Chapter Two - Taking Responsibility

"Right, that should do it..." I announced calmly, letting one more drop of a greenish liquid fall from the tip of a pipet into a marked test tube.

"Everything's fine here, Ryou," Keiichiro told me, checking to make sure that his ponytail was still fastened tightly so that it wouldn't get in his way.

"Good," I pushed the test tube vertically up into an injection gun, flipped it quickly so there wouldn't be any air bubbles in the solution, and screwed the cap on tight, cocking it backwards until I heard a metallic click.

Things had fallen into place without much trouble. We just needed five girls who were compatible with the Red Data Animals' DNA. It didn't seem like five individuals could make much of a difference, but as time went on, I had begun to believe.

I had gotten my diploma over a year ago. It had been four and a half years since I had arrived in Japan. Since then I had undergone an annoying growth spurt which left me with few pants that would actually fit. My voice had deepened so that I felt awkward speaking at first. Most people refer to this as puberty. The schools here still hadn't done much for me, but atleast I didn't stumble home with a bloodied nose every evening. My professors recognized my potential and made their best effort to throw even more homework at me; calling on me often in class and asking me to lead debates. I also got a lot of attention from my peers, not all good. Unlike most people, I didn't join any clubs or fraternities. I didn't even join any of the sports teams. Instead, I would return to the tacky pink cafe where I lived and help Keiichiro serve customers and continue progress on my father's Mew Project.

I turned my head up to a shelf. There was a cluster of five different viles there. Each had come from a different Red Data Animal, which would be our 'antidote' against the aliens' attacks. Each represented a different species. We had imported the Golden Lion Tamarin DNA from Brazil, where the monkeys' habitat was being threatened. The Ultramarine Lorikeet and Gray Wolf DNA came from Tahiti and America respectively. The Finless Porpoise sample we had collected ourselves during a recent boating trip. The final vile was closest to home. The Iriomote Wildcat lives in small numbers on Iriomote Island in the Okinawa prefecture of Japan. We had visited for a week and did not come across a single member of the feline's population. After we asked a few fellow scientists to keep a lookout for the cats, we had returned home empty-handed. A week ago Doctor Yamamoto had finally faxed me to report that he had two samples of the wilcat's DNA and asked me if I still wanted them. They had been shipped and arrived the previous day. The Iriomote Wildcat was decided to be used as the project's core, meaning that she would be the leader. Originally we thought about setting the Gray Wolf as the core, but decided against it. We had two samples of the cat DNA, if we should happen to fail, there was always the backup sample.

"Let's call it a night," Keiichiro suggested finally, removing a pair of goggles from his face.

"Okay..." I said, giving in to his concerned big brotherly look and switching off the lights.

I wasn't ready for sleep. I changed out of my shirt and flicked on a lamp by my bed, deciding to thumb through a biology textbook for a while. This was actually going to happen. I smiled to myself. After everything that had occurred, the Mew Project was finally going to jump from dream to reality. I couldn't help but be proud. The computers would run a final scan on everything during the night, then all we'd have to do is figure out a way to find and inject the girls with the DNA. It would all be perfect. Perfect... I sat the book down, my eyes beginning to droop, and killed the light. Was it really perfect? The question gnawed away at a far corner of my brain. Suppose something went wrong? Suppose the DNA caused a mutation and one of the girls ended up dying? I didn't think that I could live with being responsible for something like that.

"If only there was some way we could test it..." I muttered aloud, realizing there wasn't one. Curling up under the bedsheets and punching at the pillow a few times to fluff it, I finally drifted off, my head still filled with thoughts about the following months.

-

"It's finished," Keiichiro announced as he finally peeled his eyes away from the data that the computers had compiled during the night, "All we have to do now is use it on the girls."

I tossed a stack of papers onto the desk area beside him with plans for machinery that would be able to inject them from a fair distance away. One of the chosen need only be outside. When that happened, a laser would absorb the genetic material and fire it as a beam. It was nearly full-proof.

I finally asked the question that had been bugging me. Maybe I had a guilty conscience, I'm not sure. "Is this really safe, Keiichiro?"

He looked up at me startled, "Ryou? How can you say that after all of the tests?"

"The tests were on rats, Keiichiro. We're injecting humans this time."

"You are the one who knows best how perfect our research is..."

That was true. This was my responsibility. If something went wrong, the burden would be on my shoulders. My eyes fell onto the injection gun that was still lying there on the counter fully loaded.

