Okiniiri

Chapter One

~The New Pet~

Ellie looked up from her homework as there was a knock on the door.

"Kanda-tama?" She asked, poking her head into his bedroom a few seconds later. He looked up at her. "What?" He asked in annoyance.

She hesitated. "Umm...I think the new Freeman is here...they said one-thirty, right?" She asked. Actually, it was only one-fifteen, but these guys were notorious for being early.

Kanda nodded distractedly. "Well..." He murmured, then looked at her. "The money's sitting on the bench. Make sure he's the right one, don't ask too many questions, be businesslike, ok? Give them the money and thank them very much, then bring the boy inside and explain to him how this is different." He ordered.

Nodding her head, the seventeen-year-old fetched the sports bag full of money, and answered the door.

On either side of the small, scrawny, white-haired teenage boy, was a man in a black suit and sunglasses. She nodded at them. "Good afternoon." Then she stepped into the outside hallway, and smiled at the boy. "Hello! You're Allen Walker, right?" She asked politely. The delivery men exchanged glances.

Everyone waited for the boy to answer. He seemed extremely shocked. Hadn't they told him that his new Owner was male? And a lot older? This girl was very friendly, but she was his age...she wasn't a Pet too, was she?

He overcame his shock slightly, and nodded. "Yes, I'm Allen Walker." He said. She smiled at him, and then looked coldly at he delivery men. "The files said he was seventeen." She snapped. "He looks about fifteen!"

The man on Allen's right held his hands up in surrender. "We assure you, miss, he's seventeen! It's not our fault that he's so small." He said lamely.

The girl fixed him with a haughty sneer. "I daresay it is." She said coldly. Then, she held a bag of money out to them. "There's the money. Thank you very much, now get out of my sight." She said.

The two men took the money gratefully, and descended the stairs quickly, as though racing to get away.

Without another word, the girl ushered him inside. Once the door was closed, she grinned at him. "Hello, Allen! Welcome to your new home! I'm Elizabeth, by the way." She made a face. "But please call me Ellie."

Allen nodded nervously.

"Ok!" She said, looking at his clothes. "Would you like to get changed? Those prostitute clothes look uncomfortable."

Allen's jaw dropped slightly, and then he nodded. "Yes, please."

Ellie nodded, and gestured that he should follow her. "Your room's up the end, I think Kanda-tama said."

Allen bit his lip nervously. "Kanda-tama is the Owner?" He asked.

Ellie nodded distractedly, and opened the door at the very end of the hall. The room inside was very neat, very plain, and very monotone. "One sec," the girl said "I'll just..." She opened the closet "Ah! Good!"

She turned back to him. "Yup! It's your room, Allen! I'll just go, so you can change into more comfortable clothes..."

As the ends of her brown hair disappeared around the door, and she closed it, Allen wondered why the girl was so cheerful. She was another human pet...wasn't she?


Allen stood in front of a tall Japanese man. He presumed it was 'Kanda-tama', his new Owner. He bit his lip, and bowed respectfully. "My name is Allen Walker." He said.

The two stared at him. "Um...did I do something wrong?" He asked, though he knew that, if Kanda was the same as his previous Owners, he'd get a beating for that small question.

Kanda shook his head vacantly, and turned to Ellie, who was drinking from a bottle of water. "I thought you'd explained to him." He said. Ellie pursed her lips in annoyance. "I didn't have time, you wanted him straight away." She said.

Allen was shocked. She was a Pet, wasn't she? Why was she so rude to her Owner? He stared.

Then she scowled. "Just explain to him yourself. You understand it better than I do." She said.

Kanda seemed to ignore this, and went down the hallway. "Don't call me again until he understands!" He called, before closing his bedroom door.


"So..." Said Allen, at the end of Ellie's explanation. "Kanda's saving us? You really mean it?"

Ellie nodded and assured him that she wouldn't lie about something so important.

"And...you're sure that companies that you and the other two were from were shut down?" He asked.

Ellie nodded. "Mm-hm. Even all of the agencies that they were connected to were completely shut down." She said.

"And you know that Kanda's in some kind of group? A group of people who are doing this?" He said cautiously.

Ellie nodded again, slightly exasperatedly. "Yes. But all he's told me is that there's five people in the group, and they meet once every two months." She said, before standing up. "I think you're ready to meet Kanda properly now."

Allen nodded grimly as Ellie padded up the hall towards Kanda's room, and watched her bare feet disappear around the door.


"So..." Kanda sneered, towering above Allen Walker, the new Freeman. "You're Allen Walker, are you, Moyashi?"

Ellie winced when Allen nodded humbly. "Yes, I am." He confirmed.

She actually closed her eyes and bit her lip as she saw Kanda grab the boy's chin and pull it upwards, so that Allen was looking at the man properly. He looked horrified at the concept of looking his Owner in the eyes, reading his expressions.

Ellie watched them anxiously, though, as Kanda peered haughtily down his nose at the strange kid. "I am Kanda." The raven-haired man finally said. It wasn't an introduction, it was a statement of fact, daring anyone and everyone to disagree. His tone suggested that he was Kanda, and if anyone had a problem, they could crawl into a hole and die.

Sizing the boy up again, Kanda took a slight step back. "Elizabeth will take care of anything you need." Then he glanced at Ellie. "Don't disturb me until dinner." He ordered.

Ellie nodded slightly, and bit her lip again. She knew that look. It meant that she now had to find out all about Allen. It may be fun, or it may be boring, but she'd probably be killed violently if she didn't do it.

