[FFML] [Oneshot][Side Story][R1.5/SL]Ukyo's Little Adventure

[Wanderer D]

Hello everyone! This is a Side Story for "Secret of
Ukyo" which was posted... a while ago. But, if you're
interested, you can always find it in fanfiction.net

Anyway, C&C welcome!

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-- Attached file included as plaintext by Ecartis --
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Ukyo’s Little Adventure

“Secret of Ukyo” Side-story.
By Wanderer D

Author’s note: Well, “Secret of Ukyo: Book Two” is coming along nicely
I must say, but recently I got a-hold of an interesting movie, which
made me rent another one, and eventually find and buy a hard-cover
version of the original book plus the DVD of said movie. There’s not
much I can say other than this movie has inspired this side-story,
helping me broaden the world which I and Ukyo are just beginning to
explore… I hope you all like this story…

- D

Disclaimer: Stuart Little was created by E.B. White, and the movie
versions were adapted and filmed by the guys at Columbia-Tristar.
Ukyo, and all Ranma ½ characters are the intellectual property of our
beloved Rumiko Takahashi. This is a fan-based work of fiction which
has absolutely no relation to the original intent of the characters
as the original authors & creators viewed them, but it’s still
entertaining. I gain no money from this, and it can be distributed
freely, just have a mind to give credit of this fanfic to me if you
do so.

***

Nabiki waited patiently as the stewardess announced the plane to New
York was ready to be boarded. Hearing a small clamor she turned around
and looked up, seeing Ukyo running and jumping to get to her.

“Well then, where were you, Uchan?” Nabiki asked her friend as she
came running down the last part to the waiting room, where people were
already being ushered into the plane.

“Oh, sorry, Nabs,” Ukyo said, blushing slightly. “I just remembered I
didn’t have gloves packed and stopped to buy a pair at the Duty Free…”

Nabiki shook her head, smiling lightly. “I do remember telling you
that it’s cold there at this time of the year.”

Ukyo shrugged helplessly.

“Well, never mind that now, Uchan, let’s go, we can board already,”
Nabiki said after a friendly sigh of exasperation.

As they fell into line behind a couple of newly weds, Ukyo glanced at
Nabiki. “Hey Nabs, have you ever gone to New York?”

Nabiki nodded. “Yeah, once about two years ago.”

Ukyo nodded. “Good, I guess you’ll know a good place for Uchan’s
then…”

Nabiki just smiled reassuringly. “Oh, I have an idea…”

***

Ukyo couldn’t move too much. Her usual sprint and energy had been
spent fighting against an enemy she was unable to defeat… she
shouldered her bag again and tramped into the hotel room she would
share with Nabiki and let everything fall alongside her on the bed.

“I choose this one…” She muttered from under the pillow, which she
had put over her head to try to block all the sunlight.

Nabiki gave a dollar to the bellboy and slumped on the other bed,
looking at the ceiling. “We’ll look at the place tomorrow if you don’t
mind, Ukyo…” she began, when Ukyo’s soft snoring let her know she had
her friend’s unconditional support on that motion.


***

The next day, the sun’s first rays found a weary Ukyo stepping out of
the bathroom after a hot bath. “Your turn, Nabs.” She muttered
throwing the pillow to her friend, who woke up with the soft blow and
slowly got up from the bed to take her turn at the shower.

After a few minutes both of them were dressed in winter clothes. Ukyo
opened the window and risked a look outside. White.

It had snowed while they slept, and it was considerably cold out there
.. She almost wished they had waited until summer, but business was
business, after all, and she was the one that had insisted on coming
to New York for a start just before Christmas.

She followed Nabiki out of the room and down the elevator to the lobby.
“So, where is the place?” Ukyo asked Nabiki after they had eaten
breakfast.

“You’ll see soon enough, Uchan. Don’t worry too much over it.” Nabiki
deadpanned. Then she smiled at her. “Or, if you give me 20 dollars, I
could spoil the surprise for you…”

“Nabs…” Ukyo sighed, hitting her friend softly on the shoulder. “Don’t
even think about it.”

Nabiki laughed out loud and walked with Ukyo to the entrance of the
Hotel. Beyond the crystal doors they could see people walking on the
snow-covered sidewalk, most of them freezing by the looks of it. At
that moment, Ukyo seriously considered parting with 20 bucks to avoid
the cold, but Nabiki seemed to be able to read her thoughts.

“Oh, no you don’t, we’re walking there. I want you to see the place
for yourself!” Nabiki said pushing Ukyo out the automatic doors. And
into the sidewalk, a breeze passed and it chilled her to the bone.
“’sides, we’re signing the papers today and I don’t know much about
kitchens and restaurant-specific needs…”

Ukyo surrendered to the inevitable and started trudging through the
snow, following Nabiki and taking her first good look at the Big Apple.

***

“Nabs, this is incredible!” Ukyo said, as she hanged her coat on a
nearby stool. The place was a little bigger than the original Uchan’s,
but it was inside a building, with the basement completely at their
disposal. It seemed it had been a café once, but it hadn’t really
worked at all.

It was just in front of the Plymouth Theater, a perfect place for a
small restaurant like Ukyo had planned. “How did you find it?!” she
asked, turning around to face her friend, who was just checking her
watch at that moment.

Nabiki looked up, the edge of her mouth twitching up into her usual
‘I know something that you don’t’ smile. “Oh, I have my sources…” she
started. “Speaking of which, he should be here soon…”

Ukyo started down the basement when someone knocked on the door. She
turned around as Nabiki was just opening it to let a man in. He was
dressed in jeans, lots of sweaters, boots and a black trench-coat that
covered most of his dirty face. He fidgeted a little as he moved,
sometimes stopping to move his head around, staring at something,
then sort of stalked forth until he discovered it wasn’t important.

“Ukyo, this is Mr. Grim Shineplume, an old acquaintance of mine…”
Nabiki introduced the man, who stared so long at Ukyo’s red gem that
she started to become worried. Nabiki elbowed him and he snapped out
of it. “Grim, this is Ukyo Kounji, my partner.”

“Pleased ta meet ya.” The man said, shaking hands with Ukyo. “Nabi
here sais ya wanta buy da place. Nice joint, I’ve to admit.” He smiled
at them both, showing a clearly rotten tooth.

“Uh, yeah…” Ukyo answered.

Grim smiled uneasily, looked back to the door, up to Nabiki and then
back to Ukyo and then, seeming to come to a decision, offered her a
folder. “Good. Nabi has all da papers in order, so all I need is yer
autograph here on these papers.”

Ukyo took the folder and read through the papers carefully. “All seems
to be in order…” she murmured, looking up at Mr. Grim and arching an
eyebrow.

“It is.” Nabiki said offhandedly “I checked it all up from home, as
Grim said, all we need is the signatures.”

Ukyo only considered for a few seconds. On one hand, she wouldn’t have
let Mr. Grim close enough to talk (from the looks of him) if it wasn’t
for Nabs, on the other hand, Nabs liked things to be straight in
business… she signed, then passed the papers to Nabiki, who also
signed. “Well, it’s done.” Ukyo said, sighing.

Mr. Grim nodded and stood up. “I’ll leave you these…” he said, taking
a few copies from the folder and giving them to Ukyo. “The rest are
for da record,” He clarified.

Nabiki also stood up. “Well Uchan, I have a few things to do around
the city today, think you can handle yourself without me?” she asked
Ukyo with a small smile.

“Sure, Nabs!” Ukyo answered. “But, what do you have to do?”

