When I Met Yukkuri - Ch4: Chronicling My Thoughts
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Hitosura
Jan 12, 2016, 10:28:00 PM1/12/16
to Yukkuri Fanfic Translations
[Time to speed-up... the fun starts!]
With all the events involving yukkuri in my life, I decided I'd start keeping track of a lot of my gathered thoughts on my computer. I opened up a blog online on the yukkuri wikia, where I kept my generic information stored. My more-private blog, which was kept private and backed-up on my own computer, kept track of the more-detailed observations. I masked all my information as well as I could -- didn't need abyusers tracking me and coming to my house and killing off my clan while I was at work. Yes. My clan. Well, our clan. Mine and Patchy's. We got along pretty well -- two intellectuals, who ruled over a tribe of child-like intellects. It wasn't too difficult -- Patchy and I knew how to speak to them properly. Many of them didn't like me -- that was fine. They'd learn to respect me, given enough time. Patchy would insist that I was also the chief, and that they should do what I tell them, because I'm an easy chief. Again, it was difficult, but I knew they'd adjust. Or I'd do something about it.
Wait. I got ahead of myself. Let's back up and take this step-by-step.
The Tribe, Mother Reimu, and the School:
So, the transfer went off without a hitch. Ran, Marisa, and I went out that night, gathered them up by the family, marked each family with a specific pin, and took them, with whatever possessions they could carry, back to my back porch. More on my back porch later. We brought them around back, took them out from the boxes, then simply turned the boxes onto their sides. There! Homes. They weren't great, but they were a temporary residence. Patchy and Tough Marisa packed up what food they had gathered into a few containers I brought them. I wasn't sure how long it would last them, but I'm sure they could just do the same scavenging from my back yard. Patchy and I met regularly to discuss the order of the day, normally after the rest of the clan went to sleep. They regarded one-another as one giant family, though they still had their individual family units. What an odd combination of collective family, yet still recognize their own individual families. Seemed stranger, still, that they knew their children so well, despite how they all looked alike to me. We had to first establish what they previously had, so a nursery became necessary. I let them use the room behind mine; one that was added by my dad as a small office. I bought a handful of small toys, some plastic-coated cushions, and a food and water dispenser. They already had a Reimu who worked as their nurse. An Alice would sometimes assist her. Their job was to chew the food and clean up after the children. It was eventually discussed between Patchouli and I that an education would become necessary for all maturing and mature yukkuri. The first step was to determine where. It came to me in an instant -- the room that was -supposed- to have become my room, but wound up becoming a large storage room. The house had a rear area -- kind of a lounge room, on the northern part. Even though all the entertainment stuff was in the southern part, at the entrance, this area was always kind of empty. I convinced my dad to convert it into a room, while he was still alive, but never got the chance to move in. This room was literally right in front of the sliding glass door to the back porch. I could, pretty easily, set up that back room to be the classroom. It would be a little bleak for now, but I'd come up with something. I got a baby fence to block yukkuri from entering the residence part of the house. After that came the important stuff: what to teach yukkuri, and who would teach it. Mother Reimu overheard Patchy and I discussing this exact matter, and volunteered to be the teacher.
"Mister Kei has given Reimu so much easiness! Reimu wants to give Mister Kei some easiness!"
I smiled.
"You'd be giving easiness to more than just me, you know."
Cleaning and maintenance? I'll get into that in a bit...
I installed cameras around my house, as well. to keep an eye out for abyusers. It started to pop up on my news feed from time-to-time on social media. It was beginning to make me nervous.
I left the task of operating the opening and closing of the school to Ran. She would move the gate and allow Mother Reimu, Wasa-Reimu, and Lil' Marisa into the small space between the sliding door to my back porch and the room that I designated as the school. She'd open the door to let them in early, so they could set up whatever lesson they had to. I had full-on scripts for them, and Ran would assist them when need-be. I got some small pillows for the kids to sit on, and Nitori built their desks. Nitori also set up the stage and the podium from which Mother Reimu gave her lessons. There was a TV that I installed on the wall, which was controlled by a remote that Mother Reimu had easy access to. Video lessons were created by myself, Wasa-Reimu, Lil' Marisa, Marisa, Nitori, Patchouli, Tough Marisa, and sometimes some of the students. Everyone had their part to play. The students would be let out for play and lunch. Ran would serve them, then serve the yukkuri outside out of a rather large dish.
Wasa-Reimu, Lil' Marisa, and video editing:
The next step became the lessons. What to teach them, rather than just teaching them. That's where Wasa Reimu and Lil' Marisa came in. Wasa Reimu's narcissism came in handy this time -- she always wanted to be a movie star, right? Good! She could help me record some videos to help teach yukkuri various lessons -- how to talk to other humans, how to find food out in the wild, what to do if you get lost, or want to leave the tribe, why you must be nice to mister human... Lil' Marisa would act like the average yukkuri who had no idea what to do. She was the 'mouse.' The first few videos were rather pathetic -- I didn't know what I was doing, nor did they. I just used what few movie tricks I knew -- camera angles and such. With yukkuri, you had to show both sides -- what happens when you do right, and what happens when you do wrong, so I did a few camera tricks to show my foot coming down in front of the camera, to give the illusion that Lil' Marisa was squished. With a little editing I learned, I could place her face over a squished piece of clay. Their reactions were priceless. Wasa Reimu became famous among the adolescent yukkuri -- she was a movie star to them, and I was their prime example. They would practice what they learned about mister humans with me. I took up baking little cookies for them -- those who did exceptionally well were given cookies as rewards. I kept them light on sugar -- I didn't want them to get addicted to sweet-sweets. New lessons were constantly discussed between Patchy, myself, and eventually, with Mother Reimu. Badges were mentioned, but I didn't think it was all that necessary at the time. Wasa-Reimu and Lil' Marisa assisted their mother in teaching -- Lil' Marisa played the part of the eager-to-learn yukkuri, often regarded as the easiest yukkuri (the type that want to learn). Wasa-Reimu would chat about the lesson with her, then Mother Reimu would summarize it. Writing the scripts was a three-stage process: first, it started with what I wanted to teach. Then, I had to figure out how I wanted the script to go. After that, it was simplifying it into easy translations. Everything good was easy, everything not was uneasy. I made my occasional appearance, to keep up the appearance of their chief who oversaw everything. Sometimes, it was necessary to take some of the students into videos. We would edit them in to older videos, or for newer lessons. Of course, they looked awkward and performed rather poorly, but seeing them in a lesson made all the students go wild, and kept Wasa-Reimu their personable celebrity. Also, editing them into the video made it almost like a brand-new lesson. They liked her, and she liked me, which made it easy for her to convince the students I was in their best self-interest.
Respect was building, but not as fast as I'd like.
Patchouli and Gardening:
Patchy and I became close. As close as two could become. She told me about everyone in the tribe, so I'd know how to take care of them when the time came.
"Monotheism is the only thing that comes to mind," I said.
"W-what?" she asked.
I nodded.
"If they believe I am some kind of god, then they will always know who the authority is, whether you're around or not, and I can be the one to tell them who the new leader is to act in your place."
She nodded with a smile. Parlor tricks did it just fine -- I did little magic tricks to convince the babies that I was some kind of wizard. The current generation wouldn't believe me -- well, except maybe the Reimu and Alice that took care of the babies. As long as I convinced them, when they got older, they'd trust me more.
Patchy had this cute roundabout way of getting me to rub-rub her.
"Nitori tells Patchy that Mister Kei's hands are very warm."
"Mmhmm."
"C-can Patchy see how warm they are?"
Stuff like that. It was cute, but I put it to rest...
"If you want rub-rub, just ask, Patchy. I consider you a family member, as much as Reimu and Marisa."
Patchouli and I discussed a lot about what to do with the clan. Obviously, their food stocks wouldn't hold up forever, and I couldn't simply just buy yukkuri food for -this- many yukkuri. I'd be bankrupt in a month. I couldn't come up with much until Patchy and I were discussing another matter -- I can't even remember what, when we were interrupted by Tough Marisa. She was yanking at a plant, and pulled up a carrot.
"Marisa found a delicious munch-munch mister carrot!"
She looked to me, and nodded.
"C... can Marisa keep, Mister Kei?"
Ever since the incident, she was more respectful of me. I gave her a nod. And that light bulb in my head... Patchy and I looked to each other. My backyard. We could regrow my mom's garden! Oh, right, I needed to explain that -- Our house had a pool, once. After my dad passed on, no one ever really used it, so we drained and buried it, then start growing food. After my mom passed on, I didn't have the time nor energy to really maintain it any more. With the yukkuri clan here, maybe that was something they could do. I'd have to get all the tools and such. Patchy and I discussed the matter -- I'd collect the books, tools, seeds, and other needed materials, and Patchy would have the clan take care of it. All the food would be collected and brought to me, and I'd store it for them. During my days off, I helped them weed the garden and till the dirt. Eventually, with Ran and Marisa cooking, they started to prepare the food, but more on that later. With that in order, they wouldn't need to leave the back yard to gather food -- they could just stay within the confides of my fence and live. Especially after I found out what kind of poison they used at the park... see, information was easy to acquire, if you just knew how to acquire it. A six pack of beer during their break, and they were willing to tell me all about the chemicals used. I waited until our nightly meeting to get Patchouli in my room to discuss the matter.
"S-so... we can't go home?"
I shook my head.
"The guy said the poison they used on your burrows will last for a long time. It's specially designed to stay, in case other yukkuri come along and try to move in, or if yukkuri try to run away and hide during a mass extermination."
Her vision lowered. She looked as if she were about to cry. I gave her a gentle rub.
"Cheer up. Your clan has a new home now."
She looked up at me.
"B-but... Mister Kei..."
"If you're worried that your clan will be an inconvenience to me, then don't. Yes, you are an inconvenience. You will be a source of uneasiness for me. However, I will figure out how to make it work, so that we can all be easy. It'll just take time."
Patchy lowered her gaze.
"B-but... what should Patchy tell everyone...?"
I looked down at her.
"Just don't say anything. I'm sure they'll eventually forget, and this will become the new normal for them."
Yes, time. I'm patient. I was already researching all kinds of things -- tax breaks, charity tax status and the like... luckily, I still had my dad's accountant's phone number. I gave him a call on one of my days off. See what he could do for me.
Nitori:
Now, here's the big change in my life. Mother Reimu and Marisa complained that I didn't spend enough time with her, and told me how much she missed me since I was always hunt-hunting. Okay, well, I could use the help of an engineer, and she was good with those building blocks... I brought her into my room, and we began sketching ideas for more permanent residents for the clan outside, alongside the farming. The house designs were between us. The farming, we included Patchy. Nitori seemed to take to it like any engineer would -- she helped me come up with the dimensions for the homes, and even the modular design. We came up with a simple concept -- a single unit, where it's easy to attach another unit, or the divider can simply be removed for a double residence for families. A small light on the rear wall with a push-in on/off, and a vertical water dispenser. I didn't want to include food in the design -- that was something, I told Nitori, we would be in charge of. She told me that it would be smart to at least include the spot that would be where we could install a food dispenser. After all, if we were going to sell it, then yeah -- it would be necessary for someone who kept them as a pet. We came up with extra modules to block those spaces, too A simple pillow for the floor. Nothing too soft -- but something that could hold the heat when cold, and stay cool when it was warm. One last addition was a door -- only accessible from the inside. Of course, the roof could be taken off, but if the yukkuri had to suddenly hide, this would do the trick. Alongside this, Nitori became well-versed in hardware. She even came up with a few of her own ideas for showers for the yukkuri outside -- of how I could run the pipes around and set up pull-chain-activated showers, with yukkuri shampoo nearby. Help them stay clean after work. A food dispenser for snacks in-between meals. A simple toilet that would double as a compost heap for fertilizer. She even fixed broken tools. I brought her to the hardware store with me all the time -- her mind was easily inspired. With the designs ready, a test module was built, and I left it to her to put together. Nitori and I really clicked -- I started bringing her in on all of our meetings. She was, more-or-less, vice-chief of the yukkuri clan. She even built herself a little doorway to the backyard through the room opposite to mine. She built the door to where only she could open it. On the outside, it still looked like part of the wall. It took a few days for the parts to initially arrive, and Nitori demoed for me how to build the housing units. I made sure to patent it -- I could make money off of this if I wanted to. We broke it down and brought it around back and called the clan to a meeting. I let Nitori demo the construction for all to see, and let Patchy move in to it. It was only fitting that Patchy should have the first, since she was the chief. After that, I had them manufacture me a dozen -- enough for the rest of the families, and a few spares, just in case. Nitori set to work modifying the backyard and building in all of the things we discussed. What surprised me the most was that she was actually making her own tools from scrap. I did a bit of online searching and actually found a place that did custom yukkuri accessories. I got her a backpack and a tool belt. She loved both, and actually modified them into a single unit. The thing that blew my mind the most was the fact that somehow, without me knowing, she set up her own cucumber garden that grew over her aquarium. No. Seriously. She had it growing right over her aquarium. Ran would take a few now and again, and add them to her meal. She had a thing for cucumbers. I didn't really like cucumbers, myself.
Eventually, I felt it was time to discuss the details of her birth with her. I didn't want that to remain a secret to her forever.
I took her around to the side of the house, and sat down in front of the stones. She looked at them.
"Mommy, what's this?"
I pointed to the two blank ones with the Marisa one.
