Chapter Four: Huh?
Tohru inspected the craft from a safe distance, she almost couldn't contain her insurmountable amount of luck! This was it, she wasn't going to back out this time, she was going to her destiny!
Tohru steadily maneuvered past the rubble and hid behind the waterfall. She could see there was someone else with him, it kinda looked like a yellow Stitch with floppy ears. Quietly, she took off her talisman and made her way over to the two aliens.
"No! I don't want a sandwich! Unless you have, egg salad." The gargantuan said, a to worn out to even deal.
"Nope, only cheese. Have you not been paying attention?!" The yellow Stitch said in a sharp tone.
The gargantuan groaned and rubbed his temples. 'I suppose it can't get much worse than this.'
"Ahem."
Both beings whipped their heads around to see who was behind them. The gargantuan nearly bolted up in shock at their eavesdropper.
"Hey look; another fish friend of yers sport? Or is she a lady friend?"
Tohru peered a better look at the now wrecked ship then back at the gargantuan and spared a questioning gaze over at the yellow Stitch; who was obliviously munching away at a crispy grilled cheese.
"Um...bad day?"
"You." Gantu got up and nearly towered over Tohru. Even without her talisman on, he still had a good five or so feet on her. (In human height, it would've been inches, like a good half a foot.). He stared intensely at her striking white face; now that he was closer, he could see little speckles that were sprinkled on her cheeks and ears. If it weren't for her being an off-color, he would dare say she looked pretty.
Not out loud though. His pride would never allow it.
"Uh, yes me. I'm Tohru."
"So you're the one I saw when I left this pitiful rock."
This startled Tohru a little bit. She knew she saw the ship leave that day, but could it be possible he saw her as well? Was there a moment she was unaware of when they locked eyes when he was inside the ship?!
"Woah, back up a minute there bub." The yellow Stitch finished his sandwich and but into their conversation. "Hi, nice to meet ya, I'm 625. I'd hate to interrupt, whatever this is, but blubber buns here's got some experiment hunting to do, Yeah? These sandwiches don't make themselves." 625 waived another cheese sandwich before shoving the whole thing in his mouth.
Tohru decided in that moment she didn't like this yellow Stitch.
Gantu growled at the lack of tact on 625's part; he had this off-color girl in his mind for who knows how long- now that she's finally here, he has to go catch experiments for some talking gerbil that was just incarcerated a minute ago? Wait?
"Oh Blitznak."
Tohru looked at him questioningly.
"Brit-snack?"
"Experiment 513 activated. Primary function: Geological disruption."
"Ah, a quake-making experiment." Gantu fascinated over yet another experiment activation.
"Excellent. Bring it to me at once!" Hamsterwheel demanded over the other line.
Gantu quickly rushed to get his gear (er, the gear that wasn't lined in sandwiches) and almost made it out the door.
"Captain!"
Oh blitznack, It was her again.
"What do you want now? I'm on a very important mission."
"You're not wearing it again today?How many time do I have to say it, You have to-"
"-Wear the silly earth trinket you gave me to shrink me down to that inferior height to draw less attention to the puny earth forms."
Tohru sighed. "Close enough. Where'd you hide it this time?"
"I'm not wearing that trinket to reduce my superior height!"
"Found it!" 625 chirped in, holding the dark colored talisman Tohru gave him. "Fishface here dropped it behind the sofa cushions." He said in his usual jabbertone, tossing it to Tohru.
"I wouldn't bother giving this to you if I at least didn't care about your safety. Would you at least wear it if your going into town?"
Gantu gave his signature snarl before snatching the necklace off her and started off to the beach. What was she, his mother?!
"Man, I dunno why you even bother; I mean it's been like what? Two weeks now? That old sardine breath ain't giving you nothing." 625 gathered a bunch of random sandwiches and stuffed them in a paper bag.
"You get used to it; I have patience for decades."
"And now you're gonna follow him to make sure he wears that pretty charm you gave him, aren't ya?" 625 said as he handed her the bag.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"I think you gotta crush on old trout face over there."
"No. It's not like that..."
Tohru didn't like discussing things like this with 625, he was just so insensitive.
They had already been here for two weeks and most of that time was explaining her "epidermal coloring". She couldn't even make him see reason to wearing the spare talisman she had given him; how was she going to get this large mass of stubbornness to reveal anything so much as what planet he came from?! All in all, Tohru had her work cut out for her.
