Chapter Three:
The Poochi Pursuit
In about ten minutes, Italy had finished eating and an eager Japan awaited his friends by the door. Germany looked at his watch and shrugged, standing next to Japan. “What is it?” asked the now relatively calm—and more in-character—Japan. His brown eyes flickered over to Germany, who was staring hard at his watch and biting his lip.
“It’s just...” He started, sighing briefly. “I had hoped ve vould leave sooner.” He returned his arm to his side and glared across the room at Italy. “But zat one…” his ice blue eyes narrowed into mere slits. “Is being a dumpkoff and not hurrying…”
Japan turned to Italy, who was trying to get a sleeve of his coat up on his shoulder. He was twirling in circles, trying to catch it but it was just out of his reach. He finally stopped spinning, reeling to the right briefly because he was so dizzy. He then looked over at Hungary and smiled shyly. She, being the understanding girl she was, walked over and helped Italy get his blue coat on. She even buttoned it for him, remarking softly how she remembered when Italy was a tot and she had to help him change his diaper. She took it lightheartedly, forgetting for a moment Italy’s closest friends were in the room.
Italy’s curl went scraggily at hearing her speak of such things and he looked at Japan and Germany, who just had blank expressions on their faces. Blushing, he directed his attention over to Austria, who was heading to the door.
“W-well…I guess it’s time to go then!” he seemed to forget about his embarrassing situation instantly as he ran childishly over to Germany and Japan. “Are we ready?”
Japan nodded slowly and turned to the door, his eyes fastening on the knob.
“Lead the way, then.” Said Austria with a smile. “Where do we go first?”
“…I…” was all Japan could mutter. His eyes were fixed solely on the knob. His mind drifted to his beloved dog. Where was he? And most importantly, was he alright? Had someone found him and taken him in or was he stranded somewhere starving? Maybe some animal had attacked him or maybe he had hurt himself. These questions tossed and turned in Japan’s head as he stared straight ahead. His stomach did a flip-flop and suddenly he got a burst of energy. He grabbed the doorknob and flung it open, walking swiftly outside and looking to the left and right.
Germany and Hungary followed behind him, and then Austria and Italy came. Austria, deciding he should inquire again, asked Japan where they should look first. Japan thought for a moment, staring at a little ant scurrying across the ground. Then he finally answered with a smile and a nod. “If I know Poochi…” he began slowly. “Then he would go somewhere with food.”
“Vhat kind of food?” Germany asked.
“Ooh, I know!” cut in Italy, flailing his arms happy and twirling around. “Dogs-a like meat, right? Maybe he went out for hamburgers!” and with that everyone turned their eyes to Italy and stared at him with annoyance in their eyes. Except for Hungary, who looked like she was going to laugh. Germany slapped his forehead and muttered something to himself, then glared at Italy.
“How would a dog--”
“No, wait!” Italy said, raising a finger high in the air. “You’re-a missing the point!” with a triumphant smile, Italy thrust a finger down a forest path. “Who would feed a doggie hamburgers? Who loves hamburgers so much that they would want to share them with everybody?”
The nations gave each other anxious glances as they came to a realization. Japan let out a soft “Oh…!” and gave Italy a thankful smile. “I see, Italy…then let’s go, shall we?” and, without waiting for an answer, Japan started off down the path at a somewhat quick pace, Germany following him.
As Austria passed Italy, he winked at him and told him that he had made an excellent deduction. Hungary nodded in agreement and the five walked off down the forest path to search for Japan’s dog.
~~~
A little while later, the group came to a modest little building. All the lights seemed to be off, except for in one room, where the team could make out something quickly flying across the screen on what appeared to be a television. Squinting a little, Germany stopped at the window and gazed into the room. America, a semi-large pile of empty soda cans accumulating next to his chair, was engrossed in a fighting game. He was apparently all alone in the house except for Tony, his alien friend, but he kept screaming orders at the TV. He appeared to be just talking to his computer-player allies on the game, but seemed quite strict when giving orders.
Sighing, Germany knocked on the door. A loud groan was heard from inside as America paused the game, then he picked up a can of soda and ran to the door, flinging it open recklessly and letting out a long groan.
“Come back later, I’m in the middle of--”
“O-oh, G-Germany…” said the nation, blinking in surprise, adjusting his glasses, and then taking a swig of his soda. “Uh, hey, bro. What’s up?” he lazily leaned against the wall as Germany explained Japan’s predicament to him; asking if he had seen the dog. America let out a little laugh and shook his head.
