Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The sun rises over Suzumo-kuzai, that labyrinthian city it was. Suzumo-kuzai is rich in tunnels and alleys for literal backdoor deals, hidden or ignored by those living in its clustered, towering apartments. This city houses more secrets than people.

One such secret machination was just about to begin in one such alley. It was completely overrun by a rusty garbage container filled beyond capacity with bags. More such waste was thrown about from weeks of build-up. 

It provided them with the perfect cover.

The asphalt, already cracked from decay, began to shake and bend from tremors. The little quakes affected only a 5-foot radius, as more of the road shattered like glass. A dark-red arm shot through the road, its segmented digits flexed as it continued to dig and dig.

It dug until it was free.

The beast that stood up from the ground was an Ant Kaijin, larger than the Arsonist Ant that had attacked the school only yesterday. It crawled out of the huge tunnel it had dug. Unlike his sibling, it couldn’t be divided into tiny ants to crawl stealthily.

It didn’t need to.

When it was down on all six of its limbs, skittering about until it could stand, it would terrify anyone seeing it running for the hill. It stood taller than most people in this country.

When the Ant stepped away, it revealed the vast tunnel it had made by itself. It was a cavern that anyone could walk through to get around without being seen, a trick used to its fullest.

“Gotta love the transit.” Dr. Animo joked. He climbed up from the tunnel, and as soon as his boots landed on solid ground, he dusted himself off. 

Animo’s wide yellow smile hid his frustration well. He had quickly learned of the ‘Runway disaster.’ Initially, he was thrilled that his genius was so explosively shown… It was quickly snuffed by the intervention of another of those cryptids, an orange-furred mutt that brutalized his sweet baby, another new one that shows up at this same campus. 

However, the red-hot anger he had was minor compared to the bubbling excitement. Today was a day that he had waited years for. He would get his vengeance, and if some pompous cryptid came to spoil his fun, then he would gratefully accept its sacrifice…

A sacrifice to his science.

With that in mind, the Doctor looked over his suit. It was his transmodulator, but in a smaller, mobile form for grunt work on the ground. It was created using standard grocery-store tools and a scavenged vending machine. Carefully wrapped wires and metal scraps were bound across his green medical scrubs, and carefully under his lab coat, which had once been white but was now stained an oxidized brown and red. Wires ran from his transmodulator down his arm and into his glove. 

His skin, white as the bones they clung to, was narrow and twitchy. His nails turned into improper claws in his years of self-experimentation. His teeth were also sharpened, but they were hidden under the shadow of his greying lion's mane, which he calls hair. The doctor's hair stretched down his shoulders, and the longest bit reached the middle of his spine, completely wild and unkept. His chin had a bit of hair, a few scraggly, uncontrolled strands of growth against his pure Japanese heritage.

He was only in his late 30s, but he looked decades older, if you can see his face. His greying brown hair obscured most of his facial details in a pitch shadow. The only bits that escaped the darkness were his downward-hunched nose and his red goggles, which glowed, stealing attention away from anything else. 

Those scarlet torches caught onto his Kaijin's massive scissor-like mouth bits. His big brute bodyguard was getting antsy, eager for a fight.

Doctor Animo bluntly smacked the back of his hand on the chest of the Ant, a Leafcutter ant, as Animo recognized upon first seeing it. He got the Ant to take a step back and look down at him. “Calm down, my friend. You’ll get your bloodshed after I get my own.”

The Kaijin chittered, its inability to speak costing it again. It was a boon to Animo as he believed the best qualities in hired muscle are strength, stupidity, and silence.

Animo walked down the alleyway, careful to avoid the trash towers that stood beside him. His simple-minded insect bodyguard followed behind him, smashing through the garbage like something from a movie.

“Careful now, do not bring too much attention to yourself.” The Doctor spoke as he walked to the exit of the alleyway and into the light that invaded the tunnel. He raised his hand to silently order his beast of burden to stop just on the edge, its fingers clawing for the light.

Before they stepped fully out of their labyrinth, a darkened carriage flew by them on the road infront of them, a public bus that drove by them too fast for those few sleepy people going to work to see anything. It did give Animo plenty of time to read the big, bold advert poster plastered across the side of the bus.

“The Kougami Dai-roku Emporium to reopen its dedicated Aquarium after a year-long renovation. Come and enjoy the sights of the world's oceans!” It read, and to the biologist's keen eye, the poster was saying the truth if the species of fish depicted across the poster were true. They were, however, now what his crimson gaze focused on. He focused on the scientist on the poster; his name was placed under him, but Animo knew this man very well.

The bus kept on going, zooming past the now still doctor. His resting smile grew more malicious, his yellow teeth glowing, and they expressed their sole purpose.

“Looks like I’m getting two birds for the cost of one stone.” The Doctor sneered in cruel delight. Stepping back into the dark, ready to strike. They went into the dark and vanished like the shadows themselves under the brightness of the rising sun.

It was Saturday, and Rito was intent on keeping to his promise.

He woke up when he normally did, his arm wrapped up and pressed into a holy land of softness that he knew as Lala. He did not press his luck or fortune, pulling his free arm and shaking her shoulder, she slowly came to, grumbling softly as she woke.

She released her ‘midnight snack’, dragging her tail away from him as she moved to get up, letting his blanket fall off of them both and reminding Rito of why they were going out today as his cheeks glowed and he slammed his hand over his eyes to stop himself from gawking at the Princess's bountiful treasure chests.

Before she could kill him from blushing, Mikan poked her head in and told them that breakfast was ready. A perfect way for him to escape from the accidental lewdness of his bedmate.

He ate his breakfast, and as soon as Lala came downstairs with her Peke-spawned Deviluke dress, he went and invited Mikan to their little shopping day. She was eager to join them, pulling out a grocery list that stretched as long as her forearm.

With that, they were off and found their way over to Suzumo-kuzai. The city was in full motion with crowds on their way about, a good chunk of which were heading to the shopping district.

“Wow! So this is a human city.” Lala beamed. She walked ahead of her earthling compatriots, letting her size and outlier looks help her through the crowd, who parted for her, like she was a shark diving into a school of fish. “There’s so much to see! Can we check it all out, Rito?” Lala excitedly asked, turning around to look at Rito.

“Sure, someday. Today, though, we’re going somewhere special from my childhood.” Rito answered, catching up to Lala with Mikan by his side.

“Bread, Fish, Shirts, Milk, Bras, Jam, Pork.” Mikan rattled on, looking over the grocery list she made for this trip.

The Yuuki siblings were wearing warmer clothes due to the onset of cooler weather, something that the larger-bodied alien seemed not to get the memo of, even if she didn’t seem bothered by the cold. He was wearing a brown sweater with spiral patterns in it, while she was simply wearing a zip-up jacket over her dress.

They continue to follow the excited alien, trying to guide her in the right direction.

Soon enough, they arrived at a building that at one point in his youth was the biggest building he had ever seen, and even now it held a presence that those taller skyscrapers didn’t have.

He couldn’t take it in because, as he stood there, he felt dozens of eyes on them. 

More accurately, on the pink-haired outlier among the trio. Even without her height, horns, or tail, she seemed skilled at drawing attention to herself. Either from how loud she spoke in the crowds or respectfully quiet people, or more pressingly, how odd her outfit was.

“Is she a cosplayer?” “She has to be a foreigner.” “Who cares gurl, look at her breasts in that suit.” “Maybe she is going to some fanservice anime convention,” a group of disembodied voices escaped from the masses on the same trip that they were on. Rito tried for a simple moment to look for those who spoke in the crowd before giving up.

“Lala, come here for a second.” Rito softly ordered, grabbing onto Lalas' hand and dragging her, or just pulling on the much larger woman who could very easily ignore his tugs.

That didn’t mean she did.

“Eh?” Lala grunted in confusion, letting herself be dragged away from the crowd by him.

“We’re not even there yet, yep, we’re going to need to make a change.” Mikan agreed with Rito and followed behind the pair.

“What? What’s Wrong, Rito?” Lala questioned as her roommates dragged her out of sight of the crowds by jogging into a shallow, dead-end alleyway.

When they were deep enough, and the eyes of the crowd were no longer on them, Rito turned around to face Lala. “Can you do something about your outfit? We’re going to a very public place, and you are already attracting too much attention.”

“I can’t wear my dress?” Lala bleated. She really enjoyed this outfit and loved to wear it. She looked down for a second before bouncing in place with a renewed smile. “I see. Well, that’s fine, I have some Earthling clothes in Pekes databank.”

“Hey, don’t use any outfits you got from Rito’s dirty magazines,” Mikan interjected, pointing at her older brother like he was some old pervert.

“HEY!” He snapped.

With those options removed, Peke was left with few options. So, Lala moved closer to the entrance of the alleyway and peeked her head out of the tunnel. “Peke, scan the crowd and find a standard earthling outfit for me to wear.”

With that order, Peke’s head hat poked out, and her spiral eyes began to spin and glow yellow, and she used the light to scan the crowd.

As per her lady's orders, she looked for a standard repeating outfit among the mass of people moving every which way. It was only a second as she spotted some people wearing the same general type of dress.

“Uncatalogued outfit scanned and operational, Form change.” Peke droned on brightly, her form melted off of Lala, getting herself ready to reform into the desired outfit.

Mikan shut her eyes and raised her hand to cover up Rito's eyes as she got changed. He didn’t resist the blinding. Heck, he even closed his own eyes, too.

“I’m done-” Lala cheerfully spoke, and Rito was allowed to open his eyes and see the ‘Earthling outfit’ that Peke designed for her. She was now wearing something that was indeed commonplace in this city… it was a button-up suit, dress pants, and a tie. The first two were black and wrapped tightly as they could be around her body, even if her boobs hung high and created a vast blanket of shirt. The tie was the only bit of color on her body now, a pink tie which popped with her hair, and the top of it had Pekes little symbol. “How do I look?”

“...Don’t you think that’s a bit too masculine?” Rito whispered. He wanted to shout it out, but that died as he looked over her tight and strained shirt that created an entire curtain effect that hid everything under her bust and down to her tucked-in shirt.

There are very few clothes that this overstuffed woman couldn’t make sexy.

A fact that grew even more true as two of the buttons on her shirt were unable to hold down their forts and surrendered in the form of bursting from her chest and flying into Rito's eyes

His painful howl filled the street and brought a couple of passing eyes on him as he fell to his knees and rubbed his eyes. 

Lala was now showing considerable cleavage, even if the only one who would’ve enjoyed such a sight at this moment was blinded for the moment. 

Mikan gasped in shock, but Lala raised her hand before she could move to cover the woman's titalations. “Don’t worry, Peke is the dress, and as easily as it snapped, it can be fixed up just as quickly. Right, Peke?”

“Of course, Lady La- Ackh Gah.” Peke began to cough, the tie bouncing even more than the chest she rested upon. All three people focused on her, Rito forced himself to look through teary eyes too.

“What's wrong?!” Lala asked in worry, looking down at the Peke Icon. The clothes bot continued to splutter before slowly calming down and giving a response.

“I must’ve taken in too much smoke from the incident yesterday, it is messing with my processing power. I thought it would clear up in my charging, but it didn’t…” Peke confessed, every few words, she grew quieter and even quieter.

“WHAT?!” The normally happy woman exploded in a fury, her voice shaking the walls and windows with its power. That spooked Mikan slightly, who took a step back, but Rito did not so much as budge.

She lifted the face of her tie up to look at her face and glare. She swung her other arm around and stomped on the ground. “I told you yesterday to tell me if anything was up with your systems, now I do not know if there is any long-lasting damage!” She shook the tie, causing the sickly machine to groan and whine before she was dropped.

“Sorry, my lady.” The bot weakly replied, and her master clutched her hair, growling.

