let's go back to the place from last night. We're sure to get in this time!"
"Wait," Ryou said, turning around in his chair and getting to his feet. "There's a chance doing that will just put you girls into danger. Besides." He met Lettuce's eyes and looked at her sadly. "The signal is gone. There's a chance… there's a chance that we're already too late. That he's broken already."
Lettuce felt her entire body run cold, eyes welling up with tears.
There was a chance… that her first friend really was dead.
"No…" She whispered, the tears falling down her cheeks, not bothering to wipe them away. "It can't be…"
"I'm sorry, Lettuce," Ryou said sincerely. "But it's not like you can't fight without Mini-Mew."
All of Lettuce's sadness transformed into anger in that moment. Not just over Mini-Mew, but over what she had seen in this very basement only days before.
And it was going to feel so good yelling at Shirogane Ryou.
"How can you say that!?" Lettuce yelled at him. "Mini-Mew isn't a strong fighter, yes, but he was trying to help! 'It's not like you can't fight without Mini-Mew' do you know how heartless that sounds? You're so cruel, Shirogane!"
"Lettuce…" Mint said, taking a step backward in surprise. "Calm down…"
"Lettuce, I know it won't be the same, but we can build another version of Mini-Mew," Keiichiro said, taking a step forward to comfort her.
"I won't calm down!" Lettuce yelled, stamping her foot, still staring directly at Ryou, who didn't even try to avert his gaze. He knew he deserved every harsh word. "And I don't want another version of Mini-Mew! I can't fight without Mini-Mew! I can never fight without him!"
With that, she ran out of the room crying.
"Lettuce…" Zakuro said sadly.
Ichigo was fuming as she turned around to glare at Ryou.
"What the heck have you done?" She demanded. "Just a few days ago, you were both giving each other love-sick puppy dog looks, and don't you dare deny it Shirogane I saw it in your eyes, and we all thought you were just on the verge of finally confessing to her and asking her out. And next thing that happens is she's all sad and quiet and can barely look at you. What happened?"
"It's none of your business, Momomiya," Ryou snapped, sitting down in his chair and turning back to the computer.
Ichigo grabbed the back of Ryou's chair and turned it around to face her, her cat ears and tail out and the black fur on edge.
"That's twice now this week alone that Lettuce—one of my best friends in the whole entire world—ran out of this Café, out of this basement in tears! That makes it my business! And you have some part in this, I know it! I saw it in her eyes just now that she was hurting because of you! Now what the heck did you do or say to her that's made her so upset?" She demanded.
Ryou's eyes hardened and he turned around again.
"Get out, Momomiya. Now."
Still fuming, Ichigo said,
"Fine. I'm going to go find Lettuce."
With that, she stormed out of the basement, making as much noise as possible as she threw open the door, slammed it behind her and stomped her feet up the stairs before slamming the back door shut as she went to track down Lettuce.
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Pie slunk back into his lab. As much as he wanted to go over to the control panel and change the lock code so Kisshu and Taruto couldn't re-enter, he went to the glass dome where a pathetic and sad-looking ball of green fur lay.
Pie clicked his nails on the glass.
"So Kisshu finally realized he needed to block your signal to the Mew Mews, did he?" He mumbled.
The little robot glared up at Pie.
"Mini-Mew will fight you! Bad alien! Stole Lettuce's kiss! Bad alien!" He chirped.
"Yes, I am a bad alien," Pie said musingly, striding over to the control panel. "But I propose an alliance between you and I, android."
"Mini-Mew won't make alliance! Mini-Mew won't team up with you! Lettuce and Mew Mews only team for Mini-Mew!" The droid said, pathetically flapping its wings.
"Alright then," Pie said. With a single swipe of his finger, Pie overrode the signal blocker. "But then at least accept my advice and attempt broadcasting your signal again."
He disappeared without another word.
He didn't care what happened to the little puff-ball, really.