Nabiki stopped by the door, and Mr. Grim, who was right besides her
gave her an amused look. “I have a meeting.” Nabiki said. “A small
one today, with a few old friends, and the day past tomorrow I’ll
have the big one.” Nabiki smiled and winked at Ukyo. “But if I don’t
go today I might lose on the ‘questions and answers’ game at the end.”

Ukyo blink-blinked, and Mr. Grim closed his mouth with an audible snap.
“Uh… right. Good luck, I guess.” She managed to say. Soon, Ukyo was
alone in the place. “Well, might as well start.” She said, and picked
up a broom.

Morning went by as Ukyo picked up things, looked around in the
basement, took measurements of the place and left everything clean,
which wasn’t much work, since the place had been kept mostly clean
since it had closed up. She then looked at her watch. “twelve thirty…”
she mused aloud. “I think I’ll go shopping…”

***

By three o’clock, Ukyo had already found the things she needed for a
good start on the new “Uchan’s”: a couple of new freezers, a new grill,
and had followed Nabiki’s instructions to contact the people who would
help them with the ingredients. Really knowing what you were looking
for, and checking prices and places on the internet before even
getting to NY helped a lot in buying things quickly.
The grill and the rest of the things would be brought the following
day by the stores and installed. Upon checking the basement, Ukyo had
discovered that there were many tables and chairs already there, ready
for them to use whenever they wanted.

She never grumbled about Nabiki not going with her to do the shopping,
and going instead with her friends. As her friend had said, Ukyo was
the one that really knew what was needed in the restaurant, and Nabs
had actually done the web investigation, handled the paperwork and
found the place.

The only thing they were missing was someone to work at the grill so
they could get started and later on return to Japan, leaving the place
in capable hands. Having finished with the shopping for now, Ukyo
didn’t have much to do, other than wait. But it was still way too
early to actually go back to the hotel, and if she fell asleep then
she wouldn’t get used to the daytime in this side of the world.

And so, Ukyo started walking. It was a couple of hours later when she
stared at the weird sight of a small, country-like house between two
very large buildings. The place was cute, but it made too much of a
contrast for Ukyo’s tastes. She started walking again until she
reached the park.

That’s when she saw them. Three kids that couldn’t be older than ten,
playing in the snow… with a mouse. She couldn’t hear what they were
yelling, but the snowball fight was clearly aimed at the mouse! The
fact that the mouse was doing pitiful attempts to get into cover made
her jump into action.

Just as the newly made snowballs left the kids’ hands, Ukyo had two
of her small spatulas flying. The spatulas punched more than sliced
through the soft snow with no problem, stopping the attack perfectly
and ending up embedded on the cold, hard, ground.

“Wow!” was the general consent among the kids, as they stared wide
eyed from the person that had thrown the spatulas, to the pieces of
snow, to the spatulas.

Ukyo slid to a halt between the kids and the mouse. “Listen kids, if
you want to hit him with snowballs, you’ll have to get through me!”

“Uh…” One of the kids started to say. “‘Uh’, nothing!” she growled.
“It’s not fair to attack someone who can’t defend himself against you
guys!” She glared down at them.

“But… he’s not alone!” another kid, the only one with glasses started
to say. “He’s got Margalo, and that gives him advantage of height!”

“Yeah!” Another kid interrupted. “We have to score points before she
comes back from Stuart’s house!”

“Will’s right…” the third began to say, when suddenly a snowball hit
him on the head.

“Score!” said a voice from above.

Ukyo looked up and saw a small canary flying around and doing a…
victory spin? The kid with the glasses scooped up a piece of snow and
yelled in defiance as he threw the ball in a futile attempt to hit the
canary, who just swooped out of the way.

As the kids, the canary and the mouse, which Ukyo just noted was
dressed in winter-clothes, carried on with their game, Ukyo picked
up her spatulas and reclined against a nearby tree and sighed.
Weirdness it seemed, was much more normal than she had imagined… so
why call it weird in the first place?

She felt something light on her shoulder and looked at the canary,
Margalo, resting on her shoulder. "Hey," Ukyo said.

"Hey," Margalo greeted back. "so you tried to help Stuart?" she asked
pointing with her wing to the mouse as he dodged another snowball and
threw one -considerably smaller- of his own back.

"Well, yeah, but it seems he doesn't need it." Ukyo answered, smiling
back at the canary, who nodded.

"Yeah, his brother wouldn't let anyone hurt him." Margalo clarified.

"His brother?" She asked looking around for another mouse, until
Margalo's laugh interrupted her.

"No, not another mouse, the one you were talking to... the kid with
glasses!" Margalo said.

"What?!" Ukyo almost shouted, but a snowball hit her in the face as
she was about to holler.

"Uh, uh..." said the kid that had thrown it as Margalo flew up with a
laugh and Ukyo glared at him. He turned around to run, and he had
taken two steps before a snowball hit the back of his head. After that
the battle started in earnest, with Ukyo on the mouse and canary's
side.

Mrs. Little opened the door and found a very, very soaked kid, a mouse,
a canary and a young woman, this one almost completely clean, standing
outside her door.

“Stuart! George! I was getting worried about you two!” she said,
looking at the young woman a little surprised, she was about 23 or so
in her estimation.

Ukyo smiled at that and put Stuart and Margalo down. “Well guys, I
escorted you back home, but I can’t answer to you being late.” She
said. “I’m off then!”

“Oh, can’t you stay?” George asked. “Only for a little while?” He
tried to use the puppy eye attack with almost devastating effects.

“Yeah!” Stuart shouted from way below. “Tell us more about Japan!”

Mrs. Little quickly took charge. “You took care of my children,
miss…?”

“Ukyo Kounji, Mrs. Little, and I only played with them for a while and
reminded them to come home when it was getting late.” She bowed
slightly.

“And she told us wonderful stories of faraway lands!” Margalo added.

Ukyo frowned. “Yes, but you guys still owe me an explanation on how
you’re all family!”

Mrs. Little laughed lightly. “Well, everyone seems to want you to stay,
so why don’t you stay for dinner and we can talk all you guys want.”
She stepped away from the door and motioned everyone inside.

“Oh, I couldn’t impose…” Ukyo started, but she knew what would happen
next, from previous experience with another worried mother.

“I insist, Ms. Kounji.” Mrs. Little said, inviting her in. “We’re
having meatloaf tonight!”

***

“So, only Stuart and George are your sons, and Margalo is Stuart’s
girlfriend?” Ukyo asked as they sat around the table.

Mrs. Little had prepared a cup hot of chocolate for each of them and
had told her about how Stuart had come into the family and how they
had met Margalo. Ukyo was amused by the story.

Mrs. Little nodded while Margalo and Stuart blushed slightly.

“Still, you are very brave, Stuart!” Ukyo said brightly. “Not many
people would’ve done so much! Or acted like you did in the face of
danger!”

Stuart smiled shyly at the praise. “And what are you doing in New York,
Ukyo?” Stuart asked eventually.

“Well, I came over here to start a new restaurant in town.” Ukyo
answered after a sip of chocolate. “I’m opening my first “Uchan’s” in
New York."

"Uchan's? Now, why does that sound familiar?" Mused Mrs. Little.

At that moment the door closed and Mr. Little came in. "Little hey,
little ho! Did I hear correctly? Uchan's?"

Mrs. Little nodded as he walked up to them. "Well dear, that's the
restaurant I took you when we went to San Francisco,” he said. “But,
what about it?"

Mrs. Little introduced Ukyo and explained that she was about to open
an Uchan's in New York. "So, the San Francisco Uchan's is also yours?"
Mr. Little asked a little surprised.