“That’s IT. Peke, you're grounded, no more reading books in your free time until I make sure you are entirely okay, do I make myself understood?” Lala ordered, poking the forehead of the little head with her nail, and Peke could only nod rapidly. 

“Well, this is WHY we’re going out shopping today, despite how impressive your inventions are, Lala, you should plan for complications like your only clothes failing on you, again,” Mikan explained, and Peke agreed in her silence.

Lala was still a bit unlike herself, her expression sour, and her seemingly endless smile dipped to a slight frown.

“Plus, where we are going is a great place for sightseeing,” Rito added, smiling brightly up at the pouting pinkie. She looked over at his smile, and that seemed to spark a return of her own.

“Right! Let’s go, Rito, Mikan!” Lala said boisterously, as she always does. She took hold of Rito's entire arm, pressing it into her side and wrapping her hand around it like she would her tail as she began to move.

Lala ran out of the alleyway, kicking up dust as she dragged him around. Mikan, slowly now, followed after them. She felt no need to chase them.

“Wait, Lala! You’re going to break my arm! Stop!?” Rito fruitlessly cried for freedom even if his arm was pressed against a slice of heaven… hell… whatever, that most men would kill for. 

He was happy, not just for his current position, obviously, but more so for the day they’re going to have out together just the three of them. A nice, relaxing day at a place full of memories for him and hopefully Mikan.

The Trio returned to the looming structure. Lala slowed down but never stopped, which let her stare up at the building in intrigue. Rito tried to wrestle his arm free, but she squeezed it as a serpent would. She did NOT intend to let him go.

When they got to the automatic sliding doors of the mall, Rito was clotheslined by the rush of a familiar rich smell that had burned its way into his nose from countless ventures here, the stench of perfume. 

Lala came to a quick stop, her eyes sparkled in awe of what she was seeing. This let Mikan come up to them as she looked across the vast expanses of the interior she knew in her childhood memories and nicknames as simply “The Mall.”

“Oooh!” Lala cooed over the density of storing options she could even just see in this one long walkway. There were over 12 stores, each selling nothing like their neighbors on either side of this one space, and there were multiple walkways and two additional floors stacked on top of each other.

As Mikan grew up, though, she obviously learned the name of this complex and other little facts that she was eager to share with her foreign friend. Since Rito was too lost in Lalas sparkles to speak.

“Welcome to the Kougami Dai-roku Emporium, the largest mall in Japan. This place has everything shy of an amusement park.” Mikan explained without exaggeration, there was simply nothing TO exaggerate when it came to this place. However, with a devious smile, she added one last detail. “It is a perfect place for a date, don’t you think, Rito?”

"Huh?!” Rito got shaken free of the Princess's emerald eyes only for his cheeks to resemble rubies themselves. “Mikan-” He went to shout in embarrassed protest, only for him to be dragged by an even more excited alien demon.

“Come on, Rito, we’re checking out EVERY store!” Lala giggled wildly, pulling Rito along with her as she ran into the first of over 60 stores. Rito didn’t even try to resist this time.

The Trio completely missed the next person who came into the mall: a young woman with blue hair who stopped on her path and watched the abnormally large woman drag a young man with a fancy watch behind her.

The trio went into one of the first stores in the mall, which was a Grocery store. It meant that Mikan took charge of this venture, with Rito holding onto the handbasket, which was slowly filling with his sister's listed items.

“No, put it back.” And Rito had to make sure that Lala didn’t sneak in anything more.

“Aww…” Lala pouted slightly, like a child would, before she picked out the box of Chocodan chocolate she tried to sneak into his basket.

They’ve gone through over half of the aisles now, but their basket was only filling up with the items they would need over the week: Rice, Jelly, Pork, Bread, Fish, and other such foodstuffs.

“Here,” Mikan huffed, putting a clear plastic carton of eggs in the basket before she got to the end of the aisle and swung around to the next without pause.

Her tagalongs followed behind, but Rito stopped short of the next aisle. He caught something in the corner of his eyes.

There was a tiny news rack at the end of this aisle, and the local paper spoke of the most exciting news recently, which meant yesterday's excitement’ with the Fire ant Kaijin and the now officially known Animaul. However, he knew THAT would be covered, with how he and Saki’s bodyguard fought it off.

What he didn’t expect to see was a blur covering most of Rin’s body, a tan blur which spoke of one detail Rito’s brain was struggling to compute. Something his blind alien completely missed until he saw that.

He remembered how vivid his mental map of her body pressed against his fur-covered back was; he thought beyond hope that she had kept her decency, and he never questioned it until he saw such direct evidence.

He needed some way to wash his brain clean of these dirty thoughts of a naked, muscular goddess riding on his back like he was a warhorse.

A bit of humming broke his focus on the embarrassing picture of himself. It was Lala, and she was humming along some anime or hero theme song she had been obsessed with on the TV.

He shook his head very slightly before he and Lala went into the aisle and found Mikan waiting for them with crossed arms. She didn’t scowl at them, no, her expression was a subtle intrigue of something her brother and his situationship hadn’t realized yet.

The pair were very close to each other without intending to; they weren’t quite shoulder to shoulder, but they had a natural closeness to each other that fit a couple.

She turned around and kept walking before a knowing smile crawled up her face. She let the pair catch up as they fell into their routine.

“No, put it back,” Rito repeated, as he had been doing the entire time they’ve been shopping.

“Aww…” Lala pouted before she put down the bag of Poppin’ Gummies she was about to put in his basket.

Rito, Mikan, and Lala were back in the walkway, and after a couple more fruitless shops, they silently decided to go to the top floor of the emporium. Before they could enter one of the shops, a calling voice spoke over their small conversations.

“The Kougami Foundation welcomes you to explore the depths of the world's oceans and vast rivers. Come and be an explorer and discover all of Earth's fantastic aquatic life. Join us and take a dive into the Mezuru Aquarium, found in the uppermost east corner of the Mall,” a feminine voice spoke over an intercom.

The group was making their way in that direction already, but neither Rito nor Mikan had the intent of stopping by it, despite the old memories. The Aquarium was a place for children, and as they passed it, that much seemed true, given most of the people in line.

However, he noticed the shadow over him was gone. Rito stopped where he was and looked back, shifting the bags in his hand as he looked over at the aquarium, where he expected to find it.

“What are you doing, Lala?” Mikan asked before he could, the siblings walking over to Lala, who was staring up at the literal corner store.

“Ak- Acquirieuuhm?” She spoke, brutalizing the unfamiliar word. She was reading the word on the sign, accidentally body-blocking some of the older people from the line.

“It’s Aquarium. You probably have an equivalent back… where you came from. It's a place where rare fish are shown off in fake environments, trying to replicate their old homes.” Rito explained it to Lala while he imagined what an alien aquarium looks like.

He should’ve known how she would have reacted to such a discovery. Her eyes glowed with excitement before she grabbed onto his arm and yelled, “Let’s go!”

She flew into the line, forcing him to come with him despite his loud protests.

“Wait!” Mikan barked, which got Lala to stop moving, and both turned to her as she approached. Rito thought she was going to drag her away from here, but no, instead she went up to Rito and took the grocery bags out of his arms before smirking deviously and adding. “There we go, enjoy yourselves.”

Rito widened his eyes before he got picked up by the excitable woman. She rushed herself and Rito into the short line. Mikan, meanwhile, walked over and joined a seat with some of the parents on the wall.

“Enjoy your Dive.” The ticket puncher greeted a little girl and his family. She was hired for her smile, which she wore as naturally as a dress. She enjoyed seeing the genuine excitement of the children coming in to see the fishies. “Next-” She looked over, already hearing the sounds of excitement that only came from a kid, yet when she turned, she was met with a wall. A Wall dressed in a suit.

The woman kept her smile, even as her eyes bulged out and kept slowly rising until she saw past the breasts, until she saw the giddy smile of Lala looking down at her.

She is stunned into complete silence by this overwhelming being in front of her. She beat her in every way. She was wider than her, taller than her, and boobier than anyone she knew.

“Uh, Miss?” Rito asked, and the young woman looked down at him, having missed him due to his companions' immenseness.

“Y-yes, sir? H-how may I help you?” The ticket-puncher stuttered, her gaze jumped between his face and her body.

“...Two Adult All-day tickets-”

“Okay!” The ticket puncher immediately tossed two tickets his way before swinging open the gate. She was a second away from going around her chair and pushing them into the Aquarium, but he got the memo and led both of them inside quickly.

They were shoved through a pair of double doors and were met by a short intermission tunnel that looked like some people describe airplane tunnels, accordion-like. The Aquarium was in its own separate building, built with connections into the emporium.

Lala quickly got into the central room, and she didn’t stop until she found the first tank full of bright colored reef fish. Rito freed himself from her, even for just a second, to look over a big map poster laid out. He looked around the various themed spots across its vast expanse and floors. There was enough here to make a full day out of it.

However, to the overly curious alien, she would be out of here in an hour with how fast she zoomed past each enclosure.

Rito snuck back to her side, watching her pressing her entire face against the glass as she stared at a… Giant Gourami, if the info board Rito read from and the image tied to it were right.

He couldn’t force himself to get her to slow down, even as she spent only a few seconds between each tank before running to the next. Amazon Adventure, Reef Roundabout, Deep Dark, and The World of Rivers all done in less than half an hour.

Now they were coming to one of the ends of the Aquarium, one last zone to venture into, with a sign in the shape of an iceberg with the words “Penguin Paradise.”

“Come on, come on!” Lala called, hopping on her heels as Rito jogged over, panting as he ran to keep up with her. She waited for him at the doorless gate to the enclosure. He didn’t need the door to know he was entering a distinct new zone. There was a chill escaping the zone that nipped at his fingers.

“Just wait for me, Lala.” He pleaded as they ventured into Penguin Paradise.

They found it held only one large open enclosure with a wall of glass that went up to Rito’s shoulders, full of water for little penguins to swim through, and in the distance was an island facsimile of rocky heights and ice. Rito stood beside a set of bleachers, four rows high, for people to sit down and watch. 

There was even a little informative sign in front of the enclosure detailing fun penguin facts like “Did you know, Penguins love to swim, it is their Happy Hobby!” with a drawing of a Penguin with both teeth and a beak smiling towards them.

There was something off, something missing.

“Where are the little penguins?” Lala questioned, dashing from side to side of the glass wall, trying to find the fluffy birdies.

“They’re not in the enclosure right now.” A Janitor spoke from inside the enclosure, Mop and bucket in tow, as he cleaned up.

Lala grew a frown, which went beyond a simple pout. She seemed to have gotten her hopes up. Rito felt a pit in his stomach grow just from seeing that, and so he asked a question. “Will they be back out today?”

“Yes, in a few hours, there will be a live show with them. It’d be the perfect event for you and your big girlfriend.” The Janitor answered before he went back to mopping.

“She’s not-” Rito struggled through a blush before he gave up. He got too distracted from his embarrassment by his ‘girlfriend’s’ frown.“T-thank you. Lala, let’s go, Mikan is waiting for us.”

“Huh, but what about the Penguins?” Lala asked, following Rito still as they left the zone for the exit.

“Well, he said it’d be a few hours, right, we can do some more shopping before then. I promise to take you back here before we leave, though.” Rito promised, pressing his hands together to make the promise seem even more truthful.

“Really?!” Lala’s expression shifted instantly from sorrow to happiness within an instant.“Let’s go!”

“You’re really going to break my arm, STOP!” Rito frantically cried as he flew through each room and toward the exit tied to Lalas arm.

Neither noticed the man wearing a large jacket and fedora with red goggles and a face mask striding through each enclosure. Every few steps, he pressed his gloved hand against the glass and rubbed it about.

When the tank was sufficiently rubbed, the man grabbed a dial on his chest and spun it around twice, forcing the process to work until out from the bottom of his harness came an unmarked pearl.

The mark was not required when you could just press the button to learn what Pearl this was, as he did just that. “GLASS!”

