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"I bet you never have this sort of trouble," Chika was saying to Ippin as Priire entered the room.
"Well..." Ippin replied, "I have to say it doesn't come up often."
"What?" asked Priire, sitting down in the drawing room of Cerea's palace.
"Oh, nothing much," Chika answered. "It's just that Cerea is being attacked by evil miniature Venus flytraps 'of doom'," she said in a mimicky voice.
Annika, who was also there, raised her eyebrows. "Of... doom? They're five inches tall!"
Chika huffed and sat down in a big armchair. "Von." She snorted. "He's very annoying."
"Who's Von?" questioned Ippin.
"Aaah... some guy. Bad dude. Freaky mental powers. I had a dream... hardly remember it, but he was there. You know," Chika said, sitting up straight, "I remember it better now. Von wanted the Mundinaria... I said no, and he said he'd release evil miniature venus fly traps 'of doom' on Cerea."
"Yep," remarked Annika. "Bad guy alright. But is he a darth or a sith... does it matter?"
"Donknow," Chika answered. "Just that he wants the Mundinaria."
"And Chika said her current 'power of air blast' thing doesn't affect them," supplied Ippin.
"I don't know what to do!" whined Chika. "I don't have a lightsaber, or staff, or anything!"
"I thought you had a lightsaber." said Priire.
"I did" Chika said. "But I only had it twice - dream and cargo bay. After that, whenever I transformed, I didn't have it."
"Don't worry, Chika," said Annika. "We'll help you out."
Suddenly, Tobias raced into the room and stopped. He scanned the area quickly, nodded briefly to Ippin, Priire, Annika and Chika, and rushed off again.
"I won't even ask," commented Ippin.
"Tobias is always losing things," complained Chika. "Who knows what it is this time."
Again, Tobias raced into the room, more calmly this time. "Where is my staff? Where is it?! WHERE IS IT?!"
"Uhhh, Tobias," put in Chika, "maybe you should, you know... transform. Yeah. That might help."
Tobias hmphed. "I have it all the time... you should know that, Chika," he said scornfully.
After he left, Chika giggled. "I liked him better as a cat."
"He sure wasn't cuter that way."
"Aaaaah!" Chika glared at Miyuki. "Why must you always do that?! You're gonna give me a heart attack!"
Miyuki ignored the irate Chika. "Hi Ippin. Annika, Priire."
"Hi," said a voice.
Chika was in a misty dark place.
"Ugh," she said to no one. "Not you again."
A face appeared out of the mist. "Look... I'm not here to talk. Every day starting tomorrow, my little babies will grow twice their size. Of course, you could stop the imminent doom of the said planet if you give me the Mun-"
"Ha!" Chika let out a short bark. "Don't you know anything?" She shook her head at him. "The Mundinaria's not mine."
Von humphed and glared at her. "Fine." He smiled cruelly. "Have it your way."
Chika sat up in bed. Horrified, she looked at a green lump sitting at her feet. It was one of Von's plants... only it was as big as a dog. It was then that Chika noticed something beside the sleeping creature. "Oooooooh. Eeeew." It was something smelly, and covered in... blood.
It was one of Chika's house pets, mutilated, and half eaten.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaa! Vooooooooooooon!"
Standing at the top of a mountain, Von heard Chika's livid screams. Chuckling, he turned around and walked inside a cave.
"And so," he remarked. "It has begun."
"WHERE IS MY STAFF?!?!" Tobias yelled.
Yukiko shook her head. "He's been like this all day."
Miyuki nodded. "It's not healthy."
Chika exhaled deeply. "I bet it's somewhere right out in the open."
Chouko giggled. "I think he's funny."
Chika nodded. "You've got a point there."
The girls were once again at Cerea's palace, discussing the now awesomely large wave of evil miniature Venus flytraps of doom.
Yuki put her face in her hands, her ice-blue hair seeming shockingly bright in the dimly-lit room. "Chika, we can't stay here. Yet you have virtually no way to fight these creatures. If only you had your lightsaber. That would help... a little."
