I, Devi the great, do not own Tokyo Mew Mew, nor do I have ANYTHING to do with that great travesty that is better know as Mew Mew Power, sooo… I'm just gonna continue typing.

Devi: PAI, DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW BAD I FEEL ABOUT THAT MONTH LONG BREAK BEFORE I POSTED CHAPTER 6!

Pai: If only you had listened when I advised you to not try to access… was it… 12,953,527 programs at one time? -slowly shakes head with his emotionless face- …humans…

Devi: Well… you know… I…. –growls- …you stupid little… -thinks, then globs him- Again, I could NEVER stay mad at you!

Pai: …just go on with the story…

Devi: RIGHT, right… HERE IT IS, AT LONG LAST, CHAPTER 7!

Chapter 7: The Underground Rivalry and a Terribly Worried Friend

Teleporting out from under Kiken, Tart landed on her back, "Man… you think I would REALLY care about EITHER of them!" he said, snarling at the thought, "And besides, why would you care, she's just a stupid… HUMAN, for crying out loud! Geez!"

With a grunt, Kiken teleported as well, ending up floating a few inches off the ground as she quickly patted her clothes and fixed her hair. Finally regaining her composer, inside and out, she threw her head back and laughed, as she then spun around to face him, "Oh, darling, I was SIMPLY joking! To think you would really be THAT gullible! HA!" She laughed, crossing her arms and tilting her head, the wickedest of smiles stretched across her face.

Tart snarled yet again and rolled his eyes, "WHATEVER… you're weird…" he moaned as with one more poof of smoke, he was gone.

As soon as he was out of her sight, Kiken's smirk faded into an angry expression of pure hatred. What a bothersome child he was, brainless and bothersome. She attempted to take a deep breath inorder to calm herself, but found herself angrier still. It was when she heard the door slide open, her anger drained from her veins as fear and surprise filled it's place, as she quickly teleported out of the hall.

Pai stepped out of the training room, his head held fairly high and his face, of course, not at all expressing his feeling of true dominance. He glanced down the hall, from side to side, then again held his head up firmly as he proceeded to turn left. Just a mere few feet behind him, Amai walked out in a daze, following him nearly step for step. As he heard her footsteps, he stopped and turned, facing her, "I see that there will pretty much be hardly any problems… now go de-transform and return to your sleeping quarters… your needed to report back in the training room quite early in your morning time… and there will be no slacking…" he explained, standing in a very general-like stance.

Amai nodded once with a bow, "Yes Master Pai." she replied in a monotonic voice.

Pai nodded as well, and turned once again, "Good… you should have no problem returning to your quarters then…" he finished, teleporting st the very end of his sentence, as his last word trailed off.

"Not at all Master Pai…" Amai replied in yet again an expressionless voice, even after he was gone.

She made a very slow turn-around as she began to very dismally walk down the hall, toward the female rooms part of the ship. It was just about 6:00 pm in Tokyo, and yet she suddenly felt so drained and lifeless, that the walk threw the fell halls that she had to felt like a great tracking trip.

Within less then a hundred feet of the room she shared with Makie, she gasped as Makie came running out, and, after making a sharp turn and continuing to run, attempted to stop in front on Amai. She indeed, using the wall for support, stopped inches away, "THERE you are! Man, I have been waiting for-EVER!" she exclaimed, placing both of her hands on Amai's shoulders for support as she let her head hang downward.

Amai stared back at Makie with her empty eyes, "I'm… sorry…" she replied, staying motionless.

Tilting her head, Makie's jaw dropped, "Sorry for… what…exactly?" she asked, bewildered by this replacement Amai.

With a quick bow, Amai replied, "If I have worried you…"

Makie's eyes twitched and blinked a bit. What was this thing that was just standing in front of her. Amai was, quite frankly, freaking her out, "No… it's really fine. I was just joking. Hey… are you alright?" she finally blurted out.

Amai tilted her head as well, "I'm… absolutely fine…" she replied.

Before Makie could respond, Kish popped up behind her, "Yo! I don't know what you guys did, but whatever it was made Pai fairly happy… if that is at all possible. Good work!" he smirked, leaning on Makie's shoulder as he floated right next to her.

Thinking for a moment, Amai realized that by her being obedient made the rest of the people on the ship's life better, judging by the smile on Kish's face. With another bow, she simply remained silent.

"What do you mean he's 'happy'?" Makie snapped back at Kish, tossing her arms up and throwing his arm off of her.

