Epilogue: A New Fight?

"Waaah! Éclair-Chan looks so kawaii in her uniform, na no da!" Pudding squealed as Éclair beamed.

"Arigato, Pudding Onee-Chan!" Éclair said brightly.

Éclair wore a light blue dress with two thin white stripes at the hem, a white jacket with light blue buttons and matching cuffs, white tights and white shoes with little light blue bows. Overtop her red curls was a white hat with two ribbons hanging from it that were stripped white and light blue. She held a pink cloth wrapped bento box and had a brown backpack with a pink kitty toy hanging from the strap, ready for her first day of kindergarten.

"Rōzu looks quite cute, too," Lettuce said, to which Rōzu just grinned.

"Thanks!" She said.

Rōzu wore a maroon sailor-suit dress with white stripes at the ends of her short-sleeves as well as on the back flap that was tied with a white bow, a pleated maroon skirt with the inner pleats being white, knee-high socks and red and white sneakers. She wore her hair in her usual braided pigtails, but had maroon ribbons tied around the ends. Pudding wore the same outfit, as Rōzu and Tart would be going to the same school as her. Both girls had brown bags with red striping, Rōzu with a small red frog with black spots plushie hanging from her bag and Pudding have a small golden-orange monkey. Rōzu carried a red cloth wrapped bento and Pudding carried a yellow cloth wrapped bento.

Tart wore black pants with a white shirt with a red tie and red and white sneakers, and he also had a black jacket that went with it. He carried a bag like his sister and Pudding, but his had a red dragon hanging from it, and he also carried a red cloth-wrapped bento.

"Gotta admit, I didn't think I'd like this," Rin said as pushed a stray curl behind her ear, smiling. She and Pie had been accepted into a gifted and talented high school (the same school Zakuro attended) that would be enough of a challenge for their genius minds

Rin and Zakuro wore dark blue sailor suits with a white flap with one dark blue stripe and tied with a white bow and white cuffs at the end of her short sleeves. The skirt was pleated and it had a thick white stripe across the bottom and white inner-pleats and had a large white bow on the back. They wore knee-high socks and white shoes with dark blue laces. Rin wore her curls loose, but she had two white bows tied in her hair. Zakuro had her hair tied up into a ponytail with a white bow. They both carried black bags. Rin's had a purple butterfly plushie hanging from it while Zakuro had a pale purple wolf hanging from hers.

Pie wore dark blue pants with white stripes down the sides, a white collared shirt with a dark blue tie and white shoes with blue laces. He had a dark blue jacket to match and carried a black bag that had a golden eagle toy attached to it.

"Yeah, but these all turned out to look so cute!" Rirī said with a grin as she twirled slightly.

She and Ichigo both wore gray sailor suit dresses that had a thick dark green stripe along the bottom of their skirts and two thin dark green stripes on the flaps tied with a green bow and big gray bows tied behind them. They both wore knee-high white socks and brown shoes. Ichigo had dark green ribbons tied to her pigtails while Rirī had some loosely tied to her buns. They each carried a brown bag with two thick green bands. Ichigo's had a black cat toy with a ribbon around the neck hanging from hers while Rirī had a pink owl hanging from her bag.

Kish wore dark gray pants with a white collared shirt with a green tie and brown shoes, with a matching dark gray jacket. He also carried a bag like Ichigo and Rirī, and his had a black cat hanging from it as well.

Lettuce and Mint (who attended the same all-girls school) wore dark blue dresses with white flaps that had a pale blue stripe on it and a white bow. The skirt was pleated and had light blue inner-pleats. They wore knee-high light blue socks and white shoes with dark blue bows. The both carried brown bags. Lettuce had a small light green porpoise hanging from hers while Mint had a blue bird hanging from hers. Both girls wore their hair the same as always.

Lettuce had made each of the little toys that hung from their bags as a way to celebrate the start of the new school term and that the Ikisatashi's had gotten into their new schools without any problems. She, in a fit of nervousness, had given Pie's to him last, stammering that he didn't have to put it on his bag if he didn't want to, or if he didn't want it at all it was okay, turning redder and redder as Pie clipped the little toy onto his bag. They had all been quite concerned that she was going to pass out. It was quite clear to everyone that Pie liked Lettuce and that Lettuce liked Pie, but no one was absolutely positive that either of them knew that the other was crushing on them.

"Everyone ready to go?" Kish asked as he slung his bag over his shoulder before taking hold of Éclair's hand.

"I think so," Mint said.

"Then let's go, or we're all going to be late," Zakuro said

Giving final good-byes to Risa, Curry, Keiichiro and Ryou, the group left Café Mew Mew and headed for school.