The Cerean princess nodded. "You guys shouldn't worry so much." She smiled. "I can take care of myself."
"Why do I not trust her in the least?" questioned Miyuki.
The next morning, Chikali woke up to a big surprise.
The sun streamed in through the windows. Birds merrily chirped. The sound of hustle and bustle was faint, down the hall. There was a loud humming in the room.
Not one to admit it, Chika slept with a stuffed animal version of a wenak. However, she didn't wake up cuddling Ferano.
"Yaaaaah! Ohmygod! Helphelphelp! I'm frying! I'm... perfectly fine?" Chika was cuddling her lightsaber.
She held the blade up. "What the...?" Chika rubbed her eyes. Still there. Was she hallucinating? She could have sworn she had just been holding the blade of an activated lightsaber. To see if this was a dream, Chika threw one of her pillows up in the air. She sliced through it easily with the blade.
"Ooooooooookay. Definitely not a dream."
You can imagine what her mother thought when she walked into Chika's room. There was the queen's oldest daughter, to inherit the throne, standing in her nightgown. Her long hair was falling loose by her feet, holding a lightsaber, with feathers drifting everywhere.
"Chika, what in the name of everything sane are you doing? Was the pillow attacking you? What - a new villain? Emperor Featherfluff?" Chika's mom shook her head. "And this was one of his evil minions?"
Turning bright red, Chika held the lightsaber behind her back.
"That doesn't hide it."
Chika deactivated the blade. "Come on, Mom. I... uh... well, I was working on my aim?"
Her mother gave a gusty sigh. "Get dressed. And no more killing your pillows."
Chika waited until her mother had closed the door behind her to say, "Ha ha. You're so funny."
"I heard that."
"Who... me?"
After breakfast, Chika met up with Tobias to go riding. Tobias was new to wenaks and needed help bad.
"Okay," Chika began. "You put the bridle on like so." She slipped a piece of leather on her wenak's head and waited for her student to the same. "And you put the saddle on just after the neck ridges, making sure you tie it tight enough that you can only slip one finger under the girdle."
Tobias mimicked her movements.
Chika hopped on her wenak. They were leathery creatures, with two thick legs and wings. Wenaks could fly and walk, making valuable creatures. The rider was sat on the saddle at a slight angle, in front of the wings.
Chika gently whipped her wenak, named Tontro, twice. And they were off.
In the air, Tobias was careful to look straight ahead.
"Okay," commented Chika, who rode with ease. "Turn left by pulling on the left side of the rein, and vice versa for right."
Tobias gulped nervously. "How do I land this thing?"
Chika smirked. "Lean forward - the wenak can do the rest." Chika rubbed Tontro's neck. "Isn't that right, boy?" she cooed.
After a half-hour, Tobias had relaxed enough to have a conversation. "So... you like riding... don't you?"
"Hmm. It's my hobby. Iv'e been riding since I was four."
Tobias gaped at her. "You flew at four? By yourself?"
Chika gave him a strange look. "Yes. Of course."
When they landed, Chika took Ronty's reins from Tobias.
"Uhhh... thanks for the lesson."
"Sure... any time."
They both looked at each other and glanced down at the same time. There was an akward silence.
"Well... bye." Tobias walked off.
Chika watched him leave with a sad look in her eyes.
It was a veeeeeery interesting view, from the cliff. Oh yes, very interesting. Sailor Yavin IV, standing next to Sailor Cerea, and Sailor Hoth were, in fact, quite chagrined.
Running in and out of the village were citizens of Cerea, being chased by the evil miniature Venus flytraps of doom. The plants that were now as big as houses hopped along the ground, snapping their mouths at the poor people they chased. Around and around they ran, screaming, not daring to look behind them.
"Okay... this is... odd," Sailor Cerea commented.
Sailor Hoth nodded. "You just had to push him, didn't you, Chika?"
Sailor Cerea turned on Hoth. "WHAT?!" she yelled. "You think this is MY fault?!"
Yavin IV turned to her. "You've gotta admit - the situation is ironic."
"How so?" growled Cerea.
