The Uncle With Many Pets

He looked at his grandson and then towards the monkey back and forth. Finding it hard to believe what his grandson just said. "You want to waste one of the 30 titan powers on that weird pet monkey of yours?"

"He's not weird, he's not a monkey, and he's not my pet, he's my partner. It won't be a waste grandfather. Guri is as intelligent...probably more intelligent than some humans. You saw what he could do back then. He's good at combat and he saved my life, twice." Heishi explained himself.

"I agree with the boy. The monkey could make use of a broken ODM and fight well against pure titans. It has good battle awareness and could be of great help to him on his upcoming mission." said Colline to show her support.

"She's right, father. The world is changing both for better and for worse. It might be dangerous for Heishi to be sent there alone." Arianne said as she looked at Heishi with worry.

"You know he's different from all of us, pops. You trained him from a very young age deep in the mountains. He might fare better in a fight in the outside world but when it comes to socializing with people...I'm afraid he's more of a hermit at this point. The creature is smart, we'll just have to send it to my brother for a little education and he would be good to go. It could help stop others from playing tricks with him. Let the ape accompany him so he won't be lonely and homesick." Hoenn added the final words to seal the deal while Heishi was inwardly complaining at them for thinking of him that way. He was no fool and he had the experience of two lifetimes. They both may be lives where he did not interact very much with others but he was and still is a genius. No one could play mind tricks on him, it would be him who could mislead others.

Terrence and his team of graduating cadets as well as Colline's troop of soldiers did not complain nor reject the idea. They knew their purpose. Terrence and his team would also accompany Heishi to the outside world but they would be hidden in the background, awaiting orders and not beside him plus, they were not very close with him so even if they wanted to, he might not necessarily listen to them. On the other hand, it seemed closer to him than they were...in fact, the way he treated it seemed more like a close friend of a lifetime than just a pet. Of course, it could be that this was due to its intelligence.

Nasuko looked at all of them in disbelief. He turned towards his grandson's face and could not help but find a great resemblance between him and her. He sighed in disbelief at himself this time as he replied to them. "Very well. Heishi, send that thing to your uncle as soon as possible to begin its training. He will inherit the predator once it is complete. *sigh* I need to relax my mind. Go get yourselves some quick treatment. We will undergo a community healing tonight."

He left after saying such as he headed back towards his mountain. Hoenn reminded his son to thank Nasuko later as they went towards the direction of the city.

...

After getting their wounds & scratches fixed up and some rest, Heishi and Guri headed towards the humongous meadows on a cliff on the eastern side of the island. Upon arriving in the vibrant green meadows, Guri immediately noticed animals of all shapes and sizes both prey and predators coexisting peacefully in it. In the middle of the grasslands stood a large log cabin. Beside it was a fence-sealed area half the size of an equestrian property filled with different livestock. One side was filled with sheep, cows, chickens, pigs, goats, turkeys, and other farm animals while the other side was used as a field for growing various crops, fruits, and vegetables, both sides separated by a fence. On the other side of the cabin was a strange large facility. That place was a restricted personnel area for it was where they train different animals to do special tasks. The whole land was supervised by his uncle Tamajin Ryoshi and Heishi seldom went here.

"Good afternoon Mount." Heishi greeted a 3-meter titan that was sleeping like a dog. It opened its eyes to glance at him for a second before turning away to continue sleeping. He never knew where it came from nor who it was before it turned into one. His uncle was an odd person, others would prefer to ride a tamed horse or bison but he chose Mount as his.

Mount's limbs were well proportionate and muscular for a pure titan. It had a long neck and torso which as his uncle said was perfect to be his mount. Guri looked at it warily but looked relieved after it ignored his partner. Heishi could understand how it felt for he too reacted that way when he first encountered it. Mount was an abnormal with a mild temperament. It showed no signs of hunger for humanity and was quite submissive & obedient. He lost all fear of it after watching his uncle ride towards the city on it.

Looking at it much closer, Heishi felt like it somehow showed some resemblance to that old man called Gekido and wondered for a second why. "Heishi, is that you, nephew?" He heard his uncle's voice from within the cabin and he put that thought to the back of his mind as he approached his incoming uncle.

Tamajin opened the cabin door and stepped out holding 2 large containers with one containing meat while the other contained fruits and vegetables. Following behind him were a clan of about 20-30 meerkats walking on their hind legs each one holding and nibbling a strawberry.

