Tenchi Muyo Fan Fiction ❯ The Youngest Hakubi ❯ Shopping ( Chapter 1 )

The Youngest Hakubi

By: bsmart

 

Disclaimer: Why the hell am I writing this? Nobody reads them and they have no legal weight. It's a complete waste of time and bandwidth and yet I'm still typing. If Pioneer or AIC wants to sue me go for it, I've got about twenty bucks in the bank, I'll write'em a check. I don't know what this is going to be rated so I'll just say G and if anything happens that offends you I couldn't care less.

 

Note: This is an OVA continuity fic. It takes place about a week or two after the end of the second OVA.

“…” Normal Speech

`…' Thought

=====================================================

 

Chapter 1: Shopping

 

Ryo-ohki watched as the yellow brown moon rushed towards her. Recalculating her trajectory she made a slight course correction and continued to charge forward. As she passed just to starboard of it she felt its gravity trying to drag her down, but her momentum was just too much. Instead of crashing into it she whipped around it in a maneuver Earth engineers call a “gravity slingshot.”

 

`Velocity increased by 11%,' an inner voice told her as she watched her next target approach.

 

The dirty white ice moon was unremarkable as moons go but she felt excited approaching it none the less. Deciding to push her luck she adjusted her course to bring her within five kilometers of its airless surface. As she sped by ridiculously close to the moon she felt her internal structure straining under the centrifugal force.

 

Even though she was distracted redirecting energy to her structural integrity system she still took note of an anomalous object in orbit of the ice moon. `What's that black rectangle,' she wondered.

 

`Unknown,' answered the other voice in her mind, `Velocity increased by 16%.'

 

Returning to the problem at hand she watched as the reddish brown gas giant filled her forward sensors. Not even trying to avoid it she instead plunged into its atmosphere. She felt the pressure building up around her and her accelerometers told her that the planets atmosphere was trying to force her out, the dreaded skip that worried so many Earthling astronauts. However Ryo-ohki just adjusted the shape of her shields and altered her thrust vectoring slightly, driving her deeper into the planet's atmosphere by brute force alone. She felt the temperature of her hull ramping up but she paid it no mind. She was designed to withstand direct hits from planetary class energy weapons; a little friction was nothing to her.

 

In a matter of seconds she was weaving her way in and out of the clouds, skirting the edges of thunderheads and letting lightning play along her skin. After happily traveling over a sixth of the way around the planet she put on a burst of acceleration and angled herself back towards space.

 

As she rose from the planet she watched its anemic rings approach. She adjusted her approach and was soon skimming along the bottom of the mass of ice and rock. Locating her door she swept up through the ice free zone behind one of the ring's shepherd moons and headed for the ruddy red volcanic moon above. She felt the magnetic field between the planet and the moon quickly ramping up to levels a normal sentient would find lethal. As she drew close one of the volcanoes on the moon erupted sending a plume of magma miles into space. With a grin on her control crystals she raised her shields and flew right into the plume

 

Slingshoting around the moon she dove into the void between the planets, setting her sights on the third planet in the system, a little blue planet she was all to familiar with. Deciding to make it home as quickly as possible she diverted all her available power to her engines.

 

“Ryo-ohki?”

 

`Who's there,' she asked as she started scanning through the standard comm channels.

 

“Ryo-ohki where are you?'

 

`Sasami? I'm leaving orbit of the fifth planet in the system and I'm heading for home now.'

 

“Ryo-ohki? Where can she be?”

 

`I just told you,' she thought as she noticed the stars were getting dimmer. In fact all her sensors were losing resolution.

 

`What's going on,' she thought starting to panic but even as this thought formed the next came slower and less certain. `Why can't Sasami hear me?' As everything started to fade out she could only feel a sense of dread with what was happening.

 

Just as it seemed it couldn't get any darker Ryo-ohki sensed that it was getting lighter, but instead of the feeling of weightlessness in space she could feel that she was laying on something hard. Instead of the chill of deep space she could feel a pleasant warmth suffusing her body. Instead of a soundless void she heard the not so distant noise of the TV on just a little too loud.

 

As she slowly pried her eyes open she found herself looking out a window at a bunch of trees. `What? How did I get home so quickly? Why am I back to being a cabbit?'

