Chapter 9: Sugar Rush
Part 1
Yue and Nodoka followed Haruna up the winding path towards the World Tree. The day before, Haruna had been on one of her internet binges, and through some twist of fate, she had ended up on the Wikipedia page for Maple Syrup. It seemed so innocuous. It was simple pancake topping. But Haruna saw greater potential. Especially when she noted the method of obtaining the stuff.
Stick a spigot into a tree, collect the sap, boil it down; it was such a simple process. And she had the mother of all Trees to try it out on. After a few minutes on Google looking for reference material, Haruna had made a beeline for the World Tree. Before long, she had her two friends helping her bore holes all across the massive trunk to drain the substance out of the tree. Shortly after that, she had drawn up the spigots and buckets she could ever need for something like this.
Hopefully she had collected a good amount of sap since yesterday. And hopefully the World Tree was the type of tree that actually worked for this sort of thing. She hadn't taken the time to check. Oh well. At the very least she could be sure that the bucket-golems she had drawn wouldn't crap out on her overnight. After last week's incident, she was more aware of the time limit than ever. She looked up at the sky. The moon was mostly obscured by clouds, but the gentle glow of the tree provided more than enough light.
She took the rope that she had stolen from the Library Exploration Club* and tossed it over a branch. At the other end of the rope, Yue was reluctantly clipped herself into a stolen harness.
"Why do I have to do this?" She muttered as she clipped on the helmet.
"Because you're the lightest." Haruna chuckled. "Don't worry, I put a giant landing pad under you in case something goes wrong." She pointed at the bright yellow air mattress she had summoned. "And we'll have some additional muscle as well." She held up her artifact. "Come forth!"
There was a bright flash of light, and suddenly Kaede and Mana were standing alongside Haruna and Nodoka.
"See?" Haruna patted the Kaede golem on the shoulder. "Plenty of extra muscle. I even boosted the physical strength a little."
"Um, Haruna?" Nodoka tapped her friend on the shoulder. "Why are they dressed like that?"
"KAED – 01" was wearing a black leather bikini that seemed to contain about half as much leather as was actually needed, and "MANA – 01" was wearing what could be most charitably described as a sling bikini made out of two large, narrow rubber bands.
"Why wouldn't they be dressed like that?" Haruna tried to look incredulous.
"Maybe because an artifact bearer usually has some sense of decency?" Yue interjected.
"Oh, stop being so negative." Haruna scoffed. "Like you've never used your artifact for your own entertainment. Oh well." She grinned. "Later tonight I'll let you have a free run with Kaede and Mana here, as an apology."
"An apology for what?"
"This." Haruna turned back to Nodoka and the two golems, who all had their hands on the rope. "HEAVE."
"EEEYYAAAAHHHH!" Yue was catapulted upwards so hard that she was actually airborne for a few seconds, before dropping out of the air, back into the harness. "OW!"
Nodoka called up to her. "Are you alright, Yue?"
"Yeah, I'm fine." She called back down, red faced. "The harness is now wedged into some rather uncomfortable places, but I think I'm okay."
"Great!" Haruna yelled up at her. "Now grab one of the buckets and see if there's sap in it!"
"How? I can't reach the buckets!"
"Oh." Haruna looked up at her friend, who was dangling a good ten feet away from the main trunk of the tree where the buckets were hanging. She turned back to Nodoka. "We seem to have made a minor logistical error." She scratched her head. "Uh..." She turned back to the fake Kaede and Mana, who were still anchoring the rope. "Tug on the rope and see if you can get her to swing back and forth."
"Wait!" Yue tried to call back, but it was too late. "OW. OW. OW." After a few harsh yanks, Yue was still hanging in the same position. Haruna stroked her chin as if she had a goatee.
"Oh, I know!" She pulled open her artifact and scribbled something out. "Appear!" A long pole materialized in her hands. "Okay, let me see if I can get you closer!" She pointed the poll towards Yue, and gave a jab in the behind.
"OW!" Yue kicked at the pole. "What are you doing!"
"I'm trying to swing you closer to the tree so you can grab on!" She poked at Yue again, this time hitting her in the stomach.
"Ugh." Yue kicked more violently. "Knock it off!"
"Just a few more tries!"
"Um, Haruna?" Nodoka tried to get Haruna's attention, but the long haired girl was too preoccupied by jabbing at Yue, who was wriggling furiously in a futile effort to dodge. After several more frustrated pokings, Haruna disgustedly threw the pole down.
"This isn't working!" She stomped her foot.
"You're telling me." Yue rubbed her side.
"Uh, Haruna?" Nodoka tapped Haruna on the shoulder. "I have an idea."
"Huh?" She finally noticed her friend, who was twiddling her fingers. "What is it?"