But he cared immensely about making sure Kisshu and Taruto looked bad in front of Deep Blue. Especially where technology—one of Pie's many specialties—was involved.
The droid known as Mini-Mew might not have wanted to form an alliance with Pie. He didn't even really care.
Pie was going to get what he wanted no matter what.
But what he didn't know was that he had done much more than let Mini-Mew's signal escape.
He unknowingly left a gateway of information wide open.
Mini-Mew was getting much more out of this than Pie could ever have imagined.
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Lettuce stood in the pouring rain, staring at the ducks in the pond as they swam by, completely unfazed by the rain or the girl with tears silently running down her cheeks. She couldn't stop hearing Mini-Mew chirp her name. Everything green turned fuzzy. She wanted to believe it was just because of the rain on her glasses.
But it wasn't.
"-San? Midorikawa-San? Lettuce-San? Are you alright?"
She hadn't realized that someone had been saying her name until she realized that the rain had stopped hitting her skin. She blinked and looked up to see a black umbrella being held over her. She turned and came face-to-face with someone very familiar, who looked very concerned about her.
"Aoyama-San," She whispered.
"Are you alright?" Masaya repeated again. "I was calling your name, but you didn't seem to hear. Why are you out here without an umbrella, you're going to get sick."
"Gomen. I'm… I'm okay, I think. Thank you," Lettuce said, bowing some. He didn't seem convinced and dug into his bag for a dry towel.
"Here," He said. "We were supposed to go swimming for gym class today, but since it was raining it got cancelled, so it's clean."
With another bow, Lettuce accepted the towel and dried off her glasses.
"Thank you," She said. "You didn't have to do this for me… We're practically strangers."
"You're Ichigo's friend, and therefore you're my friend, too," Masaya said, giving her a smile. He studied her and frowned some. "What's wrong? You look like you've been crying?"
"It's… It's silly," Lettuce mumbled, trying hard to not start crying again.
"I don't think so," Masaya said. "Come on, let's go sit down. You look like you're about to topple over any second now."
Lettuce allowed him to lead her over to a covered picnic pavilion and he sat across from her. Lettuce dried her hair some with the towel as well as her arms and legs. But then she sat and stared at the towel in her lap, and said,
"Aoyama-San?"
"Yes?" Masaya asked.
"What would you do, if your best friend suddenly disappeared?" Lettuce asked. She glanced up to see Masaya straighten a little, worry clouding his eyes, and quickly added, "I'm not talking about Ichigo, though she is one of my best friends. She's okay. It's someone else."
Masaya visibly relaxed, then said,
"What do you mean by 'disappeared'?"
"Just… gone, and you're told you can't see him again? What would you do?"
"Well," Masaya said, thinking. "I wouldn't believe that I could never see her again. For me, a best friend is someone I've done my best with for a long time. I'd know she'd come help me if I was in trouble. And I'd do the same for her. No matter what. Because I believe that she believes in me."
Lettuce smiled some.
"And the 'her' in this case is Ichigo-San, isn't it?" She asked.
Masaya blushed but had a betraying, shy smile.
"Yeah," He said. "That sounds kind of dorky, though, doesn't it?"
"Not at all," Lettuce said. "If I had the chance… well, I'd want my best friend to be the person I loved the most. To have a friend I loved as much as you love Ichigo-San and as much as Ichigo-San loves you."
"So, she loves me?" Masaya asked, trying to sound nonchalant.
Lettuce laughed.
"Very much so," She said. "You are both very lucky. Thank you, Aoyama-San."
"What are friends for?" Masaya said, returning her smile.
"Lettuce-Chan! There you are! I've been looking everywhere for you!"
Lettuce and Masaya both turned to see Ichigo coming up to them, her pink, strawberry umbrella protecting her from the rain, though she was still dressed in her Café uniform as well, the ribbons and socks soaked.
Lettuce's eyes suddenly widened. She was now in a similar position as Ryou and Zakuro were the other day when she found them. And that would mean Ichigo might feel the same way she had in that moment.
