Thanks avid fan fic reader and animefan127 for reviewing!
AmnarJoey Your wish has been granted! This one is much longer (1950 words, in fact)!
Rona mae Parojinog: I hope this one's more interesting for you...
CcSakura: You'll find out soon enough.
Kirara the two tail: Your first Chobits fanfic? I hope it did make a good 1st impression with Chobits fanfics.!
Hayley :D : I'm really glad you enjoy it!
TheNextSentinel: I'll try to follow your suggestions; thank you.
Chapter 5
"It's morning! Master, it's morning!" the petite persocom repeated as she started to dance on Hideki's head in attempt to wake him up.
Yawning, the young man stretched as he rose up. Yesterday was a very hectic day, and he was thankful to have a nice long rest afterwards. I hope nothing bad happens to Chi now, he thought, stealing a glance at the sleeping figure.
"Rise and shine! Time to do your morning exercises with Plum!" a voice exclaimed, breaking Hideki's thoughts up, and making him jolt up in surprise to do the morning exercises.
After opening the refrigerator door, Hideki realized that it was nearly empty, which was rather unusual since he just brought groceries several days ago. He stopped to ponder this for a moment until Plum's voice broke into his thoughts.
"Oh no! We have an emergency! Master is low on food!" she shouted urgently, pointing to the nearly empty refrigerator.
Ignoring the noise in the background, Kotoko asked. "May I offer an explanation?"
"Yeah…" he replied.
"Since Chi began to eat, more food has been consumed, thus emptying your refrigerator at a faster rate."
"Oh…" he mumbled, taking in what she just said. "I guess that means I'll have to buy more food," he said, reaching for his wallet and reluctantly opening it.
"Knowing you, you probably don't have enough money…" Kotoko mumbled.
The blank look on his face after digging through his wallet confirmed her guess.
He was broke.
"Chi, let's go fishing today!" Hideki declared
happily, knowing that with the little pocket change he had, buying a decent meal would be close to impossible.
"Fishing? What is 'fishing'?" the confused persocom asked. She knew what a fish was, but what did he mean by "fishing"? Was it anything like the difference between "duck" and "ducking"? If it was like that, there was no telling what the word "fishing" could mean!
"Fishing means 'to catch fish,' so do you want to catch fish with me?" Hideki explained.
"Yes! Chi wants go fishing with Hideki!" she replied eagerly.
"Plum, Kotoko," the young man called out, "do you two want to come along?"
"YES! Of course!" Plum exclaimed vivaciously, dragging Kotoko along as she raced into a room to gather materials for the fishing trip.
"NO CHI!" shouted a desperate Hideki as he saw Chi wading into the lake, the bottom of her long dress nearly underwater. "We're not going underwater this time!"
"Chi?" the persocom said, walking slowly out of the water, her wet feet covered in seaweed. Don't they have to go underwater to catch fish? After all, the fish were underwater, and not on the land.
"Chi, come here, and I'll explain to you how to fish," Hideki said, bending down to get some bait.
"Okay."
While he was explaining to her, Plum and Kotoko sat on a rock, holding a pencil with a string attached (their version of a fishing pole). It was clearly the perfect day for fishing—the gentle breeze, the clouds covering the sun, and the cool air was the perfect combination.
"Shouldn't we use proper equipment for fishing, Plum?" asked Kotoko, who was unsure if a piece of meat attached to the bent clip would suffice as bait.
"Plum's Mega Fish-snapping gear is just as good as proper bait!" replied the pink persocom with ostentation, a bit vexed that Kotoko didn't understand the specialty of her homemade fishing gear.
"Okay, got it!" Hideki mumbled, wiping sweat from his forehead after fixing up bait on two fishing poles. It was a tiring process, and he was glad he finished. Handing the pole to Chi, he walked towards the lake with her. "We use this pole to catch fish," he said, pointing at the pole, "the bait is on the other end, so when we put that end underwater, the fish can bite it. Understand?"