"Well, I was there when it was founded, but the restaurant is a
franchise of the original Uchan's from Nerima." Ukyo answered when
Mr. Little had said his hellos and sat down.

"Wow, so you've got your very own restaurant in Japan!" Stuart said
happily. "That's incredible!"

"I wish I could fly to Japan and see it with my own eyes. But it's
many hours of flight, I would guess!" Margalo said.

"About 14 in an Airplane from here." Ukyo clarified.

Margalo looked downcast for a moment, but Stuart placed his arm on her
shoulders. "I'm sure we'll get to see Japan someday soon, Margalo."he
said.

Ukyo looked at the clock and gasped. It was almost 10 PM! "Well, it
was nice to meet you, Mrs. Little, Mr. Little, Stuart, Margalo,
George... but I really have to go now, or Nabiki is going to kill me!"

"And who's Nabiki?" Stuart asked. "Your boyfriend?"


Ukyo laughed a little. "No, she's my partner in crime. She's my
friend and partner with Uchan's" she winked at them.

"At least let us call you a cab..." Mr. Little said.

"It's okay, Mr. Little." Ukyo said smiling. "I still want to walk for
a while."

Mr. Little sighed, but nodded. Ukyo said good-bye to everyone and went
out.

***

Ukyo walked down the street enjoying the view of New York by night.
She had been on the look out for any mugging attempts, but so far
nothing had happened. A sudden "Caw" made her look up. A couple of big
black birds passed by. She thought those were crows... Ukyo shrugged
and walked on, feeling the look of the crows as she passed under a
branch where both were staring at her. She walked faster.

***

She closed the door to the hotel room with a sigh.

"Had a good time?" Nabiki called after quickly checking if it was her
from the desk.

"Yeah, met a few interesting people. How about you?" she called back
as she prepared to take a bath.

"Hn... I've heard of some interesting people that live here in NY..."
Nabiki said, glancing to the bath as Ukyo took her clothes off and
entered the shower. She waited until her friend had closed the
shower's doors and she could barely see her reaching for the handles.
"By the way, Uchan..."

"Yes?" Ukyo asked as she turned the hot water on. She let out a
startled yell and Nabiki watched her friend's form disappear from view.
"I should warn you that it takes a couple of minutes for the water to
come out hot...." she finished with a small laugh, and turned back to
work in her laptop.

***

"That was mean." Ukyo said, throwing her pillow at Nabiki, who was
already in bed by the time she came out. "You don't know how annoying
it is to get wet fur!"

Nabiki laughed, throwing the pillow back to Ukyo's bed. "Then be glad
you don't turn into a bird! I've… read that they get the worse part if
their wings get wet."

"Ha, ha. Nabs, I'll ask Margalo and prove you wrong." Ukyo grumbled as
she got inside the bed.

Nabiki looked at her for a moment. "Margalo?" Ukyo nodded slowly, and
yawned. She was getting sleepy. "Yeah... she's a canary I met..."
Nabiki stared at her, but Ukyo was already asleep.

"A canary, eh?"

***

At times, she asked herself why she stayed in New York in winter.
After all, she wasn’t really being forced to stay as before, in a life
that seemed to have happened to someone else. Certainly her life had
been much more relaxed ever since Falcon had disappeared.

Margalo sighed and jumped from the branch she was perched on and
glided into the snow-covered city. She stopped again and perched on a
telephone line in front of a hotel and looked down at the people.

“Hm, lots of birds around, for this time of the year.” A voice said
from behind her.

“Yeow!” Margalo shouted turning around in mid-jump to look at the big
black bird that was perched next to her on the line. “Don’t do that!
I almost had a heart attack!” Margalo stared right at the bird, ready
to jump if she tried anything. She was not on good terms with big
birds. “So what’s a crow doing here in NY?” she asked diplomatically.

“Crow!” The bird lifted her head in indignation. “A CROW?! Do I look
like a crow to you?” She did look quite scandalized at the apparent
confusion.

“Uh…” Margalo started, but stopped as the Crow-like bird opened her
wings in a very dramatic way and looked to the heavens.

“By Amaseratsu, Canary! Do I look like someone who would perch on a
mime’s shoulder and caw cryptically whenever he gets shot?!”

Margalo was a little taken aback by that. “Eh… mime?”

The other bird sighed. “I’m a Raven. R. A. V. E. N. not a crow! Kids
these days! It’s almost as if… oh, forget it.” The raven stopped
grumbling and looked amusedly at Margalo. “Nice pin.” The raven said.

“Uh, thanks.” Margalo answered rather warily, hiding her pin inside
the folds of her blue scarf. She knew ravens AND crows were addicted
to shiny things. “So,” Margalo said, once the raven had started
looking at the people below again. “Uh, why are you here?”

“Ah, nothing much, taking care of a few business, meeting old friends,
introducing new ones to the wonders of NY and hearing interesting
stories about mice, hawks and planes.” The raven answered snidely.

“Oh?” Margalo tried to appear nonchalant about the whole thing.

“Yeah, you wouldn’t believe what they say! Tales of daring-do and
adventure…” The raven answered. “So, is this Stuart Little as brave
as they say, Margalo?” she asked after a small pause, and Margalo was
quick to answer. “Well, he’s a little shy, really and…” the canary
stopped. “What did you just call me?”

“I didn’t call you anything, what do you think I called you?” the
raven answered after a moment.

“You said my name’s Margalo!” the canary accused.

“I did?”

“YES!”

“And it isn’t?”

“No!” Margalo shouted, then stammered, “I mean, yes! But that’s not
the point!”

“Then why are you complaining about that? If I had said your name was,
say, Kimberly, then you would have a good reason to complain.”

Margalo almost growled.

The raven looked at her with even more amusement.

“Okay, how do you know my name?” the canary tried again.

“You just told me.” The black bird answered.

“You knew before I said it.” Margalo said a little annoyed.

“Yesss…” said the raven.

“Okay, so, how come you knew my name?” Margalo asked.

“That information is going to cost you.” The raven said.

“I’m a canary! I don’t have money!” Margalo answered.

“Well then, Margalo, I’ll keep my secret.”

At that moment Margalo almost said ‘fine’ and was about to fly off
her own way… except… this one knew about Stuart and her! What if it
was another enemy like Falcon? “How can I pay you?” She asked in
resignation.

“You wouldn’t know Martial Arts of any sort, would you?” The raven
wondered, and then answered her own question. “No, of course not… how
about… that pin you have in the scarf, and a question of my own?”

“You want my… pin?” Margalo asked, but then took it out. It was for
Stuart… after all. She handed over the pin. The raven looked at it
closely and hid it inside her wing. “Well?” Margalo asked.

“Okay kid, tell me why you speak human English and I’ll answer
whichever one question you want me to answer.” The raven stated.

“I don’t know,” Margalo answered honestly. She hadn’t really stopped
to consider about that. “Do I?” she had always thought that the
Littles were the ones that spoke her own language.

“Well, to answer your question, yes, you do. Rather good actually, no
accent at all. And you can pronounce an S without problems.” The black
bird noted.

“Well… so can you…” Margalo answered.

“Yes, indeed.” The raven answered nodding. “Well, nice talking to you,
kid, I had hoped for more information from you, but, a deal’s a deal,
and I do have business to attend to, I’d ask you where I could find a
good place to buy knives but that would start another round of
questions, and, as fun as that is, your credit IS rather dry.”

The raven jumped and started flying away. Margalo didn’t wait a second
before going after her. “Hey! You cheated! You didn’t answer my
question!” She heard the raven’s voice just as she turned around a
building.

“Yes, I did! You do have very good English, as I said!”