“Guh. Three strikes, I’m out. It’s another dud. I might need to get even closer to get some REAL samples to write home about.” The hidden doctor spoke, tossing the Glass-Pearl into a little reused bag before confidently walking down the halls. He would get what he wanted soon enough.

Lala and Rito quickly reunited with Mikan as they left the Aquarium. His ever-so-loving sister immediately handed him the grocery bags to carry before she stood.

They were quickly on the move. The women of the group walked ahead of Rito, and Mikan was wowing Lala with information, which left Rito to reminisce on the past. 

His memory was sparked heavily when they went past one of the older stores in this complex, the mall's Arcade. His memories came to life. They were practically dancing in his mind vividly.

Day long past where He and Kenichi were kids, they came here after class to spend coins between the various games and machines, sometimes he even dragged Mikan or Yui to come and join the fun, even if both of them acted like they were bored. Those were simple days, fun days.

Now the Arcade had some new toys, even on the outside of it, as several claw machines stood on either side of the open gate.

“What is this machine?” Lala asked, approaching the only unoccupied machine. He must’ve been staring for too long or stopped walking, because she was able to sneak up on him and was now observing the body of the large device.

“It’s just a claw machine, you put money into it, and you have the chance to win stuffed dolls. It is a chancy game, though.” Mikan clarified for her; she also managed to sneak up on him.

“I see-” Lala said, looking over the little toys in the game cabinet before her eyes locked on one specific doll, and she cooed, “Ooo, that one is adorable.” Lala pointed it out.

Rito had many words he could’ve described that doll with, but cute was not near the top of that list. Now it was on paper, cute, it was a white rabbit in a red dress, but then, of course, you would need to focus on every other detail. It seemed to be designed like a patchwork, a Frankensteined rabbit with its limbs dressed in wraps or sewn staples, or how its mouth was made to mimic sharpened teeth, or how its eyes were completely different from each other, with one being a black button and the other being a large red oval, giving it an even more demented look.

It did have a charm all its own, he would admit to himself. So after a quick explanation of how the game works, He inserted a coin for Lala and went to watch her go.

It went as well as anyone would expect. First try was a complete miss as the claw grasped only air. After he inserted a second coin, he watched her attempt again. The Second time went both better and worse as she did hook the claws onto the rabbits' ears and got it up in the air, but then it slipped and tumbled down the mountain of dolls until it ended up in a worse spot than before.

“Aww, can I go again?” Lala asked, falling entirely for the design scheme of the machine. However, before Mikan could stow her pocket of loose yen coins, Rito took one last coin from the bag.

“Actually, why don’t you let me take a spin?” He offered, even while he stepped up and took hold of the controls from Lala. He inserted the coin and took center stage. His pupils narrowed as he focused on every micromotion he was about to make.

“HYAH!” He howled, the claw danced like it was an extension of his limb, he might as well have been Hotwire for how well he moved around until he got it in exactly the position and let it drop into the mass of dolls.

The entire thing showed a grace that was completely unlike him.

Seconds later, the claw raised itself, and in its tight grasp was the patchwork rabbit doll. It dropped down the chute and as quickly into his hands.

“Here you go.” He said, handing it over to Lala, who reacted to the doll by squealing in joy. She hugged the large doll close to her bosom. “Thank you, Rito, thank you so much!” She thanked him before grabbing him by his shoulders and picking him up, before bear-hugging him.

Rito couldn’t fight it; his head was completely submerged in her suited bosom before he could even accept her thanks. She was beginning to crush his ribs in her thanks, though his pained cries finally reached her ears.

He thought that would be how he died, crushed under two powerful arms and an even more powerful chest. It would be far from the worst way to end, in his opinion, but that was perverse.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you! This will be my treasure forever!” Lala squealed, looking over the Doll closer to her face now, her eyes examined every detail meticulously. 

“Well, until recently, Rito has been only so good at these pointless, useless, little things like this.”

“Oh gee, thanks.” He sarcastically replied.

The sibling banter got a laugh out of Lala, who stuffed the Bunny doll into her cleavage before he moved, getting the pair to leave with her.

After the last few rounds of lollygagging the trio had been doing, they were now coming upon the first store of real interest to them, and their entire reason for coming here today. A clothes store. Several of them, in fact, are right next to each other.

It did lead to its own set of issues when the Princess seemed intent on stopping to view every bikini option shown through the windows. So they resorted to each taking one hand and the other to keep her moving. 

Which was very bad when she outweighs and outpowers her companions several times over.

“Which store do you think would be the best, Mikan?”

“That one, yeah.”

So, when she inevitably spotted one more store that interested her, she pulled against her tag-alongs until something was forced to give way.

The sound of tearing cloth caused the trio to stop, and the two humans looked a bit pale as they looked over and found the areas by Lalas shoulders to be torn open. Now, even more of her skin was exposed.

Before Rito could even open his mouth to apologize, Lala opened her mouth and said it was fine.

“This is not an issue for Peke. She can fix this up in a jiffy.” Lala explained with a thumbs up.

“Of course, my la-” Peke tried to speak before her coughing fits resumed. She sounded less like a malfunctioning machine and more like someone who was sick.

“Are you okay?-” Rito asked, before, to his horror, the tear began to grow unprompted, followed by other spots across her suit, which lost fabric slowly.

“I-i’m sorry, my lady. I only have a minute of power before I shut down.” Peke apologized, leaving Rito to freak out as he does.

A minute before she is completely exposed, as he remembered from yesterday. 

He, unfortunately or fortunately, doesn’t need to IMAGINE Lala naked.

“Rito, this way!” Mikan hollered, rushing off and trying to lead them toward the nearest clothing store, one with a changing room. Rito grabbed onto Lalas' hand and rushed after her.

“Damnit, Damnit, Damnit, Damnit, DAMNIT?!” Rito repeated over and over again the only things concerning his mind right then were following his sister and the timer he had running in his head until Lala was left barren.

When Mikan ran into a store, he followed behind her blindly. He did not care where they were going for once and only that they got somewhere and quickly.

He doesn’t register the people he is running past, only blurs in his peripheral vision. He could only see his target, an open changing stall. As soon as he got close enough for it, he shoved Lala inside and slammed the curtain shut. 

He tried to ignore how she was basically nude for the second it took him to get her inside. The fact was made evident when seconds later, the Peke Doll fully formed and rolled limply out from under the curtain, at the base of his shoes.

He was slowly calming down from the rush that carried him here, and it let him see more of the world around him. They were in a clothes store to be certain, but now the details were showing up, and each one flustered him more and more.

From the mostly women crowd gathered in the store, the sole man in the store looked like a pervert. To simply which clothes were being sold mostly, there were a few shirts and skirts, but the vast majority of clothes were bikinis, panties, and very sexy kinds of both at that. Then it culminated in him reading the name of the store from one of the posters.

“WHY ARE WE IN A VICTORYS SECRET?!” Rito howled in embarrassment before shutting his eyes with his hands. The women throughout the store stopped what they were doing to look over at the crying boy.

Mikan ignored him entirely, leaving him for a second to grab some of the first clothes she came across. She grabbed onto bras, bikinis, and binders before handing them to Lala. 

“Try these on Lala. Rito, stay with her as I try to find clothes that might actually fit her. Stay here and wait for me to return.” She ordered, pointing at a bench that sat between two of the changing booths.

His heart felt like it was on fire due to the rushing emotions that flew through it. Worry, Embarrassment, Frustration, Lust. So he eagerly sat down, resting his head in his hands and slowly relaxing. His legs weren’t sore like the first time he was running with Lala, but that tiredness still existed elsewhere.

He slowly opened his eyes, which shook a bit as he finally stabilized himself. The humming of Lala as she threw on the clothes helped him as well.

The last thing he needed to see was someone staring at him, and it had to be the last person he wanted to find him in this place, Haruna Sairenji, who was holding in her hands a packet of panties with strawberry patterns.

“Yu-Yuuki?”

‘What is she doing here?!’ He thought in panic. If he were in the right state of mind, he would obviously figure that question out, but that was NOT now. There was no way this situation could get any worse.

The sound of a curtain being thrown open sounded like the horns of judgment day to his ears. 

Rito looked back, and he threw his hands on his cheeks. He was now a fleshy recreation of the Scream painting. Lala stood there wearing a set of lacy pink underwear that clung to her body. They looked 2- no 3- NO 7 times too small for her body.

“Hey, Rito, I tried this on, but it hurts to wear. Is that normal for these ‘bras’?” Lala asked, raising her arms above her head, in her mind trying to emulate Saki. Only then did she see the newest onlooker. “Oh, it’s you, Haruna!”

“W-what is going…” Haruna struggled to speak, her cheeks beginning to burn from the sight of Lala, and it was not embarrassment this time.

“I- It’s Uh We-well.” He tried to talk, but in this moment, there was no blood running through his heart or brain, only anxiety.

To add to this horrible predicament, Lalas’ choice of pose only ended with the strap snapping into ribbons, flying off of her like a continental missile and smacking onto Ritos head, a cup of the bra landing over Ritos nose, he was not breathing right now, so he didn’t notice it, his focus was on the sight and sound around him.

He couldn’t come up with the words, especially as the force of the hit to his head sent him stumbling forward on weak legs.

He fell forward, and like a domino, he crumbled onto Haruna, sending her falling too.

“Hey, I’m back with some shirts-” Mikan came walking back only to stop at the sight before her.

Lala stood in the back wearing a set of panties meant for a larger woman, which fit a bit snugly but fine. She was entirely topless with her HUMONGOUS breasts out in the open for every woman to see, and she stood in the open like she wasn’t nude in public. 

Then, of course, her eyes looked down at the sight on the floor. 

Rito was on the floor wearing a bra for a hat, and below him was that cute girl he was crushing on, Haruna. He pushed off on what he thought was the ground.

They opened their eyes at the same time, and Haruna shakily looked down to find the situation they were in.

“I’m sorry-” Rito tried to apologize.

The Slap that hit his cheek could be heard across the entire emporium.

“I’m sorry, Sairenji.” Rito apologized. He was nursing his red cheek with his free hand and a handkerchief Haruna had given him.

“It’s fine…” Haruna acknowledged him, but she looked ashamed of something that didn’t sit right with him for some reason, and he had no way of knowing what was upsetting her.

“Come on, slowpokes!” Lala called from the store's exit. Thankfully, she was now dressed in a baggy set of sweatpants and an overly baggy t-shirt, even across her humongous body. She did have underwear on, but the whole bra situation was left completely unsolved, leaving her to slosh around with every step she took. There was the slightest binding against her bosom, in the form of the depleted Peke-doll.

Mikan stood alongside Lala. She decided to take on the heavy load of carrying the grocery and clothes bags across her arms.

Mikan was Rito's little angel. She explained the situation to Haruna before she could run off in an embarrassed flush and leave with a warped view of Rito or Lala. She accepted the explanation, and when she tried to leave, Lala invited her to join their shopping trip.

He was surprised by the speed at which she accepted the offer.

Rito lingered in the back even after they all caught up with each other. Haruna was happily talking with Mikan and Lala about something… Rito wasn’t paying attention to that, or very well anything.

He only focused on his own anxious damnation. Yes, she accepted his apology, but he still fell on top of her with a FUCKING bra on his head like some perverted champion. At this moment, he just wanted to retreat into the earth like a worm.

He couldn’t let his depressive episode linger for too long because Mikan came to a stop just out of the store itself. “Oh, right.”

“What is it?” Rito asked her, and Mikan looked over to him, wearing a smile and expressing herself with her arms in a way closer to Lala than her. It was odd, but she seemed to be purposefully acting.

“Well… I need to do some personal shopping, without you guys-” Mikan spoke, her words claimed she needed to be away from the three of them, but her eyes focused on him alone. “It’ll take a while before I’m done, so you three can enjoy shopping without me. Don’t wait for me.”

