A/N: And we're back! Welcome to the 5th chapter of this fic. If you've just read through for the first time, you can ignore what I'm about to say. If you're a returning reader, but you haven't had a chance to look back at the previous chapters, I'd suggest that you do! I spent the last couple of days revamping what I've already written, so there might be some confusion if you're reading this without re-reading the last four chapters first.

Anyways, as always, thank you for stopping by and I hope you enjoy what I've written below!

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While the alien trio was off investigating the last known location of the hybrids, Ringo had more pressing matters at hand. Her first shift at Cafe Mew Mew. Thankfully, Ichigo was there for her to shadow, so she could see how everything was supposed to go. "Don't be afraid to make mistakes, Lettuce broke a few plates on her first few shifts." Ichigo said with a smile.

Ringo flinched as a crashing sound went off in the background. "Pudding still breaks them quite often it sounds like?"

Ichigo chuckled, "No matter how many times we tell her to stop juggling things while she's at work, something always goes wrong." Ichigo placed a parfait on Ringo's tray and another one on her own. "So these are supposed to go to the two girls at table seven. They're some of our best customers, and don't worry, they don't bite."

As the two of them approached the table in question, a short haired brunette and a blonde with longer hair came into view. "Ichigo! Yes my parfait! I love you!" The brunette called, reaching out towards Ichigo as she did.

"How has your school been treating you?" The blonde asked as Ichigo and Ringo placed the desserts in front of them.

"Well it's school, so you know how it is." Ichigo said with a shrug. "Though I'm not falling asleep in class as much anymore." Suddenly Ichigo pulled Ringo closer to her. "Ringo, this is Moe and Miwa, they've been my best friends since childhood."

"H-hi!" Ringo managed to stutter out, suddenly nervous.

Miwa, the brunette, got a sly smile on her face. "So she's a Mew too, huh?"

Ringo jolted in response, Ichigo placed a calming hand on her shoulder. "They know, we told them ages ago after the final battle against Deep Blue. Though I'm told the rest of us weren't as subtle as we thought we were."

"I mean honestly, if you weren't a Mew Mew and you'd just randomly decided to transfer school for a girl you just met, I'd have a bit of a harder time forgiving you Ichigo." Moe said, acting as if she was truly hurt.

"There's more of us that know. Like Zakuro's friend who filmed a couple of her music videos. Just saying, don't be surprised if people you don't entirely know, know who you are." Miwa said with a smirk.

"G-good to know!" Ringo chuckled.

"So where did they pick you up anyways? Not that Tokyo's a small town, but I can't say I've seen you around before." Miwa said, pulling out her trusty writing notebook. "I could always use more ideas for my stories."

"Well, remember a couple summers ago when I hadn't done any of my school work and I desperately called both of you just trying to get some help?" Ichigo said with a pout. "We were doing some research on an island owned by Ringo's family that summer."

"K-Kish kidnapped my pet penguin and tried to make her into a chimera anima. Ichigo and the others helped me."

"No way, you have a pet Penguin?" Moe asked. "That sounds adorable, what kind of Penguin is she? Is that legal? Do you have pictures?"

"She's a Humboldt Penguin! I hatched her from an egg and fostered her since her mother died! She's my best friend and she's very sweet! She's staying with me at Berry's house too, if you guys would like to meet her sometime I'd be glad to introduce you!" Realizing she had just word vomited all over Ichigo's friends, Ringo immediately clammed back up. "I-I mean, if you'd be interested in that."

"Of course we would! It's not everyday you get to meet an actual live Penguin outside of an exhibit at a zoo!" Miwa exclaimed, Moe nodded along with her. "Honestly Ichigo, you becoming a Mew Mew is probably one of the best things that ever happened to you! You meet the coolest people."

"Well it's certainly a positive outcome from having to risk my life for the future of the earth everyday." Ichigo laughed. "Alright, I need to finish Ringo's cafe training, but we can all talk more later!"

"It was nice meeting you Ringo!" Moe called.

"Don't be a stranger! If anyone here gives you a hard time, definitely let us know!" Miwa said.

"T-thank you! It was nice meeting you both too!" Ringo replied. "Your friends are really nice Ichigo." She said as they got further away from the table.

"They can be a bit much at times, but I think we all can be." Ichigo smiled. "They're some of the easiest customers to deal with here, so I wanted to show them to you first. Just so you'd know not every table will be a nightmare to deal with."

