Chapter Eleven: The Secret War Begins 秘密的战争开始

"I cannot put a pistol to my head and draw the trigger; for something stronger than myself withholds the act; and although I loathe life, I have not strength enough in my body to take hold of death and be done with it. For such as I, and for all who desire to be out of the coil without posthumous scandal, the Suicide Club has been inaugurated." –"The Suicide Club", Robert Louis Stevenson

Ryou sat me down on the couch when we got back home and explained everything to me about the aliens and a few of the Mew project details.

"I know that this is all pretty confusing, Komori. You'll understand it in time." Ryou explained, thinking I was some sort of idiot. I actually understand it all perfectly; I know a lot more than you think I do… Somehow after all the damage that was caused by the kirema anima, I still managed to convince Ryou to let me go to school. He sighed. "Oh, all right. But this time, call if anything weird shows up, 'kay?" I nodded and walked out the door. Ever since Sunday, Ryou, Keiichiro, Masaya, and Ichigo had been down in Ryou's lab working nonstop. I doubted he would really even notice if I had left the house.

When the limo dropped me off at school, there was no sign of Takara. Hm... Maybe she's sick today, or something. I sat on the steps and pulled out all the homework I hadn't bothered to do over the weekend. Could you really blame me? I looked over and watched the fencing club start their morning practice. Fencing looks kinda fun. I could always tell which one was Kiyoshi; he was the one who was kicking everyone's butt. I had to say that it was pretty entertaining watching people whap each other with swords. A few times I even caught myself laughing. After they had finished practice, they all took off their helmets and slapped each other on the back. Kiyoshi, on the other hand, just sat excluded from the rest. They're probably just sore losers. The team began to walk inside. Still, Kiyoshi lingered behind, giving off his usual aura of loneliness. He started to walk, then turned around and stared at me with his big green eyes. He smiled slightly and gave a wave before running after the rest of the team. I looked around.

Did he just acknowledge my existence? Or was there someone behind me he was waving to? I looked behind me. Nope, nobody…Then he must have been waving at me! OH MY GOD! HE WAVED! …But I'm not sure why I care so much…

The rest of the morning passed by in the usual meaningless manner until it was time to go to class. Lunchtime was when something worth mentioning happened. Since Takara wasn't here, I was sitting alone at what other people had started calling 'The Loser Table'. An announcement came over the intercom as I was biting into a stale cafeteria soy burger:

"Anyone who is interested in trying out for our award-winning fencing team, please meet in the gym after school tomorrow. Everyone interested in fencing is invited to attend. You'll receive an information packet and given a date to tryout on. Please note that tryouts are based completely on skill. That's tomorrow in the gym after school. "

Hm, should I tryout? I would get to see Kiyoshi a lot more... What am I thinking? I'd probably suck.

After school I gathered Takara's homework, so she wouldn't fall behind, which is one thing that I knew would really make her flustered. As I was turning the corner to the science hall, I crashed into Kiyoshi, who was carrying a bunch of fencing equipment (I always crash into him, what's up with that?). I bent down and helped him pick it all up.

"I just keep bumping into you, don't I?" I laughed. He smiled shyly. "Well, my view was obstructed by all this…junk." He grinned.

"Hey, are you trying out for the fencing team?" he asked suddenly. I thought for a moment.

"I really don't know if I'm good enough to even tryout. I'd probably fall flat on my face." I laughed, embarrassed that he had even asked.

"Trust me, there are guys on the team that have never even heard of fencing until now. One guy thought fencing was a race to see who could build a fence the fastest." Kiyoshi joked.

"Are you serious?" I asked.

"Completely. Here, I have and idea: Just show me what you do know right now." he said, motioning to all the fencing equipment.

"Well, right now I'm trying to wrangle up all my friend's homework; she was sick today. And I don't think the teachers would appreciate us having a fencing tournament in the hall." I said, squeezing a smile onto my face.

"That's fine, I can wait. Meet me over at the fencing field after you're done." He said as he hauled all the fencing equipment around the corner. Would that count as a mini date? After I somehow managed to get all of Takara's homework, I went out to the fencing field to meet Kiyoshi. Well, first I called Ryou, saying I'd be 'a little late'. Yeah, more like two hours late at the rate I was going at. Kiyoshi turned and flashed a pearly smile at me as I approached.

"Okay! Let's see what you know!" he grinned.

"I honestly don't know anything, Kiyoshi." I said, embarrassed.

"You'd be surprised at what you thought you never knew." He said as he picked up two helmets and lances from the pile of equipment. I slipped the helmet over my head. Great. Helmet hair.

"Good, you know how to put the helmet on." He observed.

"What, some people can't put a helmet on?" I asked.

"Nope. But watching them take off their helmet is even more hilarious than watching them put it on." He laughed. He slipped his helmet on and put the lance in his hand.

"Okay. Hit me." He said calmly.

"What?" I asked.

"Hit me." He repeated.

"Why?" I asked.

He sighed. "Just do it, okay?"

