Chapter Ten: Kisshu's Decision

"Alright, Arissa, now concentrate!" Pai was confident that this time, Arissa would be able to produce the results he wanted. She was seven now, and completely recovered from the DNA merging procedure. He glanced at Kisshu, who had been given him the silent treatment for two months. The only words he ever spoke were in relation to the girl. Well, that was just fine with him. He didn't need Kisshu anyway.

"I did it! Look, Pai-sama, I did it!" ARissa was holding up her very first infuser. She showed it to Tart too. "See? I can do it."

"Very good. Now, you have to learn to control them. Can you do that?"

"That's enough, Pai." Kisshu walked over. "Arissa, come with me."

"I'm not finished with her yet. She's still has a long way to go." Pai scowled at Kisshu. He's going to regret interfering with my plans. He watched Kisshu disregard his request and pick up the girl gently. "Kisshu…"

"Shut up." Kisshu replied, carrying the child to the other side of the room. "She needs some fun." He disappeared with her, taking her to the play room that he and Tart had built for her birthday the month before. "Go on, little one. Go and play." He set her down, and watched her tear off gleefully towards the trampoline. She missed being able to run around at will. Pai had been training her too hard for the last few months after the surgery. I hate to admit it, but that surgery did strengthen her quite a bit. She's done wonderfully up here since then. Still. She's a child alien, human or not. She's just a baby in my eyes, and I don't want her to get hurt.

"Kisshu-kun, can you push me on the swing, please?" Arissa came over to him, and tugged gently on his tunic. "I'm still too short."

"You'll grow, little one. You will grow." Kisshu patted her head, and then picked her up. "The swings it is…" He pushed her for just a little bit, and then stopped the swing, squatting to her level in front of it. "Kitten…do you ever think about the Mew Mews?"

"Yeah! I wanna destroy them so you and Pai don't get hurt anymore!" She made a slashing motion as if she was carrying a sword.

"But, precious, you can't really go after them like that. They'd only hurt you." He wondered kind of thoughts Pai had been filling her head with. She seemed so much more grown up than she should be. "Wouldn't you….want to see your friend Ryou again?" Could it be that Pai had gone against my wishes and erased her memories of her time on Earth?

Arissa didn't reply at first. She stared into Kisshu's eyes, silently. She didn't understand why her missing Ryou or anyone from the blue planet suddenly mattered to him. He had spent so long telling her that Ryou and Keiichiro were bad people; (Even promising never to take her toys away from her to keep her away from them. ) But, now he was asking her if she missed them? Why? It didn't make any sense. Of course I miss them. I've been missing Keiichiro-kun for a long time, and Ryou too, even though he did take my toys away. They were both so kind to me…and then I left them sad. "Can I go see them, Kisshu?"

Kisshu nodded slowly. "I do think that's a good idea…" We've had her for long enough, in my opinion. I'm certain Ryou and Keiichiro will still take her in, regardless of her new alien powers. "Come on." He took her hand, and they went down below.

Pai growled under his breath from his position beside the playroom doorway. What does he think he's doing?! All of my hard work on Arissa is going to go to waste if he gives her back to them! Damn you, Kisshu! I won't have it! I most certainly will not! He stormed off down the hall, and to his laboratory. I'll teach you a lesson, Kisshu. You don't mess with a good formula. It spoils the whole recipe.

Ichigo was sweeping the floor of the Mew Mew Café when Kisshu appeared suddenly, bearing Arissa. "Arissa!" She narrowed her eyes, seeing suddenly the difference. What have they done to that poor girl?! "What have you done to her?" She reached over to take her from the alien, but Arissa slapped her away. "Arissa!" She backed up.

"Arissa, precious, don't do that to her. She's one of your friends…" Kisshu put her down, and took her hand in his. "Kitty cat. I need you to take her."

"What?! Why? What are you up to? She just tried to attack me!" Ichigo stared at the pair warily. It was obvious that Arissa no longer knew the difference between friend or foe. The Cyniclons had seen to that.

"Please. Pai means for her to fight along side us against you. I don't want to see her get hurt." Kisshu's face was full of worry for his little friend. He had gone quite soft when it came to the child. He loved her, almost as much as he loved Ichigo, if not more.

"What's going…you!" Keiichiro stood in the doorway of the kitchen, looking astounded. "Arissa…what…?"

Arissa looked over. "Keiichiro." She looked up at Kisshu, and when he nodded approvingly, she ran into the baker's arms. "I missed you so much."

"I missed you too…" Keiichiro took note of how her features had changed, and how much taller she had gotten. What he noticed the most however was how stiffly she hugged him. "Arissa…what's happened to you? Did they hurt you?"

"Uh uh."

While they were reuniting, Kisshu took Ichigo by the wrist, and yanked her outside. "Please. I know you still care for her. I need you to take care of her. Pai has gone overboard, and I'm afraid she's far too influenced by him."

"What happens if she tries to attack us?! She's not exactly very friendly right now." Ichigo replied. I wonder if Ryou could train her again. He undid their mess the first time… "What makes you so sure she'll stay with us?"

Kisshu muttered. "I don't know." He sighed deeply. It was very true that Arissa was really attached to Pai and Tart as well as him. It would be hard to make her stay behind. He could imagine how much she would scream and cry. But, he would have to do it. It was for her own good. "It doesn't matter whether or not she wants to stay. She's staying."

"Is that so?" Pai came down from the tree he had been perched in. "Kisshu, you have interfered for the last time!" Suddenly, Predacytes surrounded Ichigo and Kisshu. "I predict that there won't be a chance for you to stop me from taking my sister back home." He left them to deal with the present situation, and barged into the café. "Arissa! Come over here at once." He was annoyed to find the girl eating a piece of chocolate cake with one of the Mew Mews' leaders. "I said now!" He grabbed her roughly. "You're coming home with me right now."