With that, and her seizing the Peke doll from Lala and carrying her with her, Mikan left the Trifecta alone.

With her gone, they continued their awkward walk down to whatever store would catch their attention next. Rito and Haruna specifically, they walked in pace with each other as both of them were too focused on their own thoughts to notice their unity.

Rito tried again for the 10th time to try and describe the situationship he was in with Lala in his own brain. If he couldn’t even do that in his own mind, how would he manage to say it, especially to her?

Haruna internally questioned several things, like how Rito didn’t seem overly flustered by Lalas… huge… or how it felt to be pressed together with Rito on top of her, his chest pressed against hers. Mostly, she was stuck stewing in something that had been growing for the past few days, ever since Lala showed up. 

They were both going to need an endless amount of time to untangle their complicated feelings, time that the Princess with Zoomies never allotted them.

“Oh, what’s that?!” Lala asked. She ran off, faster than any human could. Rito never lost sight of her, mostly due to her being the tallest person in the entire city. So he could see her stop by something alongside a wall.

That let Rito and Haruna follow behind her, even now still in nearly the same step.

When they got closer, the sight that sent her running came into view for them both. It was a pop-up shop, one of many throughout the mall. This one consisted of a fold-up table, fold-up chairs, and a table cover. Throughout the table was a variety of large rings and necklaces. Ruby, Emerald, Amethyst, and Amber colored gemstones lay in the handful of merchandise.

An older couple ran the shop, but they were talking with another customer, which left them to look over the gemstone accessories on their own.

Rito apparently got lost in his imagination. He imagined the two women he was traveling with wearing these artifacts and smiling at him.

“Hey, what do you think?” Lala asked, breaking up Rito's fantasy and bringing his eyes over to see what she was talking about. She was holding a rose quartz necklace in her hand.

“I-it looks great on you.” He managed to say, before she laughed at him. He didn’t spot the lightest brush stroke of pink glow on her cheeks from the compliment.

“Silly, I mean, how does it look on Haru?” Lala added, going over to Haruna before putting the necklace over her head, and it rested on her neck. 

“...b-beautiful,” Rito spoke his truth. Which left both him and Haruna with an intense blush.

“Doesn’t it, tiger?” The male Shopekeeper spoke up, he reached over on the table and picked up an identical necklace. “It’s a buy-one, get-one-free special today.”

Rito bought both before he understood what he was doing; even behind his flush, he gave both women one of the necklaces, which they wore for the rest of the day.

“Aww… Young love.” The other shopkeeper cooed at them as they walked into the next store over, but their spirits were now lifted unanimously.

The supposed Throuple made their way through several stores, getting a few more clothes for both women, before they eventually went down to the second floor after a lap through the uppermost floor.

There were a few stores they crossed before now, but none had anything for this particular trio.

Soon enough, they found themselves at the Emporium's food court, a vast expanse filling up a wing of the floor with over a dozen restaurant stalls for a variety of food options from Wcdonalds to Chinese food.

It was getting close to lunchtime, but none of them intended to stop for food.

So they began to pass by the various delicious food stalls, and the smell seemed like the sweetest temptation to their noses.

Before they left it fully, a deep rumbling escaped from one of them.

“Sorry, I must not have eaten enough of my breakfast’s.” Lala apologized. Confusing their third-party member, why did she speak like she had more than one breakfast?

“No, that was my stomach,” Rito spoke, fishing in his pockets for the little bit of money he brought that he earned himself. Most of this shopping trip was made possible thanks to Lalas generous allowance, which she is eager to spend on anything for anyone she is friends with.

However, he fully intends to buy this little lunch with his own money.

Rito looked over the entire food court, looking for the cheapest yet best option available. Soon, though, his eyes landed on a stall to the farthest wall of the court, which more so resembled something out of a festival, and that seemed to be its theme. He could see Takoyaki and Okonomiyaki being prepared and even…

“Ooh, perfect!” Rito exclaimed, marching with a smile over to the shorter line. Followed by the girls.

“You two want anything, I’m paying?”

Lala nods ferociously before looking over the menu. She hums and murmurs, but eventually she comes to a realization. “I’ve never had any of this before, I can’t decide…”

“Well, I can pick for you then. What about you, Sairenji?” Rito asked, looking over at her.

“I-I’m good.” Haruna lied because not even a second later, her stomach growled as well. “I’ll take whatever you’re getting…” She admitted in a pitiful whisper.

“Okay!” Rito said, and they decided just in time, as it was his turn in line. “3 Taiyaki, please?” He asked before fishing in a tank of drinks for a cold coffee, setting it down on the desk. He preemptively got the money required out for the cost. 

Soon, he had his fish-shaped cakes in hand and passed them around to both Lala and Haruna as they set claim to the nearest free table.

Rito and Haruna take it slowly, knowing how to eat a fresh-from-the-grill Taiyaki snack. Lala, on the other hand, tried to bite off the entire head of the fake fish. She regretted that bold choice.

“HothothothothothotHOT?!” Lala cried, sticking her overly long tongue out and letting it droop under her chin before she fanned at it with her hands.

“You need to eat it slowly, Lala.” He spoke, used to all of her alien bits. Haruna, on the other hand, had another wave of confusion and blushing from the sight before her.

She took the advice, slowing down her next bites. “It is so good.”

“I know, right? I love me some Taiyaki. It is the perfect lunchtime snack food for when you are in a hurry.” Rito added, and an accidental laugh escaped his lips, but he did nothing to hide it. Haruna joined in the laughter as she finished her fish cake.

With their abrupt lunch break through, they went back to their search for stores. However, they now had less of a direct goal to look for.

So they were enjoying each other's presence as they scoured for interesting stores.

Rito, Haruna, and Lala were cracking jokes and just enjoying their discussions without the embarrassment that normally filled two-thirds of this group.

They were following the vibes that floated through the air.

Slowly, though, those vibes turned into song. Someone was plucking and playing with a guitar.

The music obviously caught the attention of Lala. Curiosity got the better of her, but before she ran off, she snagged both of their arms and ran with them. Rito and Haruna are forced to tag along for her jog.

The pair could see faces and bodies, but everything went too fast for them until Lala chose to stop… sometime…

She did come to a stop sooner than later. The trio was now standing among a small crowd enjoying a three-man band of guitarists.  They were playing their hearts out. They were not the best, but that hardly mattered to the alien royal unfamiliar with Earth music.

Lala let go of the pair before she zipped to the front of the crowd, hooting and hollering as she got caught up in the excitement the band created.

Rito and Haruna chose to stay in the back of the crowd. They still smiled and listened along with the music. Unconscious of the fact that they were scooting closer and closer together until they were shoulder to shoulder with each other, pressing up on their sides.

Haruna didn’t have a say in what her body did next.

She leaned her head onto Rito's shoulder, letting herself rest against him, feel his warmth through his clothes, and hear his heartbeat, which pounded like a drum; it added to the music. She could also feel him flinch ever so slightly when she initially touched him. He did relax quickly, though, but she focused on the flinch.

She did enjoy herself, but the music went dull in her ears as she repeated that fact in her head.

‘Why does he flinch for me and not…’

When the music ended, they were back off in their seemingly endless search for stores. This time, Lala kept being the lead, dragging them around and into any store of interest to her.

This time, it was a costume store full of people preparing for Halloween. The entire outlet was drenched in orange and purple hues to celebrate the oncoming season.

Lala was immediately off, searching the few aisles for any curiosities to spark her interest. 

This left the two awkward humans alone, and immediately, Rito began to stress out. He was worried about something that Haruna struggled to understand.

No, she believed she knew what was going on with him, even if she didn’t like her imagined answer.

He was stressed to be around her.

With Lala around, he wasn’t nervous around her, maybe a bit flush but she was LALA. Sure, sometimes he could get frustrated with her, but he was never stressed to be around her. 

No, only with her is he so nervous, so stressed, so worried.

Rito noticed something was wrong. He looked over at her and tried to force a smile through his chattering jaw.

Before she could continue to dwell on it, Lala returned with a treasure trove of masks, like the ones you could collect at a festival.

With her return, he relaxed, and his smile seemed more natural as he reached through the pile of provided masks. The one he ended up plucking out of the hoard resembled a generic alien, and in an instant, he set it on his face.

“OooO” Rito put on an exaggerated accent to try to sound like an alien in his head, despite his closer knowledge of the extraterrestrials than most. “I’m a big scary Grey, I’ve come to steal your milky cows.” Rito cackled like a Saturday morning cartoon villain, wiggling his digits and hunched over to add to his performance.

His performance got Lala to laugh. “Hahah! Oh, Rito. Grey’s don’t sound like that at all!” She corrected through her cackles.

Rito laughed along before he really registered what she said. “Huh?”

Haruna seemed to smile at the performance, too, but her smile stopped before it got to her eyes. Those lightless things that stared at them.

Despite how long it seemed, they did come to the end of their shopping trip.

Now, though, Rito had a promise he intended to keep even if Lala was the one dragging them back to the aquarium's entrance. The Ticketpuncher from before still stood there, but upon seeing the outstandingly tall woman from before, well…

“Y-you two, you’re free to go back inside.” She yelped, pointing with her open hand over to a different line entirely.

“Uh, well, I want to pay for one more-” Rito tried to pay for Haruna’s ticket, but silently, she pulled out enough Yen to pay for the one-time ticket. “Nevermind… then.”

With that awkward moment past them, the trio entered the aquarium and found it was even more packed than before. Crowds of all sorts filled the various zones with excitement.

“The Penguin Paradise live show will begin in 10 minutes!” The PA system throughout the Aquarium sounded off, an alert for those interested.

There was definitely some interest to be found.

“Come on, Rito!” Lala cried; she tried to drag him towards the Penguins, and Rito actually protested this time.

“WAIT! We still have a few minutes before the show, and unless you want to go and get a seat, we have time to burn.” Rito explained to her, which seemed to work as she returned to a familiar cycle from last time. Even if she was slower this time, enjoying more time spent observing the few tanks on the way over to the Penguins.

Lala was consistently a few steps ahead of Rito and Haruna, though it was good that she wasn’t running around.

“Sorry for dragging you along with what Lala wants to do.” He apologized. He still stood shoulder to shoulder with Haruna, even if there was some distance between them.

“You don’t need to keep on apologizing.” Haruna quietly told him, and they stared over at Lala, who was a few tanks ahead of them now. She wasn’t done, though, adding afterwards. “I’m the one intruding on your guy’s dat-da-day out…” Haruna stuttered out, unable and unwilling to say that specific word.

She did not want to say that word, for her own precious heart.

“Oh nonono! I’m not… we’re not… I’m just Mikans glorified baggage boy. Honestly.” Rito tried to explain, realizing the misunderstanding that she was coming to.

He was gasping like any of the tanked fish around him. He was unable to speak and, in all honesty, was getting a bit lightheaded. He struggled to find any conversation point that could break up this anxiety in his entire being.

A silence fell between them. It was not a comfortable silence. It was dense and layered in awkwardness that left both unsettled. They could only look away from each other and follow after the excitable devil-woman.

Speaking of, Lala was pressed up into one of the glass tanks, watching with full enrapture of the little fishes swimming around her.

“Come look at this, you two,” Lala called them over. She looked back at Rito and Haruna and saw their discomfort, their needy glances towards each other, and the seeming situation around them. It took only a sniff for her to get the confirmation she needed. She could smell the complex swarm of emotions fleeing from them both.

“Oh… I see.” Lala spoke in whispers, connecting a set of dots that they didn’t or couldn’t yet understand. But knowing it didn’t take away from her current excitement, it was a little minor thing, even if she noted it down.

Soon enough, though, she returned her entire focus to the Aquarium itself. An excitement that uncontrollably spiked until she ran through the aisles fast enough to kick up dust that some janitor forgot to sweep.