 

`You never left,' said the computer side of her mind.

 

`But I was just there, I was flying around the moons of the fifth planet in the system,' she thought as she started to get up. A quick look around the room told her she was lying on the desk in Noboyuki's library.

 

`You entered standby mode 1 hour 13 minutes, and 25.971 seconds ago. You have not moved from this spot since then,' to prove its point the computerized portion of her brain replayed the sensor logs of the last hour and a half.

 

`Well if I never left then why do I remember flying around that gas giant,' she asked.

 

`Unknown.'

 

`Wait, I don't ever remember Ryoko or anyone else being there and I was flying weird, almost like Ryoko flies when she's happy. Are you sure I haven't left.'

 

`Affirmative, in addition to there being no record of movement there have been no secondary indications of you transforming to your ship form. The local gravity gradient has remained stable, neutrino emissions have remained constant, and no Cherchenkov radiation spikes have been detected.'

 

`Then what was that,' she asked no one in particular. Deciding she had had enough of trying to figure out what had just occurred she jumped off of the desk and on the way down transformed into her toddler form. She left the library and headed for the living room to find Sasami.

 

When she walked through the door from the kitchen to the living room she found Tenchi squeezed in between Ayeka and Ryoko on the couch and Sasami sitting on the floor in front of them with Mihoshi. They appeared to be watching some sort of action movie given the number of explosions and people with guns on the TV. She was distracted enough by the TV to miss the fact that Sasami had noticed her entrance and was starting to talk to her.

 

“Ryo-ohki, we are going to have to buy you some more clothes. That blue dress is the only thing of mine that fits you and you've worn it every day for a week.”

 

The cabbit girl turned to look at Sasami with a look of confusion on her fuzzy face, “Myaaa?” she queried.

 

“Clothes, like these,” the younger princess pinched her dress with her fingers trying to explain it to the cabbit.

 

Ryo-ohki looked around at the other people in the living room, Tenchi was watching the TV, Ryoko was giving her a look of supreme disinterest, Ayeka seemed to be trying to get Tenchi's attention, and Mihoshi looked like she was about to pop from the size of her grin.

 

“Oh Ryo-ohki, we'll go shopping and we'll buy you a lot of cute human clothes and dress you up, we're going to have so much fun!” Mihoshi's eyes had lit up and looked to have gotten twice as big.

 

“Will you take us into town to buy some clothes?” Sasami asked the GP detective.

 

“Do either of you have any money?” asked Tenchi.

 

“Ano….what do they use for money here?” Mihoshi asked no one in particular.

 

“I have all the money we need” said the blue haired princess. She scampered upstairs and when she returned she was carrying a roll of green and blue bills with Ayeka's face on them. “See, we have a little bit of money in case of emergencies.”

 

Tenchi had a slightly skeptical look on his face, “How much is a little?”

 

“Two hundred and fifty nine thousand Jurai.”

 

“That's a little?”

 

“Well it would have been more but Ayeka had to stop over on Dnaab to buy some clothes at the bazaar in their space port.”

 

“I don't think anyone on Earth will take that money Sasami. Go ask my dad for some money, I'm sure he'll help out.”

 

“Ah, ok.” the small princess sounded slightly dejected but her face brightened right up, “Lets go Mihoshi, we have to hurry to make into town so we have enough time to shop.”

 

The two girls ran upstairs to procure some funds from the long suffering and only slightly perverted head of the household. Fifteen minutes later they were on their way.

 

The ride into town was quiet for Ryo-ohki, Sasami and Mihoshi were busy talking about what they were going to be buying for Ryo-ohki and only occasionally would they ask the cabbit for her opinion. Since she had no idea what they were talking about she would just try to smile and give an affirmative sounding “Myaaah”. She was glad for the quiet; it gave her time to focus on thinking. Thinking was a new activity for Ryo-ohki, for as long as she could remember she did as she was told by Ryoko and when she had no orders she would just do what her instincts told her. She never had to think, she knew what she needed to do and she did it, thinking wasn't required and looking back she couldn't ever remember having a single conscious thought of her own. Now it seemed strange but at the time it just seemed natural. Then the masu, something that Washu had told her she was at least partially responsible for.