"Chi understands."
"Okay, so first thing we do is we throw out the bait, like this." His body leaned back, arm reaching backwards, and then took a step forward, tossing the bait several feet across the water. "You try, Chi."
"Okay!" she replied enthusiastically, taking a step back like Hideki did. Then she flung her arm forwards, eagerly awaiting the bait to drop into the water like Hideki's.
Several seconds passed.
Finally, she and Hideki turned around to find the bait stuck in the tree.
A groan involuntarily escaped from Hideki's mouth as he looked up at the branches, searching for the bait, which had seemed to have coincidentally blended in with the red and orange leaves of the tree.
"MASTER! Plum caught a fish!" a shrill voice screamed, making Hideki groan to himself as he turned around to see a small persocom proudly holding a fish half her size (which wasn't very big).
Today was going to be a very long day.
He had found the bait, which was carefully stuck in the leaves of one of the higher branches. One glance at the tree's trunk told him he was not going to climb it. There was no way he could climb such a thing.
After noticing Hideki staring at the tree for a while, Chi knew she had to help somehow. It was, after all, her fault it was stuck up there. "Hideki has been staring at the tree for a while. Can Chi help?"
"Huh?" Hideki mumbled as he snapped back into reality. "Thanks Chi, but I don't think there's a way you can help." It wasn't like she could climb the tree either.
"Chi knows a way. The bait is in a tall branch, and you cannot reach it by standing up, but if you lift me, then I can get it for you," she offered, taking a step closer to him.
A bit startled by the sudden solution, he nodded, saying, "Thanks Chi. You're a real lifesaver." Then he walked to her, bent down and grabbed her waist, then hoisted her up towards the bait, hoping she knew what to do.
Carefully she untangled the bait from the leaves, speeding up after hearing Hideki pant with exhaustion under her weight. Soon she was done, and told Hideki he could put her down now.
Moments passed but no fish came. Chi started wondering if she was doing anything wrong, and Hideki sighed, telling himself this was hopeless.
"Master! Plum caught another one!" a shrill shout came. Not long after, a pink persocom proudly showed the two her fresh-caught fish. Needless to say, it was just as small as her previous one.
Not getting the response she expected, Plum scolded them. "Plum needs applause! Why aren't you giving—?" Her eyes darted towards their empty bucket, then to Hideki's vexed face, which seemed like it was going to explode any second.
"Master! Why aren't you catching any fish? Plum has already caught many fish!"
She pointed at her half-filled bucket to demonstrate.
Five seconds later, Plum was squirming into Chi's shirt, shrieking, "Master's scary! Hide me!" A simple question like "Why aren't you catching any fish?" did many wonders. Who would ever think that he would end up going into one of his terrifying rants again?
It was nearly afternoon and the clouds were clearing away, making the temperature rise, creating discomfort for the already-tired teenager.
Suddenly something tugged at his bait; it was dragged underwater with great force. "I got something!" he shouted, tugging furiously at his fishing pole. Finally, after waiting several hours, he got something! It was probably big too, considering how strong it seemed.
"Does Hideki need help?" the nearby persocom asked, turning towards the struggling teen.
"No, Chi. It's okay, I got it," he said in between breaths as he thrashed about to drag the fish up.
"Hideki doesn't look so good," she said, seeing him grunt with effort, apprehension in her voice. "Are you sure you do not need help?"
"No, Chi. I'm sure," he mumbled, eyes set on dragging the prey out of the water.
BEEP! BEEP! A whistle blew, followed by the excited shouts of a certain pink persocom, and the muffled shouts of another persocom. Almost immediately after, Plum appeared energetically with a shocked Kotoko.
"WOW! This must be a big one! Pull Motosuwa-san! Remember those morning exercises now!"
Straining, Hideki grunted as he gave one final pull, making the bait fling out of the water, a turtle firmly attached to it.