“Hey! Wait! That’s not fair! Hey!” Margalo shouted as she flew around,
looking for the raven, but unable to find her.

Far up, a dark figure watched Margalo fly desperately around the
building until she gave up and flew away.

“Soon, little one, soon you’ll pay for all you did…” the dark figure
muttered, and with a flutter of pastel-blue feathers it was gone.

***

”Hmm…” Ukyo pulled out one of the knives and put it on the counter of
the store. “Are you sure this one’s good enough? We ARE going to cut
very fine strips of fish at times…”

The clerk nodded. “Yes, those will do. We haven’t had any problems so
far with that line, and we’ve sold quite a lot of those…”

“Okay,” Ukyo said, this was after all the last of the stores she had
visited and so far the best. “I’ll take them, and these spatulas too…”
After paying, Ukyo went outside into the cold breeze of early morning
NY. “Ok,” Ukyo said to herself as she checked her watch. “I’ll have
to hurry if I want to get in time for the interviews…” she started
hurrying back.

Another of the things Nabiki had taken care of all the way from Japan,
was to find some prospect cooks from local Colleges and job finders.
Most would come that same day to talk with Ukyo and prove their skills,
the others would stop by the next day.

As she walked she heard a few shouts from above. Curious, she looked
up and saw a canary fluttering about as if looking for someone. She
only knew of one canary that would still be in NY during winter…
“Hey! Margalo!” she shouted and waved, ignoring the strange looks of
some people.

Margalo heard her name and looked about, noticing a girl waving her
hand at her. For a moment she couldn’t place her, but immediately
after she remembered Ukyo and swept down to land on Ukyo’s extended
finger. A few people grunted in surprise at a canary in winter, others’
eyes boggled when the canary spoke.

“Hello, Ukyo!” Margalo said with a soft smile. If Ukyo hadn’t seen
Jeremy do that she’d have said it was impossible for birds to smile
so. “Say, you haven’t seen any ravens about, have you?”

“Ravens?” Ukyo asked and thought for a moment, finally she said,
“Last night I think I saw a couple, but I couldn’t really be sure…”
she was thinking of the two crows she had seen outside Stuart’s house.

Margalo sighed. “Oh well…”

“Why, what happened?” the Japanese cook asked, sensing the canary’s
plight.

“Well, a raven tricked me into giving her my pin!” Margalo confessed
a little flustered.

“That’s terrible!” Ukyo answered, remembering how cute the canary
looked with that pin. “I wish I could help you right away, but I’ve
got to go to the restaurant…”

Margalo nodded. “It’s lost now… and I couldn’t find anything on how
that raven knew about Stuart and I…”

Ukyo tensed a little. She had just met them, but she had grown fond of
the Littles' and their simple and happy view of the world. “Listen,
Margalo, I will help you find out what the raven wants and how she
knows you guys.”

Margalo beamed. “Really?! Neat!” Ukyo nodded. “But I still have to go
to the restaurant, want to tag along?” Margalo nodded and jumped to
Ukyo’s shoulder.

***

“Wow, nice place!” Margalo said when Ukyo had walked in. The canary
jumped from her shoulder and made a sweep about the restaurant. Ukyo
set down the knives and spatulas and started preparing some green tea.

“So, how did this raven make you give her your pin?” she asked Margalo,
who had perched on the back of a chair.

“Well… she knew about me and Stuart…” Margalo started as Ukyo checked
about for the cups she knew she had put somewhere. Finally, Ukyo took
out two and motioned with one to Margalo, who nodded and continued as
Ukyo poured some Tea into the cups. She made sure it wasn’t too hot.

“She then said that should I pay her for telling me what she knew,”
said the canary. Ukyo sat down in front of her and placed Margalo’s
cup on the table and took a sip of her own, nodding to Margalo to
continue.

After a quick sip, the canary did. “I said I didn’t carry money, so
she asked something about me or Stuart knowing martial arts…” Margalo
frowned. THAT had been a weird question. “but she- Ukyo?”

Ukyo had put down the cup and was choking with the tea. She hit her
chest a couple of times before she could wheeze air back into her
lungs. “Martial… Arts?”

“Uh… yeah…” Margalo answered. “But she dropped it of immediately after
… uh… why are you making that face? Is that important?”

Ukyo was frowning, trying to grasp something that had just sprung in
her memory but still eluded her. “Please continue, Margalo, maybe we
can solve this problem sooner than I’d thought…”

Margalo nodded, enthusiastic about the possibility of getting her pin
back. “Anyway, after all of that she told me that she would answer
any one question I wanted if I answered another and gave her my pin
in payment… so I gave her my pin and she asked me how it was that I
could speak human English…”

That was a good question, Ukyo herself had wondered why she, Stuart
and probably others in their immediate circle could do that, but
hadn’t done so out of respect.

“…and?” she prompted.

“Well,” Margalo answered a little ashamed. “I told her that I didn’t
know I spoke English any differently from other animals…”

“About that…” Ukyo interrupted. “Margalo, only you and Stuart speak
like that, but don’t you have problems to speak with other animals?”

Margalo shook her head. “No… we can speak like that with everyone…”

Ukyo nodded. “It’s strange… normally if you spoke only English you
wouldn’t be able to talk to animals, since everyone but humans speak
“animal” language…”

At that moment there was a knock on the door and Ukyo looked outside
to see a young girl waiting outside. She had a brown hair tied in a
pony tail and was a little taller than Ukyo. As she stood up and
walked to the door, she noted that the girl seemed to be Japanese but
had unusually green eyes.

She opened the door. “Hi, how can I help you?” Ukyo asked.

“I’m here for the job application?” the girl half asked.

“Oh! Sure come in!” Ukyo stepped aside and the girl walked inside and
out of the falling snow. She hadn’t noticed that it had started
snowing. “I’m Ukyo Kounji, nice to meet you.” She said with a bow.

The girl seemed pleasantly surprised and bowed back. “Kino Makoto, I
didn’t expect to meet the famous Ukyo Kounji in person! I’m very
honored to meet you, Kounji-sama.”

Ukyo smiled. “Uchan will be enough, Kino-san.”

Makoto beamed back a smile. “Oh, then please call me Makoto or
Mako-chan, as my friends do.” She said bowing lightly.

Ukyo bowed back, and then looked curiously along with Makoto at
Margalo as she perched on her shoulder. “Uh, Margalo, this is Makoto,
Makoto, meet Margalo.” Ukyo said.

“How cute!” Makoto said immediately taking in the canary’s pilot cap
and blue scarf.

The canary had watched amused all the bowing, title adding, name
changing and had been a little confused at the whole deal.

“Why all the bowing and name changing, Ukyo?” Margalo asked.

Ukyo noticed that Makoto’s eyes bulged a little in surprise but that
was all. That was good.

“Well, Margalo, in Japan it is customary to refer to someone you’ve
just met with an added title of respect, and this title normally stays
until both persons have agreed to change it… but let’s just say it’s
just out of respect.”

“Oh…” Margalo said, impressed.

“Anyway,” Ukyo said walking to the table. “Why don’t we get started,
Mako-chan?” Makoto accepted a cup of tea from Ukyo. “So, how come
you’re here in NY?” Ukyo started.

“Well, I came here to study Culinary Arts in the Art Institute of NY…
and graduated a few months ago…”

They started talking and Margalo clung to every word with outmost
interest. She liked Makoto; she seemed easygoing and tough at the
same time. Much like Ukyo herself, she noted.

After half an hour of the interview, they had finished talking and
Makoto was about to leave. “It was nice meeting you, Mako-chan.”
Margalo said from Ukyo’s shoulder.

