The alien warship, part of an armada sent by High Command, cruised far out in space, ahead of the main convoy, part of a search ordered by its masters. Its sensors swept ahead of it for the prey. But scan as they might, no trace of the quarry could be found.

That was...disturbing.

{{No response, masters. There is no sign of the quarry in range.}} The aliens did not use speech patterns as humans understood them; information was communicated in a much more efficient way.

{{Continue sweep. The quarry must be found. You will not fail.}}

{{As you command, masters.}}

Far, far away from the convoy, a very small craft, little more than a large lifeboat, hid behind an asteroid, its occupant holding his breath. Even as he did so, he recognized the uselessness of the gesture. Still, it was an ingrained behavior pattern that all warm-blooded creatures throughout the galaxy had adopted as a survival trait: make as little sound in the presence of the predator as you can.

Finally, his instruments-powered down to the passive level only-showed the convoy as moving on past him, and he managed to let out a ragged breath… But the strain and exhaustion took its toll, and he fell, senseless, forward, leaning against the restraining straps.

Meanwhile, on Earth, the group known to a very few as the Tokyo Mew Mews were hard at work at the cafe. Ichigo was taking orders. As usual, Mint was sipping her tea as usual, Lettuce was trying her best not to break any dishes, as she usually did. Her success rate in this endeavor could have been better, as the occasional crash testified. She was carrying various delectables to and from the tables, doing her best to please the customers. Pudding was doing her acrobatics and Zakuro was aiding the group by being the hostess today. Ringo and Berry were trying to get the orders for the deliveries all sorted out for the day.

None of them had any idea that their lives were about to change radically. Far out in space, an alien ship was on a course directly for Earth, its pilot unconscious.

The time came for the cafe to close, and the Mews were grateful for the release from work. They closed up the cafe and headed towards their respective homes.

On the other side of the city, an alien presence awoke, looking around with senses and sensors both, trying to determine where he was. He looked around to see where he was; nothing was recognizable. By reflex, he pushed a button and the straps released him. He slowly got to his feet...and almost immediately fell into blackness and his body once again succumbed to his injuries (? He was injured? How had that happened?) Almost immediately, the still functioning part of the ship scanned the pilot and put him inside a medipod.

He regained consciousness within the medipod. Once it registered him as being fit enough to be released, the hatch opened and he climbed out. He looked around and saw damaged consoles and computer screens. What had happened? He looked outside the viewport. What he saw confirmed his suspicions: he was on a planet. But...which planet? Where was he?

And, more disturbingly, who was he?

He saw a forest of some sort outside; that intrigued him. He could vaguely remember some forests from before, even if it did make his head hurt to try to remember. He went to take a look around and found himself near the outskirts of a giant city. He heard some loud noises coming from the city; his curiosity called for some investigation.

As he walked, some of the people he passed gasped and stared at him but for the most part they went on their business. He saw a building that housed some very delectable-smelling items, and he followed his nose into the grocery store.

A few minutes later, he emerged, empty handed. Just what was "money," anyway?

To the eye, he was not that unusual looking. He wore a cut-off shirt that showed off his midriff, in keeping with the custom of his warm-natured planet, and he wore shorts down to his knees, with a pair of boots completing the outfit. The people of Japan were used to much greater weirdness. They remembered such things as mad scientists, digimon attacks, more mad scientists, living cards causing havoc, even more mad scientists, hot cat girls running about in the streets, still more mad scientists...in short, the many other things which just made life that much more different in Japan. So he hardly registered on the social radar blip.

He came back to his ship, and, looking around the small space within, he found what looked like a container of food. He opened it part ways and sniffed the contents dubiously. It didn't growl or spring out at him, so he guessed it must be either food or something reasonably close. Hunger overcame his caution as to the taste, so he opened the container all the way, poured the contents onto a plate and ate it cold. He found a chair in more or less workable condition, and sat down with his tabsensor to try to determine just where in the Nine Worlds he was.