As the shift continued, Ringo met a couple other of the cafe regulars. A couple girls Ichigo had been on the gymnastics team with at school, three girls from Lettuce's old school who she currently volunteered at the museum with, and Zakuro's aforementioned classmate. She knew the girls had lives outside of being Mew Mews, though it wasn't any less surprising to her to see that they had other friends. Growing up, her only friends were Yuki and her older brother, so this was at least a little shocking. As Ichigo was called into the back by Keiichiro, Ringo delivered her last order to Masaya.

"So, how's your first day on shift treating you?" He asked, his smile was pleasant, a lot like her brother Mashio's when he did smile.

"It's a little chaotic-" Ringo flinched when she heard another crash in the background, followed by Ichigo yelling for Pudding to watch where she was going. "But it's been fun otherwise."

A silence fell between them as Masaya took the first bite of his strawberry shortcake. "Is everything alright? You seem to keep staring at me. Is there something on my face?" He chuckled.

"O-oh I'm sorry I hadn't noticed. It's just that you look so much like my brother!" Ringo said, covering her face with her tray.

"I've heard, Ichigo told me." His smile seemed sad for a moment. "Pie says Deep Blue had some back up…vessels created in case something happened to the primary…."

Ringo's eyes grew wide as she processed what he said. "S-so…you think? Mashio…?"

Aoyama chuckled again, "While there's certainly a possibility of that, I don't think you have to worry. With over 7 billion people on the planet, at least 7 other people unrelated to you are bound to look like you."

Ringo thought for a moment. "I wonder what another me would be like…"

Before she had any more time to think on the matter, Ryou burst out of the cafe kitchen and announced that the cafe would need to close early for the day. An explosion at an abandoned warehouse across town had occurred and for the safety of the patrons and the employees, he'd like to begin closing procedures now.

"Sounds like the tracker was right." Masaya said, taking another bite of his cake. "We better get going."

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Once all the customers had been cleared, the team met up in the Cafe Mew Mew basement. Kish, Pie, and Tart were a bit worse for wear, but they had all come back safely. Lettuce was working on patching up Pie while Pudding continued to offer Tart her homemade candies. He acted like he was taking them begrudgingly, but the blush on his face said otherwise.

"Shoga and Oribu seem to be aware of the trackers. They were prepared for our arrival and made several chimera anima for us to fight from the rats in the surrounding area." Pie droned, flinching as Lettuce applied bacitracin to his wounds.

"I'm surprised for three highly trained aliens intending to take the earth back for their god, you weren't able to keep better track of your parapara when you left." Zakuro mused, eyebrow cocked and arms crossed. "Surely they should be running low on them soon, what with the amount used by the Saint Rose Crusaders."

"Yeah well, you have to remember we weren't the first aliens here. Before us there was Gateau and he stuck around much longer than his original mission-" Kish's eyes flashed to Ryou and Keiichiro, "called for. Or was my surprise at his appearance on the island not evident enough?"

"In any case, the enemy seems to be experimenting with the parapara. The chimera anima made from a couple of random street rats should not have been as powerful as they were. And there's another thing, the warehouse they were in did not appear to be their base of operations. It was simply the spot they chose for their trap."

Ryou double checked the tracker on his phone. "They haven't removed the tracking devices, if they know about us tracking them and still haven't done that, they want us to know where they are. They're baiting us."

"If they're baiting us and we take the bait again the fight might be even harder next time. Na no da~"

"But if we sit here and do nothing, they'll be able to continue their experiments unopposed. That could be catastrophic." Mint frowned.

"For now, Ryou and I will keep an eye on where they are. If they go anywhere too dangerous to leave them alone, we'll have no choice but to send you out." Keiichiro said. "All we can do otherwise is take notes and wait.

"It's getting late, you should all head home before it's dark out. We can talk about this more tomorrow." Ryou frowned.

"Taru-Taru, stay at my house tonight! Na no da~ My papa is home and he'll want to meet you na no da!~" Pudding declared, clapping her hands together.

"St-stop being so weird. Why would I want to meet your dad anyways?" Tart's blush grew even deeper.

"Awww but Heicha, Hongcha, Huacha, Lucha, and Qingcha were asking when you'd come by again! Pleaseeee?" Pudding begged.

"I… I don't want to disappoint kids… Ugh fine, I'll go!" Tart mumbled, taking Pudding's hand as he did.

