Chapter 6- Three Stones
A blink. And a gasp was heard.
She blinked a few more times to try and sharpen her eyesight...there! The world around her was sharp again.
"ZAKURO! OHMYGOSHYOU'REAWAKE!"
What the...? The teenager thought as she looked to the sound of the girl's voice she had heard. To the right of her bed, a ginger haired ten-year-old was almost jumping up and down.
"Zakurozakurozakuro!" She squealed, her short hair bouncing around her trademark bow.
"Ri...Rin...Ringo?" Zakuro whispered. The penguin-girl enthusiastically nodded, her bow almost coming off with the force created by her head going up and down.
"Yes! Zakuro, do you KNOW how long you've been asleep?" Ringo asked, her smile fading slightly.
The teenager tried to think, and only accomplished a acquiring a headache. "No, sorry...how-how long have I been asleep, Ringo?"
"One week and one day."
"WHAT?"
"Yeah, when the paramedics found you unconscious, they said you looked like you were suffering from shock as well as, uh, you know, what happened," Ringo blushed a little. "So they said that you would be under for awhile. After the first couple of days, they said that one person could be in here with you. We wanted to make sure that somebody was here when you woke up." She nodded again, her red ribbon finally coming loose.
The ten-year-old groaned, and tugged on one end of it, causing it to lash out into the air.
Like a whip...
"Ow!" Zakuro grimaced as a sharp pain shot through her head.
"OHMYGOSH! Are you okay, Zakuro?" The younger girl jumped out of her seat, losing her grip on her hair ribbon. It slithered through the air to rest on the floor.
Like a snake...
Zakuro cried out again as her headache grew worse.
"Zakuro? Zakuro! I'm going to go get a doctor, okay? Oh no, what am I going to do? Hey! Hey!" Ringo cried as she ran out the door, looking for one of the doctors working there.
The wolf-girl took a couple of deep breaths to try and calm herself down, and think clearly. Whenever she was in combat, she was always able to think clearly, no matter what the situation was.
Then...then how did she get in the hospital?
Zakuro looked down at the floor next to her bed. Ringo's hair ribbon had just been left sitting there, forgotten. Zakuro wasn't sure that she had ever seen Ringo without a hair ribbon of some sort, be it a huge bow or a smaller, limper one.
The ribbon was red.
Red was the color of blood.
"Wan!" Zakuro barked. She blinked. Why had she said that?
Why had she just barked...like a dog? Or rather, like a wolf?
She shook her head, and stretched out one hand to pick up Ringo's hair ribbon.
Okay, now then, I need to think. When the ribbon appeared like a whip, when it reminded me of a snake, and when I noticed the color was red, something weird happened. A whip could be like my weapon, if I'm in the hospital, red blood isn't too out there, but why a snake?
"Miss Fujiwara?" A tall, thin, athletic-looking young man with long, shaggy brown hair that reached his shoulders and crystal blue eyes wearing a lab coat entered her room, followed by Ringo. Zakuro's ears picked up two other voices waiting outside her room. The two people she had heard then walked in, and she identified them as Lettuce and Keiichiro.
"Yes." She stated as she pushed herself up into a sitting position. Almost immediately, she felt a few things. One was another pain shooting itself through her brain. One another was a tug of an IV line in her arm. One another was a huge pain in another part of her body. A lower part of her body- her lower torso.
And then she realized something. She realized that she had been-
"I was..."
Her purple eyes widened, and her breathing rapidly increased as her eyesight blurred and swam.
I can't think...I feel lightheaded...
"Make sure she stays conscious! Miss Fujiwara, calm down!"
She felt some hands hold her, feel her forehead, and she heard voices speaking to her.
But all she listened to were the voices in her memory.
"No! Stop it! Don't hurt her!"
"Get away!"
"AAAAAAAH!"
"ZAKURO! No! Stop it, you're hurting her!"
"Wha-what are you-wait-oh no, Zakuro, are you okay?"
"Miss, you'd better come with us."
"No! I didn't do anything!"
"Miss! Wake up!"
"Get me paramedics!"
"NO! I HAVE TO MAKE SURE SHE'S OKAY!"
"Zakuro!"
"Zakuro!"
"Zakuro!"
"ZAKURO!"
She shook her head a little, and turned it to look at Keiichiro. Zakuro blinked a few times.
"Keiichiro...?"
"Yes, Zakuro, you were panicking. Are you okay, now?" He asked, his calm voice bringing her out of her trance further. His soft brown eyes and smile made her heart beat at a more normal pace, and she wanted to smile back at him.
