Chapter 7: Nico's Background

The story told from Nico's point of view.

Back then when I was young, I used to be a delinquent. I liked to hurt people, both physically and mentally. Every student in my school avoided me, even the teachers in my school had enough of me. They kept calling my parents, telling how wreck I am during junior highschool. My parents did scold me, but I just ignored them.

I also had a little sister called Erika, she's also a student in my junior highschool, but as a first grader and I was third grader. Her hair was short brown and she's B cup (I'm not a pervert, she told that to me by herself). She has a good personality, and she never thought bad about me, no matter what I done. She was the only one who greeted me and smiled to me everytime I got home. My parents never did that to me.

"Welcome home, Onii-chan." Erika greeted me.

"...You looked like an idiot when you keep smiling like that." I got pissed off just by seeing her.

"Yup, I'm an idiot. That's why I will keep greeting you everytime we meet no matter when and where." she still smiling at me in the end.

"Do as you like, I don't care." I walked pass her to my room.

At first, I didn't know what was the meaning behind her actions. Even her friends told her the same. Most people didn't believe that we were brother and sister. Maybe because of what she did, and what I did, it's perfectly 180 degrees. There's also random rumors spreading due to that too.

"Hey, did you hear it? I heard Nico's sister act good to him because he turn her into one of his slaves." a female student called Yuuka talked to other girls.

"Really? That's terrible of him. I wish Erika was my sister instead." one of the girls seemed to be mad after hearing it.

"Hmm? And what do you mean with that?" I appeared behind Yuuka, the other girls except her already trembling in fear.

"Like I said, he turn his sist.. Ahh! W-wait, wait! I can explain!" she got shocked and fell on the floor. The other girls ran away, abandoning her. "Wait, you guys just gonna bail on me like that?!"

"As I though, you're the one who spreading those stupid crap about me in this school." I said it with menacing look on my face.

"Eek!" she tried to run away, but her legs have given up on her.

"You got any last wish before facing my wrath?" I slowly walked closer to her.

"P-p-please forgive me! I'll do as you say, but forgive me!" she trembled in fear.

"Oi! What's going on over there!" one of the teacher heard the commotion, and walked toward the scene.

"Ah! Sensei, help me!" she called the teacher for help.

"Huh?! You again Nico?! How many times have it been this month!" He noticed me right away, so he hurried to us.

"Tch, lucky bitch.." I turned, and walked away from them.

"Oi! I haven't done talking to you yet!" the teacher shouting at me with angry voice. "What an insolent brat.. Are you okay? Did he hurt you?" he helped Yuuka up.

"No, I'm okay. Thank you Sensei."

Leaving them behind, I went to the rooftop, trying to calm myself and forget about it. But again, disturbed by another student who appeared to be Yuuka's boyfriend.

"Yo, asshole. How dare you trying to hurt Yuuka? You got no more students to beat up?" the student approached me. His name is Kevin. A bad word right into my face..

"Who are you? Her dad? It's got nothing to do with you." I talked back to him. This wasn't the first time I argued with him by the way.

"She's my girlfriend, you bastard!"

"So what? She was bitchin' about me, so she need a little education on how to act properly as a student." I talked casually.

"That's it! I had enough of you! From the first time I saw you, I felt that I want to punch you right in the face, and I'm going to do it now!" couldn't hold back his anger anymore, he declared that he could beat me.

"Bring it on, weakling." I'm on ready pose. Kevin did try to aim for my face, but I was able to dodge all his strikes and counterattack him a few times before he went unconscious.

Yuuka who had a bad feeling about her BF, tried to find him and managed to saw us fighting. She called a teacher who was available to came with her to the rooftop.

"Sensei, over here!" she hurried the teacher up.

"What is it... huh?!" the teacher who still didn't know the situation, saw the scene. Being shocked by it, he yelled at me. "You beat a student again!? I'm gonna report you and get you expelled this instant, right now!"

