Now what's a Rinku story without a little Kuwa-bashing? Enjoy!

By the way, I've been up for over 48 hours straight and I no longer have the mental ability to write good. If it ain't the best in the world, please forgive me. This is why you should never have sugar and caffeine before bedtime...

PS-As always, I own nothing (course I'd like to own Jin, he's so feisty! ;)

Touya had won the argument out back, as always. Suzuka had locked himself in his room again, after bribing Shishi with a bottle of his most expensive detoxifying cream rinse. Chu was channel surfing and still groaning about his head. On occasion he stopped groaning about his head to ask why he kept finding raisins on his clothes. Rinku was upstairs, you guessed it, bored again.

He had taken a nap earlier, so as to avoid confronting an angry redhead with the power to create and F3 tornado in his face. He tossed and turned for about 45 minutes and decided he couldn't take it anymore. There had to be something to do. He glanced at the clock on the wall beside the door. 3:14. 'Guess it's time to feed Kuwabaka...' he thought as he drug himself into a sitting position. He dragged his feet over to the small table on the far side of the room and picked up a small bag of pellets. He dug out the scoop and filled it to the line, then he lifted the plastic top off of the tiny fun house he'd bought for Kuwabaka, the buck-toothed hamster.

"Come and get it..."

He noticed something strange. Kuwabaka had a habit of curling up under the wood chips and newspaper that lined his cage when he slept, not that anyone knew why, one more reason to name him after that blue idiot. Usually when feeding time rolled around though, he was standing right below the scoop, waiting for his meal. This time there was no sign of him. 'That's weird...' the boy thought as he scanned the bottom of the cage for a lump of wood chips that may have been a bed for a sleeping hamster. He found no trace of his pet anywhere and began to worry...

"Uh-oh."

Rinku noticed that one of the tubes that wrapped around the sides of the cage was hanging a little lopsided. Upon closer inspection, the end of the tube that connected back to the cage had indeed slipped out of the ring that held it in place. Not enough to notice from across the room, but plenty big enough for a crafty hamster to make his escape through.

"Oh no! Kuwabaka! He got out!"

The small demon started frantically looking around the room. Between his toys scattered around the floor, and Chu's, well, everything scattered around it, finding his tiny hamster was going to be Mission Impossible. Yet, he knew he had to try. Kuwabaka had been a birthday present from master Genkai while he and the others were living in the Human World training under her in that cave. She was not the mushy kind, to put it mildly, but for some reason she had felt sorry for him, spending his birthday locked in a cave, hidden from the rest of the world so that the officials in Spirit World wouldn't send men out to drag him and his friends back to Demon World where they belonged. She had sent Botan down to a pet store to get him a turtle or a gecko, something a little boy would like. When she got there the only reptiles she saw were either snakes or iguanas big enough to walk on leashes. She started to get a puppy instead, all those cute wagging tails and pouting eyes staring at her. She had asked about them, but the owner said that they wouldn't be ready to leave for another week, except that one in the corner. Her eyes had ventured to the corner and locked on not a puppy, but a full-grown monster! "We call him Lucifer. He's been bought 8 times and the people keep bringing him back for some reason. Don't know why, he's got such a pretty smile," the clerk told her, looking toward the biggest rottweiler she had ever seen. She thought that he might have a pretty smile, she just couldn't tell for sure under all that foam.

She had looked around for something else a boy might like. She thought he'd like a scorpion or a tarantula, until she thought about being the one who got to take it all the way back to Master Genkai. Finally she looked at cage with a bunch of little balls of fur. One of the little balls of fur sat up and looked at her with the saddest little "Please pick me" face she had ever laid eyes on. "Awwww. I'll take this one," she told the owner, pointing at the little red hamster that had stolen her heart. Rinku had heard this story a million times, it was Botan's favorite.

He had named the hamster Kuwabaka, because his hair was the same shade of red as the lamer that always hung around Yusuke. Then there was that other reason, the vacant expression on the small animals face. He figured their brains were about the same size, too. Regardless, he liked him because Genkai had thought enough of him to give it to him. In time he came to like him for other reasons. He was fun to play with and he sometimes talked to him when the others ignored him, which happened often. Kuwabaka was never too busy to listen to him. He loved the hamster, whether or not he'd admit to it, and now, his best friend was missing. Who knows what kind of danger he may be in.

Rinku was on all fours, moving toys this way and that. 'Where could he be?' He heard the vacuum starting downstairs and said a silent prayer. He started throwing toys more hastily, making his way to his bed, hoping Kuwabaka was under there. The vacuum kicked off downstairs which made him pray again, that someone had just spilled a bowl of snack mix or something, not that the vacuum was clogged by a ball of reddish fur. That's when he noticed the noises. Small, faint, scratching noises from the other side of the room.

He sat up and started walking on his knees in the direction of the sound, still not quite sure where their origins were. Then, he cringed as the realization of where they were coming from sank in. Under Chu's bed!

"No! Not there! Anywhere but there!" he exclaimed through gritted teeth, left eye twitching wildly.

Chu's side of the room was reminiscent of a documentary he'd seen in Human World of a landfill. Empty bottles and junk food bags littered the floor. Mixed in were dirty socks, wet cloths he'd held on his head when he felt he was going to be sick, wet cloths he'd wiped his mouth with after he had gotten sick, and, worst of all, the carpet where he had gotten sick...

Rinku lowered his head to the floor so as to see under the bed, though he still kept about 6 feet away from the stained, toxic patch of carpet directly beside the bed. Sure enough, there was Kuwa-baka, sitting in the back corner chowing down on a corn chip.

Rinku moaned as he started closer to the bed. He knew what he had to do, but mustering this kind of courage was the hardest thing he'd done in his life. Even the Dark Tournament was a walk in the park compared to this. He looked around for tools that could make this easier. He spotted a baseball bat leaning against the head of his own bed and grabbed it. Then, in a flash of brilliance, he slid the bat under Chu's bed and used it to knock a few magazines out from under it, near the foot. He walked to the foot of the bed, which was by far less toxic than the side and grabbed the magazines, paying no attention to what they were. He took four of them and laid them on the floor at the side of the bed. He resumed his position on all fours, this time with a magazine under each knee and each hand, and started to slide toward the bed.

He gripped his bat tight in one hand and resumed his prayers once more...

To the rottweiler lovers: I know that the vicious thing is just a stereotype, I just needed something BIG to use. Somehow, I don't think a snarling pomeranian would've been all that intimidating. Well, unless it was the one Triple H had in Blade Trinity, but since we're in YYH world... Anyway, I LOVE Rottweilers, had quite a few of 'em, part of the reason I picked 'em. : )

Review time!