Lettuce was on the other side of her bed, her arms holding the older Mew Mew up. "Zakuro! Everything's okay now."
Ringo and the doctor were right behind Lettuce, the man fiercely scribbling notes onto a clipboard and muttering his written words aloud softly.
"What...what happened to me?" The hospital-bedridden older girl asked softly, straightening up in her friend's arms.
Keiichiro and the doctor exchanged glances before explaining Zakuro's night one week and one day earlier.
And her purple eyes tried not to show any emotion. She was not the kind of person to turn all weepy when she learned that her life had been destroyed, and one of her best friends was blamed for it.
But she couldn't hold it in.
Although she held the same poise she had when she was posing for a magazine for evening gowns, the wolf-girl couldn't hold in the tears.
Mint groaned. Another one? All of a sudden, they had really started popping up, and she was getting really annoyed.
"Again? Grrr! Fine!" She stood up from her futon in her room, where she had been doing her math homework (honestly!) and looked over to Kumotaka. "You want to come, too?"
He shook his head. Of course, if she thinks that I am not lying, Mint will be surprised...if she catches me. I will not let anything happen to her.
She shrugged, her dark, wavy hair blowing around slightly as she prepared to transform.
"Mew Mew Mint Metamorphosis!"
As her pale yellow shirt and light blue jeans (Mint herself was surprised at her buying of these commoner clothes, but she supposed Akiko wouldn't be above the wearing of those pants) disappeared, her blue dress, shoes, gloves, wings, and tail appeared, and her hair went back into it's normal hairstyle of two high buns.
She smiled, poking one of them. Mint missed that hairstyle...having hair down all the time was not very fun.
"Well, I'm off!" The bird-girl chirped before jumping out the window and flying east, into the direction where she had heard the roar (or rather, loud squawk) of an alien-induced pigeon.
Kumotaka ruffled his blue neck feathers, his beady yellow eyes following her. "Yes, yes, go fly off, Mew Mint. You do not seem to notice that anything is wrong with this." He hissed. Then blinked. "Of course, I do not know if anything is wrong with this." He shook his head. "No! I must go after her to protect her! I will not like it if Mint is hurt in battle!"
And then, with the sound of beating wings and feathers slicing through air, he followed her out the window.
Another figure, walking out of the lab, spied the bird flying out of the window.
He grinned, pointed teeth showing.
"Boss, th' bird left. Should somebody go after the thing?" He asked, a gravely voice speaking into a watch on his hand that was whipped out of a trench coat pocket.
"Somebody already is. Number Three! Report!"
"I am below the site. The animal is here as well. The parasite alien has been induced."
"Excellent job, Number Three. Number Two!"
"Yeah? Wha'd'ya wan' me to do?"
"Stay at the lab. A certain doctor still hasn't sent her payments for the week. Tell her that her daughter and the Mew Mew will not survive the walk home from school tomorrow if she doesn't give it to us."
"I gotcha. Will do."
"Excellent. Now all we need is that dog..."
"Okay, kirema anima that to me looks like a gigantic, slightly overweight pigeon!" Mint stuttered as she scanned the current monster over. It was pretty ugly, even for an alien-infused city bird, with a pudgy grey-feathered body and a large green-brown beak. It also had overly large, milky yellow eyes that jerked around as it looked around its own surroundings. And its feet were rough, orange, webbed, and sprawling, probably just to make up for its weight, which Mint supposed was a lot.
Luckily for her, the bird had chosen to show up on the outskirts of the town of Moriyama, which meant fewer onlookers for her. The girl didn't mind people like Ichitori, who promised to keep her secret to themselves, but if it got out of hand, Mint didn't know if she could handle it. So, their little face-off ground consisted of mostly the treetops of a relatively thick forest. Some small buildings were kind of close, but Mint planned on keeping the battle towards the trees, and pushing the bird out farther from the town was a big part of her plan.
If she didn't get it in one or two hits, of course.
"Mint Arrow!" She held up her hands as a blue light formed the wing shaped bow and the heart shaped-arrowhead that connected the two medium-dark blue wings. "Prepare to get...uh...un-infused, you big fat kirema anima!"
Mint really needed to rethink her lines. How Ichigo always had no problem with thinking up what to say in battle, Mint didn't know.
She positioned her weapon to aim at the bird, and opened her mouth to take a breath to shout out her attack. Over the time she and the other Mews had spent fighting, they learned that, however lame and stupid, the more force involved with shouting out your attack's name, the more powerful it was.
"Ribbon! Mint-oof!"
