The Gods of the Food Court

The outside world had changed a lot since Don Thousand bothered to go to Earth. Loud machines rumbled past, humans driving them. Yuuma had him up on his shoulders considering he didn't own shoes as of now. He made sure to yank Yuuma's hair rather forcefully when he started walking a little too fast much to Vector's amusement.

"We aren't getting in one of those, are we?" He looked hesitantly at the machine they had stopped in front of on the sidewalk. It was small and bright red, with big windows and cushy looking seats. Still, he didn't exactly know what it was...

"Huh? Cars are safe! It's okay, Shingetsu's a good driver!"

"What?! You're going to let him control this thing?! No! I'd rather you just walk there!" He wrapped his arms around Yuuma's eyes so he couldn't see to get in and glared at Vector as if that would solve everything. Vector smirked and twirled a key chain in his hand, opening the driver's door.

"It'll be okay! Just relax!" Yuuma opened the back door and pulled Don off his shoulders who reluctantly sat and let Yuuma pull a seat belt over him. "It's just a ten minute drive to the mall, anyway!"

It was decidedly the worst ten minutes of Don's life. As soon as they got on a road without other cars, Vector would 'accidentally' jerk the car slightly to one side, then glance in the rear-view mirror to smirk, telling Yuuma he thought he saw an animal! And he couldn't hit it, of course!

As soon as they got to the mall, he practically jumped out of the car, legs wobbly. Yuuma still wouldn't let him walk on the ground without shoes, so he was stuck on Yuuma's shoulders, having a glaring match with Vector every time Yuuma turned his head.

Yuuma made the mistake of putting him on the ground when they got in the mall because 'it was carpeted and probably okay to walk on!' Don bolted away from them the second he could.

They chased after him of course, well Yuuma did, Vector almost hoped Yuuma wouldn't catch him. But it seemed the little god was fast, and Yuuma actually lost him.

"This is bad!" Vector really didn't see how. It wasn't like Don Thousand could operate his way around the human world, especially not how he was now. "We should split up and look for him!"

Vector reluctantly parted from Yuuma, but not because he really wanted to look for Don. Well, he just wanted to mess with him some more, maybe. He was just doing this to keep Yuuma happy, anyway.

...

Vector was getting bored with looking around. He had walked in three different clothes stores and the little god hadn't been in any of them! Passing the food court he saw something...odd.

A strange pair sitting at a table eating pizza, they both had intricate flowing robes and were glowing, like, straight up casting lights out of their bodies kind of glowing. Everyone seemed to be walking around them, not even sending a glance to them. The man of the pair was laughing loudly and eating pizza rather messily while the woman was looking disgusted.

She turned her head and spotted him and her eyes widened. The man followed her glance and grinned, pizza still hanging out of his mouth, and he started waving for Vector to come over. Well, why not? Maybe they had an explanation for Don Thousand being here.

"Hey, Vector! You've been pretty good lately, but that little incident at the college last week, yikes! I told Athena here, no way you'd be able to set those stage curtains on fire with just that fire prop, it wasn't real fire, it was plastic! She has been bragging non-stop-"

"Mercury. This isn't really the time for that." The woman cut in.

"No! By all means, continue! I'd love to hear that strangers find me interesting, especially light-bulb people!" He sat down with a grin and propped his chin on his hand.

"We're here for Don Thousand. We would have been here sooner if Mercury wasn't so easily side-tracked." She snapped at the man. He pouted and pointed at the pizza.

"We never get to explore the mortal's world, I just wanted pizza once in three hundred years! Anyway, yeah. We're from the council of the God's, we kinda need Don. He's with you and Yuuma, right?" Vector blinked slowly. Well, he had expected them not to be human because of the clothes and the whole glowing thing, but gods? Okay, he was a rock alien at one point, so he couldn't talk. Still.

"He's...around." Vector said with a wave of a hand. "What do you need him for? Why's he a kid right now?"

"You lost him." The woman said with a deadpan voice. "He's a child because he cannot be a god anymore, he has failed to keep his world intact and deemed dangerous. Before he can grow and get a chance to get those powers back, we weakened him enough in the form of a human child so that we may obliterate him."

"Obliterate him?" Vector asked. "If he grows up completely, will he really get his powers back? Uh, even if he does, obliterating anyone completely..."

There was something Yuuma had taught him. Something like 'every life, no matter what kind of person is, that life is precious!'. Even if it was Don Thousand, he was a kid now!

"Yup! We'll just make it quick, real discrete. There won't even be a body left." The man who had seemed almost happy-go-lucky before seemed maliciously happy about killing Don Thousand. Vector smiled.

"Sorry, I don't really think I want that. For some reason, he's growing on me a little!" He laughed. The woman stood up and pointed a hand at Vector, her eyes glowing.

"If you want to make it difficult, I'll obliterate you as well. You as a mortal have no power against me, no matter how many lives you've had this will be your last." The man quickly put a hand in front of her to stop her.

