Disclaimer: No matter HOW HARD WE TRY we cannot seem to get our hand on

Zakuro's cowboy hat! It doesn't belong to us, SO JUST DON'T RUB IT IN, OKAY?

... What? TMM? Oh, right, well we don't own that either, but who cares about

THAT?

((Preceding Info: Alright! Now how many of you guys out there have seen the

Tokyo Mew Mew anime OR Mew Mew Power? (watches a few hands go up) Okay,

good! Just to recap, as of Saturday, April 30th a particular episode of Mew Mew Power

was on- just in case you haven't got access to the subbed anime- that was the particular

episode where Zakuro is introduced. And near the end of that episode there is a pivotal

scene, at night, when the other four Mew Mews try to convince Zakuro to be on their

team. Nothing wrong with that, right? Right. BUT, Carolina and I(Georgia) happen to be

criminally insane and for the ENTIRE episode, the sole bit of information our peculiar

minds absorbed was the particular piece of headgear Zakuro was sporting.

A brown cowboy hat.

Zakuro- being a model, actress, singer, dancer, WHATEVER- is probably very

rich and has decent fashion taste. HOWEVER, she chose to wear a very ... odd ... hat for

some unexplained reason. But why, why , WHY would ANYONE wear a hat like that? It

was flipped up at the edges and WAS BROWN and it has a matching trenchcoat and ...

and ... ZAKURO WORE A COWBOY HAT. WHAT DOES THAT SAY TO YOU?

It's absolutely hilarious. I didn't have much of any emotion to Zakuro before I

found out she has absolutely fabulous hats like this gorgeous thing (waves brown cowboy

hat in air happily) in her closet. You may have noticed the mentioning of it in the previous

disclaimers . . . (cough) . . . . And for the curious members of our audience, Zakuro's hat

is featured in Episode 10: in the anime Episode 10 was titled as "Saigo no Nakama,

Maboroshi no Ippiki Ookami" (The Final Member, The Illusory Lone Wolf), and Mew

Mew Power aired the same one on April 30th with an episode title of Hollywood Mew

Mew. Do we know our stuff or what?

In short, Zakuro's got this totally awful but really funny brown cowboy hat that

Carolina and I (Georgia) obsess over. We felt it deserved a place in our fic. -.- ))

III. Chapter 3: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Cowboy Hats

"No, wait! Onee-sama!" Mint protested. "Please join us! You're the final

member!"

Zakuro's distant eyes closed and she spun around with flare. "I've made my

decision," she announced coolly, her back to the Mew Mews. Their fifth comrade walked

away. Mint fell to her knees, forsaken by her idol.

Meanwhile, the three aliens were watching a live recording of the drama from their

ship.

"Pah! I don't see what this has to do with anything!" Tart scoffed, ignoring the

screen.

Kish rolled his eyes. "Even I can see that we can use that one rouge to divide the

others." He looked down derisively at Tart, as if the ginger-haired boy were just a scab

that Kish couldn't wait to flick away. "I suppose we're lucky you can even read," he

smirked. Suddenly, a click-clack toy collided squarely with Kish's forehead. Tart ran and

hid behind Pai, sticking his tongue out at Kish. The green-haired boy growled at Tart as a

large X-shaped bandaid formed magically over the injured spot.

Pai didn't even bother to look up from the screen. "Kish is correct. We could use

the moody one to our advantage. We could make an example of her in front of the

others." Pai paused and turned off the screen. Pai turned around to face the younger

aliens. "Kish, since you seem to know what you're doing, you can take this mission."

Kish nodded curtly and teleported down to Earth. Landing behind the park, he was

pleasantly surprised by spotting Zakuro almost immediately. She was walking purposefully

down the sidewalk, ignoring the turned heads and whispers as she passed. Kish's brow

furrowed. What was she wearing? Soon he became more immersed with her odd brown

trenchcoat and matching cowboy hat more than how he was going to turn her against

Tokyo Mew Mew. Kish shook his head stubbornly. Nevermind that now . . .