“Eh, nope. I haven’t seen a dog since, uh…earlier this morning, I think it was. And, Germany, it was your dog.”
Germany blinked and spluttered something in his language, then facepalmed and let out a loud groan. “Darn it! I thought I had fixed the fence last week und zhat stupid dog broke out AGAIN?”
“I wouldn’t worry;” said America with a shrug, taking another sip of soda. “You told me he always comes back, right?”
Germany just sort of shrugged and let out a sigh. “Ja…but zhat stupid dog is alvays getting out.” He scratched the back of his neck, placing a hand on his hip and sighing.
“Well, I’m sure you’ll figure something out…” from the look on America’s face and the fact he was tapping his foot rapidly, Germany concluded this was not the best time to linger around any longer. Clearly America was eager to get back to his game. So, nodding, Germany said goodbye and walked up to Japan, shaking his head. America waved and shouted “See ya!” before slamming the door shut and running back to his game.
Germany, telling Japan he had received no clues as to Poochi’s whereabouts, placed a hand on the distraught country’s shoulder and even smiled; much to Japan and Italy’s surprise. Germany, looking at the assemble of countries gathered, let his eyes rest for an especially long time on Italy, making the latter cock his head and ask him what was up.
“Italy, I vant you to go vith Austria to China’s and France’s houses to look for Japan’s dog.” His gaze then rested on Hungary, who looked determined. “Und Hungary and I vill take Japan to England’s und Russia’s. Is zhat clear?” he turned back to Italy, who saluted and stomped his feet together, copying what Germany used to do, and nodded.
“You can count on me, Captain Germany! Vee!” Italy smiled at Austria. “Are we ready then, Austria?”
Austria’s purple eyes glistened at Italy and he gave a nod.
“Okay then!” turning back to Germany, his curl wafting in the breeze, he waved a goodbye and ran off down a path to the right. Germany sighed, crossing his arms, and announced to Italy he was going the wrong way. This made the Italian stop, his curl becoming scraggily for an instant. He turned on his heel to face the foursome behind him, and then started back toward them. He asked Germany which way to go and Germany gave him and Austria careful instructions. He secretly, however, trusted Austria with the instructions more than he did Italy.
After the directions to the country’s houses were explained, Austria and Italy started off to the north, while Germany, Japan, and Hungary took a western path. The trio was very alert, and occasionally Hungary would shout out Poochi’s name, but to no avail. Japan was very silent. His brown eyes looked heavy but it was hard to tell whether he was sad or tired. Both, probably. Germany, sad to see his friend in this sorry state, nervously struck up a conversation about the weather.
Japan took one glance up at the clouds and let out a long, heavy sigh. He muttered something that sounded like “It’s nice.” And, with downcast eyes, continued walking along the dirt path. Hungary walked in front of the two boys, keeping a careful lookout for Poochi. She had been rather fond of him even though they had only interacted on rare and infrequent occasions. He always jumped all over her and licked her face, though. She rather enjoyed animals like that. Her green eyes flashing, she noticed something on the ground and bent over to examine it. Germany noticed this and walked up to her.
“I think,” she said excitedly, placing her finger on the quite distinguishable paw print of a small animal. A dog or a cat, perhaps. “This could mean something.” She turned to Japan and called his name. He looked up at her and wandered over to the spot, looking down at the paw print.
“That…could mean something.” At this, a little color returned to Japan’s face and he broke into a very soft smile. “It does look about Poochi’s size.”
Germany placed his hands on his hips and nodded. “Good. Zhen zhat means ve may be getting near to your lost dog.” Continuing down the path, Germany silently wished that they could find Poochi before nightfall. He shielded his eyes with the shadow of his arm and glanced at the sun, squinting. It was high in the sky. Germany grunted with satisfaction. They were making good time; from what he judged it was about noon. He checked his wristwatch and found it was about 11:30 in the morning. This boosted his confidence; and he began to wonder how Austria and Italy were going with their search.
~~~
“To get-a to the other side! See, isn’t it-a funny?” exclaimed Italy, laughing merrily and skipping along the path. Austria tucked his bottom lip in and pretended to smile at the “joke” as Italy had addressed it. But no matter if it wasn’t funny; Italy could be funny if he wanted to be. He was probably just putting out a dry sense of humor to keep the mood light between the two, as Austria had been kind of bossy to Italy in his younger years. But the two still loved each other dearly and Italy thought of Austria like a father. Hungary had always assumed the difficulty of caring for Italy when he was a tot, but Austria had taught Italy how to do many things that would prove to be quite educational.
