~Author's...Uh Announcement?~
Hey, everyone! I... regret doing this, but... since the Writer's Block has taken SUCH a toll on my writing, I've decided, that after I've wrapped up posting the chapters of the Guardian of Lastation (which I've already had written out beforehand), I will be taking a hopefully short break from writing. The only problem with me and my writing is that I literally have nothing to work off of, as far as plot goes. So, with that said, maybe some of you have caught on by now... I will take any suggestion for either story. For the Guardian of Lastation, I have all the way up to Chapter 27 up and ready to go, so if you guys could possibly wait until then, I would be extremely grateful for that! As for the Experiment, I will take any suggestions! I will give you a shoutout if I think your idea would be helpful as to progress through the storyline. Just give me a PM or a review and I will definitely take a look! Anyway... enough mindblowing procrastination that I've unfortunately given you all (*cough* I completely forgot that yesterday was this book's next update... *cough*). Have a great day everyone and thank you so, so, so much for all of the support you've given me, even if it's just viewing! (I will give another Author's Note at the bottom... as usual)
·~· Hiroshi ·~·
"So, they've started living with you, eh?" Itami says, leaning over the counter as I sit at the counter of the shop.
"Yeah. Things have gotten really hectic ever since they came to my house. It's pretty nice to have the house filled up," I explain, getting a chuckle out of Itami.
"How's things with you and Noire? I saw the two of you walking hand-in-hand earlier." He gives me a nudge along with a wink. That's right. Noire suddenly had a mood change and started clinging to me for some reason. I wonder what's up. I think to myself as I give an awkward grin back to Itami.
"Nothing's changed. It's still only the first two weeks since I've met these girls after all."
"Oh, I see." He then lifts himself off of the counter. "Are we all having the same order?" I turn back to the others, who all give a nod or a thumbs up.
"I guess so, Itami. Hit me up with eleven of your specialties!" I exclaim, getting an enthusiastic roar from the chefs as they immediately start preparing our meals.
Walking over to the Lastation table, I sit across from the two, who had started playing 'Chopsticks.' Watching as Uni groans with defeat as Noire hits a five on Uni's remaining hand, the two turn to me with a smile.
"How'd you two feel about the exams?" I say.
"It was okay, I didn't really like the fact that we had to copy the answers off of Histy though," Uni responds with a sigh.
"Noire kept telling me that throughout the tests. I guess she'll be studying with me whenever there's a test. You can join too, if you'd like."
"N-no, I think I'm alright. I don't wanna hold you two back when you're studying. I can't keep up when she's studying."
"Oh wow… Now I'm kind of worried if I can keep up with her, seeing how hard you two work." The three of us laugh and Itami comes with three bowls of steaming hot ramen.
"Ahh…. This brings back memories," Noire smiles, looking down at the bowl.
"Yeah. It sure does," I say with a smile. "Let's eat, shall we?" The other two nod and we crack our chopsticks and start to dig in.
A few minutes pass before I hear Noire speak up with a worried voice.
Um Hiroshi? Sorry about acting weird when walking to the ramen house. I've been having weird mood changes and now I'm starting to feel kind of dizzy.
Did you drink water before and after the PE lesson? I respond, looking Noire straight in the eye.
Yeah, remember how you gave me the water bottle and I chugged it down?
Fair enough. Do you wanna take a walk outside to see if it goes away?
Sure. I stand up and look at Uni, who watches me as I stand up.
"Noire and I are going to take a walk. She needs a little fresh air," I explain, getting a nod out of Uni.
"Alright. Have fun, you two," She says with a smirk.
Exiting the building, I look at Noire, who looks as if she's about to pass out. Quickly wrapping an arm around the goddess, she looks up at me, her face flushed red.
"Y-you know you don't have to do that, right? I can handle this just fine! Let's go to the park first," She says, taking shaky steps forward. Walking at her pace, we manage to cross the street before I notice her getting slower.
"Are you sure you're alright? You don't seem fine at all to me, Noire," I say, stopping in front of her. She stops and looks up at me, a worried look.
"Let's hurry up. I don't wanna waste any more time stumbling, okay?" She's obviously trying to hide her pain as she continues to step forward and past me.
Making our way up the hill and to the park, I notice her slump against a nearby tree. Quickly rushing by her side, I put a hand on her shoulder as I hear her start to breath heavily.
