Chapter 1
May 3rd, 3:52 a.m.
Ochitsukiko
I
abruptly sat up in my bed, panting heavily, sweat streaming down my face.
The
window was open, and the night's chilly air was filling the room. It hit
my hot forehead and wide-opened eyes, and I understood that I've had that
nightmare again... The nightmare of how my parents had been killed... How
I'd tried to save them... And how I'd learned that —
The
silence was shook with a frantic, terrified, and urgent, "Pi-pi!! Pi-pi!!!
Pi-pi!!!!"
The
room was dark, but I could tell that it wasn't the alarm. It was something
else.
"Usagi!..
Get up right this minute!!.." said a tired and sleepy voice from the window.
I
felt my stomach turning cold. I've HEARD this voice somewhere... before.
I
reached over for the touch-and-glow lamp at the nightstand.
Soft
light engulfed the room. I looked at the windowsill. There was no one but
a snoring black cat.
I
blinked.
Usagi
jumped up from her sleeping bag, yelped, "LATE!!!!!" plopped down the poor
bunny-alarm — which wasn't pi-piing, by the way — and started yanking her
school blouse up her feet.
I
blinked. Again.
In
the process of putting her arms into her tights, Usagi peeped at the clock.
I
peeped at it, too, just in case.
It
was as silent as a rock, but something was still pi-piing. Oh, and by the
way, the alarm was showing 3:55. In the morning.
Usagi
cursed, dragged off her tights, and got into her sleeping bag, still wearing
the blouse on her feet. "It's just my tamagotchi!.." she muttered to nobody
in particular.
"And
what does your tamagotchi need this time?.." asked the same low voice from
the window.
I
slowly peered in that direction. There was just a napping black cat...
'Okay,
relax, relax,' I told myself. 'It's just a sign of your depression, girl...'
Came
a muffled reply from Usagi: "Luna, please, my tamagotchi needs a bath...
I mean, push some buttons, whatever, I don't know..."
I
couldn't possibly understand it. She's asking her cat to give her tamagotchi
a bath at four in the morning???..
The
lunatic asylum.
Okay,
it would be incredible if the cat would accomplish whatever her master
had asked her.
Come
on, Ochitsukiko, you gotta have some sleep, otherwise you'll get crazy.
So
I stretched out my hand to touch the lamp. When...
The
cat mumbled something that sounded like, "Nyao, nyao!" (On the other hand
it sounded like, "Damn ya, Usagi!") Then the animal leaped to the desk,
grabbed the red tamagotchi with its front paws, fussed with the buttons,
sweared (or maybe that was just another 'nyao'), sprang back onto the windowsill,
and the poor tamagotchi uttered its last yelp of agony before being hurled
into the dark night.
The
cat sprawled at the sill and began snoring.
I
switched off the lamp and took Ginko into the bed with me. Doctors say
that cats are supposed to calm people. At least Ginko always does that.
I mean, calm me.
May 3rd, 7:25 a.m.
Ochitsukiko
"Usagi!!
Don't you want to get up??"
My
eyes flew open — to see huge brown ones staring at me.
The
black cat, named Luna, who had last night thrown the tamagotchi out of
the window, was sitting on me and shouting something about, 'Do you remember
what's the day today?'
To
not get insane, my mind decided I should pass out.
May 3rd, 7:27 a.m.
Luna
Oi.
That wasn't Usagi I was sitting on. It was her cousin, Ochitsukiko, who
had just blacked out.
Am
I so scary or what??
Oh,
well.
Then
suddenly, I found that King Kong (a.k.a. Ochitsukiko's white cat named
Ginko, whom Usagi had renamed 'King Kong') gaping at me from the pillow.
I
grinned at her: "Boo."
King
Kong's eyeballs really fell out this time, and with a frantic, "Nyao!!!?"
she popped out of the window.
Hehe.
Time
to wake Usagi up!
I
jumped down at her.
She
kept on sleeping.
"Ahem!"
I cried into her ear.
By
the way, it was dirty.
I
mean, the ear.
Suddenly,
Usagi snored at top of her lungs right into my face.
I've
almost had a heart attack.
Then
I again shrieked into her (dirty) ear: "HEY, YOU! WAKE UP!!"
Usagi
just went on snoring there.
"USAGI!!!"
"Huh?.."
"Well,
maybe you'll get up at last?" I asked, hinting.
"What's
up?.."
"It's
the opposite direction of the pull of gravity," I smirked.
"HUH?"
"Do
you know what's the day today?"
"Third!"
she immediately spat out.
"Of
what?" I helped her.
"May!"
"And?.."
I prompted.
"What
time's it?"
"7:29."
"Auugghhhh!!!
LATE!!!" Usagi flapped her eyes open and started running out of her sleeping
bag, but got tangled up with the blouse on her feet and collapsed down
onto the floor.
"Darn
it!" she scrambled up and ran to her closet, found a dirty (just like her
ears), un-ironed skirt with a hole at the right knee, pulled it on halfway,
then her stare fell at the calendar hanging on the wall: the third of May.
Next
second Usagi was back in her bag: "Luna! Are you NUTS?! It's Sunday!! I
waited for this day for a whole week!.. Don't ya dare to wake me up till
eleven, got it?"
Oh,
great! Just great! She forgot!
