Well, I am one with no respect for any show (except for Thundercats... *drools*) that is not anime. Does that count?
Arin was jolted out of her manga by an extremely inventive spate of cursing. Recognizing the source, she yelled, "What is it *now*, Tasuki?"
"I wanted to try this 'cereal' stuff, but the spoons are gone," came the reply. Arin groaned.
"Not again. There's been spoon thefts like mad around here, and we're the latest victims."
Fire Child, the neko who is
joining this crazy thing
Aeri stopped in front of an old two-story brick home a block from her three-story gothic manor. Kurama, Koganei, Mikagami and Fuuko caught up to her.
“Where’s Recca and Yusuke?” Fuuko asked.
Aeri shrugged, “I dunno. I lost sight of them. Which doesn’t really matter.”
Kurama watched her thoughtfully. “Why is that?”
Aeri turned around to face the redheaded kitsune. “Well, really, there has got to be a better way to do this, besides running around aimlessly.”
“Why didn’t you think of this earlier?” Mikagami asked annoyed.
Fuuko sighed and Kurama tried not to snicker.
“I didn’t think of it earlier,” she answered honestly. Everyone but Aeri sweatdropped at that comment.
“What are you going to do?” Kurama asked curiously.
“I’m gonna call the others for a conference.”
“A conference? What’ll that do?”
“We’ll wait and see,” Aeri said. She dug a cell phone from her pocket and dialed a number.
* *
The group of "detectives" continued to poke around the kitchen. Ken I. (Ken-chan for short) and Sydney searched around the tables and such stuff, as Cat and Yohji looked for footprints, and Quatre, Cye, and Eagle looked over the places the others missed.
In the meanwhile, Ari was being watched over by Aya, Aidan, Davis (dai-chan), and helping keep an eye on the nine chibis that were running amuck in her house, well, some of them at least. Ranma and Akane were out back cough practicing cough martial arts, aka, Akane was trying to hit Ranma with the mallet for something he said and/or did and she misunderstood, or took it the wrong way.
Then a phone rang and startled poor Lina-chan as she was running by it. Dai-chan was nearest to the phone as she screamed and ran and picked it up chuckling. "Moshi moshi."
* *
“It’s Aeri, is Ari-chan there?”
Dai-chan thought for a second. "Yeah, she is. She's basically keeping an eye on the chibis with some of the others while the others investigate. Hang on a second." Davis ran the phone over to the injured otaku. "Here you go. I'm heading out now." And with that, he grabbed a soccer ball and headed outside to practice. Ari giggled as she spoke up. " Aloha, this is Ari."
Standing on a street corner, Aeri blinked, then asked with a hint of amusement in her voice. “When did ya move to Hawaii? And why didn’t You tell me sooner?”
Kurama stared at the brick house. “Hmm. . . ” I thought I saw something move. . . Mikagami followed Kurama’s gaze and frowned. Someone was watching them.
Ari giggled. "I only wish I had." she sighed, "Oh well, some things are not meant to be yet. Anyway, you'll be the first to know if I do neechan. So what's the occasion?" Ari was chuckling over the phone.
Meanwhile, Yohji and Cat finally found a footprint as Quatre, Cye, and Eagle found some fingerprints near the window frame and doors and Ken-chan and Sydney found a blue scrap of cloth.
Yohji called the group in for a collective unveiling of what they found as Ken-chan looked longingly out the door at where Dai-chan was practicing some soccer stuff.
Aeri grinned. “Heh, just kidding. Anyway I was thinking about calling a conference about the missing spoons. I mean something has got to be done about this. I refuse to settle for sporks!”
Koganei and Fuuko stared at Aeri, she rarely raised her voice when talking to someone, but she obviously felt strongly about the disappearing spoons.
“So, do you think the others will be interested in a conference?” Aeri continued.
Ari thought it over. "Possibly, I mean, I think so. I'll be there IF I can get a certain few bishies convinced that I won't break at the faintest gust of wind." She threw a rather pointed look over at Aya-kun and Ken-ken who at that point decided to look as innocent as possible, at least Ken-ken did since Aya just looked blankly back at her. Eagle and the others were still in the "conference" so they didn't see the look.
Aeri shook her head she understood all too well how protective her posse could be. “Well, to make it easier on them would it be all right to have the conference at your place?”