"Are you alright?" I say, watching as she shakes her head.
"The headache just got worse," She says, her voice no louder than a dull mumble.
"Let's head over to a nearby bench so you can rest, okay?" I gently wrap an arm around Noire and the two of us walk to an empty bench.
Gently setting her down on the bench, I lay her head on my lap, watching as she breathes heavily. I suddenly start to see a bright flash in the center of her stomach. Watching as it flashes a couple more times, I start to see a power symbol form on her belly-button.
This happened with Neptune, didn't it? I wonder if Noire will be alright. I think to myself, watching as the flashes become brighter. I gently set her head down on the bench and step away, watching as the flashes continually get brighter and brighter. I turn away to prevent being blinded again as it flashes one last time.
Turning around, I face Noire, who had just woken up and was rubbing her eyes, and next to her, was a girl with pure white hair whose hair was pulled up into twin tails. She wore a grey swimsuit, which cut off at her thighs and her shoulders, revealing her skin. The girl had bright turquoise eyes which gleamed in the afternoon sun.
Suddenly two white ears pop out of the top of the girl's head, throwing me off guard.
"Wh-what the hell are those!?" I shout, pointing at the ears which make the girl flinch.
"What do you mean?" She says, her voice sounded as if she were a few years older than Noire, but with the same texture in her tone.
"Your ears."
"Oh, you mean these?" She points to her cat ears, which twitch as if she could control it.
"Is that some sort of headband?"
"No, they're the real thing. Don't touch them though, they're very sensitive," She says with a "hmph!" as she turns her head. I guess she's still a tsundere in her HDD form. I sigh, facepalming.
"Alright. Whatever you say," I sigh and turn to Noire, who had been watching us go back and forth from the bench.
"Hiroshi, who is this girl?" Noire stands up, putting her hands on her hips as she glances back and forth between the two of us.
"Noire, meet your HDD form…." I trail off, realizing that I don't know what to call the other girl.
"You can call me whatever you'd like, boy," She says, crossing her arms over her chest.
"Alright." I pause and put a hand on my chin. "Would Azayaka work? It means 'bright' in Japanese." I say, pointing at the neko.
"Sure. I could go with that. It sounds pretty good," Azayaka says with a smile.
"Alrighty. Introduce yourselves to each other," I say, looking at the two of the Lastation goddesses, who stare back at each other.
"I'm Noire. Nice to meet you," Noire says with a huff, turning her head to the left, attempting to act all high and mighty.
"I'm Azayaka. Nice to meet you too," The two shake each other's hands as if they were shaking hands with a princess of some sort.
G-geez… how formal do these two have to be!? I shake my head and watch as the two turn to me in perfect unison.
"Let's head back to the ramen house, shall we? My head feels as if the headache never happened! Now I'm extremely hungry! I'll pay for everyone again since our ramen should be soggy and cold," Noire says with a grin, getting a nod out of Azayaka and me.
Walking into the ramen house, we're all met by 13 pairs of eyes.
"Where've you been!? It's been 45 minutes since you left!" Uni pouts, stomping up to greet me with a huff.
"Welcome our new guest, Azayaka!" I point a thumb at Azayaka who's eyes light up as she sees the rest of the group.
"Wow, I'd never think I'd see the rest of you again! Long time no see, everyone!" She exclaims as she quickly rushes to greet everyone else.
Turning to Uni, I smile. "That's the reason why."
"Fair enough. I ordered you two another bowl so it should be coming soon." The two of us watch as Uni turns around and walks back to the booth where we sat at.
Sitting down with Uni, I turn to see Azayaka visiting with the other girls as they continue to eat their ramen.
"I'm glad that she's fitting right in with the rest of them," I say, nodding towards the goddess as she hugs Nepgear.
"Yeah. It's interesting to see how she acts with the girls. I wonder what she's like," Noire says, turning towards me.
"She's pretty much you, except more… demanding," Uni explains, getting a "hmph!" out of Noire. This is the most Noire's done that today. I grin, getting a glare out of Noire.
"What's so funny?" She says, averting her gaze.
"Nothing. It's just that you're being more tsundere today than usual." I tease Noire, who just sighs.
"Geez, Hiroshi. You're so annoying sometimes,' She pouts and slumps down in the booth.
