It was oddly quiet for a place that just had such a big explosion not so long ago. Although there was no fire burning, or at least none that anyone could see, the burnt grass in the blast area proved that something must have happened.
"Aren't you Ms. Shameimaru?", asked a farmer who's well-tanned skin made him look a little older than he probably was.
"Yes. I take it you must be farmer Wakame?"
"That's right."
"Good, let's start then. Tell me exactly what happened here." Aya pulled out her notebook and pen, as she began interviewing the only eye-witness to the incident.
The farmer, obviously tired from both his day's work, and what he had seen, leaned upon his garden hoe, and sighed. "Well, now let me just start by saying I never really liked yukkuri an all, what with the way they steal crops and whatnot, but I don't like those dang hunters from the Factory neither. Now, it started this morning; a couple of those hunters were wanting to go to the forest over there, looking for something. I told them I didn't mind, so long as they kept their hunting out of my turnip fields, and..."
That morning...[]
No Meio de hum Pequeno vale, um Pequeno grupo de yukkuri were achatamento da área, cavar Pequenos Buracos Pará Espaços vivos, e Coleta de Alimentos. Seu Líder aparente Era Uma yukkuri de * Tamanho Médio com Longos Cabelos castanhos levemente encaracolado, that estava estranhamente colorido na parte roxa superior.
"Namusa~n! Namusa~n!" Cheered the yukkuri, helping to move a small rock into place, as a sort-of fence for what was to be a vegetable garden. "We're gonna make this a perfect place for everyone to take it easy!"
"Ane-san, are you sure it's such a good idea to build in such an open spot though?" asked a yukkuri, wearing a dark-blue nun's habit. "What if something wanting to eat us sees our place?" the pink cotton-candy cloud next to it seemed to nod in agreement.
"Don't worry, Ichi-chan!" said the lead yukkuri happily. "Tora-chan and our friends are here to protect us!"
"Yeah! You can count on us!" said a yukkuri with tiger-striped hair, being followed by a smaller gray-mouse yukkuri. "We need to be seen, so other friends can find us easy!"
Unfortunately for them, someone else had found them instead.
"So which one's our target?"
"The brown & purple one." The hunter put down his binoculars, and checked his black book. "The foreman said it was a 'Yukkuri Byakuren'. Apparently it's filled with some kind of really fancy cake, and there are some big shots who want to pay a lot of money to eat one."
"What about the others?" The other hunter loaded his rifle. "Do we get them too?"
"Nah, we're only getting paid for that one. If we get any of the others, we probably won't get any bounty for them, even if they are useful. That one's the only one we need to worry about."
"First thing in the morning, and we're chasing down some stupid yukkuri just for its filling. Doesn't that beat all..."
While this discussion was going on, the yukkuri were continuing with the construction of their 'take it easy' place. As the tiger-striped yukkuri went to help dig another den, the Yukkuri Byakuren was suddenly approached by a tall, shadowy human.
"Namusan?" wondered the Yukkuri Byakuren. "Hello, who are you mister?"
"Oh, I am just a friendly neighbor happening through." said the hunter in an overly friendly tone. "Would you like to come with me, and take it easy in my house little yukkuri?"
Suddenly the hunter found himself accosted by three other yukkuri; the mouse one, the one with the blue habit, and a new one with a little white sailor hat & a miniature boat anchor on its back.
"Back off!" growled the sailor yukkuri. "I don't trust you! Just who are you really?!"
"Yeah, squeak up!" said the mouse yukkuri.
The Yukkuri Byakuren also looked worried.
"Look, I'm speaking to her. You three just stay out of this." The hunter was getting annoyed. These yukkuri seemed a little smarter than the usual encounters. He might have to get tough after all.
"Don't trust him, ane-san!" said the yukkuri with the blue habit. Her pink-cloud companion was suddenly next to her, also looking angry. "This mister is a meanie!"
"Squeak away, mister meanie!" yelled the mouse yukkuri, leaping at the hunter's face.
BLAM
The mouse yukkuri fell to the ground, a large hole in its side, cream cheese spraying around from the gun-blast.
"N-NAZCHAN!!!" cried the Yukkuri Byakuren, as the mouse yukkuri lay wounded on the grass. It then started crying loudly over its injured friend.
"You idiot!" yelled the hunter to the other hunter, hiding behind some bushes a few yards away. "You could've hit ME!!"
"Hey, I'm supposed to watch your back, numbnuts!" jeered the other hunter, ejecting the spent casing from his rifle. "Stop being friendly, and just take the stupid thing!"
"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!" Cried the Yukkuri Byakuren, even louder than before.
"Bah, doesn't that moron know anything about tact?" the hunter reached down for the crying yukkuri. "Come here, you!"
"Leave ane-san alone!!" yelled the blue habit yukkuri. "Get-em, Unsan!"
Much to the hunter's surprise, the pink cloud thing launched right at him, and hit him in the face like an actual fist, knocking him over to the ground.
BANG!!!
Another shot rang out, this time hitting the pink cloud... But although it had been scattered apart by the gunshot for a moment, it quickly reformed and hit the taller hunter in the head again.
"Aim for the blue one!! The blue one!!!" the hunter yelled. He was suddenly hit in the back of the head by a small boat anchor. "OW!"
"You should drown for what you did to Nazrin!" yelled the sailor hatted yukkuri, hitting the hunter again with it's anchor. "Drop dead, easy!"
The Yukkuri Byakuren continued to cry loudly...
