"No Need for Japan";Part 3, Like one big dysfunctional family

by Raven Makibi

(Kiyone, Sasami, Mihoshi, Washu, Tenchi, Ryoko, and Ayeka are property of
Pioneer Entertainemt. All others are property

As Sasami was lead up the stairs to her room, she noticed that the whole
place was packed with teenagers. All sorts of music blared from assorted
rooms, and the walls were covered with pictures of bands that she'd never
heard of. As they continuedm they came to a room with "65" painted on a door
in green. The background to the number, was a pair of blue lips with
lightning running thru them.

Raven knocked on the door once. Than again, and the door slowly opened. A
young woman with brown hair, and glasses cautiosly opened the door. "Yes,
who
is it?", she said in a nervous voice, accented with with a nasal tone.
"Kris,
its me Raven...", thats all he got out before she jumped out and attempted
to
kiss him on the lips. He pushed her back and held a hand up to keep her at
bay. "Kris, I told you. I just want to be friends, and NOTHING MORE!", when
he said this she sunk back a little and looked depressed. "Damnit Kris, I
got
someone here I want you to meet. This is Sasami. Your new room-mate, and
friend. She's a little younger than you, so watch your mouth.", Kris rolled
her eyes and replied with "Ok,ok. Just as long as she doesn't touch my
books.."she said, motioning to a bookcase filled with poetry books and
journals. Sasami looked at them in awe as she steped in. Not seeing the
vulgar gesture Kris made with her hand in Raven's face before she closed the
door.

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The next to be escorted was Ayeka. As she passed thru the same halls where
Sasami had just been, she couldn't help but notice the state of the entire
structure. The walls were dingy white, with little sketches on them in
places, weird painted on graphics in others, and posters of bands that sent
a
shiver down her spine as she casualy glanced at them. There were also doors,
here and there, with numbers on them. Some were pained on, others were
brass,
but none made any sense or pattern. It jumped from "zErO", the whole word
painted out like that, to "8:08" in brass, than to "65" painted over a weird
design.

As they neared the end of the hall, she noted a set of stairs going up. They
were wooden, with red paint staining the center and pooling on the floor,
having long dried it had formed the pattern of a waterfall flowing to a pond
or something. To the left of the stairs was a door numbered "86", it looked
like it had been pained on with light, almost glowing like a neon bulb.

As Raven knocked on the door, Ayeka first noticed the cealing of the hall,
which had what appeared to be a rather unusual looking Chinese black dragon.
The door opened, diverting her attention from the dragon. A young woman with
blonde hair  peered out and looked at the two of them with a big smile on
her
face. The girl steped into the hall, Ayeka noted the girl was entirely
dressed in black. As if, as if in mourning.

When the girls voice peirced the air, it was the last thing Ayeka expected
it
to sound like. It was cheerful, full of life and happiness. "Raven, whats
up?", she said with a smile, "Is this my new room-mate?"."Yep. Ayeka I'd
like
you to meet Melissa, I think you two will get along quite well.", he said
gesturing at the girl. As he did this the girl held her hand out, as if
waiting for a handshake. Ayeka, nervous around new people, gently shook
Melissa's hand. Melissa smiled and told her, "You can just call me 'Mel',
most people do.", Ayeka nodded. As Raven put her stuff on a small cot to the
side of the room, Ayeka looked about the place.

It was of medium size, with charcoal gray walls. Silver and gold stars
streaked the walls, along with a large gold framed poster of the band
"Smashing Pumpkins". As Raven walked out, Ayeka felt that she might actualy
be content here, and also felt as if she had known Melissa for ages.
Eventhought they had met minutes ago, she couldn't shake the feeling as she
unpacked.

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As Ryoko was guided up the stairs, she couldn't help but to beg Raven to put
her with Tenchi. Thats all she asked, was a room to share with Tenchi, but
he
woulnd't even do that for her. She had tried flirting with him, she tried
bribery, she'd even offered to be his "personal servant" if he'd just put
her
with her beloved Tenchi. But he wouldn't budge on his posistion.

She figured that she might as well make the best of it though. She followed
him up the stairs, and then through a hall, and up another flight of stairs.
As she passed throught the next hall, she glanced at the artwork up here. It
was strange, almost demented. The walls we're covered with graphics of
individuals who looked to be of great power. And it seemed that it must have
taken the artist hours just to do a single painting.

Raven stopped, apparently for no reason, and Ryoko bumped into him. "HEY,
WHATS THE BIG IDEA?,
she screamed, grabbing him and spining him around to face her. He looked at
her, suprisingly calm, and spoke "Thats your room overthere...". She let him
go and he went sprawling to the floor, and took a glimpse at a wall Raven
had
pointed at. Sure enough, it was a door. It had been blended to the wall with
paint, but it was there.

"So, uhh, who will I be staying with?", she asked."Kim.", he said knocking
on
the door, which had a black metallic "3" on it. The girl who answeared was
wearing a grey tanktop, and blue-jean shorts. Her dark red hair standing in
a
mass of coils. She yawned, still half asleap, "Raven, its 8pm, what the hell
do you want?"."Kim, since when did you go to bed at eight?"he said
sarcasticly. "Ever since Drew and Goat had the 'all night brawl'  last
night.
They fought all night, and didn't stop till 6am. Suprised you didn't hear
it,
they started right outside your room.", upon finishing the last sentance she
gave an exhasperated sigh.
"What I want to know is what triggered it.", Raven commented.