Keiichiro looked at me worriedly, then checked to make sure the computer was backing up the files properly.

My hand moved cautiously towards the device and I slowly wrapped my fingers around the handle and picked it up, studying it critically. What would happen if I was the guniea pig? There was no one else I could ask. This was my duty. If for some reason there were side effects, the project would end up failing before it had truly begun.

Keiichiro must have caught me out of the corner of his eye. He bolted from his seat with a startled look on his face, "Ryou! What are you trying to?"

I ignored him and brought the gun up to my neck, replying seriously, "I entrust the rest of the research to you. This will be the final experiment."

Keiichiro stood there with his jaw open and his brows knit in concern, but he didn't try to stop me. I felt my fingers tighten around the trigger as I looked back at him, afraid I was going to chicken out. Finally I gathered every ounce of willpower I could until the trigger snapped. There was a bright flash of light as a burning sensation entered my neck. At first it only felt like a bee sting, but soon pain was tearing into me and spreading out into every nerve of my body. It was almost unbearable. I started to panic, but as soon as I did so, another numbing wave of pain went to my brain so that I couldn't even think straight. I grabbed my head in my hands, but the motion added to the nauseous feeling in my stomach and everything starting spinning. The light which had started at the point of injection now flooded into my vision from all sides, causing my eyes to water and forcing me to shut them. I screamed. It felt as if my body was on fire and burning from the inside out and the outside in at the very same time. I wanted to die. If I was dead it wouldn't hurt anymore. Then my stomach lurched again and I could hear things shifting. And I was falling. Perhaps I really was dying. Another jolt of fear shot to my head as I realized I'd never see my parents again. The pain seemed to have reached a peak, but I continued to fall. My arms and legs were melting and it seemed as though my spine was lengthening to twice what it normally was. I landed on all fours, catching myself with my hands as my mind finally started to react normally again and the agony ceased. I opened my eyes slowly, cursing outloud. I blinked as my voice came out in a squeak.

'Keiichiro, could you... give me a hand?' I requested through gritted teeth. I didn't think I'd ever be able to stand again after what had just happened. As Keiichiro bent down next to me, his eyes held more sorrow than I had ever seen in them before. He lifted me up easily. It was then that I realized that he was a giant.

"We have now completed all of the experiments..." he whispered.

I blinked my eyes again. What? What..?

Letting out another failed attempt of a syllable, Keiichiro pulled me close into a hug, "Now I will start the Mew Project, Ryou..."

I felt weird. I noticed finally that some soft cloth was wrapped around my neck where I had injected the wildcat DNA. The DNA! I realized at that moment exactly what had happened. You had to have a specific gene type for the injection to be successful, otherwise... otherwise one would simply be turned into an animal. Was I going to be stuck as a cat forever?

Keiichiro finally let me down as I tried to walk. He searched the safe for a small test tube of a clear liquid which seemed to radiate its own inner light. He sat that down and went to look for a needle and syringe after typing a few things into the open program. Results must have come back, as I could easily make out the sound of the machine processing information, but I had a hard time seeing anything. Everything was a weird mix of greens and blues, and my head still throbbed. I pricked my ears as Keiichiro's footsteps returned and he scooped me up again.

"According to this data, you should be able to switch forms at will, however, if you remain a cat for more than ten minutes, you'll be stuck that way. You're lucky we have any of the Mew Aqua, or else you would already be trapped," he said.

I felt the needle go into my arm. It felt like an ordinary needle, but within five minutes my head didn't hurt so much and my body felt lighter. The pain I had experienced only a few moments ago, seemed like a nightmare, and not something that had actually happened. There was another flash of light. I feared that the whole process would repeat itself, but it soon vanished and I stood beside Keiichiro... a normal-looking Keiichiro. The other colors of the visible spectrum soon returned to my eyes.

"Ryou! You could have died!" he shouted at me.

"No... I couldn't..." I muttered weakly.

Keiichiro continued to scold me, saying it had been a stupid stunt to pull, especially since I had know that my gene type was not compatible. It does seem reckless now, but it hadn't at the time.

He sighed exhaustedly, "I'm just glad you're okay... try to take it easy..."

"...Yeah..."

