Faded Springs

"Come on you guys! Please?" Pudding asked pleadingly. She wanted so badly to go to the arcade but nobody really wanted to go. No matter how many times she asked, her friends' opinion would not change.

"Pudding, how about we go to the mall?" Mint asked. "What girl in their right mind would not want to go to the mall?"

"ME!" Pudding yelled. Angrily she marched away from her friends and toward her house. 'I can't believe they are being so mean? What have I ever done to them?'

"God, could she be any more annoying?" Mint asked, pissed off. Ichigo snickered and Mint came to her face to face. Slap!

"OW!" Ichigo screamed. Immediately she did the same to Mint. Mint howled in frustration and so the argument continued until Lettuce stopped them.

"Come on you guys," she begged, "you both know that Pudding is just a kid. You guys are not setting a positive example for her!" They thought for a moment and decided that Lettuce was right. Their argument ceased and everyone was silent.

Berri was the one to break the peaceful silence. "You guys, I have a question."

"Okay…" Mint said awkwardly. "I'll let you know beforehand that if it is about boys then don't go to Ichigo. As you have seen in the past Ichigo isn't the best with the male."

"Like you're the one to talk, Mint," Ichigo fumed. "At least I have a boyfriend. You on the other hand have probably never gone out with a boy in your whole life."

"Oh yeah? Well-"

"It's not about boys!" Berri yelled, cutting Mint off. "All I want to know is if anybody knows anything about the parasites that have been attacking recently."

"OH…." Mint said, a dark red formed over her face. Ichigo held back a laugh.

"Well, does anybody know?" Her face traveled from Mint, to Ichigo, to Lettuce,

then ended with Zakuro. When nobody answered, she sighed and shook her head. "I'm going to try and pry some information outta' Ryou. See you guys later."

"I wouldn't bother." For the first time since she arrived there, Zakuro spoke.

"Why, pray tell, not?" asked and angry Berri.

"Because he is busy and he has a lot of work to do."

"And how would you know that?" Ichigo asked. Zakuro smiled.

"I know everything." And with that said, she left them….letting them ponder what she had told them. Everybody exchanged confused glances.

"What was that all about?" Mint asked.

"I don't know," Berri admitted, "but don't worry because I am going to find out."

….Later….

Pudding yawned for the hundredth time that night. "Boy am I tired. Aren't you tired, Zakuro? We have been out here for at least four hours and there is not sign of any parasites. I am beginning to wonder if this whole dark mew mew thing is just some hoax."

Zakuro nodded her head in disagreement. "I don't think so."

"Oh…" was Pudding answer.

They sat there silently, watching the night sky and keeping their eyes open for anything unusual. But as more and more time passed and nothing came, the girls got very bored. Soon, Pudding began chatting about anything that popped into her head. Her thoughts were so random; at one moment she was talking about peanut butter then the next minute she was talking about one of her friends turning her back on and dating the guy she liked.

After Pudding was done and she couldn't think of anything else to say, Zakuro said, "Wow…I didn't know you had such a colorful vocabulary. I think you outsmart Mint, Ichigo, and Berri all put together."

Pudding laughed heartily rocking back and forth on the roof of the house they were on. "I bet you're right."

Zakuro smiled despite her pride. But her smile soon faded into a look of inadequate confusion. She smelled blood and sensed danger. Pudding obviously felt it too because Zakuro could feel her tense.

"Let's go," Zakuro ordered. She bounded from roof to roof with Pudding hot in pursuit. They kept going until they came to one of many of Tokyo's parks. This one was called Faded Springs.

As they landed in front of a water fountain, they saw a shadow lurking underneath a large oak tree. Then the shadow speaks.

"Faded Springs…there couldn't be a more perfect place."

END CHAPTER!

OH! Whats going to happen next? Nobody knows; not even me! Well anyway r & r. How you liked it!