Unfortunately, unless you finish shouting out your attack's name, the attack doesn't actually happen, force in your words or no. And right about at the time Mint was about to say the word "echo," the giant, greasy head of the monster shoved her into a tree.
Luckily for her, she was only bruised as her side was embedded into the rough bark of the trunk, and her dress wasn't really torn as she slid down said rough bark. That would have been rather awkward and embarrassing, even if the pigeon was the only living thing present that Mint knew of.
Extracting herself carefully from the gnarled roots of the tree, the bird-girl stood up with an angry look plastered all over her face.
"Alright, now you have made me mad, you big, dumb brute! Prepare to be taken down by the heir of the Aizawa house!' Her dark blue wings spread, and lifted her into the air. The pigeon made a sound which was somewhere in between a roar and a squawk, and flapped its own pudgy wings as it too became airborne.
"RIBBON! MINT ECHO!" Her arrow discharged a shot of crystalline blue energy, which hit directly on the pigeon's head. It shrieked one last time before, in another flash of light, the pigeon and the alien were separated from each other.
Mint sighed happily as she watched the now normal grey pigeon flap its wings quickly and leave, feeling as though she accomplished something.
"Impressive, Miss Aizawa."
The girl's blue hair jerked to the right as she snapped her head to look at the other girl who spoke. She could see no one, but her blue eyes narrowed in the direction she thought she heard the voice.
"Who's there? Show yourself, or else you'll face my Mint Echo!" She raised her bow to point at the direction she was facing.
"If you insist, Miss Aizawa." The ground rumbled, and Mint flapped her wings to leave the ground before she fell over.
A small fissure appeared in the ground near a cluster of trees, and the plants were toppled as a figure rose out of the ground. As the dust cleared, Mint was face-to-face with a girl that looked...slightly like Zakuro.
The girl was in her late teens, probably seventeen or so. She had blonde-brown hair that was styled in a way similar to Mint's friend, falling freely to a mid-torso level. Her grey-blue eyes were slightly slanted upwards, giving them a sort of exotic look. She wore a black, skin-tight three-quarter-sleeved shirt with a yellow number three on it, and a tan, pleated mini-skirt. Her hands were covered with thin brown gloves, and she had boots in Zakuro's Mew uniform style in the same dusty brown. On her right wrist was a slim little brown watch.
A smile spread across her face, and she bowed deeply. "A pleasure to see you again, Mint Aizawa."
Mint frowned. "Again? Where have I seen you before?"
The girl smirked. "I am afraid that I am not allowed to tell you that, since I am under strict orders not to divulge information crucial to our plans. My purpose for being here is to destroy you, but even so, not to tell you anything."
The Mew Mew aimed her weapon, and held it steady. "Who are you?"
"I am Number Three."
"Number Three? What kind of a name is that?" Mint smirked. Being named after a number was definitely worse than being named after a plant.
Number Three raised one eyebrow. "Number Three is not my real name. It is my codename, given to me by my superior."
"Then what's your real name, or are you too afraid to give it to me?" Mint taunted.
"My name is not important."
The bird-girl scoffed. "A name is very important. I won't fight you until I know your name. Or...maybe you are just a little wimp, too afraid to give a twelve-year-old your real name."
Number Three's stormy eyes narrowed. "Well, if that is the case, my name is Sanishi."
"Your name still has the number three in it."
"Yes, but my name also has 'ishi' in it. My name means three stones, though I will use more than three." Sanishi raised her hands as her eyes flashed from their original color to a glowing yellow. A few pebbles dislodged themselves from the dirt Sanishi stood on, and flew around the girl in a circle. "As you probably can see, I am terra-kinetic. I can move the earth with my mind. Now, Mew Mint, prepare to die!"
Another rumble shook the earth, and Mint flew higher into the air.
"Hah! I'm not even on the ground, and yet you decide to throw and earthquake at me? Try again, Sanishi!" Mint yelled over the roar of the earthquake. She twisted in the air, aiming herself in a dive towards Sanishi. "Ribbon! Mint Echo!" An arrowhead of light zoomed towards her opponent, streams of light bouncing off of it in all directions.
"I am afraid that your attack," a boulder was ripped out of the earth to come in the path of Mint's arrowhead, "will have no effect on me."
"No way!" Mint muttered, as she looked down at her smirking, unharmed opponent as the rubble from what was the boulder settled around one the soil-filled ground.
Sanishi's eyes glowed again, and the ground around her feet was lifted into the air, her on it, on another boulder. Mint could see the two craters where the boulders were, and more were being created as Sanishi called forth more hunks of rock.
