It had been an hour or two since Chino fell asleep so Cocoa decided to checked on her to see if she had awakened. Cocoa walked into the room and saw she was still fast asleep with the blanket wrapped around her. Cocoa giggled a bit thinking she was cute even when she was sleeping. Cocoa left the room to let her continue to sleep. She didn't want to disturb her.
'I have to think of something else to help Chino-chan…' she thought. She remembered Chino's crying face and that made her even more desperate to try to help her. 'Maybe Onee-chan (big sister) would think of something. Maybe I should call her.'
Cocoa picked up the phone and started to dial Mocha's number hoping that she would answer her phone. She could leave a message but she was desperate and needed help right away. She was hoping Mocha could come today.
"Hello Imouto-chan." (little sister) Mocha had answered! 'Yes!' Cocoa was cheering in her head.
"Hello Onee-chan. I'm glad you answered. So I'm in a little trouble… well actually… Chino-chan is in trouble. I need to help her. And I need your help."
"Oh? What is the matter? What happened?" Mocha seemed very concerned.
"Well… it's kind of hard to explain. You know Chino-chan's grandfather became a rabbit, right?" asked Cocoa.
"Yes. I remember her grandpa very clearly."
"Well… the same thing has happened to Chino-chan."
"Must run in the family?" asked Mocha.
"We don't know why she suddenly changed but maybe that could be the reason. But I need you to come down possibly today so you could help us. Chino-chan was very sad today and she's resting right now and it would just be really nice if you could come."
There was a long pause. Cocoa thought she had been cut off at first until Mocha finally said. "Very well. I will come down there today. It should take me a couple hours but I will do my best to help."
"Ah thank you so much Onee-chan! I'll be sure to make you some coffee when you come down here."
"Of course. Anything for my little sisters."
"See you later, Onee-chan."
"See you soon."
They both hung up the phone. "Alright now we just have to wait for Mocha to come. Chino-chan should be awake by the time she gets here. She doesn't live too close so that should give plenty of time." Cocoa was thinking to herself.
She thought about checking up on Chino again but decided against it. 'I wonder what I should do in the meantime.'
It was a Saturday so there was no work or school. She had to think of something she could do for a couple of hours. It shouldn't take her long to go shopping for some things she needed. She would probably be back by the time Mocha came by.
"Alright, shopping it is." Cocoa found a pen and paper to write some ingredients for what they needed for dinner that night. She needed to get enough for 3 people because she decided that she would ask Mocha to stay for dinner as another way to thank her. Chino and Tippy would eat rabbit food so they didn't count. She just had to decide what to make.
"Onee-chan really likes Sukiyaki Hot Pot and the recipe I have makes enough for 4 people so I think that's what I'll get to make."
Cocoa found the recipe card she had and started writing down what she needed. She wrote down that she needed '250ml of sukiyaki sauce, 100g shirataki noodles, 1 pack of tofu, 320g of Japanese rice, 300g sukiyaki beef, 1 pack of enoki mushrooms, 1 spring onion, ½ chinese cabbage and 4 eggs.'
'That should be enough for everyone and people could even have seconds.' Cocoa got everything that she needed like money and her keys and started to walk to the grocery store. The grocery store wasn't very far away from them so it didn't take her long to get there. She got everything that she needed. She had a little trouble finding the shirataki noodles but a kind lady showed her where they were. Pretty soon she was in line checking out and bought everything that she needed.
By the time Cocoa got home Mocha had not arrived yet but she was sure she was going to come pretty soon. She put all the groceries away and when she was done she heard a knock at the door. "That must be her." Cocoa ran to the door right away and opened it. And there she was, her sister.
"Onee-chan!" Cocoa immediately hugged her sister. It has been a long time since she last saw her.
"Hello Cocoa-chan." Mocha hugged her back and held up two tied up bento boxes. "I brought lunch for us."
"Ah thank you so much, Onee-chan!" She completely forgot about lunch. Her sister was a great help. Mocha took very good care of her. Cocoa grabbed the bento she had handed to her and opened it to see what her bento looked like. When she opened it she saw a Hanami Bento. Hanami Bento was one of her favorite bentos that Mocha makes for her. It had chirashi sushi, Japanese fried chicken, goma-ae sesame and spinach salad, inari sushi, ankake meatballs, maki sushi rolls, 6 strawberries, 1 chopped kiwi, 3 dango dumplings and sweet red bean mochi for dessert.
"Can we eat now?" Cocoa was so excited after seeing her favorite bento.
"Sure!" Mocha decided to open her bento as well.
"Let me see if Chino-chan is awake. She was sleeping. I'll be right back." Cocoa left to go to Chino's bedroom. Chino was indeed awake she was on top of her blanket.
"Glad you're awake Chino-chan. Onee-chan is here. We were getting ready to eat so I was wondering if you needed any food.
"Mocha-san is here? Why?" asked Chino.
"She's going to try to help you." smiled Cocoa. She looked to see Chino's food bowl. It was pretty empty so she got some bunny food and filled it up.
"I don't think she can help…" sighed Chino.
"You don't know that." Cocoa was done pouring the food in the food bowl. "It could turn out just fine."