Koganei and Fuuko noticed Kurama and Mikagami still watching the house. They exchanged looks and saw a hand push a curtain out of the way. After a minute the curtain returned to its former position. Someone was watching them.
“Sure, that might help. As long as everyone can handle having nine really young chibis around and two in training digimons, etc... I'll even see if I can get something cooked up..."
Aidan snorted and giggled at that before retorting, "And how the fudge are you going to do that on crutches?"
Ari sweatdropped. "Yeah right, you just want to impress your boyfriend Red-chan." She promptly razzed the ficcie character. Aidan laughed as the two bishies sweatdropped and the chibis giggled.
Aeri grinned. “Good. Um… who do you wanna call, just so the same people don’t get called twice.”
Ari thought for a second. "I'll call Krim, Anomaly, V-babe, Kat, and Rain. Is that okay?" Aidan smiled as she lead the assorted chibis out of the room.
Aeri nodded. “Yeah, that’ll work. I’ll call Kourin, Riikii, Sona, Spectrum, Dove, Gady and Arin. Is that everyone?”
The front door of the brick house opened, an old lady with short white hair peeked out from behind the door. “Thieves!” She yelled.
Aeri blinked and looked at the house. “Eh?” I’m not a thief. she thought somewhat indignantly.
“You heard me, thieves.”
“Excuse me, Ari, I have to go some old lady just called us thieves. Ja ne.” Aeri hung up the phone.
“Excuse me, but we’re--mmph” Fuuko began angrily, but was cut off by Mikagami grabbing her and cupping his hand over her mouth.
“Are you missing something ma’am?” Kurama asked politely.
“Don’t you play innocent with me.” The old lady said stepping onto the porch. “I know yer type, you waltz around in them long coats o’ yers, hidin’ all kinds o’ things in them pockets.” She pointed a finger at them. “Where’d put them?”
“What are you missing?” Kurama tried again.
The old lady snorted, “Hmph, like you don’t know.” She muttered under her breath. Kurama heard her anyway. “My spoons, where are they?”
Fuuko stopped struggling against Mikagami. Kurama frowned and Aeri and Koganei just stared at her.
“You’re missing spoons too?” Aeri finally managed.
* *
Ari sighed as she hung up the phone and started to call Rain. The assorted bishies and fic characters that weren't involved with watching with the chibis started to compile the information and decided that a conference with the other is what was needed.
Aeri, Ari and Co.
What?
"Not here, huh? Where'd she go?"
"To Rain's," Duo replied promptly.
"Duo!" Riikii's Duo greeted his original. "How ya been?"
"Duo!"
Riikii looked from one to the other. "Gahh...just remember who goes with who, okay?"
The two Duos looked at each other and grinned wickedly.
"Oh great. I can see there's going to be some pranks at my suspense..."
"A duo of Duos," Ryo-chan muttered.
"THAT WASN'T FUNNY!"
"Anyway, we'll show you how to get to Rain's if you want," Trowa offered.
"You will? Great!" Riikii glomped him. Chibi Trowa, who had been watching his bigger version with some interest, smiled.
"To the Rain House!"
"That wasn't funny either."
"Oh, I get it. None of my jokes are ever funny, are they?"
"NOPE!"
"Riikii! You're supposed to be on my side!"
"You're just so kawaii when you're flustered." Glomp.
"ACK!"
Riikii
I'm popular today.....
A flock of bats winged their way through the perpetual gray-violet mist that perpetually surrounded the massive obsidian cathedral/fortress-esque edifice that sat at the top of an extremely craggy peak, having at one time been an asylum. The winged rodents and the ravens perched in the branches of the trees were the only visible signs of life, unless one took the various nightwalkers that populated the graveyards in the area into account, or the restless spirits which flitted through the abandoned hamlet that stood at the base of the mountain into account ,but their activities really couldn't be taken as 'signs of life'. It was a rather somber corner of the fic-verse, where the remnants of various characters tended to roam after their untimely demises in fics, and yet the group of lunatics we all know and love as Rain and her horde had taken up residence here. Go figure.
Rain shook her head in response to Dove's inquiry. "I'm afraid we don't have any spoon either.. we've looked all over the place and there isn't a single one to be had. Plenty of sporks though," the dhampeal replied, getting a grumble from Luceid.
