Heaven on Earth (Mayuki) - Chapter 9 - Uekara Maritroll

[saeyu]

[A/N: I’m sorry it took so long. One thing led to another in rl …not to mention the shocks of TOKYO DOME….my Mayuki! my Saeyaka!  :angry:My team A!!! ARGGHH! anyway, I’m glad I made it in time for the last setlist of Team B v. 2. Hope you Mayuki fans will enjoy this!]

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Yuki is running fast in a dark alley. Someone is chasing her but she doesn’t know why. The walls between her are getting narrower and narrower, the dripping of water from the drains getting louder every second. Her breathing is constricted and panic arose from her squeezed lungs.

She can feel that the person is getting nearer and nearer. A sudden force yanked her sideways out of the alley. She’s now free falling and flying ahead through the clouds. After a while, the land and a target can be seen. It’s strange that she’s now become the chaser, but being a dream, Yuki doesn’t question the rationale. Who’s she chasing? Landing on the ground with legs moving like feather, she closes in on the back of a girl with pigtails…..

Isn’t that Mayu-chan?

She reaches her and taps on her shoulder urgently. The girl turns around, but her face is transmuted into a black face with bean-shaped eyes, smiling at Yuki like a perv.

“WAAHHHH!”

Yuki jumps back in alarm, but a searing pain travels up from both sides of her inner thighs.

Plok!

The poor girl landed on the floor of her bedroom, feeling still a bit dizzy from the nightmare. Sitting up, she massages her thighs gently as the pain got worse from yesterday’s accident.(where she split her legs on the slippery kitchen floors)

Can I get to work today like this?

To climb around fixing and inspecting machines in the amusement park is out of the question. Looks like she’ll have to report to work but find something else to do.

She closed her eyes to think for a second, but the image of that dark, pervy “Mayu” springs up again. It does look like someone she knows though….not Mayu, but someone very familiar….(Yuki will never realize it’s herself ><)

Why am I having such weird dreams? Anyway, that brat….I wonder how she’s doing now…why did she turn into a monster? Wait, why was I chasing her? I should’ve just kicked her out after what happened yesterday, shouldn’t I? But she’s just a child….*sigh….O crap, how should I act in front of her today?

She rubbed her temples to stop all the thinking, hoping that today’s problems will just go away by themselves. Her plan now, is to get to work as soon as possible in order not to face our princess.

Mayu-chan on the other hand, had reflected deeply on her attitude towards the mysterious Yukirin throughout these years. She hasn’t fully come to terms with her feelings yet, but at least, she knows that she’s screwed up and is adamant about fixing it. The first thing she did, with the help of her clueless friends, was to put the house back into order. But…

They are heavenly beings. They are not good at housework. Period.

Sae poured detergent all over herself in an attempt to clean the oily surface of the kitchen. They didn’t know that there are other floor cleaners that can help with the job. However, detergent is better than nothing. Meanwhile Yuko got stuck in the drain hole, but Mayu, with her slippery hands due to the cleaning, cannot pull the poor squirrel out. In short, they made a mini mess but managed largely to clean the house up.

So the state that Yukirin found herself in when she came out of the bathroom after waking up is this: Broken furniture and vases gone; No trace of oil in the kitchen, the laundry that cannot be recovered (those with holes) taken away, others hung to dry. For a second, Yukirin is impressed. Then she saw Mayu exhausted and asleep at the kitchen table. Sae’s fur wet and sticky with detergent and baking powder (don’t ask what happened), totally passed out and lying on her back. Yuko still stuck in the sink’s drain. Completely trashed mop and towels, empty bottles of dish detergent, all flung to the side in a neat pile.

Seeing this, the disappointed and angry Yukirin from last night is completely gone. Yappa, Yuki has a kind heart even though it could be blackish sometimes. She burst out a small laugh, seeing how clumsy and cute Mayu looks in her sleep. Carefully limping towards her, she saw a slightly overcooked egg sitting on top of the kitchen table. Then she stares at Mayu’s face and entered a mini trance. Almost touching her cheek, Yukirin’s hands swiveled in the last second and landed on Mayu’s shoulders instead.

“Mayu~” Yuki shakes the sleeping princess gently.

Unlike the usual, Mayu is not in deep sleep and stirred easily by Yuki’s gentle prod.

“Yukirin, I…made…you breakfast…UWwwwwooh” Mayu yawns and sat up.

“Help me!! help me!!” The squirrel squeals and successfully caught Yuki’s attention again.

*Sigh* Dragging her sore legs to the kitchen counter, she tried to pull Yuko out.

“Itai….” Yukirin’s face squished into a bunch like someone tasting lemon. She find it hard to exert force because her feet can’t plant on the ground with all the pain she’s experiencing. But she persevered and POP!! Yuko bounced out all the way onto Sae’s belly, as the poor dog yelped and pounces up from her “coma”.

After having breakfast, which doesn’t taste any worse than her own cooking (because it’s impossible), Yuki got off from her chair to get to work. The two of them were eating silently and the atmosphere became awkward, exacerbating Yuki’s urge to get out of the house. However, Mayu caught Yuki’s hand to stop her.

“You can’t even walk properly, don’t go to work today. I already called in sick for you.”

Yuki looks at Mayu in surprise. She really didn’t think that the spoilt child from yesterday would be considerate enough to do this for her. However, she’s hesitant about how to react to Mayu. She doesn’t want her to think that she’s not angry anymore, although this is how she feels now.

“Mayu, who do you think you are? You have no right to decide things for me.”

Turning around, Yuki originally plans to stride off proudly to assert her authority. But with just one step, the nagging pain shoots up her thighs again, forcing her to halt, hands clutching the painful regions.

“Itai…”

Mayu walked up to her and waited for her to look at her, before saying in a deep voice, “Yuki, let me take you to the doctor.”

This same serious face is not entirely unfamiliar with Yukirin, although it’s seldom displayed. It’s the same look that gave her assurance back in Flying Get Amusement Park, when she was about to fall into a sea of flames. The grip of Mayu-chan’s tiny hand still feels fresh on Yuki’s arms. Indeed, at that moment and also now, something convinces Yuki to trust this handsome face.

“Okay,” Yuki’s painful face softens, “But we’ve got to clean those two up first.”

“No, let me do it, you go sit.”

Yuki taught Mayu how to find and turn on the hose outside the apartment, so the princess took her friends outside while Yuki settles herself in the couch.

Halfway through washing them down, a wicked laughter is heard.

“Wakakaka, Mayu-chan! Did you enjoy yesterday’s fun?”

“Marimokkori! How dare you came back! I will not let you go easily!!” Mayu leaps toward the black mossball but it jumps further away.

“Nananananana, you can’t catch me!”

Mayu is about to follow the mossball, who’s now on the neighbor’s roof, but Yuko stopped her.

“Mayu it’s a trap! She just wants to get you into more trouble! It’s better if you stay by Yukirin’s side!”

“Let us do the dirty job!” Sae jumped in enthusiasm. With that, she followed the black creature’s scent and crept out of sight. Yuko follows, but gave Mayu a warning shot to guard Yukirin properly before darting away.

“Can I trust those two things??” Mayu scratches her head in the now empty corridor.

Walking back into the living room, Yukirin is surprised to find our princess alone.

“Where are they?”

“Off for some sunshine….Ne, Yukirin, I made an appointment with Dr. Sashihara already. Let’s go now.”

“Who’s Dr Sashihara?”

“Some dude I found in the directory. Specializes in sports therapy.”

Yuki nodded without thinking much. The next thing she knows, she’s walking side by side with Mayu, arms crossed with each other’s so she could get some support. She stayed very silent with the still apprehensive Mayu beside her. Yuki doesn’t dare to peep sideways since she convinced herself that she still needs to act cold and angry. However, she felt like her blood is boiling inside her, in contrast with her appearance.

The angelic sleeping face and handsome look of the princess from this morning are still imprinted in her mind. To say the truth, if Mayu said she had nothing to do with yesterday’s incident with that look, her heart will believe it. That’s how yabai the usually rational Yuki feels now. It’s something this aloof girl has never experienced before, otherwise, she would have easily identify it as “having a crush on someone.” But this is Yuki, who is stupid in this department. Perhaps God made her this way to compensate for her talents and looks. Therefore, all she’s trying to do is to get rid of the images in her head, but it only gets worse because her whole mind is fixated in those images.

Mayuyu started noticing the irregular breathing of the girl beside her.

“Yuki, are you alright? Here, let me…” Mayu swings the taller girl’s arm around her shoulder to give her better support. The distance between them got even closer.

“Ma…Mayu…” Yuki stutters but complied. She finally notices that Mayu hasn’t smiled or laughed at all today, very unlike her usual goofy self. Is this a good sign? That she’s serious about correcting her mistakes? Yuki has never seen this grown-up side of Mayu before….

They finally reached the clinic. It’s tiny and decorated with a lot of posters on health and human muscle make-up. It’s a bit like those diagrams that teach you to tell rib eye from sirloin by dissecting and labeling different parts of a cow. Yuki cringed at this thought and took a glance at the calm Mayu, who is registering at the counter.

“Kashiwagi Yuki!” The nurse calls her to enter. Mayu accompanies her, not wanting the mechanic to get out of her sight.

To Mayu’s surprise, the “dude” she thought was Dr. Sashihara is actually a young woman with gold framed glasses. A flint of fire sparkles in her otherwise unremarkable eyes upon seeing those two come in. This woman looks ordinary and even a bit like a wimp, who could easily had been the target of bullying at school. Indeed, her slouching posture speaks nothing of authority, let alone aggression, but that fleeting sparkle in her eyes is troubling Mayu. The princess’  instincts tell her to be cautious, her narrowing eyes followed Yukirin as she sat on the patient’s bed.

“Ehem… so what brought you here today…Kashiwagi-san?”

“I overstretched my thighs somehow…” Yukirin answers eyeing Mayu, who immediately looks away.

“Ok, let’s see….is it your hamstrings?” Sashihara draws up closer to the bed and lifted one of Yuki’s leg in order to examine the muscles on the back. Her arms moved closer and closer to Yuki’s oshiri, all the while asking, “Let me know if you feel pain.”

Mayu’s nostrils flare upon seeing this examination. But Yuki looks unfazed and the princess has no clue whether it’s proper examination or not. So, she tried to keep calm and hope this will end soon.

“It’s not here.” Mayu finally bursts out, seeing how Sashihara’s fingertips has already reached Yukirin’s butt.

“Oh..could it  be your quads then?” Gently placing Yuki’s leg down, she starts feeling up her thigh, but stopped.

“It’s a bit difficult to examine with your pants on. Em, Miss?” Sashihara turned to Mayu. “Would you mind going out to preserve our patient’s privacy?”

“I…No! I can stay! I don’t mind!!”

“It’s not you, it’s Kashiwagi-san’s privacy here.” Sashihara’s voice tensed up a bit.

“Doctor, do I really have to do this?” Yuki is clearly embarrassed at the thought of stripping in front of a stranger, not to mention in front of Mayu-chan.

“Listen, I’ll stay here whether you like it or not.” Mayu’s voice deepens again, which happens every time she gets Maji. Yuki glanced at Mayu’s determined face and looked down. Surprisingly, she didn’t ask her to go out.

“Ehem…. Ok then. Yes, Kashiwagi-san, to have a proper diagnosis, I will need you to take your jeans off.”

Yuki’s head is now bowed to avoid contact with anyone in the room. Slowly, she took off her jeans, revealing her smooth, white legs. Her toes are all curled, indicating how nervous she is even though her face is buried behind her long hair.

Mayu’s face remains serious but her brows jumped a bit at this sight. Sashihara looks like she’ll drool anytime, even though she’s thinly veiled with a straight, ‘professional’  face.

“Doc, I think I have pulled my groin muscles….” Yuki sounds soft like a shy girl now, completely different from Mayu’s impression of the smart and cool Yukirin she knows so far. Her eyes travels further up her thighs and it’s shocking to see that she’s wearing pink panties.

DAFFFA….Mayuyu gasps. Though if she think slightly more, she’ll realize that most of Yuki’s underwear was destroyed by Marrimokkori. But to Mayu, who’s about to faint as blood gushes up her brain, this shy Yuki + cute panties combo is just too irresistible. Barely being able to catch her breath, she saw Sashihara pressing her adductor muscles to confirm the source of pain. She cringed at the sound of Yuki’s yelp.

“It’s here. My muscles are quite stiff. I haven’t done splits for years….” Yuki laments while the doctor scribbles some notes on her pad.

She made Yukirin move her joints slowly to make sure there aren’t serious tears or detachment from the hip bones. Then she sat back and smiles triumphantly.

“Kashiwagi-san you don’t have to worry. It’s nothing too serious. All you need is some massages and proper recovery time. Here, let me teach you how to relief your pain.”

Sashihara comes dangerously close to the red-faced Yukirin. She started feeling and squeezing the muscles nearer to her knee, which is less painful.

“Alright there?” The doc asks gently before moving a bit up. “Now lie down and rest your thigh outwards, knees a bit bent….still feeling okay? Right…” Yuki’s legs are now spreaded in a precarious position. Sashihara’s palms start to push and massage up her inner thigh. Yuki covers her face in embarrassment but to her relieve, the massage actually works and she starts to calm down.

“Enough!!” Mayuyu cannot contain herself anymore as the doctor’s palms roll up and down, each time edging closer and closer to that private region.

“We got it we got it!” Mayu rushed towards the bed and pulled Sashihara away. Yuki looked up in surprise but quickly decides that her priority will be to get dressed again as soon as possible. The hetare doctor cowers at the death-glare Mayu gave her and let out a few uncomfortable laughs.

“Heh heh heh…it’s good that Miss you got it…Em…you can do it at home to Kashiwagi-san with this therapy oil, and….. cold compression works too…”

With that, the sketchy doctor’s visit ended with Sashihara’s creepy smile still lingering in both of their minds.

“Mayu…are you sure she’s a real doctor?”

“Well it couldn’t be fake with all the certificates and stuff..but she sure is a bit creepy…”

“Yup…the therapy may work though…” her voice dropped off a bit at the end.

“Let’s get some food and go home.”