"We'll see." Chino began nibbling a little on her food. She was pretty hungry.
"I'll be back. Onee-chan and I are going to eat too." Cocoa began to exit the room.
"Okay." was all Chino could mutter while she nibbled on her food.
Mocha was sitting at a table and had her bento open. She looked like she was waiting for Cocoa to come back.
"How come you're not eating yet?" asked Cocoa.
"I wanted to show you my bento." Mocha gestured towards her pretty bento. It looked like it had a flower theme as well. It had beef and asparagus rolls, pawn tempura onigiri, fresh prawns, bamboo shoots, kamaboko fish cake slices, lotus root slices, and grilled fish.
"Wow, it's beautiful!" Cocoa exclaimed. She was in awe of her sister's cooking. Cocoa couldn't cook as good as her. Cocoa was good at cooking but not with pretty bento's like these. They definitely wouldn't look as delicious.
"Thank you. I hope you enjoy yours." Mocha began to open her chopsticks in order to dig into her meal.
"I always love your cooking, Onee-chan." Cocoa found the chopsticks in her bento and opened hers as well.
"I'm glad." Mocha gave a smile then picked up her grilled fish first.
"Itadakimasu!" (what they say in Japan before eating meal. Means thanks for the food.) she said then began to bite into it.
"Itadakimasu!" Cocoa did the same and decided to pick her fried chicken to eat first and took a bite.
"Delicious!" Cocoa gushed after she had taken her first bite. But then she noticed something. "Onee-chan, you made more for me than you did for yourself."
"I didn't want you to become hungry so I made you extra."
"You really didn't have to do that Onee-chan. I'm sure I won't go hungry."
"Just wanted to make sure."
"Thank you, Onee-chan." Cocoa began eating the rest of her bento.
"No problem." Mocha smiled and then began eating the rest of her bento as well.
Soon they had both eaten all of their food and were full to their stomachs, especially Cocoa.
"Ah, I can't eat another bite but it was all so delicious." Cocoa patted her full belly. She had ate all of the food but she thought maybe she might explode but it was all worth it if she was going to.
"Glad you liked it." Mocha began tying up the bento boxes but Cocoa stopped her. "No, Onee-chan. I can wash the bento's for you."
"Are you sure?" asked Mocha.
Cocoa nodded.
"Thank you, Cocoa-chan." Mocha was very appreciative of her sister. She had to give her a smile.
"You're welcome. I'll wash them now and then you can bring them home and use them again next time. This is my thanks." Cocoa brought the bento's to the sink and started to hand wash them. Soon she was done and left them to dry. If they didn't dry all the way later she would hand dry it.
"Do you want to see Chino-chan?" asked Cocoa.
"Yes! Where is she?"
"She's in her room. I'll show you the way." Cocoa took Mocha's hand and guided her to Chino's room. Once they entered the room Mocha saw Chino in her little cage with her blanket.
"Why is she in a cage?" asked Mocha.
"We got her a cage so it would be like a little house for her. We don't even lock the cage though," Cocoa opened the cage a little to show her. "See? We don't lock it up so she's free to roam around the room."
"Ah I see. May I hold her?" asked Mocha with her hands out.
"I'm not a pet…" sighed Chino.
"Of course!" Cocoa picked Chino up and put her into Mocha's hands.
"Ahhh! So fluffy, fluffy!" giggled Mocha as she nuzzled Chino's fur.
"Okay, that's enough now…" Chino muttered.
"So, do you have any ideas on how to get Chino-chan back?" asked Cocoa with some hope in her eyes.
"I thought about it on the way here but… I have no idea!" laughed Mocha.
"I knew it…" sighed Chino.
"But at least I got to cuddle with Chino-chan!" Mocha was still snuggling Chino.
"You're just as bad as Cocoa-san." said Chino closing her eyes as she got snuggled. She wasn't enjoying it one bit.
"What do we do then? It's going to be some time before dinner and I made Dad and you dinner tonight." Cocoa was a little worried.
"Aww, you shouldn't have Cocoa-chan. Thank you." Mocha smiled.
"Well it was the least I could do with you coming all the way here and making us bento lunches."
"I'm not sure what we can do. But I can try my best to think of something! We can all think of something!" Mocha was cheerful and positive even in these kind of situations.
"Alright! Let's start brainstorming." Cocoa smiled trying to be positive too.
"I'm not sure about this…" Chino muttered.
So it has been decided that they would do their best in brainstorming.
A/N: So I wasn't sure where to end this chapter. It wasn't originally planned so I'm sorry if it was ended badly. I'll try to end better in the next chapter. I'm just not good at ending chapters honestly and it was getting pretty long and I think if I continued it, it would have just gotten really long and I didn't want that to happen. The food in this chapter wasn't my idea either I am actually not very knowledgeable when it comes to Japanese food. Like I have some idea but I'm not really sure what is actually in bento boxes and Japanese meals. The website I took the recipes off was en It's a pretty cool website if you want to check it out, it has a lot of recipes but I don't think I could ever make any of the stuff on there it's too complex for me. But anyways until next time! See you!