Sighing heavily, Tohru followed Gantu's path to make sure he was wearing the talisman, again.
Which he wouldn't, again.
"Excuse me earthforms, but have any of you seen anything unusual since after today's quake?"
"Just you. Why you so big?"
Oh boy, here we go.
"Thank goodness you're back!" Hanna bee lined to a very tired Tohru hanging in the doorway with bags of sandwiches 625 made for her. She could tell from her friends face she didn't get that other river guardian to talk to her, again. "He didn't budge again?"
"No, not today either. I just spend two hours tailing him till he ended up chasing another 'stitch' into a rocky cavern. After that, I just decided to call it a day; I'm beginning to think this is all a big waste of my time."
Hanna nodded and took the sandwiches off her hands. "You're right. I'm sick of seeing you come back here with that tired look on your face. You should take a break for now and let's do the kagura tomorrow. How does that sound?"
For once, Hanna had a good point; she had been spending way too much time knawing at Gantu for answers these past few days, and more often than not ended up being the one interrogated for answers.
The first time wasn't so bad. She could tell he was every bit as curious about her as she was about him. But as time wore on, he began shutting her out to look for more creatures that resembled stitch and 625. He even snapped at her once to stop bugging him so he could do his job. It wasn't hurtful on Tohru's part- she knew the guy had to make a paycheck- but she could feel her window of befriending him getting narrower and narrower.
Hanna was right, she needed to take her mind off him for a while. She didn't need those answers right away. Right now, she needed rest.
"Oi Tohru! Looks like we're doing something today!"
Both Tohru and Hanna looked outside to see one of the women's association representatives huffing and puffing with two bottles of ceremonial sake in her hand for the shrine.
"Doing? Something? Sake?"
"Yo Gantu! You seen Tohru around lately?!" 625 watched as the giant shark head collapsed in his usual chair after yet another failed attempt at catching an experiment.
"What are you blabbing about?"
"She usually comes here about this time to bug me about you wearing her trinket and I haven't seen her since this morning. Did you say something to scare her away?"
"No! I'm actually glad she's not here for once, finally have a moment of peace without her poking around all the time."
"You know, she wouldn't be poking around here if you just talk to her."
"Why would I do that?! I have no relations with that off-color of my species. Surely her parents-"
Smack! Gantu sputtered as a tuna sandwich got him right in the face.
"Sport, I'm not usually like this, but that walking she-shark is the only other one of your kind on this rock, and all she's asked from you is a brief history lesson about her origin story. Poor guppy's lived here all her life and has never even seen another one of her kind until she met you. Don't you feel even a bit entitiled to cutting her a little slack? She doesn't even call you fishbreath or nothing!"
Gantu groaned at 625's rare moment of maturity. He was being a little too distant from the off-color of his species, and honestly, he'd been just as curious about her since he first saw her back when he was retired. He just didn't have time between pleasing hamsterviel and making a paycheck.
But a small part of him felt he was still obligated to his kind, she did come from a superior race of aliens.
"Alright fine. I'll indulge her for today, it's better than being lectured by that gerbil." Gantu said, turning off his communicator and leaving it on his chair. He'd listen to that gerbil's bantering when he got back.
"Great! I'll set the coordinates." 625 finished his array of sandwiches and set the transporter to Tohru's current location.
"Coordinates?!"
"She doesn't live here, blubberbutt. Her house is like on the other side of the planet. She told me she has a working transporter leftover from her parents ship while she waited for you once." 625 smirked, knowing blubberbut was so invested in experiment hunting, he didn't even bother to figure out where Tohru lived. And was about ten seconds away from just walking out the door to see her.
"Oh Blitznack." Gantu hesitantly entered the transporter and begrudgingly waited as 625 activated the machine.
"Don't forget your trinket." 625 tossed it to Gantu just before he squeezed into the glass container and headed who knows where.
After a few seconds of the usual green and yellow light, Gantu's eyes recovered from the spotty vision he usually got to see he was in some sort of abandoned ship, or what was left of it. The walls and ceiling were all but gone, revealing the rocky cavern it was currently occupying. He could tell from the transporter it had seen better days and most of the working parts seemed added onto from another working ship, probably that idiot scientist Jumba.
What really caught his attention was this huge rock facing the exit and only source of light; before it were two dirt mounds edged with flowers that spread into a path and decorating the stone.