“You too, Margalo!” Makoto answered honestly. “Uchan, it was a
pleasure to meet you.”

Ukyo nodded. “Same here! I’ll call you tomorrow, okay?”

Makoto nodded and waved a little as she walked into the street. The
door closed behind her.

They interviewed two more girls that same day, one screamed when
Margalo talked, but calmed down a little while later, and the next
one spent almost the whole interview in a half-stupor staring at the
talking canary.

“Well, that was the last one,” Ukyo said looking out the window to
make sure the girl didn’t get run down by a passing car -with her
walking zombie-like and all- out of the restaurant.

“Hey, I’m sorry I scared those two so badly!” Margalo said when Ukyo
sat next to her with a sigh.

“No worries, sugar.” Ukyo said smiling and picking up the cups. “You
actually helped a lot.” She left the cups in the washer.

“I did?!” Margalo asked surprised. “But the first probably won’t come
back, and the second is still in shock, probably.” They both tried to ignore a claxon sounding very close by and the sounds of screeching tires coupled with a few shouts.

“Well, Margalo, it’s a requisite to be able to handle talking canaries
if you want to work at “Uchan’s”.”

“Why?” the canary asked.

“Well, you’ll understand soon enough, but let me tell you that weird
stuff happens around me and my gang all the time. It’s just the way
things are. And NY is no exception! I wouldn’t want someone who would
freak out if you or Stuart came to eat here!” Ukyo clarified.

“Makoto seemed to be able to do that…” Margalo commented.

“Yeah… she’s quite a find, really knows how to cook, already knows
the basics of most of the dishes here, good martial arts training,
has seen a few fights, used to weird stuff, knowledge of basic aura
detection, good looks –which helps a lot in this business- good sense
of humor and an overall feeling of being nice. I’m giving her the job,
if she chooses to accept it.”

The canary was impressed. “You… saw all that?! How? All you talked
about was her studies in Culinary school, about boys, sempais,
-whatever those are- and a little about Nerima and Jubaan…”

Ukyo smiled. “It’s one of the good things about leading a weird life,
Margalo. You learn many things.” She winked at the canary. “Well,
let’s close the place. That was the last interview for today. I hope
I find someone else tomorrow, or it’s going to get tough for Makoto if
she has to handle things alone…”

Ukyo bolted the door from the inside and started turning off the
lights. “Anyway, we’re going to start looking for more information
about your raven friend as of this moment.” She said over her shoulder
as she closed the curtains.

“Really? Cool! But… then why did you close the door? Are you going to
use a computer from here, or what?”

“No, sugar, we’re going out, but you’ll have to promise me you’ll keep
my secret.” Ukyo said from behind the counter as she held up a small
paper cup with water in it.

“Sure Ukyo… but what…” Margalo started to assure her, but stopped when
Ukyo nodded and poured the cold water on herself.

Margalo watched the girl disappear behind the counter, and heard the
cup as it fell to the floor and rolled. “… secret?” she finished in a
much smaller voice. “Ukyo?!” Margalo shouted as she flew to the bar,
lighted on it and looked down.

“Looking for someone?” Came Ukyo’s voice from behind her.

The unexpected voice made Margalo jump in fright and turn around.
“Ukyo, I thought- who are you?!”

Before her stood a brown mouse with long hair, tied back with a white
ribbon to hold it in place. She had a spatula tied to her back, and
was watching Margalo amusedly, as the later put a wing to her heart,
trying to calm down. Ukyo laughed a little and swirled around,
letting Margalo have a good look at her. “So, what do you think of my
little secret?” she asked winking at her.

***

“Margalo?” a voice asked into the darkness. “Hey! That’s not funny!
Wake up!” the voice insisted after a moment of silence, and then,
slowly, light crept into the darkness and the fuzzy image of a mouse
appeared.

“S…Stuart?” Margalo stammered, then her sight focused and she leapt
back. “Ah! You?!”

The brown female mouse smiled shyly at her. “Hey, sugar. Sorry for
scaring you like that… I didn’t expect you’d black out!”

The canary took two steps forward and, extending her wing touched
Ukyo’s face. “How…”

“Long story…” Ukyo sighed. “A while back I fell into a magic spring
that turned me into a mouse, and now I turn into a mouse whenever I
get splashed with cold water.” She explained motioning to the paper
cup.

“Oh.” Was all the canary could say.

“Well, Margalo, I hope this doesn’t change anything between us…” Ukyo
said, taking Margalo’s wing in her hands. “I mean… we’re still friends,
right?”

The canary smiled a little, she still was shocked, but Ukyo had warned
her that weirdness seemed to follow her around. “Yeah, sorry Ukyo, but
you did surprise me…”

***

Ukyo looked down from the top of the building she was standing on. She
couldn’t see any ravens around. It was a little frustrating.

Hearing a flutter of wings, she turned to face Margalo and shook her
head. For a talking canary Margalo wasn’t really taking Ukyo’s
transformation as the latter would’ve expected… she still looked in
disbelief at her from time to time.

“I didn’t see anything either…” Margalo started, when a large shadow
passed over them. Ukyo barely had time to shout as sharp talons
wrapped around her tightly and she was flying higher than she had ever
flown. Straining a little, she managed to look up at the scarred face
of a blue feathered falcon.

She heard Margalo shout in the distance. “Hey! Give her back you
overgrown turkey!”

“My, my… What language!” Falcon laughed as he slowed to match
Margalo’s speed. Margalo glared at him.

“Is that the way you treat your father?” he asked.

“You’re not my father!” Margalo snapped. “If you were, I’d had talons
sharp enough to tear you to pieces!”

Falcon just laughed and sped up, quickly leaving Margalo behind.
“Same place!” He shouted back at her. “Bring your other mouse friend…
and no humans!” With another burst of speed, Margalo was left behind.

***

“Stuart!” Margalo shouted landing next to him in his room; where he
currently was jumping on the buttons of the videogame controller.
“What is it Margalo?” he asked, jumping on the ‘start’ button, then
turning to look at her.

“Stuart! I… a raven tricked me into giving her my pin, but when I
tried to look for her she had already disappeared! So when I found
Ukyo I accompanied her to her restaurant for a few job interviews,
but when we finished she turned into a mouse! And then we flew around
town trying to find the raven, but instead Falcon found us and took
Ukyo with him, I tried to catch them, but Falcon was too fast, so he
shouted to me that he would meet you and me at the same place as last
time, so I think he means the building where you almost got killed
but he doesn’t want humans to be involved in this!” she paused for
breath. “What are we going to do?!”

Stuart put a calming arm around her shoulders. “Uh, listen Margalo,
why don’t you repeat that slowly? I thought you said Ukyo had turned
into a mouse and that Falcon had carried her away,” he said laughing
a little.

“But I did! I mean, she did turn into one!” Margalo said.

Stuart just stared.

***

“Now I know how Brisby felt,” Ukyo sighed. She was hanging on a cage
very, very high above the ground inside one of the largest buildings
she had ever seen.

“Feeling lonely?” a voice from above asked. The cage tumbled
precariously as Falcon perched on it.

“Not really,” Ukyo answered. “There’s always the village idiot
fluttering around with blue feathers to keep me company.”

The falcon scowled, but Ukyo just smiled. “So, tell me, what do you
gain from all of this? From what I heard, last time you got kicked
about and tossed into the trashcan. What makes you think it’ll be any
different right now?”

“That, little mouse,” Falcon growled, “is NOT your problem. Once those
two cretins get over here in a futile attempt to save you, you and
the other mousy friend of Margalo are plummeting to your deaths while
she watches.”

