Authors Note: To answer BooCub94's question; there is a one year age difference between Satsuki and Nui, a twelve year difference between Satsuki and Ryuko. At current time, that makes Satsuki eighteen, Nui seventeen and Ryuko six.

This is the beta'd version.

Ryuko stared at the crumpled figure on the ground with wide eyes, her grip on the wooden play sword shaking as she struggled to keep from dropping it. There was a loud thumping that she could hear, and it took Ryuko a minute or two to even realize that it was her own racing heart she was hearing. She was terrified, and it was understandable. Ryuko had just been sitting on her bed, wrapping the handle of her toy sword with white strips of cloth to be more comfortable to grip when some strange woman climbed into her room through the window.

The young Kiryuin had just acted on autopilot and attacked.

"I...is she dead?" she started uncertainly, looking to Senketsu on her shoulder, to Junketsu on the floor, creeping towards the woman. At Junketsu's suggestion, she prodded the strangers head slowly to turn her head and see her face, "Her eyebrows are ginormous!"

As the strange woman mumbled something incomprehensible, confirming that Ryuko did not just commit her first homicide, the girl took several quick steps back like a startled bunny as she waited for the intruder to move. But as it would have it, she stayed on the ground, still knocked out.

Slowly approaching her again, holding the wooden sword in her hand, she looked at her two friends, "What should we do with her?" Ryuko asked. Almost immediately, Junketsu brought his tail up to have the tip run across his throat, and Ryuko winced at his suggestion, "I'm not doing that! I'm not gonna kill her I'm gonna...I'm going to hide her!" Hide her in case Nui or Ragyo came up. She wasn't ready to explain this, didn't know how and she didn't want to explain right now.

At a half an hour later, Ryuko had tied the woman up well enough, taking the chair from her desk and a rope she used to play jump rope with. It was getting the woman on thankfully the chair that had proved difficult, being heavy and Ryuko having little physical strength put together had not worked well. But somehow, she managed to get the woman on the chair and shove her into the closet. ther mother, through her own obsession with clothes, had given Ryuko a rather large closet. It was far too spacious for the girl who did not possess nearly enough clothes to fill it, but it was big enough to fit the tied up woman in.

When it was over, Ryuko sat on the ground, panting as she stared at the closed closet doors, "I've...I've got a person in my closet...I've got a person in my closet!" she repeated, a wide grin splitting across the child's face as she looked at Senketsu, "I've got a person in my closet! Can you believe it?" at her question, Junketsu shook his head, earning a light hit from Senketsu. Ryuko didn't notice the two and stood up, twirling the wooden sword in her hand.

"Well, looks like you did great, Ryuko! Not as weak as you look are you-ow!" She was cut off in her self-praise when she accidentally hit herself in the face with the sword, "Ow, ow, ow!"

Dropping the wood to the ground, Ryuko rubbed at the right side of her face, there was probably a bruise forming, she knew well enough that there were tears forming from the stinging pain. Senketsu had the kindness to approach her, attempt to offer some comfort to the physical pain, which was more than Junketsu did. "It's fine, really," she said sniffling a bit, refusing to cry. She was given a well enough reason to leave when Ragyo called for her from down the stairs.

"Coming!" Ryuko yelled, picking up Senketsu and Junketsu, rushing to the closet and opening the door, proud to find that the stranger was still conked out in there. "I need you two to stay with her," Ryuko whispered to the two lizards as they climbed down her arm to rest on the chair, looking up at her as though waiting for further instructions. "Keep her in there! I'm gonna tell Mommy and Nui about this! They'll be amazed!"

Senketsu gave a small salute to show his obedience but for the most part; Junketsu just rolled his eyes acting like he didn't want to but would.

As Ryuko raced down the stairs, her mind went over ways to explain this to Ragyo, and to avoid any anger from her mother. In seconds she was in the main room, where Nui was looking at two different outfits. Her sister's face brightened when she saw Ryuko, looking like she'd just seen the answer to her prayers.