"Nitori, there's something you need to understand easy. I'm not actually your mommy."
I'm pretty sure by now that she understood that. Regardless, she looked at me.
"See, I found you when you were still on your mommy's stalk. That stone represents your mother Marisa. The two blank stones represent your two sisters who didn't survive birth. I didn't know what kind they were. They were underdeveloped."
Silence hung over her for a moment.
"N... Nitori was... big sister?"
I looked down at her and nodded.
"You had two sisters... when I found your mother, she was already sleeping the big easy. I took the stalk off of her and tried to save you and your sisters," I placed my hand on her head and gently drew back her hair, "You're the only one who survived."
It hurt me a little bit. I really would have liked to have saved her sisters, but... her braid went to my hand.
"It's okay, mommy. Mommy is still Nitori's mommy..." She turned to the three stones and hopped from my lap. She sat in front of them and looked, "... thank you easy, mommy."
I think she understood. I stood up.
"Do you want to, maybe..."
She turned to me. I could see she was trying to hide tears.
"No. Let's go inside, mommy. Nitori is hungry!"
I smiled and offered my arms. She hopped up and we exchanged a rub-rub. My little daughter. Hah. Tougher than me.
After that, I noticed there was something about her -- something different. She seemed far more eager to hang out with me, but didn't seem as spunky -- she seemed more, well, mature. In the place of that bouncy, energetic child, was now a mature, young, engineering yukkuri, fully capable of running a small farm with other yukkuri. She set up drip-irrigation over the fields. She built gathering tools for harvest time. Patchouli and her would clean and separate the vegetables for Ran's collection. Ran would cook it into various types of food, and then we'd serve it to them. At first, they were quite mistrusting of me taking their food. They thought I was stealing their easiness. After I brought it back, prepared into a nice meal. Nitori became well-versed in communicating to the whole tribe, and even helped continue the idea that I was some form of deity, who could magically take their easy food, and make it into easier meals, with my servant Ran. She helped keep the idea of me being not just their chief, but their deity, prevalent. It didn't take me a lot of explaining for her to get it, and I even believe she enjoyed it. I think she just liked helping me in any way she could.
Ran:
The little fox-girl grew up pretty fast. By all accounts, only after having her a few days, she grew at least six inches. I attributed it to the fact that she wasn't getting full meals -- now that she was, her body could reach the point of where it was supposed to be. It also made her job easier. She flat-out volunteered to keep the house clean. She seemed to enjoy it. Vacuuming, dusting, cooking, cleaning windows... she took care of it all, and all of it with Marisa trailing her. Their rivalry was put to an end. At some point or another, I think Marisa realized Ran wasn't trying to steal me from her. This eased the one-sided tension. Marisa created the tension, but Ran didn't seem to notice. It was interesting to ponder -- was she ignoring it, enjoying the help, or too young to even understand? Either way, she got the cooking duties down -- I even let her try her hand at using a knife. I was extremely cautious with her at first, and only let her go at a slow pace. Even Marisa wanted nothing to do with a knife. Eventually, she was chopping vegetables like a pro. When I got home, the meals were already prepared. I gave her some of my mom's old cookbooks, hoping she'd pick up a few recipes. Her cooking was decent -- she'd sometimes try to 'sweeten' the food, which I steered her away from. As much as yukkuri loved sweets, I couldn't have her getting addicted to it. I eventually got around to taking her clothing shopping. She seemed mostly interested in white clothing, along with a dress or two. We had to do a bit of tailoring to make room for her tails, so she could get the clothes on easily. She regarded me more as, 'master' as time went on. Made me a bit uncomfortable at first.
As for her human friend, it played out pretty much as I thought it would. He showed up now and again and talked to her. They'd spend a day out now and again; he'd come, pick her up, take her out to a restaurant or something, or go shopping. He bought her a few little knick-knacks for her room -- a nice pillow, a few little ceramic statues of foxes and cats, and even a new futon for her to sleep on. Even a pretty, white apron, with a small fox face in the upper right-hand corner. I chipped in, at his request. I didn't mind. A present from both of us, I used to tell her. From time-to-time, he'd even stay for dinner. He liked her meals. As time went on, however, as I predicted, his calls came less frequent. He started showing up less and less often, and their time together was less and less. I didn't want to say anything to Ran -- I feared that it might upset her that he was, well, moving on with his life. She lived here, with me, and not with him. Times change. Life goes on. I didn't notice a change in her work -- she kept putting forth her best. All that she had in her room, I helped pay for, so it wasn't as if it wasn't from both of us. I just really hoped she wasn't holding it all in...
Until I was woken up by a light knock on my door. Marisa was still sleeping next to me. I made my way to the door, and there she was. Yep. It got to her. I gently wiped her eyes clean. She tried not to sob too loud, from what I could tell.
"He... he forgot Ran!"
I shushed her as well as I could. I gave her a hug.
"Ran, it's not that he forgot..."
I struggled to think of what to tell her...
"He just... has his own life. Just like you, here, with me. Maybe one day..."
She continued to sob against me. I hope she wouldn't get anti-yukkuritis from this... I took her by her shoulders and held her in front of me. I looked her squarely in the eyes.
"Listen easy. I know you think he's forgotten you. I don't think he has. He has his own family to take care of, okay? He just... can't make any time to see you any more."
I don't think that helped... she looked like she was about to start balling. I gave her another hug.
"But that's okay. I won't forget nor abandon you. You're part of my family now. And family looks out for one-another, easy."
I could feel her sobs becoming less frequent. I felt her hug me. I guess she was okay now. We stayed there for a moment, then I released her.
"Now, back to bed, you~!" I said and pointed at her.
She wiped her eyes, nodded with a smile, and went back to her room.
The tribe had trouble adjusting to her at first. Pretty soon, they got used to her. Anything that was unfamiliar always stirred them into uneasiness. After a while of her bringing them their prepared meals, helping them in school, and just being around, they got used to her, and even regarded her more respectfully. Of course, a lot of that came from me using their yukkuri logic against them -- it wasn't as if it was -that- difficult to convince them that she was an easy yukkuri. Eventually, I decided to bring the entire clan closer together -- I got a contractor to put up a wall between the living room and the hall next to the kitchen. I set up rows of small tables, including a small one for me, Marisa, and Ran to eat from. I got us all cushions, plus tons of small ones, and made a request of Nitori -- several long, small tables for yukkuri to eat from. After it was all prepared, I started a few new lessons at school and for the adults on dining etiquette, utensils, and eating in large auditoriums. With all of that prepared, for dinner, we would bring in the entire clan, and all eat together. It was a way for all of us to associate. Familiarity. The clan eats together with their chief. I felt this really helped them bond to me better -- they'd bring their little kos in, and would share in the meal. Ran, Marisa, and I would clean up afterwards. Yeah, I had to sit on the floor. It was a bit uncomfortable, but it was fun. Had to get used to Japanese-style dinner, where it was cushions and being low to the floor. By the schooling room, I put up several toilets for them to go into. Yukkuri had fast metabolisms -- when they ate, they often had to poop within minutes. Had to accommodate.
The two cats:
So, I skipped over something. I now have two more yukkuri who live in my house. While I was initially setting up the fields, I went into the shed in my backyard, where we kept all the gardening tools. When I opened the door, I was immediately greeted with a shriek.
"Ah! A mister human! G-go away, easy! This is Rin and Ran's easy place! Leave now!"
I heard the cries, but it took a moment to sink in. I looked down. There were two yukkuri in the shed -- both had cat ears; one had red hair, and two braids with green bows at both the start and the end of the braids. The other had black hair with a green bonnet with a gold hoop earring on her right ear, and two black tails. The one in panic was the red-haired one. The other didn't seem to notice me. Her tails curled around her and she sank.
"Chen... doesn't get it... mister human, please go away easy..."
"Leave us alone easy!" she yelled again and hopped up and down, "Wanna die?!"
I looked down at the two, and my hand fell to my side. I felt a gnawing at my brain. I knew it on sight what they reminded me of.
"Chen... doesn't get it... Rin... please... leave Chen, easy... save yourself..."
"No! Rin will protect her easy big sister Chen this time!"
Small purple fires flickered up around Rin. She threw her braids at me.
"Take that and die, easy!"
The flames hit my shirt. I looked down and patted them out. I cooked stuff for a living. They barely even singed compared to some of the burns I got. I heard Rin cry.
"No! Please! Please, Mister Human! Go away easy!"
I got a good look at them -- the Chen never once seemed to focus looking at anything. Matter of fact, her eyes never opened. She had large scabs above and below her eyes, cuts and punctures on her body, and still had a few dents on her. The Rin didn't look much better. I reached down. I heard the Rin begin to cry. She shielded herself with her braids and let out another cry. I gently slid my hand over Chen's cheek. They reminded me of two cats I used to have. A long time ago. Loved them, for the short time I had them. The spunky, energetic one who seemed to love to cuddle with me, unfortunately, met a tragic end after he seemed to like to play a little too much on the road. Chen's appearance... it reminded me of him.
"Ohh... warm... Chen gets it... mister's... easy hand, yes?"
Rin moved a braid and peeked at my arm. She let out another cry, bounced up and bit my arm. Clearly, she was too weak from hunger to be able to bite me too hard. The fact that she had missing teeth helped mitigate any damage she might have caused to my skin. Tears dripped from her eyes.
"Don hur Ken!" she yelled with my arm in her mouth.
Yeah. Hurt a little. I had a high tolerance for pain. I looked to her. I lowered myself down and poked her with my free hand.
"Hey. You can let go now," I said, as Rin looked at me.
She let go of my arm, and stared me down. I kept my attention on Chen.
"Let me see your eyes, Chen," I said.
My fingers found their way under her eyelid. I gently lifted. Yep. Her eyes were removed.
"Yes, yes. Chen gets it. Mister... are you an easy mister?"
Rin gasped and looked to Chen.
"Chen... do you think Mister human is an easy mister human?"
Chen rubbed herself against my hand and rolled back. Her mouth pulled up into a Cheshire smile.
"Mmm... Chen gets it. He's easy mister human."
Rin seemed to be flooded with emotions at the same time. She got teary-eyed, bounced up and down in excitement, then saw my arm. In a panic, she immediately shoved her face into the floor.
"Rin is sorry, mister! Rin bit easy mister! Rin must apologize! Please forgive Rin!"
There must be a story as to why she was so... sporadic. She moved to my arm and stuck her tongue out.
"Let uneasy Orin lick-lick in apology!"
"Rin isn't uneasy..." Chen said, "Rin just wanted to protect big sister..."
I gave her a smile. I placed my hand on her head.
"It's okay, Rin. Mister forgives. Rin isn't uneasy -- she is protective of Chen."
She stared up at me with a wild smile. I wasn't sure she got it. Regardless...
"Anyway, this is mister human's shed. That's why there's all the mister tools in here," I said, and motioned around them.
Rin looked at all the stuff, then back to me.
"Rin and Chen can stay here if they want, but I don't recommend it. See, this is a good easy place, but if mister rain comes, and doesn't stop, you could be in trouble. Mister rain could come in here and make you uneasy..."
When it rained really hard, the shed sat at the lowest spot in my yard. The rainwater would flood the floor, which is why we kept all the tools on shelves and/or hanging. Nothing on the floor. Rin and Chen gasped.
"However, mister has a big easy place. Lots of other yukkuri. Maybe you could take it easy with mister human?"
They bounced up and down and cheered. They were totally into the idea. I held out my arms for them to hop in. Rin hopped in, and I scooped up Chen.
Once inside, Ran called out to me to pick up my lunch.
"R.. Ran-sama... Chen doesn't get it... why does Chen hear the wonderful, beautiful voice of Ran-sama?"
Rin gasped.
"Does mister know Chen's Ran-sama?!" she asked and looked up at me.
"Well," I started, "I know a Ran... Ran!" I called to her.
She came out of the kitchen and stared up at me. The moment she saw the Chen in my arms, she gasped.
"C-Chen?!"
"R-Ran-sama?!"
Chen squirmed around in my arms.
"Raaaaan-sama!"
She bounced out of my arms. Ran quickly moved forward and caught her. Much rub-rubbing was done. I smiled and looked to Rin. I could tell by looking at her... she wasn't happy. She kept a happy face, but the smile in her eyes... it was gone. Not. Good. I wasn't exactly sure what just transpired -- Ran never said anything of having any siblings or friends. Why did she know this Chen? Was there some kind of genetic imprint for one-another? In my research, I read about such things -- some yukkuri hate other types, and some automatically love certain types. I never read about Rins and Chens getting along, but I read that when a Chen meets a Ran, it's like two soulmates finding one-another. The only problem was that, in this case, one yukkuri gets left out.
I kept my eye on them. Ran never let Chen get very far from her, being blind and all. I showed her how to treat her -- a little OJ here, a little more there... just a bit. Not a lot. Couldn't have her getting addicted. Not to play a pun, but I kept an eye on the progress of their regrowth. It took longer than the usual parts of a yukkuri to regenerate -- surface wounds recovered in seconds. Harsher wounds would take a big longer. It seemed like the eyes took a while. Possibly because they were one of the most-complex parts of their body. That also plagued me -- they were nocturnal underground creatures. Could explain why she didn't need eyes that much to begin with. At any rate, once she could see, she opened her eyes. She complained of only seeing things as black and white globs, at first, but eventually told me how nice mister human looked. As for who took care of her, that was Ran. She voluntarily adopted her and took care of her -- grooming, cleaning, feeding, teaching... she had Nitori make her a little pouch for her apron to keep Chen in. Almost like a kangaroo. They got along better than, I felt, I did with both of them. Well, hard to say with Ran and myself, but Chen and I didn't talk much. She just loved it when I gave her rub-rubs. So much like a normal cat.
