anko2815: Lost Marisa and Wandering Myon, by Cancel-aki
Summary: A young pet Marisa gets separated from her owner and has her gold badge stolen by (human) thieves.
On the streets, a scarred Myon takes her under her wing. Marisa’s owner has started a widespread search for her, but mobs and mobs of stray yukkuris are claiming to be the lost gold-badge pet Marisa, the Factory is called in, they release Flandres to disperse the mob, and during the ensuing slaughter (which takes up a pretty big chunk of the story), Myon helps Marisa escape.
Myon and Marisa settle down in an abandoned house for the night, but the house is the raping ground of a raper Alice who uses disguises to get close to unwary victims. Marisa’s gold-badge training lets her see that something is wrong with the disguises, and Alice is unmasked. Alice still has the advantage of knowing all the hiding places and attack spots of the house, but Myon has an idea. Following Myon's plan, Marisa announces that she's scared, drops her hat, and flees, then when Alice takes the hat, pretends to be Marisa, and approaches Myon, Myon stabs Alice to death. (Myon retrieves Marisa’s hat before the death-stench adheres to it). Now Myon and Marisa have saved each other’s lives, and they snuggle together for the night. (See illustration.)
The next day, Myon takes Marisa back to the site of the lost-pet search, where, in a more orderly fashion, the potential candidates line up and identify themselves to an inspector. All the stray Marisas who say, “Marisa is a gold-badge pet Marisa!” are thrown into a big burlap sack, where they are eaten by a dosu Yuyuko. Our heroine Marisa tells the inspector, “Marisa is not a silver-badge yukkuri!” and is set aside in a cage to be reunited with her owner. Why? Because (in this story) part of gold badge training is learning what a pet yukkuri should say to humans if she’s lost. Since strays will readily lie and self-aggrandize, gold-badge yukkuris are taught to show off their education and self-control by only _hinting_ at their status.
Several days later, Marisa has her owner take her to the park and she’s able to see Myon again. And what happens to them after that is, in the author’s words, “another story.”
That's a wonderful story, glad it didn't end with the typical "So she became stray/wild and lived happy ever after" ending, those endings always bothered me since they never consider the owner's feelings about his/her loss, at least in the stories on which there is no hint the owner doesn't care, etc.
T1G said: The trick to help separate the true gold from the trash was actually pretty cool if you ask me.
It also shows what really makes good quality pets such, since we know how arrogant and shitty yukkuris can be, only a gold or platinum yukkuri would be able to not only indirectly hint badge rank with a non arrogant comment, but also be truly modest about it.