 

Since she had fused with them, it, whatever, to keep them from hurting Tenchi she had felt herself changing. She didn't really notice the physical changes, to her changing form was as normal as could be, sure learning how to use her new bodies was difficult and there were obviously some new rules that went with them; as this shopping trip could attest but that wasn't what occupied her thoughts. What she was most concerned about were the mental changes.

 

`It must have something to do with the masu, before them everything normal, now it's not.' Ryo-ohki felt a small swell of pride in this realization; she had been working hard on these thoughts for nearly two days. `Thinking is hard, it's like trying to grab a nebula, every time you grab at it you find out nothings there, is it this hard for everyone? Maybe it will get easier; it must get easier everyone else seems to do it constantly.'

 

“Ryo-ohki are you ok?” asked her favorite Juraian.

 

“Myaa?”

 

“You've been looking like you were thinking really hard, are you ok?”

 

Ryo-ohki gave Sasami her best approximation of a smile, the facial expression Misaki seemed to favor and said, “Myaaaah”, hoping that would reassure the small princess.

 

“Good, we're gonna have a lot of fun this afternoon, aren't we Mihoshi?”

 

“Oh yeah, I know a couple of shops that sell the cutes…..”

 

By this time Ryo-ohki had tuned them out and was back with her thoughts. `I guess I'm ok, nothing seems to be wrong with me.' She glanced back up at Mihoshi, `I feel a little bad about ignoring her, she has been almost as nice to me as Sasami. Still she's been rambling on about clothes since we left. What's wrong with this dress, it covers me up, that seems to be the point. If this one is going to wear out why can't Washu make me one that won't?'

 

A solid shadow passed over the car drawing Ryo-ohki's attention away from her thoughts and back to her surroundings. They were starting to move into a small town and the low sun was causing the buildings to cast shadows over the road. The mini-van rolled through the residential part of the city and into the commercial center over the course of the next fifteen minutes. Finally they pulled into the parking lot of a small mall.

 

Mihoshi chimed in with a small bit of her knowledge of shopping, “Ok, we're here, lets hurry ok, the mall closes in 3 hours.”

 

`Why would it take that long, all I need is another dress this same size, I must be missing something,' thought the cabbit.

 

“Remember Ryo-ohki, you have to stay just like you are, you can't change back into a cabbit in front of everyone, ok?” stated Sasami as she adopted her best stern face. Explaining what had happened to the toddler and where the rodent had come from could be problematic.

 

The mall was a new experience for Ryo-ohki; she had spent most of her life in space, in the lab, or with Ryoko. The Masaki household was the first time she had been around large groups of people for any length of time. While she was under Kagato's control Ryoko rarely took her on the rampages she was sent on, she was usually left in orbit. The few times she had gone to the surface with Ryoko nobody stayed around them long enough to get to know. The mall utterly swamped her senses. The barrage of sights and sounds and smells simply overwhelmed her and drove any thoughts from her mind. There were just so MANY people.

 

Mihoshi looked over at Ryo-ohki and noticed the look of awe on her face, “Awww, how cute, it's her first time here.”

 

Sasami just giggled at the cabbit's reaction and grabbed her hand, “Come on Ryo-ohki, where should we go first Mihoshi.”

 

Comfortable in her element the blonde pointed to their right, “This way,” she stated authoritatively.

 

The next two hours were a blur to Ryo-ohki, she knew nothing about clothing so she deferred to her companions judgment. She took note that almost everything was brightly colored and had some sort of print. To her delight more then a few of the articles the blonde and the princess picked out had carrots on them in some fashion. The clothes chosen for her were mostly dresses but she got at least two pairs of overalls, a pair of pajamas, and a few shirts to go with them along with all the other accoutrements that a pseudo-toddler needs. They had just left a store that catered to young children and they were now making their way towards another trendy store with what, Mihoshi assured them, was a great selection of clothes for children.

 

`Why do I need all these clothes, Ryoko never wears more then three or four outfits, it must have something to do with being Juraian, of course Tenchi only wears about three things too.' She decided to think about it later, right now her stomach was demanding attention. She grabbed Sasami's sleeve to get her attention and said, “Myaaaaaahh” as pitifully as possible.

