The chomp picked up the tiny mochi and placed it on his right shoulder. It was soft to the touch, so the chomp handled it delicately, and it was unusually squishy, as if it were filled with something semi-liquid. It was sticky too, so it stuck to his shoulder.

"Is there something wrong with you?" The chomp asked partly out of concern and partly out of wariness.

The question triggered something in Mo, for it began to wail uncontrollably.

"I was a happy mochi once", it managed to squeak between sobs.

"Secure in my cool little home, packed in tightly with my brothers and sisters."

"Cool home? Ah of course! You must be an ice-cream mochi!"

"You got that right chomp. I'm an ice-cream mochi far from home, abandoned and forgotten in the sun, and the ice-cream inside me is melting!"

"Well that explains why you're extra squishy."

"Yeah. Don't have a lot of time mister. You'll have to do a lot more than just pick me up if you want to save my soft pink rice skin!"

The chomp considered this. His original plan had been to investigate the sites of the robberies, and now he was being pulled into all these little side adventures involving tiny mochi and strange ninja chomps that bounced.

"I can tell you the secret behind the Bubblegum Ninja chomp bounce, but you have to promise to take me to a cool place so that my ice-cream insides can solidify again."

The power of the Bubblegum Ninjas! Well, even if pursuing these these thieves or saving this mochi's life wouldn't directly aid his primary goal, it would at least give him the ability to fight his foes better, and the gratitude of the common chomps of Daifuku wouldn't hurt either.

"Ok Mo. Squeak away!"