Lettuce got to her feet, banging her knees on the low table as she did so and said to Ichigo,
"Aoyama-San and I were just talking! He found me all wet from the rain and offered me a towel and—"
"Lettuce-Chan, what are you so worked up about?" Ichigo asked, thoroughly confused as she shook off her umbrella. Then her eyes widened some. "Oh! Did you think I thought you two were…"
"Cheating? Or something like that?" Masaya asked, also looking a bit confused.
Lettuce bit her lip but nodded.
"I'd never think that," Ichigo said, a bit defensively. "I trust you, Lettuce-Chan, and Aoyama-Kun as well." Suddenly, Ichigo seemed to realize something else.
"Lettuce-Chan," She said. "Would this have something to do with Shirogane-San?"
But before Lettuce could even avert her eyes, Ichigo's cellphone rang and she pulled it out of her apron.
"Moshi-Moshi? Zakuro, what? That's great! I've found her and we'll come right over! Hang on, I'll give her the phone."
Ichigo covered the phone momentarily to say to Lettuce.
"It's Zakuro. She said she tried your cellphone, but apparently you left it at the Café so she called mine hoping I found you already." Ichigo said.
As Lettuce accepted the phone from Ichigo, she knew instantly that what the red-head was told was a lie. Lettuce had her phone on her. But Zakuro must have doubted that Lettuce would answer the phone at seeing Zakuro's name on the other end of the call.
"Moshi-Moshi?" Lettuce said.
"Lettuce, they found him. Mini-Mew's signal started going again. We're going to go get Mini-Mew." Zakuro told her.
"That's… that's great!" Lettuce said, unable to stop smiling. "Ichigo and I will be there—"
"Hang on," Zakuro said softly. "I need to tell you something else. It's about the other day."
Lettuce glanced at Ichigo and Masaya, both currently talking with each other and she turned around so to have some semblance of privacy.
"W-What?" Lettuce asked.
"Shirogane and I… we used to date." Zakuro said.
Lettuce blinked.
"You… you did?" She asked.
"Yeah," Zakuro said. "But we broke up, while he was still working on the Mew Project. We had a big fight and… we didn't resolve it or our feelings for each other. We're still broken up, and we we officially did so the other day."
"But… but the…" Lettuce couldn't get the last word out.
"It was a good-bye kiss. We were so angry with each other the last time we saw each other, not only didn't we end our relationship, but we didn't have that last, final kiss. I asked Shirogane to give me that, that one last thing that would mean it was all over. We were ready to move on. The last thing we expected was for you to witness it, and I'm sorry that you got hurt because of our actions." Zakuro paused, then said, "Shirogane really likes you, and I think you really like him. It'd be a shame if you two didn't develop more feelings for each other because of this incident."
Lettuce was quiet for a moment.
"Thank you, Zakuro," She said. "For telling me all this."
"You're welcome, and once again I am sorry about what happened," Zakuro said. "Now, how about we go get Mini-Mew?"
Lettuce smiled some.
"Let's." She said, hanging up the phone.
Her heart was singing. They found Mini-Mew, hopefully still intact.
But there was some of her heart, still in pieces, still aching.
She was going to have to do a lot more thinking regarding Shirogane Ryou.
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Tart rapped his knuckles against the glass dome. He frowned at the limp robot within.
"I don't know how you hacked our computer and got your signal through," He said. "But it was useless. It was too weak."
"No. It wasn't weak," Kisshu said, lips pressed into a thin line. Tart turned to look at his adopted brother, who was glaring at the screen before him. Kish suddenly marched over to the dome and smacked his fist on it. Not enough to shatter the glass, but there was now a crack in it, like a rock had hit a windshield where Kish's fist hit it.
"He gave the computer a virus," Kish explained with a sneer. "He hacked into it enough to get out his signal, but at the same time had access to everything. This thing isn't just the Mew Mew's toy. But..." Kish ran his finger across the glass, going from the epicenter of the crack and running down one of the lines in the glass. "All toys eventually break."
