Booboo-nyaa: Well, I'm sorry I haven't updated in a while, I was working on the final chapters of Neko Kisshu-nyaa, so I haven't worked on this fic much....Gominasai.... But anyway, here it is!
"Japanese"
"English"
Thoughts
"J-J-J-Joseph?! N-n-no way!!! It's not possible... I'm delirious, I died, or this is all some weird dream..." Arekkusu just shook her head and started crying.
"Hey! Don't cry." the person who looked like Joseph said as he wiped away a tear with the back of his hand.
"Look, Watashi wa Shirogane Ryou desu. I don't know who Joseph is, but if an alien was trying to kidnap you, and was already fighting someone, and you had the power to stop it, what would this Joseph want you to do?" Ryou asked carefully as he set her back down on the ground.
"He'd tell me to run and then make sure nobody was left in danger." Arekkusu sniffed. How could she mistake another person for Joseph? Her one and only best friend that she ever had?
"Well crap. Look, I need you to do something for me okay? I know you don't know me and are probably a little confused, but you are a mew mew-"
"That be what they say." she sighed, using an authentic British accent. Her mother and grandmother were from England, so Arekkusu could easily alternate from southern country to a high classed British accent.
"Okay, your a mew so you need to transform right now and help Ichigo. You got that?" Ryou snapped as Arekkusu turned around and started walking in the opposite direction.
"Yep. I got it." she yawned.
"So...where are you going then?" he asked, exasperated at trying to figure this girl out.
"I said I get what you're saying. I'm not doing what you want though, you have no authority over me." Arekkusu smirked and walked further into the woods away from the noises of Ichigo and Kisshu fighting, and towards the general direction of her house.
"W-wait! You can't just leave!" Ryou jogged up to her.
"Watch me. You can't force me to fight. I have more important responsibilities to look after. Good day Mr. Shirogane. Can't say that it was a particular pleasure to meet you."
"You arrogant, rude little-" Ryou was interrupted as Arekkusu swung back and faced him, her nose not two inches from his.
"Talking about yourself, are you?" she gave another one of her rare sassy smirks, and with a swish of her brown hair, she ran ahead laughing.
Man, that was the weirdest thing ever....it was probably some role-play thing they wanted me to join. Weirdos. That was just a dream, it didn't give me any special 'mew powers' or whatever they were talking about. And if I ever see that blond jerk or green haired perv again.... her thoughts trailed off as she noticed some damage to the park around her.
Oh yeah, the earthquake.....Granny!!!!
Arekkusu ran past the pink cafe she ate at that morning, she ran past her school where she saw that red-headed meowing girl, and finally past the house that she discovered a family of six kids lived, the Fon residence. Arekkusu's grandmother was always the social type, so now and then she would end up baby-sitting young Pudding's siblings.
Now as she stared past Pudding's place and at her own ancient house.
It was in shambles. The roof was caved in along with the front wall, the stain-glass windows were all broken, colorful pieces littered the small lawn like snow. It was ironic, the beauty of the last rays of light were shining down upon them, turning the lawn into a sparkling, twinkling, beautiful place. It mocked the broken house.
With a shout Arekkusu darted past the glass and entered the house. It was in worse condition than the outside.
"Obaa-chan? Obaa-chan?! Grandma?! Where are you? WHERE ARE YOU?!" Arekkusu screamed her question into the two languages as she frantically searched through the rubble for her grandmother.
"Alex...?" a weak, muffled voice asked.
"Obaa-chan!!!" Arekkusu shouted as she dragged a pile of wood off of where the voice was coming from.
"Obaa-chan!"
"English please, my dear grandchild. I can barely hear as it is, and all of that fast talk is starting to sound like nonsense."
Elizabeth Mary-Anna Payne, was like most cookie-baking silver haired matriarchs of the house, even in the intense pain she must have been suffering in she still had that caring but comanding twinkle in her light blue eyes.
"Alexandra dear, I'm sorry.... Forgive me. Henry's calling for me now, I can see him...it's just like the old days..." she drifted off as memories of her dead husband engulfed her.
"Obaa-chan..." Arekkusu was frozen to the spot, crying in earnest.
"If anyone asks about who shall take care of you form now on, I have discussed it with a nice young gentleman named-"
"If anyone asks, you tell them yourself that you're just fine and dandy!!"Arekkusu roared in denial.
Her grandmother shakily reached into her pocket and took something out. With wavering hands she placed it in Arekkusu's hand.
"Gominasai.....Oh!" Elizabeth's eyes seemed to burn with fierce intensity, but as she tried to tell Arekkusu the rest of her sentence, the intense flame went out, leaving her eyes curiously blank, it was missing something vital. Life.
She was dead.
Arekkusu tore her gaze away from her precious grandmother, and looked at the cool object that was resting in her palm. It was a locket, one that she had always seen her grandma wear.
Arekkusu slowly opened it, only to reveal a short poem on a yellowed, dry, and extremely old piece of paper.
The smallest of beauties,
Can change the world,
And heal the cicatrix of hatred and death,
Through the traverses of devoted tribulation.
Only then, will the divine veracity, reveal itself.
Arekkusu was at loss for words. She was smart, she got the meaning of the poem. But she was in shock, so she didn't care.
Granny's......Granny's...... She couldn't even think the word dead.
"IIIIIIEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!No, no, no, no, no, no, NO!!!" fist curled Arekkusu punched the wall nearest to her, and with a crack it fell down away from her.
"GREAT. That's just my luck. JUST. MY. LUCK." Arekkusu shouted at no one in particular, or maybe it was at everything.
After few minutes of breaking every piece of wall in sight, she heard police and ambulance sirens.
Great timing guys. Even her facial expression dripped with the sarcasm her thoughts used.
Later the next day, after all of the talks with the police, the doctors, the funeral-house people, and worse yet- a counselor they forced her her to talk to, Arekkusu found herself drained of all will to do anything but sleep.
Elizabeth's will had been found in her room on her bed, written last week, and it stated that Arekkusu was to be entitled to all of the Payne family's money, seeing as she was the last Payne left.
As for the matter of who would be in charge of her care-taking, her grandmother had it planned out months ago.
When Arekkusu had started taking martial arts on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, Elizabeth would always go to Cafe Mew Mew's bingo night, and there she meet Keiichiro Akasaka.
Keiichiro alway's helped the poor half-bland woman figure out whether she had bingo or not, and he always served tea to the elderly there.
After a while she had confided in him about how she was getting old and her grand-daughter had no other relatives to go to, Keiichiro agreed to take in Arekkusu if Elizabeth passed on before any other relative was located.
"....'I was planning on telling her about this plan in two weeks'" Arekkusu read the excerpt out of the will. Letting it fall to the floor she turned to face her new guardian.
"Konichiwa, Arekkusu-chan. As you know, my name is Keiichiro Akasaka. It's a pleasure to meet you, your grandmother told me many good things about you." Keiichiro bowed politely. Arekkusu bowed too as custom and then shook his hand.
"Nice to meet you too, Akasaka-san."
"Please, call me Keiichiro." he smiled as he held the door to his red car open.
After a long while of silence, Arekkusu noticed that they were parking at that cafe.
"What're we getting here?" she asked as she hopped out but made no move to go in.
"Oh? This is your new home Arekkusu. I live, work, and manage the cafe with Ryou, you've already meet him yesterday; or so I've heard. You could say I took care of him like I'm taking care of you." Keiichiro unlocked the door and beckoned for her to enter.
Wait a minute.... Ryou? As in Shirogane?! Arekkusu speed up face her new care-taker.
"Do you mean Ryou-"
"It's Shirogane to you Missy." a voice sounded from behind the kitchen.
Ryou Shirogane was standing cross-armed in front of the gates to the kitchen, and he was not happy.
"Whoa! What's HE doing here?!?!" Arekkusu all but shrieked.
"I could ask the same question about you." Ryou face was a mask of annoyance, Arekkusu expected him to start tapping his foot at any moment.
"Ryou, this is Arekkusu Itami. I worked it out with her late grandmother that if she passed away before a proper family member was located, I would take her into my care." Keiichiro sweat dropped as Ryou gave an eye twitch and slowly faced Arekkusu.
"I...Am going to be living....With that....annoying...BRAT?!" something happened as he emphasized the word brat loudly. It was as if something missing clicked in Arekkusu's head.
Suddenly as he finished the word it was too loud for her, way too loud. it was as if someone shrieked into a microphone and the speakers were on full blast. Not only that but it was like she had her ears pressed against the imaginary speakers.
"AAH!!!!!" she covered her ears but it was no use, it kept echoing louder and louder, until she thought she was about to pass out. Slumping to the floor she uncovered her ears. Her changed ears.
"Keiichiro, I was right, she isone of them!" Ryou whispered in awe. The two of them faced her, and stared for what seemed like a long time at her small, charcoal-black, bat ears.
"N-nani...? What's g-going on...?" she asked while trembling at the sudden sound attack.
"It's like I told you before, you're a mew mew. And now your animal genes are starting to show themselves. Bonin Fruit bat ears from the looks of it." Ryou gave her an 'I-told-you-so' smirk.
"Why you little...!" fist curled it took all of her eight months of controll training to calm her down.
"You have anything that you don't mind replacing here?" she asked through clenched teeth.
"Yeah there's a broken chair that we're gonna throw out right-" Ryou was interrupted as Arekkusu grabbed the chair and swung in high into the air.
"KYHAAAAAAAA!!!" she jumped up to an unusual hight and kicked the chair, neatly splitting it into two pieces.
"That's my type of stress relief." she growled before either of them could say anything.
Little did they know, through a heart shaped window that whole scene was being watched by the enemy.
""Heh, a bat mew..." Kisshu grinned before teleporting off.
Booboo-nyaa: Whaaaaah! That took me forrever to type!
Oh and....
Obaa-chan = grandma
Hai = yes
Iie= no
Gominasai = I'm sorry
Watashi wa Ryou Shirogane desu = My name is Ryou Shirogane
But anyway I hope you liked it, here's a little preview of chapter three!
"No.... I'm not, I said I'm not!!!!!" Arekkusu shrieked in denial as she shook her head madly.
He just looked coldly down at her and let the chimera anima charge at her.
Seeing her last chance at escape thrashed, she did the last thing that she thought she would do, she would do what that pink haired girl did.
But as the words came to her lips, they were different.
"MEW MEW CRANBERRY! METAMORPHOSIS!"