A young, high school girl briskly traversed the streets of Tokyo. She quickly brushed some dandruff from her cobalt-black hair. Really should have showered. She came across a house with a certain address. She gingerly knocked on the door. A young, dark-haired man with glasses opened. "Excuse me," said the girl, "Is this the Doma residence?"

"Yes," said the man, "I'm Taihei, and you're…Nico, correct?"

"That's right!" said the girl excitedly, flipping one of her pigtails.

"Well, I'm glad you came. See, my little sister is sick right now. She was supposed to perform in the school pageant in a couple of days, but she probably won't be able to make it. Naturally, the pageant now needs a replacement, and I was wondering if your idol group can step in."

"Pfftt…idol group? I can take over by myself!"

"But shouldn't you talk to your friends before…"

"Ah ah ah! Trust me, I'll turn heads tonight and no one will notice that your sister's gone." Taihei groaned slightly at Nico's arrogance, but figured that this was the best option he had. Nico scanned the interior of Taihei's meager residence, her eyes locking on a peculiar object lying on the ground. "Hey, aren't you too young to be playing with dolls?" she asked.

"Huh?" asked Taihei, looking for the object that Nico was staring at. "Oh, that's my sister."

"Your sister is a hamster doll?"

"No, it's…complicated." Taihei walked over to the "hamster" and gently nudged it with his finger. The hamster responded by defiantly coughing. Taihei placed his hand on his sister's forehead. He sighed. "Fever's still there. Umaru hates going to the doctor, but I may have to take her if she doesn't get better." Umaru let out a small groan at the mention of the word doctor. "Anyways, she's pretty bummed that she can't go, so she asked if I could go and tell her about it when I got back. I hate to leave her here alone, so I was wondering if you know any babysitters who could watch her."

"Well, let's see…" Nico rubbed her chin with her index finger, "There's Shaun."

"Shaun?"

"Yeah, I've got his number right here." Nico produced a piece of paper with a phone number on it. Taihei quickly called the number. "Hello?" answered a voice.

"Yes, is this Shaun?"

"No, but this is his roommate Remington. Do you want me to get him?"

"Yes please." Remington disappeared, and soon another voice was heard.

"Hello?" it said.

"Yes, is this Shaun?"

"This is."

"Yes, I need a babysitter for my little sister. Are you available two days from now?"

"Sure. Who's your sister?"

"Her name is Umaru."

"Umaru…Umaru Doma?"

"That's right." Shaun felt his heart drop into his stomach. He had heard horror stories about how much of a brat the infamous "Umaru-chan" could be. Taihei could sense the trepidation in Shaun's timid moaning. "Hey, don't worry," said Taihei, "Umaru's sick right now. It's the quietest she's ever been. I'm sure she won't cause you any trouble."

"Yeah…sure," said Shaun with hesitation. I'd better be getting paid double for this. "When do you want me?"

"I'm planning on leaving for the concert around 5:30."

"Got it; I'll be there 15 minutes early."

"Great, thanks. See you then." Taihei hung up the cell phone and gave it back to Nico.

"Thanks a lot," said Nico, "Like I said, you won't regret this!"

"I don't remember you saying that," said Taihei.

"Well, you obviously have a bad memory. Anyways, ta-ta!" With that Nico left and a very confused Taihei scratched his head.

Two days later…

Well, she's not really misbehaving. Shaun was busily watching Umaru Doma while she played a video game. Apparently, she aced all of her classes. She must have somewhere to study if she did that well. Either that or she had excellent reading and retentive skills. Of course, her home life left much to be desired. Her room was just riddled with empty soda bottles and bags of chips. Then again, what was it that Shaun had heard? All great men in history were slobs…or something like that? Maybe Umaru will develop the cure for cancer. Shaun had to somehow keep himself from laughing out loud. He wondered how the concert was going. Nico would pay dearly for this. He would break her nico nico…wait, hadn't he already thought about that? Hadn't his good friend Remington warned him what kind of trouble he could land in if he did that? Shaun sighed and decided to try to make some semblance of conversation. "So…I see you're better now," he said.

"Yeah," said Umaru, "Kinda sucks that I can't perform anymore. I practiced a lot, you know."

"Well, would you like to go?"

"Sure!" Umaru jumped up, completely torn away from her video game. Shaun's mouth fell open when he saw Umaru transform from a tiny, hamster-like gremlin waif to a normal looking teenage girl. "Hey, what happened to you?" asked Shaun.

"This is my outdoor face," said Umaru, "When I'm inside, I use my indoor face. "

"Uh-huh," said Shaun, trying to wrap his head around the concept.