As for Rin, well... things took a turn for the worse. I opted to keep her in my room, for close observation. We taught her how to use a toilet, wipe, hygiene, etc. She took to it, but showed no signs of improvement. I felt bad. I feel like I crushed her world. Her and Chen must have been really tight. I did what I could to appear cheerful to her, and she responded, at least on the surface, to it, but I could tell she wasn't happy. One particular day, I got out of bed, and felt a gentle poke to my ankle. Rin was there. She was waiting for me, by the looks of it. Marisa was already up and out, cleaning the house.
"Mister Kei?"
"Yes?"
"Rin wants to talk easy..."
"Okay," I said, reached down, picked her up, and sat her in my lap. "Let's talk easy."
I could tell it was coming -- her confession. She told me the story of herself -- she didn't remember her parents any more. She lived on the street, alone, for a while, until she met Chen. She told me Chen, as far as she could tell, was abandoned by her owner. Mind you, this is what I could piece together from the yu language she used. By abandoned, she could have simply gotten lost. Anyway, they hung out together and became the best of friends. They even started looking to one-another as family. Then, one day while they were playing, a mister human came along and picked on them. Rin tried to fight him off with her little flames, but it didn't stop him either.
"That uneasy mister human... he was going to kill Rin, but..." her eyes watered, "Chen told him to stop. Chen told him to beat her up instead. To bully her instead..."
She looked up at me. Tears rolled down the sides of her pastry face.
"If Chen didn't stand up to uneasy scum human, Rin would be blind... but if Rin was stronger, or if Rin hadn't asked Chen to play with her that day..."
Anti-yukkuritis symptom: she was recalling great uneasiness. I placed my finger over her mouth.
"And if you didn't, you'd never have met your big sister, moved into my shed, and found your way here."
That didn't seem to comfort her much. She seemed to sink into a slump>
"Listen easy -- I know you're uneasy because that Ran has taken your big sister and now you don't see each other as much," her disposition didn't change after that, "but at least she's easier now. Her eyesight is almost back. I'm sure you'll get to see her more in the future. And if not, you can always be Mister Kei's little sister?"
She looked up at me slowly. I could see that glimmer in her eyes returning. I took my finger off of her mouth.
"A... and Rin will be Mishder Kei's widdle shishder?"
Boy, did those slurs when they got upset become pretty bad... I gave a nod. She bounced up and down in my lap and gave a few cheers.
Afterwards, I gave a little speech to Ran. It wasn't so much of a talking to as it was just a suggestion. I pulled her to the side while Chen was playing in her room and let her know,
"Please let Rin see her now and again. Set some time aside for all three of you, or even just take Rin with you when you do things."
She lowered her gaze for a moment, eyes cast to one side. She brought her arms up as she looked back to me, and gave a nod.
"For master, Ran will also take care of Rin!"
I don't think I ever saw Rin upset again. All three stayed in the master bedroom. Nitori built them one of our shelters as their easy place. I think Chen was happy to see her friend again -- she appeared to have been caught up in the whole whirlwind of meeting a Ran, and let it slip her mind that her best friend missed her. Rin let me know that Chen apologize, and well...
She planted her face into the floor.
"Thank you so much for all the easiness, Mister Kei!"
She was a spunky little thing. I gave her head a light pat.
"You're welcome. Now go play."
Ran took good care of them. She let them watch as she cooked. They got to sample her latest recipes first. It was fun to watch.
Marisa, and Research:
Now, here's where I got to do some research. Since Marisa was closer to me than Ran, and more accepting of things I asked her to do, I decided to try a few little experiments with her. Nothing severe. First off, we had to get her a wardrobe. Couldn't have her always going around in my clothes, especially since they didn't fit. Her body shape was as close to a human female as one could possibly imagine. One odd little change, though.
"Can you move your piu-piu?"
She stared at me for a moment, then closed her eyes. She recoiled a bit and puffed her cheeks out. That braid stayed still.
"Mar -- My piu-piu! It's... broken!"
That moment made me laugh.
"It's not broken -- I think the function of it is no longer needed, since you have hands now. Now, it's just like human hair -- it's just a braid."
Of course, I'd be the judge of that. I took some hair clippings. I brought them to a yukkuri veteran. A quick dab with some chemicals, and she verified it:
"These are hairs off of a Marisa-type yukkuri."
I didn't explain to her any hows or whys of the hair, I simply asked her to identify them.
"Okay, thank you!"
Had to stop by and do some shopping -- needed to collect some medicine, some soap, and find some distributors. With the larger number of yukkuri, I'd simply buy in larger amounts. Of course, one case, at this rate, would last me years. Anyway, the hair sample confirmed my initial suspicious. I stuck to some simple tests.
"Let me see your arm."
She held it out to me. I took it in my hand, then looked into her eyes.
"Let me know if it hurts, and how badly, okay?"
She nodded slowly. I began to pinch her forearm. Slowly. I kept my eyes on her. I squeezed it flat, long-ways. I saw her face wince slightly.
"Not too painful, right?"
She nodded. I released some pressure.
"May I continue?"
She hesitated, then nodded. I squeezed, until both sides of her bread skin touched. No bones. Just as I suspected. She was whimpering. I looked to her, then released her wrist.
"Ow! Hurts!"
She took her wrist and licked it. Ha. Some old habits die hard. I held my hand out to her. She seemed to get defensive, and turned away. I stared at her with a grin. She reached out and laid her arm into my hand again. I leaned over and gave it a light kiss.
"I apologize. It's just that there isn't much information on bodied yukkuri. I thought I'd add some to the general knowledge out there."
So, from these simple observations, I could prove one thing: they had no skeletal structure of any kind. Which baffled me beyond any comprehension. Every living creature had a skeletal and muscular structure. When they're normal yukkuri, their bodies take a circular or ovular shape, depending on gravity and how well-cared for they are. Bodied? This completely threw everything we knew about anatomy and physics out the door. Okay, some of it. Anyway, I had one last test.
"You won't like this one. Please forgive me."
She blinked. I took her hand. I took out a small knife. She almost instantly panicked.
"It'll only hurt for a second, okay? I promise."
A two-part experiment. First, I made a small slice over her palm. She let out a light cry. Her eyes welled up. I watched as the paste came to the surface, almost like blood. I gently wiped off a small portion of it, then pressed it shut with my thumb. I ran the fluid over my tongue. Yep. Still bean paste. Wow. So she really was just a giant yukkuri. I picked up the cup off of my desk and gave a few drops of orange juice onto her palm. The wound closed almost instantly.
"See? Good as new!" I said, and pointed.
She smiled when she looked at her hand, then frowned when she looked at me.
"Sorry, but I'm hoping maybe with a bit of research, well... maybe humans won't be afraid of bodied yukkuri."
She gasped and looked to me.
"Humans are... afraid of... me?"
Well, I didn't really know for absolute certain, but...
"Yeah. You look too human. They don't like that."
"D-does that mean... you?"
I gave her my usual smile.
"Nah. I'm not afraid of you. I like you. Now that you're more human, I like you even more now. We can have lots more easiness together!"
She liked that idea.
That aside, there wasn't any really new information I could provide about bodied yukkuri -- their reproductive parts move to the portions they are on a human body; she was still a hermaphrodite, when the situation called for it, but her anyaru moved to where it was supposed to be. Odd how dramatic of a shift all of this was, all to give her the simulation that she was supposed to be human. In contemporary society, given the proper education, if I simply changed her hairstyle, it'd be difficult for anyone to tell her apart from a human. Ran, on the other hand, was a whole different story. With her face still round like a yukkuri. Her attire took to that of, well, pretty much a normal teenage girl. She preferred t-shirts and jeans, whether short or long, and took part in whatever she could. She cooked, she cleaned, she helped the clan in the garden. Whatever I did, she wanted part of. She was never too far from me.
Accounting, Charity, Construction, and the Orphanage
With all the previous mentioned modifications to my abode, a few more became necessary -- not because of yukkuri sneaking into the yard, but because of other animals that lived around in the neighborhood sniffing around for pastries. I had the foresight to install doors on their habitats, but that didn't stop some animals from trying. Marisa usually hung out around back to make sure that didn't occur. We lost a few yukkuri -- not many, but others began to show up. Most were rather uncouth. Luckily, I was home when they usually showed up. They would come early on, probably seeking food. It was easy to twist them to my will. More on that later. I replaced the chain-link fence with a thick plastic fence. It was sturdier, and harder for them to infiltrate. I kept a few 'yukkuri' doors on each side, to allow 'secret' entry and exit. It was something an animal wouldn't understand, but a yukkuri could piece together if they looked at it. Any yukkuri that could solve the gate puzzle would be allowed entry. The doors were designed by Nitori, but the accounting was starting to add up. I was still in the clear, but it was starting to add up. I got in touch with my dad's accountant.
The recommendations were to first found a 501(c). That's a not-for-profit charity for you non-tax attorneys. This would allow me to claim all of my expenditures on the residence as tax credits. Next, was to see if there was any kind of tax breaks I could get for it being a yukkuri farm. Or an orphanage. Or animal shelter. Whichever one I could go for. It was hard to say, really -- yukkuri were intelligent enough to qualify as humanoid, thus orphanage -- but would the law recognize that? I decided not to chance it, and went with animal shelter. Hell, I didn't even know if that was the proper term, as yukkuri were technically not animals. At least I didn't think so. It created an interesting loophole -- If auditors came by, the yukkuri were animals, but if a vet was necessary to be present, well, they weren't animals, were they? Besides, it's not like it'd take me that long to get some paperwork. After all, yukkuri weren't exactly complex creatures. Precisely how hard could it be to get that kind of paperwork done? Anyway, with the charity organization picked out, I had to pick a name and trademark it. Names were always the weakest point in my creativity. I often kept it simple, and in this case: I did. Yuphanage. Even came up with a cute picture of Mother Marisa, her two kids, and Nitori as our corporate logo. Trademarked that, too. Now we had an organization. Now I needed sponsorship and advertising. If people weren't aware we existed, then what was the point? Our food intake far exceeded the food consumed. I could easily take in more yukkuri. I set up a website and a few social media sites. I took out a few ads on social media and let the word spread. During a few days, I took dozens of photos of my house -- of the yukkuri in class, the nursery, Patchy, Ran and her cooking, Marisa and Ran cleaning, the yukkuri hanging out around their houses, Nitori and Tough Marisa working the fields... various things to just post around the website. An idea struck me to live stream the few cameras in the house. I linked up the one watching the little yukkuri homes on my back porch, the two that overlooked the garden from either angle, the classroom one, and the nursery one. People could come and watch them play, work, live, and be easy. I had the sound on for those particular cameras, but filtered out the rest of my house. It wasn't as if it was that loud to begin with. It helped get our name out there, and helped people to understand that we really were a charity, and not simply some undercover abyuse place or something. I made a few icons for the website and social page: "Abyuse free!" with a happy Marisa, and "Stray friendly!" with a picture of a Reimu-Marisa family and their children looking happily. I listed all of our information and how to contact us. After a few visits from local news organizations, some journalists, and a few visits from yukkuri supporters, I had the renown, and I had the donations. The income was important for medicine, materials, seeds, ingredients, and helped pay for the fence upgrade.
With us beginning to take in strays, we had to revisit the housing for them. I had the foresight to show Nitori where we could set up modifications for two-, three- and even four-story building. I had plenty of room around the outside for them to be placed, but if really bad weather came, I wanted to make sure we'd have enough room inside. We had to design ramps, pathways, and banisters -- couldn't have little yus falling off. It was fairly simply to just design pegs and locks. It wasn't necessary yet -- stray yukkuri didn't know much of my place yet, but with the social media site offering to take in yukkuri in lieu of leaving them on the street, I found myself in the possession of a few more yukkuri. Most of them still had badges. I had to settle them in first -- the shock of being with a new owner usually made them rather uneasy. Many went through some serious phases of depression. I kept them inside with me until they were adjusted. The room across from mine made a good holding pen for them, before I transferred them outside. The first night, they'd stay in a yukkurium I kept in my closet. They'd get to know me, Ran, Nitori, Marisa, Patchouli, Lil' Marisa, Wasa-Reimu, and Mother Reimu. The main staff, essentially. I'd get to know them, build up their confidence, and hear their side of the story as to why their previous owners dumped them on me. Most were the same -- they met a stray and fell in love, but their owner didn't want them to have babies. There were some that still had the stalk on them. They were the very nervous-type. I assured them that their life here would be good. I had to keep an eye on them, though. I didn't want scum infiltrating my balanced clan. With them confident in me, and their easiness returning, I'd then explain to them what happens next -- being moved to the clan. I came up with an entire ceremony for it -- Nitori built a podium for them to stand atop, and I'd introduce them to the entire clan. I set up a few lessons for the ones we took in -- about being friendly with them, but still keeping an eye on them in case they did uneasy things, and what to do if they did something uneasy. They were taught not to trust yukkuri who wore a particular pin I would put on them, until I changed said pin, and to not speak of what the pin means. All strays that found their way in were easier to recognize -- they didn't have any kind of pin on them. All of the drop-offs were given the same pins before announced to the clan. The lesson also included a special note about strays -- that they may be uneasy at first, and that they could even be downright mean or even scum, but the lesson told them to still be nice to them, and to send them to the chief. I had Nitori whip up a rather large holding pen -- the 'waiting room' for strays. Strays who found the clan were told to wait there until I got home and could properly interview them.