 

Sensing her companion's distress Sasami asked, “What's wrong Ryo-ohki?”

 

The toddler shaped cabbit patted her stomach while giving the princess a pleading look, “Merrrrrow meow mya myyyyahhh.”

 

“Oh you're hungry; come to think of it I'm a little hungry too.” The princess' small face suddenly showed a flash of recognition, “Oh no, who's going to cook dinner for the family, I forgot all about them.”

 

By this time Mihoshi had taken notice of their conversation and piped up, “Well the food court is on the way so we can stop by and get something to eat, we can't take to long though we still have to get Ryo-ohki some shoes.”

 

“But what about the others at home?” asked the princess.

 

“Don't worry, their big boys and girls, I'm sure they can fend for themselves.”

 

Meanwhile back at the homestead…

 

“What are we going to do for dinner?” asked Ryoko.

 

After waiting for his stomach to stop growling Tenchi replied, “I dunno, I suppose one of us could try to cook.”

 

Ayeka visibly paled at the thought, “I think it might be wise if we just order out, I'll call that new sushi place I've been dying to try.”

 

Ryoko phased directly to the phone and snatched it up before Ayeka could make it half way there. “Oh no, I want some beef ramen tonight, eat your cold rice on your own time.” The former space pirate quickly flew up into the rafters to escape the now irate first princess of Jurai.

 

“Ryoko I demand you get down here this instant, you chose last time.”

 

Tenchi laid his hand on Ayeka's shoulder, “It's ok, the next time we all go out I'll suggest the sushi place.”

 

“Of course Tenchi-sama,” said the still flustered Ayeka.

 

Tenchi smiled and tried to ignore the obscene amount of very expensive beef, shrimp, and lobster ramen Ryoko was ordering, in the name of the peace of course.

 

Back to our intrepid shopping trio…

 

Mihoshi was busy slurping down a mouthful of noodles while Sasami was enthusiastically attacking a plate of chicken and vegetable stir-fry. She was thoroughly enjoying not cooking her own dinner for once. `It's not spiced that well but it's not that bad.' She looked over at Ryo-ohki, currently the cabbit was waging a war with her chopsticks. Initially she had tried to hold them the way that Sasami did but she had yet to master the finer points of an opposable thumb. Several iterations later she settled on an option that posed the least number of problems with getting the food into her mouth. She simply discarded one of the wooden torture instruments and took to stabbing whatever morsel she desired with the other. Sasami couldn't help giggle when she looked over at the toddler.

 

The man who had served their food had thought it strange that the youngster had only wanted a plateful of carrots and had never said “When” when he asked her if it was enough. Eventually the princess had said when, much to Ryo-ohki's obvious dismay. `It's not every day you find somebody willing to give you all the carrots you want,” thought the slightly dejected cabbit.

 

The trio weren't talking much; they had agreed that they needed to hurry to have enough time to get some shoes before the mall closed. This allowed them to hear the comment one little girl made as she and her mother passed.

 

“Is that a baby werewolf?” the five year old asked her mom.

 

“That's not nice, now shush,” chided her mother.

 

Ryo-ohki turned around to get a look at the girl while she continued to munch on a piece of carrot with her chopstick still in her mouth. The little girl quickly found something else to look at so Ryo-ohki gave her mother a quizzical look while she took the chopstick out of her mouth, “Mya myaaah?” `What's a werewolf?'

 

The mother made like the daughter and sped up slightly as she continued to walk by.

 

Ryo-ohki tuned to Mihoshi and asked, “Myah merrow meyah?” `Well, what's a werewolf?'

 

“Don't worry about it; some people don't have any manners. Umm, Sasami, what's a werewolf?”

 

The little princess considered this for a moment before declaring, “I dunno, we'll ask Washu when we get home, she'll know.”

 

This answer seemed to satisfy Mihoshi and Sasami but Ryo-ohki would have rather had an immediate answer, it might have helped explain something about her current state. `Oh well, Washu will know.' She absent mindedly stabbed another piece of carrot while she listened to her compatriots discuss where the best place to buy a pair of shoes would be. Having finished the piece of carrot she was working on she stabbed for another. Hearing and feeling her chopstick/spear thwack against her plate the cabbit looked down. Without even realizing it she had eaten almost all of her carrots and all that was left was a single chunk. The cabbit slowly stabbed it with an almost religious reverence, `All gone, and these were really good too. How come no matter how much I eat I'm never full?' Once she was finished chewing she didn't even pull the chopstick from her mouth, she just let it hang from her lips while she stared down at the now empty plate and sighed.