She thought for a moment. "Hey, Allen..." She said, looking towards him.

He bit his lip. "Erm...yeah?" He asked.

She slid down onto the couch, and patted it. "Come and sit down. I want to know everything about you, so we can be best friends!" She semi-lied. She wanted to get along with him, but friends weren't really her thing.

She watched him intently as he sat down hesitantly on the couch. "Um...okay!" He murmured, smiling.

She smiled falsely. "Okay!" She said in artificially happy tones "Who was your last Owner? Where did you live? How long were you his Pet?" She asked.

Allen scratched the back of his head. "Well...it was only a few weeks ago that I was called back. At the time, I was in India with Cross Marian. He was my last Owner. I was his Pet for...a while. Y'see, he was pretty much the only person who wanted me, since I was so weird-looking and small. What about you?" He asked.

Ellie thought for a moment. "I've been a Freeman for three years now. My last Owner before Kanda-tama was Tyki Mikk. He was really angry when they took me back, because, apparently, no matter how much money he gave them so he could keep me, he couldn't match the price that Kanda-tama gave them so he could save me. He was in Portugal, so I had to learn Portuguese." She made a face. "And I was his Pet from about my twelfth birthday until a few days before my fifteenth."

Allen gasped slightly. "You were Tyki's Pet, too? He and my master used to be rivals. They'd always visit each other for a smoke and some alcohol, even though they secretly hated each other and had plans to bring each other down. I met the Pet that he had before you, I think. I remember she didn't really talk, and Tyki always beat her." He gulped. "Did he beat you too?" He asked.

Ellie shook her head, smiling. "Nope! Apparently I was his favourite." She rolled her eyes.

She looked at the clock. She hadn't had lunch yet, because she knew that the new Pet wouldn't have, either. "Are you hungry, Allen?" She asked. "I was going to wait for you before I cooked lunch."

Allen nodded eagerly, and Ellie smiled. She got up, and stepped into the kitchen. "What would you like?" She asked, looking through the stuff in the fridge.

Allen bit his lip. "What do you have?" He asked.

Ellie laughed. "Mainly noodles and Japanese-style ingredients, but we've got a few other things in here." She chewed on the inside of her cheek. "Do you like scones?" She asked finally, holding up a plate piled high with them, and two bowls, one filled with whipped cream and the other with jam.

Allen laughed out of pure surprise at the amount of food on the plate, and and Allen took turns finding random foods in the cupboard and fridge, and tried to make them edible. It was the most that Allen had been allowed to eat for a long time. He really needed enormous servings, too.

Ellie didn't seem to eat so much, though. While Allen shoveled scones and noodles and toasted sandwiches into his mouth, she would just laugh and take a few bites out of her own food. Allen couldn't help wondering whether this was healthy for her, whether she needed to eat more, much more, than she already was. She seemed to be wasting away, anyway, like some of the girls back at the agency, whose masters had denied them food for weeks. But she certainly looked healthy enough...she wasn't pale or anything, and she certainly seemed to have energy, so maybe she was just naturally like that.

It was then that Allen realised what had been nagging at his consciousness for a while. Not only was she skinny and short for her age, but the clothes she wore were too big. Her jeans were a mass of extra denim, and covered her swinging feet almost down to her toes, and her blue cotton jumper had the sleeves pulled up, and the bottom of it was down below her backside, even. He'd also noticed that she wore a thin top underneath it, in case it slipped too far over her shoulders.

He stared for a moment. "Elizabeth-san..." He murmured.

Ellie smiled. "Call me Ellie, Dumbo!" She said, making elephant-ear gestures on either side of her head.

Allen nodded sheepishly, trying not to laugh at the ludicrous girl beside him.

She smiled, and removed her hands. "What's up?" She said, relaxing into the cushions again.

Allen opened his mouth for a moment, forgetting about his question. Then he remembered. "Oh! All I was going to say was...how come your clothes are so huge?" He asked.

Ellie looked surprised, and looked down at her clothes. "Oh...I just like to wear baggy things, I guess." She said. "After so many years of wearing skimpy prostitute clothing, having these comfortable, baggy clothes really makes me content." She explained, pulling up one of her cotton sleeves again.

Allen nodded, even if he didn't understand. But he supposed it was like the clothes he was wearing right now. He was so used to wearing revealing, leathery, chafing clothes that wearing soft, mass-produced, and completely comfortable clothes was making his mood considerably brighter. "I...think I understand..." He said quietly, smiling too.

Ellie nodded, and suddenly looked considerably happier. Allen was extremely confused as to why this was.


About four hours later, Ellie tipped two packets of noodles into a pot of boiling water, and made an exasperated look at Allen. "I hope you like soba, Moyashi." She said.

Allen jumped in surprise. "Eh? Moyashi?" He said.

Ellie stirred the noodles. "That's what Kanda-tama called you. It suits you." She said, leaning against the benchtop.

Allen sweatdropped. "Erm...okay?" He said nervously.

Ellie sighed, idly stirring the buckwheat noodles now, and added some flavouring to the water to make them more edible. There was silence for a while, as steam billowed from the boiling water, and Ellie made the occasional yelp as it burnt her forearms.

"Hey...Moyashi..." She said slowly.

Allen had gotten used to it by now. "Erm...yes?" He asked, wary of what might come.

"When's your birthday?" Ellie asked thoughtfully.

Allen stared at the small brunette, who was now draining the noodles.

"Umm..."