"Mini-Mew won't… Mini-Mew won't say a word…" The droid chirped feebly.
"Oh, yes. You will," Kish said, pressing a button on his consul, shocking the droid with an electric charge so strong no human or alien could survive.
Kish was going to enjoy playing with this 'toy'. Perhaps not as much as he would have enjoyed the pink-haired cat Mew, but certainly enough.
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"So you found a code in Mini-Mew's signal?" Ichigo said as they ran across the rooftop once more, all transformed.
"Yes, it's something that we wouldn't have needed to look at before. But only after reanalyzing the signal, we found it." Zakuro said. "And when the signal started again, it started sending some other kind of code."
"What does that code say?" Lettuce asked.
"We don't know, Akasaka and Shirogane are going to have to analyze it," Mint said. "We just know it was different than before."
"Where's the entrance, na no da?" Pudding asked.
"Do you see the glass dome?" Keiichiro asked through the pendants. "That's it."
"Right!" The girls said together.
"Jump on three!" Lettuce said. "One… two…"
"Three, na no da!" Pudding yelled, throwing her arms in the air as they jumped.
Entering the other dimension oddly reminded Lettuce of leaving the house on a foggy morning just to enter the car or another building. There was some sort of humidity pressure, not much, but enough that she felt the shift. Like passing through a cloud.
In fact, that was what the entire other dimension looked like: green, foggy clouds. There was an elaborate stone dwelling beneath them, and the style reminded Lettuce of pictures she had seen of Greek and Roman ruins. In fact, the structure looked old enough and seemed to be crumbling just the same. Could it be that this was built around the same time as the ruins she had seen in her books?
She didn't have long to think about that as her boots hit the floor, the heels making a clicking sound that the other girl's shoes didn't as they landed beside her. They all immediately started looking around.
Where was Mini-Mew?
"Konnichiwa, Koneko-Chan."
Tokyo Mew Mew turned to look up at the two alien boys floating in the air behind them. Kish's golden eyes were focused on Ichigo in a way that she clearly did not appreciate, her cat ears going flat against her skull and she started to hiss.
"Where's Mini-Mew?" Ichigo demanded with a snarl.
"Aw, you're not here for me? You've hurt my feelings, kitty-cat," Kisshu said, mock pouting. Then he smirked. "Well, you're going to have to settle for me, because you're too late."
Kisshu snapped his fingers. The girls turned at hearing the sound of stone on stone as a door opened, revealing a pedestal within.
And resting on the pedestal, under a cracked, glass dome, was a limp Mini-Mew.
"He was being too stubborn," Kisshu explained as Ichigo gasped. He smiled coyly. "Might have over-done it, I'm sad to say."
"Mini-Mew!" Lettuce cried as she ran towards the pedestal. She put her hands on the glass, looking for a way to open the dome. "Mini-Mew! Mini-Mew, please don't die!"
"Mini-Mew! Please talk to us, na no da!" Pudding begged as she came up beside Lettuce.
"Come on, open your eyes, please!" Mint pleaded.
"What did you do to him?" Zakuro asked with a snarl as the turned back to look at the alien boys.
"I tried to stop him," Taruto said with a shrug. "But once Kisshu's made up his mind you can't stop him."
With that, Tart started to laugh.
Lettuce's fists clenched as she turned to them.
"This is unforgivable!" She shouted. "Lettustanets!"
"Oh, so you want to play, then?" Kish said as another pedestal rose up beside him. "Well, guess what? Last time, we went easy on you girls. Thought it polite to give you some hope of winning." His eyes gleamed as he smirked. "But this time, you're not walking away alive."
With that, he reached over with a slim finger and waved his hand over a bubble-like orb.
Instantly, glowing beams surrounded the Mews and a green barrier started seeping between the beams, trapping the girls.