Ukyo glared at him. “Won’t work.” She said simply.

“Oh?” Falcon asked mockingly. “And why is that?” he glared at her,
trying to cower her.

“Simple,” Ukyo answered. “I’m not going to let you!” She grabbed
Falcon’s talons and held them tight as she swung her spatula and hit
the link where the chain and cage met.

Falcon shouted in surprise when the full weight of the cage pulled him
down. “Let go you little furry bastard!” he shouted to Ukyo as he
strained to lift the cage, himself and Ukyo, flapping his wings
desperately.

“In your dreams you blue feathered freak!” Ukyo shouted back as she
used her other hand to bend the bars around his talon. Once this was
done, she went to the other side and bent the bars apart. Falcon
started shaking his leg furiously trying to get the cage off.

Ukyo finally managed to climb to the top of the cage and jumped on
Falcon’s back just as he got rid of it. From his back Ukyo saw the
cage falling down to the ground, where it clanged and bounced, ending
in a twisted heap of metal. Okay, maybe it had not been a good idea
to do that. But she was already here so…

“Down you overgrown turkey!” she shouted, burrowing Margalo’s insult
and passing one arm around his neck and then squeezing.

Falcon didn’t follow orders, instead he started flying higher. “Oh no,
you don’t!” he sneered.

“If you choke me you’re also dead!” He then did a barrel turn trying
to shake Ukyo off, grunting in annoyance when she held on.

“Ukyo!” came a shout from somewhere above them. The mouse looked up
and saw Margalo flying down towards her.

“Hello, Margalo!” Ukyo shouted as she undid the ribbon that held her
hair back.

“MARGALO?!” Falcon shouted, looking up. His eyes widened when he felt
the ribbon slip into his mouth.

Now Ukyo held him by the beak with a make-up bridle. “Having fun,
sugar?” Ukyo asked from his back and he shivered with anger. This
mouse was worse than the last one! Speaking of which… if Margalo was
here…

He heard the sounds of a motor nearby and glared at Stuart as he
came flying next to him in a new toy-sized plane.

“Hello, Falcon!” the white mouse shouted, waving a hand at him. Falcon
growled then dived down.

“Damn,” Stuart muttered as he followed the bird of prey down, along
with Margalo, who flew down as fast as she could. Still, neither of
them was as fast as Falcon. Falcon felt the ‘bridle’ tighten, and
Ukyo’s legs let go of him. She was holding the ribbon as tightly as
she could. With a grin, Falcon stopped in mid flight and ducked. Ukyo
flew over his head, and he gripped the ribbon with his beak.

“Uh-oh…” Ukyo half-squeaked in terror, her eyes followed the blue
ribbon to Falcon’s beak, which was twisted into a smile, and then to
his eyes. He then let go. Ukyo didn’t even have time to shout as she
fell down, more than a hundred meters above New York’s buildings.

Margalo flew past Falcon, who quickly dropped and caught her with a
talon. “Ukyo!” she gasped. As Stuart flew down past them, Falcon also
snatched him, pulling him out of the cabin, and letting the plane fly
down. Stuart saw the toy plane smash into the window of one nearby
building, about 50 meters below them.

“No, no, my little friends,” Falcon said, smiling. “You’re not helping
her. I’m afraid she got what was coming, trying to fight me.” Stuart
shut his eyes, anger rising at the big bird.

“You… bastard!” he shouted. Margalo also shut her eyes, small tears
escaping. “Ukyo…”

“Oh, my little misguided daughter,” Falcon sneered. “You don’t need
to worry, you two will meet with her soon enough…” he flew down,
spiraling towards one of the buildings.

***

Mrs. Little was washing the dishes when her older child, George walked
into the kitchen holding the remote control of one of his toy planes.
She wasn’t very fond of those things, since the last time, her other
son, Stuart, had piloted one and got in an aerial fight with a falcon
over the park and almost got killed.

“Mom,” George asked. “Have you seen my plane? I’m sure I left it in
my room before I went out to play with Will.” He looked pretty
miserable.

“I’m sorry George,” she answered without turning back. “I’m afraid I
haven’t, why don’t you ask Stuart?”

“I would, but Stuart’s not here.” George answered gloomily.

She stopped cleaning the dishes. “He’s… not here?” she asked, turning
to glare at her son.

“Well… he is, in a way.” A voice from outside answered her. She turned
towards the window and the dish she was holding fell to the floor with
a crash.

On a branch just outside the window, Falcon was pinning Margalo and
Stuart down. Both were a little beat up, and tied with a piece of rope.
Stuart’s mother took half a step back, but George almost jumped on the
stool in anger. “What do you want? Let them go!”

Falcon smiled. “I want your ring.” The blue bird said, staring at
Stuart’s mother. “I will have it or these two die.”

She looked at the ring. She had placed it on a ring-holder shaped like
a woman’s hand next to the sink. “There it is!” she pleaded. “Just…
just let them go…”

Falcon laughed. “It’s not that easy, Mrs. Little. I won’t let them go
until I have the ring where no-one else can get to it. So, if you’re
so kind as to throw the ring over the roof so I can get to it without
any risk to myself, I’ll let Stuart go. And when I have it in my beak,
Margalo goes. It’s that simple.” He said as he grabbed them both and
flew up.

Without pausing for a moment, Mrs. Little grabbed the ring and ran
outside, where she could see Falcon perched on the roof. She silently
wished farewell to her wedding ring as she threw it over the roof. It
landed a few feet away from Falcon. He sneered. “Why, thank you, Mrs.
Little. Now say goodbye kids. Say goodbye to your mother, Stuart!”
Falcon laughed as he jumped to get the ring.

Realizing that she had been played for a fool, Stuart’s mother started
to despair. “Wait! You said you’d let Stuart go!”

Falcon stopped and smiled. “Yes… I did say so… but not where, or
rather… From how high!” he finished with a loud laugh.

It was then that a black shadow swooped in front of Falcon, who
stopped for a moment then swore in rage when the diamond-decorated
ring had disappeared. He looked around and saw another large bird, a
raven, inspecting it as she held it with one of her wings. “Hmm… not
even five karats…” she sighed. “Oh well, it shines, though.” And then
she somehow made it disappear.

“Hey!” Falcon complained, as Margalo watched bewildered. “That’s mine!”
Falcon growled, taking a step towards the raven and dragging his two
victims with each step.

“Are you sure?” the raven asked, glancing at Falcon and not at all
worried by the sharp beak or the talons. “It didn’t have your name…
or, are you Mrs. Little?”

“I am not,” Falcon started “Mrs. Little. But that ring is mine, and
if you value your life, you’re giving it back.” He took another
menacing step.

“Oh, I do value my life.” The raven said. “But I very much doubt you
could do any harm, much less permanent and even less lethal enough to
kill me.” She ruffled her feathers in a dismissing way. “..That such
barbaric idiots exist in this world…” she looked down at his talons,
taking special interest on the left one, where Margalo and Stuart were
both tied. “And I can’t say much about your attempts at decorating your
talons. Didn’t you know that fur is usually dead when you use it for
dressing?”

Falcon growled and launched into the air, trying to ram into the raven,
but the black bird had predicted her opponent’s movement and had
jumped off first.

“Stuart!” his mother shouted helplessly as Falcon followed the raven.

***

Stuart stopped struggling with the rope as they climbed higher into
the air. A few moments ago, while they were on the roof, he had
started working on getting free, almost completely ignoring his mother’s
pleas and the strange crow’s words.

