Twelve days
Dear readers,
Thank you very much for all of your support. It really makes me happy to see people reading and enjoying what I have written.
Things will get even more tense, I can assure you of that. As the summary says, this is drama after all!
DrDark7 – Thank you for your comment and worry not! You will see him soon enough, I promise
James Birdsong – Thank you for your comment, I am glad that you like my story.
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Enjoy and review!
I do not own Tokyo Mew Mew
The next day, it was raining so hard; Ichigo could hardly believe it that it was summer.
She had initially thought it must have been some sort of fate that wanted to provide her with a fresh start. But after checking the weather forecast, Ichigo did not think that her personal tribulations could have been tied to such natural forces in spite of her being a Mew Mew or not. Still, feeling the wet droplets touching the skin of her outstretched arm, she came to the conclusion that she enjoyed the sudden change. A new beginning was exactly what Ichigo needed; to let the rain take away all her sorrow, leaving her mind only with the prospect of a bright new future ahead. That was, at least, what she had hoped for.
Walking down the street with her pink umbrella in hand, Ichigo let her imagination run wild.
She had met Masaya for lunch earlier that day. And, with the encouragement of the other Mews, she wasted no time and went straight down to business. To her surprise, Masaya did yell. That enough rendered Ichigo momentarily speechless, as she had not deemed it conceivable for Aoyama Masaya to produce anything beyond a single scream, presumably of pain.
He did not slap her though.
Ichigo had guessed that the main reason behind Masaya's hysterics was not just the cheating; quite possibly, the factor that Ichigo had been cheating on him with Ryou played a major part as well. After she had told him that she did not love him anymore, Masaya fell into a silent stupor before his eyes hardened and his face etched with uncontrollable anger. That was when all the yelling started and Masaya began firing one question after another. More than a conversation, their oral exchange had been hence heavily reminiscent of police interrogation.
"So you're leaving me to for your boss, is that it?" Masaya sounded completely bemused.
"No," Ichigo answered simply.
"You don't love him?" he pressed.
"No, I don't."
"Are you in love with someone else then, Ichigo?" Masaya continued with his verbal assault, shooting her a nasty glare every now and then.
"No, I am not."
It was getting tiresome. One by one, Ichigo had successfully thwarted all of Masaya's efforts to generate any unnecessary drama. Truthfully, she still cared about him and wanted to end their relationship as amicably as possible; she did not want any hard feelings for either of the parties involved which is why she was willing to answer each and every of Masaya's questions with a solemn tone and a lot of patience. Even if she was internally breaking on the inside herself, Ichigo had tried to put up a brave front and approached the situation with as much calm in her voice as she could have mustered. What good would it bring if both of them succumbed to their emotions? They would get nowhere. And Masaya deserved to receive his answers.
"Not even with that alien?" he suddenly asked, throwing Ichigo completely off guard.
"Are you serious?" She looked at him with eyes as wide as saucers.
Where is this even coming from?
"Well, now you are stalling. Does that really mean that you are breaking up with me because you are in love with him, Ichigo?"
She paused, looking slightly confused at Masaya's expectant face, as she mulled his last words over.
First, she wanted to laugh at him, supposing the last time she had even seen Kisshu was when they were exchanging their goodbyes, with Masaya standing right by her side. But she understood that Masaya was hurt and looking for practically any target at that point upon which he could unleash his fury.
In reality, Ichigo had not thought about Kisshu for a long time. And that sounded utterly awful to her conscience, considering she knew that he had died for her once. If she were to answer Masaya's question honestly, Ichigo would have lied if she had said that she didn't miss Kisshu. When the aliens returned back to their planet, she had been finding herself missing them all, and terribly at that. She had gotten so used to their daily fighting and bickering that it felt somewhat hard and also wrong to cut them from her life so abruptly. Of course, she could not admit that to Masaya, since she knew that such information would have had the effect of riling him up instantly.
Come to think of it, when had she stopped thinking about Kisshu and the others exactly? Ichigo was sure that on multiple occasions, she had caught herself wondering about the aliens and their whereabouts. She had hoped sincerely that everyone on their planet was doing ok and that Kisshu, Pai and Taruto managed to save their people with the Mew Aqua. She had also often contemplated if they had been given any reward for their service and, more importantly, how much they had changed. The mental image of Taruto hitting puberty especially made Ichigo internally laugh even then, regardless of her heated discussion with Masaya at the moment.
