AN: Hello! Here is the New batch of chapters. Plz enjoy and review. Every Review is appreciated.
"The first time I was in Leanbox I was about 10 years old. I don't know how or why but I had washed up on one of Leanbox's beaches without any memory. With nothing but the raggy clothes that I had on me and my name. I still have no idea why I was there or have any of my memories before that point. But to be honest I couldn't care less. When I woke up, I simply got up and headed to get food. When I couldn't pay I decided to become an adventurer. Right there, same day, same hour. Without memories. I was a stupid kid, but that was the beginning of my journey."
"How interesting. To think that you would start for such a mediocre reason." Was what the gold man had said to me. I was back in the dream and had just finished telling him my beginnings, through his request.
"Screw you." I said under my breath. "Why did you even want to know that anyway?"
"I was simply curious. But that does remind me of someone. A person who the King held very dear to him, his best friend. He, like you, showed up without any memory nor money. But he was quite carefree. Like you."
"I'm not exactly carefree. If I was, I'd be like Neptune."
"You like her, do you not?" His voice raising, as if excited by gossip.
"No. I don't have any other feeling for her than friendship. Sorry buddy." The man's silhouette deflates, disappointed.
"Tch. And here I thought I guessed right." Give me a break.
"So Gil's friend. What happened to him?"
"He died of course. He did live over thousands of years ago" The man sighed, as if remembering it hurt him. "He was quite the guy." He then mumbled something under his breath that I couldn't hear.
"Hey, Go-" The world grew dark once more.
"I'll see you later, Alligator." He tried to seem happy-go-lucky but I could tell he was sad.
I awoke to the soft and lovely aroma of my favorite breakfast option in the world. "P-Pancakes?"
I shot up from the couch and ran to the kitchen to see Compa flipping a pancake, Neptune stuffing a cup of yellow pudding down her throat and Iffy enjoying a nice cup of coffee.
"Good morning Arcy!" Compa was the first one to notice me, even though she had her back to me. "Would you like some pancakes?"
"They were delish!" Neptune said, mouth full of pudding.
"Don't talk with your mouth full. And I would love some pancakes Compa, thanks." I move and sit across from Iffy. "G'morning Iffy."
"Morning." She took another sip of her coffee before looking at me. "Are you ready to go to Leanbox today?"
"*Sigh* yea. I'm not looking forward to it though." I'm gonna lose the cash so soon. Dammit! Compa places a plate with a stack of 3 pancakes with syrup dripped on it. "This looks delicious. Thanks Compa."
"No problem! I hope you enjoy it." She then walks to her own room, probably to get ready for the trip. I take a bite and fall in love, immediately chowing down and forgetting everything that was just going on.
"I can die happy now." I say after finishing the pancakes in record time. "What were we talking about?"
"You need to calm down, holy shit dude." Iffy takes a deep breath before speaking again. "I was gonna say that we are gonna be leaving in about three hours. We've got a lot of searching to do."
"Ok. I'll go change then and probably have a quick nap." I never get proper rest after those dreams.
"Hold on." Iffy says as she steps in front of me. "When we get to Leanbox what exactly do you think we should do?" They didn't even plan did they.
"Well, I think they we should ask the goddess if they know where the key fragment. I've heard some rumors that their goddess is pretty nice."
"Hmmm." Iffy thought it over. "Fine. But the same thing as last time better not happen again."
"You mean the Basilicom people? Nah, I visited Leanbox's and it's run by this cool old man. It'll be fine."
"Y-Yeah. That's what I meant. I'mma go get ready." Iffy left to the girls room, following Compa.
"Might as well get ready myself." I walk to the couch and grab...nothing. I have no belongings. I forgot... The night before I had slept in my normal clothes cuz Neptune HAD to wear the pajamas I was borrowing for some reason. I need to get my own place. I lay down on the couch and turn on the TV that was in front of it. What came on was some trashy reality TV show. I've got three hours to kill anyway.
3 hours Later
"How could he do that to her?! They were in love!" The show ended up being more interesting than I thought. "Dammit Johnny!"
"Umm. Arcy?" Neptune said from the doorway.
"H-Huh?" I wipe the tears off of my face and get myself together. "Y-Yo. Whats up?"
