Tonari no Totoro is the property of Hayao Miyazaki. All rights reserved.

*****Growing up Without Mei*****
Prologue/Teaser:
Sayounara, Totoro-san

The sun shined lazily in the afternoon sky. Little sunbeams spilled through the leaves, illuminating the forest scene. This particular forest was lush and full. Attention is drawn to a small grove in the middle of the trees and lush greenery.

Mei poked at the big, fuzzy thing in front of her. It wobbled, like it were alive. It was a huge, warm, gray mass of fur. She giggled in delight, as poking it again brought forth another wave of motion. She jumped up and grabbed onto it with her whole body, squealing and giggling some more.

Mei was a young girl, not even kindergarten age. She had short, coppery-brown hair that she wore in pigtails on either side of her head. She had a childish, chubby face. She wore an orange hat and an orangish skirt. She had an obnoxious voice that would hopefully change and mature over time, as would she.

Instead of the fuzzy thing just moving this time, whatever it was attached to decided to roll over. The fuzzy thing Mei had been poking at turned out to be a tail, and it was attached to a big, furry creature. 'I could swear I've seen this before in my picture books!' thought Mei excitedly.

She crawled up onto the things belly. It had triangle patterns on its upper chest, which was a lighter colour than the rest of it. It had a cute, catlike face, with whiskers and a cute little nose. It was about the size of a big truck. "Who are you?" Mei asked.

The creature, which looked like a cross between a teddy bear and a cat, opened its giant mouth. Its teeth had gaps between them, and the mouth was big enough to eat Mei in one gulp. "TO...........TO...........ROOOOOOOOOOOO......" the large beast said, not very intelligible. The 'ro' carried and echoed, the wind that had almost knocked Mei off its stomach and into the afterlife subsided.

"What?" she said, not having understood the first time. "TO.............TO.............ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO........." This time, the wind didn't die down in time. Mei was flung from the totoro's stomach. She smacked into a tree, headfirst. Satsuki walked in, calling, "Mei! Mei! Where are you? Oh my god!" Mei's brains splattered everywhere, getting on her big sister Satsuki. Globs of gray matter went *splat!* in her short, black hair. Blood gushed out in the rhythm of her heart beat, slowing...slowing...stopping. "Kya!!!"

Mei's limp form fell to the ground in a disorderly manner. Satsuki ran to her dead sisters side. "Oh...Oh no...Dad! Help me!" The totoro looked down at the sisters and made a curious sound. "Damn...you...TOTORO!!!"

What Satsuki did next would give her a scar that would remain with her the rest of her life. Her first battle scar, the first of many. She launched herself at the great beast, screaming in fury. She was suddenly filled with energy. She felt she could do anything, conquer any foe. It was a feeling she would become well aquainted with over the years.

Satsuki flew at the totoro's head. The tototo moved to the side at the last second, and Satsuki's right cheek was ripped open by three sharp whiskers. Three lines of blood trickled down her face, and she got woozy. She feel to the ground and crumpled in pain.

***

That was how she remained for over an hour. Her father found her then. He never recovered from the shocking sight that greeted him then. He now resides in a quiet, lonely room with padded walls and white coated attendents.

Satsuki didn't really recover, either. After the hell she had gone though, she didn't want to recover. If she recovered, than the pain she felt would go away. If the pain went away, it meant she wouldn't have loved Mei enough.

The cuts on her cheek needed stitches. Six stitches for each cut; she would be a freak the rest of her life. Now her mother would never love her.

And she owed this all to her enemies. To the totoro.

***

Authors notes:
You can blame the over descriptiveness on my reading too many Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter novels. (They're by Laurell K. Hamilton, get them, they're good!) I got this idea by watching 'Tonari no Totoro', of course. I don't know how long it will be, but I figure this is a nice twist on the 'good totoro, I love totoro' thing. Though I of course like totoro's. The theme song plays on my main page for goodness sake =)

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