But now, he was again hundreds of feet into the air, and getting free
was the same as being dead. Falcon was flying as fast as he could,
but he couldn’t catch up with the raven, who dodged him and flew
around him laughing all the way.

“Aw, did the big sea-gull miss the whale?” the raven teased as Falcon
flew past. “Too bad you’re so slow a slug could out run you!” she
teased again as Falcon did another ineffective pass. “I’m sure you
want to blame someone on this, but seeing how you fly, I can only
guess it’s your own lack of ability.”

“Shut up!” Falcon shouted at the raven. “You’re not weighed down by
these two idiots!”

The raven flew past him with a barrel turn. “Really…” She asked.
“So, who’s the idiot? Those two?” she pointed to the tied couple.
“Or the idiot that carries them and then also misses the treasure?”
with an angry shout, Falcon used his beak to untie the rope.

“Goodbye, little pests.” He muttered and let them go. Stuart and
Margalo shouted as the wind rushed around their ears and they began
to fall. Stuart closed his eyes, his last thoughts being of his family,
but over all Margalo’s brown eyes.

He felt a yank on the rope and wondered why it had been a yank and
not a ‘splat’. He opened his eyes and looked up the rope. He didn’t
know what to say, but Margalo, who also was gaping up at the brown
mouse with long hair that had saved them did say something…

“U-Ukyo!?” she gasped in surprise.

***

One hand controlling the small plane as best as she could, the other
holding them both by the rope Ukyo struggled to pull them up. When
they were as safe as possible on the wing, she used her spatula to
cut it, setting them free.
“Hi!” she said, smiling as she traded places with Stuart. The white
mouse started flying down towards their home, but Ukyo stopped him.
“Wait, we have to take care of Falcon…” she pointed to the two black
dots flying away.

***

Falcon was gaining on the raven as they both flew over New York city.
With a small, evil grin he flew up gaining altitude. The raven was
fast, but he was a falcon, and thus much faster. As soon as he had
gained on the raven from above, he dashed down.

But somehow the raven knew he was coming and veered of to the right
just as he swooped past. Falcon gritted his beak as he heard the
damnable black bird’s laugh. Just how had it known?

The raven laughed at his confused expression. “Idiot! Falcons, hawks
or eagles- they all attack from above! You’re predictable!”

With a shout Falcon swooped right at her, but the raven swerved to
the right and again he missed her, then tilting her left wing she
caught another current and she was swept up higher above New York
city spiraling all the way. Almost growling, Falcon followed her up.

Below them, and unable to feel the movements of the wind that would
take them up, Ukyo, Margalo and Stuart were watching the fight as both
birds slowly went towards the docks.

“That raven sure is pulling her luck fighting Falcon like that…”
Margalo said.

“I just hope she knows what she’s doing.” Said Stuart.

As they flew over the docks it was the raven that now swooped down in
an attempt to lose Falcon. She dived with the other close behind
spreading her wings as soon as she was above a steam boat and then
flew in a spiral around it until she was almost skimming the water.

Falcon was close behind her and as soon as she went under the dock he
pulled just over it. As soon as she tried to go up he rammed her,
talons first into a nearby boat where she landed rather heavily.

Victorious, Falcon tightened his sharp talons just where the wings
met the back. She cried out below him and he smiled as he felt blood
oozing out of the wounds. “You also became predictable, dear.” Falcon
sneered. “And now you can’t fly anymore.”

“T-that remains to be seen.” The raven gasped out as he tightened his
grip again. She glared at him.

“Now,” Falcon said. “I believe you have something of mine with you.”
He lowered his head, placing his beak just next to her eye.

“I’ve got nothing of yours.” The raven stated calmly, still glaring.

Falcon glared back at her and just as he was about to say something,
he was batted away.

“That will be enough, Falcon!” Ukyo shouted as she jumped over the
raven to hit him once more.

“Are you alright?” Stuart asked as he and Margalo helped the raven
up.

She nodded and with a flutter of feathers Mrs. Little’s golden ring
fell on the floor. “I will be as soon as you take that ring… it
weighs me down.”

A little surprised, Stuart picked it up. The raven extended her wings
again and groaned.

“Careful!” Was Margalo’s warning. “Falcon did a lot of damage with
his talons; if you try to do anything rash you might hurt yourself
worse!”

The raven ignored her, though. “I’m okay. But for what he tried to
do…” the raven’s eyes flashed. “He should pay.” She jumped into the
air.

“What do you think she means?” Stuart asked Margalo.

“He tried to take her ability to fly away…” Margalo answered. “It’s
something terrible to do to any bird.”

In the meantime Falcon had managed to get up into the air with Ukyo
clinging to his back. He was tired, battered and humiliated. The worst
beating of his life had come from the mouse on his back; the same mouse
that was now using her spatula to try and choke him.

As soon as he got hold of a current he started gliding and turned his
head to look at the mouse on his back. She was strong and very brave.
In another time… another distant, half forgotten life, he would have
admired her and maybe even tried to be friends, but now… he could
only envy Margalo even more.

“If you don’t let go…” Falcon groaned. “You’ll die along with me.”

Ukyo just growled back at him. “I’m not letting go.” She answered,
and tightened her hold.

Falcon flew over to the sea, where he started wheezing. Ukyo
considered letting go when Falcon’s head swayed, but she only let go
a little, to keep him conscious, but it didn’t help much as Falcon
dropped altitude. Ukyo looked at the direction they were headed, and
gulped.

They were headed directly at a steamboat full of tourists that were
taking pictures at the Statue of Liberty!

As the boat suddenly seemed to loom in front of them, Falcon’s head
snapped back up and he climbed as quickly as he could. But their speed
was too much for an effective evasion, and just as they were about to
crash into one of the chimneys the raven plucked Ukyo from Falcon’s
back.

For a few frightful seconds all she could feel was a wave of heat as
steam floated into the cool air in front of her. And between the clouds
of steam she saw Falcon crash into the inside of the chimney, bouncing
from the metal wall into the furnace within.

She winced as she heard him cry out one last time, and then she was
being deposited down by the raven, who disappeared into the air soon
enough.

A few minutes later, as people started taking notice of the small
mouse, and an old lady screamed in fright, the Captain was about to
take care of the little pest when a small toy plane landed just next
to the mouse.

The Captain sighed. “It’s Stuart Little.” He explained to one of his
sailors, who started telling everyone that everything was okay, and
that the white mouse in the plane was none other than the famous
Stuart Little from New York City, another wonder from ‘The Big Apple’.

Stuart and Margalo ignored the staring tourists and ran towards the
still dazed Ukyo. “Ukyo! What happened? Are you okay?” Stuart asked as
he helped her up.

“Where’s Falcon?” Margalo asked worriedly.

“Dead…” Ukyo said. “I didn’t want him to die, you know?” she said
miserably.

Margalo sighed and placed a wing on her shoulder.

“What happened to your mother’s ring?” Ukyo asked, suddenly
remembering the reason for all the chaos.

Stuart smiled and held up the ring. It glistened in the sun, and the
diamond made a small rainbow of light at their feet. “The raven gave
it to us.” He said.

“Where is she, anyway?” Margalo asked, looking up, but seeing no sign
of the bird. The canary sighed. “I wish we would have been able to
thank her at least.”

As Ukyo was about to speak a shadow covered them all up, and they
heard the Captain discussing something with someone.

Ukyo looked up, and her eyes opened wide.

Stuart and Margalo both looked with interest as a Japanese young woman
pushed aside the Captain and squatted next to them, kneeling between
the small animals and the plane and looking intently at Ukyo.

“Nabs!” Ukyo squeaked.

