Hope you're enjoying the story so far. Thank you for sticking around to reach chapter 15!
I do not own Harry Potter or Tokyo Mew Mew
Lavender woke up. She'd fallen asleep in class…
She'd been cramming for a test last night, but her head was swirling with so much that she wasn't sure she'd done that well.
Lavender gave a yawn.
"Hey, did you see the news?" Someone asked.
"The Tokyo Mew Mew, right?"
Lavender gave a small jerk in her spot. They were…going to talk about that? She closed her eyes and rested her head back on her desk.
"The purple miko-girl was really cute, don't you think?"
"Well, she was the one who did all the fighting…"
"I wonder if the other girls are really strong too."
"But she really stood out, didn't she? I mean, her outfit didn't really look like the others."
Lavender felt her face grow red. Well, a little attention wasn't so bad…
It was lunch time…She pulled out her bento box as her friends came over to sit with her.
"Hey, Lav-chan." Nana greeted her, "Do well on the test?"
"No idea." Lavender confessed, "I crammed all of last night, but I was so tired that all the questions kept swirling."
"Ah…"
"Not during lunch today?" Lavender questioned her.
"Nope." Nana said, "The dodgeball tournament is over."
"I see…" They must have lost their match, then.
"So," Midori said, "You see the television cast yesterday?"
"Y-yeah. The Tokyo Mew Mew…right?"
"Yeah. It seems to be all that anyone can talk about." Nana nodded her head knowingly.
"Er…do you have a favourite?" Lavender realized they weren't going to move away from this topic.
"Too early to say." Nana shrugged, "Everyone keeps talking about the purple miko girl. She's the only one we saw fight, and she didn't really look like she was part of the group, you know?"
"Yeah, she didn't really pose with the others." Midori added in.
"Yeah…" Lavender trailed off.
Well, she wasn't part of the group. She just happened to be lumped in with them.
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After classes, Lavender was practicing in the naginata club. She swiftly defeated her opponent in three moves. She stepped back and they both bowed to each other.
Lavender took off her helmet and drew in a deep breath. She moved to the side to take a drink of water.
"Sugoi…"
Lavender turned to see Ichigo standing by the door. The girl froze on the spot.
Lavender raised an eyebrow,
"Was there something you wanted?"
"I…" Ichigo flushed a little at being called out, "Well…Shirogane-san wanted you to come to the café later."
Lavender met her eyes, not saying anything a moment.
"I'm not interested in your group. I thought I made that clear."
"Eto…well, he said he'd explain things…" Ichigo winced, "And you said you wanted an explanation…"
Lavender thought on this. Shirogane Ryo was the brains, or at the very least, one of the brains behind the Mew Mew Project.
She wanted answers and he was willing to supply them with that.
She let out a sigh,
"Fine. I suppose I'll change out of my gear. Just give me a minute."
She went down towards the changerooms, walking past the other girls.
She took a little while to change and pack her things away. Once she was done, Lavender met up with Ichigo in the hallway.
"You're really good." Ichigo commented, "I mean, at naginata. Have you practiced for a long time?"
"Well…for a while, I guess." Lavender thought back.
She'd started Naginata about a year ago now…that meant she was fifteen…She didn't look it though, and she could still easily pass as thirteen. Was she aging? The last time they'd had a school medical exam, she'd been the same height as she'd been near the beginning of last year.
It was possible she wouldn't be getting older until this was all over…maybe.
Well, getting older or not, she was still stuck in this world until Animetopoeia deemed it was time for her to move on to the next one.
Would this be it? Would she be going home once she was done in this world? Or was another world awaiting her? Another world with new dangers?
"You…don't like Shirogane-san…do you?" Ichigo said hesitantly.
"I'm not his biggest fan." Lavender informed her calmly, "Messing with magic when you don't know what you're doing is terribly reckless. And…people who do things like that…to do something like that to begin with means they had no choice. Someone pushed into a corner like that can do all sorts of terrible things."
Ichigo appeared to be uncomfortable.
Lavender's expression hardened,
"Magical wars…can be terrible, just like any war. I've seen them before. People die. It's not just a game, Ichigo-san. People can die…or worse…"
"Magical…wars?" Ichigo repeated.
Lavender dipped her chin. She was still shaken by the events of the other world.
"I was a part of one. Once. There is…a powerful magic that was used during the battle. A special magic. When used, it granted the user extraordinary power temporarily. Once it ended…part of you was sacrificed to the gods. A friend of mine sacrificed the use of her legs. Then the use of her left ear. Another friend of mine sacrificed the use of her arm, then the use of her legs."