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Meanwhile, our squirrel and dog has been tracking marrimokkori down. Each time they seem to have lost it, the scent will pick up and they’ll see a black shadow jumping on roofs, sneaking below benches or sliding down pipes. Yuko is better at closing the distance but her size is too small to actually cause any harm to the mossball. On the other hand, Sae has better senses but is having difficulty reaching the creature who darts in and out of small cracks.

This time, they lost her again.

“Yuko, I’m…I’m getting overheated!” The sweaty dog complains and finally collapses.

“Oi, you’re not the only one who has fur here!” The squirrel retorted. “Come on, we’re at the park. It’s much easier to track here due to all the open space.” (what kind of theory is that? Sae wonders)

The two split up again and sniff around the ground. After a while, the scent got stronger and stronger, exciting Saechan to the max. She trots and then runs in full speed, thinking that she’s finally hit jackpot.

BAM!!

She smashes straight into a tiny object, which also bounces back in pain.

“SAE~~~~~~~~~” Yuko, the object that collided with Sae, is now lying with all fours up, trying to see through the stars dancing in her dizzy head.

“It hurtsss! Eh?? Why is it you? Did we get tricked????” Sae looks around, and the black shadow is nowhere to be seen.

Instead, Kojiharu is sitting nearby at the park’s bench, watching them amusedly. Sayaka sits beside her as usual. It seems like they have been here for a while.

“Nyan nyan!!!!!!!!” Yuko rushes towards Haruna’s opened arms, while Sae trots towards Sayaka.

“What have you two idiots been doing, running around in circles like that?”

“We’re tracking down a tough thing…it looks like a child but it’s all in black. She’s extremely dangerous!” Sae pouted at the thought of Marrimokori’s wicked smile.

“We caught up with her a few times, but she always managed to slip away into some holes and cracks that I can’t reach!!”

“It just sounds like you’re very bad at chasing a mouse. How can you not even know you shouldn’t  follow it into every corner?? We dogs are supposed to be good at finding entrances and exits to counter a mouse’s stealthiness.”

“Really??” Sae gasps in amazement.

“Are you really a dog?!” Sayaka barks at the puppy shockingly. “Let me teach you how to do it properly.”

Sae showed Sayaka Marrimokori’s scent (don’t ask me how, but hey they’re dogs, everything is possible ;p), and after sniffing for a bit, the smarter dog says, “Sae, you should’ve known that it’s deliberately running in figure-8 loops to throw you guys off. Use your brain when you track!”

The little puppy nods as if she understood, though she doesn’t have a clue… “Ne….Sayaka, which way shall we go then?”

“Em…I can’t leave Haruna-sama here alone though…”

At this point the squirrel, who’s frolicking on Kojiharu’s lap, squeals something incomprehensible to the young lady.

“Squirrel, what are you trying to tell me? Wait…where are you going??” The squirrel has already jumped off the bench and is looking back at her godess, bidding Haruna to come along.

“That way, we can all track down the mossball safely together!!” Yuko exclaimed.

“You are making my master come too?!?!? Fine….but you guys must help us when we get into trouble, ok?” Sayaka looks at them sternly.

“Why do you always insist that your master is in danger? We’ve been here for days and nothing happened…”

“O, there are things you don’t know, puppy….I’ll let you know the full story later.”

The whole party then follows Sayaka’s lead, who’s steadily pursuing her target. Unfortunately by now, Black Marrimokkori is already back again near Yukirin’s place, waiting for her own target to show up.

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Back to our princess and patient, who’re also close to home now. Mayuyu is still agitated due to all the Sashiharassment she witnessed. Her inner-urge to touch the girl beside her re-ignites, though she knows she’s not in the position to do that because Yukirin is still pissed off. Damn that stupid doctor!

“Princess Mayu~~~” A sweet voice alarms Mayuyu. There, the black mossball has appeared again!

Without a doubt, this extraordinary creature shocks Yukirin to no end. Turning to the angry-looking Mayu, she asks, “Mayu-chan…..another one of your pets?”

Mayu reflexively rolled her eyes on such a ridiculous statement, but answered, “You can say that. But this thing will not live to see tomorrow. Yukirin, just stay here and let me take care of it.”

“Easy there, Mayuyu…It’s my nature to do what I do! You can’t blame me for that, right?”

Mayu didn’t say a word but leapt with a full punch towards her enemy. The mossball dodged easily and gave her a cute wink.

“Don’t you remember that I’m good at almost everything? You will never beat me!”

Zooooomg!

The mossball shifts her position towards Yuki. Everything happened so fast that Mayu can’t even fathom what’s going on, but Yukirin seemed struck as she passes out and falls.

“Yuki!!! How did…”

Mayu tried to locate Marimokkori but even she got struck from the back. Her vision goes blank and all she sees is darkness.

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“Sae! Here!”

“Eh? Hey, Sayaka, this is our neighborhood! Why are you bringing us back! We need to find that bastard!!”

“I don’t know this is where you live. But I’m just tracking the freshest scent from that creature. I’m 100% sure it’s here.”

“LOOK!” The squirrel jumps off Kojipa’s arms. “There are two bodies lying down in the middle of the road outside our place!…..Hey it’s Yukirin and Mayuyu!”

Haruna gasps at the sight of two strangers who fainted in the middle of nowhere. “Sayaka, are they whom we’re looking for?? What happened? Hey are you okay?”

She started shaking Yukirin’s body but there’s no response. Meanwhile, Sae is nudging Mayu’s body and the squirrel and shepard-dog are looking around for signs of the culprit.

“Where where where? Her scent disappears right at this spot!”

The confused Sayaka doesn’t know that Marimokkori is no longer in this dimension…

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(Another World)

Mayu feels light as a feather as if she’s floating in air. But there’s something strange about this lightness. Her ears can her soft echoes as if she’s swimming underwater. The pressure on her eardrums is compounding her discomfort, forcing her to wake up.

Slowly pushing her heavy eyelids upward, she realized she’s passed out and is lying with her back side up. She tried to push herself off the ground but she can’t really orient herself in this strange atmosphere that’s light and heavy at the same time. It feels so un-Earth.

Furthermore, she’s no longer in the road outside their house.

“I think…I’ve been kidnapped by that damned thing…” She looks around in the dimly lit room and pushes herself off the floor. But a flash of movement startled her and she shoots her view towards that direction.

Surprisingly, she’s looking at herself in front of a mirror. She stood up and turned around. There are more mirrors, all reflecting the princess’ own movement. The mirrors are in all shapes and sizes, surrounding the girl in uneven positions. Mayuyu is naturally drawn towards the mirror that makes her look skinnier and taller than usual, although she doesn’t notice the tinkering….

Wait, why am I examining my flawless face here? Mayu shook her head and tried to recall what just happened.

“…crap crap CRAP! Yukiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!” She calls out frantically.

“Ha ha ha…” Marimokkori’s slow laugh echoes through the room. “Princess, let me give you a chance to defeat me since you can’t do that in real life.”

“O cut it, mossball! Come out here and I’ll duel you!”

“hehehe, do you remember how you made me? You are jealous of how Yukirin is better than you at EVERYTHING. Do you think beating me is still possible?”

“That’s…that’s not true! She’s just annoying to me when I drew you……” The princess’ voice trails off even before she finishes her sentence. God…she’s right…Yukirin has been perfect in my eyes ever since I first saw her, that’s why I feel so conscious whenever I’m around her!

“But, Princess, let’s play a game. Since you insist that the real Yukirin is nothing like me, I’m sure you’ll recognize her when you see her. Pick up the gun in front of you. There are projections of me in every corner of the room. Find me and destroy me.”

A blinding flash of light causes Mayu to shut her eyes. Squinting to refocus her view, the mirrors in front of her are now Yuki in all forms and conditions. Some are proud Yukirins in her warrior and academy uniforms. Some are Yukirins in her earth pajamas asleep in the couch. Some are Yukirin in her gray sweater totally absorbed in reading a book. And the Yuki with razor-sharp eyes aiming her bow at the target. Then that condescending and cold Yuki who walks by, slightly tilting her head to acknowledge Mayu’s existence. And that smirking Yuki who’s standing next to Aki-P, taking the princess’ own place beside the throne….

Mayu feels her blood boiling with anger inside, and pulls the trigger at that mocking face without hesitation.

The mirror shatters in front of her and Mayuyu’s suddenly taken aback. What if….

“Princess!” Marimokkori’s voice echoes again. “That was an easy one! But I guess you probably just realized the danger of this game, right? The real Yuki is in one of these mirrors. Everything else is me. It’s a bit like Russian roulette, maybe by chance you will destroy all of me and get Yuki in the end? But if you can’t, you will be the person who destroys Yuki’s soul forever, and I can take her body and become the real Yukirin in every sense!”

The stakes are too high for Mayu to be callous. She looks around again. Now, strangely all of the faces she see seem to be mocking her. No but that’s impossible….what about the sleeping Yukirin? Mayu takes comfort to the fact that the serene and calm face is still the one she’s familiar with. But now, in reversal, all faces seem so real to her. For is it not true that Yuki is stubborn and proud sometimes? And there’s no denying that she certainly thinks she’s a notch above Sae-Yuko-Mayu, whether on heaven or on earth. But Mayu is so so sure that black marimokkori is nothing like Yukirin. Just how, can she tell them apart? It’s tough to expect the princess to wipe away all the prejudices she’s had toward the model student over all these years.

She pointed her gun at one of the Yukis, ready to wager her bet…but she feels her hand trembling unwillingly. Mayu can’t pull the trigger.

“Come on now, Princess! Weren’t you so sure that the real Yuki is not Black like me? Why are you hesitating?”

Mayu closed her eyes again. Tears are welling up behind her eyelids…..

Yuki….no I can’t loose you now, not after what we’ve been through. Me, grabbing your hand tight to save you from falling into the fire. Actually, everything is a blur of mist now except your face. Your creased brows betrays your fear despite your determination to let go of me. Your courage comes from your kind heart and your willingness to protect me…yes, I know that. Your eyes are what gave me strength to pull you up. Your eyes! Wait….this is not only because you lost your memories of our terrible past!

I remember those eyes! They are the same ones that looked at me earnestly when the vortex began to suck me in back in the Don Quixote TV portal! The eyes that betray fear but display courage at the same time! The determination that led you to sacrifice yourself to stop me from falling into the portal. But wasn’t that right after all the nasty things I’ve done to you? And that’s the way you repay the Princess who always looks down on you? Oh it’s been me all along! You have the kindest heart that anyone could find…but why did fate decide to put your destiny into my hands! I’m such a…I’m…

“Yukirin, I’m sorry!” Mayuyu cried out and opened her eyes.

She looks straight at the image projected in the right-hand corner. It’s that of Yuki in her white warrior outfit, fuming madly at Mayu’s misconduct at the secret Don Quixote garden. She puts down her gun and walks over there locking her eyes with Yukirin’s. There’s anger in her eyes. There’s a bit of disbelief too. And then, a bit of concern and worry…

Yes, this is it. You care so much about me, I will not let you go…

Wrapping her arms around the mirror, she hugs it tightly and said, “I found you.”

The mirrors around them are smashed into pieces by some unknown force.

“AWWWWWWWW, howwww….” Marimokkori’s voice aches in pain and disappears into nothingness.

Mayuyu looked into her arms again and found Yukirin’s solid body resting peacefully in them. She’s still unconscious but she seems to be battling in her own nightmare. Mayu brushed her hair aside and stroke her furrowed eyebrows.

“Yuki, you had always been worried about me, and yet I’m just a brat undeserving of all your kindness. But trust me now. I will never let you down again.”

Something tells Mayu to shift her gaze from Yukirin, and there, beside her, is indeed another shard of mirror, which she recognizes as part of Yuki’s past memory. She picks it up and carefully puts it in her pocket…

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Mayu felt heavier and heavier. The calm echoes of the ocean can be heard again. This time, it feels as if she’s sinking in great speed….her clothes, her skin, her hair…all being weighed down and soaked with water…but the water is getting hot…and smelly!

“Mayuyu! Wake up!” The puppy kept licking and barking at the poor princess’ face, until she cringes and wipes those disgusting fluids off her face instinctively before gathering consciousness.

Sae-dog’s eyes lit up with the sight of Mayu’s stirring. “Sayaka! Yuko! Come here!! Mayu-chan is waking up!”

The clearly annoyed princess now sat up and let out a sigh as she see that she’s back in the usual surroundings. Her face quickly grew serious as she clambered towards the still fainted Yukirin.

Haruna is still in panic-mode but her incessant shaking of poor Yuki’s body seemed to have worked. She opens her eyes and smiled weakly at Haruna’s relieved face.

“What a pretty face…” was what came out of her mouth to the chagrin of the princess beside her. Mayuyu pulls Yukirin into her arms and asks worriedly.

“Yuki…Yuki, are you okay? Do you feel pain? Did you get hurt??” Yuki slowly came out of her dazed mode and sat up…

“Mayu, what just happened? Did I pass out on our way back? Ah…my head hurts a bit….what did that stupid doctor do to me back in the clinic that caused me to faint?!”

Yuki is suddenly back to her old self again and swiftly stood up, wearing the usual calm and polite face.

“I must go back and make a complaint…”

“Hey, wait, wait…let’s just leave it,” Mayuyu pulls her in gently. “The most important thing is, you’re okay now.”

“Yup, I’m glad you two are fine!” Haruna exclaimed beside them.

“You two?” Yuki asks as she didn’t know Mayu passed out too.

“O, thanks, stranger!” Mayu quickly butts in and gave Haruna a warning look, slightly shaking her head…

“O I mean you and my dog, Sayaka-chan! We came across you fainting on the street with your friends here all worried!” She said while eyeing all the animals around her.

“I’m sorry for causing you trouble!” Yuki quickly bowed to apologize. “Kashiwagi Yuki desu, yoroushiku onegaishimasu!” And politely introduces herself.

“Hi Yuki-chan! Kojima Haruna desu. I’m glad you look fine now. Nice to meet you!”

“You don’t seem to be from this neighborhood…can I help you with anything?” Yuki notices the slightly lost look in Haruna’s face, as she doesn’t realize she’s just tennen (natural) like that.

“Me? I just followed Sayaka here, who seems to be really close with your pets!” Haruna beamed.