Hoth shrugged. "Weeeell... you thought denying Von the crystal would stop him from harassing you, and..." She beckoned toward the village.
"Oh."
The three girls flinched as a resounding crash reached their ears. A house had fallen, subject to one of the Venus flytraps having hopped on it.
Activating her lightsaber, Cerea turned to the others. "C'mon! Let's go!"
Sailor Cerea skidded down the side of the nearly-vertical cliff, closely followed by the others.
"Oh my," said Sailor Yavin IV as a giant evil miniature Venus flytrap of doom loomed before them.
Cerea let out a whimper. "Big... bigbigbig." She wavered, looking at her now seemingly tiny lightsaber. "Help!" she squeaked.
"Well...?" asked Sailor Hoth as the plant drew ever nearer. "Are we going to let it squish us?"
Yavin IV and Cerea pulled themselves together. "Okay... you get it!" said Cerea.
Hoth stood up straight. "I am Sailor-"
"Hoth!" Sailor Cerea said, amazed. "It's a plant! Do you think it cares who you are?"
Sailor Hoth blushed. "Okay... let's... uh, get this... thing!"
"Yavin Four Jungle..."
"Air Pressure..."
"Blizzard..."
"BLAST!!!"
All three attacks launched at the monster at the same time, instantly vaporizing it.
Cerea turned to the other senshi. "Thanks, you guys. I couldn't have done anything like that without you."
Yavin IV and Hoth's eyes grew wide. "Uhhh... Chika..."
Gasping, Sailor Cerea turned around. All of the evil miniature Venus flytraps of doom had gathered around them. "Yipe."
Cerea looked at her lightsaber. "What good does this do... hmmm. I wonder..."
Closing her eyes, Chika concentrated on the lightsaber. A second later, her eyelids snapped open. Holding the lightsaber in front of her, Cerea yelled, "Crystal Light..."
Cerea's lighsaber handle dissapeared into the blade. The blade then turned into a small ball, which Cerea held out in front of her. "EXPLOSION!!!"
A beam of pure blue light shot out at the plants, followed by "Ice dragon... ATTACK!!!"
The majority of Venus fly traps were vaporized, while the rest made strange whimpering noises and ran into a nearby forest.
"Well," said Sailor Yavin IV, looking a bit ruffled. "that turned out... well."
Back at the palace, just before Mika and Yuki left, Chika ran into Tobias. He was looking very angry.
"What's wrong?"
"I can't find my staff."
That night, Miyuki was sleeping over at Chika's.
Long after midnight, Tobias was up, looking for his staff. He couldn't believe that it was missing. It wasn't exactly your ordinary staff. It was black, with a skull on one end made out of stone.
The next morning, Tobias's relentless searching paid off. "AHA! I FOUND IT! YOU THOUGHT I WOULDN'T, BUT I DID! IDIDIDIDIDIDIDID! YEAH - I DID, WHEN YOU THUOGHT I WOULDN'T, BUT I DID BECAUSE-"
"Tobias!" exclaimed Chika. "Calm down!" She smiled. "Where was it?"
Tobias's face fell. "Uh... nowhere."
"Uh-huh... where was it, Tobias?" Chika acted as if she was talking to a small child.
"Uh... mghktlsfgh," Tobias mumbled.
"Where?"
"Well..."
Chika was enjoying this. "Where was it, Tobias?" asked Chika all too innocently.
"In the large... ornate umbrella stand."
"Where?"
Tobias was red in the face. "In the cane stand."
Chika sniggered, along with Miyuki.
"Hello?" Tenchi stuck his head inside the doorway. "Come on Miyuki, let's go."
Chika grinned as Miyuki turned a remarkable shade of scarlet. "So... how often does the ruler of Aquaris come to pick you up, Miyuki?"
Ignoring her friend, Miyuki picked up her things. "Coming, Tenchi."
When they had left, Tobias walked up to Chika, scowling. "Do you have to be so blunt, Chikali?" he asked.
Chika grinned at him. "Of course. What kind of a girlfriend would I be if I wasn't?" She strutted away.
Tobias stood there, shocked. "Girlfriend?!" he whispered.