“WAIT!” Rito could only watch as Lala ran off. Soon enough, he was left alone with only his crush. He shakily looked over at her and saw her nervously fidgeting, unable to look at him. That worsened his freak-out.

His heart felt like it was going to explode out of his chest if he stayed here for too much longer.

“L-let's go after her, right?” Rito ‘asked’ her, but he was already on the move even before he finished talking, desperate for them to move out of this situation.

Before he made a full step, he felt someone tug on his sleeve. His limbs felt like stone as Haruna tugged on his sleeve. Her small hand was shaking.

“Don’t leave me.” She begged in a whisper.

Lala rushed through the aquarium's complex until she found herself at one end of the mall.

Or so she thought.

She reached the end of one of the halls and found a pair of open doors infront of her that she must’ve missed in her first run through of the aquarium earlier in the day.

“More fishies!” Lala excitedly cried, hurriedly running down the new hall. In her rush, her tail smacked the door and forced it shut behind her, unveiling the words written on its front. “Do not enter.”

Down the tunnel, which tried to keep to the same style as the rest of the building, Lala found herself entering a different world entirely, without the glamour of the outside. 

“Where’s the fish?” Lala questioned, glancing about the white metal walls that surrounded her.

She was striding through the metallic arteries that ran throughout the Aquarium itself, and soon above it as she mounted a set of stairs that brought her to the Sickbay.

She was up on a metallic platform that stretched up into the rafters. The room was opened up, and when she peered over the stainless steel railings, she found something that deeply excited her.

“Fishes AND Penguins!” Lala excitedly called out, leaning further over the railing to look at them.

Down on the ground, there were two big tanks full of a diverse bunch of fish that sat sedentary across the water provided to them. In the back, three penguins sat similarly to the little fish, except they were in their own little rocky box to keep them from getting more sick.

“Huh, why do they look so unhappy? Are they bored?” She questioned, misunderstanding the sickness as something minor. 

She tapped her finger to her pink lips, trying to think of a way to make the Penguins happy.

“Did you know, Penguins love to swim, it is their Happy Hobby!” That fun fact from the enclosure's sign flared up in her mind.

“Perfect, you little guys just need some water.” Lala realized, hitting her fist into her palm as she spoke. “And I got just the thing for you lot, yes.” pulling out her D-Dial and pressed a few numbers across it.

“Standing By, Transfer, Spray-Spray Zou-Chan.” The D-dial sounded off and flashed a stunning array of pink lights before the device in question began to manifest in Lalas' grasp.

The Device seemed on the outside to be a pink watering can designed to resemble an Elephant with its trunk being its nozzle. The royal deviluke branding was painted on the forehead of the device, and on its grip, there was a trigger and a latch. Which Lala pressed down and latched shut to keep it constant.

She held it out over the railing and let the water rush out from its trunk. For a few seconds, it seemed logical, but quickly the pressure of the water increased, and the load that could be held inside the small frame of the device seemed nonsensical. 

But that was, of course, the trick. It wasn’t just a watering can; it was a Space Distortion watering can with the ability to siphon off water from the nearest large body of water. That was how it managed to pour in an ocean's worth of water.

The Spray-Spray Zou-Chan was pouring in its endless fountain directly from the frigid, stinking depths of the Pacific Ocean.

So it quickly filled up the little jail the Penguins were kept in, letting them float through the water easily, even if they were still icky while doing it. The fish were soon to join them, too. With astonishing speed, the room began to fill and fill with seawater.

All the while, Lala hummed a deviluke rain song with a swing of her narrow hips and bouncy head.

“Don’t leave me.”

Those three words seemed to shut Rito down. Time slowed to a stop around him. In his vision, there was only He and Haruna. No one else existed in the world but them.

He tried to say her name, but the noises that left his lips sounded closer to Morse code than any spoken language.

His head shook as he turned to look at Haruna. He saw her eyes, what was normally purple, were now nearly pitch-dark, lifeless, and nearly black, unlike their usual hue.

“Sairen-?”

“Yuuki, I need to ask you something.” Haruna interrupted, her eyes gained the faintest light, but also something far more tender. She looked him in the eyes, determined to ask this simple question. “Do you hate me?”

“NO?!” Rito yelled, bringing all of the attention in the world onto him, and he didn’t care, damn the restrictions of embarrassment. He looked into Haruna's eyes, and she looked into his eyes. “No…” Rito whispered, letting only her ears catch it, but it was no less intensely passionate. 

“It’s just… every time you are around me, you seem so uncomfortable when I’m in the room, even to the point of tripping over yourself. How you struggle to speak next to me… You always end up stuttering when you’re with me. You can’t even look at me anymore. Then… there’s Lala.” Haruna's body shook, and her voice was hot and dripped in sadness as she continued to clutch onto Rito's clothes. Water landed on his shoes, which did not come from any of the tanks.

“Lala, what about her?” He, as gently as he could manage, asked.

“You are calm around her. You don’t panic, or stress, or worry to be in her presence. You weren’t even that blushed to see her… undressed. She- I-I just worry that I lost- no, no, I’m just being stupid. I-I shouldn’t be venting my feelings to you, I-I’m so s-sorry.” Haruna apologized, rubbing her eyes to try to stop the burning tears that were pouring down her cheeks.

Rito grabbed her by her shoulders, turning her to face him, before he pulled his crush into a hug. He did this knowingly and with care, which didn’t mean he wasn’t blushing, but he did his damndest to ignore that instinct of his to take care of her.

He stood there for a minute, his hand on her back, letting the woman pour out her tears into his sweater.

Whenever she stepped back from his embrace, he let her, but time was now lost to him and her. They were only concerned with each other.

“You’re so kind, so thoughtlessly kind… It’s no wonder then…” She says, backing up with a smile on her face, but her eyes scream of sorrow.

‘Kindness?’ Rito questioned himself. He didn’t think that he was kind. Everything he has done is just what he felt he should do. He didn’t remember those things that he did so vividly like Haruna did.

“Here, Haruna.” He spoke, reaching into his pocket and fishing out a handkerchief and offering it over to her.

She took the rag and wiped at her eyes with it. After a few long wipes, she looked down at the handkerchief and cracked a genuine grin at the visible sign of kindness that he so thoughtlessly provided her. 

For her.

“You and Lala really do deserve each other, you’re p-perfect for each other,” She stated, closing her hand over the Handkerchief. Rito could hear his heart shatter into a trillion little pieces from those words.

“But, I-I still like- I’ve always liked-” Haruna stuttered her way through whatever she tried to say.

But she would be interrupted before she could finish her confession to him. The PA system that had initially warned them of the showing blared once again.

“The Penguin Paradise live show will begin in a minute!” The PA called, and for a moment, Rito looked up to the roof.

When he looked down, he saw only the backside of Haruna as she walked toward the Penguin live show.

Rito flusters slightly, but much of his usual redness was covered up by feelings of failing her, failing to express his feelings to her…

Meanwhile, Haruna resembled a Valentine's rose. She was glowing red and beyond safe levels of embarrassment. She worried about what would happen if she saw his face right now, how her body would react.

She didn’t want to chance it.

Back in the sickbay, the seawater was now up to half of the room, and the sickened animals were dancing through the chaotic water.

Lala kept her finger on the trigger, happily pouring more and more of the Pacific into the room. Every new foot of water seemed to add to the fun the fish and penguins were having below her.

They were having so much fun, in fact, that she wanted to join the fun.

“Hey, what is going on in here? Why is there so much… noise…” One of the Aquarium workers entered the sickbay. He was notably wearing overalls, standing on the same platform that Lala stood, he stopped his question upon seeing the flooding and the giantess that seemed to be adding to the disaster infront of him.

How did this even happen? Was this woman somehow responsible?

“STOP!?” The worker called, but his voice was drowned out by the rushing water next to her. So she didn’t hesitate to do what she wanted to.

Lala set the Pachyderm-like device down on the railing, letting it pour without her direct influence. She climbed up the railing, managing to balance her humongous, top-heavy build on the thin railing before extending her arms out.

The worker knew what she was going to do. She tried to dash at her, but obviously, she was faster than he could ever be.

She dove, her hands meeting above her head as she dived like a professional swimmer into the flood she created. Letting out a huge “Wahoo!” as she dived. 

She forgot to remove her clothes, so now she was diving in a t-shirt which would drag her back slightly. Not like she cared. She was too excited to, her laughs overtook even the rushing water she got immersed in.

More and more workers rushed out to the platform, and even one of the several on-site marine biologists came out to see what was going on. The first worker informed them all of the situation, creating a second maelstrom outside of the one swirling under their feet. They were concerned over the fate of the woman and the safety of the animals, but more immediate was the cessation of this typhoon.

The worker in overalls rushed toward the alien device, trying in a hurry to shut it off, but in his panic, he pressed the wrong button, sending sparks out… and increasing the pressure of the water, which was now seeping through the platform under him and quickly overtook their feet.

The sweeping storm of seawater, containing a variety of animals, and the princess swam in circles around the people who would soon be forced to join them.

The duo of Rito and Haruna made it to Penguin Paradise, and for once, they got lucky with a trio of open seats near the front row. They sat on the two outerseats, still unable to look at each other without fluster or shame. Rito sat on the aisle seat. He kept looking around, trying to see if their missing third had found her way here.

Light and Bouncy music filled the exhibit as the show started less than 10 seconds after they sat down. A sliding door against the wall of the enclosure opened, and out came a keeper, a young woman, with her hands to her side mimicking the movement of the little birds that followed behind her in loose order.

A gaggle of tuxedo ducks with a tiny ring of pink around their eyes, African Penguins.

That got the crowd into an excited uproar as some stood from their seats to get a better view of them. The same young boy from before ran around his parents' feet and pressed himself against the glass to watch the show.

Some of the penguins follow their trainer, ready to beg for food, while others dove into the water and swam past the glass, unintentionally wowing the audience while they did so.

This got him to realize that he didn’t hear a specific excited cry among the crowd.

“Where's Lala?” He rhetorically asked, looking around as he questioned this. She was so excited for this show, and she isn’t even here… where was she?

Lala was on her own, which could be trouble from either her inventions… or, if Zastin is to be trusted, from outsiders who would come and take her. Then he remembered who he was talking about and remembered that Lala was more than strong enough, and that it wasn’t like she could get into too much mischief in such a short time.

So he sat back to enjoy the small show, and in time too, because the keeper was just welcoming in a special guest for this showing.

“Everyone, welcome the founding donor of this exhibit and gracious sponsor to the Mezuru Aquarium, Professor Asuka Mizufuka.”

The middle-aged professor strode onto the stage from the same entrance that she had entered from. He had a narrow set of glasses that he pushed up with his finger before putting on a smile for the crowd.

“I’m so glad to be here today. This place has become my pride and joy. When I helped to fund this aquarium, I hoped it would inspire those who visit to grow a passion for the natural world that even outshines my own love of all things wet and weird in this beautiful ball of dirt we call an ocean. I hope that you all agree, and even if you do not wish to directly donate to the aquarium, even going to the gift shop is giving money to research to help protect these wonderful animals that you have come to see. Now, shall we get onto the show?” The Professor monologued. It was a speech that he prepared weeks before, but it didn’t make it artificial. He believed every word of it.

His passion inspired applause from everyone in the crowd, Rito and Haruna were not excluded from this… and neither was a man wearing glowing red goggles and a lab coat. Animo’s slow applause and fake toothy grin brought him the attention he craved.

“What wonderful poetry, Professor.” Animo spat that title like it was a slur. He left his seat behind to slowly walk down the aisle toward the spouting man, very much like a wolf stalking sheep.

“Akira… what are you doing here?” Professor Mizufuka asked, half in shock and half in horror.