As the two trudged onward, Italy alternated between calling out Poochi’s name and telling his friend jokes (that really weren’t that noteworthy). After a while, they had come to France’s house. Italy admired the tall, graceful house and walked up to the door, ringing the bell. A little feminine sigh was heard from the inside as someone with a heavy French accent apologized to his “guest” and was heard walking to the door. It opened a little crack and France’s annoyed-looking blue eye looked through the crack and stared at Italy for an instant. He then shrugged and opened the door, blinking absent-mindedly...he seemed to be off in another world.
“Ciao, France!” exclaimed Italy, giving France a hug. “I came to ask you something and I was hoping you could help me out.”
France grinned at Italy. Although the two weren’t related in the slightest, France had raised Italy for a portion of his childhood. Because of this, Italy often called him “big brother France”.
Eyes sparkling, France tossed his head proudly and exclaimed, “Ah, bojour, Italy! Of course you know I would be glad to help you. What can France do for you?”
Italy stopped hugging France and put his hands in his pockets. “Well, um, you see, Japan has-a lost his little puppy dog, Poochi. Me and Austria…” Italy motioned to the latter and Austria walked up to him and politely stood next to him. “…Were wondering if you had seen him. Have-a you by any chance?”
France put his hand under his chin and leaned against the doorpost, thinking. “Hmm…” after a few moments, he squinted and nodded a little bit. “I think so, actually. Zee pup went zat way.” He thrust out a hand to the east, smiling. “I saw him go by when I opened the door for…my friend.” Blinking, he suddenly remembered his “guest”. “Er, now if you’ll excuse me…” he started to close the door, only to be asked by Italy who was over. He froze at the question and cleared his throat, taking a glance behind him.
“Just a…a lady friend…of mine…” he turned back to Italy, smiling sheepishly and taking a few steps back.
Italy copied him and took several steps back, smiling. “Ah, alright then. We’ll leave you two be!” he turned and began walking down the path again. Austria, however, gave France a suspicious glance before he tagged along after Italy. The two, after a few minutes, began to call Poochi’s name again. Their spirits were slightly renewed due to the fact France had supposedly seen the pup come this way.
Italy soon realized, thanks to the forest seeming to enclose upon he and Austria, that this was in the general direction of China’s house. And, yes, the abundance of bamboo was a dead giveaway also. Italy knew Austria didn’t know China all that well, so he would do the talking (surprise, surprise).
Austria put his hands in his pockets, beginning to notice the amount of bamboo and other plants surrounding him. Some with large, thick leaves, and some with skinny, thin leaves. Since plants weren’t really his thing (he didn’t want to get dirty), he stayed close behind Italy, who seem to know his way around. He hadn’t been to China’s house a profuse amount of times, but enough times to know where to step and where not to step. Especially since many pandas lived in this forest, knowing where to step was very important.
Austria, however, had the misfortune to step in something that made him scowl and tap Italy’s shoulder, making him stop and turn around to see what was up. From the look on Austria’s face, he could tell what had gone wrong. He and Germany had trekked back here before and Germany’s look was identical when he stepped in that something to Austria’s current look.
Italy bit his lip, holding back a laugh. “Well,” he said, glancing up ahead. “China’s house isn’t too far. I’m-a sure he should have something to wipe your boots off with.” Smiling, he continued down the path. Austria, grunting, followed after him with a huge lack of enthusiasm. He continually muttered “the things I do for other countries” to himself.
Italy, sensing they were very close to China’s house because he heard a rhythmic thumping noise, started to run instead of walk now. Austria copied him and they soon were out of the forest. The two found themselves in a large clearing. At the edge sat a fairly big house that gave off an exotic vibe as the two drew nearer. Slowing down at last, Italy looked around the grounds. He could identify the thumping as the sound of a drum. It was accompanied of jingling sounds from bells and a flute playing softly. It sounded very rhythmic indeed.
Austria walked into the enclosed yard which had a stepping stone path leading to a wooden porch, which was well lighted with circular orange lanterns hanging from the ceiling. The two walked up the stepping stone path…well, Austria did anyway. Italy preferred to hop from stone to stone.
