Omi and the Beanstalk

By Buttergold

Once upon a time, there lived a girl who lived with her father in a gigantic, six-storey, fully air-conditioned mansion. They were extremely wealthy(as you might have guessed) and had many servants and a prosperous farm with many livestock.

One day, her father, Persia, told her, "Omi, I want you to bring this cow to the market and sell her. She is weak and not much use to us, though it might be of use to others. All of the servants are busy. Take her and go now," Omi would much rather stay at home and surf the net for web sites on her favourite anime series, WeiB kreuz, but did not want to know what her father would do to her if she disobeyed.

So, with some reluctance and grumbling, Omi set off. While cursing the cow at the top of his voice, Omi met a young, pretty, red-headed woman. "What a fine-looking cow!" she exclaimed brightly, which was of course not true. "If you give it to me, I'll give you these magic beans in return. Omi shook her head solemnly. "First you'll have to tell me your name," "Whatever for?" the woman asked in surprise.

"My daddy taught me never to do business with strangers - much less with people who lie,"

"My name's Manx, but whenever did I lie?²

"You said the cow was fine-looking. Anyway, let's get down to business. . ." So Omi and Manx spent half-an-hour getting to know each other. Finally, Manx led off the cow which was so hungry it chewed at Manx's red hair, making it have split-ends and Manx started cursing it, while Omi happily skipped home with the magic beans.

When she got home with the beans, Persia's expression was black because there had been a black-out and nobody could see anything two centimeteres from their eyes. When the lights came on again, Persia's expression was still black.

"You stupid girl! Imagine believing in "magic beans" and selling them for a perfectly good cow!" Omi sweat-dropped. But after a moment's thought, he said, "Perhaps they really are magic. Plant them outside and see what happens," Omi planted them before going to surf the net. The next morning, Omi looked outside the window to see that the beans had grown overnight. It was the size of a good-sized tree. Omi felt a little jealous because she hadn't grown overnight, but was excited all the same.

However, it didn't grow any taller the next day. Or the next day. It seemed to have been just a normal tree. And soon, Omi lost interest in it. It was there when Omi grew into a teenager. It was there when Omi's best friend, Aya-chan fell into a coma and her brother Ran nearly killed her as she was a Taketori. It was there when Omi grew into an adult. It was there when her father died. It was there when she gambled away all her money. It was there when all the servants slowly left. It was there when she had a lucky streak and won all her money back. It was there when the best blonde womaniser in the whole universe caused her to have a son - Ken.

Now Ken was much brighter than his mother and looked after the plant really well, instead of leaving it to fend for itself as Omi did. And soon, the beanstalk grew and grew until you couldn't see the top and the top couldn't see you.

And one day, Ken decided to climb it. If he could, he could at last actually walk on air. What happened after that? Well you'll have to wait for the sequel - "Ken and the Beanstalk"(duh!).