“Ooh, you know?” The Mad doctor drawled his words as he looked over the crowd who stared at the filthy, homeless seeming doctor dressed up in mechanics with confusion. They did not know anything about him, but they would soon never forget. “I’m just about to do my own showcase, same as you. Except mine is a long time coming after all you did to stop me.”

“Stop you?” The Professor balked at the claim, only to be shut up as Animo howled in fury.

“YES, you stood in the way of everything I attempted for those long years we were together. You stole everything from me. You stole my sponsorships, you stole the awards, you stole the lab that was promised for me, and you even dared to steal the Professorship you hold so proudly.” He growled as he passed by each row; sometimes, he leaned into the faces of the guests.

Some of them tried to leave only to feel the implicit threat in those red eyes focused on them, telling them without words to sit down.

“But sooner than you think, everyone will know me and my boldest accomplishments. They will learn the name, Dr. Animo.” Akira finished the first part of his rant with a boisterous boom in his voice, howling at the ‘Professor’ that even now stood above him.

“So what, you’re here to ‘steal’ something from me, is that it?” The Professor questioned, and everyone in attendance besides the madman forgot about the penguins entirely.

“No, I’m not so-” The Doctor stopped mid-sentence as, in his pacing, he spotted something, like a crow seeing a bit of shininess. In this case, though it wasn’t a bottlecap, it was a person. 

He spotted Rito in the crowd and eyed him up and down, noting every detail and especially how his hand clutched onto a particularly fancy watch on his arm, and emblazoned on that watch is a symbol that he was all too familiar with.

However, he didn’t focus on him for any longer than a moment. He had bigger bugs to fry in this moment as his focus returned entirely onto the Proud Professor Asuka.

“I’m not so basic as to demand an endless paycheck for something so long and old… I’m only here to display my brilliant science as it reaches the pinnacle, the apotheosis of nature itself.”

“O-okay, Akira.. Let’s calm down.” Professor Mizufuka called out, just as the Doctor gripped onto the glass of the tank itself. His claw-like nails crushed onto the railing as his obscured eyes glowed with the illest of intent and a fury unchained.

“IT IS DOCTOR ANIMO TO YOU!?” The mad doctor yelled out, spit flew off his disgusting teeth, before he leaned back, took a breath, and continued. “I, Doctor Animo, alone have created the single greatest breakthrough of our entire pathetic species. Want to see?” The Doctor frothed at the mouth, his madness evident across every inch. He ended his own monologue with a snap, the noise of which was a trigger for something bigger than him.

The ground underneath the stands exploded, sending several poor people flying, which included Rito and Haruna. He fell first, with her landing just sound of him and on something soft, even if he winced in pain from impact in sensitive bits.

From underground came the Ant-Kaijin who shoved the stands aside, sending those few who had not vacated from it yet into a scream. Rito looked upon the Kaijin with horror. It was like the one he fought yesterday, except bigger and brown instead of reddish. This one looked far more armored, though, which was an immediate concern.

Rito went to transform. He couldn’t let a repeat of yesterday happen.

But damn his flip-flopping luck because Haruna sat up just before he managed to press the button to lift the watch. The young woman was crimson for some reason lost on him. In his moment of panic, he didn’t recognize her positioning, how close she was to Lil’ Rito, and how she used his legs to pick herself up into a tall crawl.

Something was going on more important than their lewd accidents as Animo began to smuggly preen.

“Isn’t he lovely?” The Doctor boasted proudly. “He is so big, and SO strong.” That was all the warning everyone got before the Ant picked up the stands with one grasping hand and throwing it into the glass, shattering it open and allowing both water and penguin freedom. Rito and Haruna were unfortunately in the splashzone of this one.

Families were now running, panic was setting in, and for now, the Doctor allowed it to happen as he and the Ant Kaijin stepped through the spot where the glass once stood and towards the frozen in fright Professor.

One of the little penguins walks into the path of the Doctor, who calmly scoops up the flightless bird and holds it by the scruff of its neck to keep himself safe from the bird's claws or beak.

“Ah, a Spheniscus demersus, a splendid little animal and the perfect way to showcase my brilliance,” Animo spoke as he overlooked the little bird. He raised up his gloved hand, “You WILL watch this.” He enunciated each word, a subtle command for the Ant.

That burly thing lunged up the side of the formerly water-filled enclosure and gripped onto the professor by his arm, preventing his late escape.

“With just a sample gathered, from either organic or inorganic elements, thanks to my Transmodulator, the process can begin.” He began, petting the bird on its back like one would pet a cat. “Once the sample is properly processed, it is mixed in with my own concoction of mutagenic elements, and this is where the interesting bit begins.” He pointed to his chest-bound mechanics, which whirred and poured red fluid through mishappen tubes around as they mixed and pulled their bits together. “Now, that delicious chemical smoothie is poured into a chosen vessel, which is rigged to identify the elements entering it and announce it when completed.” He finished, as the stew poured into the centermost bit of the device and into something unseen. 

When it was done pouring, the Doctor began to turn the dial on his chest. Three turns were needed before an unmarked pearl fell out and got caught by him. With a press of the button, it boldly announced itself.

“PENGUIN!”

“Ready for your medicine, Professor?” Animo giggled as he stepped up to his trapped opposition. Holding the pearl out before jabbing it into the Professor's stomach, piercing through his layers of clothing and connecting.

The Ant let go of the Professor, or more accurately, was unable to contain the struggling Professor as his transformation commenced and ended rapidly, his entire body exploding into a burst of feathers that fell away to reveal his mutation into a monster.

The Kaijin was adorned with floofy white on its underside and dark blue feathers on its backside. Its beak was overly long and wide, with a hooked tip ready to tear. Its beady green eyes had a ring of black and red around them, looking like glasses with the red feathers extending back and up into a spiky crest on either side of its face. Its arms were long enough to drag on the ground, turned to flippers, each adorned with five claws on the ends. It stood at nearly 6 feet taller, yet it was wider built than its Insect brother-in-arms. The Pearl blended pretty well amongst the feathers from its Bellybutton positioning, but it was ever so off in color.

The Penguin Kaijin turned to its creator and opened its beak to reveal that it still had its human mouth. His nose was visible too, but was melded into the beak's roof, the human-like mouth opened, and its breath created a frigid fog as it spoke. “What are… your orders… Master?” It spoke with a slowness very much like ice itself.

“Hmm… Cause a scene, create some havoc, if a few of these pleebs die, then it’d make this showcase even more memorable.” The Doctor spoke, flapping his hands around to the onlookers as they tried to run. They would not escape.

“Yes… Destroy…” The Penguin enunceated turning from the Doctor toward the families, and toward a pair of teenagers standing towards the entrance. Haruna held the door open for people running out as Rito made a choice. 

‘Screw That!’ Rito grunted in his mind, pulling the Omnitrix closer and pressing on the button, turning the dial up. He didn’t care about transforming infront of Haruna if it meant stopping Dr. Animo from creating more incidents like yesterday. He was lucky that she focused on the monsters and not him, trying to find one of his own to turn into.

That was the tricky part, of course, deciding.

‘Maybe I should go Fourarms to outpower them both… but I’d risk falling through the floor before I got to stopping them… er… what about Foulfly… no, no, there's no room to fly. Is there anything for Ribwit or Hotwire to use…. Guh.’ Indecision struck him like a lightning bolt; he spun the dial repeatedly, looking over every available option to him. “Hmm… maybe I should use you, I haven’t tried you out yet though…” He spun the dial to the 10th and last alien he had on the watch, looking over its silhouette, trying to find enough info from a shadow.

Before he got to spin the dial again, a nasty but familiar odor crawled into his nose, and the feeling of wetness crawled into his shoes. He looked down to find… saltwater- no, no, this was SEAwater crawling up to his ankle.

Then he heard the sound of running water, no RUSHING water. It was mixed in with panicked screams and confused grunts as those who ran from the room were now coming back, carried here by a tidal wave straight from the Pacific.

“SAIRENJI!?” Rito yelled, shoving her out of the way as the wave slammed into him, sending him flying away and getting dragged under the waves. She would be dragged into the water too, but in the aftereffects, much less turbulent that way. She was, for now, forced to drift with the rising rapids. 

The room, as with the rest of this floor, was quickly filling with water till half of the room was filled with ocean water. It slowed down considerably after that, but it didn’t stop. There was a slow but present growth with each passing minute as those in the water swarm toward the only patch of dryland left, some of the Penguin enclosure itself.

“What the?” The Doctor is in bewilderment in these circumstances as he steps further back to keep himself out of the water, watching as people scurry for the island among the waves.

Haruna was quick to join those, but she didn’t scurry. She was too good a swimmer to be thrashed by some of the sea. She crawled onto the limited land, same as everyone else, but her focus was not on herself as she got to her feet. Salty water dripped from every angle it could as she turned to the water and looked around. “YUUKI?!” She cried.

“Yuuki…” The cry was muffled in Rito's ears from the water that surrounded him. He forced his eyes open, letting his tears add to the water as he peered towards the water and tapped it down.

The murky blue water flashed green for a second. Those on the island who were not holding onto their loved ones or crying out for others observed the water and a large silhouette that was very much not human begin to move. It swam at them, but at two points it slowed and swerved off, and at a pair of people caught in the current.

One of the women gasped in horror as what could only be a third monster went after their loved ones… only for the silhouette to swim towards them until the water could not hide it any longer. The monster stood up from the water, and everyone got a good look at it.

The best initial description is a Fishman, a slimy, grey-scaled fishman with a bulbous glowing lure on the top of its head like an anglerfish, but the bulb was much bigger. It had no lips to cover its huge, conical teeth like a croc, but it was layered in rows like a shark. It had a set of gills that ran from either side of its neck and around the back before connecting to its large, green, and rigid dorsal fin that went from its head to the edge of its torso. Those gills were covered in a glass-like tank full of this rich green fluid, which bubbled as it breathed.

That respirator connected to the rest of its outfit by a black band that wrapped around the fin and went under its tiny black tank top that seemed to only cover its pecs, even if it tightly hung on him. 

It had on tiny swimming shorts too, but they were mostly hidden under its… dress… it seemed to wear a type of dress that connected to its waist but flowed completely separately in four pieces around it… until you looked closer and saw it was fleshy, a black with green stripes kilt of flesh that seemed to be lined with tiny ridges like zippers. Around the waist of this ‘dress’ was a tan and white belt that looked rubbery with the Omnitrix symbol dead in the middle and slightly larger than average. It now resembled a belt buckle or something from a hero show more than a shapeshifting watch.

Its eyes, grey and glassy like a rotting fish, except for a small golden dot in the center to act as pupils, looked over the crowd as it dragged itself onto land. In its arms, which were longer than its torso, were a pair of people who got caught in the sweep. 

Haruna gets a good enough look at it to confidently say it was around the same height as Lala, but she wasn’t scared of that fact, even as he held onto two unconscious people… for some reason, she trusted him.

It lightly set them down with its four-digit claws, and a thick green webbing connected each finger. before it opened its overbiting jaw, and it just kept opening until… it spoke. 

“Is there a Doctor here?” The Fish-like alien spoke in a lighter-than-he-expected voice, layered with a gurgle from his respirators. “These people need CPR. Is there anyone who knows how to… do that?” He asked, gesturing with his claw-tipped hands down at the pair.

“I-I know C-CPR… Mr…” One of the crowd approached, very cautiously. They looked at the symbol on his belt, and that gave them the confidence to do even this.

“Er…” He hummed to himself before shrugging and telling the truth. “I don’t got a name yet, but I’ll tell you when I do.” The young man turned alien gave a thumbs up, stepping away from the pair to let the helper get closer. Instead, he focused on the three villains and eyed them down.

The Mad Doctor seemed positively giddy at the sight of this creature in his display. “I figured I would eventually run into one of you, you’re one of those Cryptids that have been sharing the spotlight with my babies. I’m so glad to finally have an audience with one of you.”

