Russian Trouble - Rated G - By Nekoi Kirima

Hamtaro was eating his sunflower seed. Laura was in a big panic. "Oh, Hamtaro! I lost my barettes! We were going on a field trip, too! Oh no," paniced Laura. Her mother was calling her to get downstairs. Soon, Laura found her barettes, went downstairs in a hurry, and apologized to her friends for being late.

Hamtaro briskly jumped out of his cage, went down the drainpipe, and landed on the grass. Brandy had gotten ill because of the food Katana had put in his dish. Oxnard came out of the bushes and said, "Hi, Hamtaro! Kana's going on a field trip to the Celadon Forest, the place Botan lives. I thought we could go there!"

"Yeah, great idea," said Hamtaro. "Maybe the ham-hams will go, too!" They ran happily to the clubhouse, hoping that their friends would like it as much as they did.

When they were at the Clubhouse, Hamtaro and Oxnard told everyone about the field trip that their owners were going on today. "Maybe we could have a field trip there, too!" Seeta said, excited about going there. She quickly gathered some of her seeds into a small yellow knapsack, ready to leave. "Well, let's go! I'm up for it!"

Everyone was keen about it except Maxwell. "Guys...," stuttered Maxwell. "I don't think we should go."

Seeta frowned angrily at him. "Why? Are you afraid, Maxy?"

"No! It's just... I heard two Russian spirits named Yn and Lyn haunted it and scared people away. It might be dangerous. Not to mention, people get lost easily in it," replied Maxwell. Being the knowledgable one in the group, everyone believed his story, except for stout-hearted Seeta, who simply scoffed at him, took her knapsack, and left without another word.

Worried and excited at the same time, everyone else followed suit, mostly for the reason to find Seeta. There at the entrance, they saw her, panting like a dog after running so far. She said, "Hey! You're here! It's about time!"

After about ten minutes of walking, everyone started panicking, thinking they had really gotten lost in the Celadon Forest. "Um," Hamtaro started to say, trying to cheer everybody up, "why don't we have our lunch break now? I'm sure we all must be hungry!"

Everyone cheered, and began to eat. Suddenly, a hamster appeared out of the bushes, surprising the hungry ham-hams. She was entirely white with a red heart-shaped mark on her forehead with pink little cheeks below her eyes. "Hey!" she said in a Scouse accent, "Don't be scared. My name is Ayame, the sister of Botan. I'm searching for a friend. Have you happened to see anyone lately?"

Hamtaro was relieved that it wasn't a monster, but just a friendly British hamster. "No, but you can come along with us, if you want." She had gladly accepted their offer, and started eating with them.

Meanwhile, Laura was scared because she had been separated from the class. "Oh no," she said to herself, "what am I going to do now? I wonder where everyone else is now."

"Hey! Laura! We're over here!"

Laura turned around. It was Kana and Tabatha, her two best friends, waving to her so they would get noticed. "I can't believe it! You came for me!" Laura cried out in excitement and hugged her two friends.

"Well, of course we did!" Tabatha said. "We were so worried, so we had to come back. Besides, I would never let you get hurt."

"At least you didn't get hurt," Kana replied. "But I think we should be going to catch up with our class. They're probably worried sick about us!"

The three friends laughed together, and went on their way. The ham-hams, having did the same with their new friend Ayame, were just as oblivious of the very potent danger as they were. Just up in the blossoming peach trees, unknown forces are plotting plots against our heroes..

The ham-hams, just finished with their lunch, decided to continue on, with the help of their polite new friend. Carelessly, while in a hurry, they bumped into a tree, knocking two hamsters out. One hamster had an onion-shaped head, with her pale yellow fur in a ponytail sticking up, tall round eyes, and in her hand was a pink bag like a reporter's bag. The other hamster had the same fur, head and eyes, but had a tan vest and baseball cap on, not to mention slightly shorter than the other. "Hey!" the tall one yelled. "What's the big idea about-- ..oh.. oh no.."

The male hamster said, "We're doomed! We've been discovered! Everyone in the group knows about us now!" Both of the hamsters started panicking, which made the ham-hams a bit confused.

Maxwell asked, "Who are you two?"

"We are the 'Russian spirits'. Stupid people! We're hamsters, not spirits! Anyway, I'm Fin and my brother is Anti. We are reporters for the famous Acorn Gazette," replied Fin. She took out a pink camera, decorated with sunflower seeds, and a tripod. "Excuse me, I need to take your pictures." She ran over to her tripod, while her brother gathered the ham-hams into a group. She quickly took the picture, stuffed it in her bag, and saluted to the ham-hams.

"Well," Anti cheerfully said, "thanks to you, we've got a story. As your reward, we'll give you this bit of information: first of all, the monster really isn't a monster, but a hamster like you; second, Ayame and Botan aren't who they seem to be." After this, the two siblings ran off.

Hamtaro and the others turned around to look at Ayame, only to see that she had left. The ham-hams started to become suspicious about Ayame and Botan because of what Anti had said.

"Wait a minute!" Hamtaro yelled out. "Seeta's gone, too! We've got to find her!" Then, everyone began to spread out quite a bit and look for her.

Meanwhile, Laura and her friends have found Mr. Yoshi's class and have caught up with them. After a while, a blonde girl with big blue eyes started to follow them, in hopes of discovering who they are.

Suddenly, Tabatha almost stepped on something. It was Seeta! She had run off on her own. "Ah!" Tabatha sprang out. "I can't believe you're here!" She picked up her little orange Azerbaijani hamster and put her gingerly into her purse, decorated with a cute yellow hamster.

Back in the trees, there was an uncomfortable screech heard. The screech was from Katana, a blonde Syrian hamster who has ruined all of the ham-hams' festivties in some way. "Ugh!" she screamed. "I can't find those pesky ham-hams anywhere! Oh well. I might as well follow that poor little blonde girl, Aggie. She knows where they could be.."

Hamtaro and the others were still searching for Seeta frantically. Soon, Hamtaro smelled something. "Heke?" he said. "I smell something funny, kind of like.."

"..strawberries?"

A small red and white hamster came out of the strawberry bushes behind him. "Oh, hey," he said to them nervously. "I'm Ichigo, and I belong to a small girl named Aggie. I've seen your friend. She's with her owner, so there's no need to worry."

Everyone was relieved and let Ichigo come with him. Soon, they recognized him from the trip to Ropponji (read 'Yasashii na Nadeshiko o Omoidashite' for the whole story), from when he helped them find Seeta when she got kidnapped by Katana.

Meanwhile, back on the schoolbus, everyone was really happy about the trip. They were able to see a more taditional look into fuedal Japan, thanks to an old lady named Sen and her goddaughter, Hikari. After they left, the little blonde girl, Aggie, went back to a gigantic sakura tree, where Katana was. "Okay," she said meekly, "I've recognized them. So what do we do now?"

"So now what," Katana mocked softly. "I tell you what now. You go back home, and I'll come with the goods." She cackled under her breath, and reassured little Aggie.

Back at the clubhouse, everyone was exhausted from the trip. "Well," everyone said, "that was a really great adventure for one day!"