"There you are!" the blonde exclaimed and she shoved the two fabrics not so gently into Ryuko's face, "Which one is better?"

Slowly stepping away, Ryuko blinked at the sudden question. It wasn't exactly an unusual question; it was actually a common one that Nui would ask her when trying to choose between two outfits. Though the outfits Nui always chose were always identical in every way, and these two dresses were no exception to the case. Same shade, same fabric, same thread.

Smiling, Ryuko grabbed onto the one to the left, "This one!" Ryuko told Nui, nodding with certainty in her choice. She may not be the best when it comes to fashion, but she was confident in her choice, "It's got the nicest bow."

Nui pulled it back to examine it, before throwing the other one away and giving her thanks to her sister as she shoved it into a bag. It was then that Ryuko noticed that she and their mother were packing up bags.

"You're leaving again?" Ryuko asked, tilting her head to the side in confusion. They'd just gotten back, and now they were leaving again?

Ragyo smiled as she walked to her youngest child, kneeling down so they were closer in height, "Yes, dear child," she said, taking hold of the girls hands into her own, "Nui and I will be going on another trip, a rather long one this time. But I've ensured that you've more than enough food to last until we return. I even left a few sweets for you to have, but you must promise not to eat them as your meals."

The girl nodded in affirmation, though her mind wasn't thinking of what sweets Ragyo had left for her this time. She needed to let them know what she did, so they could take her with them this time. Tell them that she had someone in her room tied up that she brought down on her own. Ryuko could take care of herself in the possibility of danger on their trip.

But she didn't speak of it, not yet at least. Instead, for the next few minutes Ryuko helped them pack. Grabbing items from different rooms and bringing it to her mother and sister. A loaf and half of bread, some cheese, a few apples and vegetables for food, along with a few blankets and other clothes for the trip. Ryuko even fetched two small coin pouches for them. She wondered momentarily what she herself would need to pack up and how much.

After not too long, the three were in Ryuko's room ready to leave.

"Now remember," Ragyo spoke as Nui began lowering the ladder, "Try to keep our home clean, remember to eat your vegetables and get to bed at sundown. Don't forget to brush your teeth either, three times a day."

Ryuko nodded as she spoke, edging to her closet where she had that stranger locked up, "I know, I will! But, Mommy," she started, hand reaching for the handle. Out of the corner of her eye she could see the two above ushering her to continue, "You know how you say it's dangerous for me to come...?"

The annoyed sigh that followed her question had her heart drop. The look on Ragyo's face, the one that told her they've been over it a hundred times and it wasn't going to change had her hands start to shake. It wasn't going to go the way she wanted, it was already crystal clear.

"Ryuko, are you still obsessed with going with us?" Ragyo demanded, patience gone.

Go on; tell her, show her, "Yeah, I just, well I just thought that you don't really understand that I'm-"

Having finished with her task, Nui was at Ryuko's side, crouched down and bopping her on the nose in a friendly, playful act. Though it was far from innocent, "Come on Ryuko, we all know if you leave here you'll get snatched up by some mean person and gobbled up for dinner!" she said smiling as though she hadn't shown the child rather terrifying images of such an act before.

That was a...very powerful argument to stay. The child didn't want to be snatched up or eaten up!

"But you don't know that!" Ryuko argued. Futile but she argued, her own voice rising into a yell.

She could almost hear Ragyo's patience for her snap like a twig.

"Ryuko, you're not going and that's final!"

At hearing her beloved mother yell at her, Ryuko shrunk back, her hand letting go of the closet doors handle and her posture crying out submission. Her sister was scary when angry, but Ragyo was downright terrifying. Nui gave her a pitying look, reaching out before drawing back to not touch.

"Great," Ragyo sighed, leaning against the windowsill and bringing a hand to her head in frustration, "Now I'm the bad guy..."

It was quiet for a minute, and when that pause was over it was Ryuko who broke it. Shyly lifting her head up to look at them, her voice quite as a mouse.