"I did nothing wrong, I'm just teaching him physical education." ignoring them again, I walked pass them, heading downstairs.

"Kevin, are you okay!?" Yuuka went to Kevin right after I left, shaking him.

"No good, he's unconscious. Let's bring him to nurse room now." the teacher suggested and brought him to there.

It's already afternoon now, so I decided to go home. But again, I got disturbed by someone. And look, it's the principal which I forgot the name. He always came to me and offered his help to me. He believed I'm a good guy down inside

"Hey, Nicolas-kun." the principal walked to me as I was wearing my shoes.

"Hmm? What is it, old man?" I looked at him. I called him old man since I forgot his name.

"I heard from the teachers that you bullied a female student and beat a male student. Is that true?" he asked me with friendly tone.

"I only taught them how to behave properly. If you're here to tell me that I got expelled, you're wasting your time. Now if you excuse me, I gotta go home." I was about to walk home, but he grabbed my shoulder.

"Wait... No, I will never expel you. Nico.. if you got any problem that you need a help with, I will always here for you."

"Like if I have one." ignoring his words, I went home. After greeted by my little sister, I walked toward my room. Not long after that, she came to told me about something.

"Onii-chan. Tomorrow mom, dad, and I are going to go to see grandpa's grave. Are you coming?" she stood in front of my door.

"Huh? Why do we have to visit the old perv's grave? Just a waste of time." I was lying on my bed, reading a manga.

"Don't say that, I'm sure he'll be happy being visited." she sounded somewhat unhappy.

"You guys go, I'll stay here and read some ninja manga." ignoring her words, I continued reading. Erika suddenly walked close to me.

"Please.. Onii-chan.." she's closing her face to me as she spoke, and with her puppy eyes on top of that. "You won't..?" she tilted her head a bit.

"Jeez, okay! Okay! I'll tag along, but you need to stop looking at me like that." unable to withstand her plead anymore, I decided to follow what she want.

"Nihihi, let's go Onii-chan."

On the next day, my parents thought I wouldn't join them. Yet they didn't seem happy either when I did go with them. We arrived at the graveyard. We went by a car so we parked it first on the nearest lot. We went inside the graveyard while there were two familiar persons coincidentally saw them as they passed by.

"Hey Kevin, look over there. It is Nico and his family." Yuuka poked Kevin as she saw us walking.

"Why are they here?" Kevin finally noticed them too.

"Who cares. Wanna pull a prank on him? Maybe that will teach him not to mess with us, and his parents gonna blame him for that."

"I'm in, but what kind of prank?" after Kevin asked, Yuuka whispered to him about her plan. "Ooh, that's gonna be interesting." didn't know what the consequences are, they started working on their plan.

Back to me and my family who were visiting the old perv's grave. After we've done seeing his grave and prayed to him, Erika and I walked around the park nearby while my parents went to nearby minimarket.

"Hey Onii-chan. Do you know anything about grandpa?" Erika asked me.

"Just ask mom and dad, they're know him better than me." I replied.

"Muu.. you're always like that.." she pouted. "Come on, just tell me about him, please..?" she closed her face to me again.

"For the last time, stop doing that!" I yelled a bit, but she still doing that. "Alright, jeez! I will tell you what I know about him. The old perv died in the age of 78. You're still young at that time, so you might not remember him. I didn't know much about his young life, but I knew during his old day. All he do is just looking at pretty girls and grabbing girl's ass, but got slapped everytime he did it. Well, that's what he got for that. But he always looked happy in the end, that's why I called him the old perv. When he got hospitalized, we went to visit him. He said he was okay, since the nurse is good (looking) to him. Suddenly, our female cousin visited grandpa too, even though we.. umm.. I told her not to. It's not because our family was on bad term with her, but because her bombshell boobs that is. The moment the old man saw her, he said his last word to us, "Thank you... for the food.", and then he let out his last breath. Still a pervert until the end.." I was too focused on telling the story. I didn't notice that my sister was smirking at me. And we're already near the lot where we parked our car by the time I was done.