Ichigo's eyes widened,
"That's…why would they…"
"To stop the world from ending." Lavender answered her, "When in a desperate situation, people will do whatever it takes. Shirogane Ryo-san had to make such a decision. I worry about what else he might have done or will do out of desperation." She looked over at Ichigo, "As for you and the others, you don't seem to understand how bad it is. This is an invasion. A very clever and calculated invasion. If we didn't exist, the aliens would continue creating Chimera Anima. Those Chimera Anima would kill, or tear apart some humans, until they were stopped, killed by a gun, or some other weapon. For those human Chimera…their souls would be shattered." Her eyes narrowed at her, "To shatter a soul is worse than death. They wouldn't just stop functioning or breathing, Ichigo-san. They would never rise to the heavens, or rest in the earth. They wouldn't even turn into wandering souls. The fate of a shattered soul…is nothing."
Ichigo's eyes widened with horror,
"That's…you mean…"
"And the humans would continue wiping each other out." Lavender continued, "Damning themselves to a fate worse than death. Only purification magic can separate an infuser from a soul, it seems. That's the magic you use. The magic the six of us use. In other words, if the Mew Mews didn't exist, this world would be facing an apocalypse. Your worst-case scenario seems to be Aoyama-kun finding out you're a Mew Mew and rejecting you. My worst-case scenario is us being defeated and no one else having the means of defending themselves leading to all souls on this planet being shattered. Including your Aoyama-kun. You wouldn't even get to see him in the afterlife."
Ichigo looked ill,
"Uso…" She whispered.
Lavender said nothing.
It was best that she understood the harsh reality now rather than later. Maybe the Kaisha had been kind keeping them in the dark. But all of them would have preferred knowing the truth beforehand.
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As soon as they entered Café Mew Mew, Lavender was greeted by Keiichiro.
"Brown-san!" He smiled charmingly, "Just this way, if you would."
Lavender was brought to the back room. She frowned when she realized what he was doing.
"Wait a minute! Just because you toss me into the back room with some clothes doesn't mean I'm automatically going to change into them!"
"I'll make you a cake."
"What am I, six?" Lavender deadpanned.
"Just change into the uniform already." Ryo said, "Otherwise we can't give you our full rundown."
"Do you blackmail every girl who walks in here, or am I just special?" Lavender fumed.
Feeling irked, Lavender changed into the uniform.
It was cute…but they thought it would make her stay, then they were gravely mistaken.
Lavender's uniform was a regular black and white.
When she came out of the changeroom, Ichigo had changed as well into an identical uniform, save for it being red instead of black.
"Ichigo, start closing the place down." Ryo ordered her.
"Hai!" Ichigo said with a smile.
After a while, the café started closing up and the last customer left. Lavender noticed that Zakuro was there. Somehow, she'd been recruited into joining…
They walked into the back room through the kitchen. It was dark, save for the computers up front.
The door behind them closed.
"What is this place?" Ichigo wondered.
"I told you before, it's a secret base." Ryo said calmly. His arms were crossed, and he was standing in front of an enormous monitor.
"Shirogane…" Ichigo trailed off, "And what are you planning to do here?"
He closed his eyes and dipped his chin downwards,
"I want to make the situation clear now that the six of you have gathered." He looked back up at them, "The earth is being targeted."
The giant monitor lit up, showing a picture of the earth.
"The bad influence from the animals coming from the destruction of the environment isn't something that just begun recently. However, we started receiving weird data readings a while ago."
"Weird data readings?" Retasu asked.
"Yes. We have to conclude after doing a long research study on the subject that someone is cooperating in the destruction of the environment. Furthermore, whoever they are, they're using an advanced technology that is still undiscovered here on earth." Ryo told them.
"Alien?" Ichigo guessed.
"They are trying to recreate the world to their advantage." Ryo confirmed, "They don't care if the animals on this planet go extinct. No, that might be their true purpose."
"Most of those are suppositions." Zakuro pointed out.
"There's one thing we're sure of." Ryo said firmly, "If we don't stop these aliens, there will be no future for anything, human or animal here on planet earth."
It was interesting how he said that.
"How can you be so sure of that?" Zakuro asked him.
"The final thing that convinced me of this was you all."
"Us?" Minto wondered.
"That's right. The Grey Wolf, Zakuro."
An image of the wolf flashed up on the screen.
"The Golden Lion Tamarin, Purin."
The monkey appeared on the monitor next.
"The Finless Porpoise, Retasu."
An image of some sort of dolphin-like creature.
"The Tahiti Blue Lory, Minto."
After the image flashed, Ryo's eyes traveled to Lavender.
"The Snow Leopard, Lavender."
Lavender recognised it immediately as the animal she'd seen in her dream that had jumped into her body.
"And finally, the Iriomote Wildcat, Ichigo."
Her animal flashed up onto the screen too.
"The fact that six people who have the power to convert Red Data Animals' powers were brought together by fate convinced me." He leaned up against the edge of the screen, "I don't believe in coincidences."