Arching a brow with his smirk still firm, Kish rested his arms behind his head as he crossed his legs, still floating in mid-air, of course, "Well, whatever he and Stripes were talking about in the training room, seemed to change the both of them…" he explained, using his head to motion to the expressionless Amai.

Makie snarled, "What? What could you guys have possibly talked about?" she asked, turning her head to Amai.

Looking to the ground, Amai blinked before she responded, "Master Pai simply explained by place here on the ship… it was… just a talking-to that I truly needed."

Both Kish and Makie stared blankly at Amai, both filled with amazement and confusion.

"Master Pai?" barked Makie, breaking the short silence, "Please don't tell me that he told you to call him that… OH! That jerk, he makes me sick!" she then shouted on, growing more and more angry.

Kish's face returned to his glowing smirk, "Relax, Foxy! She IS Pai's little toy now. There isn't much we can do about it." He shrugged, his attention span growing weary.

Amai looked back up to the both of them, "Master Kish is right… this is what I must do… this is my destiny…"

"WHAT? 'MASTER KISH'?" Makie exclaimed, quickly grabbing Kish's ear, "AND WHAT THE HELL IS THIS ALL ABOUT?"

Shrugging yet again, Kish teleported out of Makie's grip and behind Amai, where he placed both of his hands on her shoulders, "Aw… c'mon, Foxy… isn't it adorable though? I rather like the whole… 'Master' thing! You should try it…" he winked.

Makie's eyes grew red with anger, and with that, Kish blew a kiss good-bye and was suddenly gone with a poof.

Taking a deep breath in order to calm herself, Makie closed her eyes and rubbed her temples, "So… you wanna tell me what happened or what?" she asked bluntly.
Amai's head tilted ever so slightly as she replied without a single moment to contemplate, "I was simply taught of what my place is here… and how I must serve my highers…"

As he sentence trailed off, Amai proceeded into the bedroom, followed by the wide-eyed Makie. Though there were hundreds of questions just dying to spill out of Makie's mouth, she decided that no matter what, Amai would still answer and act exactly the same.

Later, they both lay in their beds, Amai falling asleep after a few moments of staring with her somewhat permanently blank eyes at the ceiling. Makie, on the other hand, spent much of the night looking over at Amai, her mind succumbing to worry.

Morning

Awakening to the sound of fabric ruffling, Makie's eyes slowly blinked open. She sat up and looked around, finding Amai already dressed and making her bed. Makie quickly rubbed her eyes and jumped out of bed, stretching, "Hey! How long have you been up?" she asked with a wide smile.

Amai stopped and ever so slowly turned her head to Makie, "Since about four o'clock… Master Pai came and informed me of my daily awakenings and such. " She explained as she then returned to finishing her bed.
With her jaw now dropped, Makie's eye twitched a bit, "Daily… awakening?" she muttered and stuttered.

Finishing, Amai spun around and flattened any possible wrinkles in her maid's uniform, "Mmm hmm…" she then nodded her head in response.

It took only a few moments for the both of them to emerge from the bedroom, full prepared for their newfound daily routine. It started with the preparation of all five of the alien's breakfasts, which were brought to their rooms. Then, the day continued on to the both of them serving the aliens as needed. Kaida needed really nothing but a playmate. Amai mostly served Pai, as Makie was passed from Kiken to Kish to Tart. Kish used his time with Makie to simply allow her a break, but when it came to Kiken's turn with her, it was nothing but pedicures and just plain butlering.

After the serving time, which took most of half the day, then came the battle training. It would start off with Makie and Amai being placed in two different rooms to test their own powers individually, then they are placed together in the same room for yet another battle to test their teamwork abilities.

Then, finally, just as the day was nearly spent, the two of them bathed, finally ate, if there was no punishment to be paid, and were sent to their quarters.

This went on for months. Makie's worry growing as the days rolled by. She watched as, Amai, making the simplest of mistakes, would take Pai's nearly violent and harsh punishments. When it came to doing poorly in test battles, Amai was forced to either do many more battles until passing, or sent to her quarters with out a single bite.

Makie was not the only one to notice anything either. Kiken saw how Pai practically had Amai the entire day, from having her at his beck-and-call, to watching and couching her in training. This was not exactly something she enjoyed to watch.