I
sullenly trotted out of the room and cast one last glance at Usagi, hoping
she will finally remember. But she was curled up into a ball, already back
to her thunderous snoring.
As
I started down the stairs, I really hoped that the girls know what's the
day today...
I
heard the sound of a door slamming and next second Minako, Rei, Makoto,
and Ami clattered up the stairway herd-like... and over me.
"Girls!"
I hoarsed out.
"Oh,
yeah!.." They whirled around. "Morning, Luna! What are you doing here?"
I
wrinkled my whiskers in disgust: "You mean, why on earth would I be in
the place I live?"
They
were confused. "Uh, yeah, right..."
"And
what are YOU doing here?" I asked.
Rei
folded her arms: "You mean, what the heck we're doing at our friend's house?"
Grrrr...
Nice one, Rei.
"And,
well... We... We are... Well... uh..." Ami started to explain.
Makoto
came to the rescue: "Yeah! We want... umm..."
It
was Minako's turn: "Well... we want Usagi to... uhh... um..."
Rei
shot them a dirty look and finished: "...to get out of bed and go shopping!"
"Shopping?.."
I mean, since when people go shopping at seven o'clock Sunday? "Oh... um...you
know what's the day today?" I asked hopefully.
They
exchanged looks.
"It's
the third of May, Sunday," said Rei. "Luna, did you get it from Usagi?
Forgetting simple things, I mean."
"No,
I guess it was you who got it." I marched downstairs.
And
there, I found Artemis in the middle of a criminal scene — he was hunting
Tsukinos' fridge for... celery. (Yuck!!)
I
decided to get straight to the business: "Artemis, do you know what's the
day today?"
Artemis
spun around, hurriedly crashed shut the fridge, caught his tail into it,
yelped, the chewed-up celery fell from his mouth, and he went like, "Huh??"
Idiot...
"I
asked you, what's the day today?"
"Day?..
Ah!.. It's..." Artemis peeked at the daily newspaper he was holding under
his paw. "It's May third, Sunday. Why do you ask? You forgot?.. I thought
there's a calendar in the kitchen..."
The
next thing he saw was my paw, as it clawed his face (gory chunks, lots
of blood, and stuff, I mean).
Four
bright lines went from his ear to his chin.
"Luna!!!"
he sobbed, clenching his cheek. "What did I do??"
I
left him one-on-one with his stupidity and was gone out of the front door.
May 3rd, 7:58 a.m.
Artemis
She's
crazy! Luna, I mean. What the hell did I do?? Maybe I told her the wrong
date?.. Or maybe, it's just PMS??..
I
decided to check it out on the calendar in the kitchen.
There,
big bold letters said: 'May'.
So
the month's right...
And
there was the date: 'third, Sunday'.
The
date's right, too...
To
be one hundred percent sure, I took a fast glance of the counter clock.
Third
of May.
So
everything was right!
What's
wrong???
I
touched my burning cheek.
I
looked at the calendar again. There, the third date was circled by a neon-pink
marker.
And
Usagi's handwriting checked that date.
Ahhh!..
So I was right! That was it!!
I
ran upstairs: "Hey, guys!! Do you know what's the day today??? Guys!!!"
May 3rd, 7:41 a.m.
Ochitsukiko
"Hey!!
Usagi!!! WAKE UP, I SAID!!!!!"
I
opened my eyes as someone slapped my face.
"Ow!"
I cried and saw... no, not Usagi's cat. But some black-haired, violet-eyed
girl who kept yelling something about, 'Tear your lazy butt off the bed
and let's go!'
I
blinked. "Where to???"
The
girl rolled her eyes: "Don't ya remember? We were saving money for three
months to buy Luna a new walkman!"
WALKMAN??..
For a CAT???..
I
didn't get it, I absolutely didn't.
"Uh,
Rei?.." said a short black-haired girl, addressing the one that was slapping
me.
Rei
turned to her: "Yeah?"
"Well..."
The girl uncertainly glanced at me. "I suppose that we... that we had mistaken
Usagi-chan for yet another young woman."
I
found myself surrounded by four girls. Rei, the short-haired one, a blonde,
and a towering reddish-brown-haired one. I just noticed them because they
all were staring at me.
Am
I exposed????..
I
pulled the covers over my chest (actually, I was in a nightgown, but that's
besides the point).
The
girls leaped away from me.
A
shaggy-headed someone sprang up from the floor: "Who the hell stepped on
my butt?!?!!"
The
blonde girl gaped at her. "Oh, there you are, Usagi! Sorry!"
"Um..."
Rei nervously looked at me, then back at Usagi. "Come on, come on! We gotta
go shopping, remember?"
"SHOPPING!!
YEA!!! Just a sec!!!!!"
In
exactly three seconds, Usagi was up, dressed, and washed away along with
her friends.
The
madhouse.
I
felt my bed around for Ginko. I needed to calm myself down...
But
there were no tracks of her.
Then
through the loud robin's chirping, I heard a pitiful and tired, "Nyao!.."
I
jumped off the bed and to the window. There was my beloved kitty, clinging
for her dear life by hanging down from the tree branch three meters (ten
feet) above the ground.
When
she saw me with big, brown, tearful, pleading eyes, she let out another
pitiful, "Nya!.." (I figured out she couldn't even finish her cry of soul.)
Maybe
I, too, should buy her a walkman, so that she wouldn't roam around at night?..