Yuki gave a quick sideways glare at Yuko and Sae, saying, “It seems Mayu’s pets are causing more trouble again…I’m sorry about that…But please, do come in and sit for a while. We’re about to have lunch so do join us and let us thank you properly.”

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————-

The question of who is worse at cooking is a tough one. Since the author decides that Mayu is slightly better than Yuki, Mayu is now busy in the kitchen making an edible meal for her guest while Yuki and Haruna quickly warms up with each other, with Yuko lying happily in Haruna’s lap the whole time.

Sae, feeling totally exhausted in today’s chase, curls up in a corner and passes away into sweet dreams about marshmallows. Sayaka smirked at the sight of this stupid creature, whose straightforwardness can be cute sometimes. She went up towards her and lays by her side.

————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-

That night, long after Haruna and Sayaka are gone, we find Mayu alone with Yuki in her bedroom for the first time. Mayuyu is putting Yukirn to bed and  trying to make sure that everything is okay before going to bed. Although Yuki doesn’t have any memory of the alternate reality showdown with Marimokkori, our princess is still shaken by the incident. Her attentiveness and gentleness to Yuki now is almost like a prince to his precious bride.

“Don’t worry about the water….even if I feel thirsty at night, it would’ve cooled down by then…” Yuki’s referring to the water that Mayu prepared in case she needs to get up from her bed to have a sip, but the hyper-alert princess is  now touching the flask and wondering if it’s too warm.

“I just want to make sure everything is fine. Your legs are still sore and you just fainted today. I can’t put you into unnecessary harm.”

“Hahahaha” Yuki burst out.

“What? I’m serious!”

“When have our dear kid, who doesn’t even know how to read situations, become so considerate?”

“Is that not a good thing?” Mayuyu asks seriously.

Yuki smiled and reached up to pat the head of the girl sitting beside her bed. “Thank you for taking me to the doctor today, Mayu.”

Unaccustomed to gracious words from Yukirin, Mayuyu looks around and shifted her feet, not knowing how to react.

“I’ll leave now…I…um…good night…” She stood up and turned away.

“Wait…” Yukirin grabs her hand and pulls her back.

“I don’t know why I want to do this, and my heart races every time I think of this, but please let me…” Yuki pulls Mayuyu’s arm down gently, and Mayu’s face closes towards Yuki’s.

Mayuyu felt something warm and soft on her cheek. Yuki’s lips stayed on Mayu’s frozen cheek for a while, and she finally pulls back after what feels like an eternity.

“Yuki…” Mayu turned and looks at the embarrassed girl now smiling shyly with her head down in front of the stumped princess. She can’t keep this to herself anymore.

“Yuki, I think I’m in love with you.”

The tomato-faced girl looks up in longing eyes. “What are you waiting for then?” She asks innocently.

Mayu sits down again and move closer. Both girls closed their eyes and tilted their heads, anticipating the moment their lips will be touching each others.

BING BONG BING BONG!

The startled girls opened their eyes at the same time and look towards the door, where the ringing come from.

WHO!?? Mayuyu is secretly cursing the person ringing the doorbell at this wrong moment. She doesn’t need to say it out loud to get her answer.

“It’s me! Haruna!! Help!!!!!!!”

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

The next chapter will have some more Saeyaka although Mayuki's relationship will continue to develop (of course...Mayuyu still hasn't touched oshiri yet!)... hope to see your comments and questions below!

[mae]

thanks for update it's a cool fanfic

[Chanaline]

I love this chapter!!!!!

They want to kiss each other but ... Haruna have problem!!!

They are too kawaii(Mayuki ) Wahahahaha! Goobye Marimokkori!

PS: I read it in Tumblr Thank you for this... I was waiting 

[kurogumi]

They almost kissed!

Hope the next chapter they can kiss for real

Thank for the update

[kahem]

OMG!!!! Mayuki is so cute~
Why Kojiharu?! Why did you interrupt them?! lol

[saeyu]

@mae: thanks for your comments!

@Chanaline: I will save more Mayuki moments for later chapters...hehehe. Thanks for waiting for so long and sorry again!

@kurogumi: I hope they can kiss in the next chapter too! I'm wondering if I have room for it because it will be Haruna-centric

@kahem: Kojiharu has a good reason to interrupt...I'll update soon!

Next chapter is progressing well. The break should be a lot less than last one's thanks a lot for waiting again!

[Chanaline]

No no no! Don't be sorry! It is great really I can wait... But it is a really interesting fanfic so really want more Sorry for make you worry! Take your time

[saeyu]

@anzai-san: This won't be Dr. Sashihara's only appearance! This chapter deals with Haruna's backstory...which will be linked to everything that happens afterwards, unlike black marimokkori and nirouni, who are just random characters. Please enjoy.

@Chanaline: This update is out quicker than the last one! Although there is just a bit of Mayuki, next chapter it will be sugar-loaded because I'm done with all the background explanation. Of course, there are still mysteries to be unraveled, but they will get their kiss!

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Chapter 7 - Instincts (Saeyaka SP)

"It' me! Haruna!! Help!!!!!!!!"

"HEH??" Mayu's face is still cute when it's disturbed. Yuki is already climbing down the bed to get the door.

In the living room, the stupid puppy is jumping madly to reach the door latch without any success.

"Sae! Come on!" The squirrel shouts encouragingly. Somehow, they sense the urgency of the situation thanks to Sayaka's constant warning that they are in danger.

Mayu kicked the puppy out of the way to open the door. She's still in a bad mood after Kojipa interrupted her soon-to-be first kiss.

She gave the panic-stricken Haruna a blank face, but she just ignored this and rushed in.

"Yuki-san! Mayu-san! I'm being pursued by a bunch of gangsters! Sayaka is trying to stop them so I hope they can't find their way here. You gotta help us!"

Yuki closed the door and dragged her feet to the window to see if their are signs of any gangsters following her.

On the other hand, the other girl in the room is staring at the airhead in disbelief, "You are counting on your dog to throw them off the trail? That's crazy! They will surely find you! And if you think we can help you....well, how can we?!" Mayu said angrily.

"Oi!! Mayu! stop being rude to my Nyannyan! I will protect her so you need not to worry about this!" The squirrel bounces up between the two girls and landed straight into Haruna's chest.

"Squirrel, you must be scared by all this..." Haruna hugged Yuko close to her and stroke her gently to sooth her excited squeals (telling off Mayu).

"Mayu-chan! Let me out, let me out!!" The puppy barks. "Sayaka is in danger!!"

"Fine, fine fine...I don't even know what's going on. I'll come with you." Mayu opened the door to let Sae out.

"Mayuyu, where are you going?" asks the confused Yuki, who can't understand a thing those pets said.

"We're going to find the other dog. Stay here with Haruna and Yuko. We'll take care of the rest."

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(In some deserted carpark building)


A black German Shepherd found herself cornered by a gang of yankees. She's barking seriously to fend them off. Although she's outnumbered, thanks to her fierceness, none of the men dared to make the first strike. The gang leader started beating the floor with his baseball bat menacingly.

"How dare you filthy dog lead us to a dead end! Where is your master??"

"Boss, it's a dog..." one underling tried to remind his leader.

"Shut the f up!" The distracted leader is not too pleased to be interrupted. "I know it's a dog, but we just lost that girl! Master is gonna kill us if we don't bring her in!"

Seizing this opportunity opened up by the distracted gangsters, Sayaka dashes between a guy's legs to break out of the circle surrounding her. She passed a few gangsters who're caught off guard, but another strike coming sideways finally got her, and sends her flying back to the corner.

Panting and cursing under her breath, Sayaka stood up again, facing the now emboldened gangsters.

"You will never be able to escape. So just let me leash you up so you can take me to that Kojima girl...mwahahahhaaha!"

"Urusai!"

A high-pitched voice echoes from a distance.

The gangsters turned around to find a huge shadow approaching them. Another dog? They wondered...but no, it's running on...6 legs??

"Leave my servant..." the voice which seems to belong to that shadow continues, "or I'll devour you all tonight! AWWWOOOOOOO!"

A long, hair-raising howl immediately follows, and the shadow looms larger and larger as it approaches the gang. They look frantically around to find an explanation of the voice they heard, but they can't. And the shadow slowly creeps nearer to them.

The yankees are all too scared out of their minds to notice Sayaka's WTF-face.

"Guys....calm down...this is im...impossible....must be..." The gang leader looks around and tightened his grip on the bat.

ROARRRRRRRRRR!

The shadow is now rushing full speed to them at the cue of another louder growl.

"Run!!" "Help!" "It's a monster!" "...GHOSTS!"  The gang of yankees all dropped their weapons and ran away from the scene in all directions!

Sayaka then calmly looks up and asks, "Is Haruna-sama okay?"

Up there, standing on the metal platform is Mayu-chan standing in star-shape, with Sae clinging onto her waist with her hind legs, while spreading her paws out sideways, creating 6 limbs in total. Mayu reached up and smashed the floodlight that's shining on them, casting that  'monster' shadow on the ground.

"Seriously...what kind of idiots are they? I can't believe it worked." Mayu said disapprovingly.

"See SEE SEEE! I told you so~~" the satisfied puppy jumped around the Princess excitingly.

(flash back to a minute ago...)

A minute ago, they tracked down the cornered Sayaka and debated among themselves what to do. "I can go beat them all up in a minute, won't be an issue." Mayu started striding towards them. "No, No! Have you fought a human being before? You don't know how strong they are!" Sae objects. "Come on, all these years we spent in the academy is not gonna be for nothing!"Mayu retorts. "I can't risk having Sayaka hurt during our brawl! Well, I have a better plan..." Sae looked towards the platforms on the roof and explained to Mayu about casting a monster shadow below. "Plus, plus, we get to do 'gattai' (combine, as in like robots) and you can make use of your awesome seiyuu (voice-acting) abilities!!!" "Sae, don't be stupid! We'll def be found out!" "Pshh...they don't look like a bright bunch..." The puppy even made a troll-face at those dimwits.  "Look who's calling others stupid...fine, fine! All for that doggy friend of yours!"

(back to present)

"SAE! I'm asking you! Is Haruna-sama okay?!!" The impatient Sayaka started barking loudly below.

"Sae, I think that dog is trying to ask you something." Mayu then leaps down and landed perfectly, with the little puppy in her arm. Mayu is a human being, so she doesn't understand any animal-speak except for Yuko and Sae's, since they're actually 'human' too.

"Sayaka, Haruna-san is at our place. She told us you're in danger so we came to get you."

"Come, Sae, Sayaka, let's get back before the gangsters find us again."

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(Yukirin's home)

Yukirin is sitting in the couch with her hands  crossed, fingers tapping her arm impatiently. She wanted to know what's up with Kojiharu, but her mind is more occupied now with Mayu's safety. Damn it! If I'm not injured, I would've gone in her stead!

The door finally opened and Sayaka and Sae rushed in before Mayu, with her oh-so-bored face, walks in.

"Yuki, I didn't even get to stretch my legs to kick some ass, and they're all gone!" Mayu pouted and sat down beside the mechanic, who's relieved to find her princess unhurt.

"Thank you, Mayu-chan, for bringing Sayaka back!" Haruna is now patting Sayaka happily, eyes overwhelmed in tears.

"It's okay. But it's time to fill us in on the details. Why are they chasing you?"

"Well," Kojipa sobbed and answered, "I've been chased around for a while now...My uncle is looking for me because I have some key technology information on a disc my dad gave me, before, before.........*criesss"

"Before what?" Mayu asks urgently.

"Stop pushing my nyannyan!" The squirrel jumps out between the two to fend her beloved, but her size is too small to make any impact.

"Chill Yuko, I'm just trying to understand so I can help."

"Okay, fine." The squirrel jumps back onto Haruna's lap and tried to wipe her tears with her fury paws.

"Thanks, squirrel...so your name is Yuko? Thanks Yuko, I feel much better now. Well, I was gonna say...that my uncle wanted to take over Dad's company, so he caused an accident that killed him. The reason he wanted to have it so badly is the technology to make intelligent cyborgs. But knowing that he will definitely use it for bad deeds, daddy refuses to let him in that project. He also programmed his classified data to self destruct if anything happens to him...so yeah...pretty much, I'm the only one who possess this key technology now. And...and I'm not going to let him have it!" Haruna stands up and made a fist pump to show her determination.

"Sugoiiii~~~" Both loved-sick Yuko and easily-impressed Sae exclaims in awe.

Yukirin clears her throat and answered, "Haruna-chan, I'm sorry for the situation you're in. Since we've lost the pursuers, you're welcomed to stay here I guess....but I'm just curious about one thing. If you're in such grave danger for months, why do you just stroll around the park daily like nothing's happened? As far as I know, that's how Mayu's pets have met you..."

"I have been hiding and running away. This is not my hometown and I'm only staying in my great-aunt's old house, which my uncle doesn't know about. I didn't think they'll find me that soon. There's a reason that I go to the park everyday. I'm waiting for someone..." At the mention of this 'someone' Kojima's face lit up in pink and the sweetest smile adorns for face.

"That someone....her name is Mariko. She is a scientist in my master's lab and also Haruna-sama's lover." Sayaka explains that to Sae and Yuko in a solemn face. "That's why I'm so vigilant around the park all this time. I knew we're not going to be safe forever."

Yuko's face ashen and ears drooped upon hearing that her precious Nyannyan has a lover. But Sae and Sayaka are too busy discussing to notice. Furthermore, Yukirin and Mayu are just as puzzled since they can't understand the barks from Sayaka's mouth.

"Okay..." Yukirin tries to steer the conversation back to its course amidst all the barking (chatting between twintowers) in the background. "So you're waiting for someone. But you're hiding. How can we solve this? Can that someone help you to stop your evil uncle?"

"Yes of course she can! She's the best best bestest scientist in the world! Only she can destroy all the technology and prototypes that my uncle may wrongly use! After that, she'll defeat Uncle, and we'll leave this country together!" Haruna clasps her hands and smiles brightly.

"Sure...you go girl..." Yuki can't get the sudden enthusiasm, so she made a half-hearted response, then stood up and walk towards her room.