Pretty soon, the sky was filled with a two girls, one airborne because she had wings and the other because she was on top of a flying rock, and their attacks at each other. Laser-like, concentrated bursts of light slammed into more flying rocks or swirling clouds of dirt.
And pretty soon, one of them was getting tired.
I don't know how long I can keep this up, though Mint as she shot another Mint Echo at Sanishi, who blocked her attack with another boulder. She doesn't seem to be getting tired, but I don't know if I can shoot out many more Echoes.
"Ribbon! Mint Echo!" Another laser arrow zoomed towards Sanishi, and another boulder blocked it. But this time, the boulder was not shattered. A few shards broke off to create a small crater where the boulder and the Mew Mew attack made contact, but other than that, the rock was unharmed. "Oh no..."
I'm losing power...I can't concentrate...I don't think the Mew Mews were meant for endurance battle... Mint thought, though her mind was dizzy from all the power she had expended during the course of the battle up to that point.
"Well, well, well," Sanishi began, "it appears that you are growing tired. Your attack barely did any damage to that boulder."
Mint glared at her as she struggled to keep her wings moving enough to stay in the air. Yeah, like I didn't already notice that.
"Then I would assume that you are no longer able to shoot down my offensive attacks." She brought one gloved hand up as a large boulder flew up to float above her hand. "Die, Mew Mint!" The hand shot forward, and the boulder flew towards Mew Mint.
"Oh no!" Mint gasped. She flew to her left, but another boulder came up from her other side. She zoomed up, and the boulders collided and destroyed each other, but then another one took up their chase.
And then she couldn't fly anymore; she was too tired. Mint dove down to the ground, her wings aching, and started to run between the trees.
"You just made a big mistake."
An earthquake started. Mint was thrown around on the ground, and after at least fifteen seconds of constant tremors, she fell. Although the earthquake subsided, the earth around her left ankle swelled up and wrapped itself around her, holding her down. Mint's blue eyes focused on the boulder that was flying at her at an unnatural angle. Unless Sanishi broke her focus, there was no way Mint could survive the next thirty seconds, if she was lucky.
"MINT!"
Mint gasped as the boulder fell to the ground, very near to her. Her heart pounded with adrenaline as she looked up to Sanishi, who had just shrieked.
Kumotaka was flying around her face, pecking and slashing at the terra-kinetic girl. She was yelling at him to stop, shielding her face, and trying her best to send pebbles to fly up and hit him.
"Kumotaka!" Mint exclaimed happily, using the sharp edge of her weapon to smash the dirt holding her left ankle.
The bird shrieked one last time before flapping his wings, making space between him and the girl he had attacked.
Sanishi was breathing heavily, and two small cuts, one on her right cheek and one on her right shoulder, bled slowly.
"My focus...it is broken..." Sanishi whispered, her eyes a stormy-blue once more. She shook her head, not-quite-blonde hair flapping wildly. "No! I must regain my focus to carry out my orders! Prepare to fight again, Mew-" She stopped, and looked to one of her watch on her right wrist.
A crackly voice spoke through it. "Number Three! Retreat, you have failed."
Her eyes revealed an emotion that was part sadness, part disappointment, part bitterness, and part indifference. "Yes. I will retreat," Sanishi responded into her watch. She turned to look down at Mint and Kumotaka, who had taken the time to fly down to his friend. "You may not have been destroyed this time, Miss Aizawa, but next time, I am sure you will not have that luck."
And the boulder Sanishi stood on shot off into the distance.
"Well I guess that's the end of-what was that?" Mint asked, distracted by the sound of metal falling on a hard, non-metallic surface.
"I think your opponent dropped a small object." Kumotaka stated, flapping over to the direction of the sound. "I think it fell somewhere over here."
Mint walked over, kicking the dirt in various places to move the loose dirt of the forest. Finally, she felt her Mew Mew boot collide with a small metal disk, and she reached down to pick it up.
Smoothing it off to see what was on it, she saw a small, round, flat, silver disk with a pattern of a snake emblazoned on both sides.
"A snake." Kumotaka noted, taking a look at the medallion Mint held.
But Mint wasn't listening.
It was a dark night, the night of the new moon. The faint light of the stars and the city lights bathed the alley in a pale, white, artificial glow.
The only sound was of a scream.
"What do you want with me?" Mint, who was walking home from a ballet lesson that ran late, heard the voice and immediately recognized it.
"Zakuro?" She called. "Zakuro, are you okay?"
Another scream was heard, and Mint glared at the alleyways. Her voice definitely came from that direction.
