Disclaimer: I don’t own Tokyo Mew Mew. :3

M-12: I honestly think that this may be the second to last chapter!! :D YAY!

Editor: -sigh- I had to do this…No, I really didn’t…but I did! I edited this chapter at 10:30 at night…Note to self for future reference: stop forcing yourself to stay awake when you feel like you can sense your brain dying.

M-12: You should try an all-nighter. They’re pure Hell. Speaking of which, it’s 1:43 am right now where I am and when I’m typing this.

Why Me

Fifteen blanks stood out like sore thumbs behind Ryou and Ryuu. To save them each, Luna needed to think of every letter that could possibly fit into the spaces. There were four long spaces for words. The first word was three letters long, most likely ‘the’. If the first word was-in fact-‘the’ then the entire answer was a noun and it must be important.

Luna opened her mouth after thinking through which letter would be the best to choose, “E.”

Yumi snapped her fingers and four E’s appeared in their blanks.

_ _ e _ _ _ _ e _ _ _ E _ e _

Luna smiled in relief, but she questioned why the second to last E was capitalized. She decided to put that aside for later and focused on the first word. Now that she knew that the last letter was E, it was almost sad. Even so, Luna gulped and opened her mouth to guess her next two letters, “T…and…H.”

Yumi shrugged and snapped her fingers again.

T h e _ _ _ _ e t _ _ E _ e _

Luna bit her bottom lip in frustration; finding out the first word didn’t help that much, but it was a bit of a relief to have at least one word out of her hair. Now, the word with only two letters could have been ‘it’, ‘or’, ‘in’, ‘be’, or ‘to’. If the two letter word was ‘it’, ‘be’, or ‘to’ then the letters that Luna already guessed would’ve shown up. She could safely cross those three out. She looked over her mental list again: it, or, in, be, to. It would be best to single out all of the vowels, so she spoke again, “I.”

Yumi smirked and sliced through Ryuu’s leg. A stinging sensation shot up from the wound up and throughout Ryuu. He yelled out in pain.

Luna held her hands up to her cheeks in horror, “St-STOP!” She shrieked. “Please don’t harm them!”

Yumi stood back up. “You can save his leg. There are no I’s in this answer. Pick a different letter.”

Blood permeated the air as Luna marked the letter ‘I’ off of her list. The two letter word had to be ‘or’. “O.”

Yumi snapped her fingers and two letters appeared in the spaces.

T h e _ o _ _ e t o _ E _ e _

“I want Ryuu’s leg to be healed.” Luna spook firmly, but calmly. Yumi waited and Luna sighed, “Please?” Yumi healed Ryuu’s leg and they were back to where they were before. “…R?” Ryou’s shoulder was sliced and Luna stared wide eyed and wincing for him. “…A?” Ryuu’s leg was hacked off once more and Luna fell to her knees in anguish.

Yumi sighed, “You’re not even trying anymore.” Her tone was disappointed, but she then smiled, “You know what? I think I could make this a bit faster so that the pressure will go quicker.” Luna looked up at the woman she loathed so much in awe. She held a knife at each of the male’s throats. “If you get the next letter wrong, one of them dies.”

Luna stood and took a step forward, “YOU CAN’T DO THAT!”

Yumi pressed the knives down. Ryou and Ryuu winced as small trickles of blood ran down their necks. Yumi narrowed her eyes. “I can and I will, unless you can win this little game.”

“C!” Luna yelled out of anger, wanting the game to end desperately. One ‘c’ appeared.

T h e _ o c _ e t o _ E _ e _

Before Luna could yell out who she wanted healed first, she guessed another letter, “…F?”

T h e _ o c _ e t o f E _ e _

Both Ryou and Ryuu were healed of their amputations, but the small slits still remained on their necks. Luna stared at the blanks long and hard. “Could the second word be...Locket?” Yumi’s eyes narrowed as the second word appeared completely.

T h e L o c k e t o f E _ e _

Luna continued staring as her mouth gaped. “Y-you’re insane… You want…the Locket of Eden?” The rest of the letters filled in, revealing the answer.

T h e L o c k e t o f E d e n

The cuts and any other wounds on Ryou and Ryuu healed and Ryuu glanced at Yumi oddly, “The Locket of Eden?”

Yumi smirked, “Yes, it multiplies one’s power tenfold. With it, my Lord will be unstoppable.”

“You mean like he already is unstoppable?” A figure emerged from the shadows.

Ryuu smiled, “Hiroki! Damn it, it took you long enough to get here!”

Hiroki glanced at Luna out of the corner of his eyes, “Someone stole my car.” He turned back to Yumi. “Yumi, you know that we both want the locket to keep it safe from people that would use it for evil purposes. I know you’re loyal to our Lord, but isn’t this going just a tad over the top? Extreme hangman?”

