Kaho, Doki Doki! – Part I

Oooo~ that looks delicious, I thought as I flipped through the cake receipe book which I just bought a few days before.

Just 1 more week to go, I thought as I took a glance at the calendar hanging on the wall. 1 more week before Kaho’s birthday, hee~

“Alright! Decided,” I said as I bookmarked one of the pages on that book that has the receipe on Strawberry Shortcake. “Strawberries always rule~~”

As I turned to my closet deciding which clothes to wear before I go shooping for the raw ingredients for the cake, there was a knock, or rather, many knocks in a rythmn, on the door.

Before I reach for the knob, the door was already opened and I was greeted by a large-sized, in baby pink, super cute-looking bunny plushie.

“Boo! Missed me?”

“Be…bento!!!” I exclaimed as I flung myself towards her with the bunny plushie in between us. “When…?”

“Hee hee~ mada mada dane~ I see that you did not catch the message on the mail that I last sent you, it was an easy puzzle though, I am so disappointed,” Bento continued as she passed the bunny to me, (I guess that is a souvenir for me?) and moved towards my desk and help herself with my laptop.

Bento, my childhood friend. We have always been together since we were still kids until her family decided to migrate out of this country 2 years ago. Since then, we kept in touch through e-mails and further knowing how each other is doing through our online journals.

“Here it is!” said Bento suddenly as I played with the bunny.
“Huh?” I replied as I moved over to my table.

“Let’s see….

yo!! The weather has not been good on the 2^nd day of school camp.

=( thAnks to it, we had a hard time re-building the tent! X_x Haa~

but~ I Doubt a miss princess like you can understand… =0=

we hAd fun still though! you should try camping some time!

just Imagine, cooking, working and sleeping together with your friends~

hm~Maybe not so much of sleeping since we chatted the night away XD

what A lovely experiece nya~ *dreams*

How’s everyone? I can’t wait to meet all of them again! XDDD

Miss me,

~Bento

Huh… nothing was mentioned about your return at all na… besides! This mail went into my inbox only today…!!!” I gasped, “AHHH!”

I realized that some letters in the mail were in capital. After highlighting those letters in red….

yo!! The weather has not been good on the 2^nd day of school camp.

=( thAnks to it, we had a hard time re-building the tent! X_x Haa~

but~ i Doubt a miss princess like you can understand… =0=

we hAd fun still though! you should try camping some time!

just Imagine, cooking, working and sleeping together with your friends~

hm~Maybe not so much of sleeping since we chatted the night away XD

what A lovely experiece nya~ *dreams*

How’s everyone? I can’t wait to meet all of them again! XDDD

Miss me,

~Bento
 

“ See? I said “I am home” today, right?”

“Ah… that’s true… no wait! It’s unfair! You know I usually check my mails in the evening!! And wait a minute… what do you mean I will not understand how camping life is,” I protested, “ Humph! I was just about to go out and get these ingredients for Kaho’s birthday!”

“WHAT? You’re baking?!” shouted Bento.

“ Hem hem~” I said proudly.

“Poor Kaho….” Sighed Bento.

“I knew you would say that… but I have confidence in myself that I will make it!” I replied confidently, “ It’s just nice that Kaho is not on duty today so that I could go and get these ingredients. Wanna come?”

“Hmmm… I don’t think it’ll be that bad to be your bodyguard in place of Kaho for just 1 day,” replied Bento teasingly.

******

“It’s been a long time since both of us walked like that on the streets,” began Bento.

“Yea… how long will you be here until by the way?”  I asked.

“Ah~ about 1 week? Since I followed Dad and Mom back here due to their business handlings. And to let you know, I’ll be staying at your place during this period of time,” answered Bento cheerfully.

“Wow!! That’s GREAT!!! You’ll be just on time for Kaho’s birthday celebration! And you can eat my cake!!”

“As far as possible I want to avoid that…”

“What did you say??” I said, strangling Bento jokingly on the neck.

“Ahh ahh… haha~ stop playing~ isn't this the shop that we are going in?”

Letting go of Bento, I replied, “Ah~ let’s go~”

The moment we stepped into the shop, we were greeted by the friendly colour of yellow and the cool air-conditioning.

All baking materials and ingredients lined up neatly on their respective shelves. Young couples shopping around lovingly, children playing amongst themselves while friendly cashiers busy issuing out receipts and change to their customers.

“ Everybody’s Baker Master, nothing has changed a bit,” said Bento with much nostalgia, “I missed those days in our home econs class where we would come here and shop for the necessary items so that both of us could bake the best cookies in Miss Wilmer’s class.”

“ Haha~ but we failed in the end because the temperature I set on the oven was too high na~,” I chuckled.

“ I am glad you still remember that! ” said Bento as she hit me on the head.

With Bento around, shopping at Everyone’s Baker Master was done sooner than I had expected. After paying for the items the streets outside became noisy. As we walked out of the shop, we were surprised to see a dancing group in the between the way where all the shop houses stood.

Passer-bys stopped and looked. The street was crowded with people suddenly.

“ Oooooooo~ This looks fun!!! Right, Bento?” I said to Bento with my eyes glued to the performers. The accessories they wore attracted my attention.

“Huh? Hmm… maybe…” came the lazy reply, “Na, I am feeling tired though… let’s go home.”