"See? That wasn't so hard for you to be open a little bit. Keep it up and maybe you will have a lot of friends who care about you in the future." she giggled.

"W-w-wha..! Damn it, you..!" I got angry at her. But at that moment, I saw Yuuka and Kevin stood near our car. "Hmm, isn't that.."

"What is it Onii-chan?" Erika stopped.

"... Nevermind, I thought I saw something." I ignored what I saw there, thinking it might just be a couple that look alike them.

"Alright, it's time for us to go home now." my parents approached us, and then we all heading home with our car.

But.. something happen.. the accident that I would never forget for my entire life.. One of our car's tire suddenly deflated, which made the car lose control. We ended up crashing into a tree hard enough. I who still half conscious, trying to grasp the current situation. My parents who sat at the front, seems like hopeless already. I felt I broke some of my ribs, but I already used to it, so it was not a problem. However, Erika was bleeding and her leg got broken because of the crash.

"Erika, are you okay!" I tried to wake her up, hoping she's still alive. And she was still with me, which made me glad. "Wait, I'll get us some help!" I quickly draw my phone, tried to call the ambulance.

"I'm sor..ry Onii-chan.. if I.. always.. bother you..." Erika forced herself to speak.

"What are you talking about?! Let's go, I'll just carry you to the hospital!"

"..Thank you.. Onii-chan. I.. love.. you..." Erika smiled at me, then slowly letting out her breath.

"No! Don't you say that! Hey, did you hear it? The ambulance is near. We'll get you back like normal again. Come on, I'll buy you your favorite ice cream!" I tried to shake Erika. "We can hang out together, like we used to be before! We can go to the amusement park you always wanted!" I shook her again, more and harder, even though I knew it was useless.

I felt I didn't want to lose Erika no matter what. In the end, I couldn't do anything but just shaking her, wanting her to stay alive. Then I slowly release my grip from her. "Please Erika... don't you do this to me.. Your Onii-chan.. *sniff* will definitely.. become.. a.. better guy.. *sniff* but please.. just wake up.." and then I cried in the public for the first time. The ambulance finally came, but they were just too late. My family couldn't be saved. Only I was the survivor of the car accident, just because a prank gone fatal.

... I lost my family in that day.. My cousins, aunt, and uncle went to help me with the current situation and decided to take care of me too. Few days later, the old man came to my house and wanted to talk to me. My aunt allowed him and led him to my room. After that, she left him alone with me.

"I'm sorry for your lost." he tried to comfort me, also he knew that I had a little mental breakdown from that day.

"..." I didn't want to speak at first.

"I know it's hard for you, but you need to stay strong no matter what."

"..." I still didn't speak, but my inner self said that I should stop being like that.

"Tell me, what happened back there.. if you don't mind." finally, he asked about it.. No, I was waiting for him to asked me. I answered, telling him about the accident, about Kevin and Yuuka prior to it. "I see.. tomorrow I'm gonna ask them about this, could you please come too?" I nodded after hearing his statement.

On the next day, at the principal's room.

"So you accused me and Yuuka that we're the one who behind the car accident, because we did something with your car? I don't accept this! We're not even there in the first place!" Kevin went angry after he heard the principal.

"..." I just remain silent.

"It's your family fault, that they didn't check the tires before they use the car!"

"Now Kevin, please calm down for a bit, I'm sure we can talk about this. He just lost his precious family recently, be considerable a bit. Let me talk to him, but I need you and Yuuka to wait outside for a while. I'll tell you when you can come in." the old man tried to settle the tension around Kevin. After Kevin and Yuuka left the room, he spoke to me. "Now, Nicolas-kun, Kevin said he and Yuuka was never there to begin with. Is that true?"

"No.. He's lying... But I don't care about them anymore.. I have lost my family.. I have lost my sister too.. I have lost everything.." I went into deep sorrow again.