The music stopped abruptly and the front door to the wooden house opened a crack, a girl and a boy peeking their heads out. The girl was Taiwan and the boy was South Korea. They had both come over for music time with China since South Korea was good at jingling bells and Taiwan could play the flute like a pro. Korea ducked his head back in the house, his short brown hair being thrown into a frenzy as he darted into the main foyer and announcing to China he had visitors.
China grinned and stood up, putting down his drumsticks and setting his toy panda on his head. He walked to the door and opened it fully, Taiwan stepping out onto the porch and giving Austria and Italy a friendly wave and a “Konnichiwa!”. Italy scampered up the porch steps, clasped his hands together, and bowed like Japan did when he said hello. Austria simply followed him up the porch steps and nodded politely.
“Ni hao! What brings you to my place?” asked China, grinning. Taiwan smiled and slipped back indoors, going in to check on South Korea.
“Ciao, China!” said Italy, grinning. “We were-a wondering if you had seen Japan’s dog, Poochi! You see, he went-a missing yesterday and Japan misses him to bits.”
China looked at Italy hard. He then turned to Austria, who was smiling politely. Squinting, the eldest nation in the world crossed his arms and tried to remember.
“Hmm…I do remember seeing something earlier this morning wandering around. It was white. Or maybe just partially white…I don’t know if it might have been a panda, but it looked too small for one, aru. It went that way.” Pointing toward the direction of the forest, China got a scowl out of Austria, who truthfully dreaded going back in there again.
“Do you have anything that I could, em…” lifting his shoe slightly, Austria received a chuckle from China and a nod.
“Sure. Come on in!” walking into the ornate house, China grinned at Korea and Taiwan, who were sitting down in the foyer. Both stood up and happily followed their teacher into the kitchen.
“What’s going on with Austria and Italy?” Taiwan questioned. “Have they come over to listen to us play?”
“No,” answered China, grabbing a towel and wetting it in the sink, “They’ve come for Japan. They’ll explain it in a minute.” The country then walked back out into the main hallway, where Austria was standing uncomfortably on a welcome mat that said “Ni hao” and Italy was looking at various pictures of dragons that hung on the wall.
Smiling, China handed the towel to Austria, who muttered a “thank you” and bent over to clean off his shoes. Italy glanced over, but for the most part kept his eyes glued to one particular picture on the wall. It was that of a girl in a kimono sitting on what appeared to be a dock. She had medium brown hair like Taiwan and brown eyes. She looked very young. She had a pink flower in her hands.
Italy could not read the lettering on the bottom of the picture because it was in Chinese, so he gave China a confused look.
“Ah,” said the country, putting his finger on the words. “This means ‘little flower girl’. This is Taiwan when she was young.” Chuckling, the country put his hands on his hips and cocked his head slightly. “I had originally intended for South Korea and Japan to be in this picture, since it was taken when they were all young, but the other two were camera shy, I guess.”
Korea blushed and bit his lip, shifting nervously. “Y-yes…but Taiwan loves being in front of that thing.” He cast her an accusing glance, at which she scoffed and muttered something to herself about Korea being such a pest when he was little. Italy, meanwhile, couldn’t help but smile and giggle at their sibling-like relationship. Just like him and his brother, Romano…sort of. Except Romano did most of the fighting.
China cleared his throat and tried to change the subject. “So, ehm, I saw the little white thing go towards the eastern part of the forest. Of course, since you may have trouble finding it, I suggest you get some bate. I have just the thing.” Going into an adjoining room, China returned with a small plastic case. “Here,” he said, handing it to Italy. “This is some orange chicken. If I know dogs, I know they love meat.”
“Grazie!” exclaimed Italy, taking the box graciously. “I just-a hope we find Poochi before sun-a-down, Japan’s really upset about this whole thing, China...I don’t think I’ve ever seen him so depressed before.”
“I know,” replied the ponytailed nation, staring into space. “He’s had that dog since…must’ve been the third century when I gave him Poochi. I remember the two used to play together every day.”
“Then…” said Austria, standing up straight, “He must really miss him.” purple eyes flashing, Austria suddenly grabbed Italy’s hand, much to the surprise of everyone. Italy looked confused, but then Austria elucidated on his actions.
“Italy, we must continue the search. I…finally understand just how taxing this must be for Japan.” Nodding to Korea, China, and Taiwan, Austria suddenly opened the outside door to find…
