Not So Dead After All

Chapter 2

Ichigo finally calmed down, and asked, "Is there anything else we need to discuss?"

"Currently, no," Keiichiro said. "We can't do much until the enemy actually strikes; we don't know where they are. You should take Chikako to your house and explain the situation to your parents; I'll contact you as needed."

"Okay," Ichigo said. She got up, and the others did the same. "Chikako, you can come with me; I'll show you where I live," Ichigo said.

"Alright," Chikako said. She followed Ichigo out after they said their goodbyes, and walked with her back to her house. Partway down the street, Ichigo took out her cell phone, and said, "You don't mind if I call up my friends, do you? They need to know too, or they'll start interrogating you about why you're with me in front of the entire school."

"I don't mind," Chikako said. "Are they overprotective?"

"Very," Ichigo said, dialing Miwa's number. The other girl picked up after two rings, and Ichigo said, "Miwa, can you get Moe and come to my house? I've got important news that your parents shouldn't hear."

"We'll be there soon," Miwa said, and hung up. Ichigo closed her phone and said, "Let's go; knowing them they'll be there in about ten minutes."

Chikako nodded and followed Ichigo to her house. Moe and Miwa ran up as they got there, and Ichigo said, "Good timing, guys. This is Chikako, she's going to be staying with me for a while."

"This should be interesting," Moe commented. "Let's go inside."

Ichigo nodded and led the way inside. The girls took off their shoes, and Ichigo called, "Mom? Dad?"

"Living room," Shintaro's voice called back. Ichigo led the other girls to the living room, and Sakura and Shintaro looked up as she said, "I need to talk to you guys."

"What's wrong?" Sakura asked. "And who's your new friend?"

"This is Shimura Chikako," Ichigo said. "You remember I told you about the Mews and Cyniclons forming a truce, right?"

"Yes," Shintaro said. "What happened?"

"A small group of my people decided they'd try to bring back Deep Blue so they could take over Earth," Chikako said. "I came with Kisshu, Pai and Taruto because their plan is to infiltrate the Mews' lives, and that includes school. Kisshu suggested since they're sending this nutcase after Ichigo, that I would be the best person to protect her. I'm not very noticeable, and I'm trained in hand-to-hand combat if something happens. I also have the most inside information on the rebels; I was working as a spy for Kisshu while the members of the group planned a rebellion. Ichigo suggested that the best idea would be for me to go to her school as her cousin, since my last name would be a dead giveaway as to who I really am if the rebels succeed in getting Kasumi into Ichigo's school as well. The only problem I have is that I don't know Japanese history."

"We can work that out with the school; do you know how long you'll be staying?" Sakura asked.

"As long as it takes to stop the rebels; in other words, I have no clue," Chikako replied. "Do you mind if I stay here?"

"Not at all," Shintaro said. "The only other place you could stay is Café Mew Mew, and it'd be all BOYS over there."

"Shintaro, don't start ranting again," Sakura said warningly. "It was bad enough when you actually threw a party when Ichigo broke up with Aoyama."

"That was fun," Moe said. "That's the first time I've had sake."

Sakura fixed Shintaro with a lethal glare and asked dangerously, "Exactly WHY did you give an underage girl SAKE!?"

"Um…." Shintaro said uncomfortably. "She wanted to try it?"

"You will be cleaning the basement ALONE now," Sakura said. "Seriously, do you have ANY common sense?"

"I have plenty of common sense!" Shintaro said indignantly. "I even thought ahead when Ichigo was little, so she wouldn't get hurt by BOYS!"

"I still don't understand why you require an armory," Ichigo muttered.

"Geez, no wonder Kisshu's afraid of you," Chikako said. "Although it looks like he was wrong about the shark teeth…."

"Shark teeth?" Sakura repeated.

"Kisshu claims he was spying on us one night and apparently Dad had shark teeth and a really creepy death aura while talking on the phone," Ichigo said. "I'm not surprised about the death aura, but I think he was imagining the shark teeth."

"I think we're getting off track," Miwa commented. "Shouldn't we be talking about arrangements for Chikako?"