"Hooray! Tart is sleeping with Pudding tonight! Na no da~"

"Stop being weird!" Tart screamed.

"Onee-sama, is there anything you need to get from your apartment before we go to my house?" Mint smiled brightly.

"No, I think I'll be good, I've got my school uniform and backpack. I can just borrow pajamas from you right?"

"O-onee-sama wearing my pajamas? Oh of course you can! This is the best day ever!" Mint declared, squirming and wiggling with glee.

"I-Ichigo, I know my house is out of the way for you and Masaya. Would it be alright if I stayed at your house tonight?" Lettuce asked.

"Of course! Your parents won't mind?"

"Mmm. By the time I get home they'll have already had dinner and my brother Uri has a big test tomorrow. I'd hate to interrupt his studying by knocking around in the kitchen too much."

Ringo smiled, listening to the idle chatter of her friends. It was nice to see how they all interacted with each other and cared about each other. Her thoughts were quickly interrupted though.

"Well if Tart is taking Pudding home tonight, I can walk home with my sweet Berry! And Ringo too of course!" Tasuku cooed, clinging to Berry as he did.

"Alright you goof, let's get going." Berry said, nuzzling her head into his neck. "You ready Ringo?"

"Yes of course! Let's go!" She smiled.

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The rest of the night had been largely uneventful. After Tasuku dropped them off at Berry's house, they had dinner with her father. Everyone took turns feeding some of the raw fish from their sushi that night to Yuki. The little penguin was clearly grateful.

The next morning As Ringo and Berry began walking to school, Ucha began an alert message. "The hybrid mews are on the move. They seem to be heading towards your school. Be on the look out."

Berry and Ringo gave each other a nod and kept their eyes peeled on the way to school. Once there, they met up with the others in the hallway.

"Attacking the school two days in a row would be pretty bold." Mint frowned.

"It's not uncommon, seeing the amount of times Kish attacked my school in one week back in the day." Ichigo mused.

"Do you think they're masquerading as students here?" Lettuce frowned.

"I don't see why not, for an elite all girls school, security is unfortunately pretty lax…" Berry frowned. "If Tasuku and two of the Saint Rose Crusaders could get in here, I'm sure a couple of evil Mew Mews could just as easily."

"Tasuku made a really pretty girl na no da!~" Pudding added.

"We better get going or else we'll be late for class. Just keep your eyes peeled and your phones ready." Zakuro ordered.

Everyone saw themselves off to their classrooms. Zakuro and Lettuce to theirs, Ichigo and Mint to theirs, and Ringo went with Berry and Pudding. After seeing what she was sure was Shoga and Oribu as students the day before, Ringo was wary. She didn't want a repeat of yesterday's lunch.

Ringo was pulled out of her thoughts when the teacher called for the class' attention. "Alright class, I know it's not common to have more than one new student in a week. Joining us today is another new student, Shoga Azumi."

Slowly a girl with white hair and green eyes walked into the classroom to join the teacher at the front. "Hi, my name is Shoga Azumi. I hope we can all get along. It's a pleasure to meet you." Ringo's eyes flashed over to Berry and Pudding, the two girls looked back at her knowingly.

"Alright miss Shoga, you can go ahead and take the open seat next to Ringo Akai." The teacher said, gesturing towards Ringo.

"Thank you." Shoga said quietly. She quickly walked over and took a seat. Once seated she turned to Ringo and reached out her hand. "It's a pleasure to..meet you Ringo."

"A pleasure to meet you too…Mew Shoga…" Ringo mumbled the last part, but the girl clearly heard her.

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Thank you again for reading! As with previous chapters, I have some notes on this chapter to add.

-I read a theory once that the chimera anima that killed Ryou's parents were created by Gateau du Roi and that his mission had been to eliminate the threat to Deep Blue's return, which at the time was Ryou's father. I like this idea since Ryou's dad is already working on the Mew Project to combat the aliens, Gateau is the only other fighting alien we're really aware of and Kish was surprised to see him during the ps1 game.

-As I mentioned previously, I'm trying to make all versions of the story canon. Hence Ichigo having been on the gymnastics team like in the filler episode from the first anime, but Zakuro's videographer classmate being mentioned.

-You can't tell me Moe and Miwa didn't know Ichigo and the others were Mews at the end of the final Tokyo Mew Mew New episode. They just did. It's the law.