"We're ready now. Are you ok?" I get up from the couch, set the DVR and turn off the TV.
"Not really. Johnny just-"
"I don't care. Let's go." How mean! I walked into to the kitchen and everyone was there, ready to go. "Ready?"
"Yup. Let's go to Leanbox." After another visit to the creepy receptionist again and wasting 40,000 credits on tickets we were able to board the boat to Leanbox. It was an impressively luxury boat, hell it was basically a yacht. It was literally us four and the crew who did nothing but play games on their phone. "Arcy! I'm bored. Give me another piggy back!"
"No." I outright say. I walk over to a bench near the entrance and sit down. "*sigh* Two more hours of waiting." I begin to nod off as I see Neptune begin to run around the ship.
After being woken up by Iffy before Neptune tried to punch me, we ended up on the shores of Leanbox. "So I guess our first stop is the Basilicom of Leanbox. Right?" I asked Iffy as Compa was tending the bump that Neptune gained brought to impart by me.
"That would be our best option..." Iffy puts her hand to her chin, before continuing. "However I think I should be the one to talk to her if we can get it contact."
"Huh, How come? I've always wanted to meet all the goddesses!"
"Well, you already met two."
"Neptune sucks though." The fact that Neptune is the CPU of Planeptune is something that I still can't believe. How could this energetic, wild and to be honest, stupid girl become the goddess of one of the four nations of this world. Granted she does have this aura around her that makes you want to be friends but she is kind of annoying. Plus she has Amnesia so there is no way she can rule a nation right now. Maybe she was better before she lost her memory. Although I highly doubt it.
"Hey! That is a very rude to say about your friend Arcy!" Neptune suddenly appeared behind me. She wrapped her arms around my neck. While I expected her to turn it into a weird flirting situation. She, did the opposite. "Time for revenge!"
"Ugh!" She pressed her arms onto my neck and started choking me. I instantly tapped as her tiny arms had way more strength in them than I expected. A-Am I going to die?!
"Neptune! Get off of him!" Iffy yelled at her. Neptune pouted and let go of me, prompting to look at the ground. Leaving to to catch my breath for a couple of seconds.
"What the hell, Neptune?! You know I can't take that kind of punishment!" Neptune looked up and me and flinched. For the first time ever, she actually showed a face of remorse.
"I'm sorry..." She began to walk forward to the city, leaving us all behind.
"Now that's something that I didn't expect. No witty comeback?" Iffy then pointed at her neck, giving me a sign to look down. I did and saw that my chest and neck were red. I guess that's what made her feel guilty. I didn't think that emotion was possible for her. "Whatever." I rubbed my neck and the redness almost immediately went away. Now I feel bad. Dammit.
After catching up to Neptune, who stayed pretty quiet for a while, we made our way to Leanbox's main city. It was pretty similar to Planeptune's city as it was a modern city with many large buildings, but instead of a purple motifs everything was green and white. Which was always gonna be pretty confusing to me, I don't know why but the color green always made me feel weird.
We were soon facing the basilicom of Leanbox and it is the strangest one in my opinion. It was a giant square shaped building with a giant hole in the middle, of course decorated with green lights that contrasted with the white of the building. although it looked strange from the outside it was very spacious and interesting inside. It was more gracefully decorated inside than any of the other Basilicoms I'd been to. Although I've never been inside of the one in Lowee. It was decorated with lovely trees that gave off a sweet aroma, chandlers, even posters of Leanbox's most famous actors and musicians. I walked up the the man behind the desk who, unlike the other receptionists was a man who looked to be in his eighties. He wore black and green robes that drape over him, making his body type almost impossible to determine. He wore his age on his face, literally. He had the stereotypical long white hair with a white mustache and short white beard.
"Hey, old man! It's been a while!" I say as I walk up to him. Plopping my arms onto his desk.
"*Sigh* I see you are back, Arc. And for the last time, my name is Yvoire." The old man who's name I just remembered said. He looked behind me and waved at the girls behind me. "I see that you have some companions with you. A lot has changed in a year, I see."
"I guess you could say that." Although he and I barely talk, he is one of the few friends I actually have in Gamindustri. Hell, he was the only one I had for a while. "Anyway, we'd like an audience with the CPU. You could set that up, right?" Yvoire cringes a bit as he started typing something on the computer in front of him.