"Zakuro! Hold on, I'm coming!" Her feet slapped against the concrete as she ran into the alley. Her eyes adjusted to the darkness slowly, but after awhile, Mint saw the outline of her friend.
She was on the ground, doubled over, and clutching her lower torso. Another figure was standing over her, shrouded in darkness. But Mint heard something. The sound of water dripping. No...not water...blood...
And it was coming from the figure's hand.
The hand lashed down again, and Mint's eyes widened as she witnessed Zakuro's body being thrown against the alley's wall.
She couldn't take it anymore. She ran forward.
"No! Stop it! Don't hurt her!"
He laughed, and then did one of the worst things imaginable. He violated Zakuro, covering his hands with more blood.
"Get away!"
"AAAAAAAH!" Zakuro shrieked, her body convulsing in pain.
"ZAKURO! No! Stop it, you're hurting her!" Mint yelled, her eyes starting to tear. She raced forward, threw her arms around the model, and shielded her friend with her own body. The figure stopped, and Mint saw his arms were drenched in the blood of the wolf Mew Mew.
And then he hissed, and ran off.
Mint was confused. What sound had he just made? What was he?
"Wha-what are you-wait-" She looked down at her friend, whose long skirt barely qualified as an article of clothing, and shirt was in bad shape as well. Mint felt a warm liquid slowly spread itself on her own hands and dress. "Oh no, Zakuro, are you okay?"
Zakuro moaned, her eyes closed, and then was silent.
"Miss, you'd better come with us." Mint lashed her head around to see who it was. A policeman from the nearby police box had run up, and was standing threateningly above her.
Mint blinked a few times before she understood what he meant. "No! I didn't do anything!"
He scowled as a policewoman ran up to examine Zakuro. "Miss! Wake up!"
The first policeman took one look at the bloody girl, and took out a walkie-talkie. "Get me paramedics!"
The next few moments were a blur. Mint was still trying to understand what had happened, but the two police officers had yanked Zakuro away from her. Another, along with an ambulance, came up and grabbed her hands. As he held them tightly together behind her back, her eyes were fixed on Zakuro.
"NO! I HAVE TO MAKE SURE SHE'S OKAY!" She shrieked as she was led away to a police car.
Zakuro was put on a stretcher, and rolled into the ambulance.
"Zakuro!"
The ambulance started up.
"Zakuro!"
It started to drive away.
"Zakuro!"
And then it was out of sight.
"Mint! Mint! Mint!" She blinked a few times, and looked at Kumotaka. "Are you well, Mint?"
"Yes." She looked down at the medallion. "Why did I remember that? Why?" Mint muttered softly.
"Mint, we should go back to the lab. Doctor Shiroyama needs to know about the attacks."
The Mew Mew nodded. "Yes, let's go."
"Here." Doctor Hoshiwa spat as she shoved a wad of bills into the man's outstretched hand. "You can't hurt my daughter or her friend, now."
"Nah, guess not. Just be quicker 'bout th' next payment, Doc."
She glared at him, and then stalked off. She wanted to spend some time with Nanao.
The man grinned, and lifted up his right wrist. "Hey, I got the money."
A crackly voice came out of his watch. "Very good, Number Two. Although Number Three failed in her mission, we can still get what we want."
AN: Wow. I am really; really sorry this took so long! It's been over a month since I last updated any story of mine, and the last story I updated wasn't even Tokyo Mew Mew (it was Read or Die, and it was a one-shot). Yeesh. Anyways, I really hope everybody liked this chapter! Sorry if my henchmen and villain are kind of Crusader-ish. After I finished this, I realized that my villains are like the Crusaders. Yeah. I'll try to keep the other three henchmen from being too Crusader-ish. Now that I think about it, Sanishi is kind of like Sweet Juliet (or whatever her name was, I only have read the first manga of A La Mode). While I'm on the topic of Sanishi, three characters went into her creation. Two of them are from Tokyo Mew Mew, and they are Zakuro and Pie/Pai. The other is Terra, from the animated Teen Titans. Her outfit, powers, look, and personality are all closely based off of Terra.
Now then, I'm going to really work hard to update sooner! This year I'm getting a lot of schoolwork, but I'll try to write as much as I can. I'm also almost done with the second In The Park story (Kisshu/Minto pairing), so I'll be taking a mini-break from this to finish that. I'm also working on my next major TMM project called (I think) Sannin. The name might change, though.
Disclaimer:Tokyo Mew Mew does not belong to me. It belongs to Mia Ikumi, Reiko Yoshida, Kodansha, and any other respective and legal owners.