The school day was passing by slowly for Ichigo as Miwa and Moe kept bugging her about what she wanted to tell them. Sadly for them, she kept her mouth shut no matter how hard it was. She was a bundle of nerves about this topic and kept glancing at the clock, willing it to go faster. Of course by the time the last bell did ring, the principle caught her by the back of her shirt and dragged her towards detention.
Luckily for Ichigo, she has great friends that waited for her punishment to get over with before going anywhere. Miwa and Moe practically kidnapped her to her own house just to know this big important secret she kept from them.
Knowing Ichigo the way they do, her two friends had a feeling that something was up with the red head; and it wasn't Aoyama related. Ichigo barely had anytime to say good-bye to her parents, who were heading out the door by the time they got there, before she was forced into a chair under a light.
"We're here Ichigo," Miwa said as she shined the light in her friend's eyes.
"Now spill this big secret," Moe continued, "We've been very patient up until now."
'Yea, patient.' Ichigo thought as she remembered their grilling questions at school just hours earlier. "It's something that you two might want to sit down for." She waited until they were seated on her bed before continuing.
"About three years ago on my first date with Aoyama-Kun something happened that changed me forever." She stopped Moe from interrupting the story knowing her friend would jump to conclusions. "I was fused with some Red Data Animal DNA that gave me some powers. It wasn't by random selection that this happened either, my genetics was the only one compatible with the Iriomote Wildcat DNA. Gaining this DNA gave me a mark right here."
Ichigo pulled up her school uniform a bit to show them the Mew mark that rested against her inner thigh. Miwa and Moe gasped at the little pink symbol and looked at Ichigo in shock.
"It turns out that this mark enabled me to become the leader of what everyone calls Tokyo Mew Mew-"
"YOUR MEW ICHIGO!?" Miwa and Moe exclaimed with even more shock written on their faces.
"How is that possible?" Miwa asked, her science side coming to the surface. "Mew Ichigo has pink hair and eyes. Unless you put on contacts and a wig every time you go to fight those monsters."
Grinning, Ichigo asked if they wanted to see her transformation, getting vigorous nods in return. Grabbing her pendant, she gave it a light kiss and shouted into the air of her bedroom.
"MEW MEW STRAWBERRY! METAMORPHO-SIS!" A bright light encased the room and momentarily blinded her friends. Ribbons encircled her body and turned unto her mew outfit, causing her hair and eyes to turn a neon pink. Miwa couldn't stop her dumb founded expression while Moe squealed in delight. Ichigo quickly turned back to normal before she was glomped by Moe.
"So, what do you think?" She asked as she got up off the ground. "Still wanna be my friend?"
"OF COURSE!" Miwa shouted, "Why wouldn't we not be your friends?"
"Because I'm a freak," Ichigo whispered, her red hair falling to cover her eyes. She was scared to death that the two people she could rely on would abandon her. Sure, Aoyama knew her secret, but she needed girls to talk to that weren't in the Mew business.
"You are not a freak, Ichigo!" Moe stated sternly, putting her hands on her hips. "You just got powers to make you an even more awesome person then you already are!"
"Moe is right," Miwa backed up, "Your secret is safe with us! At least now we know why you've acted weird now and then."
"Actually, that would be because my cat ears and tail pops out when my emotions go haywire." Ichigo said with a small laugh."
Laughing with her, the girls talked for a while longer about her mew mew life before going to their own homes. Ichigo still had a basement to clean before her parents get back from shopping. Grabbing a full box of trash bags, broom, and dustpan, Ichigo marched down the stairs and started to clean as best as she could. Which cleaning a cafe for three years gave her some pretty good skills at it.
Cleaning the basement wouldn't have been so bad if her dad didn't keep tons of junk piled up. He claimed that it was priceless treasures that he could use everyday, but it just kept collecting dust as the years pass. Sighing, she pulled something from under a pile near the back of the basement, realizing only too late that it would collapse on her.
Clouds of dust conquered the air around her form as she coughed out the dust bunnies. Junk littered the ground with tiny thumps before settling in their new positions. Ichigo started to clean up the new mess when a chest caught her eye.
It was unusual in design with strange symbols circling around the lid. The bindings on it was made of a shiny metal that seemed to shimmer in the air. A fist sized jewel was perched on top and glowed a dull red color, reminding her of almost dried blood. Being a cat, her curiosity got the better her as she opened the chest to explore it's contents.
Maps of stars, journals in the strange symbols that seem to be a language, and documents of diagrams that looked like machines. Ichigo didn't know what she had stumbled upon in her basement let alone what it all meant. Looking through the chest, she found a book at the very bottom. It was blue with more of the language written on top, flipping through she found drawings of plants and animals found on Earth.
Suddenly, a small picture fell from the back of the book. Glancing down Ichigo saw something she wished she hadn't. Slowly, she picked it up with a shaking hand and continued to stare at the faded photograph. It showed a group of people in lab coats outside a dull looking building. Mostly adult males, there was a small child standing besides the person in the middle of the group. What shocked her the most, however, was that the middle male looked exactly like a younger version of her father.
"What the hell?" Ichigo whispered to herself as tears gathered in the corners of her brown eyes. She couldn't believe what she was seeing; couldn't believe the truth that the picture was telling her. Turning around at the sound of footsteps coming from behind her, she spotted her dad looking at her with a grim expression.
"I see that you found it." He said, his voice gruff and full of sorrow. "I wanted to tell you sooner but your mother said not until your were 18." Ichigo couldn't help but get angry at him for keeping this secret for as long as he has. Glaring at her father, she bit down on her tongue before hissing out a reply.
"You're an alien!?"