Zakuro veered off the main sidewalk and cut through the park where there were

less people. Suddenly, a strong wind swept across the grass. Uprooted weeds and stray

grass blades flew savagely, and even Zakuro's hat was whisked right off her head.

"Hahahahahahahahaa!" laughed a wicked-sounding voice. (While Georgia and

Carolina faint for love of Kish's evil laugh) Zakuro's head jerked upwards to see who it

was. A strangely-clothed young man was floating above her head, arms crossed in

confidence.

"Who are you?" she demanded.

"Call me Kish, honey. I already know you're name, Zakuro, and . . ." he said,

grinning, "I know you're going to help me."

"Never!" Zakuro shouted into the air. "Mew Mew Zakuro METAMORPHOSIS!"

Transformed into Mew Zakuro, the purple-clad heroine stood poised for a fight.

She gripped her Zakuro Spear in her hand and kept a watchful eye on the enemy. What

made that arrogant Kish think she'd ever help him?

Kish laughed again. "Look at yourself!" he ordered with a devilish smile on his

face. "See what they've made of you? That horrid mark across your stomach and those

ears and tail! They've taken the body of an international model and deformed it with

foreign DNA! What makes you think you'd even have a job anymore once your producers

inevitably find out?"

Zakuro's face showed no emotion, but Kish's words sunk in. 'He's lying', she

repeated in her mind. 'He wants you to react. Don't fall for his ploy.' But Kish kept

talking. . .

"You know," Kish began casually, "our species is so advanced that a simple

procedure could rid you of that unwanted DNA lickety-split. All you'd need to do was

come up on the ship with us. Just once. So . . . how 'bout it?"

Zakuro calmly met Kish's eyes. "Do not underestimate Tokyo Mew Mew. Not me,

nor any one person on the team would fall for such shallow deceit. You're going to have

to try harder than that. RIBBON . . . ZAKURO SPEAR!"

Kish dodged the purple steam that lashed through the air. He laughed. " 'Try

harder'? Well, is this difficult enough for you! Attack, Chimera Anima!"

He pitched a glowing jellyfish-like parasite towards the ground. Mew Zakuro

swiftly jumped out of its path, leaving the Chimera Anima nothing to do but to fly directly

into . . . um . . . her hat.

Yup, that's right! Left disregarded on the floor, Zakuro's hat was still in the battle

scene and therefor still fair game. The hat started to gleam and grow larger and larger.

Both fighters were fixed to the spot; they stared in horror, wonder, and

amazement.

The hat grew teeth. Thin, long, pearly white teeth. It stretched its jaws and gnawed

at the air to try out its new appendage

Okay, well now Mew Zakuro and Kish stared mostly in just overwhelming horror.

"What did you do!" Mew Zakuro demanded, backing away from her headpiece.

"I don't know! You were the one who had to go and get out of the way!"

"You can't pin this on me! I didn't make that happen!"

"SKRRREEEEEEEEE!" the enormous monstrosity of a hat screeched in

rage. This caught the other's attention.

Kish looked the creature up and down. He put one hand on his hip and held his

chin with the other hand. "Yeah, well . . . Ah, what the heck?" he muttered to himself,

shrugging. "GO, CHIMERA HAT!"

The hat . . . um, "roared" and lunged at Mew Zakuro. She dove out of the way,

but the hat recovered quickly and chased her, snarling. Mew Zakuro, enhanced with the

DNA of the gray wolf, was fleet and precise, but her hat was better. It was a bit clumsy,

given the fact that the only way it could move was by bouncing, but tagged along behind

her with only a meter of space separating them. Kish watching the article of clothing hunt

after its owner viciously, a confused expression on his face.

"That hat . . . made this is our most successful mission yet . . . What the heck?"

Kish confounded vehemently. "We try so hard to beat those Mew Mews, and one mistake

has suddenly got Mew Zakuro at her wits' end!" he fumed. "What?. . . W-why? . . . . . . I

blame you!" he shouted, jabbing his index finger at Georgia and Carolina, who are typing

innocently. :-)

Dedicated To: The dear hat of Zakuro's which we love very much. We hope it lives a long

and prosperous life, and that Zakuro wears it out more often. XD