He ran a scan, noting the coordinates it gave, and also certain vital stats on the air, water, plant and animal life. The scan also gave a name for the planet he was on: Earth. Suddenly, his head started to hurt unbearably, and he fell unconscious.

He dreamed, and in his dream, he saw, in his mind, a boy, himself (?) in his early teens, fighting a group of girls with animal parts and at times a blue robed boy with a sword and ears like his. He also saw what appeared to be two other boys: one taller than himself and one shorter and very young. They were saying something that he couldn't make out and he was floating in the sky along with the other two at times. He saw what appeared to be a park and some other sites he thought were familiar, but he couldn't for the life of him remember the names of each place.

He came to with a ferocious headache. There: he remembered a pain reliever in a cabinet in the forward part of the ship. Groggily, he opened the bottle up and shook out a pill, popping it into his mouth, swallowing it with the help of a bulb of water.

He became aware of a terrible thirst; the water tasted exceptionally good, and he found a couple of bottles. He drank some more water (why was he so thirsty?) and went to look again at the other areas of the tiny ship, thinking he could find out what had caused the damage. He found a monitor with a button on the side. He was amazed when it turned on with a single press. Hm. His curiosity whetted, he searched until he found a voice activated system. "Can I help you, sir?" it asked.

"Yes. Er, can you tell me what caused the damage to my ship?"

"I am unable to answer your question, sir. My memory is limited; I have suffered damage to my data banks and core processors. I am limited to ship diagnosis only. I can only tell you about the damage to this ship."

"Can you tell me who or what caused the damage?"

"No, sir. Much of my memory storage has been damaged along with the ship. I am unable to access that information. I am sorry."

"What can you tell me?"

"The ship has suffered extreme damage to its power core and life support. Its weapons systems are offline, as are many of the sensors. The self-repair system is also damaged." He sighed. There was only one way to determine the exact damage to the ship: he'd just have to go eyeball it. Perhaps seeing and determining the damage would jog his memory.

His heart sank when he looked over the damage. He sighed and switched off everything he could to conserve power, shunting as much as he could to the ship's self-repair systems. He was acutely conscious of his inability to recharge his ship's capacitors. With the power core offline...

However, during his search of the ship's interior, he came across some hardcopy pictures adhered to one wall. He took one down and looked closely at it. Suddenly, while looking at it, he had a terrible headache, and passed out from the pain.

When he came to, the sky had darkened, and stars were appearing in the night sky. He switched on as few of the lights inside the ship as he dared, not only wanting to save as much power as he could for the self-repair mechanisms, but also out of a strange sense of caution. After all, he didn't know where he was, or what had damaged his ship so badly. And was it still around?

Because from the looks of things, he had been very, very, very lucky.

He glanced at the picture again, trying to avoid the headache it seemed to give him. Why, he wondered, would a simple picture cause that? But...the picture showed a group of girls wearing various odd looking outfits. They seemed to have animal parts, which he found oddly familiar. Yet he knew he'd never met them...had he?

Also, there were two boys and what appeared to be a cafe behind them. Have I met these people before? They certainly seemed familiar. He quickly turned his head to look out the window and saw some lights in the distance. He started to wonder if the group in the photo was anywhere around the area. Hm. Well, he spoke the language, or a close variant thereof, so it seemed that the thing to do was just go ask someone or maybe even several someones. But for now, sleep called. He was still hurting from his mysterious injuries, and virtually passed out on his cot.

The next day he woke up and saw the sun was shining; it looked as though it was midday. He went outside the ship again and went to see if he could find someone to talk to. He walked around until he came upon a girl his age. She turned around and saw him. She frowned in puzzlement. "Why are your ears like that?"

"Like what?"

She gave him a strange look. "You know. Sticking out like that."

He reached up and felt his ears, his eyes walling as he tried to see them. "I don't know. I mean, they're, uh, ears? They look normal to me," he responded. What was up with his ears?