His uncle was a tall man standing at a height of nearly two meters with long limbs. Unlike most tall people he did not have thin limbs, on the other hand, they were quite muscular after all the work he does every day all over the place. There were a few other people here but they only worked in the field, taking care of the livestock and crops. His grandfather Nasuko once told him that his uncle had no talent for combat, smithing, manufacturing nor the use of ODM gears but he was born with something Nasuko called Nature's tongue. Animals could understand what he was saying and he could understand the noise they were making. This was the reason why he was assigned here.

Heishi helped his uncle carry the container holding fruits and vegetables as they walked towards the animals on the field that began gathering together as soon as they saw his uncle go out the door. "Necessity time?" Heishi asked for confirmation to which Tamajin nodded to.

"Yep, Time for this sh*t shoveling officer to get to work." His uncle looked downcast as he sighed in resignation.

Guri examined this man and his pack. The tall adult man was quite handsome with pure blonde hair and a charming look exuding an air of maturity. On his shoulders sat an albino meerkat and an erythristic ferret. He noticed that all of them carried something on their back. The man had 2 shovels, the ferret had a cute sack filled with blackberries, and all the meerkats had a tiny triangular flag with the only difference being that the albino had a green flag while the rest had red flags.

All the animals gathered around them looking at the containers with anticipation. "Winter, Summer, get to work," Tamajin said to the critters on his shoulder. The ferret jumped down and headed to a weeping willow tree in the distance where an albino stag was lying comfortably as it basked in the sunshine under the covers of the tree's leaves, too prideful to fetch its food itself. The meerkat turned towards the meerkats on the ground that had just finished eating their strawberries and raised the green flag on its back before uttering some noises that Heishi nor Guri understood. The other meerkats looked at it before scattering all over the grassland. They would raise their flags in different locations and stood still. The knee-length grass hid their bodies but the flags could still be seen. The red colors were eye-catching in a field of green and brown so they were easily noticeable.

"Care to help?" The uncle asked his nephew as he handed him the spare shovel.

"...Sure, why not," Heishi replied despondently. He grabbed the shovel and gestured Guri to follow as they went towards the locations of the flags.

The meerkats were trained for this. They would scatter throughout the field looking for manure. They would raise their flags when they found one and would earn an apple each time they found one. Tamajin did not need to remember who was who for meerkats worked together. He just has to hand them their reward and they would share it amongst themselves. The number of feces they found would be equal to the number of apples they could share.

These creatures were good at working together but it would probably be next to impossible to train them to do these things had Tamajin not been able to communicate with them easily.

Heishi was amused to find one of the meerkats he approached as it looked like it was gagging with its tongue out while raising one of its feet that seemed to have stepped on what it was looking for.

They finished it after 15 minutes. They placed square-shaped cloths from the 5 roaming bison and placed them on the ground. They would transfer the dungs into them before wrapping them up and raising them into the air where a hawk would grab them with its sharp talons and drop them off in the field for crops. The other workers would take care of mixing them up with other waste and turn them into fertilizer.

They washed their hands with the water from the well behind Mount before entering the cabin. So...now that that's over with. What brings you here? Aren't you supposed to be preparing for your trials? That was your voice I heard a couple of hours ago, wasn't it? Finally, what's with the ape?" Tamajin threw a barrage of questions at his nephew knowing he had a good memory.

"You know uncle, you're the first one not to confuse him with a monkey" Heishi pointed out though not surprised because he was considered the animal expert of the family.

"Why would they confuse an ape with a monkey? Apes are larger and are nearly tail-less if not fully while monkeys are smaller and have long tails." Tamajin asked.

"How would I know? Also, please forget about what you heard back then. Anyways, putting that aside...This is Gurisumonki, he's my partner & friend and the reason why I'm here."

"Oh? Why?"

"You should get out more often uncle Jin. I just finished my trials and another war just happened. We decided to have Guri here inherit the Predator. He told me to send Guri to you so that you could teach him properly before he undergoes the inheritance." Heishi replied.

"Wait...the Predator? Doesn't that belong to the Marley branch? Was it their branch that attacked?" Jin asked, confused.

Heishi began explaining what he knew about the situation as best as he could.

....

"Oh...I get it. Alright, Leave him to me. You can visit him here anytime." Heishi said as he followed his nephew out the door.

"Thanks, Uncle."

"No probs kid," Jin replied as he stood by the door, watching Heishi leave.

"Bye, everyone!" Heishi said as he waved at them.

All of them including Guri and the Meerkats waved back.

As Heishi walked on the path leaving the meadows, the Erythristic Ferret scurried past him as it heads back towards the cabin.

Heishi left Jin's meadow and headed back to Nasuko's mountain to thank him.

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Author: GRAAAAAH!!! I'm pissed! My laptop just caused a malfunction. It kept the fact that I posted this chapter but lost about 400 words! I had to retype it again!