Without looking back, she says cooly, "Haruna-san, sorry it's only a one-bedroom apartment so you'll have to sleep in the couch. Mayu, looks like you'll have to stay with me tonight."

Entering the room and holding the door to shut it, she looks back at the dumbstruck Mayu, who's mind has already floated ahead to the bed and fast-forwarded to what might happen in it. "Mayu, you coming?"

"Eh...yes of course.." the princess awoke from her trance and followed in quickly before the door shuts.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Immediately after they're out of sight from the others, Yuki pulls Mayu into her arms and hugs her tightly.

"Mayu...I miss you...and it's just been an hour since Haruna came. What is happening to me?"

"Maybe you're in love with me too? By the way, I still haven't heard you say it. Do you like me as well?"

"I..." Yuki's face 'blackens' as she smirks and pecks the befuddled princess on her cheek, "I don't know yet. There should be a trial period before I buy you."

Sitting herself down on the bed, she pulls Mayu in and they're both lying beside each other.

Mayu's face retains her coolish calm again after she understands what Yuki is up to. "So where do you want to try out first?"

"Em....," Tapping her chin as if she's seriously thinking, Yuki put her finger on her own lips and smile seductively. "Dry weather alert..."

Mayu's heart goes kyunkyun at this unexpected provocation, and finds her own mouth watering up. She's suddenly reminded of that dorky weather-caster who shows up on the news every now and then, wearing some appallingly plain/old-fashioned clothes. From the chats they usually have afterwards, she learned that this weather-caster is actually an idol. At that time, she wondered how stupid people can be to like this idol. Yeah, she has a cute face, I'll give her that. But reporting about weather, wearing that grandma dress -- boring. But now, now, she can never watch weather forecasting in the same light again........

For what seems like an eon, Yukirin closed her eyes and waited. Finally, a cool, moist sensation spread from one side of her lips to the other, from top to bottom...

Yuki popped her eyes open in surprise. There, right on her lips, is not Mayu's but a lip-balm stick. Mayu's smile does not conceal the cunning look in her eyes.

"Yes, your lips are a bit dry after all the talking. But here you go...it's all better now." Not forgetting to seal her victory, Mayu's hand traveled down from Yukirin's back and gave her oshiri a tight squeeze.

OMG, I did it, I did it!!!!! <--- is what's repeating in the princess' mind but her face remain as perfect as a sarcastic doll.

"You..." Yuki's eyes are about to pop out again...

KACHAAAAA!

The princess is mercilessly yanked out of Yuki's bed.

"Ouccchh!" Mayu rubs her own oshiri and protests, "Yuki! That's unfair! You started it first!!!"

"There's no room in my bed tonight. Here," the mechanic flung a blanket into Mayu's face. "Sleep on the floor."

"What! No!! Sorry!!! I was just playing!!! PLEASE, let me kiss you!!"

"No."

"Pleazzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzze" Mayu started climbing up on bed again but Yukirin just turned her back towards her.

"No."

"Come on.........." Mayu nudges her gently. Yuki ignores.

Well at least, she doesn't have to sleep on the floor tonight.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(in the living room)

The other princess-like figure is entering her dreams in the couch. Sae and Sayaka is no where to be seen, while our squirrel....um...it takes some time to find this tiny thing, but ah, there she is crouching on the window sill and looking at the full moon.

Yuko sighs softly and turned to look at her nyannyan again.

She's already in love? Who is Mariko? Can I stand a chance?

Stop it stop it, Shiriko! You can't even communicate with her at your current state. Who do you think she will choose, a squirrel or a human?

Come on, Yuko! I'm not really a squirrel now! I was, once, but I've graduated from that a long time ago! I'm a demi-god now! (stands up proudly and inhales deeply to inflate her chest)

HAHAHA! Don't make me laugh! You are just dead and in heaven! That's all you are...by the way, you don't even have a job! The first thing you did after graduation is get into trouble. Nyannyan likes smart and industrious people, like Mariko!

(slouches in defeat) Pshhh....stop sounding like you actually know your rival. For all I care, I stand a good chance since I'm going to be around and protect her! I'll be her hero and win her over!

Yeah right...let's see, what have you done so far? Ah, I remember now, following her around, lying on her chest, touching her boobs and kissing her all over the face! Like that's gonna help at all when her uncle finds her!

Hello! That's skinship, that's how we bond! Besides, I'll prove myself useful when the time comes!

Are you out of your mind? So what if you really saved her...there will never be a happy ending, because she can't come to heaven with you! Give up now, before you waste my tears!

Blehhh!! It'll all be fine in the end, I won't talk to you anymore!

Yuko crosses her arms and hope the voice in her head will go away...the voice of reason you are....tskkk!

Shiriko! Shiriko! You can't ignore me!! Hey, HEY!!

In a desperate attempt to fall asleep, Yuko hit her head right onto the window. The last thing she sees is nyannyan's sleeping figure morphing into a cat and stars circling around her head, before she collapses and blacks out.

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In a dark alley, walking stealthily in the cool night breeze are a German Shepherd and a Golden Retriever puppy. What are they doing in the middle of the night? We'll have to rewind back to the time when Sayaka first explained about Mariko to Sae.

(in the living room a while back)
"That someone....her name is Mariko. She is a scientist in my master's lab and also Haruna-sama's lover." Sayaka explains that to Sae and Yuko in a solemn face. "That's why I'm so vigilant around the park all this time. I knew we're not going to be safe forever."

"Dude, you don't look to happy mentioning her lover. Are you...." Sae looks down imagining what could only be furthest away from the truth.

Sayaka decided to ignore this puppy's wild speculation and continue, "There's something fishy about the Mariko-sama person. She looks really smart but she has a trollface. I'm not confident that she'll make her promise true. In fact, she's tricked Haruna-sama into giving her the key to her dad's office. But since nothing bad has happened yet, Haruna-sama keeps on ignoring my warnings and barks whenever Mariko is around."

"Whatever Sayaka thinks, Sae trusts," the puppy's watery eyes looks at her secret admirer genuinely. "Do you think Mariko is part of the evil uncle's gang?"

"No I don't think so, unless they've been putting an act together. That's because Mariko helped us escape and almost died since Haruna-sama's uncle seemed to have wanted her dead too. That's why...that's why it's hard to stop Haruna-sama from trusting her. My instincts tell me that they have different agendas -- Mariko must have other plans up her sleeve...."

"Why is this world so complicated..." Sae's head feels dizzy with all the speculation and thinking. "I want to help you, Sayaka! Since you saved Mayu and Rin-chan last time! Please!! Let me know what I can do!"

Sayaka smiles and licks the puppy face gently as a gesture of thanks. "It's alright puppy, you're too young to be involved in this. And...and don't let this confident exterior of mine fool you. I have no clue what we should do next. I don't know how to protect my masters. I have already failed Haruna-sama's father once, and I can't do it again...."

The usually cool and elegant Sayaka now slumps down and rests her face on one of her paws, looking troubled.

Sae doesn't hesitate in coming near to the dog and rubs her face gently against Sayaka's. "Sayaka, don't blame yourself for everything that happens. There are things that we can't control no matter how hard we try. There are also things that only some people can do. I've seen your amazing instincts and courage. To Haruna-san, you are her most loyal companion. There's no one but you who is up to the job of protecting her. Believe in yourself! Haruna trusts you, I trust you! I will follow you where ever you go!"

"Sae, why? I'm just a clueless dog acting tough to cover up my flaws and fears! Even if you wanted to, I can't lead you into a mess of unknown..."

"I don't need a plan. I don't need perfection and I don't need leadership. Small and clumsy as I am, I will be beside you and support you. I will stand in for you whenever you can't. So come on, let's make the world safe for Haruna!"

"Sae..." The fierce-looking dog is sniffing and crying like a baby.

"Aw..." The puppy pouts and licks the tears away, wagging her tiny tail to show support.

I'm so glad I came here as a puppy...Sae suddenly thinks to herself. Sayaka is so unlike anyone I've met before. Even in the state she's in now, I feel safe beside her. Let's do it....let's do it together!!!

After a few minutes, Sayaka recovered and started letting Sae know all the details she's picked up during Haruna's escape.

"I can't piece everything together yet, but all the gangsters that have been pursuing us in different places--- they are all...part of a large meat distributor that operates all around this country. They must have some network of spies and systems linked to her uncle or her company. Because each and every time they're near us, one of the gang leaders will always look at a device that functions like a radar. Of course it's not accurate because they can't fully pin us down. But at least, which ever city we escaped into, they got us. I kept sniffing and searching among our belongings but there's no tracker of any sort. If we can find out how they manage to track us down that easily...we might be able to go from defensive to offensive."

Sae listens carefully and nods.

"I know...that doesn't seem like a hell lot of reason...but I have wanted to sneak into one of their local bases to find out the truth. Please, stay here and guard Haruna-sama for me. Looks like tonight will be a good time when those idiots are still scared out of their wits."

"We have Yuko, Mayuyu and Rin-chan here to ensure she's safe. I'm more worried about you. Let me go with you!"

"Are you sure? I don't doubt Yuko's sincerity but she's too tiny. Both Yuki and Mayu looks indifferent. In fact, I think your master is being unfriendly to mine." Sayaka says it bluntly.

"O, Mayu? She's not my 'master'. We're friends! She just acts like a princess sometimes, but she's well trained. And so is Rin-chan! Although she has some memory issues and is kinda injured now.....but anyway, let me go ask them to guard Haruna-san with EXTRA care now!"

"Hey, puppy, don't barge into the room! First, I have no idea how you guys communicate with each other though Mayu seems to understand you a lot, but still, I doubt you barking at her will make a difference. Second --- let me teach you another doggy lesson --- when two lovey-dovey people goes into a room, dogs should never ever go in!"

"Huh? Why?" Sae is as dense as a brick.

Meanwhile, Sayaka has already opened the front door (she's larger and can reach the door latch, unlike the puppy). "You coming?"

The puppy quickly hurries and follows Sayaka out....

(present time, dark alley, outside the meat distribution facility)

"Here, Sae, there's a broken fence..."

The two sneaked inside and followed the senses to where the gangsters now gather and recuperate. It's a giant warehouse linked to the facility, storing boxes and other dry stuff.

"Jeeeez," one dumb gangster says, "that was a close one! Boss, what are we gonna do now that we've lost them..."

"Shut up!" The stupid gang leader is scratching his head in frustration. "That damned dog! Is it possessed or something? Anyway, switching on the UZA alert  will be our last option."

"But boss! That's the only way we can restart the tracking signal again!" One underling pointed to the 'radar device' in the leader's hand.

"NO! This way, all other branches' and Master will know we have lost them. Do you want to end up like how they did in Osaka, Hakata and Nagoya?"

Many underlings were visibly shaken at the mention of their brethren in those cities. The ending must'd been ugly.

"Boss!!" An underling rushed into the warehouse, dragging a chained guy behind him.

"Boss! We have a traitor! I caught Kaito sneaking into the room upstairs. The only explanation is---he wants to turn UZA on!"

"KAITO!" The leader roars, "So you are still working for the Sapporo branch against me! You and you!" He pointed randomly at three dimwits. "Go upstairs and guard the freezer now!"

"OK boss!"

The hiding dogs looked at each other and nodded. Following the two gangsters, they found the freezer room, where UZA supposedly is. The guys settled themselves comfortably outside. One of them yawns and says, "Who will even guess there's a room behind those pig heads? Even if anyone gets in, they won't be able to find UZA!"

The other gangster seem to concur but says, "I'm so tired with all the chasing today. You, go check if the freezer is locked. I'm gonna take a nap." He then pulls out his headphones and enter his own little dreamland.

The unhappy guy who was commanded by his bro dragged his feet to the freezer's door and opened it. Cold air rushes out and caused him to cower and sneeze. The two dogs took this opportunity and slipped inside without anyone noticing.

"Boy, it really isn't locked." The guy lazily pulls the door closed again and turned the key to lock it. He didn't notice that a thin piece of wood is strategically place between the lock, jamming it and leaving a tiny gap for the intruders to push it open when they're ready to come back out. The sleepy gangster returns to his seat and joined his bro in dreamland.

"Phew! That is smart, Sae, you're like a double-o agent with perfect ploy and timing!"

"Heh heh," Sae scratches her droopy ears in embarrassment, "that's just because we loved sneaking into places since we're kids..." She recalls the time when they intruded into the Academy's internal systems so Mayu can hack and change everyone's scores. Now she kinda wishes Mayu is here since UZA seems the kind of thing right up her alley. Anyway, she finds her teeth clattering in cold now.

"We better hurry to find the pig heads!" Sayaka looks around at the meat hanging around in hooks or piling up and said.

After they split and did some searching, Sae bumped into something and gave out a small yelp. Legs trembling, she rushes behind Sayaka, who's just arriving to her corner.

The puppy, with her eyes still closed, nudges Sayaka, "The pigs are all staring at me!!! Help!"

"Don't be a whimp, Sae...we found it...look, the door behind there..."

"I'm not looking..." She bites on Sayaka's tail lightly and mumbled, "I'll just ollow ou..."

Sayaka rolled her eyes and let the puppy have her way. They opened the door and got into a secret storeroom.

"It's a lot better in here." Sae says happily after escaping the cold and the pig heads.

"That must be UZA...." Sayaka walks closer to a super-computer structure with a blinking screen.

"They built all this just to track Hurana-san? Unbelievable..." Sae jumps up onto the keyboard and scrutinizes the screen closely...

"Sayaka, look! There are so many profiles on the screen. Some are just machines, but there are others with weird names without pictures...See, 'Honmayan'...and then here," Sae continues to scroll down, "a robot called 'Cyborg' and another one called 'Sashiko'... I wonder what these records are for...but the strange thing is, Haruna-san's name is here too!"

Sayaka blinks to reconfirm this picture in front of her, labelled as 'Harunyan'. Typing some codes, Sae manages to unlock the profile.

Strangely, everything in it is empty, except for a line of code which is identified as "DNA tracking."

"They must've coded Haruna-sama's scent into the system...but wow, human noses AND computers sure suck at it." Sayaka conjectures.

"I think it's a bit more than that. Because they can locate the region she's in, but they can't track her down...scent and smells don't work that way...it doesn't make any sense..." As a fellow graduate from the AKB Academy, even a mediocre student like Sae has some knowledge of how espionage works.