"That's all well an' good now, but I can't eat m' bleedin' Frosted Flakes wi' a spork any more than I can wi' a ladle! Bullocks!" The Guardian of Insanity growled from where she was leaning against a wall, her bowl of cereal in one hand, a ladle in the other and a dour expression on her face. Her blue-black wolf ears were laid back against her head and the rune inscribed under her left eye was beginning to glow a bright purple, leaving no doubt that the Guardian was angry.
"Kat's here too...she was at the door, so I sent Aya down to go get her. He should be bringing her up here soon and maybe we can all form a group to go find the deluded freak who's stealing the spoons.." Rain added to her previous comments.
Just at that moment, Dilandau re-entered the room, as he'd left a moment or so before to answer the phone. "Rain ,it's another one of your friends. My, but aren't you the popular one today..."
Rainbow Fright, the lunatic
who's running the Asylum.
Spatula!
Anoma awoke from her little nap. She tossed the spork away and stretched leisurely, like a cat. She yawned massively and looked around her. She blinked rapidly in a startled fashion. Then she chuckled at herself. She'd forgotten for a moment what she'd set out to do. She rummaged through her backpack and found an almost fresh croissant, a thermos of coffee and her headset.
She grinned as she ate breakfast to the sounds of her self-compiled tape of anime songs. Life was good. She frowned slightly. No. Life was a lonely. Muses were a great help when undistracted, but they weren't good company. They were different from humans. Aloof and eccentric. They had a different mindset about things, a different perspective. Hanging around them too long could change a person. Anoma sighed. The only other humans she saw on a regular basis at her home were her own creations. It was creepy trying to hold a conversation with a person she'd dreamed up. And boring. She could predict just about everything they said. What she really wanted was one of her anime charas back. But she had no idea where they were. Or even if they were still alive. She shrugged as if dismissing her thoughts and began repacking her bag. As she hefted it on to her shoulder she felt a presence. One of the s'mthinngz, no doubt. She turned to face the slimy thing. Her brow wrinkled in confusion. Why did this pink, fluffy bunny slipper feel like a s'mthinng?
||R'prrt!|| it trilled.
Ah...it was a s'mthinng. One disguised as fluffy pink slipper, but a s'mthinng nonetheless. Inanely, she wondered if another of the creatures was costumed as this slipper's mate.
"What do you have to report?" Anoma asked.
||Nn spuns!|| came the reply.
Anoma shook her head. This felt like some wacky dream sequence. The strange landscape, the talking pink slipper, the fact that it was saying that there were no spoons. Things like this never happened to nice, normal girls, she mused wryly.
" Well, if you can't find me a spoon, maybe you could find one of my bishies and fetch him here, eh?" she replied, half-jokingly.
The fuzzy slipper slid from view. She blinked. She hadn't really meant for it to take that as a serious order. But, at least she hadn't asked it to conquer the world or something drastic like that. She giggled as she pictured an army of fluffy pink bunny slippers taking over the world.
The s'mthinng returned and it had brought someone with it. One very confused Gundam pilot.
" Where am I?" he asked softly, slightly dazed.
Anoma gave him a once over. Okay, not her first choice, but who was she to be picky at a time like this. With a running leap, she leapt and glomped him.
" Trowa!!" she squealed at the top of her voice. All theatrics aside, she was indeed glad to see him.
" Oh, hello Anoma," His tone seemed slightly cold
" You're not mad at me are you?" Anoma asked, giving him her best puppy eyes.
" No."
" Good!" she renewed her glomping with tripled vigor.
" Could you let go of me?"
" Yes!" And a minute later, she did.
Trowa regarded Anoma with those eerily calm green eyes of his and asked, " Where did you send me Anoma?"
" It was an accident! I don't know! I'm sorry!" she blurted out. She shut her mouth fast. Where had the clever answers, the smooth double-talk she picked up from the Muses gone? She was too excited.
Trowa merely nodded. Nothing more.
" The spoons are missing, Trowa. Everyone's. You'll come help us find them right?"
She watched his eyes as he digested this latest bit of news. With a bit of the " well-I'd-hate-to-find-out-what-happens-if-I-say-no" attitude he agreed to.