A knock at my door. Ran would normally answer it before I could even get off my chair. She'd come and get me halfway there.
"A mister human is here to drop off a yukkuri, master," she'd say, with a light bow.
I'd give her a headpat, which made her immediately giggle. I moved to the door. It was a man with a small yukkurium, and a Reimu with a small badge on her bow. The badge was gold and marked with a 'G'. She was sobbing away.
"Hey! I hear you take yukkuri in..."
I gave him a nod.
"It's preferable to just throwing them out on the street."
"N-no! Pwease, misder huban! Don'd abandon Deibu! Deibu wubs misder!"
He picked up the yukkurium and stared at her.
"I'm sorry, Reimu. It's for the best."
"No! No! No!"
Ran approached behind me. I held out my hand. She placed a small candy in my hand. I reached into the yukkurium and offered it to Reimu.
"Reimu... please have this mister sweet-sweet."
She continued to cry, but turned and looked at it. She sheepishly took it.
"It'll make you feel a little easier."
She looked up and nodded. She stuck it into her mouth, then simply fell asleep. I let out a sigh. He looked down at her, then back to me.
"Whoa! Did you just kill her, you punk?!"
"No. That was a lemon candy. The sweet and sour balance knocks out yukkuri. She'll sleep for a bit, then wake up feeling fine."
He blinked and looked to me.
"Really? Wow."
So, from what he told me, the problem was the Reimu became obsessive with him, and his wife didn't like that. He got the Reimu for her as a Valentine's Day gift, and it was great for a while, but she started to become possessive of him. He wasn't bringing her here because he wanted to get rid of her, he was bringing her because his wife didn't want her any more.
"I'll see to it that she's taken care of."
He let out a relieved sigh. This guy really liked his Reimu.
"Thanks a lot, man."
There was no official laws on the transfer of ownership for yukkuri, since there still was no laws on the books stating that they were living creatures. He told me he found out about my place through a friend who liked watching the live stream from time-to-time. Good. It was working.
Badged yukkuri had a hard time adjusting -- the clan was mostly strays, and badged were taught that strays were uneasy scum who should die. That was the main reason I kept them inside -- I couldn't have any fights breaking out. As they watched the clan, and the clan was easy to them, they learned that their badge training was a bit of a lie -- they got along just fine. Some discarded their badges. Others kept them. Hell, even I benefited from the badged yukkuri -- they told me a bit about how the training worked, and about humans and their reactions. Some told me that, even after being taken in by me, they still wanted to be pets. That's fine. I was getting e-mails about that very subject. Maybe I'd look into that whole thing...
At one point, I decided to print business cards and start handing them out to strays that I saw. Perhaps it was because I spent so much time with the families at my house that suddenly stray yukkuri didn't run when I saw them.
"Hey, mister human! Give Marisa sweet-sweets! Lots is fine!"
"Well, Mister human doesn't have sweet-sweets, but he has something else."
"What?! What kind of shitty human doesn't have sweet-sweets?! Uneasy human should go away and drop dead easy!"
I took out a business card and hand it to her.
"Take this easy."
She reached with her braid and took it. She looked at it, then up to me.
"What is this shit?"
I looked behind her at her small family, and pointed to them.
"It's hope. For you and your family. If you can make it to this place, there's a yukkuri clan there that will help you and your family take it easy. You may have to work a little in a mister field and help mister plants take it easy, but your kids will never have to go hungry again. Their stomachs will always be full, and you'll have a warm, easy place where mister rain won't make you uneasy."
She looked up at me. I could see it in her eyes. Hit her right where it counts -- no matter how scummy they were, unless they were full-on shithead, they would take the offer.
"R... really?"
I'd nod.
"But only for yukkuri who are easy! And those who believe that they and their family are easy enough!"
Belief. What a tool. If they believed enough, they'd make it.
"Make sure you save that mister card, too!"
It's how I identified which ones actually made it. The Marisa nodded and stuffed it under her hat. Once she did that, I'd take a quick look around, take out a small lunch I often brought with me (I had Ran whip up a few extras to take to strays), and gave it to Marisa.
"Just a sample of some of the yummy delicious munch-munch they have there... enjoy!"
The Marisa's eyes went wide. She took it and ran back to her family. I listened to her, and how she bragged about how she made mister human slave give her food. Whatever. The schooling would fix that up.
Strays that found their way in often came alone, though. I think they would scout us, or, as with most cases, just be there to try and steal food. I often had to come in mid-way to mediate between our yukkuri and the stray. I came up with a lesson for the adults in how to defend the fields if animals came -- not that it was a significant threat any more, but even still, you never knew when desperate animals would dig under the fence. Nitori whipped them up some weapons to use, but often I'd find them trying to fight off a stray. I'd approach, and immediately show my dominance.
"What's all this going on here?"
The two Marisas jumped slightly, nearly dropping their spears.
"Mister Chief! It's a scum Marisa trying to steal our easy food!"
I looked to the Marisa in question. She was rather scoffed, had a few punctures on her, was guarding a carrot, and desperately clinging to a stick. She took a jab at the two, who jumped back. I stomped my foot in-between the two.
"You! Stupid human ze! Mister carrot that grows in the ground belongs to Marisa! Better not fight! Wanna die da ze?!"
She swung her stick back and forth. I could tell by the light gasps that it hurt to fight. I looked at her, then to the other two. They had some injuries, but nothing major. I looked back to her. Marisa came up behind me.
"What's going on h--" I lifted my hand to silence her, and the rest of the onlooking yukkuri.
"Marisa, bring me some orange juice."
"You better not try to steal the great Marisa's munch-munch! Marisa will puff-puff and mister human will be dead da ze!"
"Don't you be mean to our easy Mister Chief!"
"Yeah! Marisa should apologize easy! Uneasy yukkuri should drop dead!"
I lifted my hand again, and the two behind me stopped talking. The stray kept hurling insults.
"Hey," I said, in a rather strong voice, "Do you have an easy family?"
The stray seemed confused.
"Better not insult the Great Marisa's family! Marisa will destroy Mister Human da ze!"
"So, you do have a family."
Marisa came up behind me and offered me the orange juice. I took the cup and gently poured it on the stray's head. With a gasp and a shake...
"Refreshed!"
Like magic, her wounds closed. The two behind me gasped.
"Take that carrot. Bring it to your family and share it with them."
I turned, reached behind me and grabbed two more. I ripped them out of the ground and tossed them to her.
"Take these, as well. When you're done, bring your family here. You seem like you can work hard. Help us make mister carrot take it easy, and you and your family can live easy with us here."
The stray seemed to not know how to respond to that. She moved to the two carrots and slipped them under her hat, then to the one she took and slid that one under. She picked up her stick and faced us again.
"Now, go. Your children are probably hungry, and need that food."
She still wasn't sure, and gently edged her way back to the door, stick in mouth. She looked from me to the two yukkuri, who hadn't moved since I got there. Once she reached the doorway...
"Ha! Stupid human! The Great Marisa was too smart for you, da ze!"
She slipped back out. I stood up with a smile. Patchouli moved to me.
"Mukyu! W-why did you give that scum our munch-munch?"
I looked down. The other yukkuri were hurling the same questions. I clapped my hands to silence them.
"First off, do not question your chief. You know that. Second," I said, and looked to the gate, "We have plenty of food. More-than enough for at least her family to eat tonight," I looked down at them again, "Surely some of you remember the time of when you were strays, before Patchouli and I became your chief when you used to struggle to find mister munch-munch and make sure your children weren't hungry any more?"
A silence fell over them. Dozens of eyes looked to me again, and nodded.
"Don't hate strays because they're uneasy. Be more easy to them. Now, everyone," I said, clapped my hands again and smiled, "Back to work!"
Badges:
What really motivated me to begin looking into badges occurred was one random day I happen to watch the yus head to school. There was a small Marisa who was trying to squeeze her way through the fence.
"Yupipipi... Misder... fence... pwease wet Mawisha into Misder Chief'sh eajy pwace! Now ish fine!"
I walked to the fence and leaned over.
"Hey, little one! You're gonna miss school! Your teacher will be upset!"
"Yupiii!"
She let out a surprised cry and accidentally peed a little. I grinned.
"Oh, sorry to surprise you."
"Oh! Ish Misder Chief! Take it easy, Misder Chief!"
"Take it easy, Marisa! Say, Marisa, why are you trying to get through Mister Gate?"
She moved back to the gate and tried to squeeze her way through.
"Mawisha wants to be pet yukkuri! Mawisha doesn't want to wive outshide wif other yukkuri!"
I blinked. What was wrong with living outside?
"But being a pet is hard work, Marisa. It could be uneasy... after all, Marisa needs a mister badge..."
She stopped and looked up at me.
"Mawisha's daddy had a mishder gold badge! Mawisha could be gold badge, too!"
I reached down and offered her my hand. She hopped in and I lifted her up. Gasp! Birdie! I held out my hand for her to rub-rub against.
"So, you think you could be a gold-badge yukkuri?"
She rub-rubbed against my fingers.
"Yesh! If Mawisha's daddy can do it, Mawisha can too!"
Hmm.
"Okay. Maybe Chief can help you with that."
I'd have to do some research, but why not?
"But for now, you'll have to stay with the clan."
She let out a whine. I giggled a little.
"But for today, you can be easy with us."
"Eajy!"
With that inspiration, I set up a clan meeting with Patchouli. I wanted to see if this venture would be worth it.
"I called us all here for a few questions... how many of you, who have not been pet yukkuri, would like to become pet yukkuri?"
I was surprised by the number of piu-pius that were lifted. I arched a brow.
"Okay. of those of you who have been pet yukkuri, how many of you would like to be pet yukkuri again?"
A little less piu-pius.
"Alright, those of you who do not wish to be pet yukkuri at all, please leave easy."
I waited for them to depart, then turned to the remaining yukkuri.
"Okay, so, if easy chief becomes a mister badge giver, are you okay with the fact that you may have to leave your families behind to become pet yukkuri? Please respond one at a time."
The decisions seemed rather unanimous among those who wanted to be pets. I took their opinions one-by-one. It seemed like many of the strays wanted to be pets, but most of the pets didn't want to really be pets any more. Odd how that worked.
"Alright, then, you have decided for mister chief. Mister Chief will begin the process of becoming a Mister Badge Giver. Please be easy until he finishes."
Wasn't sure where to start looking.
... oh, right. Google.
[I'll have more tales of scum encounters later.]
[I'll also wrap up some unfinished business, and begin new business in the next chapter.]
[Like I said, getting bigger~]
With all the events involving yukkuri in my life, I decided I'd start keeping track of a lot of my gathered thoughts on my computer. I opened up a blog online on the yukkuri wikia, where I kept my generic information stored. My more-private blog, which was kept private and backed-up on my own computer, kept track of the more-detailed observations. I masked all my information as well as I could -- didn't need abyusers tracking me and coming to my house and killing off my clan while I was at work. Yes. My clan. Well, our clan. Mine and Patchy's. We got along pretty well -- two intellectuals, who ruled over a tribe of child-like intellects. It wasn't too difficult -- Patchy and I knew how to speak to them properly. Many of them didn't like me -- that was fine. They'd learn to respect me, given enough time. Patchy would insist that I was also the chief, and that they should do what I tell them, because I'm an easy chief. Again, it was difficult, but I knew they'd adjust. Or I'd do something about it.
Wait. I got ahead of myself. Let's back up and take this step-by-step.
The Tribe, Mother Reimu, and the School:
So, the transfer went off without a hitch. Ran, Marisa, and I went out that night, gathered them up by the family, marked each family with a specific pin, and took them, with whatever possessions they could carry, back to my back porch. More on my back porch later. We brought them around back, took them out from the boxes, then simply turned the boxes onto their sides. There! Homes. They weren't great, but they were a temporary residence. Patchy and Tough Marisa packed up what food they had gathered into a few containers I brought them. I wasn't sure how long it would last them, but I'm sure they could just do the same scavenging from my back yard. Patchy and I met regularly to discuss the order of the day, normally after the rest of the clan went to sleep. They regarded one-another as one giant family, though they still had their individual family units. What an odd combination of collective family, yet still recognize their own individual families. Seemed stranger, still, that they knew their children so well, despite how they all looked alike to me. We had to first establish what they previously had, so a nursery became necessary. I let them use the room behind mine; one that was added by my dad as a small office. I bought a handful of small toys, some plastic-coated cushions, and a food and water dispenser. They already had a Reimu who worked as their nurse. An Alice would sometimes assist her. Their job was to chew the food and clean up after the children. It was eventually discussed between Patchouli and I that an education would become necessary for all maturing and mature yukkuri. The first step was to determine where. It came to me in an instant -- the room that was -supposed- to have become my room, but wound up becoming a large storage room. The house had a rear area -- kind of a lounge room, on the northern part. Even though all the entertainment stuff was in the southern part, at the entrance, this area was always kind of empty. I convinced my dad to convert it into a room, while he was still alive, but never got the chance to move in. This room was literally right in front of the sliding glass door to the back porch. I could, pretty easily, set up that back room to be the classroom. It would be a little bleak for now, but I'd come up with something. I got a baby fence to block yukkuri from entering the residence part of the house. After that came the important stuff: what to teach yukkuri, and who would teach it. Mother Reimu overheard Patchy and I discussing this exact matter, and volunteered to be the teacher.
