In This Life
A Tokyo Mew Mew fanfic
by Abigail / pikari
abigail - at - makenaiDOTorg
Notes: I added an extra scene to chapter three after publishing it, so if you read chapter three when it was first updated, you might want to go back and read the last scene. It's nothing vital to the story, really, just fluff. I also messed up the timeline a little bit. In chapter three it was Friday, but since Ichigo's at school again in this chapter, I had to move chapter three back to Thursday. –shrugs– If anyone would even notice. I keep switching the songs around, too, I know.
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chapter four. prescription
(soundtrack. 04. decay. Rie fu)
You closed your doors before I could open mine / Now I know, now I see, it was a waste of time / When I was given passion, oh, I tried to cool it down / 'Til I found out, I couldn't say the words I wanted to say / You are the sun to lighten my shadows / Save me, and never let it go / You could have said a word, but you turned away / Why do you always act such a passive way/ Now don't you ever think that I would suck up to you
But I still believe in you.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
Deep inside a cavernous room that to the average eyes, would hardly appear to be the basement of a normal café, several scientific instruments blinked red and green lights in the dimness, occasionally emitting a mechanical beep. A single man worked silently, bent over the glass vials in front of him.
"How is it coming?" The blonde approached his partner. He screwed off the cap of the water bottle he had just fetched from the kitchen upstairs and took a gulp of the clear liquid.
"Nearly finished." The older ponytailed man didn't look up, too absorbed in the task at hand.
Shirogane leaned on the desk, watching the other man's progress without disturbing him, and slowly letting some of the doubt seep over his face. After a few moments he spoke. "Will this really work, do you think?"
Akasaka finally raised his head to meet the boy's gaze with serious gray eyes. "I don't believe it will do any harm, at the least."
Shirogane nodded with assurance. Harm was unacceptable, as that was the last thing he wanted to do with this project. Anymore, he wasn't sure he wanted to trust his own experiments, but he was fairly confident with this one. Thoughtfully, he raised the bottle to his lips once again. Yes... this experiment had to work if he was ever going to forgive himself.
"We're going to continue." Akasaka's words were half a question, half a statement of fact, as he already knew the answer. They both knew the consequences to Earth if they didn't. But he would follow the young genius in whatever decision he made.
"Of course." This had been his dream for his entire life as he knew it. This latest complication was only one obstacle, as the end grew nearer to fulfillment. They had to go on – for the girls, for Earth...
For Mom and Dad...
Pushing away from the desk, Shirogane strode briskly toward the door again. "We'll have it ready for the girls when they arrive."
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
"Nyaaargh!"
A frustrated half-growl, half-howl echoed inside the empty classroom where Ichigo stood, rag in hand. She couldn't believe she'd gotten detention for sleeping in class. Really, it couldn't be completely called her fault. After all, the Chimera Anima had been starting to appear practically ever other day now, and that was exhausting enough. Plus she was working at the café as always, trying to keep up with homework, and worrying about… other things. Frowning, she adjusted the wrappings on her left hand. And the latter was the main thing that had kept her up last night, resulting in her mid-afternoon nap in class today. The teacher hadn't exactly bought her desperate excuse that she was an agent of justice fighting to protect the Earth and thus couldn't very well be expected to keep up with homework and stay awake in class at the same time. In fact, she had a suspicion her story had probably contributed to more than helped her current situation.
Sighing, she returned to her task of cleaning the desks, when she heard a giggle coming from the doorway. "Ichigo, you really make a pathetic figure like that." The newcomer shook her curly blonde head as she grinned teasingly at her friend's misfortune.
"Miwa! Come help me, please!"
The other girl wagged a finger. "Sorry, can't. 'Gainst the rules. Anyway, if I did I'd miss out on watching kendo practice. Your boyfriend cuts a pretty handsome figure out there, you know?"
"Miwaaaa!" The blonde ducked behind the wall as the rag came flying at her. It was enough that she was stuck in detention, Ichigo didn't need to be reminded that she was missing out on Aoyama-kun's practice.
"Chill, chill, Ichigo! Actually, there's a cute junior on the team I've got my eye on." She grinned sheepishly. Miwa retrieved the rag that had fallen at her feet and walked across the room to place it in Ichigo's hands. "Wanna do some shopping after you get out? Moe said something about checking out the video game sales downtown."
"Nah, I've got work."
"Ah… sucks to be you, huh? But I guess you get lots of extra money from it."
"Yeah, true." Although there's no point if you have no time to spend it.
"Well, I'll call you, alright?" Miwa waved as she headed for the door. "Bye-bye!"