"I wasn't going to ask to go with you..." she mumbled, a lie, but she felt she had to say it, "I was just gonna ask...for a book, one that had all the dangers you talk about in it. So I don't have to leave to know it?" It was an obvious lie, and if the two knew that they didn't show it.

He mother gave a soft cooing sound, closing the space between them as she knelt down, "My dear, precious child," she whispered, bringing Ryuko into her arms, planting a kiss on the top of her head and fingers running through her red streak. Trying to cheer her back up, and ease the fear she had caused. "Of course, I'll find you a few to keep you occupied. Only the best for my darling angel."

A smile formed its way onto Ryuko's mouth in response to the affection Ragyo brought upon her despite the disappointment she felt.

"Alright...come back! Don't get eaten up either!" Ryuko said, more like ordered them, earning an amused chuckle or two from her family. With the promise that they would in fact return unharmed, the two left, making their way down the ladder and once they were out of the towers view Ryuko pulled it back up.

Climbing down and resting upon her bed, the lizards gave her a questioning look as she took a spare bag she had kept under her bed and began filling it with the essentials. She wasn't going with them, so what in the world was she doing?

It was almost as though she had read their minds as she just smiled, "I'm not sitting out this time," she said, slinging her bag onto her shoulder when she was done and walking to the closet, "I can't go with Mommy and Nui, but they're not the only ones who know the outside world."

With a cry of alarm, Satsuki jerked awake. Her ears felt wet, like something had gone inside of them and came out in a wet willy. Her attempts to move were quickly still however as she found herself tied up...with jump rope? Just what the Hell had happened?

Her brows furrowed as she tried to recall the previous events. She'd fought the thief, found a tower and climbed up it but got knocked out...the box! The box was here! Craning her head though, Satsuki couldn't find the box again. It must have been moved during the time she was out. How long had she been out for? A few hours? A few days?

Suddenly she noticed the weight on her shoulders. Slowly, Satsuki turned her head to the right, and then to the left to see what was weighing them down.

"Lizards...it just has to be lizards..." she said with a groan, the captured woman really hated them.

"What's wrong with lizards? I'll have you know they are perfectly good friends!"

With a slight jump, Satsuki began scanning the room for the source of the voice, and refrained herself from explaining why lizards were terrible. Quickly enough she located a shadow in the doorway and narrowed her eyes, "Show yourself!"

There was a small hesitation; the figure would lean forward as though they were going to come out before shuffling back behind the door. It took a minute or two before they finally seemed to gather the courage to step into the light.

And boy was it not who Satsuki was expecting.

"A little kid," she whispered to herself, shaking her head in pure disbelief, "They left a little kid to interrogate me? Was the blonde too busy to question me herself after knocking me out?"

Ryuko frowned at that and tried to puff her chest out in an attempt to look more intimidating, "I'll have you know she's not the one who knocked you out!" she said and pointed her wooden sword at Satsuki, "I did!"

"You will have to forgive me for finding that impossible."

"I did do it!"

Sighing, and finding arguing with this child to be pointless, "Fine, you knocked me out," a lie, she still didn't believe that, "What do you want? Untie me!'' That outburst resulted in the lizard with the white scarf giving her a slap. She hadn't even been aware lizard could slap people, let alone make it hurt. Seems it didn't like her yelling at the kid.

"Junketsu!" Ryuko scolded, frowning at his actions, "You're not, Junketsu, you're not supposed to hit her!"

The lizard actually had the audacity to look offended at being told he couldn't be violent, turning to face away from Ryuko with his head held high.

"Quite the pets you have," Satsuki commented, her cheek still stinging.

Ryuko nodded, giving a small hum as she walked over to her, running a finger along Junketsu's spine to appease him. Once the lizard was content again, she stepped back and looked at Satsuki while trying to make herself look bigger. "I'll untie you and let you go on one condition," she told her, holding up a single finger for emphasis, "You take me on an adventure outside."