"Mister Kei has given Reimu so much easiness! Reimu wants to give Mister Kei some easiness!"
I smiled.
"You'd be giving easiness to more than just me, you know."
Cleaning and maintenance? I'll get into that in a bit...
I installed cameras around my house, as well. to keep an eye out for abyusers. It started to pop up on my news feed from time-to-time on social media. It was beginning to make me nervous.
I left the task of operating the opening and closing of the school to Ran. She would move the gate and allow Mother Reimu, Wasa-Reimu, and Lil' Marisa into the small space between the sliding door to my back porch and the room that I designated as the school. She'd open the door to let them in early, so they could set up whatever lesson they had to. I had full-on scripts for them, and Ran would assist them when need-be. I got some small pillows for the kids to sit on, and Nitori built their desks. Nitori also set up the stage and the podium from which Mother Reimu gave her lessons. There was a TV that I installed on the wall, which was controlled by a remote that Mother Reimu had easy access to. Video lessons were created by myself, Wasa-Reimu, Lil' Marisa, Marisa, Nitori, Patchouli, Tough Marisa, and sometimes some of the students. Everyone had their part to play. The students would be let out for play and lunch. Ran would serve them, then serve the yukkuri outside out of a rather large dish.
Wasa-Reimu, Lil' Marisa, and video editing:
The next step became the lessons. What to teach them, rather than just teaching them. That's where Wasa Reimu and Lil' Marisa came in. Wasa Reimu's narcissism came in handy this time -- she always wanted to be a movie star, right? Good! She could help me record some videos to help teach yukkuri various lessons -- how to talk to other humans, how to find food out in the wild, what to do if you get lost, or want to leave the tribe, why you must be nice to mister human... Lil' Marisa would act like the average yukkuri who had no idea what to do. She was the 'mouse.' The first few videos were rather pathetic -- I didn't know what I was doing, nor did they. I just used what few movie tricks I knew -- camera angles and such. With yukkuri, you had to show both sides -- what happens when you do right, and what happens when you do wrong, so I did a few camera tricks to show my foot coming down in front of the camera, to give the illusion that Lil' Marisa was squished. With a little editing I learned, I could place her face over a squished piece of clay. Their reactions were priceless. Wasa Reimu became famous among the adolescent yukkuri -- she was a movie star to them, and I was their prime example. They would practice what they learned about mister humans with me. I took up baking little cookies for them -- those who did exceptionally well were given cookies as rewards. I kept them light on sugar -- I didn't want them to get addicted to sweet-sweets. New lessons were constantly discussed between Patchy, myself, and eventually, with Mother Reimu. Badges were mentioned, but I didn't think it was all that necessary at the time. Wasa-Reimu and Lil' Marisa assisted their mother in teaching -- Lil' Marisa played the part of the eager-to-learn yukkuri, often regarded as the easiest yukkuri (the type that want to learn). Wasa-Reimu would chat about the lesson with her, then Mother Reimu would summarize it. Writing the scripts was a three-stage process: first, it started with what I wanted to teach. Then, I had to figure out how I wanted the script to go. After that, it was simplifying it into easy translations. Everything good was easy, everything not was uneasy. I made my occasional appearance, to keep up the appearance of their chief who oversaw everything. Sometimes, it was necessary to take some of the students into videos. We would edit them in to older videos, or for newer lessons. Of course, they looked awkward and performed rather poorly, but seeing them in a lesson made all the students go wild, and kept Wasa-Reimu their personable celebrity. Also, editing them into the video made it almost like a brand-new lesson. They liked her, and she liked me, which made it easy for her to convince the students I was in their best self-interest.
Respect was building, but not as fast as I'd like.
Patchouli and Gardening:
Patchy and I became close. As close as two could become. She told me about everyone in the tribe, so I'd know how to take care of them when the time came.
"Monotheism is the only thing that comes to mind," I said.
"W-what?" she asked.
I nodded.
"If they believe I am some kind of god, then they will always know who the authority is, whether you're around or not, and I can be the one to tell them who the new leader is to act in your place."
She nodded with a smile. Parlor tricks did it just fine -- I did little magic tricks to convince the babies that I was some kind of wizard. The current generation wouldn't believe me -- well, except maybe the Reimu and Alice that took care of the babies. As long as I convinced them, when they got older, they'd trust me more.
Patchy had this cute roundabout way of getting me to rub-rub her.
"Nitori tells Patchy that Mister Kei's hands are very warm."
"Mmhmm."
"C-can Patchy see how warm they are?"
Stuff like that. It was cute, but I put it to rest...
"If you want rub-rub, just ask, Patchy. I consider you a family member, as much as Reimu and Marisa."
Patchouli and I discussed a lot about what to do with the clan. Obviously, their food stocks wouldn't hold up forever, and I couldn't simply just buy yukkuri food for -this- many yukkuri. I'd be bankrupt in a month. I couldn't come up with much until Patchy and I were discussing another matter -- I can't even remember what, when we were interrupted by Tough Marisa. She was yanking at a plant, and pulled up a carrot.
"Marisa found a delicious munch-munch mister carrot!"
She looked to me, and nodded.
"C... can Marisa keep, Mister Kei?"
Ever since the incident, she was more respectful of me. I gave her a nod. And that light bulb in my head... Patchy and I looked to each other. My backyard. We could regrow my mom's garden! Oh, right, I needed to explain that -- Our house had a pool, once. After my dad passed on, no one ever really used it, so we drained and buried it, then start growing food. After my mom passed on, I didn't have the time nor energy to really maintain it any more. With the yukkuri clan here, maybe that was something they could do. I'd have to get all the tools and such. Patchy and I discussed the matter -- I'd collect the books, tools, seeds, and other needed materials, and Patchy would have the clan take care of it. All the food would be collected and brought to me, and I'd store it for them. During my days off, I helped them weed the garden and till the dirt. Eventually, with Ran and Marisa cooking, they started to prepare the food, but more on that later. With that in order, they wouldn't need to leave the back yard to gather food -- they could just stay within the confides of my fence and live. Especially after I found out what kind of poison they used at the park... see, information was easy to acquire, if you just knew how to acquire it. A six pack of beer during their break, and they were willing to tell me all about the chemicals used. I waited until our nightly meeting to get Patchouli in my room to discuss the matter.
"S-so... we can't go home?"
I shook my head.
"The guy said the poison they used on your burrows will last for a long time. It's specially designed to stay, in case other yukkuri come along and try to move in, or if yukkuri try to run away and hide during a mass extermination."
Her vision lowered. She looked as if she were about to cry. I gave her a gentle rub.
"Cheer up. Your clan has a new home now."
She looked up at me.
"B-but... Mister Kei..."
"If you're worried that your clan will be an inconvenience to me, then don't. Yes, you are an inconvenience. You will be a source of uneasiness for me. However, I will figure out how to make it work, so that we can all be easy. It'll just take time."
Patchy lowered her gaze.
"B-but... what should Patchy tell everyone...?"
I looked down at her.
"Just don't say anything. I'm sure they'll eventually forget, and this will become the new normal for them."
Yes, time. I'm patient. I was already researching all kinds of things -- tax breaks, charity tax status and the like... luckily, I still had my dad's accountant's phone number. I gave him a call on one of my days off. See what he could do for me.
Nitori:
Now, here's the big change in my life. Mother Reimu and Marisa complained that I didn't spend enough time with her, and told me how much she missed me since I was always hunt-hunting. Okay, well, I could use the help of an engineer, and she was good with those building blocks... I brought her into my room, and we began sketching ideas for more permanent residents for the clan outside, alongside the farming. The house designs were between us. The farming, we included Patchy. Nitori seemed to take to it like any engineer would -- she helped me come up with the dimensions for the homes, and even the modular design. We came up with a simple concept -- a single unit, where it's easy to attach another unit, or the divider can simply be removed for a double residence for families. A small light on the rear wall with a push-in on/off, and a vertical water dispenser. I didn't want to include food in the design -- that was something, I told Nitori, we would be in charge of. She told me that it would be smart to at least include the spot that would be where we could install a food dispenser. After all, if we were going to sell it, then yeah -- it would be necessary for someone who kept them as a pet. We came up with extra modules to block those spaces, too A simple pillow for the floor. Nothing too soft -- but something that could hold the heat when cold, and stay cool when it was warm. One last addition was a door -- only accessible from the inside. Of course, the roof could be taken off, but if the yukkuri had to suddenly hide, this would do the trick. Alongside this, Nitori became well-versed in hardware. She even came up with a few of her own ideas for showers for the yukkuri outside -- of how I could run the pipes around and set up pull-chain-activated showers, with yukkuri shampoo nearby. Help them stay clean after work. A food dispenser for snacks in-between meals. A simple toilet that would double as a compost heap for fertilizer. She even fixed broken tools. I brought her to the hardware store with me all the time -- her mind was easily inspired. With the designs ready, a test module was built, and I left it to her to put together. Nitori and I really clicked -- I started bringing her in on all of our meetings. She was, more-or-less, vice-chief of the yukkuri clan. She even built herself a little doorway to the backyard through the room opposite to mine. She built the door to where only she could open it. On the outside, it still looked like part of the wall. It took a few days for the parts to initially arrive, and Nitori demoed for me how to build the housing units. I made sure to patent it -- I could make money off of this if I wanted to. We broke it down and brought it around back and called the clan to a meeting. I let Nitori demo the construction for all to see, and let Patchy move in to it. It was only fitting that Patchy should have the first, since she was the chief. After that, I had them manufacture me a dozen -- enough for the rest of the families, and a few spares, just in case. Nitori set to work modifying the backyard and building in all of the things we discussed. What surprised me the most was that she was actually making her own tools from scrap. I did a bit of online searching and actually found a place that did custom yukkuri accessories. I got her a backpack and a tool belt. She loved both, and actually modified them into a single unit. The thing that blew my mind the most was the fact that somehow, without me knowing, she set up her own cucumber garden that grew over her aquarium. No. Seriously. She had it growing right over her aquarium. Ran would take a few now and again, and add them to her meal. She had a thing for cucumbers. I didn't really like cucumbers, myself.
Eventually, I felt it was time to discuss the details of her birth with her. I didn't want that to remain a secret to her forever.
I took her around to the side of the house, and sat down in front of the stones. She looked at them.
"Mommy, what's this?"
I pointed to the two blank ones with the Marisa one.
"Nitori, there's something you need to understand easy. I'm not actually your mommy."
I'm pretty sure by now that she understood that. Regardless, she looked at me.
"See, I found you when you were still on your mommy's stalk. That stone represents your mother Marisa. The two blank stones represent your two sisters who didn't survive birth. I didn't know what kind they were. They were underdeveloped."
Silence hung over her for a moment.
"N... Nitori was... big sister?"
I looked down at her and nodded.
"You had two sisters... when I found your mother, she was already sleeping the big easy. I took the stalk off of her and tried to save you and your sisters," I placed my hand on her head and gently drew back her hair, "You're the only one who survived."
It hurt me a little bit. I really would have liked to have saved her sisters, but... her braid went to my hand.
"It's okay, mommy. Mommy is still Nitori's mommy..." She turned to the three stones and hopped from my lap. She sat in front of them and looked, "... thank you easy, mommy."
I think she understood. I stood up.
"Do you want to, maybe..."
She turned to me. I could see she was trying to hide tears.
"No. Let's go inside, mommy. Nitori is hungry!"
I smiled and offered my arms. She hopped up and we exchanged a rub-rub. My little daughter. Hah. Tougher than me.
After that, I noticed there was something about her -- something different. She seemed far more eager to hang out with me, but didn't seem as spunky -- she seemed more, well, mature. In the place of that bouncy, energetic child, was now a mature, young, engineering yukkuri, fully capable of running a small farm with other yukkuri. She set up drip-irrigation over the fields. She built gathering tools for harvest time. Patchouli and her would clean and separate the vegetables for Ran's collection. Ran would cook it into various types of food, and then we'd serve it to them. At first, they were quite mistrusting of me taking their food. They thought I was stealing their easiness. After I brought it back, prepared into a nice meal. Nitori became well-versed in communicating to the whole tribe, and even helped continue the idea that I was some form of deity, who could magically take their easy food, and make it into easier meals, with my servant Ran. She helped keep the idea of me being not just their chief, but their deity, prevalent. It didn't take me a lot of explaining for her to get it, and I even believe she enjoyed it. I think she just liked helping me in any way she could.
Ran:
The little fox-girl grew up pretty fast. By all accounts, only after having her a few days, she grew at least six inches. I attributed it to the fact that she wasn't getting full meals -- now that she was, her body could reach the point of where it was supposed to be. It also made her job easier. She flat-out volunteered to keep the house clean. She seemed to enjoy it. Vacuuming, dusting, cooking, cleaning windows... she took care of it all, and all of it with Marisa trailing her. Their rivalry was put to an end. At some point or another, I think Marisa realized Ran wasn't trying to steal me from her. This eased the one-sided tension. Marisa created the tension, but Ran didn't seem to notice. It was interesting to ponder -- was she ignoring it, enjoying the help, or too young to even understand? Either way, she got the cooking duties down -- I even let her try her hand at using a knife. I was extremely cautious with her at first, and only let her go at a slow pace. Even Marisa wanted nothing to do with a knife. Eventually, she was chopping vegetables like a pro. When I got home, the meals were already prepared. I gave her some of my mom's old cookbooks, hoping she'd pick up a few recipes. Her cooking was decent -- she'd sometimes try to 'sweeten' the food, which I steered her away from. As much as yukkuri loved sweets, I couldn't have her getting addicted to it. I eventually got around to taking her clothing shopping. She seemed mostly interested in white clothing, along with a dress or two. We had to do a bit of tailoring to make room for her tails, so she could get the clothes on easily. She regarded me more as, 'master' as time went on. Made me a bit uncomfortable at first.