"Here's your two bowls of our specialty! Enjoy!" Kaita, one of the four chefs, hands us our bowls.
"Thanks a ton, Kaita!" I grin, and we give each other a high five.
"No prob', Hiroshi!" He turns around and walks back into the kitchen, preparing for more ramen for Nep, who apparently was on her seventh bowl. As I start eating my bowl of ramen, I see a shadow cover me and the bowl. Looking up, I see Azayaka bending over, staring at my bowl of ramen. Doing my best not to look below her head, I hold up my chopsticks, which hold a few noodles in it.
"Would you like to try?" I offer the noodles to Azayaka, who nods her head. As she opens her mouth, I put the chopsticks in her mouth, watching as she chomps down on the noodles, slurping the excess noodles which were still on the chopsticks.
"Mmm! That's pretty good!" She then turns back to the kitchen and calls out to the chefs. "I'd like to order the same thing that Hiroshi ordered!" I start to pick up another noodle when I hear Noire stammering in the background. Looking up at Noire, I find her face flushed a bright red and she had dropped her chopsticks on the table as she stares at me.
"Wh-wh-wh-wh-wh-" I notice her tone changing from shock to anger. "Why did you do that with Azayaka instead of me!?" She then slugs me in the head, causing me to groan in pain, rubbing my head as I feel the steam float off of the bump on my head.
"That hurt, you know!" I exclaim, setting my chopsticks down.
"Like hell you're gonna get away from something like that!" She looks as if she's about to tackle me from across the table but Uni grabs hold of Noire's arms before she could do so.
"F-fine! Would you like to have a bit of mine, Noire?" I offer, holding up my chopsticks, which held the noodles in it.
"O-only if you say so…" She stutters, opening her mouth slightly. Moving the chopsticks into her mouth, she clamps down and sucks the noodles into her mouth. Blushing, she swallows the noodles and I pull the chopsticks out.
"Did you like it?" I say, getting a nod out of Noire, who's face is completely red.
"It doesn't taste like my ramen for some reason," She explains, staring at my bowl.
"O-oh is that so?" Crap they found out… I cringe.
"Yeah. I'm gonna check with Itami about it." She stands up and quickly leaves to the kitchen before I can stop her.
"Crap… I'm busted," I groan, watching as Noire gets right in Itami's face as he scratches the back of his head. He then whispers something into Noire's ear and to my surprise, she starts to nod.
Coming out of the kitchen, I find Noire grinning. As she sits down, I press a hand on the table.
"What kind of deal did you make?" I say, worried that she might have some weird idea in her mind.
"I just asked for what ingredient they used in their ramen to make yours better than the rest of ours in return that only I know what it is," She says with a laugh.
"Wh-what!? And you're not even a chef!" I stand up, placing both of my hands on the table.
"You never know, Hiroshi. Maybe I am, just like Neptune!" She grins, picking up my chopsticks and taking another bite of my ramen. That's right. Yesterday everyone enjoyed Neptune's chocolate pancakes.
"Hey! My ramen's off limits now that you now what the ingredient is!" I exclaim, pulling my bowl away before she can steal another bite. She giggles and hands my chopsticks back to me.
"The HDD split thing has happened twice now, hasn't it?" Histy's voice sounds from my left, making the four of us turn to her.
"Yeah. It's happened in the same exact place: here in the ramen house. It sounds pretty sketchy to be honest," I say, looking over at the kitchen, in which the four chefs were making more ramen.
"Shall we investigate the ingredients that they're using?"
"I wouldn't do it right now. After all, the three of us just got back from the park."
"Fair enough." And with that, Histy turns around and walks to her seat, hopping up on her chair and typing up another document on her laptop.
"I wonder if someone escaped with us into Gamindustri," Noire says, glancing back at the kitchen.
"That could be a possibility. I just hope if that person isn't evil," I say, taking a bite of my ramen.
"I can't believe you just set up an event flag for that, Hiroshi! Now we know that the person has to be an evildoer. I wonder if it's Arfoire," Vert's voice calls out from her booth.
"Sorry!" I call back to her. Let's just hope that that's not the case… I think to myself, recalling what Noire had said back when they were defending Gamindustri from the Seven Sages.