 

“Don't worry Ryo-ohki we'll get you some more carrots before we leave town won't we Mihoshi?”

 

“Oh yes, Ryo-ohki has been such a good girl she deserves a treat.”

 

At the prospect of additional carrots Ryo-ohki's face lit up. `Why wouldn't I behave? Why would I intentionally try to make them mad? Must be a humanoid thing.' She had to admit to herself that this wasn't the most satisfying answer but it would have to do for the moment, they were leaving and it was going to take all her concentration to negotiate the food courts tables and get rid of her tray.

 

Once in the shoe store the two full time humanoids began to discuss what Ryo-ohki would need. After recounting what was left of their funds they reached an agreement.

 

Mihoshi quickly took the lead in the discussion. “Ok, she needs at least one pair of everyday shoes she can play in and a pair of dress shoes in case your parents come to see you again. Oh, and a pair of slippers to go with her pajamas if we have enough money left.”

 

“Maybe we could get her a pair of sandals too for if we go to the beach,” asked Sasami while holding Ryo-ohki's hand.

 

`This whole place smells like that outfit Ayeka keeps in the back of her closet,' thought the cabbit as she compared the scent to the only thing she knew like it.

 

“Umm, Mihoshi, where are the measurers and fab booths,” asked a slightly confused princess.

 

“They don't make them like that here, you have to use this metal thing,“ she picked up a shoe sizer, “to find your size and then you look through a bunch of pairs in that size to find one you like.”

 

The little princess looked even more perplexed. “They don't make the shoes for you? Don't they have trouble getting them to fit right?”

 

“Ano…I suppose they do, it's not that bad, come on Ryo-ohki lets find your size.”

 

After finding the cabbit's shoe size the group made their way to the children's section. Selecting a simple pair of white sneakers they had Ryo-ohki sit down to try them on. Once Ryo-ohki had slipped on the right one of the pair Sasami grabbed the laces and turned to Mihoshi, “Umm, what are these Mihoshi?”

 

“They're laces; they keep the shoes on your feet.”

 

“They don't tighten up automatically?”

 

“No, let me show you.” The blonde detective bent down in front of Ryo-ohki and quickly demonstrated how it was done for the curious princess and cabbit. She untied them and said, “You try it Ryo-ohki.”

 

`Ok, this should be easy.' Grasping the laces in her hands Ryo-ohki tried to replicate the movements she had just watched Mihoshi make. Even though she had a perfect recording of what the GP officer had done she still had trouble. `What is wrong with these hands, why won't they do what I tell them?' A low growl escaped from the cabbit as she fought with the laces. After fiddling with them for a minute all she had to show for it was an awful knot. “Merowww myah, myyyyaaaa,” `What is wrong with this body.'

 

The detective just reached over and began to undue the knot, “Don't worry, nobody gets it right the first time, you just need some practice. Sasami why don't you go look for some more shoes while I help Ryo-ohki.” As Mihoshi worked the knot out Sasami found several more pairs of shoes.

 

They eventually decided to forgo laces and instead buy only shoes that would either slip on or were held on with buckles or Velcro. They bought a pair of sneakers exactly like the first pair they tried, only with Velcro tabs, a pair of slip on dress shoes, and a pair of sandals with pictures of carrots on them.

 

As they walked back to their car Mihoshi and Sasami talked animatedly about their trip and how cute Ryo-ohki would look in the clothes they had bought her. As Ryo-ohki walked between them she kept holding her hands out in front of her and staring at them intently. `Why doesn't this body do what I tell it? I had a perfect recording of what Mihoshi did and yet I couldn't copy her actions. She said I just needed to practice. Maybe this is like when Washu was teaching me to jump through hyper-space, I didn't get it right the first time but she kept having me do it and telling me what I was doing wrong till I did it right. Maybe it's like my optimization routines, each time I do something that improves my performance I adjust the way I do it to keep the improvement. Ok, I can do that; I just need to ap….'