“ HEhhhh? So soon?” I replied disappointedly, “Ok then… afterall you’ve just arrived.” And we left with my head still focusing on the dance group until all I could see were the backs of onlookers.

Just then, the little devil, Aoi-chan, spoke.

“You know you wanna watch the dance, it wouldn’t hurt to let Bento go home on her own. Afterall she knows the way and she’s not a little kid who does not know how to take care of herself! Just tell her to go home first and you’ll catch up later.”

“But… knowing her, I knew she woud stay with me. I don’t want her to accommodate to me because I know she needs rest.”

“Oh please~ you know this dance group don’t come everyday! God knows when the same dance troupe will come again! Bento will understand…” said Aoi-chan again.

I turned over and stole a glance at the crowd. Then, I looked at Bento, who was now walking in front of me.

“Er…”

Bento turned around so that she could see me.

“I knew it! My heart wants me to stay!! Bento, I know it’s not a good thing, but would you help me bring this home on my behalf? Please?? Please?? Pretty pretty please?” I begged.

With a sigh, Bento replied, “I knew it. Alright, I’ll stay with you. Let’s go and see together.”

Ah… this is what I do not want to happen, I thought as Bento headed for the crowd.

Running over to Bento, “Ah! It’s ok! I can manage on my own! You run ahead home first. Tell Annie and Maddy, especially Maddy, that I’ll be a little late and do NOT touch whatever that is in this bag.”

Bento hesitated but she replied, “Ok. You sure you can manage on your own?”

“Hey, miss, this is my hometown… if you go home from here I can too! Just run along!! Thank you na!” I shouted.

After seeing Bento off, I ran towards the crowd happily.

******

“It’s been one day and still no news of her,” said Bel, my governess, in a worried tone. “Where could she be?” she added, pacing up and down the living room.

The atmosphere was heavy. The house was so silent.

“How dare somebody kidnap my granddaughter! If I find out who the kidnapper is!” said Ivy, my grandma, angrily.

“If there is only ONE kidnapper that is,” added Annie, one of my younger sisters as she leaned back against the couch she was sitting on.

“ Oneechama…” muttered Maddy, hugging the white teddy plushie that I gave it to her on her 10^th birthday.

“ I am sorry everyone. If I insisted staying with her yesterday…” said Bento reproachfully.

“It’s not your fault, Bento-san. Sei-sama should not have been so willful,” comforted Kaho as she patted Bento softly on her shoulder. “She will be fine. After all she knows martial arts.”

“That’s right! And I was the one who taught her!” said Ivy.

“And come to think of it, she’s strong enough to take down a few men!! The point is, her martial arts are the best in this family besides baa-chan!! Don’t worry, Bento,” said Annie.

“Thank you,” replied Bento, who was not feeling any better.

Just then, the door burst opened and in came Yamu, my cousin and Amari, my disciple, panting.

“Any clues yet?” asked Amari immediately.

“Looks like there’s nothing over there too,” said Yamu.

“Let’s inform the police,” said Annie firmly holding the phone.

“NO!” yelled Ivy, grabbing the phone from Annie, “Do you want your sister dead?”

“Then what should we do? So long as the hidden message of this mail is not solved, there’s nothing we could do but wait, isn’t it? Aren’t we as good as wasting time… who knows she might be already…”

There came a slap from Ivy to Annie on the face.

“Sis!” shouted Maddy in shock.

“I don’t want any of us to think that way! You heard me?” said Ivy furiously.

Bento looked at the pieces of paper on the table with sketches of trials to solving the code, which the kidnapper had passed to one of the servants of the house together with the necklace of a letter ‘T’ as pandant, which I would always wear.

Bento looked at the piece of paper which the kidnapper sent and thought through again.

“What is this suppose to mean,” she said to herself as she tried analyzing the code again “

T                                            O

E                                           N

R                                           E

I’ll HOLD her down, reversed in my CAR

And cut the BODY into half!!!

I                                           P

A                                         M

Doesn’t make sense. If the kidnapper wants to avoid all suspiscion, he would not have ‘cut her body into half’ written on it,”

The tension in the house grew stronger as the chime of clock in the town rung.  It marked the first afternoon of a new month and the amount of time left to save Bento's friend.

“Oh no!! We have exactly an hour to solve this!” cried Maddy, who was almost in tears.

“No. To put it correctly, we have have lesser time,” added Yamu, “We would have to meet up with the kidnapper at 1pm.”

“ Sei…” whispered Bento closing her eyes, as though asking her for some strength.

The sashaying noises of Everyone’s Baker Master plastic bag made Bento looked up.

She was reminded of that incident that both of them went down there to get their materials for the cookies baking session during Home Econs class.

She remembered the smiling face of Sei and the confidence she had when she said, “Bento! We’re gonna be the Master of cookies baking tomorrow!”

Just then, as though struck by lightning, Bento read the note from the kidnapper once again.

“So, this is all what the kidnapper wants,” said Bento as everyone’s attention fell on her, 

“ Everyone, the mystery is solved."



Try guessing the message before you go on reading part 2 XDD
HINT: ALL (including the meeting place) that the kidnapper wants is written in that note~

                                                                                     G
                                                                                        O
                                                                                          O
                                                                                            D

                                                                                           L
                                                                                         U
                                                                                       C
                                                                                     K