Lavender looked away. Fate was the one thing she needed to fight against in order to live.
"But, aren't you the ones who chose us, Shirogane-san?" Retasu asked him.
"No." Ryo said seriously, "We simply…just found you all. If there is a person who chose you, it must be…"
He looked toward the screen which had now settled on an image of the earth again.
That did make some sense. Lavender had considered a higher power being involved.
The earth itself? It wasn't too unlikely.
"Hai! Hai! Hai! Hai! Hai!" Ichigo raised her hand excitedly, "I have a question!"
Ryo deadpanned,
"You…really can't read the mood, can you?"
"I understand that we have to fight, but how long do we need to fight?" Ichigo asked, ignoring his reaction.
"Huh?"
"You told us that our bodies are going to stay like this until the end of the fight." Ichigo said, "That my ears will continue to poke out when I'm excited. So, I'm asking, when is the fight gonna end?"
"I told you, after you defeat the aliens." Ryo said.
"So, when is that?" Ichigo demanded.
"How should I know?"
"What!?"
"That ends my speech." Ryo said, then crossed his arms behind his head, "Let's go eat some cake."
Ichigo still looked frustrated,
"I have an issue with that…"
"Ichigo-oneechan…" Purin looked concerned.
"Ichigo-san…" Retasu gave her a sympathetic look.
"You must like someone." Zakuro decided.
Ichigo leaped up into the air,
"EH!?"
Lavender rolled her eyes at that conclusion.
"E-eto, s-sona!"
Zakuro put her finger to Ichigo's lips, stopping her.
"If you want to experience real love, you can't be the only one who gets excited. You have to make the other person get excited as well, right?"
Zakuro started to walk away, apparently, she'd said all that she wanted to say.
Lavender left as well. She wanted to talk to Ryo in private, if that was possible.
"Shirogane-san." Lavender approached him.
Ryo looked over at her,
"You want to talk, Brown?"
Lavender dipped her chin,
"I have my own theories about what's going on, but I need you to fill in the blanks. I still don't feel I have reason to trust you yet."
Although, it had been confirmed to her that Ryo had definitely done this out of an act of desperation, as she had suspected originally.
Ryo nodded in acknowledgement,
"Am I right to believe you've been in fights before, Brown?"
Lavender moved off into the back room, wanting this conversation to be away from the other Mew Mew.
"That's right." She confirmed, "The truth is, I'm not from this world."
"You're an alien?" Ryo's eyes narrowed.
"Not the same ones who have been invading your world." Lavender brushed aside.
Huh, she supposed she really was an alien…sort of. Did parallel universe count as 'alien'?
"I'm not an invader. In my world, prophecy is common, and I was cursed with a bad fate. In order to avoid it, I was told to travel to other worlds. This has been the second world I have visited. I'm only here to learn and seek answers." She told him.
"Prophecy, huh?" Ryo looked doubtful.
"I'm telling the truth." Lavender frowned, "Didn't you say that you believed in fate just a minute ago? There are ways of going against it. Fate, I mean. I don't know that I'm strong enough to do something like that yet…but the person who sent me here is. I can't let things end the way fate planned it. I just…I can't." She looked back up at him, fists clenched, "I know the dangers of magic, Shirogane-san. I've seen them. I've had to fight for my life, and even my right to exist for a long, long time. That's why I don't trust you. It's hard to trust a magic you don't understand."
Ryo was silent a moment, then,
"Can anyone completely understand another person?"
"Eh?" Lavender wondered.
"When we face something we don't understand, most humans lash out. They grow afraid, sometimes for silly reasons. Sometimes that fear turns to hatred. Isn't that what happened with your Dark Lord?"
"Don't compare me to him!" Lavender's eyes blazed.
"I'm not." Ryo looked away, "I'm just saying I know what you're talking about. That stuff is all too common. In any world, it seems. You don't trust easily, do you?"
That wasn't something Lavender had ever been accused of before. In fact, she'd often been told that she trusted a little too easy. That she was naïve.
But Ryo was right. She didn't want to trust him. She didn't want to trust anyone anymore. Not after what had happened…
"You don't need to trust me right away…but will you give me a chance? If you have any questions, I'll answer them honestly. If you do give me a chance, I promise I'll do all that I can not to abuse it." He held out his hand to her, "Do we have a deal?"
Lavender looked down at his palm, thinking about it a moment.
"I'm in a club. At school Naginata. I want to continue it for three times a week after school. But…I'll keep my phone on, so if anything happens, you can call me during that time. I'll work here the rest of the time…I suppose." She tensed, "But if I think something's off, I'm leaving."
Ryo nodded.
It was the best he was going to get.
Lavender met his hand, shaking it.