"I'm sorry. But meeting time with the CPU has ended for the day."
"But it's only five!" I plead.
"Lady Green Heart requires a lot of time in order to deal with the nation. I'm sorry, but I will contact you tomorrow if you wish." I lower my head and hit it against the table. Yvoire takes a deep breath and sighs. "You know that I would try my best to assist you in anything that you need but rules are rules."
"Huh. Well at least I feel a bit better now." I stand up straight and begin to walk out. "Well, thanks Yvoire. Don't forget to call me."
"Hold on!" Neptune suddenly yells. Whoa! Didn't expect that! " do you know anything about a key fragment?"
"How did you get that out of my name?! My name is Yvoire."
"Neptune, respect your elders. Yvoire has a lot on his plate."
"Yeah, Yeah, System Works. Stay in the background as the adults talk about the important things." She says with a big stupid smile on her face. So she just needed some time to recover. Well, she's better this way.
"That was a dirty trick. Bringing my name into this." She stuck her tongue out at me and turned back around to Yvoire.
"It'd be great if you knew anything about it " Compa says as she walks up with Neptune.
"Is my name being ignored?" Yvoire said with a disappointed look on his face.
"It looks like this." Neptune pulled out a phone that I did not know she had and pulled a photo of the key fragment that I did not know she took. For the first time ever I got a good look at it. It was a giant key that had a purple body with a giant purple N, identical to the one Neptune had on her sweater, surrounded by a white circle on the keys head.
"I see..."
"So , You know anything?" Yvoire simply sighs at the butchering at his name and shakes his head.
"Seventy years of my life and I've never seen a key like that before." We all shut down. Another dead end. Is Histoire destined to be trapped forever? "But the Lady may know. She had been around for hundreds of years after all."
"At least we may have a clue." I say as I put my hand to my chin. "But to think that Lady Green Heart is hundreds of years old. Does that mean she's an Old Ha-gh!"
"Ok. That's enough Partner." Iffy comments with the same irritated face I saw from the factory in Lastsation. She had her hand covering my mouth and signaled to me to shut up with her motioning her thumb along her throat.
"!" Why?! Iffy takes her hand off of my mouth and turns to the door.
"Let's get out of here before little Arcy says anything that he'd regret." Iffy flashes a smile at me that screams nothing but death.
"Very well. I'd suggest that you all stay at the hotel that is located two blocks to east of here." Yvoire says as he walks to me and hands me a coupon. "This should help."
"Thanks Yvoire." I pocket the coupon. "We'll be back tomorrow. And thanks again. It was nice seeing you."
"Same here." He suddenly walks closer and whispers "So...which one is your love?"
"Jeez. Not one of em. What's with all these old Geezers trying to get into my love life?" Yvoire only laughs and walks back to his desk, signaling the end of the conversation. I turn around to see that my precious friends had already left me behind. "Great."
As I exited the building someone else was going in, causing me to bump into them softly. Both of us recoiled. "Sorry about that. You ok?" I was the first to speak up.
"No problem. It was my fault for not looking where I was going." The person I had ran into was a purple haired woman who wore a long black trench coat with a hood that she used to cover her face.
"O-Ok" When I responded she simply walked past me. She seemed familiar. Oh whatever. I run out the building, attempting to catch up the girls.
000
"*Sigh* This is the life." I was lying down on a beautiful king sized bed with a literal shit ton of pillows. After a bit of a tour on the city, we went to the hotel that Yvoire told us about.
"Arcy! You can't hog all the pillows!" Neptune yelled from across the room. She, Iffy and Compa were still having dinner at the table that we had ordered but I finished way earlier. Everyone had already changed into their own pajamas with Neptune wearing a purple shirt with pink dots and short pink pants. Iffy wore a standard black button up with black pants and Compa wore the same but pink...as did I.
"It's not like you're using them right now, right?"
"Grrr." We had gotten a single room for the four of us like last time. However there was no Noire here to kick me out so I save some cash! "That's it! I'm eating your-"
"I already ate my pudding."
"Nooooo!" Iffy simply sighed and Compa giggled.