"I have not seen Kisshu since the aliens left for their planet," Ichigo replied at last.
"That still does not answer my question, Ichigo." He bit back tensely and Ichigo sighed.
"Masaya, I understand you are extremely hurt right now. And I am really, really sorry. But the reason why I want to end this relationship is not because of Ryou, Kisshu or any other guy. We simply grew apart. You have your life in London and I…I have my life here. Please don't think badly of me. I still deeply care about you," at this point, Ichigo started to feel the tears forming in the corners of her eyes and it did not take long until her gaze become blurred, "I just simply don't feel the fireworks in my body when I am with you. I don't miss you when I cannot see you…and I don't feel like flying over the moon when I kiss you. I…I have been thinking long and hard about this and all these feelings made me realize that I just don't think that we are right for each other. I don't want to lead you on…or hold you back in any way. So please…don't hate me for that and try to understand. I-I just want you to be happy. And that…that is why I believe that we should both go our separate ways…for both of our sakes."
Masaya stared at her in silence for a few seconds before he finally managed to find his voice.
"Understood. Thank you for your time, Ichigo."
She heard his chair creak and then he was gone.
It was at that moment that Ichigo let go. She had no idea how much longer she had been sitting in that restaurant, alone, crying her eyes out silently, trying her best not to bother anyone with her public display. But eventually, there were no more tears left to cry, as the realization dawned on her that it was finally over. And for that, Ichigo was both heartbroken and thankful.
It was something about the rain that was calming her nerves, making her wind down effortlessly; the rain that she had been until now observing with utmost reverence; the rain that promised her a new beginning. Ichigo stopped in her tracks, lifting her gaze towards the sky hopefully.
At the end of every storm, there was always a rainbow.
"Hey, Earth to Ichigo, is anyone there?"
Ichigo snapped out of her reveries, as she felt the sudden kick and the immediate pain that inevitably followed.
"Ouch, what was that for?" Ichigo whined, massaging her sore ankle, glaring daggers at Mint who was casually sipping her tea on the other side of the table.
She had finished sweeping and decided, against her better judgement, to sit with Mint for a little break. She knew that she was playing with fire, as Ryou had his eyes trained on her almost constantly, never missing a chance to bark yet another order. Even still, she could not resist the idea of relaxing her muscles a little and that was why she had so obediently plopped down onto the chair when Mint offered her a brief moment of company. The only problem was that she had got somewhat entangled in her own thoughts yet again. It had been happening to her a lot that day.
"I said I'm done with my tea. Go fetch me another," Mint's tone cold and commanding as ever.
"What, no way! How about you make it yourself and when you're at it, why don't you take a cloth and help us all clean too?"
Ichigo started to believe that the emotional Mint from yesterday had never actually happened. Perhaps, it was just a figment of Ichigo's imagination. It must have been. Because there was no way that the Mint who was currently bossing her around could have anything in common with the caring and empathetic Mint from yesterday, minus the physical violence, that is.
"It is your job to clean, Ichigo. Not mine." Mint answered snidely, putting her cup down with a gentle clink.
"Oh really," Ichigo drawled, sarcasm dripping in her voice.
She was just about ready for a comeback at Mint when Lettuce stepped inside the room, panic visibly contorting her features.
"Ichigo, Mint. Ryou wants to talk to us all. Can you be downstairs in 5 minutes? It's an emergency. I will go and notify Zakuro and Pudding too."
Mint and Ichigo exchanged a confused look, their former argument temporarily forgotten, before nodding in unison.
"So Mew Mews, before we move any further with this meeting I want to run a little experiment first." Ryou started matter-of-factly, which earned him all sorts of reactions.
Whereas Lettuce looked on with anxiety, Zakuro's lips formed a straight line. By contrast, Ichigo cringed, Pudding exclaimed and Mint's eyes were nothing short of skeptical.
They were all standing in the basement now with Ryou in front of them; Keiichiro was leaning against the wall next to the screens a little to the left, with Masha flapping his tiny wings around him in the air.
