Mew Amai

Episode 7 Part 1

"Tokyo Mew Mew!"

"There's a special on Tokyo Mew Mew tonight!"

"Did you see this?!"

School that day was something else entirely. Amai and Ichigo sat with Moe and Miwa at lunch, both nervously watching the students around them get all excited at their phones, which no doubt were blowing up with news stories about their team.

Amai, especially, was on edge, since she was the one who started this in the first place. "I'm so stupid! I got carried away, now everyone else is getting carried away!" Oh, she was in deep now.

"The girls with the cat ears are cool." Moe's comment caught the two girl's attention fast. She was talking about them specifically. "Oh, yeah! I love the one in white, she was so pretty!" Miwa gushed over the picture on Moe's phone. "Oh, she was! She has to be the leader! Did you see her outfit, cause it's so..."

Now they were talking about Amai. Going on and on about how cute she was and going all fangirl over her. She couldn't help the blush that started to coat her cheeks. Being popular as a secret superhero? It actually wasn't that bad, really.

Ichigo was also getting flustered, yet it was too much as she had knocked over her cup of water. Of course, there wasn't much they had to clean it up. Thankfully, that's when Aoyama came to the rescue. "Aoyama-kun!" He held out a folded cloth to Ichigo. He grinned. "You can keep it."

A dreamy look appeared on Ichigo's face, the skin growing red. Amai could practically see little sparkles around her. "I'll wash it and get it back to you! Also, to thank you, I want to-"

"Ichigo, he already left." Amai's revelation made Ichigo snap back into attention, panickily looking around for Aoyama and getting up. "Hold on, Aoyama-kun!"

Amai, Moe, and Miwa all had awkward written on their faces. "She's so got it bad." Miwa said. Amai chuckled. "You think?"

Ichigo's lovestruck behavior continued all the way to the café later, where she was almost melting onto the kitchen floor, grinning like a total idiot. Amai popped her head in every few minutes while serving tables, laughing at how her best friend looked. She was so in love, it was adorable.

Keiichiro stirred a bowl of some dessert mix, addressing Ichigo's appearance. "You look happy. Did something nice happen today?" "Uh-huh! I'm feeling all floaty!" Her tone was so lighthearted and dreamlike. Keiichiro sweat dropped a bit.

Mint's awestruck scream drew all attention. Standing before the group was Zakuro in her maid uniform. Mint had literal stars in her eyes as she looked over her idol. "Q-Queen Zakuro is so gorgeous in her maid outfit that I can barely look!"

Retasu complimented her. "You look amazing! I should have guessed!" Ichigo nodded, holding a tray with two glasses of water. "Mm, she looks great!" "I love it, Zakuro!" Amai said, clapping her hands. Pudding squealed. Zakuro held her hand to Ichigo. "Give me that." "Really?! Just wearing that outfit is more than enough, Queen Zakuro! Let us handle the rest!"

"Mint, let her do this." Amai crossed her arms, smiling at Zakuro. "She wanted to show us she can do this, so we should let her. Doing what you're being paid for is part of the job, right, Zakuro?" "Yes." Zakuro gave a smile back. "Amai gets it. If I'm part of this team, then I've got be part of all of it, including this."

She went to drop the waters off at a table. Literally, though, she dropped, well, slammed them down, scaring the customers. Though, it was more intimidating than scary, and despite that, everyone was in awe of her. Mint especially.

"Such fantastic customer service!" The rest of the team stood nervously. "Seriously, how?" Masha came flying next to them. "Still, many customers appear to be enjoying it!" The little robot's comment didn't lift the mood much. Retasu and Amai both chuckled awkwardly. "Is no one going to find out that Zakuro's working here?" Keiichiro walked up, answering Amai's question. "No one would believe that a mega-popular artist is working here." "Guess that makes sense."

"Hey, you got a sec?" Ryou called from the back door.

When the café was cleared out and the closed sign put up, Ryou and Keiichiro met with the Mew Mews in the control room.

"The alien's end goal is to take control of the Earth. They plan to pollute and destroy the environment to wipe out all life on the planet." Pictures on the screen supported their claims.

Amai's stomach twisted. With all the members of Tokyo Mew Mew finally together, she knew she should tell them the truth about her, but something stopped her. It wasn't the right time. No matter how much it hurt to keep the secret bottled up, it just wasn't time.

"If we take out the aliens, will the environment go back to the way it was?" Retasu asked. "No." Keiichiro said. "Sadly, the environment was already in danger before the aliens began their attack. We can see this from the hundreds of species that are already on the brink of extinction." "Isn't there something we can do to help?" Ichigo pleaded.

"At the very least, we're not going to let the aliens mess with our planet. The only way we could stop them is by infusing you with the DNA of endangered species." Ryou said. "For Zakuro, the grey wolf. For Pudding, the golden lion tamarin. For Retasu, the finless porpoise. For Mint, the blue lorikeet. For Ichigo, the Iriomote cat. And for Amai, the snow leopard. Now that your all here, let me restate your mission. Defeat every last alien threatening the planet."

"When there aren't any enemies left to fight, your powers will fade and your bodies will revert back to the way they were." Keiichiro told them. Ryou's eyes became fierce. "And you should be able to complete your mission... no, I KNOW you're more than capable!"

Despite the grim feeling inside of her, Amai put on a confident look. "We can do it. I know we can, especially now that all six of us are together!" The entire Mew Mew team nodded with her in agreement. Ryou and Keiichiro looked at each other happily. After a minute, Keiichiro brought out a white-frosted cake with strawberries, hearts, and little figures of the girls decorated on it.

It looked so good, everyone was in awe of it. "It's so cute!" Keiichiro grinned. "I made it to celebrate all six of you being here." Pudding eagerly took the piece with her figure on it. "Thanks a million!" Biting into it, she beamed with bits of cake around her mouth. Mint looked unimpressed. "Goodness, could you have a bit more class with how you enjoy your cake?" Though the moment she bit into her own slice, she too fell under the spell of the cake's sweetness.

Amai smiled, taking bites of her piece. The taste of the dessert helped with her worries of her secret, along with the happy looks on the faces of her friends. No, she didn't need to tell them right now. Just let them enjoy time together before she reveals herself to them.