As all of their schools were on the same route leaving Café Mew Mew, the Mews and Ikisatashis would walk together: first dropping off Mint and Lettuce at their school; then Éclair at her kindergarten; Pudding, Tart and Rōzu at the elementary school; Kish, Ichigo and Rirī at their junior high; and then Pie, Rin and Zakuro would go to their high school. After school, they would do the reverse to get back to the Café, where the elder Ikisatashi's were working alongside the Mews. It was convenient, time saving for all of them, and not to mention fun for them all to go together.

Kish had survived meeting Ichigo's parents. Mrs. Momomiya invited him to dinner. Mr. Momomiya invited him to get up-close and personal with any one of his swords, power-tools and TASERs if he did one thing to hurt Ichigo. No one was really sure if Mr. Momomiya would ever come around to liking the "green haired punk who's going to break my baby girl's heart" as Mr. Momomiya referred to him as. Ichigo assured Kish that her father would come around eventually. Granted, it might take a few years, but he'd surely come around to liking Kish. Right? Right…

Despite the one-sided animosity between Kish and Mr. Momomiya, both of Ichigo's parents adored Risa and Curry. Mrs. Momomiya and Risa spent hours chatting over a cup of tea like they had been friends forever while Curry and Mr. Momomiya instantly bonded over the idea of protecting their daughters from the nefarious scum that was teenage boys. Kish and Ichigo weren't quite sure what to make of that particular 'connection' while Rin and Rirī were visibly not pleased that their father was not getting more ideas on how to prevent them from getting boyfriends.

Life was good.

However… There was one thing, one question that remained…

Lettuce frowned slightly as she walked down the sidewalk, clutching the handle for her bag in both hands.

"Something the matter, Lettuce?" Ichigo asked concernedly.

"It's just something that occurred to me," She said, her head down and staring at the concrete at her feet. "Well, we lost our Mew powers the first time we thought we killed Deep Blue, right? Then a few weeks later we regained them and Ryou said we had a new enemy to face, but we never found out who it was. I mean, all we did was chase a few robbers, got some cats out of trees, but there was never anything really 'bad' that we needed to fight until we went to Cynnth."

"You think it was like that because Deep Blue wasn't really dead?" Tart asked.

"Well, probably," Lettuce said. "But, Deep Blue really is dead now. So, why do we still have our Mew Marks and can transform?"

The others all stopped and exchanged glances.

"You don't think…" Rirī whispered.

"That this was just the beginning," Pie finished, looking grim.

"Our job isn't finished yet," Zakuro said softly.

Ichigo looked at her worried friends and smiled.

"Well, whatever this is, or what could be, we know one thing is for sure," She said.

"What's that, na no da?" Pudding asked.

Ichigo's smile grew wider as she grabbed Kish's hand.

"That no matter what it is, we can take it on, hand-in-hand, together," She said.

Her friends visibly relaxed and (with the exception of Pie) all smiled.

"Of course we can!" Mint said with a self-confident smirk.

"Yeah! We totally got this!" Tart said enthusiastically.

"We can fight anything and everything together, na no da!" Pudding said, throwing her fist in the air as she jumped.

"And Éclair will cheer you all on!" Éclair said with a grin, squealing as Kish suddenly picked her up and put her on his shoulders.

"Hey, I wanna fight too!" Rōzu said. "I've been practicing."

Rin laughed and gently tugged on her sister's braid.

"We'll see about that, chibi," She said teasingly.

"Not a chibi!" Rōzu insisted, not helping herself by pouting, looking very cute and chibi-like.

Their happiness and confidence restored, the team once again headed for school, laughing and excitedly chattering away, ready for whatever life would throw their way.

From his hiding place, Happy Child moved his mask, grinning to himself.

So Tokyo Mew Mew and those aliens thought that they could easily defeat what he and his colleagues had in store for them?

His grin grew as he thought about the room full of the parasites they had captured from the Cyniclons' previous Earth crusade.

"Enjoy this confidence while you can, little Mew Mews and alien freaks," Happy Child said with a laugh.

"You haven't faced the Saint Rose Crusaders yet."

Ta-da! It's DONE!

Ichigo: "About time!"

Me: "Shut it cat-girl!"

Anyways... Despite the ending, I am not guaranteeing a sequel. And if I do write a sequel, it will not be Kishigo, or at least not purely Kishigo. More than likely it would be primarily P/L and basically just like A la Mode but with the Ikisatashis fighting as well as the Mews, including Berry. IF I wrote one. And since I start college in the fall, I highly doubt I will.

Anyway, it's been a blast. Glad you've all enjoyed it and thanks for everything!

Sayonara!