"You want to run some more experiments on us, are you crazy?" Ichigo exclaimed in shock.
"For once, I agree with Ichigo. Or," Mint paused, sending the Mew Mew leader a mischievous look, "is that that you get some weird pleasure out of toying with the young girls and their bodies, Ryou?" Mint made sure that her emphasis was not lost on the blonde.
"And what exactly would make you say that," Ryou retorted sharply, his cold blue eyes trained on her.
Mint grimaced but immediately dropped it, "No real reason."
"Good," Ryou deadpanned before he turned back to his screens, "It has been more than three years since you all transformed into your Mew forms. I want to find out, if you are still capable of it."
At this, each of the girls instantly retrieved their pendants, ready to put Ryou's challenge to the test. Nevertheless, as soon as they kissed the tiny object, there was no metamorphosis in progress. That scarcely surprised anyone though, considering the last time they had actually been able to go through with the transformation coincided with the aliens' departure from Earth.
"Just as I thought," Ryou noted, "Thank you. This does make Pai's theory all the more plausible."
"What theory," Lettuce asked, genuinely interested.
"Pai, Keiichiro and I have been undertaking a research concerning the DNA alternations and last week we reached the conclusion that the transformation is basically conditioned by the presence of an alien threat. To put it simply, if there is no alien, your Mew abilities are dormant. However, we still don't know what would happen should you and an alien come in contact again."
"Wait a second, Ryou. You mentioned you reached the conclusion last week? Does that mean you are in touch with Pai," Mint asked, her eyebrows slightly furrowed.
Ryou nodded.
"You are?" Ichigo's eyes went wide and Lettuce gasped.
"More or less. We talk on week-to week basis," Ryou shrugged nonchalantly.
"But w-why would you not tell us, Ryou? Was that…was that some kind of…secret," Lettuce ventured shyly.
"Not really. But we are no longer enemies so why would I tell you about that?"
"Ryouuuuuu," Ichigo roared, trying her best not to launch herself at the blonde scientist and scratch his eyes out in the process.
Lettuce being the diplomat, tried a different approach. Ichigo could only guess that her friend's slightly flushed cheeks might have far more to do with the possibility of talking to Pai again, instead of their argument with Ryou.
"That is not the point. I am-I am sure that I can speak for everybody here that…we would be….happy about seeing the familiar faces again…It's been a while."
Ryou regarded her for a moment before he exhaled and adjusted his tone.
"Sorry, I did not find it necessary to let you guys in on our scientific conversations. We mostly talk about experiments with data transmissions and such. I hardly thought anyone besides me or Keiichiro here would find it even remotely interesting."
The apology took everyone by surprise and it did not take long for the majority of the Mew Mew faces to relax and lighten up. Except for Pudding.
"Ryou was a mean, mean boss, na no da. He was keeping Taru-Taru all to himself!" Pudding jumped up front and began punching Ryou's side with her tiny fists, "Pudding wants to talk to the aliens too and give them a big HUG na no da!"
"Sure, you free this weekend?" Ryou asked and watched as Pudding stopped at her antics, her face betraying a mild disbelief at his sudden question. Nonetheless, her silence was only short-lived as she soon broke into a happy squeal.
"REALLLLLLY, I could talk AGAIN to Taru-Taru!?" Pudding let go of the blonde and started hopping up and down like the monkey she really was.
"More than that actually," Ryou smiled at her obvious enthusiasm and turned around, addressing everyone in the room, "this is more of a general invitation and the reason why I called you all in here in the very first place. Apparently, there is a huge celebration on their planet, Cyclonia, this weekend by which the aliens intend to commemorate their perseverance, history and joy for life. From what Pai has told me, it involves a great deal of balls, social activities and festivals that can stretch up to twelve days. Of course, we can leave earlier than that but, for now, let's work with the twelve day time-frame scenario for this trip. I did not want to make the decision by myself. So let me ask you this. Tokyo Mew Mew, do you wanna go and see your familiar faces again?" Ryou smirked, as he slowly took in the excited screams that accompanied his proclamation.
Only Zakuro composed herself, but from the tiny smile that broke onto her face, it was evident that she was delighted with the presented offer as well.