Making our way back to the house, I watch as Azayaka's eyes wander around the park. Walking up to her, I notice she's staring back at the city.
"This is sort of a mix between Planeptune and Lowee. It's quite interesting," She mumbles to herself, not quite realizing that I'm walking next to her.
"You think so?" I speak up and she turns to me.
"Yeah. Walking through this park brings back memories of us back in Gamindustri." She sighs.
"It must be hard getting used to Earth and how different it is compared to Gamindustri."
"It really is." We both walk in silence, leaving the sound of the breeze and the small murmurs of the other girls conversing.
"It feels quite refreshing being out in this form. There isn't anything constricting it." Azayaka speaks up, breaking the silence.
"That's what Neptune said. It takes Shares to transform, right?" I say, getting a nod out of the goddess.
"Yeah. But now that us CPUs can't exactly transform anymore, well at least Neptune, Nep, Noire and I can't, it shouldn't require Share energy."
"I see. That's good." And with that, we make our way back to the house, talking about various topics.
Closing the door to my bedroom, I watch as Noire clicks on the lamplight. Opening the closet, she pulls out her pajamas and turns to me.
"Are you sure you're alright with me sleeping with you? I can always sleep with Uni Azayaka if you'd like." She sits on the bed, hugging her clothes to her chest.
"It's fine! You can stay here as long as you'd like until you wanna move out. Plus having three people in one room wouldn't be very comfortable," I say with a smile.
"I can't believe in just a couple of weeks we'll be enrolled at Ksugakari High." Noire smiles and looks up at me.
"Yeah. It's gonna be interesting to see how many guys will enjoy the sight of you girls coming to Ksugakari High. You know, we should make a tally list of how many people confess to you." The two of us laugh and Noire looks at me.
"You know, I would reject all of them, right?"
"Yeah, yeah, I know. It's just interesting to see how many guys will ask you out." She starts to mumble something and her face flushes red, leaving me to question what she said to herself. Not bothering to push the subject, I pull out my pajamas and walk out of the room. Stopping at the doorway, I turn back to Noire who was watching me the entire time.
"I'll be changing in the bathroom, okay?" I say, pointing towards the direction of the bathroom, getting a nod out of the goddess.
"Alright. It'll be easier this way so that we can go to sleep faster," She says, allowing me to head out of the room and into the bathroom to change.
Walking back into the room, I find Noire waiting for me in her pajamas. She slides off of the bed, a pillow wrapped in her arms as she sits down on the floor.
"What are you doing?" I say, looking from the bed and back to her.
"I'm going to sleep on the floor," She blatantly points out, making me sigh.
"No you're not." I bend over and gently pick her up bridal style, setting her down on the bed. Looking at her, I realize that her face had gotten extremely red, making me blush as well.
"S-sorry… It was out of instinct," I stutter, quickly averting my gaze as I feel my face flush.
"I-it's alright." We both look away from each other for a few moments, our faces flushed red.
"I'll take the floor tonight, okay?" I say, getting a nod out of Noire as she tosses me the pillow which was cuddled up against her chest. Setting the pillow on the floor, I shut the door and wait for Noire to lay down in bed before doing so on the floor. This is surprisingly warm...
"Good night, Hiroshi," I hear her whisper, and I turn to the girl, looking straight into her bright red eyes as they shimmer in the moonlight. Wow… She looks really pretty like that. I think to myself as I say 'Goodnight' to her as well.
Turning to face the ceiling, I hear Noire shift in the bed. As I close my eyes, I hear something move from my right. Snapping my eyes open, I see Noire attempt to silently get out of bed. Not wanting to disturb what she was doing, I watch as she gets on her knees on the ground, crawling towards me. I shut my eyes, knowing that she's trying to see if I'm awake or not before crawling on top of me and lying down. Why is she doing this? Shouldn't she be sleeping on the bed? I accidentally let out a sigh, which ruffles against Noire's hair, making her shiver.
The two of us lay in silence, knowing that the other was awake, not knowing whether to speak up or stay silent. I relax the tension in my eyes and feel Noire's body lighten up as she starts to breath heavier on my chest.
~Author's Note!~
Ooh, a little bit of a... clue? Maybe? Maybe not? Do you like the Lastation fanservice in that chapter? Mwahahaha! Enough pestering you with questions! Have a great day! :D