“The feeling is not mutual, you sicko.” The Alien huffed, stepping over to be in the middle between the Doctor and the families.

“Aw, let's not be so hostile. Why don’t you join my side of the table? With you and your friends' genetics, oh, the things we could do. We could evolve this entire planet into its ultimate forms and rule it together. So… What do you say?”

“...No…” The Fishman spoke with a deadpan that he could even manage out of this unfamiliar face. Rito almost burst out laughing at the question. It must really be madness that infected the doctor if he thought that’d work.

The smile on Animo's face dropped for a second before returning with viciousness creased into it. “A Pity, I guess I’ll have to settle for peeling your scales off of your corpse and putting you on ice. Speaking of.” He snapped, and the Penguin Kaijin opened its jaws and secret mouth and sent out a concentrated beam of ice at the Alien. He was fast enough to jump to the side of that blast and looked back to see the effects as the beam smashed into the corner of the room and created a foot-deep chunk of ice.

‘Note to self, make sure never to be hit by that,’ Rito thought quietly.

When he looked back, he didn’t get the chance to react before a massive wall that was the Ant Kaijin. The Ant clotheslined the Fishman and dragged him into the water, with the Penguin diving in after them seconds later.

The Doctor whistled as he began to walk. No one paid attention to him as the focus was on the War of the Monsters.

When the Alien was fully submerged, the bits of his ‘skirt’ came together, the fleshy zippers locking together until they fully went over his legs and revealed themselves to be parts of one massive tail. Once it was fully formed, he grew out a green tailfin that he immediately knew would give him mastery under the water.

If only he had better circumstances, as he swung around to face his opponents. The Penguin swam up to his level, while the Ant Kaijin was too heavy, leaving it to walk across the floor of the sunken exhibit.

“Two versus One… Not the best odds…” The alien grunted. He was able to speak underwater, which was a surprise to him, too.

“Destroy you…” The Penguin growled before it dashed at him, flippers looked like wings as it soared through its watery domain.

The Penguin closes the distance in record time, bringing its flippers together and its long claws together in a slash.

Rito narrowly avoided it by landing an open palm slap to the Penguin's face, knocking it aside and into a daze for a second, before it swam away for a second. 

The Alien tried to follow it, only to realize it couldn’t. Its tail was stuck on something. He looked down to find the Ant Kaijin had managed to grab him by his tail and was trying to pull him down.

He tried to just swim up, but the Ant was quite strong and won this Tug of War by pulling the Alien down by his belt and grabbing onto him by his shirt. The Fishman fought for his freedom, grabbing at its arms to try to fight for his freedom.

That fight was stopped when the Penguin seized the chance and swarmed like a torpedo at the pinned Fishman, spearing him in the chest, forcing the water out of his gills as his body shut down and he went limp.

The Ant let out a gurgled chitter of happiness, his master would be so happy to get his hands on one of the Cryptids.

In its excitement, it slipped up. It was unfocused and unready for what would follow next as it watched the Penguin do a lap around the enclosure, ready to spear the Cryptid again.

The Ant was not ready for the lure on top of the alien's head to flip backwards to face him, which did get him to look at the lure, but that was the worst choice it could make. The Lure exploded with light, a Flashbang. The Ant was blinded, and in its panic, it took a few steps back, tearing the chunk of shirt it was holding onto with it as it rubbed its eyes.

When it could see, it saw only a grey scale-covered fist, half a second from a devastating punch right to its face, green blood entered the water from its nosebleed. Rito didn’t linger on staring. He could see the Penguin as it dashed towards him, so he took the arm of the Ant and threw the burly kaijin into the Penguin's path. 

It stunned the bird and threw the Ant back at him, like a demented game of Ping-Pong that ended as the Fishman did a backwards flip, tailsmacking the Ant kaijin as it soared uncontrollably at him. That shot the Ant up, out of the water, and into the ceiling above them.

Rito let himself rest for a second, keeping his eye up before he spoke. “Okay, One down… One to go-urk!” He got a bit cocky and paid for it heavily when the Penguin blasted him in his chest with its Ice Beam.

He was sent out of the water only to unceremoniously drop back in.

The Alien sank for a few seconds before shaking off his confusion and looking around for the Penguin. He didn’t need to wait for his eyes to find him, because he could feel the water around him suddenly grow cold and used that to swim out of the way of the Ice beam, which shot past him and froze a chunk of the water on the surface.

The Flightless bird revealed itself and kept its mouth open, ready to unleash another volley of ice at the Fishman.

“Shit.” Rito cursed, turning and swimming away, using his tail to outrun the big flippers, even if only by a little.

That lead would cost him as he was suddenly smashed by something heavy and strong. It was the Ant who jumped from the ceiling and was sinking the fish like a rock.

When Rito reached the ground, the Ant spun him around and began to try to punch him in the chest, smashing its fists into him. Once, twice, thrice, and some more before Rito could grab and throw the Ant off of him. He did that just in time, too. The Penguin was swimming for him with its beak clacking as it moved in.

Rito managed to grab the Penguin by its oversized beak, forcing it shut and struggling to keep it that way. It would soon overpower him and deliver a point-blank blast of ice right to his face… unless.

“Sorry, Professor.” He apologized, tilting the neck of the big birdie before opening his mouth as wide as he could, which meant it reached down even past his shirt, and sinking his teeth into the Shoulder of the Kaijin. 

He could taste the feathers and the blubber hidden underneath, and he felt like he could’ve dug deeper. He EASILY could’ve torn through the Kaijin until he was missing his entire shoulder… but… he didn’t know if that would kill the Professor.

So, he stopped his bite there, using it to pin the flightless bird in place for him to begin punching it in its ribs. He was trying to stun it long enough to get himself free.

Back on the island, Haruna watched the struggle from the surface. She was joined by some of the people quietly hoping for the Fishman to be the winner of this duel.

“Help…” A tiny voice cried from the waves. Haruna immediately looked out, and while she couldn’t see a head above the water, she could see the last bits of someone's hands before they went under. She recognized that struggle instantly, someone who couldn’t swim.

She dove in without a second thought or concern and made her way over. Her years of swimming paid dividends here as she crossed the deep pool in seconds and dove under to grab onto the poor person who was drowning. When she got that poor guy out of the water, supported on her arm, she saw it was that same boy from throughout the day. 

She didn’t focus on that too much as she remembered what lay in this water and hurried to swim out of the water entirely.

Then she got hit by a stray ice beam. It only grazed her side, but it had enough force to immediately knock her out and terrify the boy as they began to sink back under.

Rito was fending off both the Ant and Penguin when he caught sight of Haruna and that boy as she landed softly on the floor of the drowned world he was fighting in.

He immediately dropped the fight and swam at them, dodging the attempted attack of the slower Ant as he got to the pair, careful to grab the unconscious woman in a one-armed bridal carry and holding the hand of the still very conscious boy as he swam up to the surface.

When he got back to the Island, he crawled ashore until his tail split apart into legs, letting him walk further inland and taking the pair with him. “Are you okay, Kid?”

He got a shaky thumbs up in response, which was good enough as his parents ran over, hugging him and crying their thanks to the Alien.

With that solved, he focused back on the quickly coming to Haruna. He loomed over her accidentally, dropping to his knees as he choked back tears slightly, as her beautiful purple eyes opened up and saw her rescuer.

Her vision was still foggy, dream-like. To her eyes, her rescuer, her hero, just looked like an unconventional Mermaid- No wait, in those clothes it has to be a man, so a Merman- no… with those big teeth he had… He was a Mermaw.

She was not scared of him, quite the opposite, honestly. The roof lights illuminating down on him gave him a heavenly glow, to how he was looming over her but not forcing himself on her, to how his simple eyes showed so much love for… her? Or just people in general…

It reminded her of her romance books. He was the Not-so-little Mermaw.

She was flushing bright red and was clutching her hands above her chest as she opened and closed her jaws, trying to form words that she was too flustered to. Multiple questions on her own tastes flew into her brain from the only level-headed side of herself, but in this moment, she did not care.

This was unhelped by a simple question he asked her. “Are you okay, Sairenji?” Mermaw asked, smiling even without lips to show it off so well, he was happy to see she was awake.

She could only nod. If she forced herself to speak, she would say something she would regret. Haruna didn’t know why she was swooning so hard, but she WAS.

“Good,” Mermaw rose to his feet. He didn’t notice how she instinctively went up to grab on the ruined tatters of his tanktop. He still had two Kaijin to defeat afterall…

Oh, what he would do for some support right now…

Mermaw dove back into the water, his legs turning back to a tail, and once that was done, he was off and went to spear tackle the Penguin for petty revenge.

He was too focused on the tougher of the monsters, though, as The Ant sneaked away from the fight, leaving the Bird to fend off the monstrous hero. The Ant made his way back to the shore to follow his sub-mission.

He was ordered a long time ago now, to collect ‘test subjects’ for his master, who was vacant from the room now, but that didn’t matter to it. It had its job to do.

“No!” Mermaw finally noticed what the Ant was doing and tried to rush after him, ready to jump from the water like a crocodile, but he was given a taste of his own medicine when the Penguin blasted him into the roof, before he limply fell back into the water and floated on the surface.

So that left the Ant with nothing stopping it from taking a few ‘souvenirs’ for his master.

Or so the Ant thought.

Haruna, who jumped up from her lovestruck pose, now stood in between the crowd and the Kaijin. Her arms out and her eyes locked with its compound eyes. The woman was small, though, and weak too, but she still resisted him.

The Kaijin raised his hand, ready to backhand the woman who would try to fight off perfection… only to stop as a faint sound made itself known to the horror of those people.

It was the sound of more rushing water, but this time it came with an undercurrent of something else.

Laughter.

“Hahahaha!” The sound of Laughter brought everyone's eyes over to one of the side entrances, which burst open, revealing a second wave of water and a large pink-haired woman riding the wave while laughing.

“Lala!” Both Haruna and Mermaw spoke at the same moment, shouting the name of the woman as the waves joined up with the rest of the flooded Aquarium. The water level was now getting even higher, and the room for air was getting scarcer and scarcer.

“Huh,” Lala asked as she came to a stop, looking over the situation. Rito was transformed into a Fishstick, there were two kaijin, and her clothes were now transparent, showing off everything with her braless body. That left Mermaw and Haruna to blush violently, the former's blush being green.

Lala scanned the room until her eyes narrowed on the Ant Kaijin, and its hand, as it was raised up above Haruna.

In a second, Lala began to swim. She was not as fast as Mermaw, but that did not make her slow. Before the Buggy Bastard knew it, she grabbed onto his hand and squeezed it until its armor cracked. “No one threatens my friends.” She growled through her needle-like teeth before socking the Ant in the jaw and sending it tumbling into the water.

She jumped in after the Ant and swam over to be by the side of Mermaw. “Hey, Rito.” She called with a wave as she stood by him.

“I don’t even want to know, but you caused this, right?” Mermaw asked in a deadpan. He kept his eyes on the Penguin Kaijin floating across from him and the Pathetically sinking Ant Kaijin.

“Penguins love water, remember.” She told him only getting a sign from him as the Ant began to stand back up.

“Nevermind, let's move, we need to drain this bathtub before people begin to drown in it.” Mermaw brought up, with Lala putting her hand on her chin and inadvertently bringing his eyes over to her… before immediately shooting back at the mutations standing away from him… That wet t-shirt added to her in such a way that it made him worry.

He tried to ignore the tightness in his swimming trunks.

“The Entrance, then, it’d be the weakest spot to break open and get this water flowing.” Lala came up with a plan in a snap, Rito only clocked then that she can speak underwater.

‘There are more important things happening, Rito.’ He barked to himself before grabbing Lala by her waist and carrying her. “Let’s go then.” With that, they were off.