"It doesn't matter. What matters now is how to get rid of this. Let us delete her profile from the system."

"Okay.....*type type type......alright...........100% done. It's completely wiped in the whole system."

"Thanks, Sae! Let's go!"

The two of them jumped off the keyboards and re-entered the freezer. After about three minutes, they are near the entrance. But at the same time, they hear some noises from outside.

"Shit, Yuya! I told you to check properly. You! Come over here and tell me what this gap means!"

"Bro, sorry, I was so sure I locked it. O, it's just a piece of wood in the way..." PLOK! CLICK! "Okay, it's definitely closed and locked now."

Crap!! The dogs scrambled towards the door and pushed with all their might. But it's locked shut.

"Sae, the door is locked. We mustn't waste time pushing it. Let's find if there's another exit..."

The dogs hurried and they didn't dare to split up this time. Following the edges of the giant storeroom, there doesn't seem to be another exit.

Sayaka tapped her paws and thought for a few seconds. "Sae, let's go back to the storeroom so that we at least don't freeze to death first."

To their surprise the storeroom is now locked.

"Damn it! I must have triggered some alerts when I wiped Haruna-san's information out. They've found out! We must leave before they find us!"

Indeed, the gangsters downstairs are all spread out in the warehouse looking for the intruders. But their targets are humans in their minds, so this may buy our dog-heros some time.

Running around the freezer again to find any sort of opening possible, Sae's starting to lag behind.

"Sayaka..." A faint bark is heard before the shivering puppy crouches down.

Sayaka runs back to get the freezing puppy. She knows fully well how easy it is for Sae to get hypothermia or any sort of temperature-related illness due to her small size. Barely able to carry her in her mouth, Sayaka continues forward and searches for an exit.

"Sae, hang in there..." Sayaka puts the puppy down and tried to heat her up. She curls around Sae, completely wrapping the poor dog with her own body. "There you go," she whispers gently, "I'll keep you warm...don't worry." Even though she's freezing too, Sayaka is determined to stay put. She's made a promise to herself that she will not let anyone she loves get into harm. She won't let Sae, the first dog who genuinely cares about her in her entire life, die that easily.

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Sayaka remembers how hard her childhood was. As a poor dog whose mother has no owner, they scavenge abandoned and dirty areas for food and shelter everyday. Although her mum was as pretty as she is now, they get ssexy beasts and sneers from neighborhood dogs due to their owner-less status in the city.

"Look at you, with all the dirt on your pretty, chiseled face. Where is John? Who said two years ago that he will come back? I told you to go beg and play cute so you can get a new owner... I told you so..." A poodle, who was a peer of Sayaka's mum, struts away with her owner.

Later, Sayaka recalls her mum telling about their owner, John. "He's a good master, Sayaka. He's off to a war and when he said goodbye to me, I knew, there's a chance we'll never meet again. But he's the only family I ever had. That's why your mum will wait for him to come back. But you, you have never seen him. Nor should you suffer the same destiny as mine. However, whatever path you choose in the future, you must believe in yourself! Loyalty and instinct....these are two things that will guide you and keep you strong."

That was the last time someone's told her to believe in herself, until she met Sae again. After that, her mum left her outside a police-run shelter before disappearing, probably to pass away because they'd been starving for two weeks already. She was later taken in and fed by a cop, who took her to the police-dog training school. As a puppy who looks smaller than others and having less than perfect pedigree, Sayaka feels insecure about herself but if anything, her street life taught her to tough it up. She knew being strong and getting to the top is the only way out, and so she grew up going the extra mile, surpassing everyone in everything she does. Once again this drew jealousy among her peers, except for a few nicer dogs, leaving her relatively lonely. However, this routined life was short-lived as she was bought by a new master, Haruna's father. Luckily, she was treated well as part of Haruna's family. Kojipa loves and adores her new pet puppy, which happened to be a father's birthday present to his 15-year old daughter. For the next 7 years, Sayaka and Haruna grew up together, fostering a tight bond and friendship. But sometimes, Sayaka still hopes that she'll find a friend who can understand what she speaks, so that she can communicate freely with each other in the same language.

And this was where Sae came in. A little puppy who's friendly, honest and fun. Such a carefree character compared to herself! But that wasn't the most important -- she was there when she got cornered by gangsters; she didn't laugh at her when she cry; she continues to admire her when she's lost; she puts her heart into helping Haruna-sama just because she's Sayaka's master. Sae is not an ordinary puppy -- she's a strong dog that Sayaka can rely on, that Sayaka can show her weakness to.

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Mum....Sayaka wonders....what would you do now? The little puppy has stopped shivering inside her furry embrace, but she cannot stay like this forever or else, both of them will die.

Trust myself...okay...trust my instincts....

My instincts....

Sayaka looks around again for any clue. Aside from frozen meat, there's just more frozen meat piled neatly in stacks. Frozen meat....damn! Makes me so hungry!!

Inexplicably, her eyes kept falling back to the same stack, that one particular piece of rib on top. Sayaka shook her head to get rid of thoughts about food again...but...the rib is still there in her mind.

"Sayaka..." The little puppy opened her eyes again and blinks slowly. "Leave when you still can...it won't matter if I pass out....." Sae is saying the truth even though she's not entirely sure what dying as a dog on Earth means. She's banking on Aki-P to save her, since she reckons she can't die twice, right?

"Don't be silly." Sayaka scoops Sae up once again and jumps up to the top of that pile she's been eyeing. Pushing the top piece away, an ordinary wind shaft, like any other that's lined along the ceiling of the freezer, appears. They are all completely bolted and irremovable, so Sayaka has never thought about escaping through them. But this doesn't have freezing air coming out. Sayaka nudges the frame with her paw. It seems to be quite loose...

Putting Sae down temporarily, Sayaka bites the bar and tears the frame off with a few pulls.

"Sae, hang in there, we'll be out of here in no time!" She picks her up and ran into the shaft, just in time before the idiot gangsters decided to come back to search inside the freezer for the intruders.

Sniffing and following the heat, Sayaka brought Sae outside the complex safely. The puppy has now recovered considerably but she still can't run too fast. Together, the two duck here and there from the scattered groups of gangsters, searching with torchlights in the dark.

They have managed to escape quite a bit away from the facility, now treading carefully in one of the alleys leading back home. Suddenly, a torchlight is casted on the black dog, causing a gangster to shout, "Here! The dog that summoned the monster!!!" A few guys gathered and chase after the dogs, quickly catching up since they were so weak.

"Shit!" Sayaka breathes heavily in frustration. "We're too slow to run away now!"

"Dareka, Tatsukete? (Who, who can help us?)" Sae wonders out loud.

"Doitsumo Koitsumo...Uso bakkariyade... (Each and everyone lies...)" An echoe rings through the alley, and a shadow rose before the gangster. A figure in red spandex slow appears.

"I don't believe in anybody, precisely because it is in this day and age... Paranoid Fighter -- Honmayan!"

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This is a special Saeyaka chapter, hope you all enjoyed it! Since it's Haruna-centric, Mayuki has to take the backseat for a bit...but next time! Next time, Yuki will be back in action again! Lastly, Honmayan~~~ I love Yui so much

Also, Kojiyuu's love has a relatively slow progress because in most Kojiyuu fanfics I've read, Yuko is unrivaled so I want to try something new in this story

[Chanaline]

I love the end of this chapter!!! Honmayan !! YAY!!! I love it Honmayan is just too funny

Mayuki was funny, Yukirin~~ Mayu just oshiri lovers Why you don't kiss her BAKA 

Sayaka have complicated past poor her... But Sae is here now

Sae is just a funny puppy...

Yuko ahahahahah

[dirtydeeds]

i just spent an entire night reading 'Heaven on Earth' and holy shit, i just can't put into words how good your fic is 
i need to know how you can come up with such amazing plot .  each chapter kinda reminds me of Power Rangers episodes yknow where they defeat different villains in each episodes but your plot is like waayyyyyy better. i love how you threw in some japanese words here and there too. also dr sashihara made me lol so much! can't wait for honmayan to make an appearance next chapter!

I'm just spazzing right know over how good it is i cant even post a decent comment.

[kahem]

Poor Yuko T_T
Saeyaka are so cool!!!
Ah Mayuki almost kissed again!!!!
Rofl Honmanyan!!!

[saeyu]

@Chanaline: I want to make Mayuki kiss too! But in my minds, they are both too stubborn to be bold, so they need to take it step by step :cathappy:At least, Mayu get to fulfill her oshiri code this chapter. And, they shared the same bed (though nothing happened ok?), so that's a huge step from last chapter.

@anzai-san: I'm so happy you enjoyed Saeyaka! Surprisingly, I love Sayaka a lot while writing it too! I mean, I love her real self a lot, but I didn't think I'll delve into the dog's past. However, I feel that I need to explain where her vulnerability comes from since she's so smart and strong in the previous chapters. This is the beginning of their deep relationship. I wonder how it's budding into romance too lol

@dirtydeeds: Thanks you're just too kind!! I have a lot to work on in terms of story-telling, although I am a big fan of stuff like these. I have so many characters/drawings from Mayu's sketchbook that I want to cover (maybe Hacchan's art will make a cameo too, since they are so ridiculously bad...lol). Anyway, I'm such a slow writer, so I have decided against villain-of-the-week and are now putting them all in a giant story arc which is this Haruna story. Please bear with me on the slow updates!

@kahem: Thanks for liking Saeyaka too!! I need to write more of them!! Today is Team K shonichi....without Sae...I want to cry~~~~sorry for going off topic Yuko have that fighting spirit! She will not be discouraged!!

@javs: I'm such a big Yui fan I can't help but debut Honmayan here! It's actually not entirely out of the blue, because Sae-dog has mentioned it once..kekeke..they are all related to what's going to happen next.

Please allow me time to finish the next chapter! I will be quick (Zettai uso yawa)

[saeyu]

We need a break from all these Saeyuki and Mayuki! (I can already hear all these "No NO NO how dare you say this about my OTP!!") 

But come on, let's have more love for Saemayu!!!!!

I wanted to write a one-shot but then got tired so I will break it down to two parts. I will update Chapter 8 of Heaven on Earth before part 2 so we can have a dose of Mayuki-ness beforehand! 

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Four-Leaf Clover (SaeMayu) [Part1/2]

A girl with jet-black pigtails are searching for something. Apart from the rustling leaves in the autumn air, her hast footsteps and movements stand starkly apart from the tranquility of the yellow woods.  Paying no attention to her surroundings, she’s single-mindedly focused on finding that essential thing…

Further down the river bank, a faint crying sound is heard.

“*sob* You can’t….you can’t do this to the poor otter!” A little girl with shoulder-length hair wails. She is around 5-years old, wearing a cute red skirt that’s full of dirt, and her knee is slightly scratched.

“It’s none of your business, Miyazawa. I’m practicing my marksmanship to take them Borgs down one by one.”  A taller boy besides her snickers and continues what he was doing. Holding up his slingshot again, he aims at the tiny black thing that’s limping away slowly in fear. Fat chance it’s going in to get away.

As he’s about to shoot, the girl called Miyazawa flings herself onto him and pushes them both down. They both rolled down towards the river, and came to a halt near the water.

The boy straightens himself up angrily, looking around to see where the poor otter has gone. However, he was quickly distracted by a shiny, glimmering object floating down the river.

“Oi…Sae,” he gestures with his chin to the girl who’s just sat up, “Look at this.”

Both kids concentrate on the new treasure that’s now right in front of them. The bigger boy scoops it up from the water with both hands.

Wires sticking out from one side, the curious eyes trace to the other end of this long, roundish shaped object. Water drips down from the edge of five little tubes…to be precise, they look like fingertips. Then, two fingers twitch and release a tiny buzz.

“UWAAHHHHH!!” The boy flung the arm away in fear and run away, leaving Sae alone. It’s not that she’s not scared of the sight, but the poor girl is just too afraid to move. Staring at the broken artificial limb that’s somehow still twitching on the grass, Sae gulps, but she couldn’t take her eyes of it. She didn’t even notice the rustling sound of the bushes, from which out popped a pigtailed girl. She found it.

Ignoring the trembling little kid, she picked the arm up and smiled happily. That’s when Sae notices that the girl who just popped out of nowhere is coincidentally, missing her left arm from elbow downwards. But that’s not even important now. The little girl is captivated. Absolutely entranced by the perfect figure standing in front of her, dressed in a short brown skirt, wearing black leather boots and jacket, with neatly tied hair and flawless skin. She’s never seen such a flawless, immaculate, towering figure before.

The pigtailed girl tries to fit what looks like to be her limb onto where it fell off. After a few attempts, realizing it’s not going to work, she shrugs and proceeds back upstream.

“Ano…” the little kid utters, without knowing why she wants to stop her.

The cyborg turned around and stares at her in a blank face.

“Are you….”

The Cyborg suddenly pouts and says, “I’m sleepy.” Without waiting for Sae to finish her question, she closes her eyes and falls gently down onto the soft grass.

Sae immediately rushes towards this mysterious girl, pushing and nudging her. “Hey, wake up, wake up!” But the girl doesn’t respond. The sun is now setting and the autumn dusk is getting cool.

“Samui (cold~~)” The little kid rubs her own arms and looks at the still figure desperately. “What shall I do?” She tried to pull the girl but she’s too small to even move her an inch. At last, she closes her eyes, clenches her tiny fists, and apologizes to the lifeless body desperately, “Please take care! I will be back!!” before rushing away from the woods.

Next morning when the cyborg wakes up, she finds strangely that she’s covered with a blanket. Beside her, the little girl is sitting cross-legged, nodding off inside her own blanket. The cyborg realizes that the girl must have stayed beside her all night.

“Wake up.” She said plainly.

“Ah Neechan, you’re awake!” The girl beams and rubs her eyes.

Not knowing what to do next the cyborg just looks at the kid, who’s now yawning and ‘stretching’ her face muscles.

“How do I get back to H045 base?” She asks the kid.

“Eh? I’ve never heard of the place before. I’m from shin-village. Ne? Are you hungry??”

“No. I want to fix my arm and go back to H045.” The cyborg answered honestly.