"Bye-bye…"
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
By the time Ichigo finally arrived at the café that afternoon it was nearly four-thirty. She'd already phoned Retasu earlier to let her know she was going to be late, so hopefully she would be spared the lecture once she walked in the door. After a full day of school and detention on top of that, working the rest of the day as a waitress would not exactly be her first choice of activity. Or at least, so her mind told her to think. The truth was, with the exception of impatient customers and pushy bosses, she rather enjoyed talking to Retasu and laughing at Purin's antics every day. Even Minto could be bearable most of the time. They'd almost come to be a little surrogate family, privy to the same secret they all shared, the same urgent mission. They had come together to find a way to save the Earth, and had found something more – friendship.
Ichigo skipped up the back stairs lightly. Retasu was always a good listener, and Ichigo needed someone to rant to about the trials and misfortunes of being a teenager with detention who never got to see her boyfriend. Then if Shirogane wasn't being too much of a slave-driver, maybe she'd be able to sneak a tart or two from the daily specials display. She left her schoolbag in a heap beside the door and headed for the back room to retrieve her café uniform from the closet, changing quickly.
She froze the minute she walked into the kitchen. Shirogane was bent over Zakuro, appearing to be very interested in her stomach, and Zakuro was holding up her shirt, exposing her bellybutton and midriff to him. Ichigo felt a blush rising to her face. What exactly had she just walked in on? "Um, eh, sorry…" she sputtered quickly, turning on her heels to run away.
"Ichigo." She froze again. Shirogane's voice held that commanding tone. She turned back around found that Zakuro had let her shirt fall to her waist again. The violet-haired girl gathered up her uniform and walked away to the changing room without a word. Meanwhile Shirogane seemed to be putting away a scary scientific-looking gun-like thing into a box that contained five vials. All but one were empty.
"Um…?" Ichigo couldn't stand the silence, as she was currently very confused as to what was going on. And she really didn't like the look of that thing in Shirogane's hand.
"Must you be late for everything?" When Shirogane finally spoke again, it was like a verbal slap to the face. Count on him to ruin what slim chance she had of enjoying what remained of her day. She stomped her foot childishly.
"It wasn't my fault today! I have an excuse, I had – "
"Yes, yes, Retasu told us. Anyway, good timing. You're next."
"Next for what?"
He didn't answer, but raised an eyebrow at her left hand wrapped in bright pink bandage (torn strips of a scarf, actually, but it was the only thing she'd been able to find). "New fashion?"
She clutched the hand to her chest, hiding it with her other. "I slammed it in a door…"
"Isn't that kind of stupid?"
Keiichiro's smiling face poked into the room at just the right moment. "Ah, Ichigo-san, glad to see you made it."
"Someone wanna tell me what's going on?" Ichigo was still warily eyeing the mechanical object in Shirogane's hand. His fingers were currently switching the vial in the back end of it and inserting the remaining full one. The thought of being "next" wasn't exactly resting comfortably in her mind.
"Shirogane-san and Akasaka-san have given us each an injection to supplement the Red Data Animal DNA," Minto explained matter-of-factly. She'd come over to the group planning to observe what promised to be an interesting scene.
"What? Hey… didn't you mess us up enough the first time you did that?" Ichigo protested immediately. She refused to acknowledge the glare the blonde shot her at the words.
"It's for your own safety, Ichigo-san," Akasaka assured.
"And if you had showed up on time, you would have heard the complete explanation," Shirogane finished.
It was Ichigo's turn to glare now. "I told you I had an excuse. I had detention!"
He merely rolled his eyes. "Detention isn't an excuse. If you would actually pay attention in class, you wouldn't have that problem."
"Well, excuse me if we can't all be perfect geniuses! And… and who says you can shoot that thing in my stomach! Retasu, you didn't let him do that to you, did you?" She gazed pleadingly toward the green-haired girl, who was nearby cleaning spilled chocolate syrup from the counter. Retasu only nodded, face flushing slightly pink.
"It doesn't go in your stomach," the blonde sighed. "It goes in the location of your mark."
"Oh…" Ichigo sighed with relief, until it sunk into her slightly slow brain exactly where her mark was located. When it did, she grabbed her skirt, holding the hem protectively at knee level. "Wait a sec… NO WAY are you doing anything THERE!"
He groaned to himself, bringing a hand up to rub one temple. He hadn't expected this to be easy, but that still didn't help the situation. Why, oh why, did she have to be so stubborn? "Ichigo…" he managed through grit teeth, the only thing keeping his temper in check, "Stop being so childish. This is important."
"I am not being childish! You expect me to just go along with this, and let you do whatever you want to me…"
"You know, the other girls were sensible enough to go along with it…"
"… when you don't even ask my permission first!"
"Oh, fine… Ichigo would you PLEASE sit down and calm down."
"You didn't say it nicely – "
"Ichigo, sit." The deadly tone of his voice reflected in glinting eyes. Ichigo plopped obediently into the chair, but every other part of her face and posture remained defiant, as she glared up with those fiercely independent eyes.