"Good point," Sakura said. "Chikako, I assume you need to be in all Ichigo's classes?"

"Yes please," Chikako said. "Can you think of anything that would explain why I don't know Japanese history?"

"We just tell them that my sister, who is coincidentally single right now, sent you to me from America because of health reasons," Shintaro said. "It will also let you take the name Momomiya, since she is still called that. I've heard in America not all women take their husband's name. And I'll list myself as a contact person since America's too far away for my sister to get here if something happens to you."

"Wouldn't I take my father's name though?" Chikako asked.

"We could make up a hyphenated name," Ichigo suggested. "So she could keep the name Momomiya, but add another name."

"Good idea," Shintaro said. "Any ideas for another name? I think it should be Japanese, since I know for a fact my sister wouldn't marry someone who's not at least part Japanese. And she doesn't actually live in America, either. We'll just tell the school that she does."

Chikako thought, then said, "My mother's maiden name was Inoue; would that work?"

"Sure," Shintaro said. "Which do you prefer? That's a bit of a mouthful."

"Momomiya," Chikako said.

"Alright, I'll let the school know that your surname is Momomiya-Inoue, but you prefer to go by Momomiya," Shintaro said. "And I'll have them put you in all Ichigo's classes, and tell them about your lack of Japanese history education. I'm sure they can work something out. Do you know any English? That would help your cover story."

"I can speak English, but with an accent," Chikako said. "When Kisshu and his brothers first came back to Cyniclonia, they mentioned that there were lots of different languages on Earth, and they brought back some books, too. The teachers at the school liked the idea of other languages, so we got to choose a language to learn, and I chose English."

"Accents are fine, especially since you would have grown up learning both languages if you were my niece," Shintaro said. "It might take a day or so to get you into the system, though."

"That's fine," Chikako said. "I assume I need a uniform, right?"

"Yes, and I think you'll also need some human clothing, too," Sakura said. "I'll take you shopping tomorrow; should I keep Ichigo home too?"

"No, we got here before the rebels did, so they'll be getting organized still," Chikako said. "Besides, I hear Moe and Miwa are very overprotective."

"Anyone who hurts Ichigo goes down," Moe said, cracking her knuckles. "Boys and girls included."

"And the principal got sick of suspending us, so we have two rules; we have to have a real reason besides that we don't like the person, and we can't kill anyone," Miwa added. "Sometimes he puts limits on us when one of the sports teams has an important event, but most of the time we have free reign of terror."

"I think we'll get along well," Ichigo said.

Moe and Miwa smirked. Chikako smiled, and asked them, "So where did you learn to fight?"

"Library books," Moe said. "We decided at age five that we wanted to protect Ichigo, and checked out all the books we could to learn how to fight. Since we studied several different types of fighting, we got really good at being unpredictable. We don't stick to one style; we like being surprising."

"That's impressive," Chikako said. "I learned a few different styles of martial arts, and then I learned how to fight with daggers and our military's hand-to-hand combat style."

Moe and Miwa's eyes lit up. "Daggers?" Miwa asked hopefully.

"Aren't you two banned from bringing weapons to school?" Ichigo asked pointedly.

Moe and Miwa drooped. Suddenly Miwa smirked, and asked, "So Ichigo, are you going to start dating Kisshu now that he's finally back?"

"I'm not sure," Ichigo said. "I admit my feelings for Aoyama have pretty much died by now, but I'm not sure I want to be with Kisshu."

"Is there someone else?" Moe asked.

Ichigo rolled her eyes. "If there was, you'd already know," she said. "I'm just glad Blondie's in jail; he'd be trying to make me be his if he wasn't, and now that Kisshu's back he'd be trying to get rid of the competition. He's worse than Kisshu ever was."

"I'm glad he's in jail too," Miwa said. "I'm also glad Keiichiro thought to cancel out his ability to turn into a cat with that serum; he could have escaped otherwise."

"And now we won't hear from him for the next thirty-three years!" Moe said cheerfully. "Serves the bastard right, thinking he was above the law. I'm glad Keiichiro got off, though."