“But Sae is hungry!” She laughs and stood up, walking towards the river.

“Do you eat fish? I’m quite good at catching them!” She turns around and brushes her round nose proudly.

“No.”

“It’s okay. I’ll get you one.” Jumping into the water, Sae disappeared. For a few seconds, the cyborg’s brows furrowed since the girl has gone out of her sight. She stood up and is about to walk towards the river, when a fish flies from the water and lands straight beside her feet. Sae’s head popped out of the water and shouted, “This one is for you!”

She dives in again. On the other hand, the handicapped cyborg picks up the fish with her remaining arm and examine the silvery scales attentively.

“It looks beautiful…” she murmurs to herself.

A minute or two must have past, yet Sae didn’t show up again. Slowly, the cyborg paced towards the river and looked. To her astonishment, her focus quickly locks into a suffocating girl whose foot is trapped under a large stone. The cyborg jumps in immediately, retrieves the fainted girl and lies her down on the grass.

“Wake up.” No response. The result escalated her action to nudging the girl. Then systematically, she detects if she’s breathing, before deciding on CPR. Pumping her little heart with a finger (due to her super human strength, she’ll hurt Sae if she pumps with her palms), she breathes oxygen from her spare tank into Sae’s lungs.

“*cough *cough” water got pumped out and Sae slowly opens her eyes.

“Angel…” the little kid doesn’t seem scared from just now as she flashes her white teeth in a broad smile again.

“I’m not Angel. I’m Watanabe Mayu.” The cyborg’s program taught her to diligently correct wrong information.

At this point, Sae sat up and raised her hand, which is still clutching the second fish.

“Mayu…Mayu neechan! I am saying that you’re pretty like an angel. Thank you for saving my life! Here, a second fish for you!”

Mayu didn’t know how to react. Her program has never been engineered to receive goodwill from anyone. She is just supposed to answer questions and follow orders. But cyborgs like her are also designed to learn and acquire artificial intelligence.

“I don’t eat. What should I do with the fish?” Despite not knowing what to do, she took the second fish from Sae’s hand and picked the first one up as well.

“Well, we can cook them! Maybe you’ll come to like it if you try!”

Sae paddles her little feet as she runs to the nearby bushes, gathering some branches and twigs.

She came back and suddenly pouts. “I don’t know how to start a fire… Usually, Haru-kun (the otter bully) does it for me.”

Mayu tilts her head and said calmly, “Stand back.”

Sae’s covers her mouth in excitement at what she just saw. Mayu breathes out fire like a dragon, and puff the fireplace is all lit up.

“Sugoi!!!”

Sae cooked the two fish and hands them to Mayu.

“Sae, I don’t eat.” Mayu answers calmly.

“But…but…” A loud growl came out from her own stomach. Sae smiles embarrassingly.

“You should eat.” Mayu states.

“Okay…but, but I’ll help fix your arm! And I’ll help you get back to home!”

“…”

“Ittadakimasu!!” Sae starts munching down on the fish she’s been craving since she skipped dinner last night. Yesterday, after the cyborg has powered out, Sae thought it may be too cold to leave her in the wild, so she went back to the village and took two blankets with her, sneaking out before her mom finds out and stayed all night beside her angel.

After the meal, they start staring at Mayu’s broken limb, thinking of what to do.

“I know! I know! I will patch you up! I see Uncle Uchi-san do it all the time! He simply hacks and hammers, then the stones and wood will just piece together into furniture! That’s how he fixed my bed too!”

Gathering some twigs and scavenging a sharp piece of stone, Sae lays down what she’s gotten in front of the puzzled Mayu satisfactorily.

“Are you scared? Normally, when I get sick or have nightmares, Mama sings to me and that makes me feel a lot better about a whole lot of things.”

….i love you….i need you….i miss you…atama no naka, gan gan natteru mujiku, hebi roteishon…hum…

Sae starts humming this simple but cheerful tune while trying to match the limb’s wires to the other end on Mayu’s stub. For the metal and parts that seem out of shape or battered, Sae tries to straighten it with her little stone, hammering here and there, then holding it back up for more matching and alterations.

For a child that age, you cannot deny her talent and meticulousness in fixing things. The arm the doesn’t seem it will even cling onto her stub now appears a bit more fitting with Sae’s relentless observation and hammering. Meanwhile, Mayu kneel calmly beside the girl, listening to her joyful humming and singing and closing her eyes to recharge her body under the mid-morning sun. She knows that this will not fix her, but she didn’t want to stop Sae. She can’t put a finger on it, but she wants to stay like this for a bit longer. She wants to hear that child sing and she wants to learn the song.

The twigs are now being tied and wrapped around the opening to join the arm back. Wrapping and wrapping, and tying and tying, sweat beads started forming on Sae’s pink cheeks.

“Okay…” She says, holding her breath as if it will damage the delicate patching, “Let’s see if it works…can you, wriggle your fingers?”

Mayu obediently tried, but the fingers barely moved, instead some sparks flew out of he joining and loosened the patch.

“Yabai!! I must try harder!” Sae tied the twigs tighter again, but she couldn’t figure out what to do with some wire endings sticking out and she doesn’t know what to do with it.

“Wuuuhhuuuuuuuhuuu…” Sae starts sobbing. “Mayu-chan, I’m so sorry! I don’t know how to fix it!! WAAAAAAAAAAAA” The little baby breaks into a cry.

Mayu puts her other arm round Sae’s shoulder and strokes her slowly. She think that’s what she’s supposed to do, at least until the crying stops.

“…i love you…i need you…” Strangely, Mayu starts singing the song she just learned, in order to calm the child down.

Sae looks up at her angel and a smile slowly returns.

“Maybe, if I bring you to Uchi-san, he can fix you!”

“There is no need to. I can go back to H045. It was 40 minutes since I disengaged from my team. Exhausting all directions and possibilities, at most, it will take me 3 days to get back.” Mayu’s eyes twitched a little after the heavy number crunching in her head.

“I see…but that’s a lot of walking! What if, you feel sleepy again? I need to do something…” Sae paces back and forth in front of Mayu, who just follows her movements attentively, rolling her eyes from side to side.

Suddenly, Sae noticed something and stopped. Crouching down, she picked a small leaf up and beams.

“Look! Look!! I found you a four-leaf clover!”

Mayu tilts her head, questioning what this has to do with anything they were talking about.

“You don’t know what it means?” Sae asks incredulously. “Look, all the clovers around us have three leaves only. So it’s fabtastically lucky if anyone finds a four-leaf clover. Which means, you will get home in no time and your arm will be fixed!!”

The cyborg took Sae’s clover and examine it with great detail, as with everything else that Sae gave her.

“Neechan, I don’t want you to leave, but it’s wrong for me to keep you away from your home! I know how sad it is for kids to long for their papas, or mamas to wait for papas to come back. We have a lot of that in Shin-village. But..but I will work hard so that one day, we will meet again…and…and I will be the best fix-er in the planet! Mayu-chan, when we meet again, you will no longer have to worry about broken body or parts! Then, you will be able to smile as free as a bee!”

Sae grins energetically again at the emotionless cyborg. At this point, Mayu traces her gaze down from Sae’s white teeth to her scratched knee.

Kneeling down, Mayu closes her lips on the reddish wound, as if she’s kissing it. Sae’s eyes popped at this sudden gesture, but quickly she felt a cool fluid flowing around her itchy wound, soothing the irritation.

Mayu stood up and said, “Goodbye.” Before turning to walk back upstream. Sae looks at the completely smooth skin on her knee and gasps in amazement. Looking up, she finds that the cyborg is already quite a distance upstream, her broken limb dangling loosely on the left.

“GOOD BYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE~~~~” Sae shouts, jumps and waves.

The cyborg turned and faced the genki kid one more time, and her lips seems to have curled a bit upwards, forming a smile that doesn’t quite travel to her eyes. Yet, a smile is a smile.

Sae would remember this cool, smiling face for years and years to come.

———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-

16 years later…

Fire bombs are raining down the stationed platoon in a tundra-like field, forcing the army and various personnel to evacuate immediately. A young person with short, black, messy hair, dressed in white uniform with rolled sleeves and olive green pants, are lagging behind from the main crowd.

“Miyazawa! Don’t be silly! Leave those computers and tools behind or you’ll never escape!”

“I know! But if I can revive the auto-defense system down here, we can contain their forces for a much longer time! Leave first! Don’t worry about me!”

Sae lugs two heavy shoulder bags forward and detours from the group. She’s aiming for the ditch about 500 ft to her right. Dodging the bombs left and right, another trouble is added to the equation as troops started arriving on the spot. She shot down a few cyborgs and threw some grenades at the armies of robots arriving. Finally reaching the ditch, she pries open the trap door and is about to go in.

That’s when a mini-missile hit the spot beside her and sent her flying back out. Reorienting herself, she found to her dismay that she’s cornered by an enemy. But the 8 years of training as a top military technician and officer comes handy of course. Dodging a few bullets, Sae lunges in to engage in close-combat, which lessens the disadvantage of humans to robots compared to long-range shooting and chasing.

Throwing a punch right at the cyborg’s body, it’s disarmed but it quickly responds by attacking the spot opened up on Sae’s side. Sae winced in pain but grabs a knife from her boot to counter-attack. She knows this. The enemy’s weak spot. They have taken bodies and bodies of cyborgs savaged after battles to dissect its composition. Where the storage system, the motor system, the sensory units..etc. are, and which one is the most vulnerable spot. There are so many models and makeup of these robots—-but this one is an old model, it shouldn’t be hard to destroy it.

Sae smirks and dashed straight to that ‘sweet spot’. Unexpectedly the cyborg also anticipated this move and dodged in the last second, tipping the balance so that they’re both thrown to the floor.

“What the…”

Sae’s face is now covered in dust after kissing the ground, but she didn’t let a millisecond go waste before plunging forward, wrestling and battling for dominance with the cyborg.

And then, their eyes meet. It’s the cyborg. The Cyborg.

“Mayu…” Sae stares at the blank face in shock.

[fuu_kun]

yayy for saemayu   thankyou for this rare fic :twothumbsup:
and please update soon~

[saeyu]

@ anzai-san:  \(^^)/ I'm so happy you enjoyed SaeMayu! In my mind Sae is an active, friendly but clumsy kid...so I wonder how it'll be like to put her beside the awkward and cool cyborg...I think they should have a happy ending...tehhehe

You can find a lot of childhood pics in those AKBINGO episodes that features a member's wedding. I screendump some Sae's photos from the episode on 8/29 (2012) here:



@ fuu_kun: Thank you! I basically just want to make Sae a pimp and pair her up with the whole planet lol But before that I need to finish Heaven on Earth chapter 8 first so please be patient with me!

[saeyu]

@anzai-san: I'm such a slow writer I think Sae alone is enough...maybe I'll write a SaeJurina fic, where we compare and contrast pimping style, then murashige can make her cameo as HKT pimp...can't decide who in NMB yet..lol

So as promised, the Mayuki update will come first! Please enjoy!!

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Chapter 8 - Honmayan's Can of Worms

"Hon-Honmayan?" The exhausted Saepup crooks her face in confusion. She recalls a list of profiles she came across when they're deleting Kojiharu's information from the so-called UZA computers. Honmayan is one of them...so...so does that mean she's...enemy?!!

"What are you doing here, Honmayan?" A gang leader asks. "Did Master send you to help us?"

"What am I doing here?" Honmayan asks incredulously. "What am I doing here..." She repeats contemplatively, as if she really doesn't know. "...Are you trying to make fun of me?"

"No!" The gangster cried in frustration. "Just...just help us capture the dogs! They are our enemies!"

Honmayan looks at the dogs, then back at the gangsters. "Zettai Uso yawa...how can dogs offend you?"

"It's true!! They hacked into our system! Your master's system!"

"My master?" Honmayan's suspicious glare is now completely focussed on the gangsters. "You are definitely trying to make a fool of me."

While they continue to argue about existentialism and whatnot, Sayaka stealthily picks up the puppy with her jaws and started sneaking away.

"Hey!! They are running away! Quick!! Honmayan, use your Honmayan beam to attack them!!!"

"Honmayan beam? You are asking me to use that?"

"Yes!" The gang leader makes a 'kill me' face.  Meanwhile, Sayaka sprints madly away, not liking the prospect of getting 'beamed' one bit.

"This is doubtlessly a lie. Do you think just by making this," She crosses her arms in a 90-degree angle, "some killing ray will miraculously shoot out?"

"You need to say 'Honmayan Beam' as well..."

Without turning to away from the guys she's arguing with, she repeats doubtfully, "Hon..mayan...Beamu?"

"No! Not at us!!"

But it's too late. A bright light shoots straight from her arm into the gang, literally striking them like a lightning bolt. The gangsters shook and turned and danced around, then collapsed onto each other.

Honmayan moves towards the lifeless bodies and peers closely. "Uso...."

She then turns and looks curiously at the far end of the alley, where a moving speck of grey shadow disappears into the dark.

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The two dogs slipped back into the apartment, with Sayaka double checking if they are being chased before shutting the blinds and jumping down from the window sill.

"That was close..." the panting puppy clings onto Sayaka immediately.

"What a tough night. To be honest, I don't even know what we're running away from... I mean, the more I think about it, the stranger it is, that Haruna-sama's profile is found among files the likes of that... doubting-beam-shooting-person(?)...what's she called again?"

"It's Hon-ma-yan," Sae ssexy beasts at Sayaka's description. "I think she's cute. She reminds me of Yuihan..." Sae's smile is now bright as the sun, recalling her good friend at the academy. You know, that angel-in-training who drew Nirouni on Mayu's sketchbook. Apart from Yui, there is a horde of other cute girls who're close to Sae, due to her ikemen looks and approachable personality. While she's too dense to realize all the girl-crushes on her, she definitely enjoys all the playful kisses and flirting. Ah...how I miss teasing Yui-chan.... and Rie-swan... and Tomooomi....but yikes, not when Tomochin is around....the dog shivers at the thought of the fashionista's jealous glares.

"Who's that?" The sour tone of Sayaka pulls the puppy back to reality.

