Chapter Five: New Approach
Gantu ran through the primitive town as he chased down a hair eating experiment before losing it to an exiting bus.
"Ugh, hair ball! I am Gantu! Captain, ahem former, of the galactic alliance, conquerer of the pescimerous malicia and Vangoid commander of Blackoom ops. You shall not escape me!" Gantu calmed down from his statement and noticed the little earth hatchlings looking at him.
"I mean, I, missed my bus." He tried to restate. The kids ran screaming anyway, leaving Gantu standing in a premature rain. "Oh Blitznack." He stood for a minute, slightly embarrassed from making such a grandiose statement about himself when he noticed the rain suddenly stopped drizzling on him. He turned to see Tohru standing behind him, holding a Japanese parasol over him.
"Evening Gantu."
"I know, I'm not wearing the talisman again." Gantu pulled out the talismon and groaned as it shrunk him the usual minuscule height. Tohru did the same and cleared her throat indicating she had a question.
"So what is a Vangoid commander?"
"You heard all that?"
"I didn't want to interrupt."
"It doesn't matter. Right now, I'm just another bounty hunter that lost yet another experiment. And another paycheck."
"Oh. So you got time right now to help me out with something?"
"What something?" Gantu asked tactfully. Ever since he made that trip to Tohru's "shrine" as she put it, she had been bugging him more about coming over to help her out with stuff. Of course, she was respectful to his work of catching experiments, so she wasn't being anymore annoying than he could tolerate, but still kinda annoying.
"I need help redirecting a dam. The village isn't getting any water!"
"Huh?"
"Because we are such a small town, we don't show up on most maps. Associations from water companies are constantly damming up the river on both sides of the village, either causing droughts or floods."
"What you want me to do about it?"
"There are strengths in numbers. I think if they see two angry gods being disrespected, they'll be less likely to do it again and maybe even spread the word."
Gantu pinched the area between his eyes and thought about it. It wasn't a very demanding favor, and lately she was being more careful to only call him over if she felt it was either in his best interest or if he had nothing better to do, and he wasn't really doing anything right now...
"Tell you what, you help me capture an experiment, and I'll owe you a favor."
Tohru grinned mischievously "I thought you'd say that..."
"Gantu, What is the meaning of calling me oh so very late in the middle of my beauty sleep?!" Hamsterviel begrudgingly took out the pacifier and quickly hid it from view and began removing his hair curlers.
"Well sir, it's actually not me who wants an audience with you,"
Tohru stepped up to the viewing screen and held out a clear jar filled with multi-colored orbs.
"It, It can't be. You caught all these experiments?!"
"Yep, in less than two hours."
"Impressive. Give them to me!" Hamsterviel stretched out his hands to the pale fish monster, excited about finally getting not one, but dozens of experiments.
Tohru narrowed her eyes at the rodent and lowered the jar out of view.
"What are you waiting for? Give them to me!"
"I want triple what you pay your lackey, for each experiment pod. There's twenty-eight in this jar, just to give you a rough estimate."
The gerbil-like creature sputtered in shock at the off-colored female of Gantu's species. He had the money, of course, but he wasn't nearly prepared to spend that much where he only had to pay Gantu so little.
"Gantu, capture the experiments, I refuse to pay such a price for what I can pay less from you!"
"Then I want triple what you were going to pay her." Gantu said in a cool tone, relishing in Hamsterviel's angry squeaks.
"Oh fine! I will pay your ridiculous price, right after you hand them over."
"Nah-Uh. I want payment, in advance. And since I don't have a card account, I want it sent to Gantu's account, I'll fight him over wiring it to me later."
"You cheeky pale female-"
"Going once," Tohru held out the jar menacingly, as if she were about to toss them.
"You wouldn't dare, you vexing, irritating, blubbery-"
"Going twice!" Tohru activated the ship's door, leading to the nearby river. Hamsterviel stopped and trembled a little bit; if those pods got wet, the little earth girl and 626 would surely catch them and render them useless to him.
"Okay okay! I'll send you the money! Look, I'm sending the money..."
"And make sure you can't take it back once you get your precious experiments!" Tohru added.
He flinched as he did what she said and transferred the whopping bounty to Gantu's account.
He pulled up his account to ensure it was all there before Tohru placed the jar into the transporter and watched as it disappeared with the green and yellow lights.
Hamsterviel giggles like a maniac as he held the jar in his paws. Oh, it took some teeth pulling, but he finally had, marbles? He inspected the contents in the jar and realized she had sent him marbles painted to look like experiment pods, marbles he just paid a fortune for!
"Gantu!"
"Okay, bye." Tohru immediately hung up and disconnected the communication wires.
"Wow, that was sneaky." 625 said in awe, chowing down on a pastrami sandwich.
"I must say, I'd never would've thought to try that for pay." Gantu noted, eying the bonus he just got unwilling from hamsterviel.
"Of course you couldn't be the one to take the risk, you still need a consistent paycheck. No offense."
"None taken. Even when I did bring an experiment, he still barely paid me. I'm surprised I've been able to live like this. So yeah, Uh, ahem, thank you."