"No! I wanna stay and finish my cake!" Arissa screamed indiginantly. "Kisshu-kun said I could!"
"Too bad Kisshu's not in charge of your training. I am." Pai picked her up then. "Now come!"

"Put. Her. Down." Kisshu said crisply from behind Pai. "She's staying here. She doesn't belong in our fight with the Mew Mews." He produced one of his daggers. "Don't make me fight my own teammates."

Arissa watched this from Pai's arms. Her eyes widened. "No! Don't fight!"

"He's not leaving me very much choice in the matter!" Pai set her down hard on her feet. "Arissa, now you can prove to me how well you've learned. Fight him."

"No way! I'm not going to fight her!" Kisshu threw an infuser at Pai. "Arissa, go with your friend back there. Now, hurry!"

"Don't even think about it!" Pai produced a force field cage, and it surrounded Arissa. "We finish this now, Kisshu. First you couldn't fight the Mew Mews because you fell in love with their leader. And now you want to take all my hard work and destroy it for the sake of her being free! That was not the agreement, and you know it."

"It was not the agreement for you to work her so hard either! She's a child, damn it! Only really jerks like you work that hard at the age of seven! As I recall, someone wanted me to take care of her, but ever since your experimental infusing of our DNA worked on her, you've been using her as your own personal weapon against the mew mews, and it's not fair to her!"

"You really are a fool." He pulled out his fan.
"No!! Kisshu-kun!!" Inside her prison, Arissa was crying hysterically. She had never seen her precious cyniclons fight like this, and it really was hard to understand. "Let me out, please!"
"Shut it, or else." Pai glared at her, giving her a warning look. He had enough to deal with without Arissa getting insolent too. "Kisshu. I do hope you've said good bye to your little girl friend." He was just about to finish the younger alien when he was grabbed by a vine. "Gah!! What the…Tart?!"

"That's right." The now teen Tart had Arissa on his hip. "You have gone too far, Pai. We won't be able to accomplish our objective if you kill Kisshu. She's not worth it!" Tart was holding Arissa close though. He looked down at her. "You're staying here."

"No! I wanna stay with Kisshu-kun!!"

"Let me take her outside for a minute, okay?" Kisshu had put his dagger away. He took the child into his arms, and leviated to the roof of the café. "Listen, kitten…" He found himself choking up. "When…" He cleared his throat, trying to be strong. "When I kidnapped you…I had no intention of being good to you. I wanted to use you to get to Mew Ichigo. I..I killed your parents. And…well, even with all of that, I found myself really loving you. And…well, that's why you have to stay here from now on. It's because I love you." By the time he finished his explanation, both he and Arissa were in tears. He held her very tightly. "No matter what happens, Precious, I will always love you. Okay? I mean it."

"I love you too, Kisshu-kun…and I always will."

"Me too, squirt." Tart was there now, and he picked her up gently. "It'll all be alright. Just…stay out of the way. We don't want you to get hurt anymore." He took her back down to the café, and handed her to Ryou, who had now joined them all. "Please, treat her well."

"We'll do better than you have." Ryou replied darkly, holding the sobbing girl gently. "We will."

"We did pretty well, if I do say myself." Tart retorted in an offended tone. "She knows right from wrong."

"I doubt that." Ryou glowered at him. "Now get out of here, before I send my girls on you."

"Fine." Tart was annoyed by his attitude. He returned to his friends, miffed. "That Ryou guy…he's lucky I did hurt him! He had the nerve to say he'd do better than we did with Arissa!"

"It may be he's right…" Pai said now. He was watching from the window, as the Mew Mews and their leaders tried to comfort the heartbroken child. I…I didn't realize what I was doing until it was too late. Kisshu was right to take her away. He sighed deeply, turning to his brothers. "Let's get out of here. We need to regroup, and revamp our strategy." The Cyniclons disappeared then.

Inside the café, Keiichiro saw the Cyniclons leave, and wondered if this was the end for them, as far as Arissa was concerned. He turned to the girls and Ryou, who were working steadily on calming the hysterical girl down a bit more. Arissa was slowly quieting in Ryou's arms, though she seemed to keep looking for her alien "family". She sobbed softly, burying her face in Ryou's chest miserably.

"I know, Sweetie, I know…" Ryou held her close to him. "I'm sure it was hard on Kisshu too…he didn't want to give you up….it was just something he had to do…" Ryou may not like the Cyniclons. In fact, he loathed them with every fiber of his being, but at the same time, he knew that now was not the time to remind Arissa of that. Besides, thanks to Pai experimenting on her, Arissa was half cyniclon. He stood up with her in his arms. "I think I'm going to take her back to my house for the night. Keiichiro, you can handle things here, can't you?"

"Yep." He smiled gently at Arissa. "You're going to be happier with us, Arissa. Just you watch." He watched Ryou leave with her, and then turned to the mew mews "Well, that's one crisis that's finally come to an end.

"I don't think it was the end…I think it's more like a new beginning." Mint commented. The others nodded in agreement.

"Well, either way, Arissa is back where she belongs, and with people who will lover her, and not use her.

"Yep! Though…somehow, I don't think this will be the last time they will want to see her." Pudding said now, frowning. "Oh well. Let's just enjoy having her back for now."

"Yeah!!" The other girls agreed. Things would be back to normal before they knew it, and Arissa would be better off.

(A/N: And finally, we come to the end of this first Mew Mew fic. It took a while, but I was finally able to come up with a decent scene for the ending that I could be satisfied with. I hope you are all satisfied with it as well. Enjoy the ending! Thanks so much for all of those who reviewed, and kept up with it, and reminded me it was still here.)