"Athena! Hey, It's okay! Actually, let's listen to him, okay?" The woman narrowed her eyes but obeyed, sitting back down. Vector let out a nervous sigh, he had thought she was really just gonna off him!

"So, even after he messed up two of your lives and treated you bad you wanna let him stay? Even if it risks getting this ENTIRE world destroyed? What's the logic behind that?" The man asked. Vector shrugged.

"I was the mad prince once, and 'the most atrocious barian'. But I got a second chance, or multiple ones and I turned out sort of okay. So I guess I'd like to do the same for someone else. God or not." The man looked thoughtful and the woman stayed stoic, but her eyes flashed briefly.

"15 days." She sighed, finally. Both Vector and Mercury looked at her in surprise.

"Huh?"

"Fifteen days. I'll wipe his memory, Don's, that is. He'll have the mind of a child, with his same personality of hating humans and everything like that intact, but won't know why. If you can't make him not want to destroy this planet within that time frame, I'll destroy him and you. Do you understand, and agree?"

Vector nodded. There was no one Yuuma couldn't change like that, and he'd try too! "Deal! Hey, what happens if he does change his mind?"

"You both get to live. Perhaps he may get his memories back, as well. Today is day one." She stood and started to glow even brighter. "Let's go, Mercury." The man quickly nodded and smiled, waving at Vector.

"Good luck, Vector! We'll be watching!" The faded away and Vector let out a breath of relief. He had seen weirder...but fifteen days, huh. He needed to find Yuuma and tell him all this, also if she was going to wipe Don's memories now, he'd need to find him fast so some stranger didn't take him, right? That would really be a problem.

Don Thousand slipped into a rather colorful store, ducking behind some sort of cardboard cut out of a superhero. He could see Yuuma race past and let out a sigh. That's right...he needed a weapon before he could confront Astral! That's why he had run away in the first place. Powers or not, he was going to destroy the Astral missionary.

He turned, looking around the rainbow store. There were a lot of different looking things in plastic containers of all colors...He had no idea what they were but they looked too colorful for his tastes. A woman with exaggerated curls and an entirely pink outfit bounced over to him. She had a smile like a horse.

"Awwww! You're the cutest wittle man, aren't you? Where's your mommy or daddy, little guy?" He frowned. Was she talking to him...? She was staring down at him expectantly. he didn't appreciate her patronizing tone- as if she was talking down to him- but then an idea slowly formed.

"I don'th know where my parenths wenth! I've been looking for a while for them in here, ith's so scary!" He may have been taking a page out of Vector's book, using puppy-eyes as weapons. The woman put her hand over her heart and gasped.

"Oh you poor dear! What's your name, honey? I can make an announcement over the intercom to the mall and ask for them to come get you!" Too easy.

"Vecthuresa Gerke." The woman's smile turned into questioning eyes. "Um, Ith's forein." She bobbed her head like a chicken and smiled. Were all humans so gullible?

"Of course. I'll go in the back of the store and make an announcement real quick, stay here, Okay Vecturesa?" Don smirked as the employee walked into a door in the back. He pulled a little bag off the shelf quickly filling it with the weird things in a glass container with the word 'sourballs' splayed across it.

As he was dashing out, he smirked as he heard the words 'Vector-isa jerk is at the candy store, please come pick him up!' in a chipper voice. Only to run into something and fall backwards. Another human stared down at him, and he unfortunately recognized him.

"Nasch." He stood up and stared up at the man. Nasch looked at him then slowly looked around.

"When Vector said to meet him at the mall because Don Thousand had been resurrected, I kind of imagined you'd be bigger. Where exactly is Vector, or Yuuma?"

"I lefth them. I have to go desthroy Asthral, they would geth in my way." Nasch sighed and glanced down at the bag of candy.

"I'll guess that the announcement of 'Vector is a jerk needs to come to the candy store' from the intercom was from you then. When he finds you he's going to strangle you. Did you pay for that candy?"

Don looked at the colorful balls in the bag. Candy is what they were...he had no idea what they were. He had the idea that if he could find some sort of gun he could shoot them at Astral, but...

"Whath is the purpose of them?" He asked.

"You eat them. Put it in your mouth and just suck on that." Don looked skeptically but reached in anyway out of curiosity, and put one on his tongue. It tasted awful, like a kick in the mouth. It was way too bitter and tart and he immediately spit it onto the floor in disgust.

"Thath was horrible! You expecth me to belivfe people eath those?!" Nasch's lips curled into a smile. Had he just been messing with him?!

"They do. Some people actually like that taste. I don't care for it. You shouldn't just spit things on the floor though." Nasch pointed to a black cylinder nearby. "That's a trash can. Put things you don't want in there." Don looked at the offending candy then to the trash.

"No. I'm noth even thouching thath thing." Nasch sighed and turned around.

"Alright, I won't tell you a secret weakness Astral has, then." Don blinked.

"A weakness? Why would you thell me? What is ith?" Nasch shook his head again.

