One morning, several days after Shinji and his friends had settled in the mulberry tree, something unusual happened - they got a visitor.
At first, it seemed to be a pretty usual day. Asuka and Misato were caring for the little egg, and Shinji was taking a break from his work at the tunnel.
When suddenly, they heard a loud buzzing sound, then a heavy 'thud', and a bulky, dark shape landed on one of the higher branches.
Asuka and Shinji exchanged puzzled glances and hurried up the trunk of the tree. Misato was staying back, keeping an eye on the egg.
And sitting on the thick branch, munching on some of the green leaves was... a big, friendly-looking June beetle, whose big eyes made the impression that he wore glasses.
He smiled at the other two insects that had appeared next to him. "Well, well! Good morning to you! Isn't this a marvelous tree? Those leaves taste exquisite! Here, have some..."
But Shinji politely shook his head. "I'm sorry, but I'm a meal beetle, and I don't eat leaves. My name is Shinji, by the way, and this is my friend Asuka."
"Call me Kensuke!" The June beetle smirked. "So, a meal beetle, huh? Long time since I saw one... The last time must have been... let's see... Oh yeah, when I visited that wedding party at the mill! Bwahahahahah! That were some weird festivities, I tell you... A moth wanted to marry a meal beetle..." The June beetle couldn't stop laughing.
His words made Shinji gasp. "You... you've seen other meal beetles? And... and they even lived in a real mill?"
"Well, of course they did," Kensuke nodded while he continued to stuff leaves into his mouth. "Those meal beetles were living in paradise, I tell you... They had flour galore... they could take it from the sacks the humans were storing in one room of the mill, and those giant creatures wouldn't even notice it. But as for me, I prefer eating something green... (munch, munch) Lots'a vitamines... (munch, munch)"
Shinji couldn't believe it. He had felt so lonely, living here at this pond, since the last meal beetle he saw had been his mother. Well, he had Asuka, of course, and she was a good friend... But hearing about that many of your own kind living such a life of wealth and bliss made the young meal beetle sigh in aspiration...
While Asuka excused herself and went back to have a look at her baby, Shinji begged Kensuke: "Please, tell me more: How are those other meal beetles? What do they look like? How do they live?"
"Well, they kinda look like you, only their carapace is a lighter color... might be because of the flour they're eating... and they're leading a very relaxing life. You know, one day..."
And Kensuke told Shinji everything he knew about the meal beetles he got to know while staying at the mill. And so it continued over the following days: Kensuke would arrive at the mulberry tree, start eating leaves, and between bites, told Shinji about the meal beetles.
He was a nice companion to have, and once in a while, Asuka left the egg in Misato's caring hands and joined the two boys for a nice chat. Quickly, they became good friends with the clever June bug.
So their life on the mulberry tree went on... Until, some time later, Shinji was woken up by a shrill whistle, which he identified as Misato's signal for danger.
He ran out of his sleeping cave and met Asuka. "What's going on?"
"I don't know," the millipede replied. "I just woke up as well..."
They looked down to their ant friend, who was crouching on a twig beneath them. Quickly, they ran down the trunk's bark.
"What's up, Misato?" Asuka asked.
Misato made nervous hisses and whistles while pointing down to the ground. And when Shinji and Asuka followed her gesture, they could see the danger as well: Ants! A big squad of black ants, who were just beginning to crawl up the tree.
"Those ants are from SEELE," Asuka noticed with a gasp.
"I wonder how they know that we're here... or what they want," Shinji grumbled. "Maybe their spies learned from the egg their enemies had stolen... and now they want it for their own purposes."
"What do we do?" Asuka said in a panic. "We can't let them have my poor baby..."
"Don't worry, I've got an idea!" Shinji said and climbed up the trunk, back into his cave. In there, he found what he was searching for: The bottle with the colorless fluid which they had received from Ritsuko. He had kept it over all those days, just in case they would need it again.
And it looked like the moment had come...
When Shinji was pulling the bottle out of his cave, Kensuke came down from the sky and landed next to him. "Hey there, pal! What are you doing?"
Shinji positioned the bottle directly above the approaching black ants. "Careful, Kensuke, that's a sleeping drug! I need it to repel those ants down there! Damn, how do I open this thing...?"
He was surprised when, all of a sudden, the June beetle began to laugh. "Do you... do you know what you have there?"
Shinji frowned. "Uh... a sleeping drug?"
Kensuke shook his head. "No, you silly guy... That's just a bottle of perfume!"
"Per... fume?" Shinji murmured. "What's perfume?"
"A liquid the humans use to smell better. Here, lemme show you..." He took the bottle from Shinji and opened the cap. He poured some drops on his hand and put them on his feelers. "Heh, smells good, right?"
For several seconds, Shinji waited for Kensuke to fall asleep... but nothing happened. So he was right, Ritsuko's sleeping drug was nothing but simple perfume. Well, that surely was a nice time to find out...
Just then, Misato came climbing onto the branch they were sitting on. She just came to see what was taking Shinji so long... but then she smelt the perfume. Letting out a soft hiss that almost sounded like a sigh, she fell over and began snoring.
"So this stuff works after all..." Shinji mumbled. "But it only affects ants!"
Quickly, Shinji snatched the perfume bottle out of Kensuke's hands and poured it over the ants, who had nearly reached the twig on which Asuka was sitting.
When the fragrant fluid came in contact with the SEELE soldiers, they fell off the tree trunk, one after another. Shinji climbed back down to Asuka, and they watched in fascination as most of the attack squad was succumbing to the narcotic effect the perfume had on the ants.
Above them, Kensuke peered down as well, looking disappointed.
"The lovely perfume... all spilt!"
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(Posted Fri, 20 Oct 2006 20:48)
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