"She's my friend, a shy girl with a weird laugh...keehehehehehe... Sayaka, I really want you to meet all my friends!!" The puppy suddenly gets excited and bounces around the black dog. "I want everyone, everyone to know you...how brave you were just now, and how you saved me and shielded me from danger! You probably don't know, but you look gorgeous when you're fighting...I mean, your coat of black fur really suits you, like a cool assassin? Or maybe more like a double-o agent...yes that's more like it... You have that righteous eyes that burn with passion and conviction... How should I explain this?" Sae's monologue switch is turned on. "Like, a chiseled statue, and a shining heroine... Yabai! I can't resist looking at you even when you're mean to me! Kyaaa~~~"

If a dog's blush can be seen, Sayaka, who wears her heart on her sleeves, will look red and hot like a pepper.

"Seessh....You're gonna wake them all up..."

Sorry--- Sae sobers down from her natural high and mouths silently....she then looks up at Sayaka with her cute puppy eyes expectedly.

"Hm?" Sayaka raised her eyebrows at those puppy-eyes.

Sae curls up into a furry ball. "Sae wants to be cuddled tonight..."

"O..." Sayaka murmurs and sat herself down beside Sae, wrapping herself around her. "Are you sure it won't be too hot?"

"No it'll be fine...I just want you to hug me for a bit longer." Closing her eyes, Sae's breathing slows down into a steady rhythm, indicating that she's fallen asleep.

What a kid, falling asleep so quickly...Sayaka thinks to herself and smiles. Even though Sae doesn't notice it, but in doggy form, she's still in the ikemen category, which frankly catches a lot of other dogs' attention, including Sayaka's when she first met her. She's beginning to wonder if she really just sees Sae as a clumsy little sister?

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Bing-Bong Bing-Bong!

Yukirin grunts after glancing at the clock, which says 6:42am. Who is it this time??

She climbs over the un-budging Mayu and drags her feet to the door. She's mostly recovered from her muscle strains and can't wait to kick Mayu's ass...literally. Anyway, it's not the time to worry about that yet. The fact that Haruna is still being pursued makes the trouble-loathing mechanic high in alert. She grabs a mop, the closest thing resembling a weapon in this house, and peers through the blinds.

Standing outside the door is a strange girl in red spandex and silver helmet.

"Why do weirdos keep showing up at my house?" Yukirin said to herself.

Sayaka, the only other being that's awake in this house, stood up and barks warningly at Yukirin not to open the door.

"Who are you?" Yuki's voice rings through the door to the other end.

"Honmayan" The spandex girl answers calmly.

"I'm asking who you are....and yes, it's a real question." Sayaka looks at Yuki and wonders again if taking refuge in this house is a wise choice.

"Honmayan!" The ranger answers indignantly.

Yuki made a facepalm and said, "Nevermind...just you know...leave, there's nothing for you here." She turns and walks away, shaking her head.

BANG!

The door blasts open with Honmayan's kick, flying straight at Yuki, whose back is turned against the impending disaster.

ZOOP!

Yuki turned and found two pieces of wood already splitting sideways. Standing in front of her is Mayu, who appeared out of nowhere in her steady high-kick position, almost looking like Chun-Li (Street Fighter character), except she's in pajamas. The reaction queen covers her mouth in surprise -- she knew Mayu is fit, but she doesn't know she's THAT capable. In fact, that kind of reflex means nothing in AKB academy, since all the kids are elite students, even among heavenly residents. If Yuki has her memory back, she wouldn't be that impressed.

Mayu's face is now in her menacing mode. Slowly placing her foot down, she glares at Honmayan sharply. "Who are you? Why are you hurting my Yuki?"

"I want to find the dogs." Honmayan answers with a poker-face.

Mayu glares sideways at the growling Sayaka, then at the still-asleep Sae-puppy. What troubles did they bring this time...Mayu made a mental note to lecture Sae and Yuko afterwards.

"Ah, there you are, black dog. Tell me what is going on."

Sayaka's grimace turns into pure confusion. This ranger has no clue what she's up to, has she??

"I was sent here with a mission. What is it?" She looks at Sayaka intensely. Honmayan's seriousness made Yuki laugh.

"Hey miss, you are talking to a dog, who cannot talk back to you. Now let's talk business. How are you going to pay for the damage?"

"Aaaaaaaaaaa..." A yawning sound came from the couch. O, finally, Kojiharu is waking up.

She looks at Honmayan for a second and blinks.

"Honmayan?" She exclaims.

"God, why is everyone so doubtful today?" Yuki looks at Haruna in confusion.

"It must be she, who sent you here!!" She runs happily and hugs the calm-faced ranger.

"Huh?" Honmayan asks with a lost look on her face. "You are lying to me, aren't you?"

Haruna smiles as if she expected this and said, "It's okay, thanks for coming for me. Just remember not to press the button like you did last time..."

Honmayan seems to know immediately what she's referring to, and pressed the red button on her belt!

"Holy crap!!!!!!!!!!" A squirrel jumps out of nowhere and scratches frantically on the already activated button, which is blinking. "Are you stupid? Nyannyan asks you NOT to press it, and you pressed!" Of course, apart from Mayu and Sayaka, everyone else are just hearing some squeaks from a rabid squirrel.

Mayu, Yuki and Sayaka are already thinking about what will show up at their doorstep now. They are holding their breaths and expecting the worst to happen, like an explosion or something.

"Honmayan, you are going to get killed if you don't go back now! Why did you press it???" Haruna pushes the confused ranger urgently.

"What's happening? I so did not press it."

"I totally saw you do it." Mayu shoots back with a blank face.

"This is a lie..."

"Come on quick....or you'll self destruct!" Haruna pouts.

"If that's the worst that can happen, I don't give a dime..." Yuki yawns and starts walking towards the bathroom. Mayu looks at the 'blackened' Yuki and remembers how much she's been through these few days. It's understandable how she can be heartless to a stranger who broke her door.

"Yuki, wait for me!" Mayu rushes inside and closed the bathroom door.

Unlike Mayu and Yuki, Sayaka and Yuko still have an ounce of passion left as living beings. They are urging Honmayan to leave with barks and wails and everything they could think of.

"The blinking is more intense... why...you are trying to fool me..?" Honmayan continues to doubt.

"Honmayan!!" All three of them exclaims desperately. The blinking on the belt stops.

The ranger collapses on the floor and said before passing out, "So, it's real."

Haruna sighs and makes a 'shouganai' face..."Opps...looks like Dr Ume's tweaks still don't work this time."

What------Sayaka's jaw drops at Kojipa's resumed calm. So, Honmayan is...not dead? And, no one else is coming for us? Sometimes, she just wishes she's a human bodyguard instead of a dog, because she can never read an air-head's mind, not even Haruna's....

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At the breakfast table, which is laid out very very nicely with Kojiharu's superb cooking, Yuki is arguing with Mayu about whether watching someone pee is acceptable behavior, while Sae eats her coco pops happily, asking Yuko and Sayaka if she's missed anything (which of course, is yes). Honmayan is lying serenely in the couch. Just to put your minds at ease, she is still breathing.

"Sorry for the confusion..." Haruna bites a piece of her toast and said, "Honmayan is a hybrid mecha/ranger from my daddy's labs. She's the work of daddy's friend, Umechan, but due to various issues, we never deploy her in our projects so not many people have seen her. She's powerful but she is way too hard to be convinced to do anything.  She must be sent by my darling to help me out!"

Yuko's frown turn into a hopeless pout at the sight of Haruna's sweet face. Yukirin takes a sip of her green blender-juice and answered, "If she's a friend and stop breaking doors again, then I guess I will prefer if she gets well soon...." She glances at the sleeping ranger and stands up. "Ok, I gotta go to work now. Haruna-san, please, you are my only hope now. Keep this asylum under control." There is doubt in Yuki's voice, but she's sure that the most sane being in this flat is already this tennen girl. Not to mention, Yuki still finds this sudden guest very cute and irresistible (A/N: this thought is betrayed when she first saw Haruna after Marrimokkori's spell/attack, saying "What a pretty face" out loud as she wakes up), and she has a penchant for doting on cute things.

"Um...ok?" Haruna nods without understanding what she's being asked.

"Mayu, no one leaves the house today. Guard the entrance until I come back and fix the door."

"Yuki~ they'll be fine on their own. Let me come with you!"

"No." Yuki answers sternly and walks away. Then she stops and hesitates for a second. I haven't really spent anytime with her yesterday. Why did I waste precious time facing my back towards her last night? Actually, I'm dying to see her face now...She closed her eyes, then made a decision and turns around with an 'unwilling' expression on her face. "Ok, fine, I don't think I can afford to feed all of you anyway. Come with me and get a job at the park too, so you can pay for your share."

Mayu's face brightens up in a broad smile. She clings onto Yuki's hands and both of them walks out of the doorway, leaving a girl, a passed out ranger, and three animals alone.

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We will turn back to Mayuyu and Yukirin's first date....ehem...work, at the park later. But meanwhile, a visitor has already arrived at the doorway of Yuki's apartment....

The visitor politely rings the doorbell even though there is no door to speak of.

Sayaka runs up and gasps at the guest she sees.

"Mariko! Ue kara, Mariko!!!!!!!!!!" Kojipa screams in surprise.

The girl hugs a woman dressed in a stylish blue suit, who pushes her glasses up slightly on her tall, elegant nose bridge. She smiles gently and patted Kojiharu's back.

Sayaka walks away begrudgingly at the person she distrusts, while Sae looks at this cool lady in front of her with a raised eyebrow.

"I have seen her somewhere before..." The puppy mumbles to herself...

Yuko's nostrils flare at the sight of her sworn enemy. Climbing up between the two, she gets in the way of the couple, forcing them to pull apart.

Haruna chuckles and caught the squirrel into her arms, stroking Yuko gently.

"Here, come meet Mariko, my girlfriend!"

The squirrel just looks away, sticking her nose up. Mariko laughs and said, "Looks like you're having a great time here with a few new pets..." She glances around the empty flat as she walks in.

"I'm not a pet!! I'm Nyannyan's hero!" The squirrel's protests are being completely ignored.

"Ah there you are...Honmayan." She walks over to the couch and pats Honmayan's helmet.

"I'm sorry I resorted to sending her to find you. I received information that your uncle has gotten hold of your whereabouts, and I don't want them to get to you before I do. Unfortunately, Honmayan is the only one whom he doesn't care about, so I can dispatch her without raising any attention. I don't think she even has the mission properly programmed, so I'm surprised to find you all here when the signal dispatches from her belt."

"It's okay, Mari-chan....but is it really gonna be fine with you coming here? Have you successfully foiled Uncle's plan? Are you finally taking me away?"

"Calm down, darling, this day is coming soon. But it's fine for me to come here, because..." She looks at Sayaka with a cool face, "thanks to someone, they cannot track you down anymore." She doesn't look too grateful though.

"Yippie! Does that mean I don't have to run away again??" Haruna hugs Mariko tightly.

"That's right. Stay here until I come back to get you. I'm just here to take Honmayan home, or Ume is going to be mad at me..."

"Ok, I'll wait for you here then. Promise me you will be back soon?" Haruna raised her pinky teasingly, and Mariko caught it with hers.

"Promise, sweetie pie.." She smiles again and picks Honmayan up with a special handle that seems to work like a magnet as it latches onto Honmayan's body.

"I'm gonna miss you, Honmayan...." Haruna waves at the sleeping ranger. Mariko planted a kiss on Haruna's cheek.

"Bye my love!  Bye everyone, and bye Sayaka..." Mariko winks while leaving. Chuckling at Honmayan, she whispers to the passed out ranger, "Good job, so someone has finally made you activate the Rappapa codes in all prototypes. It was so damn hard to make you press that button. Now...let's sit back and watch what becomes of the feline...and the others..."

While Haruna is swooning at her darling's back, Yuko notices Sayaka's distaste for the first time and thinks she has found a new alliance.

"Hey, Sayaka, you don't seem to get along with that trollface too. Let's work together!"

"With you?" Sayaka looks at the squirrel questioningly. "Thanks but no, thanks. I can't read your dirty mind but don't think you can come near Haruna-sama too. Anyway, you think that Mariko is fishy too? I have a bad feeling about all this."

"That's right!" Sae chimes in. "She doesn't look legit to me... and, I think I've seen her somewhere before."

"Where?"

"You know, back in the aca...." Sae stops midway and realizes that Sayaka still doesn't know their true identities. "ehem...acacia..."

Yuko rolls her eyes at Sae's unbelievable choice of words. "You mean, you've seen her in some woods?" Sayaka asks. "Where do you come from? Maybe that could tell us a bit about Mariko's origins..."

"O, Mayu and us...we're from Okinawa..."

"There's acacia in Okinawa? Wow, so many things I don't know about..." Sayaka tilts her head and is already focussing her mind on what that means about Mariko's past.

"Em....it's okay..." Yuko frowns and hopes she can stop thinking about Okinawa, "Let's just figure out how to keep Nyannyan safe for now!"

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In a poorly lit office of Flying Get Amusement Park, Yukirin sits side by side with Mayuyu, looking at an old fat guy sitting across them on the other side of the table.

"We need someone to repair the ferris wheel and all the damage that the dragon has caused..."

"You mean, snake, Sir?" Yukirin seizes the opportunity here. Mayu silently questions God why someone other than Yui will think it's a dragon. "I can't possibly do everything alone, especially after Yuya just left. But I know our budget is tight, so why don't we take in an apprentice? Mayu here is a skillful...er...plumber so she has all the basic skills..." Mayu glares at Yuki as she's not happy with the role she's assigned to.

"Yes Sir," Mayu quickly beams in her trademark smile. "I may look young but I have a lot of experience fixing....pipes. The best thing about hiring me is, you will get your job done in half the price needed to hire a qualified person. Yet, the result you get will be twice you expect."

"Ok then, if you're good'o Yuki's referral, I trust you completely. You two get to work then.." The old man smiles like a cute grandpa to his grand kids. It's clear that this superintendent doesn't really care that much, so getting this job is a piece of cake.

With a free reign on how to 'train' her apprentice, the mechanic takes the princess into the empty control room of the out-of-order ferris wheel.

"Here. To fix this, we must first run the diagnostic tool..."