Three Months Later

Pai stood to the side of the training room as he watched a heated battle between Amai and a chimera anima dolphin. Today's battle was to test Amai's ability to battle in a water setting, meaning that for that day, the training's room floor had been opened to show a large, nearly wall-to-wall pool. With nothing but some nicely paced inch-thick rocks to provide Amai with suitable support, she hoped as quickly as she could in circles around the beast. Jumping just fast enough to create a blur at each stepping stone that appeared to be her and causing the illusion of her actually being at each rock.

Though she was a good hour into the training session, Amai was already worn out and the monster wasn't even close to getting even slightly worried of its demise. With a snarl, Pai barked at the poor girl to pick up speed, improve aim, and he didn't even try to hold back on the threats, "If you miss it once more, then you have not even the slightest chance to even see food for the remainder of the week!"

Amai bit her lip, the slightest stream of blood rolling down form her forehead, as she finally moved in for one last time, baring her square, wooden, stripped wand, "RIBBON AMAI STRIPPES!" she shouted with all of her might, as a stream of stripe shaped lights came pouring from the corner of her wand. The tie-dye colored stripes hit the monster, one right after the other, in an almost endless line, until finally, the monsters eyes narrowed, and in the blink of the eye, the chimera anima deteriorated back to the little jellyfish and the normal earth dolphin.

As she nearly floated to the ground, the pool slowly closed until as Amai's feet hit the ground, it was once again the solid metal floor, "Was that at all suitable, Master Pai?" she asked as she turned and faced the obviously displeased alien.

Pai lifted his chin and snarled a bit as he looked Amai up and down, "Your injured over a majority of your body… this has been happened much to many times lately…" he informed her, incase she hadn't noticed.

With a gasp, Amai got down on one knee, "I am so sorry Master Pai! I promise to… improve my strategy… or what ever it takes to meet your standards…" she explained in a nearly expressionless tone.

As Pai began to hover towards her, Amai lowered her head. Her words of reassurance were somewhat calming him, "Perhaps you simply need to expand your practice time… a crash course in some tactics is needed if you are to be prepared to you first mission on earth." He thought out loud.

Amai simply nodded in agreement as she rose, still bowing to Pai at her waist.

"You are now dismissed for the day… Makie will simply train for a longer single session. I want to rest for tomorrow. I want to do nothing but train then. Now go." Pai ordered, pointing to the door.
Bowing quickly, Amai looked up into Pai's face, "Yes Master Pai..." she responded as she slowly rushed to the door.

As the door slide open, Amai found herself face to face with Kiken. Kiken was leaning against the doorframe, for what looked like quite a while.
With another quick bow, Amai rushed past her and down the hall.

With a snarl, Kiken entered the room, leaning back momentarily to watch as Amai disappeared from sight, "How rude…" she muttered, shrugging as she then proceeded to walk into the room. Her snarl faded into a smirk as Pai turned his attention towards her, "Now, darling, don't you look a little stressed…"

Pai sighed an, with his ever so popular blank face, turned his body towards Kiken and the door, "I'm about to start my final training session with Makie." He informed her.

Kiken giggled a bit as she walked in a circle around him and stopped as she came behind him. She placed her hands on his shoulders and began to give him somewhat of a massage, "Darling, those little rats look like they're a little too much for you. I mean, you are just SO tense!" she exclaimed applying more pressure.

Brushing her off, Pai quickly cracked his neck and began now walking towards the door, "Please be appropriate within my ship." He replied.

With a gasp, Kiken quickly darted after him, "Oh, what? I mean, these little brats are just way too much for you, darling. Especially that little… earth street urchin." She whined.

Pai stopped abruptly, "My work with Amai is none of your business…" he snapped.

Kiken stepped in front of him, "What is it with you and that rag doll, daring? And why is it that you give her such… 'extra special' treatment compared to the other… 'experiment'?" She asked bluntly, cutting right to the point.

Simply pushing past her, Pai snarled, "It would appear as though you are just simply getting suspicious for your own selfish and false reasons…" he replied, just as bluntly.

Before Kiken could snap back, Pai was gone in a poof. She growled and walked slowly to the door. As she stood in the doorway, she slammed her fist in the doorframe, "That bastard…" she hissed.

In her room that night, she laid on her back, on her bad, and pondered the situation. It was obvious that the little rag doll was doing nothing but getting in the way of Kiken's plans. And to see Pai to nothing to stop it was simply just sickening. She fell asleep that night with tears of anger in her eyes.