Big Hero 6 x My Neighbor Totoro

Chapter 3

"In order for you to get more in touch with nature, we're going to hike and have a picnic today," I told Hiro as I passed him the orange marmalade.
He took it from me and nodded.
"Yeah, whatever."
I contemplated the marmalade he was spreading on his toast. "You're a lot like orange marmalade, you know. You seem sweet on the outside because you're some genius and already in college, but your character isn't all that," I casually mentioned.
Hiro put down his toast and, after a glance around the table, picked up the mustard jar.
"And you're like mustard! Always pungent and bitter."
I snorted. "Whatever you say, marmalade boy. Get ready soon, okay? Also, I'm not going to tolerate weak legs while we're hiking, just so you know."
Hiro nodded sarcastically.
"Don't worry, I probably do much more exercise than you."
I cocked my head. "Doing what, exactly? Putting your robots together?"
Sighing dramatically, he reached over the table and patted me on the head.
"You wouldn't understand, young grasshopper." He then stood up and put his plate in the sink.
Mei looked over at me and giggled. "Satsuki is a grasshopper?"
I groaned and stood up to bring my things to the sink, accidentally on purpose elbowing Hiro on the way.

We were well into the forest, and although the day was kind of hot, the trees were providing decent shade and we were able to enjoy the scenery. At least, Mei and I were. Hiro was fanning himself with a leaf and looked like he was being tortured.
I sighed and turned around to face him. "Do you just want to eat lunch now?" He nodded enthusiastically.
I took out a blanket from my backpack and spread it out onto the ground. I then opened the basket I had been carrying, and took out several bento boxes that I had made.
I'm not very good at cooking, so that day I had just made something simple but yummy. Egg rolls, onigiri, octopus sausages, and rabbit apples.
Hiro smiled a bit.
"You really are a kid, aren't you. Rabbit apples.."
I huffed. "If you have a problem with it, don't eat them then."
Hiro popped one in his mouth. "It's not like a have a problem with rabbit apples."
Mei grinned. "Rabbits are cute."
I took an onigiri and started chewing it. Ugh. I accidentally made them too salty.
Hiro began to stuff an entire onigiri in his mouth. I gaped. "Uh, I wouldn't-"
He flapped his hand, as if to say it was fine. It really wasn't. After he started tasting the salt, Hiro began to gag and look miserable.
I patted him on the back apologetically and handed him a bottle of water.
He took it and chugged the entire thing.
I sighed. "If you have to pee later, it goes in the bushes."
Hiro looked regretfully at the empty bottle, and I held back a laugh.
"Try not to use poison ivy as toilet paper; we wouldn't want that."
Hiro glared at me and gnawed on an octopus sausage. "You're the one who made overly salty onigiri."
I looked over at Mei, who was casually inhaling her fifth onigiri happily.
Hiro silently gaped and slid a bottle of water towards her. Mei looked at it questioningly and continued chewing. So innocent.

After lunch, we continued through the forest until we came to a stream of water that looked difficult to cross. There were a couple stones in the middle, but they were so spread apart that it would be physically impossible to jump to each one.
Mei and I looked at each other. How were we supposed to cross now...

Hiro grinned and took off the backpack that he had been carrying along the entire hike.
"I have just the thing to save you underserving dumplings."
He unzipped the backpack and took out the mind control thingy and dumped a pile of his minibots or whatever they were called onto the ground.
The lightbulb went off in my head.
"Oh, you're going to build a bridge with your telepathic thing and your minibots! Good job, genius."
Hiro huffed.
He tapped the headband. "This is a NEUROCRANIAL TRANSMITTER. And the robots are called MICROBOTS. You're such a dumpling. No, a steamed bun. Everything that you learn just comes evaporating out of that head of yours."
I rolled my eyes. "Are we gonna cross or what?"
Hiro started moving the robots across the stream to create a bridge. I have to admit, I still thought it was pretty darn cool.

After a couple more minutes we finally got to the giant tree in the middle of the forest.
Hiro whistled. "That's a big tree."
Mei and I shared a knowing glance.
"We didn't take you here just to show you the tree, you know. There's something else too."
"Which is.."
There was a trail of acorns leading into a hole in the tree.
We climbed in.
A great big gray and white fluffy belly greeted us as we fell down.