Water began to crawl up the island. Soon, there would be no room for them to stand… the aliens were on a strict timer. So they hurried through the numerous tunnels and exposures, only catching glimpses of people holding on to their loved ones, clinging to the roofs and punching holes into them to try and get more air.

She could hear the flapping of the Penguin Kaijin chasing them down, but Mermaw was faster than it was, thankfully enough.

Soon enough, though he reached the entrance, a vast expanse with the tunnel that they entered from was blocked by those double doors. If they could burst those doors, this entire thing could drain in minutes.

“So, what's the plan?” Mermaw asked as he set the Devil-like alien down, and she swam to the door.

“I try to crack this open, while you-” Lala spoke just as the Penguin Kaijin followed them into the Entrance area. The Ant Kaijin is gripping onto its birdy feet, letting itself be carried along.

“I deal with Kowalski. Got it.” Mermaw swam off and towards the Penguin, baiting it into following him around the vast room to give her the time needed to open the door.

The Penguin tried to repeatedly blast at the alien, but he dodged each blast until Mermaw pressed himself against a wall and a heating tube. The next blast hit the tube, creating a pocket explosion and a curtain of bubbles that hid the Fishman.

“Kill…you…” The Penguin growled as it swam into the bubbles, expecting to find Mermaw right behind it. So when it was met with only the wall, it began to search for him.

Perfect for the stalking predator.

Mermaw leaped from his bubble shield and grabbed onto the fat neck of the Kaijin to try and choke it out. As soon as he got the headlock, though, the Penguin began to buck and swing, trying to free itself.

“Stop, Professor. I do not. Want to. Hurt you!” Mermaw struggled to say, only getting to speak between thrashings before the monster's power outdid his own, sending Mermaw flying off the mutant.

Now that it was freed, it swam boldly at Mermaw, snapping its jaws at the Fishman as it swam up. Mermaw swam away, fully realizing how unfair of a matchup this is for a Fish to try to stop a Penguin.

‘No, no pessimistic thoughts, not while I’m fighting for my fucking LIFE.’ he howled at himself before he flipped and swam at the Penguin, gut-checking him with his forehead before grabbing onto its flippers.

Now that he had its fins pinned, it shouldn’t be able to do much swimming-

Until it kicked with its feet in panic, throwing itself around and smashing against the walls, hurting itself and Mermaw in its attempts to throw him off. It was desperate, and that made it reckless.

He needed to end this quickly.

So he too made a desperate move.

He headbutted the Kaijin in his face. 

The first one only stunned the bird and stopped its struggle, the second caused it to slur and its oversized false beak to crack, the third was enough to send the mutant bird to sleep, its beak shattering like glass to reveal the human-like face under it. Each hit slowly built up a massive splitting migraine in the poor alien hero's head.

But now with the Penguin slowly sinking, Mermaw took hold of the scruff of its neck and dragged it alongside him as he swam.

‘It was stronger than the previous Kaijin…’ Rito realized to himself, remembering the past fights with both Ants and the Fly being relatively squishy, even if the Fly managed to last longer than the Penguin had in the fight… but that was because it dodged him more… No, the Penguin was taking far more damage than any other Kaijin so far.

That was a worrying omen for the future.

Back with Lala, she was trying everything to burst through the door except for summoning one of her inventions. She didn’t want to experiment with how waterproof her babies were today. That left her with one thing.

Her own goddess-like strength.

The Doorknobs were stuck or locked from the outside for some reason. Whatever then, Lala would try to slam into the door or kick it down. The efforts that were made were useless under the water.

Every few minutes, she would need to turn around and kick or punch away the Ant Kaijin. Each hit from hers sent it flying away. The Buggy Bastard was a mild annoyance for her, a pest that she couldn’t focus on.

Her motions to bust down the door did do something, though. It made Lalas Patchwork bunny doll get loose from Lala ever expansive flesh pockets strapped to her chest. She didn’t notice it as it left her bosom and started to float up towards the surface.

That was until the Ant lunged, another would-be attempt to attack her that would be tossed aside… however, when Lala turned to backhand the mutant, she stopped and gasped at the doll caught in the way.

The Ant was not focused on it, but its claw ever so slightly grazed it, and the tiniest bit of its stuffing. It was a minuscule cut and one that’d be easily fixed with even the most basic of skills in sewing…

To Lala, though, that graze was an executable offense.

She screamed, sending tons of air bubbles out of her lungs as she screamed in sorrow that quickly spiraled to righteous fury.

The Ant Kaijin tried to step back in shock, but it found itself unable to as the giantess lunged in the water, grabbing hold of both of the bugs' wrists and crushing them.

It was a few long, excruciating, and ever so enjoyable minutes for her, but slowly she disassembled the Kaijin until it was a split along most of its lines, leaving ONLY its head attached to its body when she was done punishing it.

Lala dropped hold of the bug's severed limb, the last bit she tore from it before she kicked its limbless torso away.

Only to realize she kicked a Kaijin, a monster with a preposition to EXPLODE, towards the door she needed to open.

“Oops…” Lala hisses through her teeth as the Ant's corpse touches the door. That was the straw that broke the camel's back as it exploded, the force of which was MORE than enough to turn the doors to scrap metal… and send hundreds of pounds of Pacific ocean water rushing out of a four-foot-wide exit.

The best comparison would be to an explosion as the Water EXPLODED through the door and sought to spread out across the entire emporium, and it very much could have and likely would.

Mermaw was one of the first to be pulled out of the Aquarium once the drain was pulled, but he didn’t fight it. Rather, he just tried to keep himself from letting go of the Professor turned Kaijin in his grasp. He was dragged by the water for over 30 feet away from the vacant Aquariums gate.

He just let himself get dragged across the tile floor until he slowly came to a stop. There he lay staring up at the roof for a few long seconds as the water drips off his aquatic body. His only response to that whole flushing was a slow, deliberate, and long blinking.

‘Beep beep bweep bweep Bweeeeep’ The Omnitrix whirred as it ran out of power. In a Flash of red, Mermaw turned back into Rito, and he was now feeling the effects of swimming in frigid, smelly, and oh-so salty seawater. He was cold to his bones and desperately needed a bath, and it was all made worse by his sweater now feeling like armor on his chest, weighing him down.

A few seconds later, Lala came out from the Entrance sliding across the floor very much like Rito was, except she was belly down, or in her case, boobs down, sliding against the tile until she stopped on the other side of Rito from the Penguin.

She seemed on the outset to be in a similar exhaustion as he was, but that was entirely unlike her, and so of course he was wrong. She jumped up, holding herself up by her arms and letting her incredible breasts sag down, giving him a great silhouette shot of them from where he lay. Lala cackled before she spoke. “That was so much fun, how about Round 2?”

Rito didn’t need to tell her ‘No’ because she gasped completely forgetting about it as she dug her hand into her bosom and fished out her little doll. Rito was confused until he spotted the microscopic tear in its hand, a Dolls booboo. 

“The Bug tore it… I couldn’t keep the treasure you gave me safe for one day.” She sadly spoke, looking down at the doll like it was a priceless artifact, but to her, it was.

“D-don’t worry, I can fix it up in literally no time,” Rito promised, and he couldn’t close his ears to stop her happy scream from erupting.

Her scream caused the now beakless penguin to begin to stir.

That was what finally got Rito to sit up. He leaned over the now giant Penguin and went to grab the bulging pearl on its belly button, hoping that the trigger Animo used to inject it would also release it. Apparently, he only needed to grab it because the Pearl came loose, and the Penguin exploded into a cloud of feathers with the Professor lying on the ground where it once lay. He was completely unharmed save for his clothes, as he was in his underwear, but the rest of his clothes were ruined.

Rito leaned back and looked at the Kaijin pearl in his hand. A functioning Kaijin pearl, he hoped. He didn’t know a lick about this type of science, but he knows someone who would love this.

“Hey, Lala, here.” Rito got her attention before softly tossing the Kaijin pearl her was, letting her catch it. She eyed it over before her jaw dropped. This was beyond her wildest expectations, and with this, she could possibly reverse engineer these Pearls.

Maybe one day she could make her own, just for bragging rights.

With that, Rito had seemingly no reason to need to sit up anymore, so he didn’t. He shut his eyes and fell back onto his back, only to find a shadow that was not there seconds before, which got him to reluctantly open his eyes.

He opened them to find Mikan, hands on her hips, and a smug smile on her face as she looked down at her drenched brother and roommate. “So, I see your date with Lala and Haruna went well.”

The mention of Sairenji caused his eyes to shoot open, and he found himself on his feet and running before he even remembered standing up. He ran through the ruined gate of the Aquarium, past the hallways full of people coughing up water and huddling together for warmth, until he found himself back in Penguin Paradise. The room was now unrecognizable, with feathers, scales, and chitin across the floor mixed with seaweed and puddles. 

Then he saw her, she was still in the Penguins enclosure and currently enraptured in helping the families that were stuck on what was once the only bit of land in a sea, but now revealed to be a 5 foot sheerdrop. She was helping the families and people down with a few others when she spotted him in the corner of her eye.

“Sairenji.” He whispered with a smile upon seeing her smile at him, but then she ran at him and jumped from the edge of the tank and enveloped him in a hug. Rito froze, his hands jutting out to the side like he was mimicking a penguin. His face was crimson as she rubbed her face into his soaked sweater.

“I was so worried that something… Did- Did Mermaw save you?”

‘Mermaw?’ He thought, but immediately realized what she was talking about, and so he spoke. “Y-yes, he did.” Rito didn’t… technically… lie there as Haruna kept hugging him for enough time that Lala, Mikan, and even Professor Asuka walked into the room.

The Professor seemed in a daze, amnesia for the past few minutes left him only remembering those red goggles, then waking up in seawater. So he asked an obvious question.

“Where did that old coot, Animo, run off to?” With that question in the Air, Rito became rigid, and his head shot around the room only to find he wasn’t there.

Where the hell DID he go?

Outside of the mall, on the now-soaked concrete, there was a tunnel that tore through the concrete and steel hull of the emporium it neighbored. It was big enough to fit a monster like that brutish Ant, but now it looked like a puddle for those unaware of it.

Until something crawled from the puddle, without much grace at all. It was Dr. Akira Animo, who was completely drowned in water and personally peeved at needing to leave behind his current pets to cover his escape.

His precious transmodular was fried, sparks and bits of it were flying or coming loose, and it was in no way usable for anything other than a weight. 

He crawled halfway out of the pool-like pit when that failure returned to his mind.

“Stupid fish, when I get my hands upon them, I’ll-” The Doctor growled out a threat that he didn’t get to fully speak on. No, that was because his brilliant mind finally connected the dots on something that had been bothering him.

His manic giggles turned to choking chuckles, and he stopped trying to climb, letting his arms clasp on his belly and his legs kick the ground repeatedly in his fits of mad laughter.

Everything made sense to Animo now.

“Those little cryptids are nothing but forms of one little man, Heheheeee! And I know who he is~.” He sing-songed.

The police reports of the event that he stole rushed front and center in his mind. The details were consistent. The repeated incidents in a short distance of each other, twice around the same school, with his poor Kaijin being killed by different beasts, with even more encounters of cryptids being from there.

 the crowd that surrounded each event, the consistent group of 5 or so people around most of the incidents, he memorized those few by name and he took note of one consistent disappearance each time.

The hourglass symbol seemed ever-present on those beasts, even if the position was seemingly anywhere on the cryptid's body. It was always there, and today he saw it again… twice. That watch must be very important, yes indeed.

When Dr. Akira got to his feet, he smiled maliciously into the sky.

“It will soon be time for your personal check-up, Rito Yuuki.” With that threat, he was off like a rocket. He needed to make fast progress and leaps in his brilliance before he could rechallenge the ‘Hero’ of Sainan afterall.

But he was never worried, soon enough, he would learn everything there is to know about this… Shifter.