As for her human friend, it played out pretty much as I thought it would. He showed up now and again and talked to her. They'd spend a day out now and again; he'd come, pick her up, take her out to a restaurant or something, or go shopping. He bought her a few little knick-knacks for her room -- a nice pillow, a few little ceramic statues of foxes and cats, and even a new futon for her to sleep on. Even a pretty, white apron, with a small fox face in the upper right-hand corner. I chipped in, at his request. I didn't mind. A present from both of us, I used to tell her. From time-to-time, he'd even stay for dinner. He liked her meals. As time went on, however, as I predicted, his calls came less frequent. He started showing up less and less often, and their time together was less and less. I didn't want to say anything to Ran -- I feared that it might upset her that he was, well, moving on with his life. She lived here, with me, and not with him. Times change. Life goes on. I didn't notice a change in her work -- she kept putting forth her best. All that she had in her room, I helped pay for, so it wasn't as if it wasn't from both of us. I just really hoped she wasn't holding it all in...
Until I was woken up by a light knock on my door. Marisa was still sleeping next to me. I made my way to the door, and there she was. Yep. It got to her. I gently wiped her eyes clean. She tried not to sob too loud, from what I could tell.
"He... he forgot Ran!"
I shushed her as well as I could. I gave her a hug.
"Ran, it's not that he forgot..."
I struggled to think of what to tell her...
"He just... has his own life. Just like you, here, with me. Maybe one day..."
She continued to sob against me. I hope she wouldn't get anti-yukkuritis from this... I took her by her shoulders and held her in front of me. I looked her squarely in the eyes.
"Listen easy. I know you think he's forgotten you. I don't think he has. He has his own family to take care of, okay? He just... can't make any time to see you any more."
I don't think that helped... she looked like she was about to start balling. I gave her another hug.
"But that's okay. I won't forget nor abandon you. You're part of my family now. And family looks out for one-another, easy."
I could feel her sobs becoming less frequent. I felt her hug me. I guess she was okay now. We stayed there for a moment, then I released her.
"Now, back to bed, you~!" I said and pointed at her.
She wiped her eyes, nodded with a smile, and went back to her room.
The tribe had trouble adjusting to her at first. Pretty soon, they got used to her. Anything that was unfamiliar always stirred them into uneasiness. After a while of her bringing them their prepared meals, helping them in school, and just being around, they got used to her, and even regarded her more respectfully. Of course, a lot of that came from me using their yukkuri logic against them -- it wasn't as if it was -that- difficult to convince them that she was an easy yukkuri. Eventually, I decided to bring the entire clan closer together -- I got a contractor to put up a wall between the living room and the hall next to the kitchen. I set up rows of small tables, including a small one for me, Marisa, and Ran to eat from. I got us all cushions, plus tons of small ones, and made a request of Nitori -- several long, small tables for yukkuri to eat from. After it was all prepared, I started a few new lessons at school and for the adults on dining etiquette, utensils, and eating in large auditoriums. With all of that prepared, for dinner, we would bring in the entire clan, and all eat together. It was a way for all of us to associate. Familiarity. The clan eats together with their chief. I felt this really helped them bond to me better -- they'd bring their little kos in, and would share in the meal. Ran, Marisa, and I would clean up afterwards. Yeah, I had to sit on the floor. It was a bit uncomfortable, but it was fun. Had to get used to Japanese-style dinner, where it was cushions and being low to the floor. By the schooling room, I put up several toilets for them to go into. Yukkuri had fast metabolisms -- when they ate, they often had to poop within minutes. Had to accommodate.
The two cats:
So, I skipped over something. I now have two more yukkuri who live in my house. While I was initially setting up the fields, I went into the shed in my backyard, where we kept all the gardening tools. When I opened the door, I was immediately greeted with a shriek.
"Ah! A mister human! G-go away, easy! This is Rin and Ran's easy place! Leave now!"
I heard the cries, but it took a moment to sink in. I looked down. There were two yukkuri in the shed -- both had cat ears; one had red hair, and two braids with green bows at both the start and the end of the braids. The other had black hair with a green bonnet with a gold hoop earring on her right ear, and two black tails. The one in panic was the red-haired one. The other didn't seem to notice me. Her tails curled around her and she sank.
"Chen... doesn't get it... mister human, please go away easy..."
"Leave us alone easy!" she yelled again and hopped up and down, "Wanna die?!"
I looked down at the two, and my hand fell to my side. I felt a gnawing at my brain. I knew it on sight what they reminded me of.
"Chen... doesn't get it... Rin... please... leave Chen, easy... save yourself..."
"No! Rin will protect her easy big sister Chen this time!"
Small purple fires flickered up around Rin. She threw her braids at me.
"Take that and die, easy!"
The flames hit my shirt. I looked down and patted them out. I cooked stuff for a living. They barely even singed compared to some of the burns I got. I heard Rin cry.
"No! Please! Please, Mister Human! Go away easy!"
I got a good look at them -- the Chen never once seemed to focus looking at anything. Matter of fact, her eyes never opened. She had large scabs above and below her eyes, cuts and punctures on her body, and still had a few dents on her. The Rin didn't look much better. I reached down. I heard the Rin begin to cry. She shielded herself with her braids and let out another cry. I gently slid my hand over Chen's cheek. They reminded me of two cats I used to have. A long time ago. Loved them, for the short time I had them. The spunky, energetic one who seemed to love to cuddle with me, unfortunately, met a tragic end after he seemed to like to play a little too much on the road. Chen's appearance... it reminded me of him.
"Ohh... warm... Chen gets it... mister's... easy hand, yes?"
Rin moved a braid and peeked at my arm. She let out another cry, bounced up and bit my arm. Clearly, she was too weak from hunger to be able to bite me too hard. The fact that she had missing teeth helped mitigate any damage she might have caused to my skin. Tears dripped from her eyes.
"Don hur Ken!" she yelled with my arm in her mouth.
Yeah. Hurt a little. I had a high tolerance for pain. I looked to her. I lowered myself down and poked her with my free hand.
"Hey. You can let go now," I said, as Rin looked at me.
She let go of my arm, and stared me down. I kept my attention on Chen.
"Let me see your eyes, Chen," I said.
My fingers found their way under her eyelid. I gently lifted. Yep. Her eyes were removed.
"Yes, yes. Chen gets it. Mister... are you an easy mister?"
Rin gasped and looked to Chen.
"Chen... do you think Mister human is an easy mister human?"
Chen rubbed herself against my hand and rolled back. Her mouth pulled up into a Cheshire smile.
"Mmm... Chen gets it. He's easy mister human."
Rin seemed to be flooded with emotions at the same time. She got teary-eyed, bounced up and down in excitement, then saw my arm. In a panic, she immediately shoved her face into the floor.
"Rin is sorry, mister! Rin bit easy mister! Rin must apologize! Please forgive Rin!"
There must be a story as to why she was so... sporadic. She moved to my arm and stuck her tongue out.
"Let uneasy Orin lick-lick in apology!"
"Rin isn't uneasy..." Chen said, "Rin just wanted to protect big sister..."
I gave her a smile. I placed my hand on her head.
"It's okay, Rin. Mister forgives. Rin isn't uneasy -- she is protective of Chen."
She stared up at me with a wild smile. I wasn't sure she got it. Regardless...
"Anyway, this is mister human's shed. That's why there's all the mister tools in here," I said, and motioned around them.
Rin looked at all the stuff, then back to me.
"Rin and Chen can stay here if they want, but I don't recommend it. See, this is a good easy place, but if mister rain comes, and doesn't stop, you could be in trouble. Mister rain could come in here and make you uneasy..."
When it rained really hard, the shed sat at the lowest spot in my yard. The rainwater would flood the floor, which is why we kept all the tools on shelves and/or hanging. Nothing on the floor. Rin and Chen gasped.
"However, mister has a big easy place. Lots of other yukkuri. Maybe you could take it easy with mister human?"
They bounced up and down and cheered. They were totally into the idea. I held out my arms for them to hop in. Rin hopped in, and I scooped up Chen.
Once inside, Ran called out to me to pick up my lunch.
"R.. Ran-sama... Chen doesn't get it... why does Chen hear the wonderful, beautiful voice of Ran-sama?"
Rin gasped.
"Does mister know Chen's Ran-sama?!" she asked and looked up at me.
"Well," I started, "I know a Ran... Ran!" I called to her.
She came out of the kitchen and stared up at me. The moment she saw the Chen in my arms, she gasped.
"C-Chen?!"
"R-Ran-sama?!"
Chen squirmed around in my arms.
"Raaaaan-sama!"
She bounced out of my arms. Ran quickly moved forward and caught her. Much rub-rubbing was done. I smiled and looked to Rin. I could tell by looking at her... she wasn't happy. She kept a happy face, but the smile in her eyes... it was gone. Not. Good. I wasn't exactly sure what just transpired -- Ran never said anything of having any siblings or friends. Why did she know this Chen? Was there some kind of genetic imprint for one-another? In my research, I read about such things -- some yukkuri hate other types, and some automatically love certain types. I never read about Rins and Chens getting along, but I read that when a Chen meets a Ran, it's like two soulmates finding one-another. The only problem was that, in this case, one yukkuri gets left out.
I kept my eye on them. Ran never let Chen get very far from her, being blind and all. I showed her how to treat her -- a little OJ here, a little more there... just a bit. Not a lot. Couldn't have her getting addicted. Not to play a pun, but I kept an eye on the progress of their regrowth. It took longer than the usual parts of a yukkuri to regenerate -- surface wounds recovered in seconds. Harsher wounds would take a big longer. It seemed like the eyes took a while. Possibly because they were one of the most-complex parts of their body. That also plagued me -- they were nocturnal underground creatures. Could explain why she didn't need eyes that much to begin with. At any rate, once she could see, she opened her eyes. She complained of only seeing things as black and white globs, at first, but eventually told me how nice mister human looked. As for who took care of her, that was Ran. She voluntarily adopted her and took care of her -- grooming, cleaning, feeding, teaching... she had Nitori make her a little pouch for her apron to keep Chen in. Almost like a kangaroo. They got along better than, I felt, I did with both of them. Well, hard to say with Ran and myself, but Chen and I didn't talk much. She just loved it when I gave her rub-rubs. So much like a normal cat.
As for Rin, well... things took a turn for the worse. I opted to keep her in my room, for close observation. We taught her how to use a toilet, wipe, hygiene, etc. She took to it, but showed no signs of improvement. I felt bad. I feel like I crushed her world. Her and Chen must have been really tight. I did what I could to appear cheerful to her, and she responded, at least on the surface, to it, but I could tell she wasn't happy. One particular day, I got out of bed, and felt a gentle poke to my ankle. Rin was there. She was waiting for me, by the looks of it. Marisa was already up and out, cleaning the house.
"Mister Kei?"
"Yes?"
"Rin wants to talk easy..."
"Okay," I said, reached down, picked her up, and sat her in my lap. "Let's talk easy."
I could tell it was coming -- her confession. She told me the story of herself -- she didn't remember her parents any more. She lived on the street, alone, for a while, until she met Chen. She told me Chen, as far as she could tell, was abandoned by her owner. Mind you, this is what I could piece together from the yu language she used. By abandoned, she could have simply gotten lost. Anyway, they hung out together and became the best of friends. They even started looking to one-another as family. Then, one day while they were playing, a mister human came along and picked on them. Rin tried to fight him off with her little flames, but it didn't stop him either.
"That uneasy mister human... he was going to kill Rin, but..." her eyes watered, "Chen told him to stop. Chen told him to beat her up instead. To bully her instead..."
She looked up at me. Tears rolled down the sides of her pastry face.
"If Chen didn't stand up to uneasy scum human, Rin would be blind... but if Rin was stronger, or if Rin hadn't asked Chen to play with her that day..."
Anti-yukkuritis symptom: she was recalling great uneasiness. I placed my finger over her mouth.
"And if you didn't, you'd never have met your big sister, moved into my shed, and found your way here."
That didn't seem to comfort her much. She seemed to sink into a slump>
"Listen easy -- I know you're uneasy because that Ran has taken your big sister and now you don't see each other as much," her disposition didn't change after that, "but at least she's easier now. Her eyesight is almost back. I'm sure you'll get to see her more in the future. And if not, you can always be Mister Kei's little sister?"
She looked up at me slowly. I could see that glimmer in her eyes returning. I took my finger off of her mouth.
"A... and Rin will be Mishder Kei's widdle shishder?"
Boy, did those slurs when they got upset become pretty bad... I gave a nod. She bounced up and down in my lap and gave a few cheers.
Afterwards, I gave a little speech to Ran. It wasn't so much of a talking to as it was just a suggestion. I pulled her to the side while Chen was playing in her room and let her know,
"Please let Rin see her now and again. Set some time aside for all three of you, or even just take Rin with you when you do things."