"Let us go, na no da!" Pudding yelled, throwing herself against the barrier, that bent but didn't break at the force of her shoves. She hadn't been fighting it too long when suddenly she started coughing.
"Pudding!" Zakuro said, going over to her to check on her, noticing the girl was struggling to breathe.
Pudding wasn't the only one. Ichigo was now trying to force herself to remain upright, her breathing labored and heavy.
"Can't… breathe…" She wheezed as she fell to her knees.
Lettuce was starting to feel lightheaded too as she realized what was happening. All of the oxygen was gone. They were going to suffocate.
Lettuce was too busy trying to breathe and trying to think of a way out that she didn't even know the Chimera was trapped with them until it's vines had wrapped around her, pulling her off the ground.
She opened her eyes briefly, and her gaze immediately fell to Mini-Mew, who still hadn't moved.
"I'm sorry, Mini-Mew," She said softly. "Even though you waited for us, even though you believed in us, we failed you. I'm so sorry."
With that, her eyes slid closed. She couldn't feel anything, or hear anything.
If she had, she would have heard Mini-Mew say feebly,
"Lettuce… Lettuce… Mini-Mew will save you! Mini-Mew will protect Lettuce and others!"
Kish and Tart were the only ones who reacted at the sound of glass breaking, Mini-Mew having thrown himself right at the crack that Kish had made, shattering the dome completely and allowing the robot to escape.
"What?" Kish said in surprise as the little robot flew towards them. "It can still move?"
"Mini-Mew will save Lettuce!" Mini-Mew said.
"It can move, but just barely," Tart observed as Mini-Mew faltered in mid-air. Mini-Mew then threw himself at the barrier, but bounced off of it, flying through the air.
"Silly robot, you can't enter," Tart said. But they noticed a second too late that Mini-Mew hadn't been trying to enter.
He had been trying to bounce off the wall. And he did, crashing into the orb that controlled the barrier, sending it to the ground and shattering it.
Slowly, the barrier fell and the Mews rose, all taking deep, gasping breaths, trying to get oxygen back in their lungs.
Lettuce's eyes opened and she managed to wrangle herself out of the grip of the confused Chimera. She further surprised the plant by giving it a stiletto-boot kick to the face and ran over to Mini-Mew.
"Mini-Mew!" She cried out, scooping up the robot and hugging it to her in relief. "You saved us, didn't you?"
"Mini-Mew… will protect… his friends." Mini-Mew mumbled against Lettuce.
Lettuce smiled, tears falling out of her eyes as she hugged Mini-Mew tighter.
"Thank you, Mini-Mew," She said. "Thank you so much. I believed in you. We all did. You're my dearest friend…"
Putting Mini-Mew on her shoulder, Lettuce looked up the Chimera across the room. She crossed her arms so that the green, heart-shaped gem on her bracelet was glowing.
"Lettuce Tanets!" She cried, bringing her weapons to her hands. Glaring hard at the Chimera, not even noticing that her Lettustanets were glowing in her hand, she clicked them together and cried out,
"RIBBON… LETTUCE SURGE!"
The Chimera dissolved without even a cry, though there was one from Tart.
Before Kisshu or Tart could act, Tokyo Mew Mew—their team complete once more with Mini-Mew—disappeared.
Pie slunk back into the shadows as he watched the girls go.
That attack… Lettuce had used it before on the snake Chimera at that place called a television studio… That was the only other time she had used it, and it was just as powerful now as it was then. At first, he believed it to be a fluke; she hadn't used it since then. But now…
Is this the extent of Mew Lettuce's power? He wondered as Kish stormed around the lab, taking one a glass beaker and throwing it against the wall in frustration, adding to the amount of glass that the boy was assuredly going to make Pie clean up later.
"What was that?" Keiichiro asked Ryou, back in the basement of Café Mew Mew.
"I honestly don't know," Ryou said. "But it looks like Lettuce is getting stronger."