"Could you draw, like a stick with a hook on the end?"
"Okay." She scribbled a long, cane-like object into her artifact. "Come forth!" The stick materialized. The hook on the end was a bit sharper than Nodoka had intended, but the basic idea was right. "Now then." Haruna turned back to Yue and started to reach for her with the hook.
"Nooo!" Nodoka grabbed the hook-pole out of Haruna's hands. "Don't do that!"
"Wasn't the plan to hook onto Yue and drag her over to the tree."
"No!" Nodoka took the stick and walked over to where Yue was dangling. "Here, Yue. Catch this!" She tossed the pole up to Yue, who managed to grab the end of it. "See if you can hook onto the tree with it!"
"Finally, a plan that won't injure me..." Yue swung the pole at the tree, and after a few swings managed to catch the hook on a knot on the tree's gnarled trunk. She drew herself closer until she could finally grab onto the trunk and tossed the pole back to the ground.
"Okay, now try to grab one of the buckets!" Haruna shouted. Yue started to make her way across the tree to one of the buckets.
"Dammit, Haruna!" Yue crawled awkwardly across the surface of the tree. "Why did you have to put the buckets up here!" She finally made her way to one of the buckets. "There had better be something in here now that I've put in all this effort." She pried the lid off of the bucket and looked into it.
"Well?"
"Yup there's something in there!"
"Okay, unhook the bucket from the tree!"
Yue wrestled with the bucket for a few seconds before it popped off of the spigot. As it came clean, Yue swung away from the trunk.
"Alright!" Haruna turned to fake Kaede and Mana. "Lower her down slowly." As Yue descended, Haruna kept directing the golems. "Slower, slower. We don't want to spill anything."
"Oh, now that I have the bucket you're all gentle about it." Before her feet even touched the ground, Haruna grabbed the pail out of Yue's hands and pulled the lid off. She peered in, and saw a few inches of glowing watery liquid.
"Perfect!" She set the bucket off to the side. "Alright! Lets get the next one!"
Yue tried to get Haruna's attention. "Go a little slower this ti-"
"HEAVE!" Yue was jolted into the air once again, even more violently than before. As she finally stopped swinging, she glared daggers at Haruna, who was still smiling broadly, holding the hook-pole. "Here, you're going to need this!" Holding the pole like a javelin, she threw it as hard as she could.
"Ugh." The blunt end of the hook nailed Yue in the stomach and fell back to earth. Haruna tried to grab it again, but was stopped by Nodoka.
After an hour or so of being jerked around in the harness. Yue finally set down the last bucket. There were at least a dozen of them. She stretched. Her body felt as if it had literally been put through a wringer. At least now she would get to relax a little.
"HEAVE!" Yue flew up into the air again.
"What are you doing!" She shook her fists. "There aren't any more buckets! Get me down!"
"Oh, sorry." Haruna scratched her head. "Force of habit. Okay, let her down."
The fake Kaede and Mana released the rope. Yue plummeted onto the giant air mattress, bounced off, landed on the ground and rolled a few feet before stopping. Haruna was already occupying herself by combining the buckets of sap. Within a few minutes, Haruna was heading back down the trail, bucket in hand. Nodoka followed behind her, clutching another bucket to her chest. Following Nodoka, the two golems brought an additional four buckets. Behind them, Yue lagged along, completely drained.
As they finally reached the dorm room, Haruna snapped her fingers and the clones vanished, leaving nothing but the half-dozen buckets of sap on the table. She cracked her knuckles and let out a low chuckle. Yue flopped on the couch. The outline of the harness would probably be etched into her body for a few days, but she finally had some peace. Her tranquility was promptly interrupted by Haruna grabbing her arm and pulling her off the couch.
"Haruna," Yue's eye was starting to twitch. "We got your stupid sap. What else do you need me for?"
Haruna grinned a grin that was usually reserved for thoughts of world domination. "The night is still young!" There was a dangerous gleam in her eye. "There is still much to do!"
"What are you talking about?" Yue was too tired for anger. She had long passed that point into resignation.
Haruna gestured dramatically at the buckets sitting on the table and struck what she had long referred to as her evil overlord pose.
"We're making SYRUP!"
Yue groaned. It was going to be a long night.
*Not the same rope Haruna used to tie herself up. Chamo chewed through that one.
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Okay, this is one of those times where the story spiraled completely out of control. I don't even know what happened. The whole thing with Yue getting abused in the harness was just going to be a one-off gag, but it was totally within Haruna's character to just keep inadvertently abusing her. I might have overdone it a bit. I'm still not entirely sure what's going to happen when she attempts to make magic syrup, but it's going to be ridiculous, in one way or another.