Gantu got a slight chill as he inspected the stone, it felt like he was in somebody's tomb. Shaking it off, he put on the trinket Tohru gave him, shrinking his height, and pressed on towards the exit.
The outside was way different. He caught Japan on a day where the weather wasn't melting hot and there was a pleasant breeze that picked up the scent of the mountain trees, making Gantu actually stop for a second to take in the rare feeling of peace he hadn't felt in a good while.
He'd never admit it out loud, but earth sure did have some nice scenery.
He walked down what he could guess was some dirt path Tohru must've paved herself leading to some kind of old building.
Was this where she lived? It had a wall with wooden bookmarks that had strange designs painted on them, a well that flowed to a wooden sink, and a shed just off to the side of the building. Gantu couldn't tell what the markings on the archway said, so he just racked it up to maybe some design preference.
Inside, Gantu could hear a whiny voice coming from inside followed by a familiar voice speaking in a foreign tongue. Thanks to the talisman Tohru gave him, he was able to catch what they were saying.
"Uh, hello?" Gantu peered in through the open door to see Tohru, human size, hoisting up a tiny earth girl that looked like the one 626 usually hung out with, trying to put up drapes along the room. The only difference was her skin tone and height.
"Gantu?" Tohru carefully looked over her shoulder and saw it was indeed the former captain, and he was wearing the talisman!
"Tohru, is this the big dummy who won't tell you about your planet heritage?"
"Quiet Hanna, he's right there."
"But he cant understand us, he's not wearing the talisman you gave him." Hanna couldn't see him in her peripheral vision as she finished putting up the drapes and proceeded to put out the seat cushions.
"Uh, Yes he is." Tohru brushed off her current Miko garb and properly invited Gantu inside.
"What brings you here?"
"Am I interrupting something?" Gantu asked.
Tohru stressfully ran her hand down her face and sighed. "Apparently our Miko decided to pull up some kind of ceremony and forgot to tell us before going on her hot spring cure thingy."
"A ceremony?"
"As priestess and guardian of this village, we perform a wide variety of ceremonies and kaguras throughout the year. We have coming of age ceremonies, summer and winter purification's, rituals to bring prosperity to the crops for a good harvest, you know, the basics."
"What are you wearing?" Gantu asked, noting her white and blue robes.
"These are my official Miko garbs. I wear them to represent my authority as river guardian."
"As a what?"
"Tohru-San, help me with the alter, it's heavy!" Hanna grunted as she attempted to push the alter up toward the front platform.
"Here, let me do that; Gantu, can you help me for just a sec?"
Gantu groaned but saw no harm in it and proceeded to place the table with the paper bouquet on the raise floor. Tohru added the liquor on the alter and eyed it for a bit.
"It seems a bit empty with just the bouquet and the sake." Tohru said in English.
Hanna didn't catch what she said and Repeated the phrase in Japanese."It looks pretty empty," she looked around and rushed to the kitchen in the back. "It can't be helped, I'llput out some snacks." Hanna concluded, putting out rice crackers.
"Don't do that, we'll get in trouble."
"But we gotta put something on it. If only we had some anchient artifacts or jewelry to put on it."
"Hey Gantu, any ideas on what to put on the alter?"
"Don't ask me, I don't even know what this is all about."
"Same here. I can't even put my talisman on it, my head'll hit the ceiling for sure."
"I'm back!" The village representative skipped to the alter and stopped. "Oh, this isn't right."
"I know, we're trying to find a way to make it look less empty."
"No, not that. It's not a ceremony for the mountain gods."
"Huh?"
The representative then proceeded to move the alter to the front of the platform with the help of Tohru.
"The alter goes here," She then ushered Tohru onto the platform for demonstration. "And Tohru sits here before the altar."
"So you found what ritual we're doing today?" Tohru asked, a little apprehensive about sitting on the platform where the alter usually goes.
"Yeah, I managed to find a book in the Miko's private room and its probably this: kikase. It's basically you reciting a prayer as a messenger of the gods; it's also a display of your presence among the village folks as if you were a river spirit sent by the gods on their behalf. According to the records, the last ceremony was held about twenty years ago on your behalf when you first came to our village by the priestess."
"Why would the priestess dig up something like that?!"
"I dunno, she must've thought we needed it now."
Tohru looked to Hanna as she took a spot on the floor and layer back on the wall with her arms behind her head.
Tohru frowned knowing she suddenly realized she didn't have to do much on her part as priestess-in training.