"Aw, is whittle Gantu blushing?" 625 said in his snarky tone. Gantu waved a fist at him and he just brushed it off as an empty threat.
"Now about that dam..."
Tohru smiled as she once again made her way to the transporter. Lately, she had been making great progress with Gantu and was really getting him to open up to her. Well, at the very least he wasn't acting vile and bitter to her like he was with 625 and Stitch.
Lilo and Stitch were also grateful she was keeping Gantu preoccupied while they caught all the experiments and found their one true place. Though they were a little worried she might turn on them.
"What If he points a laser at you and forces you to work with him to catch experiments?" Lilo and Stitch had just returned from another experiment hunt and had caught a cute pink experiment with an adorable pair of puppy eyes.
"I've already been over this; both me and Gantu agreed I'm considered neutral party in terms of experiments. Besides, old gerbilwheel doesn't trust me with giving him experiments since that marble incident."
"I still cannot be believing that you deceived highly intelligent lab assistant to giving you large bounty for multi-colored recreation orbs." Jumba said, pulling up little girl and 626's latest experiment capture.
"I believe it. Tohru's the best!" Lilo High-fived Tohru while Stitch gave her a slobbery kiss on the cheek.
"So what's this new experiment? He sure is cute." Tohru asked, noticing the little puffball of adorableness nuzzling in her lap.
"Yes, 254 is for designed to be very irresistible." Jumba agreed , patting the cute little ball of plush with his massive hand. Stitch narrowed his eyes at his new cousin, not liking all the attention he was getting.
"Well I think he's absolutely precious, not at all like the little monster." Pleakley said, also taken in by the experiments adorable cuteness.
Stitch snarled at the "litttle monster" remark, he was cute! Very cute, and fluffy!
"Is best not becoming attached; it may look harmless, but in reality, is a ticking stinkbomb."
"A stinkbomb, this little guy?"
"Yes, very soon, will emit odor so noxious, will make forty square mile area uninhabitable for decades!" Jumba cackled evilly. "But yes, as cute as carmine fasciner."
"But he smells okay now." Pleakley noted.
"254 is programmed to start with stinking forty-two hours after activation, will allow to infiltrate target. The problem is, we have no way of knowing when it was activated."
"Is the smell really that bad?"
Jumba chuckled evilly "Trust me, will have you losing many lunches, is disgusting stench."
Lilo eyed the experiment and kept in mind what this experiment meant for her and her relationship with the local girls. "Well, that's what I'm naming him: Mr. Stenchy. And I don't care how much he reeks, I'm keeping him."
Stitch screamed into a pillow in exasperation, he hated his new cousin! He was getting all of Lilo's attention!
Tohru rolled her eyes at Lilo's declaration. There was no way her sister would let her keep the plushy thing, no matter how cute he looked. Plus, she only wanted the little guy because she was invited to that mean girl's tea party. Surely Hanna and some of the local girls in her village could throw a better tea party.
Oh, that's it!
"Say, Lilo, why don't you ask Nani if you could come with me to the shrine today. We're having a little tea party of our own, with much tastier sweets and treats than that mean red-haired girl. We can even show you some of our Japanese games. It sure has been a while since you last seen her."
"That sounds like fun, we can teach Hanna all about vampires and werewolves, right Stitch?"
Stitch perked up at the sound of seeing Hanna, she always gave him those crunchy rice cookies to munch on whenever he got near her.
"Wait, can we bring Mr. Stenchy?"
"Um, maybe not. We don't know when he was activated, and I don't want him accidentally going off at the shrine."
Lilo sighed and left Mr. Stenchy in the care of Jumba, who was preparing rocket for to send him away in. "Stitch, you better stay with Mr stenchy, we don't want the big dummy to get his hands on him."
Stitch groaned as his cousin toddled in circles around him to get his attention. This was going to be a long day.
Tohru quickly texted the women's association to go shopping and start decorating the shrine, there was going to be a very special guest coming to the shrine.
Because of the time difference, Tohru had to talk Lilo's older sister to letting her leave immediately so that they would return just before the sun went down in Kawaii.
Lilo had been to the shrine a number of times in the past, usually when she wasn't in school or on holidays.
Today was special though, the women's association had dressed up the main shrine room to look extra special with lanterns and paper balloons and paper cranes hanging from the ceiling.
Hanna, in the rush of things, spent most of their shrine offerings on mooncakes, mochiko, and a whole bunch of Japanese sweets that'd rot your teeth out.
Tohru would have to have a talk with her later about her snacking problem.
"Wow! It looks like a luau in here!" Lilo took a seat next to Hanna at their nishikawa (Japanese reversible cloth table with Kota Stu) as Hanna poured out the tea. Tohru took this as her cue to get the women's association to another room while the girls had their little tea party.
"So how is blue dog? I hear he have family now." Hanna loosely spoke in her shaky English. Tohru had an upper hand at translating because of her talisman and had been teaching her a little bit since they met Lilo. Well, teaching her as best she could with her restless nature.
"He does, Stitch has got over six hundred cousins now!"
Hanna gave a surprised look of excitement as she handed Lilo a couple of mooncakes.
"That sound very interesting. You make friends with not nice carrot hair girl yet?"