"I was going to tell you because since you're small, you're at a disadvantage. But if you can't even throw away trash I can't expect you to be able to defeat anyone." Don huffed and picked up the stupid sourball, and he even had to lean up a little to get it in the trash. That seemed pointless but if he could get info...

"He sunburns if he doesn't have a lot of sunscreen, even if it's cloudy." Don stared. And stared more.

"Thath's his weakness...? You thricked me." Ryoga smiled and shrugged.

"No, it's serious. He turns all red, it's awful." Don scowled and turned in the opposite direction, walking away from Nasch. What a waste of time-

Oh crap, the woman from the candy store was walking towards him with a frown, a man in blue behind her. She spotted him and turned to the officer and pointed. Don decided that defiantly wasn't a nice point either, so he just turned right back around and walked to Nasch.

The oddest thing happened, though. Mid-walk, he froze, a weird sensation hitting him. he fainted.

...

Ryoga hated to admit it but Don Thousand had turned adorable, he was still rude but with a cute face like that, it was hard to stay too mad. When he turned around to walk away after he had been duped, he also immediately turned around again when a woman wearing a candy store uniform and a mall cop. Ryoga got a little concerned when instead of running behind him, the tiny god face-planted right onto the carpet.

"Is that your son?" The man asked when he leaned over to check if he was okay. The woman looked like she was fuming, glaring at the bag of candy in his hand. Ah, he had stolen it after all.

"He isn't, I'm watching him for a friend. He ran off, I just found him." Not technically a lie. She pointed angrily at the bag. It wasn't even that big of a bag, either.

"He stole from my store!"

"Is that so! Well, kids tend to get over-exited about candy, you know! I'm sure you see exited children all the time. Here, this should cover it! We'll make sure to properly punish him, of course." Ryoga hadn't even heard Vector come behind him, but he was shoving a bill in the woman's hand, who looked almost flustered from him.

"Oh, are you his father? Where on earth is his mother, you really need a woman to scold him..." Her face was all red still, but Ryoga was almost sure it was from blushing. Vector laughed and shrugged.

"Sort of, I'm his guardian. Me and my boyfriend keep after him." And she seemed to wilt at hearing that and turn around with the bill.

"Oh, I see. Anyway, I'm glad he'll be getting a scolding anyway!" When they walked away Vector took Don's unconscious body out of Nasch's hands and smirked.

"Thanks for babysitting! Didn't bring your lemon-head boyfriend with you?" Ryoga ignored the comment and looked down at the sleeping Don Thousand.

"Kaito was already at work and I thought you were bluffing or something. To say the god of the Barian world is back and needs help getting new shoes is a little outlandish."

"And yet you still came here! Funny how that works. Right, we need clothes for him. Also, his memories were probably just wiped, so we need to make up a story to tell him. And I think we'll need some kid's food too...like junk food..."

"Hang on, what do you mean 'just got his memories wiped'?" Ryoga snapped. Vector shrugged.

"Some Gods were in the food court eating pizza and told me they would give me and Yuuma fifteen days to change his mind about wanting to destroy the world. Anyway, We'll need to have him measured, too. They don't charge for that in clothes stores, right?" Ryoga groaned.

"Gods? Vector, which ones? What will happen if you don't manage to redeem him?"

Vector waved a hand. "Details. Athena, and Mercury I think. They were gonna destroy him while they put him in a weakened human kid form. I told them we'd give him a chance and stuff. If we fail, he and I will get destroyed, apparently."

"You...you put your own life on the line to try to redeem the god who put you through hell? Maybe Yuuma is rubbing off on you, huh." Vector just laughed.

"There's no way we won't be able to, anyway!" Ryoga had to hand it to him, Vector did something that might be good for once. Though, if he failed...Yuuma would be crushed. Hearing that it was even a possibility that Vector might...

"Don't fail, for Yuuma's sake and your own." He said. Speaking of Yuuma, he was running towards them, pulling Astral behind him who was looking wide-eyed at the child Don Thousand.

"Hey! You found him, awesome! Oh, you got him candy too!" Astral tilted his head.

"He is very small. Did he fall asleep?"

"He didn't fall to sleep, he passed out. According to Vector, some gods by the names of Athena and Mercury wiped his memories, and Yuuma and Vector have fifteen days to make him not want to destroy the world." Yuuma gaped.

"Really?! Whoa, that's great! We can totally do it! Let's teach him to kattobingu!"

Vector grinned at Yuuma's optimism, of course he'd say that. He decided to leave out the part that if he failed that he'd get destroyed, too. Because they definitely be able to do this, there was no need to make Yuuma worry about that.

Right?

Sorry this took so long to update! This chapter is just setting up the actual plot, aha. So, fifteen days! Next chapter will be the rest of day one, shopping shenanigans and such, and maybe day two, too. Also! What charas do you want to interact with Don? Leave them in a review and I'll put them in somewhere. :)

Also, thank you for reviewing, favoriting, following and reading! I'm surprised people are interested in this weird fic, but a good surprised. xD