Ryo-Oki finds Love
                           Episode 1: I Don't Care
                            By Locke Gilderthorn

    School was mercifully out. All the preppies sped home in their expensive
import American Corvettes, jocks ran to the gym to ensconce themselves in
whatever sport they thought was the only thing that mattered.
    Kai Mujorimi, clad in black, walked home, head forward, shoulders
slumped. Red sportscars zooming past, blaring techno-funk, insults and
carelessness thrown at him from the drivers and passengers.
    Kai hated them all with a passion that just burned too hot.
    All the hard feelings could be released with the simple pull of
a trigger.
    But what would murder solve? Nothing.
    For that matter, what would suicide solve? Just as much and less.
    Kai, raised a Christian, knew murder, then suicide would guarantee his
eternal trip down the highway to hell, as Ac/Dc put it.
    A block away from his house, Kai met Yatsumura, his white furred kishu
dog. "Ohayo, Yatsumura-chan." Kai said to her. Yatsu tilted her head, and
spun around, as chasing her tail. Kai chuckled. "You always make me feel
better, Yatsu." He said. She rubbed up against his leg, he stroked her head.
He continued walking, Yatsumura not far behind, happy, and grinning like a
fool.


    Ryo-Oki roamed the streets of Osaka, looking for anything that might
hold her attention for a while, but found nothing.
    Whenever she would find a vegetable stand in the market, she was all
big, sad eyes until the people behind the booth or the customers themselves
would give her a carrot.
    Today, the market was closed, so she was out of luck.
    Only a dark clothed boy and a white dog came by.
    Dog?! Ryo-Oki thought. Run! Hide!
    An empty flower pot was nearby, so as luck would have it, that's where
Ryo-Oki hid. She cowered in the pot, quivering with fear.
    A monster, big, pink and slimey jumped in the pot with her. Then it
wasn't a monster, but a tongue. The dog had licked her! Ryo-Oki growled low,
Yatsumura blinked at her. A boy's voice called.
    "Yatsu! Come away from there." It commanded.
    The dog pulled its head out of the pot and looked away.
    "Come on." It said again.
    Yastumura put her head in the pot again, licked Ryo-Oki's face one more,
then plodded off.
    Ryo-Oki breathed a sigh of relief. She poked out to look for a safe turn
to go. But something about the boy; even though she didn't see his face,
intrigued Ryo-oki.
    She sprung out of the earthen pot silently, took a step, two, three and
four.
    She watched the boy and his dog walk away from her. She followed,
uncertain, but interested. Definitely interested.


    Kai removed his shoes and changed into his slippers, and went to his
room, last down the hall to the left. Yatsu followed, Kai opened the door to
his room, grabbed the remote control off his stereo, and turned it on.
    "That was the Cheiftans with 'I'll tell me Ma' starring the American
animation star, Brak of Cartoon Network. Next we'll have Tetsuhiro Yanai and
The Shenlongs. So don't go away, 108.9 KQFM!" the deejay anounced. Kai let
his backpack slide off his shoulder to the floor.
    Opening his closet, he withdrew a Walther P-99 semi-automatic psitol,
and a hip holster for easy drawing.
    Fastening the velcro straps, grabbing his shoes, Kai exited the house
out the back sliding-glass door to a small shack. Yastu bolted on ahead to
check for intruders.
    Kai opened the old, rickety wood door that creaked a little too much to
check on his animals. The ferret he found in the meadow was eager to leave,
he could tell.
    So, hefting the cage onto his shoulder, he and Yatsumura left the back
yard area of his parents' small appartment building.

    Ryo-Oki follwed careful, but close behind the boy and dog. They led her
through the grassy place behind  the boy's house, through a weedy field, and
to a breath-taking hilly meadow. Wondrous smells and sights surrounded
Ryo-Oki. The boy set down the cage with the snakey mouse thing, and opened
the cage door. The mouse thing bolted out of the steel cage, and
disappeared.
    Ryo-Oki considered chasing the thing, but was enthralled by just being
near the boy, for some strange reason.
    "MIYAAA!" Ryo-Oki wailed.
    Pain in her flank and leg made her collapse and curl into a ball....


    Kai drew the P-99 to fire back at the assholes who shot at him first.
    "Baka," Kai grunted, resisting the urge not to track down the
cocknockers to make them pay.
    Colapsing the cage, he walked away, dealing one last glang to the hill
beyond the horizon.
    "Miya-a-a-a-a...." An rabbit wimpered. Kai look down t the animal,
compassion melting his heart. Re-fixing the cage, he delicately placed
Ryo-Oki in it, and ran; keeping the rabbit (that's what he thought it was)
as steady as possible.
    "I'm not going to let you die," He thought as he ran. Yatsu barked as
she ran, not knowing that her master could know she recognized the
cabbit....