" Good!" Anoma said. She turned to look for the s'mthinng. It was gone, without making a report.
||Tu w'shz|| its voice said in her mind.
" I thought it supposed to be three, " she said aloud and shrugged. Fairy tales didn't always mimic reality.
With Trowa now, she ventured to the house she'd seen. Up close she realized where she'd seen it before. It was her old house. The one she'd lived in before moving to Limbo. She ran inside. Most of the stuff she'd left behind was actually still there. She plopped down on the dusty, moth-eaten, frayed, sagging, but comfortable couch. Trowa followed and found a reasonably safe chair to sit on.
" We'll wait here for a bit. We'll have lunch and then figure out how to proceed from there, okay?" she said.
" Okay," Trowa said.
Anoma spread her belongings on the table. Food, coffee, foil spork, cell phone, headphones, tapes, coffee, spatula. Not what she would have packed had she put some thought in it. But since she hadn't she really couldn't do much about it but deal with it. Well, after lunch that was.
Anoma " I could have said spoon," Mortis
The old lady stared at Aeri shrewdly. “You’re missin’ spoons too are ya?” she asked skeptically
Aeri sighed. Some people were so distrustful. “No, I don’t have any spoons, either and nor do my friends.”
The old lady didn’t seem to believe her. “Hmph! If you don’t have them who does?”
“That’s what we’re trying to figure out, ma’am.” Kurama said.
The old lady memorized their faces, just in case. “Right.” She snorted and opened the door to her home and walked in, slamming the door behind her.
Mikagami let Fuuko go. Aeri sighed and dialed a number. Yanagi answered the phone.
* *
Ari continued to call those she said she would. She had finally gotten a hold of v-babe and things were becoming a bit more animated. However, she was hungry, and she wanted a hamburger or a steak for crying out loud! Yohji and that little group tried to put the few clues they had found together while the rest of the gang watched the chibis and Ken-chan and Dai-chan started an impromptu "soccer" session outside. Sydney sighed and smiled. All in all, it was a lovely day... now if only the spoons were still here...
* *
“Yanagi-chan, when did you get back from the park?” Aeri asked.
“Just a little bit ago.”
“Oh, umm… do you mind watching the chibis a little longer?”
“No, I don’t mind. Domon and Kuwabara are playing with them right now.”
“Ah, okay, and thanks.”
Aeri hung up the phone.
Kurama stared at the brick house a little longer, then turned to Aeri. There’s something strange about that house. “On to Ari-chan’s?” he asked.
Aeri nodded and they continued down the street. Aeri dialed another number.
The two digi-destined boys continued to kick the soccer ball around as Ken-ken apparently decided to join in the fun and ended up coaching them in some of the "finer" aspects of ball handling and blocking. Aidan and Sydney took over caring for the chibis as Cye and Quatre helped them out.. and made sure that Ari didn't have to move too much. Cat was with Yohji, Aya, and Eagle as they still started putting the clues together and Ranma and Akane were arguing yet again over something.
Suddenly Dai-chan managed to kick the ball past Ken-ken to Ken-chan... only that it went a little wild and started rolling towards a red-haired green eyed man that could almost pass for Cat's twin. The two digi-destined blinked as the elder Ken waved. "'Allo Kurama. Nice of you to drop by."
Kurama smiled. “Umhm.”
Mikagami and Fuuko soon showed up with Koganei and Aeri trailing behind. Aeri was on the phone talking to Kourin. She had talked to Gady, Arin, Sona and Dove. She still needed to call Spectrum and Riikii.
She hung up the phone and greeted Ari. “Hey! We’re here.”
Ari waved through the window. The others all except for Yohji, Cat, Aya, and Eagle headed out the door as Ari started to hobble over on her crutches. Ken-ken smiled as Dai-chan and Ken-chan abandoned their game to go get Ranma and Akane. "Neechan... Niichan... guys... long time no see." Ari said as she barely managed to hobble down the stairs.
Aeri laughed. “It hasn’t been that long. Just a few days.”
Kurama greeted the others. Fuuko, Mikagami and Koganei waved a greeting.
Ari chuckled as she heard that. "But it feels longer than that girl..." she hobbled down to meet her friends. Dai-chan and Ken-chan came around with Ranma and Akane, who were still arguing.