"But you still got yourself."

"I got nothing left anymore in this world.." I didn't hear him, I just kept saying those words.

"Nicolas, stop saying that already.."

"It's meaningless to live without my family.."

"Nico.." the old man couldn't stand watching me depressed.

"I'm just an useless piece of shit now.."

".. Nicolas!" he finally snapped, suddenly yelled at me which shocked me and stopped right away. "You promised to your sister, remember? That you gonna be a better person."

"...I did.."

"Now, are you trying to be one right now?"

"I'm not.." I just realized it. For past few days I did nothing but shut myself inside my room.

"Then you should. Being all depressed, I'm sure your family don't want to see you like that. And after what you promised to your sister, all you do now is just looking down on yourself. If you keep doing that, all I can say is you're not a man at all for breaking your own important promise. But I know you can do better than that, son." he still had faith in me, believed that I would change one day.

"Maybe.. maybe you're right, old man.. but what should I do with Kevin and Yuuka.."

"You said they were the one who do that prank to you, but you got no proof to prove it, am I right?" I nodded to his words. "I will talk to them later and ask them if that true or not, and I'll have my relatives who also happened to be there to ask around if they know something. Now, Nicolas, you can take some day off from the school for a while, I know you need some times after all of this." he gave me a permission to took some days off from school in the end.

"Okay.. Uh.. umm.." and I was struggling to say that words.

"What is it?" he went curious when I tried to say something.

"Ugh.. T-thank you.. old man." I finally said it, the words that rarely came out from my mouth.

"No problem, kiddo. Ah, can you tell them to come in on your way out?" he smiled at me as I took my leave.

Few days later, I heard from one of my (delinquent) friends that Kevin and Yuuka got expelled from the school because of what they had done before. When I asked if it because of the prank that they did to my family, he said there're more than that. Apparently both of them did some shopliftings, drugs, scams, and many more but got caught by the police when they did an investigation on them, while the police got the information from unknown people. My friend said he had a feeling that principal had something to do with it. From that moment, I know that the principal... got a lot of dangerous connections around him..

Finally, I graduated from my school and continuing to high school. I told my friends that I'll stop being a delinquent and moved on. I decided to move away to another province to start a new life. I lived in an apartment. When the new term started, I still couldn't make friends since I used to be alone. One day, when I strolling around the school I saw someone with black attire sitting alone under the tree. I decided to approach him and tried to become his friend. And that's when I met Raven for the first time.

"And that's the end of the story." after he finished the storytelling, the girls are just staring at him "Uhh.. excuse me?"

"I... I didn't know you had such hard life Nico-san." Nepgear already on the verge of crying.

"It's so.. touching. It just like a well made fiction story.." Neptune sounds somewhat.. breaking the fourth wall.

"Nep-nep, that's one step too far for a joke." Nico stops Neptune right away.

"And is that the reason why you sometimes tried to do outrageous stuffs?" IF asks.

"Yeah.. I don't want to be a burden for the others. I don't want to lose anymore.. family member, you know." Nico smiles as he accept the girls as a family now, which made them touched.

"Don't you worry, we appreciate your help. But sometimes there's a time for you to stop doing all of those crazy stunts." she sounds serious, and looks like Nico got another promise to keep there.

"What about Raven here? You said you met him after you moved out. Which means he got his own background story before meeting you then?" Noire seems curious. The other girls also curious too.

"Alright then. Next stop is Ravy's background!" Neptune is getting pumped up to hear another story.

"You ain't stopping, are you? Even though it's past bedtime already." Nico looks at the time and it's already 11.57 PM. And yes, Plutia is asleep. "Well, tell them the story, Ravy." Nico pats Raven's shoulder as he talks.

"..No, not going to." He refuse right away.

"Alright, since he's so shy, let me tell you the story." Nico still going to tell the story in the end, and he receive Raven's glare as a prize.