Mayu pops her bubble gum and cuts in, "It's ok Yuki, I'll watch you work...you don't really have to waste your effort to explain it to me. If I am not wrong, you just took me to work because you want to see me." Mayu smirks cunningly.

Typing a few lines to get the tool running, Yuki turned back with shocked eyes and answers, "Wha..What are you trying to say? I'm serious about you working! Besides, aren't you interested in fixing things? I see you playing around with the TV a lot!"

"First, you want me to do housework, and now, you are really making me work?" The princess raised her voice. She has not forgotten the impossibility of royals working, but she's since also swallowed a lot of pride and she is definitely wary of the dark clouds gathering above Yukirin's head...

"Okay, okay...I'll watch...go on, continue please..." She backs down and fakes a smile to pacify the mechanic's anger.

Yuki smiles a bit at her triumph, as she didn't expect Mayu to stop resisting easily. "See, the results are out. It shows us that zone A's chains are malfunctioning, but more importantly, we must fix zone C first due to the cooling system's type 323's damage...."

Mayu looks at the screen intently but she's already tuned off. Anyway, she's right. Yukirin is just putting up a facade of teaching (even though no one is looking), as eventually, she herself gathered all the tools and materials needed, with Mayu just following from behind, not actually doing any work.

Now they are inside the heart of the machine room, where the cooler is. The damage is quite visible and just getting through the piles of metal scraps took some time. At least, they're dead sure no one can just barge in and reach them easily from outside.

"Mayu, pay attention to this..." Swisssh Swooosh.... Yuki made a few really complicated maneuverings on the screws and metals in blazing speed.

Mayu just blinks and gapes at the so-called demonstration. Mayu is a fast learner, but even she couldn't see half of what just happened, not to mention understanding it.

"Now it's your turn." Yuki stands up and gave space for Mayu to crouch down, the look in her eyes says she's up to something...

"Are you kidding?" Mayu scratches her head in confusion and moves forward slowly, taking in all the tools and materials that are lying around her as she crouches down. Standing behind her, Yuki suppresses her smile and said plainly, "It is so simple...come on, you can do it."

Mayu picks up the pliers and stared at the bunch of wires, bolts and screws hesitantly. She picks a random spot and starts to dig in.

"No, not here, it's the green plate." Yuki's enjoying this a lot.

"Okay...there it is." Mayu found the plate and tried to open it.

"Haven't you seen just now? You can't JUST open it. Use the 23-key to turn it."

Mayu looks around, and has no clue what she's referring to.

"Geez, here!" Yukirin picks the key out and hands it to Mayu.

The princess  is quickly loosing her patience but she is not ready to admit she's given up yet. She honestly thought Yukirin was teaching her because she has been diligently doing so for the past hour, and she too, was caught in surprise how incompetent she suddenly is. I'm a smart princess, how can I lose to this stupid machine??? So once again, she screws the green plate open and twists the wires in the way that she thought she saw when Yuki did it.

"Not like that!" Yuki exclaims behind her. "Gosh, sorry Mayu, I didn't think you'll be incapable of catching up on the simplest things..." Yuki pretends to be sorry but she's just trying to say Mayu's stupid.

"I...I'm just not used to the dark surroundings..." Mayu defends herself indignantly.

"Yeah, that's true...There's no way you will make every single step wrong..."

Mayu bit her lip and tries again. Every few seconds, she makes a mistake, causing Yuki to stop and chide her. A frown and a condescending ssexy beast here and there...everything is testing Mayu's pride to the limit.

"I swear I saw that's what you did! You..you must be doing this on purpose! Enjoying every bit of this, eh?" Mayu cannot contain her annoyance anymore.

Yuki swallows her own laughter and finally crouches down behind Mayu, wrapping her arms around her's. "It's so easy, you're just being....difficult....Tsk Tsk, I can't believe I will have to hold your hands and literally do it for you then..." She fakes a sigh and grabs hold of Mayu's hands. "Now first, this..."

Mayu's attention on the machine has ceased the moment this demonstration starts. All she can feel is Yuki's body pressed against her back, and her hands enveloping hers, guiding her to cut and twist some random wirings. Her calm voice resonating beside her ears, and her occasional breaths dancing on her neck. Shifting her body and leaning forward as they progress, Mayu can only feel the soft domes squeeze and brush around her back. The princess gulps and shivers, hoping that this inappropriate thought will go unnoticed. Who would've thought apprenticeship will be so hot...

However, since the mechanic has the very intention to tease her girl, she continues her 'teaching' and pretends to unintentionally brush her palms across Mayu's hips or waist while reaching for the tools around them. Mayu bites her lower lip and try to think of other things in order to distract herself from all this. What a torture!! Why can't you wait till tonight!! Mayu curses under her breath and tried to learn the procedure as she doesn't want to be called stupid again. But all this is futile resistance to the reaction queen, which is having an upper hand in this teasing game.

This is payback for refusing to kiss me last night...

Suddenly, Yukirin's prey snaps and struggles away from her. "I...I can't concentrate like this!" She finally confesses.

"What 'like this'?" Yuki fakes a shocked and confused face. "Don't tell me, you are still trying to grasp?"

Mayu clenches her fist and took a deep breath. She then leaps forward and pushes Yukirin down under her.

"No, I don't just try to grasp. I get what I want. And now, I want you... you to be my girlfriend." Mayu confesses again. Or rather, she commands with her deep voice, looking straight into Yuki's eyes with her dark, determined orbs.

Yuki blinks at the handsome and serious face in front of her. She was completely caught off guard. Her limbs and body lose strength rapidly as she feels herself getting conquered. Mayu's serious mode is Yuki's weakest spot.

"I..." Yuki turns her head a bit from the gaze and answers shyly, "I'm already your girlfriend." She glances up sideways and smiles seductively. This, in Mayu's eyes, is quite an irresistible 'fishing' glance-- the princess' weak spot. In order to retain her advantage, she maintains her utmost calm and lean slowly down, unfazed.

On the other hand, Yuki has completely lost the battle as she feels her cheeks heat up to boiling point. A minute ago, she was still the one controlling and teasing Mayu, but now, the situation has reversed. Unable to stare at the pretty face coming nearer and nearer, the shy Yukirin closes her eyes and feels a pair of soft lips landing on her own. Mayu's shiny, pink, succulent lips. Yuki draws in a deep breath, fully immersed in the fireworks crackling and spitting sparks in her head. Both girls have now laid down all the pretense of working and Yuki wraps her arms around the princess on top of her, kissing her girl madly. Their lips twist and pluck upon each others, making loud, slurpy, smoochy sounds. But it's okay, no one will hear them in the humming machine room. Mayu's tongue force into Yuki's mouth and found its counterpart, aggressively attacking it. At the same time, her hands reach under Yuki's shirt and wanders all over her skin. Mayuyu has fully won her first battle, dominating over Yukirin, who is too overwhelmed to counter-attack. Finally, Yuki breaks from their kiss and gasps for her breath, then nibbles Mayu's cold earlobe and giggles at the tantalizing touches Mayu makes with her thin, teasing fingers on all sorts of sensitive spots. She tries to push the girl on top of her away, but Mayu doesn't give in to this half-hearted nudge and buries her head in Yuki's neck and collarbone, kissing and biting. She reaches one hand down and squeezes the mechanic's tensed oshiri, eliciting a soft moan from the embarrassed girl (Oshiri~~~~~~~~~~~Score again!!  Mayu yells excitedly in her head). Feeling that this is going to get NSFW, she pushes Mayu back up to a sitting position and kissed her forehead gently, ending their make-out session.

"Enough for now," The flushed Yuki buttons up her shirt and tries to straighten her messy her. "Let's finish work quickly so I can take you to a special place."

The couple wrapped up the day's job with amazing concentration, especially after all the action. Even though Mayu is truly a newbie, she's smart and picks things up quickly, giving the fast and diligent Yuki a helping hand. By 5 o'clock, they've progressed more than planned, and their boss allowed them off, satisfied with the new bargain hire he got.

"Where are you taking me?" Mayu took a mouthful of noodles from the plate of food Yuki just bought her.

"Hurry.." Yuki pulls Mayu's hand and continues to lead her up a steep hill in the far side of the park. At the very top, there's a two-storied hut that's deserted some time ago. To be precise, there's nothing but old scrap metal in it, but Yuki guides Mayu up the stairs into the mezzanine, which overlooks the suburbs below the cliff below from a large un-windowed opening. Warm light from the orange sun is shining through, and a cool breeze brushes against the long hair of the girls, who sit themselves beside each other, snuggling comfortably together with a blanket wrapped around them.

"This is my secret hideout." Yukirin smiles sweetly at Mayu, who's still looking around and taking in this amazing view. She's lived her whole life in heaven, playing on the clouds and walking among beautiful gardens and springs. But no words can describe this simple, span of clear sky, with little grey blocks of shade stretching below them, all the way towards the horizon, where the round orb of light meets and sets. It's so quiet, calm, beautiful and comforting. Which, not incidentally, also describes how Mayu feels when she's around Yuki.

"I found this place once accidentally. After that, I come here often, just to forget about everything and feel the greatness of Earth." Yuki looks pensively at the distant half-setting sun and says, "Now I'm sharing my greatest treasure with you."

Mayu leans her head on Yuki's shoulder and looks at the scenery without answering. Yes, indeed, this is Earth. A weird land where people have to worry about so many mundane things, like food, home, money, health. It's imperfect, and sometimes, it's dirty and ugly, unlike Heaven. But it's also full of possibilities and surprises, like this breathtaking display of nature's beauty. Or like the cute girl beside her, Kashiwagi Yuki. She might act cold, sarcastic and selfish but these are just appearances. Would they have gotten together if they didn't meet on Earth? Would it be the same if Yuki isn't this earthly, generous mechanic, Mayu this lost and helpless girl, but instead, a rising, guarded officer and a proud, bratty princess?

The princess brushes these thoughts aside as the last trace of orange sun disappear underneath the horizon and the sky turns into a mix of tangerine, purplish hue. Looking up, Mayu said, "Thank you for this present. I'll never forget this."

Yuki hugs Mayu closer to herself. "I always thought I'll be alone, being the type of person that I am. I always think about myself first and never opens up easily to others. I don't feel I am great or above everyone...but I just thought I don't need anyone, or any adventures in life.  But then, you just mercilessly intrude in my world, despite how hard I tried to stay out of trouble and resisted you. It's hectic and bothersome at first, but it's also brought me lots of happy and memorable moments. I start to miss you when I'm away from you. Everyday, I check my watch and wish work can end so I can rush back to see you. But then when I do see you, my heart goes crazy and I stumble for words to say. I start to care about you so much, that my heart aches when you disappoint me. However, it seems that you always have a way to find it back to my heart, and it melts immediately for you, making me love you even more. I'm not sure if I still want to live a dull life alone any longer. No matter what happens to you, or your friends, I will stick by your side. Mayu, thanks for being here with me, even before I realized I need you, so so much..."

Mayu felt tears rolling down her cheeks as she hears what Yuki truly feels for the first time. She's so glad that they can share this honest moment with each other, and she's overjoyed that she is now such an important person in Yuki's mind. Never in her life, did she think that she'll cry for another person, but now, all she can think of, is how to be a better person for Yuki. The couple pulls in for another round of passionate kiss, until the sky falls into darkness and twinkles of star start to appear. The moon is round and bigger than usual, perhaps at its closest to Earth tonight.

"It's getting late now, let's go back and see how they're doing."

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Walking into the apartment, Mayuyu and Yukirin once again found themselves surrounded in a mess. Nothing is broken at this point, but everything is displaced and has fallen over each other.

"Haruna?" Yuki probes cautiously.

BOOM!

The door of Yuki's bedroom swings open violently, with Haruna falling straight onto Sayaka, who landed painfully on her back, resisting her master.

"Why are they fighting?" Yuki exclaims in horror.

"No, they are not..." Mayu frowns in realization. "She's trying to kiss the dog!"

A lipstick covered Yuko and messy-furred Sae jump onto Haruna, trying to break them apart.

"Can someone explain what is going on here, NOW!!!" The furious Yukirin cannot bear to see her apartment trashed for the second time again in three days.

"I don't...know either...." Sae struggles to speak among the commotion. "Haruna starts wanting to...make out....with.......EVERYONE!"

Once again, Yuki is left unexplained by the puppy's yelps. Suddenly, Haruna's head turns toward the two, noticing the new arrivals.

"Yuki-san..." Yuki gulps at the hungry look in Haruna's eyes. In a split second, the girl gracefully pounces onto the confused mechanic, wrapping her whole body around hers, and starts kissing and grinding.

"Wait...stop..." Mayu tries to pull the crazy girl away but Haruna is exceptionally strong. Resisting Mayu's attack, Kojiharu fights back and made a scratch on Mayu's arm, causing her to jump back and wince in pain. She examines her arm and found three lines of blood slowly seeping through the cuts.

"What the....."

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Many questions raised in this chapter in terms of plot progression...please wait patiently but I guess you can half-guess where it's going....anyway, I put a lot of thought into how Mayuki will share their first kiss and date together. I hope this is acceptable, because at the end of the day, I found out that I'm not a romantic person so this is like, the best I can think of OTL

As for those who thought Honmayan's scenes were too short...don't worry, along with Dr Sasshihara, they will be back....

[yuukimoko]

wahhh! Mayu and Yukiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! tooooooooooooooo sweet!!!!!!


Sorry but this chapter made me happy, with the Mayuki parts


.....'What the...'

[Chanaline]

Ma-MAYUKI!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wouahhhhhh!

It was so hot!!!!!!!!!!!!


Thank you for this chapter!!!

[kahem]

Mayuki is so cute~
lol Kojiharu kissed Yuki

[dirtydeeds]

OMG ITS UPDATED 
this chapter made me lol so much like all the other chapters of HoE, but this is to me the most eventful one.  Honmayan and mariko finally made an appearance, Haruna suddenly turning into a kissing monster (great job on the cliffhanger ), and mayuki moments. TONS OF MAYUKI MOMENTS AAAAAAAGGGHH but i still want moar 

now really really can't wait for the next chapter. I'm hoping for mayuyu to get on a jealous rage and kick kojiharu's butt.