"Wait, shouldn't the current priestess talk along with me?!" Tohru pleaded, not wanting all this to be on her.
"I don't see anything about that in the records, the only reason for last time was because you were a baby."
"But wouldn't it look more regal if she participated!?"
Everyone froze as the townspeople began arriving up the path. Gantu, pulling a seat behind the drapes, kept quiet as he too was curious about what to make of all this. That, and he really wanted to see Tohru speak to the puny earthforms as if she were their goddess; he encouraged any opportunity for his species to be worshipped by others, even if she was an off-color.
"Whoops, look at the time. Just be flexible and work the situation in your favor."
"Uh, wait. What am I supposed to talk about on the platform? You have cuecards or something right?"
"Uh...improvise!"
Tohru facepalmed as she registered she didn't have enough time to research anything else.
Hanna smiled with a much to relaxed look on her face as she handed Tohru her headband.
"Good luck."
Tohru gave her a nod and headed out the side door to wait for everyone to get situated.
"Hey Tohru,"
Tohru flinched a little, not noticing Gantu sitting behind the drapes. He looked at her before hesitantly putting a firm hand on her shoulder.
"Yeah?"
"Good luck." He muttered, looking awayas he did.
Tohru blushed, was he finally being nice to her?
The representative banged the ceremonial drum to cue Tohru it was time. She took a deep breath and slowly walked up to the platform and took a seat.
"Hello and thank you all fortunate to come to this gathering for me. With your good graces, I, your river guardian would like to give a speech today, and I hope you will listen well. It has been quite sometime since I had become lead representative of Sengen, Goddess and protector of Mount Fujiyama."
She was a What? Gantu didn't quite catch that mouthful of words she just said, but it sounded like a big deal.
Tohru paused as the fellow representative made a note to her to act more scary, as if she were threatening them. She frowned at this because she didn't like the idea of being a scary god, she was scary-looking enough with her natural height.
"However, this town I-is very depentant of both my and the Miko's generous efforts to maintain the peace and prosperity such an ungrateful town."
Gantu smiled besides himself, this was finally gettting good.
Hanna peeped through and handed Tohru some cue cards as she went.
"S-so never forget that you are always at the mercy of our whims and desires for this humdrum town to keep your gratitude and appreciation of our generous yet tedious tasks we do for you day in and day out- N-no, that's not it!" Tohru ripped the cue cards and stood up straight.
"What I really want to say is this: due to recent technological advances in transportation and appliances, you are now able to obtain medicine, food, even furniture through the use of the internet without the stress of leaving your hometown."
Where was she going with this?
"That said, our village is small, we strive everyday to expand the number and economic growth of our town so that this wonderful place is not forgotten by the passage of time. I encourage all of you, especially the old folk to use these resources so we can achieve this goal. So I implore all of you to forget your ideas of going tothe big city that lacks substance. The truth is, we owe it to technology for us being able enjoy the simple life here in the village you adore so much. Thank you for listening."
Gantu stared at Tohru, a blank look on his face. It wasn't very intimidating at the end, but she seemed to get her surprisingly good point across; the group of old folk applauded Tohru for her efforts while the children, who were fidgeting before, cheered for the very engaging speech.
As everyone left for the reception in the town, Tohru caught word that not even the townsfolk knew what today's ritual was about, but that Tohru did a very good job keeping everyone's attention.
She smiled, managing to endure the somewhat akward ritual.
"I guess that speech wasn't to horrible. You should've continued threatening them in my opinion. Some of the kids looked a litttle scared." Gantu chuckled.
"Right. Uh, so you came here for something?"
"Hmm? Oh yeah," Gantu pulled out an orange disk and pressed some buttons activating it. "I thought I'd start with showing you the United Galactic Federation. It's not exactly our planet, but it holds an important role in our universe. I thought you might find it interesting."
Tohru was speechless, he was meeting her halfway. Sure, it wasn't her home planet(that and Pleakley kinda already told her this while telling her all about his position as expert on Earth), but it was a step in the right direction. She was finally breaking down the wall.
"I would be honored to hear about this Federation. I'll show you some of my roles in the village to, if your interested! Maybe you could even participate in the next ritual!"
Gantu cringed a little, not wanting to invest so much of his time in another primitive town when Hamsterviel was still on him about catching experiments. "One step at a time."
Wow, that took a while to put together. Hope to hear your constructive feedback.