I climbed the steps to the kitchen a bit shaken, but otherwise I felt fine now. The cafe was closed for the weekend, so the only light source was coming through the domed ceiling which was comprised of a stained glass mural and a painted castle scene lining the window. I trudged towards the fridge and brought out a carton of milk. I had managed to gratefully down about half of it before Keiichiro returned to check on me and scolded me again for drinking it straight from the container. I knew there would be side effects. There always were. Now that I knew the DNA injection process would indeed work, and that the two sequences (from the animal and the human) would actually assimilate, I felt somewhat reassured.

Over time I came to terms with the extra set of coding that existed within me. I tried my best to seem normal so as to keep Keiichiro off my back about it. I found myself drinking much more milk than usual, although I still preferred water over anything. I also noted that I was actually starting to have a taste for fish when I wouldn't have touched it before. My sleeping patterns hadn't really changed. I had expected them to, but it was just fine with me that they didn't. This way I could still pull an all-nighter when research required it. I had become more athletic. I could jump higher, run for longer periods of time (though not faster), and I also noticed a slight increase in upper body strength. That was about it. All of this was well and good, but those weren't the only changes. Headaches were frequent occurences. Sometimes they were so bad that I had to simply walk away and lie down on my bed for a while. They could last up to several hours at a time. There was also an effect on my attitude. I had phases where I became extremely irritable. These came and went without warning.

"The day" drew near. We had chosen a nice peaceful Tuesday in the spring. The machinery was ready, we only needed to track down where each of the five were at the moment, catch them outdoors, and shoot. I sat up in my room, the collar I now insisted upon wearing in my left hand. I traced the outline of the scar with my right. I didn't need a mirror to tell where it was, because whenever I touched it my neck itched uncomfortably. I fastened the collar back around my neck and looked over at the unmade mess which was my bed. When I finally convinced myself to go over and straighten it up, R2000 floated down to me. It perched on my shoulder and alerted me that something was up.

I rushed to the lab where Keiichiro was typing hurriedly, "What's up?"

"Take a look at this, Ryou..."

I rushed over to him as he brought up a window on the screen. In the window was a quicktime video of a perky-looking girl with red hair walking alongside some dark-haired boy who must be her boyfriend. She was... cute. She didn't, however, look like a fighter to me. I glanced over at the other side of the screen as Keiichiro brought up a scan. This was her. This girl's genes matched perfectly with that of the Iriomote Wildcat.

"It's perfect," Keiichiro explained, "and I've already located the others. The future of the Earth is about to change." I fired up the machine. It hummed to life rapidly and began to glow a redish hue as it absorbed the fluids. I reached for the remote, a single red button. It was now or never.

"Mew Project, Commence!" My finger pressed the launch button.

"It's done..." I said a moment later.

"Indeed. I guess now you want to go meet our top lady," Keiichiro smiled.

"What?"

"You know you do. Momomiya Ichigo now carries the same DNA you do, although she'll be able to use it."

"Pfft. She's supposed to be able to use it..." I corrected.

Keiichiro shook his head at me, still smiling, "Then go find out."

"Maybe I will," I replied, trying to sound uninterested, but I was out the door within minutes. Maybe I was... a little interested in meeting this girl. But only a little.

"R2000, begin tracking program," I ordered, poking the pink fuzzball that was now snoozing on my shoulder. It awoke, "Tracking, tracking!"

"Right. Find me Momomiya Ichigo, Number 01, Iriomote Wildcat."

"Found! Found!" R2000 responded quickly.

"Location?"

"Inohara Park!"

sidenote: This refers to Ryou not believing that he'd go to Heaven to be with his parents because he had not done anything good with his life to redeem himself... without knowing this, my sentence doesn't make much sense. ;

A/N: Decided to stop there or else I'd be up all night redoing the entire first battle. X-X And so I leave you, the readers, with a question. Should I continue with flashbacks and retelling of key moments throughout the fanfic, or should I stop with these and keep going from the present until the end? My other question is whether or not you all think that I should make this a Ryou x Ichigo fanfiction. I won't necessarily stick them together at the end, but I'm asking if you want me to highlight the relationship that they do have. If not, it'll focus more on Ryou on his own, with all of the girls mentioned equally, and no real preference among them. If you want him with Ichigo, I can throw romance in, if not, I'll leave it out. It's up to you because I can go either way, but I really don't want to pair him with any of the other girls. Anyway, hope you enjoyed it and please stay tuned for "Chapter 3: Poolside Reunion".