"Damnit! What is with these yukkuri?!" said the hunter with the rifle, as he tried to get a clear shot at either of the other two attacking yukkuri. "Why don't they just run away?! We already killed one of them!"
There was a sudden low growl, followed by something leaping upon the hunter, biting right into his arm. His rifle fell to the ground, discharging into the dirt.
"GAH! OW-OW-OW!!"
He managed to throw off whatever was biting him, and finally got a good look at it. It was the tiger-striped yukkuri from earlier, now glaring at him with tears in its eyes, and a large piece of his blood-stained sleeve in its mouth.
"You h-hurt Nazrin-chan!" cried the yukkuri. "Now I'm gonna hurt YOU!!!"
"S**t! This one's got teeth!" cursed the hunter, pulling out a serrated hunting knife from this belt. As he got ready to fight off the enraged tiger yukkuri, he suddenly found that some kind of knife was now being drawn against HIS throat.
A black haired yukkuri with oddly colored, mismatching wings, which up until then had been hidden in the bushes, was now behind the hunter holding the sharp edge of one of its wings to his neck.
"Gotcha..." said the new yukkuri, rather sinisterly.
Meanwhile the first hunter had managed to throw the sailor yukkuri into the blue habit wearing yukkuri, knocking both of them out. The pink cloud, apparently deprived of its master, disappeared. This just left the Yukkuri Bayakuren, and the now slightly ragged hunter himself.
"Stupid talking snack-cakes! Shut the f*** up!" He was about to grab the still crying Yukkuri Byakuren, when suddenly.
"Hey! Leave her alone, easy!" "Yeah, drop dead-ze!"
The hunter looked to his right, and suddenly realized he was surrounded by dozens of other yukkuris; mostly Yukkureimus and Yukkurisas, but there were a lot of them.
As the hunter looked to his left, expecting his partner taking aim at these new intruders he saw... nothing. The other hunter was gone.
"Oh, what the f-"
"GET HIM!"
Swarmed by yukkuri, the hunter found himself nearly drowning as they jumped on his head, and bit him as hard as they could. Yukkuri Remilias dropped small rocks on his head from above, while Yukkuri Sakuyas bit his legs like bulldogs. They could not hurt him much, but he was getting nowhere.
Suddenly,it dawned on him; the crying! Somehow the Yukkuri Byakuren's crying was calling these yukkuri, causing them to aid it because it was being threatened. And therefore,if he could make it shut up, the yukkuri might stop attacking him!
He knew he would end up loosing money for damaging the "goods", but he did not have time to try and shut the stupid thing up with more gentle means. Picking up the largest rock he could.....
He stopped and stared in surprise, as the yukkuri stopped attacking him for the moment. More reinforcements had arrived.
These were not the simple Yukkereimus, and normally harmless yukkuri that had attacked him before. E~rins were aiming arrows right at him. There were Yukkanakos aiming pillars in his direction. Yukkuri Ikus sparking with electricity, Yukkuri Keines in full Hakutaku mode, even a couple Yukkuri Utsuhos were now glaring at him.
He saw a bodied Kimeemaru, and thought for a brief moment that reinforcements had arrived for him from the Factory, but it, like the others, was glaring hatefully at him.
But what stopped him fully was the largest that had appeared. Dark green hair, blue conical hat with a yellow sun-like marking, about the size of a cow, and floating in mid air (Mima). He never encountered one of these before. He thought they were extinct. Yet here it was standing right before him, charging a large dangerous looking ball of light in its mouth.
"J-J-J-J-J-Justakkuri?!?!"
And then everything was engulfed in a bright light.
Back to the Present...[]
"When the light cleared, the yukkuris were all gone, and I didn't hear that poor little one crying no more either." The farmer continued, walking with Aya over to the blast sight. "Mind ya, that noise and the light made it so it was quite awhile before I could see or hear anything, so I don't know what might've happened between then."
"And what of the hunters?" Asked Aya. "Do you know what happened to them?"
"Don't know about the shorter one." the farmer leaned on his hoe again. "If he went an ran away to the forest, well... Not many things that get lost in there ever come back out. It's not like that bamboo place mind ya, but still..."
"Yes-yes, I see. And the other?"
"Well, just look for yerself."
"I don't understand. What-?"
The farmer pointed to the blast sight, which they were standing at right now. At first Aya could not figure out what the man was talking about, but then she realized there was a barely noticeable pattern in the grass: A shape made of some grass not quite as charred as the rest, looking a slightly lighter shade of brownish-gray. She quickly realized that it formed roughly into the shape of a human. And at the bottom of the shape...
What she thought were two rocks, were actually two badly burned hunting boots.
"Oh my..."
"I'm gonna stick with fences to keep yukkuri out of my field, from now on. You can put THAT in your story too."
Meanwhile, in a small cave not too far away from where the incident had taken place...
"She should make it." said the Yukkuri Eirin, as she finished bandaging the wounded mouse yukkuri. "With a few days rest, she should be back to normal."
"N-Nazri~n!!" cried the tiger-stripped yukkuri, nuzzling its smaller companion. "I'm s-so glad you're all right!"
"Squeak! Not so rough!"
"I guess it's back to square one for us now, right ane-san?" asked the yukkuri with the blue habit.
The Yukkuri Byakuren sniffled a little, but gave a reassuring happy smile. "Namu~ It's gonna be all right. We'll make a place to take it easy, some day! I promise!"
And some day, they would.