 

She was so engrossed in her thoughts that she completely missed it when the girls took a left turn. Still looking at her hands Ryo-ohki plowed right into Mihoshi's leg.

 

“Oh, you better watch where your going Ryo-ohki, you could get lost if you don't pay attention,” scolded Sasami.

 

The toddler gave an apologetic, ”Myaa,” and thought, `That's another problem with this body, no proximity sensors and only one sensor feed. Still, I got to go out with Sasami and Mihoshi so maybe it isn't all bad.'

 

One the way out of town they stopped off at a roadside stand and bought Ryo-ohki a bag of carrots that kept her occupied the rest of the way home.

 

When they arrived at the Masaki residence the mention of their clothes shopping caught the attention of some of the other residents.

 

Ayeka was the first to make the obvious request, “Would you care to show us what you got on your trip Sasami?”

 

“What do ya think Mihoshi? Should we?”

 

“Ryo-ohki is it ok with you if we show them your things?”

 

She chirped off an affirmative,”Mya!” `It's kinda nice to be the center of attention without having done something to make'em mad. Why do they want to see the clothes now, they'll get to see them when I wear them.'

 

An extremely excited Mihoshi grabbed Ryo-ohki's hand and drug her into the kitchen followed closely by Sasami. After a quick discussion the two older members of the household decided to dress the cabbit in some of her play clothes. Once the toddler was suitable attired the two over eager aliens pulled the confused cabbit back out into the family room. Mihoshi grabbed Ryo-ohki under her arms and placed the startled cabbit up on the dinner table. Ryo-ohki looked over her shoulder at Mihoshi and Sasami with her left pointer finger in her mouth and a puzzled look on her fuzzy face.

 

“Turn around and show everyone your new clothes,” encouraged the blonde.

 

`Why do they want to see my back? This makes no sense.' Still the confused cabbit did as she was asked and turned around for her admirers. While she may have been confused as to why she was doing this she did enjoy the appreciative noises that her audience made.

 

“You look nice Ryo-ohki,” commented Tenchi.

 

The elder princess said, “You have excellent taste in clothes Sasami, you as well Ms. Mihoshi.”

 

“Did she pick these out on her own or did you guys help her,” asked Ryo-ohki's former owner.

 

“Well we picked them out but Ryo-ohki ok'ed all of them so I guess that means we all did,” answered Mihoshi. “Come on let's get her next outfit.”

 

The next set she modeled was one of her sets of overalls; this one had a large carrot in the middle of the bib. “How appropriate,” quipped Washu, “You know you can't eat that, right Ryo-ohki?”

 

An indignant “Myah meeeaw, myaaah miya,” was all the answer the scientist got.

 

And so it went. Near the end of the impromptu fashion show as Ryo-ohki was getting changed back into her blue dress Ayeka came into the kitchen. Sasami turned to her sister and inquired, “Would it be ok if I gave Ryo-ohki one of my dresses so if our parents come over again we can dress her up?”

 

“That's an unusual request Sasami but they're your clothes so you may do as you please with them.”

 

“Ok and we'll need to make some space in the closet and chest of drawers so that Ryo-ohki will have somewhere to keep her things.”

 

“I think that you need to keep your things on your side of the closet.”

 

Sasami was starting to look a little distressed, “They're not my things, they're Ryo-ohki's.”

 

“Regardless, my side of the closet is becoming quite full and yours isn't. It will be easier to make space on your side then mine.”

 

Realizing she wasn't going to get anywhere with her sister this time Sasami relented, “Well ok, come on Ryo-ohki, lets put your things up and get ready for bed.”

 

Along with Mihoshi the cabbit followed the princess up the stairs towards the princess' third floor room. They had given Ryo-ohki a bag to carry and she was making the best of it. She had tried to carry it at her side like she saw the other girls doing but that hadn't worked, the bag kept dragging on the stairs, and threatening to slip from her grasp. She had settled on carrying it directly in front of her with both of her hands. `The problem is this bag is almost as big as I am. Still, as difficult as this is it's easier then having to hop up the stairs the whole way.'