He had once found a stray cat outside his door. The thing had been ratty, miserable, and in need of medical attention. He'd taken it to a veterinarian to have it checked out and given the necessary distemper shots, and he'd been the one to hold it still while the doctor delivered the shot. The animal had been stubborn as heck and put up an incredible fight given its condition, and he'd ended up with stinging rows of scratches all the way up his arms. Throughout the whole ordeal, it had stared back at him with those exact same eyes.
His eyes dropped to her lower half, which she was still covering determinedly with the skirt, knees pressed tightly together. He groaned again. She really was not making this easy. "Ichigo…" he sighed wearily. "…open your legs…"
The explosion came just as he'd expected. "Don't say it like that, you pervert!" she shrieked, face brightening to red.
"Well, if you would cooperate, I wouldn't have to say it!" he shouted back, matching her tone as his last thread of patience snapped.
"Well, I'm not going to cooperate if you say perverted things like that!"
"Ichigo, it's just a simple injection, so would you quit treating it like a freakin' appendectomy, for god's sake!"
"First, I hate needles; second, you're not touching… THERE… and third, I'm not going to let you boss me around just because you know bigger words than me!" She ticked off the numbers on her fingers, leaning in to emphasize her words.
"There is a reason for this you know! Are you just stupid, or would you LIKE to be a cat for the rest of your life?"
"Maybe I would! Because then I'd be able to run faster away from YOU!"
Distracted by her argument, Ichigo screeched when suddenly her knees were shoved apart roughly, her skirt pushed up, and the injection gun pressed against the red mark on her thigh. She jumped at the sharp sting as the instrument pierced her skin. Just as quickly, her right hand shot up in reaction, slapping hard against the cheek in front of her.
Shirogane's head snapped to one side at the force of her blow, and stayed that way for several seconds. His eyes were closed, his jaw tenser than Ichigo had ever seen it. She curled her fingers back, realizing her error. She managed to stammer, "I – I'm sor…"
She was cut off when he yanked her skirt back over her knees and stood up in deadly silence. Ichigo chewed the inside of her lip as he dropped the injection gun back into its casing with a clatter that seemed jarringly loud in the tension. Even from her view of his back, Ichigo could see that every muscle in his body was taut. He's seriously angry with me… She jumped as two white cotton balls landed in her lap.
"Use alcohol or it'll get infected," he recited in a voice void of emotion. With that, he snapped the case closed and stalked from the room. The sharp noise of the slamming door pierced more than just her hearing, leaving a tangible pain deep in her stomach. She pressed her hands into her lap and stared at the floor, not moving to look up even after he was long gone. The pain from the injection was gone, but her hand still stung from its contact with Shirogane's face. Now, she could feel the heat flaming on her own cheeks.
"Way to go, Ichigo." Minto's sarcastic voice was the first to speak up.
"Shirogane-oniisan was really scary, no da!" Purin interjected. By now their argument had attracted every employee in the café. "He looked suuuuper mad, no da!"
"You were being unreasonable, Ichigo," Zakuro stated simply.
Ichigo let her head droop lower, wishing she could sink into the floor and disappear. A scolding from Zakuro always meant the worst. And, Ichigo knew it was true. She really didn't try to be so difficult, it just happened whenever she was around him. There was something that stirred deep inside her – something that irritated her. It wouldn't hurt if he was a little nicer, too. But this time she'd crossed the line, and now she regretted it. She'd never seen him that angry, and she wondered now what he was thinking. Would he kick her out of the Project? Probably not – she was too important. But she was sure he would have a long time ago if that was not the case. And can you really blame him now?
Stupid mark. Why did it have to be there, anyway? She felt her face growing even hotter at the thought of it.
A call from some of the customers left alone in the dining room interrupted the scene, and all the girls but Ichigo drifted back to work. Somehow she found herself grounded to the chair, unable to find the energy to stand up. Finally she felt a hand fall on her shoulder. Akasaka's eyes were understanding as he offered his hand out to her. She took it and he pulled her to her feet, and the small squeeze he gave her hand was quietly assuring.
She followed the others back to work, plunging her hands into the sink brimming with soapy water. But she hadn't placed more than four plates in the dish rack to dry before she knew she couldn't do this. She snatched a nearby towel, quickly drying her hands, and turned to Akasaka for a moment. "I'll be back," she quickly explained, and dashed for the stairway. The older man only smiled in approval as he watched the red-head disappear.
Ichigo rushed up the stairs, wiping the remaining moisture from her hands on the front of her waitress uniform. She slowed as the first doorway came into view, a faint glow from the dying sun seeping past the door, which was halfway open. Her steps became hesitant now. There had been more than one occasion that she'd walked in on him half-clothed, and she hoped she wouldn't be repeating that kind of scene again. Silently she peered into the barren room. He was standing beside the window, his back turned to her… with all his clothes. Ichigo sighed with relief. He seemed to be gazing out the window in thought, his forehead resting on the glass pane. She could see, however, through the reflection on the glass, that his eyes were closed.
