Chapter 4- Settling In

"Teruna, I really don't know if that's your color..." Mint muttered as she stared at the shirt her friend was holding up. "Bright orange kind of clashes with your hair..."

The other girl grumbled. "Yeah, I know. Just, the sleeves are kinda pretty." She held them up with her free hand. They were sort of loose and jeweled, and fluttered around in any spare breeze.

Saaya scoffed. "'Pretty?' Did you seriously just say you wanted something because it was pretty? That sounds just a tad too girly for you." It was true. Teruna, Mint soon found out, dressed in sort of a grungy way. That day at the mall (the town's only mall, and the closest out of town one was a three-hour car ride with no stops), Teruna Furuhashi was wearing baggy brown cargo pants and a dark green, slightly baggy T-shirt. Her blue-green hair was still in a braid, and her general look was kind of scuffed up, what with her clothes ripped up at the edges.

The other two girls, Mint noticed, also dressed how they were in character.

Nanao Hoshiwa, proper and shy, had on a dark blue pleated skirt that hung to her knees, a white T-shirt with a collar made from a light material (with absolutely no creases or wrinkles), and a small red necktie. She also had on white socks folded over her black Mary-Jane type shoes (polished). Her black hair fell straight to her shoulders with no hair out of line, and her green-brown eyes shone brightly and healthy. Nanao also had a black bag with her that bordered on being a briefcase, complete with anything she might need without making it look stuffed or...not businesslike.

Saaya Nishihara, on the other hand, had a more carefree nature, and was dressed accordingly. She had on a fiery orange sleeveless shirt with a picture of a flame in the center, red capris that ended just under her knees, a creamy orange-tinted scarf that, like the sleeves of the shirt Teruna held up, blew in the wind, and some yellow flip-flops. And, of course, her yellow ribbon or hair band, Mint still had to find out.

Mint, or rather, Akiko Kobayashi, still had to create a style for herself. She had gone shopping a little with Nanao initially for some basic supplies and clothes, but she wanted some she could feel like herself, or at least like Akiko, in. In that shop on that day, she was wearing a white pleated skirt, a pale yellow T-shirt, some white socks that reached above her knees, and some orange shoes. Her style was still on the drawing board, but her friends were there to help. So there the four of them were, at the mall, on a day off from school.

"Yeah, but hey, even I can act a little girly now and then." Teruna snapped playfully. "It is possible to take a break from my grunge-street style."

"But, um, it might not be you." Piped up Nanao, her face looking as if Teruna was some big bully she was standing up to. "I think Teruna should look like Teruna, but if it didn't make you look like Teruna, then, you wouldn't look like Teruna?" Nanao stopped and thought for a second. "Did that make sense? My apologies if it didn't..." She trailed off, and swung her bag around a little while looking down at it.

Saaya laughed. "Sort of. But Akiko's right, Teruna, if it's not your color, it won't do anything for you."

Mint thought for a moment. The store they were in at the moment, called "Happy Sale Clothes" did generally have their products in other colors than the ones on the main racks. But you did have to dig through the racks behind those...and it really was a jungle in there.

She turned her head to look at her friends, her loose blue-black wavy hair twirling around prettily. "I'm going in. Hopefully, I'll be back soon."

And she "dove" in. Pushing clothes out of her way, she actually lost sight of the other girls for a few seconds as she looked through the mass amounts of clothes, which also happened to be pretty cheap.

Mint supposed the stores figured that if you weren't going to pay a lot, you at least should have to dig around to find what you wanted.

But eventually, she found a replica of the shirt Teruna held, but in a misty blue. Good, that won't clash badly with her hair. She thought as she grabbed it, and fought her way out of the think forest of shirts, jackets, dresses, and any other articles of clothing wore above the waist.

She popped out of the racks, holding up the shirt like a lifetime achievement award. "This would work better, I think." Mint was actually breathing a little heavier than normal after fighting her way out of there.

It was really kind of sad. In the lame sense, not the literal sense.

"Yeah! Go try it on!" Saaya all but shoved Teruna into a dressing room, from which the shoved girl all but punched her for. But, laughing, she walked into the room with the shirt.

She emerged later, with the blue-green shirt on. The loose sleeves hung over her arms like a sort of mist, and the rest of the shirt was a little tighter. It had a v-neck, with a margin of beads around it, and the shirt wasn't all one color, but a bunch of similar colors in a sort of tie-dye like pattern.

"I think it looks awesome!" Mint exclaimed, and murmurs of agreement were heard from the other two.

"Yup! I think I'll buy it. Thanks, Akiko!" Teruna said as she walked back into the dressing room to change back into her original shirt.

Mint smiled to herself. Life almost felt normal.

Or rather, she could easily get used to this life, and...

Pretty much forget about Tokyo.

"Hey, Mint?" Mint looked up from doing her homework. There she was, barely into her school, and she was pretty much swamped with the stuff. Kumotaka was sitting on his perch as she was sitting on her futon.

"Uh huh? What?"

"You...would you like to go flying with me? There's a place I want to show you. I, uh, well, I like it, and generally it is a place visited often by many species, particularly winged ones. For example, birds visit it often when on their migratory travel, or they stay there with that place as their permanent habitat. Since a rather significant percentage of your DNA is of a bird, an ultramarine lorikeet, to be exact, I hypothesized you would enjoy that spot as well." He stated, his beady eyes blinking.

