There was a series of running footsteps until a small figure soon emerged from the bushes. They stopped and looked at us. She was about the height of Luka but she looked like she was wearing the same kind of clothes we wear.
I squinted and tried to make out their shadowed face. They wore a white and light yellow costume, like ours, but with white fluffy gloves and boots, tight white shorts with light yellow lining and a thin white and yellow belt, long white socks that came up to her garter with light yellow lining as well, a white shirt that showed a little bit of her mid-section with a collar like piece of clothing that barely hung to her shoulders with a short light yellow business tie loosely wrapped around it.
She sported small white animal ears on top of her neat white blonde hair, and a long, white fluffy tail poked out of her shorts.
‘Who is she?’ questioned Ichigo.
‘I think I know that girl,’ I said, taking a step forward, causing the little girl to quickly dart back into the trees.
‘Hey, wait up!’ shouted Ichigo, running after her, Pudding and I following.
‘Did you say you think you know her?’ panted Pudding, trying to keep up with us.
‘I'm not sure I do. But we'll see.’ I said, running faster and faster and dodging trees on my way.
Ichigo was a bit ahead of me but I overtook her in seconds. The forest seemed to be endless. We seemed to be running for hours.
‘How long is this going to take? And where did she go?’ I asked just before we abruptly stopped in a large clearing the size of a football stadium, all covered in an even layer of healthy green grass.
The little girl was standing right in the middle of the field, seemingly waiting for us and ready to take on whatever we had to bring. She was alone and thankfully Kisshu wasn't in sight. The air was dropping surprisingly fast; goosebumps started to rise on my arms. The dark clouds above soon parted and the little girl's face was clearly visible.
‘Luka?’ I shouted into the cold night air. ‘It is you!’
‘Who's Luka?’ asked Pudding.
‘She's my … my little sister,’ I began to run towards her but was thrown off my feet when they ground started to rumble.
‘What is that?’ said Ichigo, struggling to keep balance herself.
A few seconds of staring at my little sister disbelievingly, deep footsteps came from the bushes behind Luka. A long, hairy leg came out through the trees behind Luka before the whole chimera anima was visible.
‘A giant spider?’ I yelled, fear bubbling deep inside my stomach. ‘Is there a way you guys could handle this one and I go back to bed?’
I had a very strong condition of arachnophobia. They were the one thing I feared most in the world and my heart seemed to stop even from the mere thought of running into a small one somewhere in my house. There was no way I could have summoned enough courage to fight a giant, hairy one.
‘What are you talking about?’ said Ichigo. ‘This is what we do. We have to fight that thing. I don't know if the other Mew Mews even know that this chimera anima has been made.’
‘Ichigo, I can't do this,’ I begged, looking at Ichigo with fear-filled eyes. ‘If it was anything other than a spider, I would take it on. No trouble. But this,’ I pointed to the spider who was staring at us with its many eyes. ‘I can't do this,’ I repeated. ‘I'll make it up to you later. I'll take on the next five chimera animas alone if you deal with this one.’
I was about to run for my life back through the trees when a huge hairy leg landed in front of me, preventing me to go on any further. I let out a deafening scream and fear now had me frozen to the spot, staring blindly.
‘Well, look who suffers from arachnophobia,’ came Kisshu’s voice.
I suddenly felt my body soften to the situation; I didn't know why but his voice brought somewhat comfort to me, even though he was the one making those awful creatures. I frowned at myself and slowly turned around to see Kisshu hovering over the spider’s hairy head, grinning like a madman.
‘It was a lucky guess that I picked a stray spider as my next chimera anima, huh, honey bun?’
‘Kisshu, this isn't funny.’ I shouted, stiffening again at the whole sight of the angry spider.
‘I know,’ he softened, sounded sorry for me. ‘It's hilarious.’
I couldn't believe how low Kisshu was going. Fear of spiders is not something to make fun of.
‘Panda,’ started Ichigo, turning me around to face her. ‘I know this is scary but you have to do this. You can't run away from your fellow Mew Mew's. And even if you did, your animal instincts would take over and you'd come back.’
‘You can do this, Panda!’ said Pudding, trying to cheer me on.
I gave a weak smile, a part of me wanting to run but another wanting to stay and fight with them and also find out what was happening with my little sister.
‘The clock's ticking, Mew Mews,’ announced Kisshu. ‘You're going to have to face this sooner or later. Or I can kill him for you if you join us, sweetie.’
‘Us?’ I yelled. ‘You mean there are more of you? What an annoying place that would be.’ I whispered the last bit to myself and temporarily forgot I was facing a giant, mutant spider.
Kisshu frowned at my remark. ‘Yes, there are more,’ he said. ‘So you could be one of us and be mine.’
I wanted to say that of course I didn't want to be one of his but the thought of developing a small crush on him stopped me.
‘Panda? What are you waiting for?’ said Ichigo, shaking me out of my thoughts.
‘Oh, right.’ I said, shaking my head.
‘Strawberry Bell,’ said Ichigo, her pink heart appearing at the front of her outstretched hand. Pudding already had her weapons in her orange gloved hands.
‘Blueberry Star,’ I said into air, my palm facing the skies.
‘I guess you’re choosing to fight this giant tarantula, aren’t you?’ said Kisshu, ready to fight. ‘I don't mind. You'll just go running when he moves.’
I hated that he now knew my worst fear and I couldn't believe he was using it to get me on his side. But I knew I would never leave the Mew Mews. We were already like sisters. And my real sister was still in the middle of the field, probably scared out of her little nine year old mind.
‘Luka, what are you doing?’ I called out.
‘She's on the winning side, that’s what,’ said Kisshu, suddenly appearing behind Luka with a cheeky grin.
‘Don't touch her!’ I yelled at him, running at top speed between the tarantula’s legs and somehow getting to Kisshu in a heartbeat. I threw a punch at him but he was faster. He disappeared and reappeared behind me, grabbing my Blueberry Star from my hand.