 

Since her hands were full Sasami pushed the door to her room open with her foot and dumped the bags she was carrying in a pile to the left of the door. Mihoshi did like wise and quickly bid them goodnight. “I had a really good time with you guys this afternoon. It was a lot of fun to get to go out shopping.

 

“I had a good time too, thanks a lot for helping us out,” said Sasami cheerfully.

 

Giving Mihoshi as big a smile as she could muster Ryo-ohki thanked her as well,”Myaaaaah!”

 

“You're welcome Sasami, you too Ryo-ohki. Let's do that again sometime, maybe next time we could shop for you Sasami. Good night,” said the detective as she turned and left.

 

“Good night Ms. Mihoshi. Come on Ryo-ohki, we need to get ready for bed.”

 

“Merrow meow?”

 

Sasami sighed, `She really doesn't know this stuff does she.' “You have to get out of your day clothes and into your pajamas, like the ones we got you.”

 

Ryo-ohki seemed to consider this for a moment before shaking her head no.

 

“What's the matter Ryo-ohki?”

 

The cabbit had a look like she was concentrating hard on something and less then a second later her form wavered slightly. With a slight whoosh Ryo-ohki changed back into her cabbit form. “Miyaaah,” is all she offered up as an explanation.

 

The princess seemed to consider this for just a moment before replying, “Well if that's how you want to sleep then that's fine, but remember, we did get you some pajamas for you to sleep in if you want too.”

 

“Mya!” `Ok. I hate to disappoint her but keeping that form for the last six hours has worn me out. Better to change back now while I have a choice.'

 

While Sasami left for the bathroom to finish getting ready for bed Ryo-ohki went over too Sasami's futon and flopped down utterly spent. Several minutes later a pajama clad twelve year old laid down next to her. Ryo-ohki listened to her breath like she did every night. In a few minutes she felt the change in Sasami's breathing to a slower and deeper pattern that meant she was now completely asleep; she knew what would happen next and that was the reason she was still awake. With a small whine Sasami rolled over towards the cabbit and began to feel around for her. Once she felt the small ball of fuzz she gave a satisfied sigh and pulled it into her grasp.

 

`I'm glad I figured this out or she would be waking me up every night.'

 

=========================================================

Author's Notes (a.k.a. My feeble attempt to explain away how much this sucked.) V1.6.1 Beta

 

Acknowledgements:

Ministry Agent - For encouraging me to try and rehabilitate this idea, for reading this crap nearly once a week and telling me what he honestly thinks, and a big thank you for the opening scene.

Crion - Supplied lots of info on Japanese culture and was an early reader

Marik_K - Another early reader and commentator

Lighthawk - I have lots of prereaders.

Warpwizard - One of the lemon lords even read this before you did.

 

1) I have no idea what the average Japanese mall is like, everything I've ever seen suggests that a mall is a mall, regardless of the country. If I'm wrong please let me know. I would appreciate any information on Japanese culture, the last thing I wanna do is become an author who has a bunch of Japanese characters in Japan eating pizza and cheeseburgers shopping at the GAP.

 

2) Sushi, ramen, stir fry, and miso soup are the extent of my knowledge of Japanese food. Again any info is appreciated.

 

3) I actually intentionally tried to keep the Ayeka, Ryoko, Tenchi content to a minimum. Those three get the majority of the screen time in most fics so for this one I intentionally tried to focus on some of the people who don't get as much attention.

 

4) Yes, I stole the baby werewolf line from the Harem Saga, the description fits perfectly and I loved it too much not to use it.

 

5) Of course they don't know what a werewolf is, they're aliens.

 

6) When I remember to I try to use astronomical references for Ryo-ohki's comparisons. One of her primary functions was as a space ship so I would imagine that things like nebulas would be more familiar to her.

 

7) Going back over the OVAs and every picture I have of Sasami in my disturbingly large collection of TM pics I never once see her wearing anything besides slippers or sandals. I'm just guessing here but I suspect that when she's confronted with laces Sasami will have no clue what they're used for. I have a feeling Juraian noble footwear is probably custom made and form fits. Course the same could be said of Mihoshi but in Universe she wears a pair of lace ups. Yes its continuity jumping, I'm cheating, I don't care.

 

Final Random Thought: Mihoshi is very, very hot.

 

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You don't need to tell me I suck, I'm well aware of that.