She lowered her gaze for a moment, eyes cast to one side. She brought her arms up as she looked back to me, and gave a nod.
"For master, Ran will also take care of Rin!"
I don't think I ever saw Rin upset again. All three stayed in the master bedroom. Nitori built them one of our shelters as their easy place. I think Chen was happy to see her friend again -- she appeared to have been caught up in the whole whirlwind of meeting a Ran, and let it slip her mind that her best friend missed her. Rin let me know that Chen apologize, and well...
She planted her face into the floor.
"Thank you so much for all the easiness, Mister Kei!"
She was a spunky little thing. I gave her head a light pat.
"You're welcome. Now go play."
Ran took good care of them. She let them watch as she cooked. They got to sample her latest recipes first. It was fun to watch.
Marisa, and Research:
Now, here's where I got to do some research. Since Marisa was closer to me than Ran, and more accepting of things I asked her to do, I decided to try a few little experiments with her. Nothing severe. First off, we had to get her a wardrobe. Couldn't have her always going around in my clothes, especially since they didn't fit. Her body shape was as close to a human female as one could possibly imagine. One odd little change, though.
"Can you move your piu-piu?"
She stared at me for a moment, then closed her eyes. She recoiled a bit and puffed her cheeks out. That braid stayed still.
"Mar -- My piu-piu! It's... broken!"
That moment made me laugh.
"It's not broken -- I think the function of it is no longer needed, since you have hands now. Now, it's just like human hair -- it's just a braid."
Of course, I'd be the judge of that. I took some hair clippings. I brought them to a yukkuri veteran. A quick dab with some chemicals, and she verified it:
"These are hairs off of a Marisa-type yukkuri."
I didn't explain to her any hows or whys of the hair, I simply asked her to identify them.
"Okay, thank you!"
Had to stop by and do some shopping -- needed to collect some medicine, some soap, and find some distributors. With the larger number of yukkuri, I'd simply buy in larger amounts. Of course, one case, at this rate, would last me years. Anyway, the hair sample confirmed my initial suspicious. I stuck to some simple tests.
"Let me see your arm."
She held it out to me. I took it in my hand, then looked into her eyes.
"Let me know if it hurts, and how badly, okay?"
She nodded slowly. I began to pinch her forearm. Slowly. I kept my eyes on her. I squeezed it flat, long-ways. I saw her face wince slightly.
"Not too painful, right?"
She nodded. I released some pressure.
"May I continue?"
She hesitated, then nodded. I squeezed, until both sides of her bread skin touched. No bones. Just as I suspected. She was whimpering. I looked to her, then released her wrist.
"Ow! Hurts!"
She took her wrist and licked it. Ha. Some old habits die hard. I held my hand out to her. She seemed to get defensive, and turned away. I stared at her with a grin. She reached out and laid her arm into my hand again. I leaned over and gave it a light kiss.
"I apologize. It's just that there isn't much information on bodied yukkuri. I thought I'd add some to the general knowledge out there."
So, from these simple observations, I could prove one thing: they had no skeletal structure of any kind. Which baffled me beyond any comprehension. Every living creature had a skeletal and muscular structure. When they're normal yukkuri, their bodies take a circular or ovular shape, depending on gravity and how well-cared for they are. Bodied? This completely threw everything we knew about anatomy and physics out the door. Okay, some of it. Anyway, I had one last test.
"You won't like this one. Please forgive me."
She blinked. I took her hand. I took out a small knife. She almost instantly panicked.
"It'll only hurt for a second, okay? I promise."
A two-part experiment. First, I made a small slice over her palm. She let out a light cry. Her eyes welled up. I watched as the paste came to the surface, almost like blood. I gently wiped off a small portion of it, then pressed it shut with my thumb. I ran the fluid over my tongue. Yep. Still bean paste. Wow. So she really was just a giant yukkuri. I picked up the cup off of my desk and gave a few drops of orange juice onto her palm. The wound closed almost instantly.
"See? Good as new!" I said, and pointed.
She smiled when she looked at her hand, then frowned when she looked at me.
"Sorry, but I'm hoping maybe with a bit of research, well... maybe humans won't be afraid of bodied yukkuri."
She gasped and looked to me.
"Humans are... afraid of... me?"
Well, I didn't really know for absolute certain, but...
"Yeah. You look too human. They don't like that."
"D-does that mean... you?"
I gave her my usual smile.
"Nah. I'm not afraid of you. I like you. Now that you're more human, I like you even more now. We can have lots more easiness together!"
She liked that idea.
That aside, there wasn't any really new information I could provide about bodied yukkuri -- their reproductive parts move to the portions they are on a human body; she was still a hermaphrodite, when the situation called for it, but her anyaru moved to where it was supposed to be. Odd how dramatic of a shift all of this was, all to give her the simulation that she was supposed to be human. In contemporary society, given the proper education, if I simply changed her hairstyle, it'd be difficult for anyone to tell her apart from a human. Ran, on the other hand, was a whole different story. With her face still round like a yukkuri. Her attire took to that of, well, pretty much a normal teenage girl. She preferred t-shirts and jeans, whether short or long, and took part in whatever she could. She cooked, she cleaned, she helped the clan in the garden. Whatever I did, she wanted part of. She was never too far from me.
Accounting, Charity, Construction, and the Orphanage
With all the previous mentioned modifications to my abode, a few more became necessary -- not because of yukkuri sneaking into the yard, but because of other animals that lived around in the neighborhood sniffing around for pastries. I had the foresight to install doors on their habitats, but that didn't stop some animals from trying. Marisa usually hung out around back to make sure that didn't occur. We lost a few yukkuri -- not many, but others began to show up. Most were rather uncouth. Luckily, I was home when they usually showed up. They would come early on, probably seeking food. It was easy to twist them to my will. More on that later. I replaced the chain-link fence with a thick plastic fence. It was sturdier, and harder for them to infiltrate. I kept a few 'yukkuri' doors on each side, to allow 'secret' entry and exit. It was something an animal wouldn't understand, but a yukkuri could piece together if they looked at it. Any yukkuri that could solve the gate puzzle would be allowed entry. The doors were designed by Nitori, but the accounting was starting to add up. I was still in the clear, but it was starting to add up. I got in touch with my dad's accountant.
The recommendations were to first found a 501(c). That's a not-for-profit charity for you non-tax attorneys. This would allow me to claim all of my expenditures on the residence as tax credits. Next, was to see if there was any kind of tax breaks I could get for it being a yukkuri farm. Or an orphanage. Or animal shelter. Whichever one I could go for. It was hard to say, really -- yukkuri were intelligent enough to qualify as humanoid, thus orphanage -- but would the law recognize that? I decided not to chance it, and went with animal shelter. Hell, I didn't even know if that was the proper term, as yukkuri were technically not animals. At least I didn't think so. It created an interesting loophole -- If auditors came by, the yukkuri were animals, but if a vet was necessary to be present, well, they weren't animals, were they? Besides, it's not like it'd take me that long to get some paperwork. After all, yukkuri weren't exactly complex creatures. Precisely how hard could it be to get that kind of paperwork done? Anyway, with the charity organization picked out, I had to pick a name and trademark it. Names were always the weakest point in my creativity. I often kept it simple, and in this case: I did. Yuphanage. Even came up with a cute picture of Mother Marisa, her two kids, and Nitori as our corporate logo. Trademarked that, too. Now we had an organization. Now I needed sponsorship and advertising. If people weren't aware we existed, then what was the point? Our food intake far exceeded the food consumed. I could easily take in more yukkuri. I set up a website and a few social media sites. I took out a few ads on social media and let the word spread. During a few days, I took dozens of photos of my house -- of the yukkuri in class, the nursery, Patchy, Ran and her cooking, Marisa and Ran cleaning, the yukkuri hanging out around their houses, Nitori and Tough Marisa working the fields... various things to just post around the website. An idea struck me to live stream the few cameras in the house. I linked up the one watching the little yukkuri homes on my back porch, the two that overlooked the garden from either angle, the classroom one, and the nursery one. People could come and watch them play, work, live, and be easy. I had the sound on for those particular cameras, but filtered out the rest of my house. It wasn't as if it was that loud to begin with. It helped get our name out there, and helped people to understand that we really were a charity, and not simply some undercover abyuse place or something. I made a few icons for the website and social page: "Abyuse free!" with a happy Marisa, and "Stray friendly!" with a picture of a Reimu-Marisa family and their children looking happily. I listed all of our information and how to contact us. After a few visits from local news organizations, some journalists, and a few visits from yukkuri supporters, I had the renown, and I had the donations. The income was important for medicine, materials, seeds, ingredients, and helped pay for the fence upgrade.
With us beginning to take in strays, we had to revisit the housing for them. I had the foresight to show Nitori where we could set up modifications for two-, three- and even four-story building. I had plenty of room around the outside for them to be placed, but if really bad weather came, I wanted to make sure we'd have enough room inside. We had to design ramps, pathways, and banisters -- couldn't have little yus falling off. It was fairly simply to just design pegs and locks. It wasn't necessary yet -- stray yukkuri didn't know much of my place yet, but with the social media site offering to take in yukkuri in lieu of leaving them on the street, I found myself in the possession of a few more yukkuri. Most of them still had badges. I had to settle them in first -- the shock of being with a new owner usually made them rather uneasy. Many went through some serious phases of depression. I kept them inside with me until they were adjusted. The room across from mine made a good holding pen for them, before I transferred them outside. The first night, they'd stay in a yukkurium I kept in my closet. They'd get to know me, Ran, Nitori, Marisa, Patchouli, Lil' Marisa, Wasa-Reimu, and Mother Reimu. The main staff, essentially. I'd get to know them, build up their confidence, and hear their side of the story as to why their previous owners dumped them on me. Most were the same -- they met a stray and fell in love, but their owner didn't want them to have babies. There were some that still had the stalk on them. They were the very nervous-type. I assured them that their life here would be good. I had to keep an eye on them, though. I didn't want scum infiltrating my balanced clan. With them confident in me, and their easiness returning, I'd then explain to them what happens next -- being moved to the clan. I came up with an entire ceremony for it -- Nitori built a podium for them to stand atop, and I'd introduce them to the entire clan. I set up a few lessons for the ones we took in -- about being friendly with them, but still keeping an eye on them in case they did uneasy things, and what to do if they did something uneasy. They were taught not to trust yukkuri who wore a particular pin I would put on them, until I changed said pin, and to not speak of what the pin means. All strays that found their way in were easier to recognize -- they didn't have any kind of pin on them. All of the drop-offs were given the same pins before announced to the clan. The lesson also included a special note about strays -- that they may be uneasy at first, and that they could even be downright mean or even scum, but the lesson told them to still be nice to them, and to send them to the chief. I had Nitori whip up a rather large holding pen -- the 'waiting room' for strays. Strays who found the clan were told to wait there until I got home and could properly interview them.
A knock at my door. Ran would normally answer it before I could even get off my chair. She'd come and get me halfway there.
"A mister human is here to drop off a yukkuri, master," she'd say, with a light bow.
I'd give her a headpat, which made her immediately giggle. I moved to the door. It was a man with a small yukkurium, and a Reimu with a small badge on her bow. The badge was gold and marked with a 'G'. She was sobbing away.
"Hey! I hear you take yukkuri in..."
I gave him a nod.
"It's preferable to just throwing them out on the street."
"N-no! Pwease, misder huban! Don'd abandon Deibu! Deibu wubs misder!"
He picked up the yukkurium and stared at her.
"I'm sorry, Reimu. It's for the best."
"No! No! No!"
Ran approached behind me. I held out my hand. She placed a small candy in my hand. I reached into the yukkurium and offered it to Reimu.
"Reimu... please have this mister sweet-sweet."
She continued to cry, but turned and looked at it. She sheepishly took it.
"It'll make you feel a little easier."
She looked up and nodded. She stuck it into her mouth, then simply fell asleep. I let out a sigh. He looked down at her, then back to me.
"Whoa! Did you just kill her, you punk?!"
"No. That was a lemon candy. The sweet and sour balance knocks out yukkuri. She'll sleep for a bit, then wake up feeling fine."
He blinked and looked to me.
"Really? Wow."
So, from what he told me, the problem was the Reimu became obsessive with him, and his wife didn't like that. He got the Reimu for her as a Valentine's Day gift, and it was great for a while, but she started to become possessive of him. He wasn't bringing her here because he wanted to get rid of her, he was bringing her because his wife didn't want her any more.
"I'll see to it that she's taken care of."
He let out a relieved sigh. This guy really liked his Reimu.
"Thanks a lot, man."
There was no official laws on the transfer of ownership for yukkuri, since there still was no laws on the books stating that they were living creatures. He told me he found out about my place through a friend who liked watching the live stream from time-to-time. Good. It was working.
Badged yukkuri had a hard time adjusting -- the clan was mostly strays, and badged were taught that strays were uneasy scum who should die. That was the main reason I kept them inside -- I couldn't have any fights breaking out. As they watched the clan, and the clan was easy to them, they learned that their badge training was a bit of a lie -- they got along just fine. Some discarded their badges. Others kept them. Hell, even I benefited from the badged yukkuri -- they told me a bit about how the training worked, and about humans and their reactions. Some told me that, even after being taken in by me, they still wanted to be pets. That's fine. I was getting e-mails about that very subject. Maybe I'd look into that whole thing...