"Um…"
Eyelids unveiled clear blue eyes that locked with hers in the window's reflection. Ichigo felt her heart jump a little. He's still angry… After a moment they turned away.
"…I'm sorry."
The two teenagers turned to stare at each other after the same words came out of both their mouths. Ichigo looked down quickly.
"I – I mean!… I'm sorry for being so difficult earlier, and… and for, uh, slapping you…"
He brought his hand up to his left cheek, which was still slightly red from her handprint. "That's okay. You hit like a girl, anyway."
She bristled. "What do you think I am?"
"Anyway," he crossed his arms a little uncomfortably, "It's my fault that this was necessary in the first place, so…" He trailed off, leaving the unsaid apology hanging between them.
She tugged at a loose thread on her apron, twisting it around her finger, and forced out a laugh. "Yeah, I guess we both got kind of carried away today."
He cocked an eyebrow in her direction. "What are you talking about? You were the one being unreasonable."
"Cut me a little slack, will you!" she burst out. That familiar irritation was starting to surface again.
"I'm only saying the truth."
"You don't have to rub it in! It's already obvious, anyway."
"What's obvious?"
"That you hate me." She looked away with a haughty air, but felt something strange tighten inside her at the same time. She was certain his silence meant she was right. Why she even cared, she couldn't quite say.
After a few second's pause, he mumbled his reply. "Don't be stupid…"
If she only knew.
The thread on her apron unraveled more, suddenly commanding her full attention, as her hand twisted and fidgeted. He moved two steps away toward a water bottle that stood on the desk. "I… have to show you something," Ichigo finally spoke. He watched with a strange look as her fingers moved to the pink makeshift bandage around her hand. Confused, he stepped toward her again as the pink fabric slowly wound off her fingers.
At first there seemed nothing wrong, until he looked closer. He grasped the hand, holding it higher for inspection. The eyes that snapped upwards to meet hers were wide with concern. "When did this happen?"
"After yesterday's fight."
"And you're just now telling me!"
She pulled her hand back, embarrassed. "I thought it would go away. And I didn't want you yelling at me."
"Why would I yell at you? You should have told me about this!"
"See? You're yelling!"
He sighed. "Alright… Was it just this hand? Did anything else on your body change?"
"Of course not!" she blustered, not exactly comfortable with Shirogane inquiring about things on her body.
He reclaimed her hand, despite her attempts to hide it again, and pinched a finger between two of his to examine it. The hand looked perfectly normal. However, her fingernails, instead of being wide and flat, had become enamel cylinders embedded in the skin that extended and curved outward to deadly points. Cat claws. A quick glance at her right hand showed those fingernails were normal. "It was probably adrenaline from the battle," he mused, quickly working to form a theory for the odd phenomena that had sprouted on her fingers. "Was this the arm you hurt?"
Ichigo realized with a little surprise that he was right. It was the same arm she'd bruised badly in her fall, but she'd never made any connection between the two. She nodded.
"The injury might have interfered with your body's ability to change back, since it was too busy trying to heal your arm. But the injection you just got should help. See, it's already starting to disappear."
She watched in amazement as the claws slowly retracted and flattened, leaving her with normal fingernails once more. Just as he'd said. Sometimes, he never ceased to amaze her. And it was a welcome relief to have a normal hand again that she wouldn't have to hide. She took her hand back, curling the fingers into her chest. "Thanks."
"Don't hide things anymore," he ordered.
She turned her chin up with an accusing gaze. "I should say that to you, too." They both knew what she was talking about. She was still shocked to have learned the extent of the side effects the cat DNA gave him.
She watched his eyes narrow. "That," he leveled, "is not something you're supposed to worry about."
She gave a small sigh, glancing down at her fingers and half-expecting to see the cat claws again. "I guess I'm just a freak," she murmured, more to herself than anyone.
"… I said I was sorry."
"I didn't mean…"
A sudden shrill noise from the computer behind them saved the two from another awkward pause. It took a moment for the alarm to fully register in Shirogane's mind and pull him away from the girl in front of him. He bent over the flashing computer screen in disbelief. "Again! Chimera Anima!" Did it never end? It seemed like the creatures were showing up nearly everyday anymore. He felt Ichigo leaning over his shoulder as he brought the details and location up on the screen. He turned somewhat hesitantly to the catgirl beside him, hating to ask more of her after what he'd already put her through this week. But she stepped backwards eagerly, raising one arm in a cheesy salute.
"I'm right on it!" With that, she disappeared, but not before flashing a silly grin that almost – just almost… made him want to smile, too.