Incase you didn't know, Nasubi means eggplant. I thought it would be a cute idea. This chapter starts with Ichigo telling the story to Isuzu and Nasubi in the car. This chapter will continually switch between the story being told by the characters and the story being told by me. I'll indicate it with (narrator name)--------, but it will probably be pretty obvious who's talking.

Disclaimer: I.do.not.own.tokyo.mew.mew

Claimer: I DO own Nasubi and Isuzu!

Ichigo ------- It was any other day at Café Mew Mew, but things were going more smoothly because we had defeated Deep Blue. We all kept working at the Café incase something ever came up, but we were just glad to be together.

Anyway, you know how ordinary days go. I'm working my butt off, Lettuce is breaking something, Pudding pulling off tricks, Zakuro's scaring customers, Mint's drinking tea. But that day, Mint was being particularly crabby, probably because she was sick.

"Oh, Ichigo," Mint called for me, "could you bring me another tissue?" I sighed reluctantly. She should just go home, it's not like she works while she's here, anyway. I brought her the whole box, "Here."

"I looked down. Lettuce brought her a garbage can because of all of the tissues she was using. The can was almost full.

"Mint, why don't you go home if you're not feeling well?" I asked her. The rest of us don't need to get sick, too, and she just gave us more work to do.

Mint's eyes got big, "No! I mean, I feel fine, really, I do, it's just this blasted nose of mine!" she blew so hard into another Kleenex I winced at it.

"Fine," I said, heading off to serve more costumers. Typical Mint, always so stubborn.

-------- "Ichigo," Ryou stopped her, pulling into their home, "I'm going to check any messages on the phone, and if you don't mind, I'd like to continue the story."

"Well, sure," she hesitated, getting out of the car. They all headed out into the house, Ryou going into the kitchen where the phone was. He pressed play; there was one message.

"Ryou-san?" the voice sounded in panic, "Ryou-san, it's Pudding. Tart and I were just walking about town after the attack was confirmed over, when Tart became a victim right them and there!" he voice turned to sobs, "Please look at him, Ryou-san, a doctor wouldn't understand!"

Ryou checked the caller ID for the number Pudding used and re-dialed it. At that, Ichigo walked into the kitchen, "What's taking you so long--" but Ryou put a hand up for her to be quiet. Ichigo crossed her arms over her chest in a huff.

"Hello?"

"Pudding? It's Ryou. Come on over."

"Oh, thank-you so much! We're on our way now!"

"Pudding?" Ichigo asked, raising an eyebrow. Ryou hung up the phone. Before he could answer her, it rang. The caller ID said it was from the hospital again. He answered.

"Shirogane residence," he said.

"Ryou? It's me, Keiichiro."

"Keiichiro! How are you feeling?"

"Just fine, and the tests indicated I'm healthy, but I'm going to stay here tomorrow to be safe."

"Keiichiro, you're probably fine. Besides, she attacked again."

"What? Who?"

"Tart. Pudding asked if they could come over and I accepted saying I'd do what I could. Because who knows what a doctor would think if he saw him."

"You're a good man, Ryou. I'll talk to you tomorrow. Good-night."

"You could've told me Pudding and Tart were coming earlier! Now I have to get the guest's room ready," Ichigo scowled at her husband.

"That's fine," Ryou shrugged, heading over for the girls, "since I'm continuing the story right now anyway."

Ryou ------- I was busy in the basement doing research on the DNA I had used on the girls, when Keiichiro came in.

"Ryou, Mint's used up two tissue boxes, and she's on her third right now," he said, rather surprised.

"Does she have any other symptoms?" I asked him. This was getting bad. I hoped it wouldn't last long.

"Not at the time being," he stated, "and she claims to be feeling fine. I checked her forehead, and no fever. She insists on staying at the café."

"Well," I tried, "if she really does feel fine, that's a good thing, I guess…" I read over the symptoms again on the computer. We both knew she had it, but we didn't know when it would arise in her genes. If this was it… we'd have to take action. Soon.

--------- There was a knock at the door. Ichigo came running down the stairs to answer it, only to see Ryou already opening the door. There stood Pudding, Tart in her arms. She had grown to be quite the strength of the two.

"Pudding," Ryou said quietly, "How is he?" he took Tart from her arms. For being a teenage boy, he sure was light.

Pudding never looked more serious, "I'm not sure. We were walking…we, I can't remember the street name…" her forehead wrinkled up in thought, "the same street Nasubi-chan lives on, and she appeared out of no where! She kissed Tart, and disappeared! I picked him up and told him to sleep, then I called you."

"I'll take him downstairs. I still have some equipment from the Mew Project," Ryou said, on his way.

"Wait," Ichigo called for him, "where'd you leave off?"

"Hm?" Ryou paused, "the story? Don't worry about it; just continue on where you left off before in the car."

Ichigo looked confused, "Fine. Oh, Pudding, I'm telling them the story of the Lustrous Lorikeet. Fill me in if I miss anything, okay?"

Ichigo ------ So the next day was another typical day. Only today, Mint was back to her normal self, that is, if you can say she's normal. No more runny nose. But she had to talk to me after work.