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All the way back to the Café, the girls took turns snuggling with Mini-Mew and petting his fur, making him promise to not scare them like that again. And in turn, Mini-Mew thanked them for coming for him and promised that he'd be more careful.
However, once they got back to the Café, Ryou held out his hand for Pudding to hand him Mini-Mew.
"I'm going to make sure he's okay," Ryou explained to the girls, particularly Lettuce, who didn't want to let Mini-Mew out of her sight. "Just kind of like a basic maintenance check. Like a check-up at the doctor's."
And so that was why Lettuce was still at the Café after the other girls went home. Waiting for Ryou to finish his checks on Mini-Mew. She was sweeping the dining room with suddenly Mini-Mew came up and rested on her shoulder. She smiled and petted the little robot.
"So, did Shirogane-San give you a clean bill of health?" Lettuce asked.
"His servers got a little overheated, but I took care of it," Ryou said as he followed Mini-Mew into the room. "He also brought some encrypted data. It's in alien, so it will take me and Keiichiro some time to figure out exactly what it means."
"It's not like a virus or anything that will harm Mini-Mew, though, right?" Lettuce asked.
"Not that I can tell," Ryou said. He paused and said, "Lettuce, I haven't gotten a chance to apologize to you. For what I said earlier and… and the other day."
"Zakuro-San explained what happened," Lettuce said, eyes solely on Mini-Mew. "And, I understand. I should have at least waited to hear your side of the story, though."
"And I should have made more effort to try and talk to you," Ryou said. "But, I thought you hated me. So I didn't."
There was a moment of silence, and Ryou said,
"I really like you, Lettuce. I want to be more than friends, co-workers, teammates, whatever it is we are now."
Lettuce looked at her feet.
"When I walked in, on you and Zakuro-San, I was going to give you my answer to your confession." She said softly.
"You were?" Ryou said, with some surprise.
"Yes," Lettuce said. "I was going to tell you, yes. Yes I wanted that too. I wanted to be more than friends with you, Shirogane-San."
Ryou smiled, heart pounding. He felt so warm and happy. But then she looked up.
"But now my answer has changed," She said, eyes sad.
Ryou's smile fell.
"Is it because of—" He started to ask, but Lettuce cut him off.
"It's not because of you, or Zakuro-San, or what happened. It's because of me. Because I don't think I should have taken this long to give you an answer. And if I really, truly, undoubtedly meant my original answer, it wouldn't have taken so long for me to come up with it. That's definitely not fair for you. Maybe a relationship would work between us. Maybe it won't. But right now, I don't think either of us are really sure what was want, or what we need at this time."
"So your answer is no, then," Ryou said, tucking his hands in his pocket and glancing away.
"No. It's not." Lettuce said. "It's 'not now'. Maybe someday, maybe soon. But not now. Zakuro-San… she said you two only really broke up the other day. I think you're still sorting out your feelings for her and for me. I'm doing the same. I've got so many feelings and thoughts going through me right now… We both need time. And there will come a time when we come to say what are feelings for each other are. A time when we really, honestly, in the bottom of our hearts know."
Ryou's shoulders became less tense. But he said,
"I think you're right. So until that day, we move on with our lives. But I also want one more thing, for both of us: we don't try to stop ourselves from having feelings for other people."
Lettuce's brow furrowed.
"Why do you say that?" She asked.
Ryou turned back to her.
"How else are we going to come up with the answer that is right for both of us? Besides, it wouldn't be fair for either of us to be forced to wait and evaluate our feelings for each other the whole time." He said.
"Then I want to add to your request," Lettuce said. "We don't get jealous if one of us finds someone else. We don't get bitter. We talk. Because that is the only way to make any kind of relationship grow, whether it is between lovers, friends, siblings, or a parent and child. While we try to figure out what we both want and need from a relationship, we grow our friendship."
"I can support that," Ryou said with a nod. "So. Until that time?"
Lettuce nodded, smiling shyly.
"Until that time." She said.