"How did that happen?" Chikako asked. "I mean, wasn't Keiichiro in on the whole thing anyways?"

"Keiichiro was unsure about the project from the start, and when it became clear that Ryou was a danger to anyone who sympathized with your situation back then, he stuck around to protect us Mews," Ichigo said. "We managed to get him off because it turned out he was researching how to make sure Ryou couldn't turn into a cat, and he was planning on going to the police when he figured that out. He knew that Ryou would just escape if they put him in jail if they didn't have a way to suppress his cat form. He was also unsure about going to the police because of the public's reaction to finding out about the Mews. We could have been taken to labs and dissected, or used as government weapons. Keiichiro managed to prevent that by collecting evidence on Ryou's activities. It was decided by the government that we were victims of a madman's manipulations, and that along with Keiichiro, who was instrumental in revealing this, we would get to go free. Ryou, on the other hand, landed himself in a high-security prison for thirty-five years once his illegal activities came to light. The police got him just in time, too; Keiichiro called them at the same time that Ryou had knocked me out and tried to brainwash me. Keiichiro was the one who stopped him, and reversed the effects of the machine Ryou used. Then he just handed Ryou over to the police, and went to tell them everything after taking me home."

"Wow," Chikako said. "Well, I'm glad Keiichiro got off, or we'd be working to get the Mews back together instead of coming up with a game plan for how to defeat our enemies."

"I'm glad too; he's a really nice person, and really tried his hardest to make sure Ryou didn't abuse us," Ichigo said. "He didn't always succeed, but he managed to make sure Ryou never hit us. He kept it to verbal abuse after Keiichiro told him he'd lock him in the torture chamber Ryou made. And he kept the verbal abuse minimum when Keiichiro was around."

"Geez, Ryou had a torture chamber?" Chikako asked. "Yikes…."

"Yep, he was planning to capture Kisshu and torture him, but luckily he never succeeded," Ichigo said. "We found a machine that apparently will make a person relive their worst memory repeatedly, and a bunch of knives and other things to cause pain. Ryou was pure evil."

"Did you destroy the machine?" Chikako asked.

"We took the room apart after Ryou was arrested, and destroyed everything that didn't have a legitimate use," Ichigo said. "Keiichiro kept some of the knives, since they were apparently good for cooking uses, but that was about it. All the machines were destroyed, and most of the equipment in Ryou's lab was confiscated by the police. Keiichiro was allowed to keep the devices he used to track us and the computers, but that was it. And the only reason he got to keep the tracking device was because it can also track the energy signature of a Cyniclon. The police decided it would be a good idea to have someone who could track Cyniclons and other energy signatures should there ever be an attack again. He was also give orders to inform the authorities should there ever be another attack. I imagine he'll do that soon, if he hasn't already."

"Do you think the police will help us?" Chikako asked.

"Keiichiro said they probably will, but they'll mainly be in charge of evacuating civilians, since we can't do that as well as they can," Ichigo replied. "Some of them might join in the battle, but it's mainly going to be up to us to defeat the rebels, because they're not familiar with the way you guys fight, and they'd be pretty useless against Chimera Animas. Our weapons were designed specifically to destroy Chimera Animas, but they don't have that. It would be nice if the weapons that came with the transformation were less like cat toys, though. Thinking back, if Kisshu had fought one of us with his sais, there's not much we could do besides dodge. And having a sword or sais would be so much better than a furry pink heart with a bell on it. At least I'd be able to fight even if I didn't have time to use one of my attacks."

"Did you ever try changing the weapon?" Chikako asked. "Maybe if you concentrated hard enough you could change the weapon to something more useful."

"I never thought of that," Ichigo admitted. "Should I try it?"

"It can't hurt," Chikako said.

Ichigo nodded, and took her pendant out of her pocket.

Sorry for the delay. I decided with this chapter that I'd set the scene a bit, and give some background on what happened on Earth during the time the Cyniclons were gone. This probably won't be a story where I jump right into the action parts; I want to go more slowly, since I think I've been going too fast with my stories. So if the next chapters seem a bit slow, it's because I'm trying something new. It might not work, but I can try. Review please!