Mao Mao's Sisters

Mistakes Made

Minori stomped through the village, grumbling cursed under her breath. The sweetypies waved and called out to her, only to be met with no response as Minori made her way to the village gate.

"Minori! Wait!" Violet called jogging up to her. "You need to calm down, you're fuming."

Minori stopped. They stood in the plaza, next to the town's fountain. "Oh really? You believe you know what's best for me?" Minori's voiced took on a growl. "You're the last person who knows what I need!" Minori jabbed Violet in her chest.

"You ju-"

"No!" Minori shouted over her. "You don't get to throw your logic over the issue, not this time!" Minori took off once more, Violet falling in behind her. "Not once, have you ever had my back! You know what I need? I don't need your fucking logic to calm me down! I need my sister, I need you to have my back! But you never do, you always take the other side!"

"You never think things through!" Violet shouted back. "You need-"

"What I need is someone less selfish for a sister."

"S-selfish?!" Violet stammered. "I'm constantly having to look out for your sorry ass! You want me to side with you? Don't make dumb moves!"

"But it's never because you're supporting me, is it?" Minori looked back, her eyes beginning to well up. "It's because you're waiting for me to crash and burn. Do you have any idea what it's like, for your best f-, sister, to never have your back?"

Violet's eyes widened. "Minori..."

"I'm out of here." Minori bolted off, leaving through the front gates. Violet chased her down, her kimono's loose cloth flapping as she pumped her arms.

"Minori!" Violet caught up to her in no time, jumping in front of her. She knew the look in Minori's eyes, the look she wore whenever she was about to do something dangerous. "I can't let you do this."

"You can't stop me," Minori lunged forward, reaching for Violet's hat, hoping to take it away from her. In a wide arc, Violet batted away Minori's arms. Minori reached out again, but when Violet moved her arm, Minori grabbed it. Twisting on the ball of her foot, she had her sister's arm over her shoulder, tucking her hips, she threw Violet off balance, and using her shoulder as a fulcrum, threw Violet over her shoulder.

Violet hit the ground, the air knocked out of her. While she attempted to pull the air back into her lungs, Minori took her chance and pulled the hat off her head. With the hat in hand, Minori dashed through the trees for a few seconds, before flinging it like a frisbee into one of the trees. It would probably take Violet thirty or so minutes to build up the courage to climb the tree to get her hat back, more than enough time to sprint to the nest.

•••

A wasps nest is made by the queen, they scrape wood fiber from wood materials and chew them to make wood pulp by mixing the materials with their saliva. Minori was able to find traces of the nest from wood pulp left around this sector of the forest. The wood pulp had a greenish tint to it. The Queen must have green saliva. Chunks of the pulp were scattered about, forming smaller nests with their own colonies of wasps.

The wasps seemed to ignore Minori as long as she didn't get too close to their nests. The nests on the outer edge were the size of baseballs, now she has progressed far enough to where the nests are the size of basketballs.

There were so many, if this force hit Pure Heart, somebody was definitely getting hurt. Violet and Ashaki wanted to wait? Let their numbers multiply? That's insane, she needed to find the Queen and kill it, now.

After some time, Minori followed the trail to the mouth of a cavern. Green chunks of wood pulp stuck to the walls, and if she listened hard enough, she could hear buzzing echo off the walls. With a deep breath, Minori plunged into the dwelling of the Queen wasp.