"M'kay." I said. I tentatively ran over to him and tried to strike him with my lance, but he blocked it. He had excellent reflexes, but there was also a sort of natural grace that he possessed.

"C'mon, you can do better than that." He taunted. I know I can, but I don't want to hurt you… I decided to actually try this time. I aimed and swung again. This time my sword almost hit him, but he jumped back in time, as if he could read my mind.

"That's more like it." Kiyoshi said, sounding pleased.

"Well, I think I've had my share for today." I said, remembering that Ryou was on high-alert.

"Come on, take one more hit." He said. I really have to get home before Ryou comes and finds me. I ran at him as fast as I could and swung at him, mimicking the grace that I had seen him move with. Poor Kiyoshi never knew what hit him. He fell back to the ground with a "Huh!" sound. I leaned over him and took my helmet off, looking him up and down frantically.

"Oh my god! Are you okay?" I asked worriedly. He laughed and removed his helmet.

"Yeah! That's the first time anyone's hit me before!" He marveled as I helped him to his feet.

"Sorry, but I really have to go." I said as I started to walk away. He grabbed my hand and pulled me back.

"Um, Komori. Just consider trying out, okay?" I looked at him.

"I will." I said. And I found that I really and truly meant it. By the time I had stopped by home (holy crap…I'm calling it home…), Ryou was in a huge hissy fit.

"Where were you? What if a monster attacked again?" Ryou yelled.

"I told you I'd be late." I muttered, rounding up Takara's homework from the inside of my backpack.

"No, no, no. You said you'd be 'a little late'! Two hours is not 'a little late'!" he bellowed.

"Okay, well, sorry. Oh, I'll be late tomorrow, too." I said, starting to walk out the door.

"Why?" Ryou yelled.

I sighed. "Because I want to try out for the fencing team, okay?" I admitted and walked out the door.

"Fencing team?" I heard Ryou echo as I walked out. Yeah, you heard me. The fencing team. When I arrived at Takara's house, she seemed genuinely surprised that I had gone through the trouble of getting her homework.

"Oh, thank you, Komori! You really didn't have to…" she said modestly.

"I'm just doing what any friend would do." I grinned. She sneezed.

"Hopefully my fever will be down tomorrow." She said blowing her nose.

"You just get back in bed and do your homework, missy." I said in a mock-mother voice.

"Okay, mommy." She smiled and shut the door. Walking back home, I was feeling pretty good about myself. It was nice to have a real friend for a change. I'd better get back home before-

CRASH!

A serpent kirema anima was wreaking havoc a little farther down the street, whacking down buildings as if it were a lumberjack, slicing them in half with a single swing of its tail. The usual throng of screaming people flooded in my direction.

"Oh, boy." I said looking up at the huge demon snake. People were running around searching for shelter from the snake, making it hard for me to find a place to transform. To make things even worse for me, the police and news media had shown up, trying to remedy the situation. Just peachy. I finally found a secluded spot behind a lopsided business building.

"Mewtemorphosis!" I said. After the transformation, I flapped my wings and flew to the building that was nearest to the kirema anima. You can imagine how much attention a flying person would gather. The news media aimed their cameras at me, astonished by my ability to fly and more so by my giant bat wings. Don't get stage fright. Just pretend they're not there. The police still continued to fire at the kirema anima snake with their machine guns, even though it was obviously not working. I cleared my throat.

"How dare you cause problems for our police force! For your evil actions…I will make you pay!" I said, summoning my sword.

"Passion Sword!" I yelled, sending out a tremor of purple light out of my sword at the kirema anima. But the snake deflected my blows with its reflective scales, whipping my power back at me. I heard a ripple of gasps from the media and the police as I flew upward to dodge the wave of energy. Where's that alien guy that was with the last one? I couldn't see him, which I didn't know then, was a very bad sign. Without warning, the snake disintegrated into the air, gone, as if it had never been there. As I was about to fly off the building to get out of the limelight, I felt a hand grasp my neck that started to squeeze. I tried to pry off the hand, but it clawed my throat even tighter.

"You have thwarted us for the last time!" the alien hissed. By this time I couldn't breathe. Buildings started to get hazy and wobbly. I thought it was all about to end when the alien was hit by some sort of electricity that came from the sky, and let go. Four figures appeared above the alien.

"Resu! Leave this planet be!" the tallest one said as he twirled a lightning ball in his hand threateningly.

"Yeah! And leave this cute little Mew Mew alone!" the one with black hair snapped. Resu snarled. "I may have lost this battle, but make no mistake that this war has only begun!" he said, and flew off. The four other aliens landed in front of me. Three had pointy ears and wore ragged clothing, while the other was clad in black and had bat wings almost identical to mine.

"Thanks for getting him off me." I said, rubbing my throat.

"We don't like him anyway." The winged one said.

"You had better get out of here before the news media gets any more footage of you." The shortest one pointed out.

"Right, well …thank you for helping." I said hastily and nose dived off the building and flew as far away as I could.