At one point, I decided to print business cards and start handing them out to strays that I saw. Perhaps it was because I spent so much time with the families at my house that suddenly stray yukkuri didn't run when I saw them.
"Hey, mister human! Give Marisa sweet-sweets! Lots is fine!"
"Well, Mister human doesn't have sweet-sweets, but he has something else."
"What?! What kind of shitty human doesn't have sweet-sweets?! Uneasy human should go away and drop dead easy!"
I took out a business card and hand it to her.
"Take this easy."
She reached with her braid and took it. She looked at it, then up to me.
"What is this shit?"
I looked behind her at her small family, and pointed to them.
"It's hope. For you and your family. If you can make it to this place, there's a yukkuri clan there that will help you and your family take it easy. You may have to work a little in a mister field and help mister plants take it easy, but your kids will never have to go hungry again. Their stomachs will always be full, and you'll have a warm, easy place where mister rain won't make you uneasy."
She looked up at me. I could see it in her eyes. Hit her right where it counts -- no matter how scummy they were, unless they were full-on shithead, they would take the offer.
"R... really?"
I'd nod.
"But only for yukkuri who are easy! And those who believe that they and their family are easy enough!"
Belief. What a tool. If they believed enough, they'd make it.
"Make sure you save that mister card, too!"
It's how I identified which ones actually made it. The Marisa nodded and stuffed it under her hat. Once she did that, I'd take a quick look around, take out a small lunch I often brought with me (I had Ran whip up a few extras to take to strays), and gave it to Marisa.
"Just a sample of some of the yummy delicious munch-munch they have there... enjoy!"
The Marisa's eyes went wide. She took it and ran back to her family. I listened to her, and how she bragged about how she made mister human slave give her food. Whatever. The schooling would fix that up.
Strays that found their way in often came alone, though. I think they would scout us, or, as with most cases, just be there to try and steal food. I often had to come in mid-way to mediate between our yukkuri and the stray. I came up with a lesson for the adults in how to defend the fields if animals came -- not that it was a significant threat any more, but even still, you never knew when desperate animals would dig under the fence. Nitori whipped them up some weapons to use, but often I'd find them trying to fight off a stray. I'd approach, and immediately show my dominance.
"What's all this going on here?"
The two Marisas jumped slightly, nearly dropping their spears.
"Mister Chief! It's a scum Marisa trying to steal our easy food!"
I looked to the Marisa in question. She was rather scoffed, had a few punctures on her, was guarding a carrot, and desperately clinging to a stick. She took a jab at the two, who jumped back. I stomped my foot in-between the two.
"You! Stupid human ze! Mister carrot that grows in the ground belongs to Marisa! Better not fight! Wanna die da ze?!"
She swung her stick back and forth. I could tell by the light gasps that it hurt to fight. I looked at her, then to the other two. They had some injuries, but nothing major. I looked back to her. Marisa came up behind me.
"What's going on h--" I lifted my hand to silence her, and the rest of the onlooking yukkuri.
"Marisa, bring me some orange juice."
"You better not try to steal the great Marisa's munch-munch! Marisa will puff-puff and mister human will be dead da ze!"
"Don't you be mean to our easy Mister Chief!"
"Yeah! Marisa should apologize easy! Uneasy yukkuri should drop dead!"
I lifted my hand again, and the two behind me stopped talking. The stray kept hurling insults.
"Hey," I said, in a rather strong voice, "Do you have an easy family?"
The stray seemed confused.
"Better not insult the Great Marisa's family! Marisa will destroy Mister Human da ze!"
"So, you do have a family."
Marisa came up behind me and offered me the orange juice. I took the cup and gently poured it on the stray's head. With a gasp and a shake...
"Refreshed!"
Like magic, her wounds closed. The two behind me gasped.
"Take that carrot. Bring it to your family and share it with them."
I turned, reached behind me and grabbed two more. I ripped them out of the ground and tossed them to her.
"Take these, as well. When you're done, bring your family here. You seem like you can work hard. Help us make mister carrot take it easy, and you and your family can live easy with us here."
The stray seemed to not know how to respond to that. She moved to the two carrots and slipped them under her hat, then to the one she took and slid that one under. She picked up her stick and faced us again.
"Now, go. Your children are probably hungry, and need that food."
She still wasn't sure, and gently edged her way back to the door, stick in mouth. She looked from me to the two yukkuri, who hadn't moved since I got there. Once she reached the doorway...
"Ha! Stupid human! The Great Marisa was too smart for you, da ze!"
She slipped back out. I stood up with a smile. Patchouli moved to me.
"Mukyu! W-why did you give that scum our munch-munch?"
I looked down. The other yukkuri were hurling the same questions. I clapped my hands to silence them.
"First off, do not question your chief. You know that. Second," I said, and looked to the gate, "We have plenty of food. More-than enough for at least her family to eat tonight," I looked down at them again, "Surely some of you remember the time of when you were strays, before Patchouli and I became your chief when you used to struggle to find mister munch-munch and make sure your children weren't hungry any more?"
A silence fell over them. Dozens of eyes looked to me again, and nodded.
"Don't hate strays because they're uneasy. Be more easy to them. Now, everyone," I said, clapped my hands again and smiled, "Back to work!"
Badges:
What really motivated me to begin looking into badges occurred was one random day I happen to watch the yus head to school. There was a small Marisa who was trying to squeeze her way through the fence.
"Yupipipi... Misder... fence... pwease wet Mawisha into Misder Chief'sh eajy pwace! Now ish fine!"
I walked to the fence and leaned over.
"Hey, little one! You're gonna miss school! Your teacher will be upset!"
"Yupiii!"
She let out a surprised cry and accidentally peed a little. I grinned.
"Oh, sorry to surprise you."
"Oh! Ish Misder Chief! Take it easy, Misder Chief!"
"Take it easy, Marisa! Say, Marisa, why are you trying to get through Mister Gate?"
She moved back to the gate and tried to squeeze her way through.
"Mawisha wants to be pet yukkuri! Mawisha doesn't want to wive outshide wif other yukkuri!"
I blinked. What was wrong with living outside?
"But being a pet is hard work, Marisa. It could be uneasy... after all, Marisa needs a mister badge..."
She stopped and looked up at me.
"Mawisha's daddy had a mishder gold badge! Mawisha could be gold badge, too!"
I reached down and offered her my hand. She hopped in and I lifted her up. Gasp! Birdie! I held out my hand for her to rub-rub against.
"So, you think you could be a gold-badge yukkuri?"
She rub-rubbed against my fingers.
"Yesh! If Mawisha's daddy can do it, Mawisha can too!"
Hmm.
"Okay. Maybe Chief can help you with that."
I'd have to do some research, but why not?
"But for now, you'll have to stay with the clan."
She let out a whine. I giggled a little.
"But for today, you can be easy with us."
"Eajy!"
With that inspiration, I set up a clan meeting with Patchouli. I wanted to see if this venture would be worth it.
"I called us all here for a few questions... how many of you, who have not been pet yukkuri, would like to become pet yukkuri?"
I was surprised by the number of piu-pius that were lifted. I arched a brow.
"Okay. of those of you who have been pet yukkuri, how many of you would like to be pet yukkuri again?"
A little less piu-pius.
"Alright, those of you who do not wish to be pet yukkuri at all, please leave easy."
I waited for them to depart, then turned to the remaining yukkuri.
"Okay, so, if easy chief becomes a mister badge giver, are you okay with the fact that you may have to leave your families behind to become pet yukkuri? Please respond one at a time."
The decisions seemed rather unanimous among those who wanted to be pets. I took their opinions one-by-one. It seemed like many of the strays wanted to be pets, but most of the pets didn't want to really be pets any more. Odd how that worked.
"Alright, then, you have decided for mister chief. Mister Chief will begin the process of becoming a Mister Badge Giver. Please be easy until he finishes."
Wasn't sure where to start looking.
... oh, right. Google.
[I'll have more tales of scum encounters later.]
[I'll also wrap up some unfinished business, and begin new business in the next chapter.]
[Like I said, getting bigger~]
Baron Mind
Jan 13, 2016, 10:13:35 PM1/13/16
to Yukkuri Fanfic Translations
I'm going to be blunt here... I didn't enjoy this chapter as much as the previous ones. The others flowed fairly well, but this one felt rushed and jumped around all over the place. It was kind of hard to keep track of what was going on.
As for the actual content, this chapter really stretched my suspension of disbelief. Other than bodied yukkuri not having bones - which is just my personal problem because it grosses me right out - some of it it progressed in ways that made me think "no way that could actually happen, even if yukkuri were real" or "really? how convenient!". I think that's mostly just because it's not in chronological order. If, for example, Mister's decision to start a business had come before Nitori's mad engineering skillz, Nitori would have seemed a bit more realistic. Last chapter she was just a ko, after all.
The characters' reactions also feel a bit unrealistic. If a yukkuri tossed fire at me I'd be all over studying that, even if it was pretty harmless - and fire is never harmless. It only takes one spark near a curtain to burn down a house. But Mister just patted it out and never mentioned it again. (I think yukkuri having unusual abilities is great, by the way, and I never even considered giving Rins fire for some reason, so that's actually one of my favourite bits of the chapter even with the complaints I just mentioned.)
And mister making the clan believe he's a god just sounds cheesy to me any way I look at it, sorry.
All that said, I still like the story. I just feel it's not as well-written as it could have been, given what you were doing before. Me and Yu also stalled because I couldn't "scale up" the story, so I know it's not as easy as it looks.
Hitosura
Jan 14, 2016, 9:46:33 PM1/14/16
to Yukkuri Fanfic Translations
I know -- I kind of hurried it a little.
I had a lot of ground I felt I had to make-up, since I made you guys wait so long.
Chronologically speaking, you have to read it as if you were reading from a blog. A lot of this is as if you were reading what he was writing.
The Nitori section was supposed to take place over a about a week or two. I'm a bit of an engineer in my mind -- I have the capacity to take things apart and put them back together. Pair that up with Nitori's natural talent for that. I used to work on refurbishing slot machines, and it was through that that I learned pretty much everything I need to know about electronics. :D
I know, there isn't much data about bodied yukkuri. There isn't much we -can- do about that -- they're still made of paste. Actually, you kind of inspired me for how it would work, like right as I'm typing this.
And no, I'm used to burning myself. And yeah, I'll get into that later. :P I work around hot cooking oils and such, so burning myself is like a stale reaction. "Oh, look, another blister."
The point of looking at him as a god is to keep the next generation following. Yukkuri clans tend to not last past two generations. It may not be necessary, or even come up beyond this point, but as long as they believe in him. Remember how stupid they are: he's taking their food! Wait, Ran is bringing it back as delicious munch-munch. They don't have much trust, but the trust is starting to build.
Anyway, yeah, I tried to cover a lot of ground, and in different directions. Each section was like a small story onto itself.
Don't worry -- next chapter isn't going to go like this.
I had a lot of ground I felt I had to make-up, since I made you guys wait so long.
Chronologically speaking, you have to read it as if you were reading from a blog. A lot of this is as if you were reading what he was writing.
The Nitori section was supposed to take place over a about a week or two. I'm a bit of an engineer in my mind -- I have the capacity to take things apart and put them back together. Pair that up with Nitori's natural talent for that. I used to work on refurbishing slot machines, and it was through that that I learned pretty much everything I need to know about electronics. :D
I know, there isn't much data about bodied yukkuri. There isn't much we -can- do about that -- they're still made of paste. Actually, you kind of inspired me for how it would work, like right as I'm typing this.
And no, I'm used to burning myself. And yeah, I'll get into that later. :P I work around hot cooking oils and such, so burning myself is like a stale reaction. "Oh, look, another blister."
The point of looking at him as a god is to keep the next generation following. Yukkuri clans tend to not last past two generations. It may not be necessary, or even come up beyond this point, but as long as they believe in him. Remember how stupid they are: he's taking their food! Wait, Ran is bringing it back as delicious munch-munch. They don't have much trust, but the trust is starting to build.
Anyway, yeah, I tried to cover a lot of ground, and in different directions. Each section was like a small story onto itself.
Don't worry -- next chapter isn't going to go like this.
Hitosura
Jan 14, 2016, 9:46:33 PM1/14/16
to Yukkuri Fanfic Translations
What I was thinking of doing was starting to do smaller chapters -- sort of what I had here. Each one of those stories could have been smaller character stories. And yeah, I dropped the ball on the fire shots, but I'm kind of like that -- one curiosity at a time. The Chen was blind, and reminded me of one of my old cats. You could have set off a bomb behind me and I probably wouldn't have noticed. xD Like I said, it's just getting big now, and I want to pay each part its own credence.
Hitosura
Jan 19, 2016, 10:54:43 PM1/19/16
to Yukkuri Fanfic Translations
Update!
Alrighty, I talked with myself about it and decided on what I'm gonna do.
Gonna redo this. I'm gonna take this as a draft and start over, then rebuild this story, chronologically, and detail it out further.
Sorry, I just really wanted to get the story moving. xD I got a little too anxious, and my style suffered. But it's okay! I'll make it up to you guys.
Alrighty, I talked with myself about it and decided on what I'm gonna do.
Gonna redo this. I'm gonna take this as a draft and start over, then rebuild this story, chronologically, and detail it out further.
Sorry, I just really wanted to get the story moving. xD I got a little too anxious, and my style suffered. But it's okay! I'll make it up to you guys.
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