The girl looked at him and squealed in delight. She said, "If anyone asks, you are dressed up for a cosplay party." This was great! Her own date hadn't shown up...here was the perfect replacement.

"Cosplay?" He looked around, turned back to her. "Where am I?"

"This is Tokyo, the largest city in Japan."

"What's a 'Japan'?"

In deep space near the distant planet, called Cyniclonia by its inhabitants, an alien armada was amassing on the outer edges of the solar system. Currently, the armada's leading ships were engaged in a search for the little shuttle they'd lost track of two time periods ago. "Masters, alien ship not located."

"Location of alien vessel priority one. Maximize sensor range," one of the commanders rumbled, throughout the sub ethernet communications system that connected the various command nexi of each ship. As each nexi acknowledged the order, groupings broke off. One member of one such subgroup turned to its seatmate. "Where could alien ship have gone?" The aliens did not communicate in sound vibrations the way humans did, but the message was the same.

"Unknown. Security breach if not found. Command will not like."

…..

Earth: The girl grabbed the stranger's hand and started to drag him off to only God knew where. They were about halfway down the block when the visitor suddenly grabbed his head and was slightly bent down because of the pain he was experiencing. The girl stopped and noticed this. "What's wrong? Are you ok there?" He turned to her and said, "I'm sorry, but I don't feel so good. Can you help me over to a bench to sit down, please?"

She nodded and took him to a bench nearby, helped him to sit.

The girl was wondering what to do to help him. She didn't know what the problem was. The visitor told her, "I need to get back, er, home soon. I might have some medicine to help me. I hope I can make it there."

She nodded her head. "Do you need any help getting there?"

"No, I think I can make it back on my own. I'm feeling weird, as though something really bad is about to go down but I can't for the life of me figure out where and what it is. I just have a bad feeling about whatever it is." He turned to her. "Look, excuse me, you've been very kind, but I really have to go. Perhaps some other time?" Even though he was 99% sure he'd never see her again, it seemed like the polite thing to say.

"Uhm, sure. You, uh, sure you don't need any help?"

"I'll be okay."

The visitor left then and the girl waved goodbye. She was concerned but went on her way. He really had potential, she thought. Not to mention being nuclear hot.

In the visitor's case, he now had one more memory, one more thought to unravel.

Just what were "phone numbers" anyway?

….

The following day, he again ventured outside and began to walk in the direction the girl had given him. He came upon a field, obviously an agrarian farm of some kind, though seemingly a bit primitive, at least to him. He didn't recognize it so he continued on his way. There was a boy there, working in it, a boy who looked to be about his age.

The visitor asked, "I was told there is a cafe in this direction. Would you happen to know how far away it is?"

The guy looked at him-or rather-his ears. "Ahh! Get away from me, man!" He dropped the implement he'd been using, turned and ran away.

Now, what's wrong with him?-wondered the Visitor, scratching his head.

He started to wander around again looking for someone to ask questions about the cafe, hopefully somebody who wouldn't be freaked out by him, but was disappointed. There didn't seem to be anybody else there to ask. He considered hunting up the girl he'd previously met-she hadn't been bad looking, no, not bad looking at all-but noticed the sun was getting lower in the sky. He didn't know what time it was but he had a feeling it was late. He decided to turn around and head back to the ship. He made it back by twilight and the stars were just then coming out. He looked up at them, just emerging in the soft evening gloaming, wondering why he felt such a sense of urgency. He went inside and switched on the lights. He wanted to figure out where this cafe in the picture was. It seemed important. At the moment he was tired from searching and went to grab one of the pills to take. He swallowed one and then went to find some food to eat. He looked at the clock: it said 8:00. He ate, then decided to go to bed to sleep off his headache. He woke up and saw the clock: 10:00. He looked around and saw he was in a ship. Suddenly, he began to remember everything. He looked out the window and recognized the planet: Earth.

"Kisshu," he whispered, to himself. "My name is Kisshu.

"And my world-perhaps all worlds-are in grave danger."