No wonder it was so heavy! It wasn't a fish; it was a turtle! Hideki was astonished at his luck. This would completely pay off for all that waiting!
"All right Motosuwa-san! You almost got it!" shouted Plum, waving her hands frantically.
With all his energy, he tugged at the fishing pole in hopes of bringing the turtle in. Abruptly, the turtle released its grip on the bait (which it finished eating) and plunged downwards.
"Chi?" the blonde persocom said, dragging her fishing pole out of the water as she stood up, eyes fixed on the falling turtle which seemed to be falling towards her. Her hands stretched out, preparing to catch it.
Her dexterous hands gently caught the descending small turtle.
"Chi-san, you caught the turtle…" Kotoko mumbled, astonished that this clumsy persocom could do something so proficiently.
"Yeah Chi, congratulations!" Hideki praised.
"Chi-san did it! She caught the turtle!" Plum exclaimed, trotting up to Chi to give her a thumbs up.
"Chi did it!" the blonde persocom cried out, turning towards Hideki. "This will be our new pet, right?"
Silence followed.
"Chi," Hideki said uncertainly, pointing to the turtle, "did you think this was going to be our pet?"
"It isn't?" she asked, innocent swirling in her voice.
"Well…" He knew if he told her they were going to eat it, she might be crushed, and he didn't want that to happen. But it's not like they had enough money to keep up with a turtle either. What was he supposed to do now?
"If I may say, Motosuwa-san," Kotoko interrupted, "turtles only need to be fed twice a week, and they will eat nearly anything, so cost wouldn't be an issue."
Seemingly, the violet persocom knew what he was thinking, and what she said was a good idea. "…Chi, it's not our pet—it's a gift from me to you instead!"
"Chi?" she said, cocking her head quizzically. Hideki could be so confusing sometimes.
Surprisingly, the amount of fish Plum and Kotoko caught were enough to feed them, and they enjoyed a hearty lunch. Hideki only succeeded on catching a turtle, which ended up being their pet, and Chi didn't catch anything at all (probably because the bait had been gone for a long time on her hook). The turtle ended up living in a bucket in the living room.
"Chi is finished. I will go to and wash my hands," the blonde persocom said, still getting used to the fact that she will be eating—eating like Hideki now.
"Okayhuwyup, Chi," Motosuwa mumbled, his mouth full.
"You must not talk when your mouth is full, master!" cried out Plum, fully aware of how disgusting his mouth looked when he did that.
"Chi-san," Plum yelled, knocking on the bathroom door, which was partially closed "You've been gone for a long time. Are you okay?"
When there was no response, Plum decided to take action. After all, she could be in big trouble! "I'm coming to rescue you, Chi-san!" Barging through the door, she looked at the huge persocom, resting on the sink, half her hair flowing majestically in the water, one arm dipped in water, and the other against the wall. Rapidly, water dripped from the sink, which has been left on.
"Motosuwa-san! Chi-san's in trouble!" she cried out urgently.
Gigantic footsteps thumped across the room, entering the bathroom to see the drenched persocom sleeping on the sink. His brow furrowed, voice filled with anxiety, breath shallow, he frantically reached his hand forward and desperately shook the persocom, hoping she would wake up. "CHI!" he shouted, his arm furiously shaking the persocom, "are you okay?"
Slowly her eyelids opened, and a frail voice rasped. "Y...yes, Chi is fi…fine," she replied, her hand weakly reaching up to rest on Hideki's shoulder. "Ch…Chi will be ok…ay." With that, a blue electric light seemed to surge through the persocom, and it collapsed into his arms.
Author's Notes: That was a really long chapter (1950 words), don't you think? This was more of a comic relief/filler chapter; it's an attempt at comedy… Hopefully, not a pathetic attempt, but an attempt nonetheless. Things weren't that confusing in this chapter, are they?
Since Hurricane Katrina came, I had no school for a week and had time to write this! With all the homework I have, I hope I can finish this one soon! Please review.