"Drew told Goat that if he tried that little paint joke on Cass that he'd
beat him stupid. Which he did anyway. The whole thing only ended when Drew
and Goat fell through the 'big hole', and landed on 8:08's sculpture he made
from Coke cans. Drew was knocked out cold stupid, Goat got up and went to
bed, but still managed to prank Cass. Drew didn't wake up till about 7:20
tonite, then he just sat around waiting for you to get back so the band can
practice. And FYI 8:08 is hard buggin about his sculpture, so stear clear
for
about the next couple hours.", she said with another sigh.

Raven laughed, then introduced Ryoko to Kim. Kim seemed a little tired for a
formal introduction, and just went back to bed. Ryoko put her stuff away and
then headed off to explore the house.

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Tenchi was next on Raven's list.

As Raven lead him through the same halls he and Ryoko had traveled not 15
minutes before, Tenchi got more and more nervous. He'd never been good with
strange people or places. And this was as strange as it got.

Before being lead upstairs, he'd had a conversation with "Drew" as the kid
was called. It was about a 9.5 on Tenchi's "bizzaro" scale. The conversation
was all about goats, complete with sounds. Tenchi did the best he could to
keep up his end, but was much relieved when Raven interviened and lead him
to
his room.

As he aproached his room, he noted all the differnt posters, paitnings of
differnt styles, and little sketches on the walls. Eventualy Raven came to a
door and stopped. He knocked twice, and began pounding hard on the door.
#8:08 it was, and who ever was in there wasn't eager to open up. "Damnit
8:08, open the door right now!!", Raven yelled, practicaly ready to break
the
door down.

When it finaly did open, Tenchi got a real startle. The kid behind the door
was of diminutive stature. His eyes were cold and looked void of any
feelings
but hate and misery. He was dressed in black, and unusualy silent. When
Raven
tried to explain that Tenchi was his new room-mate, the kids only reply was
a
dark glare. Raven tried yelling at him, but he just wouldn't listen, or
speak
for that matter. He just walked back into his room, and shut the door.

"Well, looks like we'll have to find somewhere else for you to stay.", Raven
said shrugging. "Hey man, he can stay with me.", said a voice from behind.
Tenchi turned around, and got a good look at his new room-mate.

The kid was wearing a blue t-shirt and army green pants. His hair was a mess
of spikes and dreds, and a goatee capped his chin. He held out his hand for
a
handshake, and damn near tore Tenchi's right arm out of the socket. He
introduced himself as Patrik, and though he seemed a bit strange at first,
Tenchi quickly adjusted. As Patrik lugged Tenchi's stuff up the stairs,
Raven
walked back the oppisite direction.

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Washu. The 6th of the group.

She was a bit perturbed, finding that she'd been paired with Mihoshi. Raven
told her that it was the only open room left, and that if an opening came
about, he'd let her know. That calmed her down a little, but only until they
arived at what was possibly the oddest door in the building. The number, if
thats what you could call it, was a massive equation. Spanning the door,
from
the top to the bottom, left to right, and all points past. Behind the number
was "Abandon all hope!", in red spray-paint. Loud "goth-metal" could be
heard
fom inside, Raven identified the band as "Cradle of Filth", one of Wolf's
favorites.

Washu, inquisitive as always wanted to meet this Wolf. Raven said it was a
bad idea, but she persisted. And he couldn't realy say no when he was
suspended by about 30 clawed cables that came from nowhere.
He knocked on the door, once, twice, and again once he was down. There was a
loud *BLAM!*, followed by much swearing that could be heard over the music.

The door was hastily opened by a young man in a welding mask and smock.
Under
that, he had a grease and oil stained green and blue jumpsuit. The first
words out of his mouth were "WHAT DAMNT!?!?!?!". Raven steped back and began
trying to calm Wolf down, it wasn't working. He continued ranting, and
raving
like a lunatic for about the next 2 minutes.

Finaly he noticed the girls, good thing since he was about to smash Raven's
skull in with the welders mask. He droped the mask and began to act polite,
and almost vaugely human for an instant before Goat ran up the stairs and
smack into him. He didn't fall but he did get riled up again. But he
contained it somehow, and mentioned one word. The word that struck terror
into Goats very essence. The word was:gerbil.

Goat heard that, and took a dash back down the stairs, screaming "NO! NO!
GET
IT AWAY!". The girls looked to Raven for an answaer, his reply "You don't
want to know. Trust me."

Well their was a nice, yet short, conversation with Wolf. He kept flipping
thru a small notebook. Every so often he came across a pornographic pict, a
REAL sick one. He did his best to hide these, but as he shut the door to get
back to his work Washu muttered one phrase that seemed to sum up Wolf, in
her
opinion.
"Kawaii hentai."

As Washu and Mihoshi entered their room they noticed it wasn't much. It was
on the second to highest floor, but it was no big deal. It was large enough
so as both could co-exist semi-peacefully, but not too big.
For some reason, Raven had elected to help Mihoshi un-pack. And to his
amazement, she had bought 20 of the same outfit. He asked her to explain it,
but she wouldn't. He told her that they would have to be taken back, she got
upset, but Raven told her they'd get some snacks before bed and she perked
up
a bit.
as Washu watched Raven and Mihoshi walk off, she could stop her self from
thinking ,"They'd make a cute couple.(But a couple of what?)" But it was
just
a thought, and nothing more. Plus it was late, so she decided to get some
rest, form the looks of the place she'd want to be up. She had a feeling she
didn't want to miss anything. No, not in things house. Not a thing.

(Well, it seems that something might be in the works on the romance front.
But who? Well find out what happens the first day in 'Part 4:First Day in
HELL')