Betraying My People Chapter 5:
Masha
Kisshu and Ichigo landed in the main room, and Pai and Taruto teleported in soon after. "Good job Ichigo," Pai said.
"Thanks Pai," Ichigo said. "What now?"
"We find a way to extract the Mew Project data from this robot," Pai said.
Masha got out of Ichigo's grasp, and the Cyniclons tensed. "Masha miss Ichigo! Masha miss Ichigo!" Masha chirped, rubbing Ichigo's cheek.
"I missed you too," Ichigo said. "Can you give us the data from the Mew Project?"
"Masha will help Ichigo!" Masha said cheerfully.
The Cyniclons looked startled. "It's willing to help?" Pai asked.
Masha looked at him, then Ichigo. "Ichigo friend?" he asked.
"Yes, Masha, Pai is a friend," Ichigo said with a smile.
"Masha will help Ichigo friend too!" Masha said.
"This is odd," Kisshu said. "I thought that Masha was programmed to obey Ryou."
"Actually, Masha is programmed to obey me," Ichigo said. "At least, that's what Akasaka-san told me when he gave me Masha."
"Well, that makes things much easier," Pai said. "Let's go to the lab."
Ichigo nodded, and said, "Come on, Masha!" Masha landed on her shoulder, and she followed Pai to the lab.
Once there, Pai said, "I need to hook Masha to this computer to transmit the data. Is that okay?"
"Masha, will you transmit your data onto the computer?" Ichigo asked.
"Masha can, Masha can!" Masha said. He floated over to the computer, and waited patiently as Pai attached a cord to his head, then attached the other end to the computer. As the others watched, data started to stream across the screen. Finally the stream stopped, and Masha said, "Masha done!"
"Good job," Pai said. "I'll take the cords out now." He did so, and Masha floated back to Ichigo. Pai then said, "The rest of you can go, I'm going to look at the data."
"Okay," Kisshu said. He left the lab, followed by Ichigo, Taruto and Masha.
"What should we do now?" Taruto asked when they were out.
"Beats me," Kisshu said. "We could find a game to play, I guess."
"Wanna play trivia?" Ichigo asked.
"What's that?" Kisshu asked.
"I ask questions and you have to guess the answer," Ichigo said. "I have some good ones about animals. Wanna try it?"
"Sure," Kisshu said.
"Okay, my first question is: Which is the most dangerous insect?" Ichigo said.
"Uh… mosquito?" Taruto asked.
"No," Ichigo said. "Kisshu?"
Kisshu smirked. "The kissing bug," he said. "It lands on your face and sucks your blood while you're sleeping, so you don't notice."
"Show-off," Ichigo said. "Okay, what is the only land animal to have four leg joints that bend in the same direction?"
"Some kind of lizard?" Taruto asked.
"No," Ichigo said.
"An elephant," Kisshu said.
"Kisshu, you wouldn't happen to be reading my mind, would you?" Ichigo asked suspiciously.
"What would give you that idea?" Kisshu asked.
"The fact that you're not from Earth, yet seem to know the answers to a lot of Earth-related questions," Ichigo said.
"Fine, I'll stop reading your mind," Kisshu sighed.
Ichigo sighed and said, "Okay, what's an example of an animal that stays the same temperature all the time?"
"A gecko?" Kisshu asked.
"No," Ichigo said.
"A parrot?" Taruto asked.
"No."
"A tiger?" Kisshu asked.
"No."
"One of those furry gray things?" Taruto asked. "You see them in the trees a lot."
"A squirrel?" Ichigo asked.
"I think so," Taruto said.
"Yep," Ichigo said. "You get a point."
"Why don't I get points?" Kisshu asked.
"Because you were cheating," Ichigo said. "How many eyes does a tarantula have?"
"Eight," Kisshu said.
"Yes," Ichigo said. "What do you call a group of geese?"
"A gaggle?" Taruto guessed.
"Correct," Ichigo said. "Let's try something different. What do you two know about mythology?"
"Human mythology?" Kisshu asked.
"Yeah," Ichigo said.
"Not much," Taruto said. "Pai got into Greek mythology a while back though."
"Okay," Ichigo said. "Would you like to play a different game, then?"
"How about Scrabble?" Kisshu asked, as Pai came in and said, "What are you three doing?"
"Playing games, we're bored," Taruto said.
"Well, if you're bored, maybe it's a good time to clean your room," Pai said. "It looks like a tornado went through there. And Kisshu, yours isn't much better, so don't snicker like that unless you want me to tell Ichigo what you've got in there."
This, naturally, peaked Ichigo's curiousity. "What's in your room?" she asked Kisshu.
"Oh, nothing important," Kisshu said. He sounded a bit nervous.
"Then why is Pai telling you to stop snickering unless you want him to tell me what's in there?" Ichigo asked. "And why do you sound nervous?"
"No reason," Kisshu said.
"Come on, tell me," Ichigo said.
"No," Kisshu said.
"Ichigo, if you want to make him talk, tickle him," Taruto said evilly.
Ichigo was getting more curious by the second, so as Kisshu backed up, she pounced on him and started tickling him. At first she didn't get the right spots, but then she hit one place on his stomach, and he burst out laughing. "S-stop…" he said between laughs.
"Are you going to tell me what's in your room?" Ichigo asked.
"FINE!" Kisshu shouted after five more minutes of Ichigo tickling him. "I'll just show you, but stop it!"
Ichigo stopped tickling him, and got up. Kisshu led her to another door, and said, "Okay, go in."
Next chapter, we find out what's in Kisshu's room!