“I thought it was you.” Nabiki said grimly. “Only a couple of days in
New York and you’re already causing trouble.” Nabiki closed her eyes
and shook her head. “What was that all about, Ukyo?”

She looked at the little mouse as Ukyo tried to explain between squeaks
and mimicry what had happened. “Ukyo... I don’t speak mouse. Remember?
You’ll have to tell me later what’s going on.”

“Everythin’ okay, Nabi?” Asked a voice from behind and Nabiki took a
look over her shoulder at Grim and a few others that were all
clustered around with bags and a few items.

“Yeah, everything’s okay.” Nabiki answered standing up. “I was just
asking Stuart for help on making some promotion for the restaurant.”
Nabiki explained, and handed her bag to Grim. Grim looked in interest
as she wrote down something on a white card and gave it to Stuart.

“Here, Stuart.” Nabiki said. They all saw the restaurant’s address
written on it. “I would love it if you’d help us out with it.”

Stuart nodded and took the card. “Sure thing, Miss Nabiki!”

Nodding, the Japanese woman stood up and walked away with Mr. Grim to
their group of friends.

“Nabi, Nabi,” Grim said amiably. “Yer always look’n fer ways ta make
money, ain’t ya?”

Nabiki smiled wickedly. “Of course!” they lost themselves in the
crowd of their friends.

“We should go now,” Ukyo muttered as she walked towards the plane.
“Your mother will be very worried, Stuart.”

Stuart nodded and jumped into the plane, followed by Ukyo, who sat
in the passenger’s seat.

“Ouch!” Ukyo shouted suddenly and pulled herself out.

“What is it?” Stuart asked, his question echoed by Margalo.

Ukyo reached into the back seat and, without a word handed a golden
object to the canary.

“My pin!” Margalo shouted happily. Letting Stuart put it in place on
her blue scarf. “How did it get there?!” she asked Ukyo.

“I wonder…” Ukyo said, already suspecting. “Anyway, let’s go!”

The little plane lifted into the sky after a run through the hall
full of tourists, with Margalo flapping her wings and falling into a
comfortable glide next to them.

***

”Cheers!” everyone shouted, lifting their glasses into the air as Ukyo
and Nabiki cut the red ribbon opening the doors of the newest
“Uchan’s” to the public. Both young women smiled as flashes covered
them as a blanket for a moment.

“Well, let’s go in!” Ukyo shouted happily.

The guests filed into the restaurant, which had been decorated with a
Christmas tree, ribbons bells and mistletoe with the combined efforts
of Makoto, Mrs. Little, Margalo, another cook named Rosy and Ukyo.

As the guests walked into the restaurant, they were led to their
tables by a couple of waiters. Nabiki had put all of her friends
together in a large table. There were about 20 of them. As for Ukyo,
she would share a table with the Littles, Makoto and Rosy.

Rosy had come as a blessing the last day when Ukyo had watched the
previous girl run screaming out of the place when Stuart had walked
into the restaurant. She was already a married woman, and had two kids,
who had come to the party as well. She had lived in Japan for a while
and had learnt how to cook Okonomiyaki and other Japanese dishes while
she stayed there.

She had considered little Stuart cute. So no problem there, and she
had many ideas on how to run a healthy restaurant that appealed to
Ukyo.

So, she had been taken into the group, along with two waitresses, a
young girl called Chiyo, who was another student from Japan and a
local girl by the name of Mary Jane, both had brought a couple of
friends from college too.

As soon as everyone was served, the doors closed and the music on,
the party started.

Ukyo approved of the way everyone behaved with enough respect for
their jobs and put work first, then fun. It was just preparing food
though, and the drinks were already cool and ready.

When the clock struck twelve, Chiyo stopped playing with Stuart and
the other kids, smiling as she opened a bag of lollypops. “Merry
Christmas!” she shouted as she started giving candy to everyone.

Ukyo made her way among the congratulating groups to Mr. and Mrs.
Little. She smiled and gave them a hug each, giving them each a small
box and receiving one herself. She opened it and found a golden chain
with a golden miniature spatula on it.

“You two are great!” She said, hugging them again. “I will miss you,
but I promise to come back and visit!” she said with a laugh.

“We will be delighted to have you back, Ukyo!” Mrs. Little said.

“Yes, and you can be sure we’ll be coming here a lot!” Mr. Little
added. He had loved the Okonomiyaki.

Ukyo smiled at them, and excused herself, going around to look for
Stuart and Margalo.

She found Rosy and Makoto first, and gave each a small envelope.

“And what is this?” Makoto asked with a smile as she started opening
it.

Ukyo smiled back. “It’s half the franchise for the New York’s Uchan’s
in each envelope.” she said.

Both Makoto and Rosy stared at her. And Ukyo nodded.

“Yup, I think you two will make great partners!” she said with a smile.

Leaving them to discuss what to do next she finally found Stuart and
Margalo. Picking both up in her hands, she let them down on a table
and gave them a miniature box each.

Margalo opened hers and found a rainbow of scarfs, neatly folded
inside the box. She flew up to Ukyo’s shoulder and hugged her neck.
“Thank you Ukyo! They’re great!”

Stuart opened his box and found a small whistle in it, an ‘Uchan’s
T-shirt’ and a pair of new tennis shoes. –all in his size-.

“Thank you, Uchan!” Stuart said with a smile and a kiss to Ukyo’s
cheek. Then he held up the whistle. “And what’s this for?” he asked.

“That would be my present to you two.” Nabiki said, walking up to
stand next to Ukyo. “Whenever you’re in serious trouble, try using it.
And I mean serious.” She smiled enigmatically. “Wouldn’t want to spoil
the surprise, would we?”

Stuart shook his head and put it into his bag. “Thanks.” He said,
smiling up at her.

Nabiki grinned. “Hey it was the least I could do after you flew around
the city in your plane with the “Uchan’s” add!” She patted Stuart
softly on the back. “Well now, let’s dance!”

***

Back in the Hotel Room, the morning they were about to leave, Ukyo
waited patiently for Nabiki to come back. They would leave the room
in an hour, so they had most of their things packed up, except for
some clothes for Nabiki, since she was going to take a bath when she
got back.

Finally, the door opened and Nabiki walked in, cleaning some snow from
her black coat and putting it to dry next to the heater. She threw
something on the table and smiled at Ukyo.
“I’ll be quick, Uchan!” she said, heading for the bathroom.

Ukyo smiled. She had something prepared for Nabiki. As Nabiki laid
her change of clothes ob the bed, Ukyo took a glance at the contents
of the rainbow-colored envelope Nabiki had tossed on the table.

Pictures. She browsed through them until she found one that got her
attention. Jumping up she turned to shout a warning to Nabiki.

“Nabs wait!” she shouted too late.

Nabiki opened the door to the bathroom and was instantly drenched in
cold water, as the bucket Ukyo had placed on the top of the door fell
on her head.

“AAAAAH!” Nabiki shouted in surprise. She glared at Ukyo. “WHY DID YOU
DO THAT?!”

Ukyo smiled sheepishly, and shrugged. Furious, Nabiki kicked the
bucket out of the bath and slammed the door, turning on the water.
Ukyo could hear the muttering coming from the inside.

She sighed and started thinking for an excuse as she took another
look at the picture she had in her hand, a picture of Nabiki standing
in the boat, smiling and doing a victory sign as Falcon and Ukyo flew
past behind them, a blur in the sky.

***

Inside the bathroom, Nabiki sighed as the hot water splashed on her
head. She started washing her arms, only wincing slightly when she
pressed the ring-shaped red mark on the palm of her hand.

The End



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