Lilo giggled when Hanna called Mertile that, her efforts to speak English were hilarious.
"Kind of, she invited me to the FHGH tea party, but Tohru said to come here and have a tea party with you."
"My tea party better, have better snacks." Hanna held out a red bean dumpling as she proceeded to cram almost the whole thing in her mouth.
Lilo giggled as took a sip of her tea. She was really glad she got to go to Hanna's tea party instead.
At first, when they first met, she was afraid she couldn't be friends with her because they were so different, they even spoke different languages. It was even scarier one time when they were at the beach and they came across Mertile, Yuki, Theresa, and Elena. Hanna didn't like the way the red haired girl acted around Lilo; she didn't know what they were saying, but she could tell the red hair girl was saying something that made Lilo sad. When she tugged at Hanna to come with her, she accidentally pushed her into a mud puddle, making her cry something angrily and walk off in a huff.
"You want more fruit drops?" Hanna held out some of those hard candy pellets that look like fruit and handed them to Lilo. She happily took the candy and popped them in one by one in her mouth.
Lilo was usually picky about food, especially if it was food or snacks she had never had before, but if Hanna liked them, she'd at least give them a try. A lot of the stuff Hanna gave her to try were really good; except for that one time they tried some kind of big spiky fruit that smelled really bad. She and Hanna regretted eating that.
Hanna herself was enjoying her time with Lilo; normally Tohru was either to tired or to busy to play with her anymore, and she was so shy around kids her age.
With Lilo, she was less pressured because of their eight-twelve age difference.
"Hey, when we finish, wanna play werewolf kick the can?"
"I wanna be the vampire this time!" Lilo and Hanna finished their tea and headed outside to play their game they invented together.
In the other room, Tohru and the women's association peered over at the sight of the two friends playing together.
"It was lucky you found Lilo to play with our new priestess, we were beginning to think she'd never make any friends." The elders said as they began cleaning up.
"Yes, that Hawaiian girl is a very good influence on her; I don't think I've ever seen Hanna so lively."
"No, she's lively around Tohru."
"Yeah, but we live together. It's not the same. We have more of a sisterly relationship. Also, I'm busy all the time with my duties as the river guardian, I can't even remember the last time I had a minute just to myself."
"By the way, how's that dam problem coming along?"
"Actually, I finished way faster than the last time." Tohru said a little impressed with herself. She had to take a mental note to find a more permanent solution for their constant dam issues.
Darn city folk.
"Oooh, is because of that, new guy?" An elder said slyly.
Tohru froze as she knew exactly who they were talking about.
"Uh, Ah, new guy?"
"Yeah, the new guy." The elder said in a cocky tone.
"Oh, stop. We all know about Tohru-San's new boyfriend."
"Boyfriend?!" Tohru took this as her cue to flee. "Oh my, would you look at the time, I think I should go ahead and bring Lilo back to Kokowa town, um, girls!?"
The two girls stopped their game and groaned as the four hours they were together only felt like twenty minutes.
"Oh come on Tohru, one more game, best out of seven!" Hanna pleaded with Lilo joining in their pleading stares.
Tohru smiled despite herself. "Oh! Can those eyes get any bigger." She sighed heavily, she was gonna regret this in a minute. "One more game."
The girls cheered and quickly restarted their game.
"Sisterly Huh? Feels more like your their mother to me." One of the elders said bluntly.
Tohru ran her hand down her face, Yep, she could feel the rue coming on already.
"Donicachi?"
Meanwhile, back on Kawaii, Stitch was just having a grand ol time getting more and more irritated with his new cousin. Even with no one to coddle and coo at him, he still had a way to get on Stitch's nerves by pestering him with little "peace offerings".
'Bet he just wants me to start cooing at him to. Oh, look how cute and pink you are- blech! Nope, not this experiment!' Stitch finally had enough when "Mr. Stenchy" tried to give him a lollipop. Stitch had to give the pink plush of puke points for persistence, he certainly had a one-trackier mind than his when he had his mind of bothering someone.
He took the lollipop and gave it a good slobbery lick before sticking the pink peat onto it for better grip on him; heaven forbid if he held him, probably would just try to snuggle him or hug him.
Stitch carried him to the kitchen and playfully bounced around a couple of ideas to deal with his new "cousin". He settled for staying him in the pantry so he wouldn't have to explain to Lilo why he decided to make a milkshake out of his cousin. He did take a little pleasure in shoving him into the raviolis and slamming the door in his face.
Now where did they put the soda?
Tohru transported Lilo back to Kawaii, Hanna tagging along for another one of their sleepovers, even though it was a school day for her.
"Stitch, we're home." All three girls giggled in unison. Lilo gasped as she was the first to notice the messed up roof and the blasted furniture.
Tohru scowled as she immediately knew who did this and began marching over to the waterfall to give him a piece of her mind.
All the while, she didn't take notice of her talisman as it seemed to glow a soft blue, seeming to grow steadily stronger the more she clung to her present feeling.
I know, not my best chapter after about a good ten days of slack. But will hop back on the horse with more precision, right now, just filler. Please don't kill me, lol.