Yohji and that "detective" crew eventually drew a conclusion that the thief was male, young, and wore a white shirt. That was it. They heard the noise outside and decided to ask if the new arrivals had discovered anything potentially helpful.
Cat walked out the door and stopped when she saw Kurama. She now had a clue of what she would like if she was a guy.
Eagle chuckled and shook his head. "That's right you haven't met all of Aeri's crew have you."
Ari giggled. "Oh yeah... Cat, get over here!" she smiled in her gentle, young childish way as Cat semi-mock-grudgingly obliged. "Guys, this is Cat. Cat this is Aeri, Kurama, Mikagami, Koganei, and Fuuko." Cat merely gave a half smile and waved. "Hi. Nice to meet you."
Aeri smiled. “Hi, so you’re Cat.”
Kurama blinked and glanced at her. “Nice to meet you.”
Aeri watched as the rest of her crew greeted them. “You know what’s really strange? This old woman accused us of stealing her spoons.” Aeri threw up her hands. “Can you believe it?”
Ari looked shocked. "That's weird . . . Kinda strange don't cha think. You weren't in her house were you?"
Cat, Aya, and Yohji all looked highly interested in that answer. Then Cat decided to pick up. "Speaking of missing spoons, did you guys find anything unusual around where the spoons normally were in your house?"
Mikagami shook his head, “No we weren’t in her house. We just walked by and she came out and accused us.”
Aeri answered Cat’s question. “Recca found a torn piece of blue cloth. It looked like it could have come from a pair of blue jeans, but we’re not entirely sure it did.”
Ari looked a bit taken back. "That's definitely peculiar. Yeesh, the people you can run into at times."
Yohji however seemed a little bit more concerned about it. "How did she accuse you?"
Cat merely kept chatting with Aeri. "Well, we found a scrap of white material, some foot prints and finger prints and pretty much figured we're probably dealing with a semi-young male who likes to wear white shirts... and I guess blue jeans or overalls is now added to that list."
“Hmm…. Well, that helps a bit, but not much.” Aeri commented. “I mean how many young males in this town wear white shirts and blue jeans or overalls? I know most of my crew have several white shirts and blue jeans.”
“How do you know that the perpetrator is a young male?” Fuuko asked joining the conversation.
Mikagami frowned as he answered Yohji’s question. “She acted like we were some kind of lowlife thieves who enjoy stealing stuff and creating trouble.”
“She thought we were hoodlums.” Kurama said.
Yohji shock his head." Bah, that won't help out much at all." He looked up as he heard Fuuko's question. "The footprints were too big to be a female's or a young boys, and the finger prints had the same problem. It's not much of a lead."
Cat shrugged. "That's our life 'round here I figured."
Ari simply blinked as she looked at them. Needless to say, she loved a good mystery novel as much as the next person, but she wasn't all that good with what they were talking about.
Aya watched calmly throughout the whole thing, then Eagle spoke up. "As soon as the others get here, we can ask them if they found any clues."
Aeri sighed, “No it won’t help. And that reminds me I need still have to call Spectrum and Riikii.” She digs out phone and dialed Spect’s number.
Cat sighed and walked off, feeling slightly anti-social, bad break ups do cause those feelings towards all males at times. Ari just sighed as she smiled." Do you guys want to come inside and sit down?"
Aeri nodded and entered Ari’s house still talking. The rest of her crew followed suit.
Meanwhile at the brick home. . .
The old lady walked down the hall and opened the door to the basement. She took off her face mask (ala Mission Impossible) and white hair, revealing a tall, young woman with dark hair. She stood up straighter as she headed down the steps.
The inside was immaculate. If anyone had bothered to look in the windows they would have seen a normal living room. Doilies were placed in various places, nice furniture and old antique coffee table dominated the room.
The basement however was a different matter. All kinds of surveillance equipment and other related items took up the space.
“Well?” the now young lady asked, hands on her hips.
“They don’t seem to suspect anything, but I’d watch the two long-haired young men,” said a young man watching the monitors.
The woman nodded, pleased. “I’ll keep that in mind. How is the plan coming?”
“Extremely well, no one but that group you talked to earlier has even noticed the spoons are missing.” Another young man said.
“Good, the boss will be very pleased.” She stared thoughtfully at the pictures of the group she talked to. “See who they are and let me know if they come back.”
And that's all I have.
|