"We should really get some rest guys, we have to go see Yvoire again tomorrow and we're gonna see Lady Green Heart. We have to look respectable." Iffy nagged.
"Hey Iffy, do you like Green Heart or something? I thought you didn't belong to any nation." I asked, causing Iffy to flinch and chug down the rest of her tea.
"I don't like her! I-I'm just a fan of her blog is all."
"The Goddess of Leanbox has a blog. That...*sigh*"
"She's a great writer!" And Neptune isn't crazy.
"Yeah, yeah. Anyway, who am I gonna end up bunking with?" The hotel did not have the option is giving us 4 beds so we were only able to get 2, meaning we'd have to share.
"I-I-I-I" Iffy started malfunctioning. All she was able to say was that.
"Is she ok? Compa, any idea?" Compa looked at Iffy and tried poking her.
"I don't know." Compa took out her giant syringe and attempted to stab her with it.
"Compa no!" Neptune grabbed the syringe and put it on the ground. "I think she'll be fine. Anyway, I'm bunking with ya! I need some pillows in my life!" Neptune jumps into the bed and almost hits me, luckily I dodge her.
"Fine. But you better not wake me up. Or punch me!" Neptune nods and grabs a pillow and starts fucking swinging it around with a giant smile on her face. "Yo!"
"I-I want to-" Iffy suddenly yells.
"Are you back with us, Iffy?" I ask. She looks at me, then Neptune and the Compa.
"Dammit." She hangs her head low and walks over to the bed on the other side of the room, and flopping down onto it.
"Don't worry Iffy. You'll get to sleep with him next time." Compa said reassuringly while going under the covers of her bed.
"C-Compa! What are you saying..."
"Hehe. G'night." Compa clapped her hands and the light in the room goes off.
"*Yawn* G'nighty." Neptune says, putting the pillow she held between her legs and yanks the covers over her and myself.
"*sigh* What a bunkmate. Good night guys." I put my head on a pillow sideways and end up making eye contact with Iffy. "Good Night Iffy. Don't let the bedbugs bite."
"G-Goodnight." I close my eyes and am immediately hit on the head with Neptune's arm, who begins to snore. This is my life.
000
"Do do do do do. Di di do do" Was what I had heard come out of the gold man's mouth when I ended up in the dream world.
"What?"
"AH!" He yelled jumping out of his chair and for the first time allowing me to get a good idea of his height. The guy was definitely taller than me, he couldn't be any less that six feet tall. Yet I still had no idea what he was. I kept saying that he was a silhouette but I guess it's better to say that he was covered in a thick gold mist. I couldn't tell a thing about him but a rough guess of his build and his height. I couldn't tell how long his hair was, nor if he was even wearing clothes. That thought creeped me the fuck out. "Don't scare me like that Arcy! I almost pissed my pants!"
"So you do wear clothes."
"Of course I do!" The Gold man takes his seat and stretches. "You know, waiting for you all day is boring, so I sing and stuff."
"Good to know that you have such an interesting pastime." The gold man pouts and crosses his arms.
"It was a great hobby, that the king had. Although he never did let the public know about it." He said in a melancholy tone.
"Then how do you know about it?" The gold man flinched and cursed under his breath.
"I worked very close to the king." I guess that explains why he knows so much about him. "I was one of the first of his allies before he fought the Goddess. He was quite the guy." Even though he said that he would tell me about the King's tale all he does is say vague shit. "Oh I know a good story to tell you of the king!"
"Go ahead then."
"This takes place before the King had fought the goddess. He and his friends had been out recruiting some people to his army when he came across a lone Doggo. The Doggo seemed very strange to the king as it was a light purple color that was different from the normal blue, red or green that is common. The Doggo bounced up the king and jumped onto his face, startling him. He began to yell out, however instead of a scream, what came out was a beautiful high pitched voice. The Doggo jumped off of the king and seemingly feel in love with him, not wanting to stay away from him. The King was more interested in his new found talent and that was what had lead to his hobby."
"What happened to the Doggo?"
"It became the King's loyal pet. It was quite adorable." Well, at least I got some detail. But man, that was not needed.
"Do do do do do do do do, di di do do do di di." He began to sing again. This is gonna be a long night.