Yumi hissed at Hiroki, “Shut up, Kikuyama! Just because our Lord favors your skills, you think you’re the greatest thing in the world! Just let me do this one on my own without any help from the top!”

Hiroki merely looked around then stuck his tongue out at Yumi. A long time...a drying tongue...and disgusted expressions around the room. Yumi darted at Luna and snatched her locket away. She held it up in Hiroki’s face, “SEE?! I HAVE IT! I HAVE THE LOCKET OF EDEN!”

Hiroki rolled his tongue back in and scrunched up his nose. “That isn’t the locket. The Locket of Eden is round, with angel wings coming out of it and a red ruby implanted in the center. This one is just a golden heart.

Yumi brought it down to her eye level then squeezed it between her fingers tightly. “Those...stupid...children... I wasted all of my time to capture them...and to claim their power and what I thought was The Locket of Eden, but this...this is just an impersonator.”

Hiroki sighed, “I’m sure Luna didn’t mean to be born, live with her life energy sealed in a heart shaped locket, and make you think that she had the Locket of Eden. I’m sure that she’s truly sorry for misleading you.”

Yumi glared at the ground. “If that is the case...then I have no use for this girl or any of her friends ever again.” Hiroki smiled sincerely. “But...” Yumi smiled slyly then turned back towards Ryuu and Ryou, “it’d be trouble if they were left living.”

Hiroki grew unsure, “Yumi...what are you going to do?”

Yumi chucked a knife at Ryuu’s chest. It landed and warm, pulsing blood flowed down. Ryuu’s speech came out in a series of inarticulate stutters and sounds. Ryou stared in shock at the display and Hiroki stared blankly. (1)

Luna painfully cranked her head back around to face Ryuu and she kissed him. “I’m...sorry...” She strained to speak. “I really did love you...more than Ryou...” Her eyes grew dull and she fell backwards, her head at Yumi’s feet.

Ryuu yanked his arms away from the shape shifters, knelt down, and held Luna’s corpse in his arms. “LUNA,” he yelled, “please don’t leave me!” He buried his face into her hair.

Ryou watched, still shocked by what had happened. A low growl formed in Hiroki’s throat, “Yumi, it wasn’t her time to die, yet.” Yumi shrugged, happy that one problem was gone. “I’ll make sure that you receive more than just a mere lecture.” Yumi’s happy expression disappeared as Hiroki darted over to Ryuu and Ryou. He grabbed their shirt collars and transported outside the old, wilting castle.

Hiroki took out a silver magnum and shiny, red bullets then aimed at the castle. “Stand back,” he warned then shot a flaming ball into the castle, causing it to explode into flames.

As soon as the fire started, it stopped. There were only ashes left and they disappeared shortly. Ryuu curled up in Hiroki’s car and Ryou sat behind him. Hiroki hopped into the driver’s seat and drove back to the OC mansion. Ryuu stepped out when Hiroki stopped in front of the mansion’s doors and he walked inside and out of sight.

Hiroki parked the car and peered back at Ryou. “Ichigo and Mint are each back at Cafe Mew Mew, doing their jobs. Both of their memories were erased, as was everyone else who was interacting with us. Do you want your memory to be erased as well?”

Ryou shook his head sadly then looked up. “No... Even though the memories will be painful...I want to remember her.”

Hiroki gave Ryou a half smile. “I may be back to see you again, Ryou Shirogane. It’s been fun, really. I hope you feel okay for the next few millennia, but by then I’d have forgotten all about you,” He joked.

Ryou smiled at Hiroki, “Thanks. See you again, I guess.”

After their goodbyes were through, Hiroki flicked Ryou’s forehead, sending the blonde back to his pink ridden cafe, with his memories stinging his heart.

M-12: END! THANK GOD ON HIGH! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEND! And it only took 35 chapters to get to the end.

Editor’s Note 2: AHHHHHHHHHHHHH O_O!!!!!!!!!!!!! LUNA!!! YOU KILLED LUNAAAA!!!!!!!!!! Now, considering how little I did, should I be as ecstatic as you are about the story finally being over? Oh, and initially, you said that you thought this chapter would be the second to last, and now you’re saying the story’s over? What’s up with that?

M-12: When I started to write it, I thought that there would be two chapters left, but I was wrong. :3 …Luna had it coming.

Key:

(1): Editor: Uhm…..Wait, if Yumi threw the knife at Ryuu…and nothing else happened (nothing that you specified, at least)…how the heck did Luna end up as the dead one?!

M-12: Luna jumped in front of the knife. ‘Nuff said. :B