"I'll go get ready," said Umaru. She dashed out of the room and quickly got changed. Shaun wondered how she could even find her clothes in such a mess. Still, this would be a great opportunity to see… Shaun felt his teeth grind together. Though Umaru was a lazy, spoiled slob, she was nothing compared to the infamous Nico. Nico was a stuck-up, self-centered brat who tended to look down on her friends. It was, quite frankly, a wonder she had any. Still, maybe she had some legitimate chops, and perhaps Shaun would enjoy her performance. Fat chance, thought Shaun to himself. He quickly got the keys to his car, and the two of them headed off to the concert hall. Once there, they found Nico just getting ready to perform. While most people were cheering her on, Umaru couldn't help but notice two young girls standing in the back, wearing disgusted expressions on their faces. "What's wrong with them?" asked Umaru.

"Not sure," said Shaun. Mentally, he guessed that Nico had said or done something to them. He wasn't wrong. Umaru walked up to the two girls. "Hey, you here to watch her?" she asked.

"What, you mean the stuck-up snot?" replied the first girl.

"Stuck-up snot?" repeated Umaru.

"Yeah, we're supposed to be a team, but the minute someone gets sick, she just has to swoop in a steal the spotlight."

"What are you talking about?"

"Someone named Umaru Doma got sick and couldn't make the performance," explained the second girl. Umaru gasped. The girl on stage was her replacement. Umaru listened to Nico sing for a few bars. She was, admittedly, pretty good.

"Um…I'm Umaru Doma," explained Umaru.

"You are?" said the first girl, "Then get up on stage. Punt that little demon off of there."

"But, I really don't have anything prepared. I mean, I was going to sing one of my favorite songs, but then I lost my voice when I got sick."

"Well, if I had any more guts, I'd certainly punt her off the stage," said the second girl.

"Hey, what's going on?" Taihei noticed that three young girls were conversing together, and that one of them was his little sister. Shaun had been keeping a close eye on her. "Well, I see you're as spry as ever," said Taihei to Umaru.

"Yep," said Umaru, "I wish I hadn't gotten sick, though. I was really looking forward to performing."

"Yeah, that does stink. Nico's doing pretty good though."

"Oh, is that her name?"

"It should be Nic-oh no!" quipped one of the bitter girls.

"Yeah," chimed the other, "Especially when I hit her with this!" She held a moderately sized ball in her fist.
"What is that?" asked Umaru.

"It's a pepper-bomb. Once she gets hit with this, it's going to be curtains."

"Hey, I thought pepper-spray and bombs weren't allowed at the school," said Taihei.

"Too bad," retorted the girl, "She deserves this for going behind our backs like that. Hugh-ungh!" With that, the girl sent the pepper-bomb flying. It hit Nico squarely right between her eyes, exploding pepper-spray all over Nico's face. Nico covered her eyes crying and screaming.

"Ah! My eyes! I can't see!" she shrieked.

"Umaru, go help Nico up there," instructed Taihei, "I'll get the principal."

"Got it!" replied Umaru. She quickly rushed towards the stage to try to comfort Nico, who was sobbing from her eyes burning. "Hey, are you OK?" asked Umaru.

"W-who are you?" asked Nico.

"I'm Umaru Doma."

"U-umaru…. wait…what are you doing here?!"

"I'm not sick anymore. Since I couldn't perform, I thought I'd come out and see the person who took my place. You did pretty well."

"You didn't throw that…stuff at me, did you?"

Umaru shook her head, "Nope. That was someone else. I think it was someone you know, though."

"Umaru!" Taihei rushed up towards the stage. "I've got the principal here. How's Nico doing?"

"I think she's recovering," said Umaru.

"Well unfortunately, that girl who threw the bomb is now in a heap of trouble," said the principal, "She could face suspension now."

"I just don't understand," said Taihei, "Why would she do something like that?"

"I…think I know," said Nico meekly, "I think it was one of the members of my band. It was like you said. I should have talked to my friends before just signing up for myself."

"Well, I hope you've learned your lesson," said Taihei.

"Hey," said a voice. It was Shaun. "Did you forget about me or something?"

"Sorry," said Taihei, "Did Umaru behave herself?"

"Yep, aside from her room being a mess, she didn't cause any trouble."

Taihei sighed, "That figures. Well, I guess we'll just have to take care of it when we get home."

"Aw," whined Umaru, "Do I have to?"

"Yes, you do. Why don't we get going now? This concert's a bust anyways."

Umaru sighed, "OK. Hope you can make it up to your friends, Nico."

"Thanks," said Nico as she waved goodbye. With that, Umaru and Taihei headed home.

The end.