The bird-girl's eyes, however, were slightly glazed over from overexposure to math homework. "Yeah, sure, uh huh. I could take a break, yeah, sure. Of course," she began, regaining her character from her homework glaze. "Being part of my elite family, at least for part of my life, will prepare me for anything. Even taking a trivial break would not make my grades drop." She stood up.

"Let's go! I can transform in the forest down there." She pointed to a group of trees within a short walking distance from the lab. "Then we'll fly from there?"

Kumotaka nodded, his blue wings twitching in a very bird-like manner. "That sounds good."

"Mew Mew Mint Metamorphosis!" Mint yelled as soon as they were concealed from the sight of any innocent bystander (or a guilty bystander, either was bad). After her clothes changed and her wings and tail appeared, she hopped up and hovered a couple of feet above the ground. "Ready to go?"

Pretty soon, both birds were above the treetops, flying fast. Mint flapped her wings hard to keep up with her friend, but luckily for her, he knew this, and didn't fly too fast.

Man, I'm so sore even now! Grrr... Maybe I should work out more often... Mint growled mentally.

Kumotaka veered right a little, and took them to a spot near the peak of a mountain. The town of Moriyama looked really tiny, and a nice cool breeze was blowing as they touched down.

The peak was a nice mixture of trees and rocks, with an excellent view. There was even a sound of a stream going down the side of the mountain. You could just as easily hide in scattered groves of trees, or sit on a rock with nothing over you and look out at the Japanese Alps. Mint sighed happily as she chose a nice flat rock to sit on that had a view of the town and miles of its surroundings, and looked over at Kumotaka, who was sitting on a tree branch not too far from her head. Past him, she could see bird nests and the birds that lived their hopping around and flitting about.

"Humans rarely come up here. It is like a sanctuary for us." The eagle said, half to himself. Mint nodded. You could just relax, and it felt like nothing mattered.

Mint sighed happily, stretching her arms and her wings. She never wanted to leave.

"Ichigo?" Masaya asked. The two of them were on a date, and had stopped to rest at a park. At that moment, they were sitting on a bench in front of a big fountain, and among many trees.

It also happened to be the place she last saw Mint. Or at least, she was pretty sure Mint was there. They were looking for her, and when they reached this spot in the park, where they were almost positive she had ran to, it seemed as if a large bird had taken off.

And Ichigo was almost positive she saw Mew Mint zipping high above her in the sky.

But then she was gone.

The next day, nobody knew where Mint Aizawa was. It was scary.

Ichigo could not stop worrying. It didn't seem good. She really didn't think Mint had done the crime, but running away didn't make her seem like she was very innocent. The press was pretty much divided, some saying it proved she was guilty, and some saying that she was an afraid, confused eleven-year-old kid who could only think to run away. But nobody was convinced she was completely innocent.

Ichigo smiled sadly at her boyfriend. "I'm okay...really..."

He studied her face for a while, and then nodded. "You're worried about Mint, right?" She nodded slowly, looking down at her school uniform. Normally, she'd be happy for school to be out for the week and the chance to be with Masaya after school, but how could she enjoy a date when one of her best friends was missing? "I'm sure that she's okay." He wrapped an arm around her shoulders, and hugged her.

"But how do you know? She could be hurt."

"Because she's a Mew Mew. Mint was the one who took out the huge moth thing on the Tokyo Tower, right?" Ichigo nodded. "She didn't get hurt then, so I think she'll be fine now. Besides, she's a bird, and birds fly. It would have been pretty easy for her to escape without people noticing. If she flew somewhere during the nighttime, it would be hard for people to see her. Plus, she doesn't seem stupid. She could have created an alternate identity for herself, and could be living peacefully in a town somewhere where she isn't known."

Ichigo closed her eyes, and leaned against Masaya's shoulder. His words were comforting, and calmed her down a little (any time he talked she felt better). But she was still worried, because to her, Mint didn't seem guilty. Why should she have to run away from something she didn't do? Why did nobody seem to believe her? And what if...what if she did do it?

No. I know Mint didn't do it. She's my friend. She wouldn't have done it. Ichigo thought. But I really hope she's okay.

"I hope you're right, Masaya, I really hope you're right."

The figure swore. They couldn't believe it. "Where are you, Aizawa?"

How could they have lost her! She couldn't have gone far...

But it had been five days since she disappeared. She could have taken a plane somewhere out of the country by then.

The figure's eyes narrowed. That's okay, they thought. I'm going to find you, Aizawa. And when I do, it won't be pretty.

And their fingers started furiously typing into a computer keyboard as an evil grin spread across their face.

Author's Note:

Sorry this chapter is so late, everybody. My computer broke a month ago, but I didn't get around to getting it fixed until a week or two ago. Then I went on vacation, and then I had to wait for it to come back. I really can't write anywhere else.

And thanks for the reviews, everybody! I wasn't going to revisit Tokyo until later, but since it was mentioned more than once, I decided to put some Ichigo in it. This chapter was pretty slow, since I wanted Mint to settle down, and I wanted to work with her three friends. I'm pretty sure I want to use them a lot, since I like them. Saaya's my favorite to write about.

So, please review, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter of Flying Solo.

Disclaimer:

I do not own Tokyo Mew Mew, as it is owned my Mia Ikumi and Reiko Yoshida (and any other respective legal owners not listed here). The town of Moriyama is purely fictional, and it and all of its inhabitants (minus Mint) belong to me.