"Ichigo, I had the weirdest dream last night!" I looked at her kind of strangely. The last time she had a 'weird dream,' it was scary…for her. Her last dream had something to do with all the tea in the world disappearing except this really nasty lemon kind and…I'm getting really off track.

So I told her, "Look Mint, if it's about tea, I…"

She cut me off, her face getting red, "No! Ichigo, it was about birds," her face changed to a scared expression. She had a dream about birds before as well.

"Um," I thought, "maybe you should tell Shirogane instead of me, I'll go get him," and I started to leave to get him, but Mint grabbed my shoulder.

"Ichigo, please, let me tell you first," her azure eyes pleaded me to sit back down. The pressure got to me; I sat down. "Thank-you. Now here's what happened.

"I was outside. It was a beautiful Saturday morning, and I was shopping at the farmer's market downtown to pick up my favorite tea. Pretty soon I heard sirens coming from all directions. I looked around and spotted a woman trying to sell her chickens. Before I knew it feathers were everywhere, the chickens trying to escape. One did, and it started attacking the woman.

"Several men in uniforms came with big catching nets and cages. I couldn't help but think why, but I looked around once more. There were birds everywhere. Chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese, swans, all running around in one direction or the other. None were trying to fly. It took me a moment to realize what was going on. It came as a shock. For the birds that weren't already dead, they were killing them and taking them away. It came as an instinct for me to run away, and I did."

That was a scary dream, I had to admit. Since it had all the birds in it, maybe it would be a good idea for her to tell it to Ryou, "Mint, you should tell Shirogane."

Her face showed she was nervous to. "You think?" she looked around. "I will tomorrow. And Ichigo," the said, just about to leave, "thanks for listening to me."

I smiled, "any time, Mint."

Once again, the next day was ever normal. But not quite. Mint had the worst cough. It was terrible. If she tried to laugh, it would just turn out to be an even worse cough. Half-way through the day, she had it. "Ichigo, I'm going to go tell Ryou about my dream from the other night."

-------- Ryou walked back up the stairs, Tart up and awake following him. "TAR-TAR!" Pudding cried. She still had a lot of child in her. She ran and glomped Tart.

Ryou looked at them rather oddly. "He seems fine to me," he rose an eyebrow, "I don't get it. You sure she kissed him? I want him to stay here for a few days just to be safe…"

"Ryou," Ichigo said to him, "You have to continue the story now. Mint came to tell you about her dream."

"Alright then."

Ryou -------- It was coincidental, yet perfect timing. I was going to tell Mint about the data I'd found, and she came to me. "Ryou, I need to talk to you," she said, looking away. She seemed nervous.

"Coincidence," I said, "I have to talk to you, too. You go first."

"Well, about this dream I had the other night…"

I was stunned. I didn't know what to tell her at first. Well, I did, but I didn't know how I should word it to her. "Mint, I…"

Mint's face seemed unsure of what to think of the dream, other than that it freaked her out pretty well. "Ryou," she said, her voice became very quiet, "you what?"

"I need to tell you something very important. Whether this is related to your dream or not, I'm not sure, but it sure seems like it," I trailed off, wondering if I was doing the right thing to tell her or not. Oh, wonderful, Keiichiro just walked in, too.

"Mint-san," Keiichiro said calmly, his ever smiling presence simply lighting up the room. This, however, didn't change Mint's facial expression. "Akasaka-san…what's going on?"

"Mint-san, when we injected you with the DNA of the Blue Lorikeet, we didn't know that our sample contained something else in it. We've recently been doing research on your DNA ever since your cold came up," Keiichiro started to explain, but his face told me he didn't want to keep explaining. I did the honors. Yeah, the honors of being hated for the rest of my life.

"Mint, the DNA we injected contained traces of the virus known as avian flu. You might know it to be the bird flu, hence, the dream you had," I said, turning my head away.

"Okay…is that all? I have a cold, it'll go away, right?" she tried to get her hopes up.

"Well, it won't go away. Sure, your symptoms will, but the virus was embedded in the DNA, and we didn't know it when we made the injection. You're contagious, only by saliva, say if you kiss someone, and that person would become fatally ill," I didn't want to keep talking. I wanted to shut up. But this was our fault, she had the right to know one way or the other, "but since it's part of you, you'll stay alive."

Okay, maybe too much information for her. That, or she didn't know what to think of it. "So I'm a Mew. Yeah, I've always understood that much. But now you're telling me the DNA was irregular? You made an irreversible mistake? The DNA keeps me alive? I'd rather die!" her tears crashed to the ground, her feet pounding the floor, she running out of the café. It wasn't the last time we saw her, though.

"Mint! What's wrong! Where are you going?" Ichigo screamed, half-scared. She chased after her best-friend.

Wow, this is probably, like, the longest chapter I've ever typed…possibly? It may not seem that long to you, though…oh well. Tell me what you think! I might land up finishing this story before I finish Kichi Cat, only cuz on that story I've got writer's block. The second chapter's written out; I just have to type it!

Ichigo and Ryou haven't finished telling the story, yet. Next chapter will help explain things a little more, like the pairings and the attacks.

R&R!