Chapter 21

The Picnic: Part 1

"Mr. Waiter~ Grab me some pudding, won't you?" Neptune says, rubbing her stomach as she set her utensils aside on her empty plastic plate.

"On it!" I ruffle through one of the giant bags, although it's not really necessary since it's mostly filled with pudding anyway. Some of them did had an N marked on them. Since there are multiple puddings in the bag anyway, I decide to pick out the pudding that had the N on it, and then place it on the table in front of her.

"Haah~ Pudding, pudding!" She grabs a spoon, takes out a large chunk, and bite it down as soon as she did.

"Don't get too carried away now, or you'll end up getting some bits on your cheeks."

"Yeah, yeah."

After that whole event earlier, no one tried to bring up anything regarding what happened and just went ahead and eat the food. Of course, it took a while since Compa wasn't able to cook up all the barbecues quick enough. It bothered me when she continued to do it and haven't eaten herself. So, after finishing my portion, I went up to her.

"Let me take over for you," I said. "You must be getting hungry. Go on, otherwise Neptune might take everything and leave you with nothing but scraps."

Although, she continued to stare at me for a few seconds. Realizing this, I asked her again.

"A-ah! S-sure, thanks . . ." she said.

But after I took over, when she was about to leave for the table, she accidentally overlooked and tripped on a rock that's about the size of someone's shoe. Luckily, I was there to catch her before she fell over and possibly hurt herself.

"Are you all right? Be careful next time. We don't want the nurse to get injured herself now, would we?"

I try to laugh it off, but she rushed away instead. "I'm all right. Don't worry."

But I can't shake the feeling that there's something going on with her. It could just be nothing for all I know, however it's not easy for me to tell whether that's true or not. Then again, I'm not one to talk since that . . . thing happened.

So, here I am, at the grill still finishing up the last of the barbecue still soaked in the sauce. I've got to hand it to her though, the grill itself is not far off from the one I used to work with during that time with the Princess' family. The grill itself is made up of stainless steel, a rectangular shape with the insides large and wide enough to fit large chunks of charcoal, and the metal bars still have some form of their original color even with the amount of times it's been used for cooking.

After placing the second to the last of the barbecue to the plate, I place down the last piece of the barbecue (there wasn't enough space to have it cook along with the last batch; I tried to make it work, but it just didn't.). It's quite nice like this honestly when there's just one single piece of meat on a stick sizzling away on the grill, making fewer crackling noises. It's wonderful in a way.

"Er, what's your name again? I think it was . . . it's Maki, right?"

Although, even after all of this, Sylvie suddenly arriving at Gamindustri, it just doesn't make any sense at all.

"Huh? Is he not listening? Hello, I'm trying to talk here! Geez . . ."

If she's here, then does that mean the others are here as well? That sounds like a possibility, but it's hard to say. She could be the only one here for all I know. Then again, Ragnor is here, as well as 'her'.

"Wha—? Hey, it's burning!"

No, no, that's impossible. Her case is different from those two. So, is she just some kind of ghost or maybe someone's just playing a trick on me? No, that's not it. Everyone else was able to see her just fine. So, what could be the reason? I was stupid to doubt her. Sure, she doesn't remember who my parents were, that's a given and I can't change it. Maybe I can apologize when I see her again? But what will I say to her? This is so tough . . .

"Maki, snap out of it!" The moment my trance stops, most of my view is obscured with Noire on the other side of the grill with her hands on her cheeks.

"H-huh?! What, what? Did something happen?"

"The barbecue."

"The barbecue? What about it?" She points at the barbecue engulfed in fire, spreading throughout the whole thing and even nearing the other end of the stick where I'm holding it. "Whoa, it's on fire!"

"Stop joking around and put it out!"

Easier said than done, I thought of saying to her, but kept it to myself instead. I swing my head around, looking if there's something I can use to put it out with. Then my eyes land upon the cup of water sitting on the nearby blanket. Without hesitating, I grab the cup and splash its contents all over the burning stick. Good thing it was small, otherwise it might have burnt the grass or worse.

I sigh in relief, but narrow my eyes to the now burnt barbecue so dark that it can put the obsidian's color to shame.

"No good." I toss it to a large plastic bag filled with the other trash such as thin wooden stems, paper plates, paper cups, and some other stuff. It's a shame, really. That barbecue stick and I were having some kind of connection with each other, but I guess it got its peace at least.

"Geez, that was really careless of you," Noire says. "IF told me that you were somewhat more reliable than Neptune, but it's hard to believe after witnessing this."

"Sorry, sorry, I was just thinking and didn't noticed." Hold on, 'somewhat more reliable'?

"Whatever, that's not what I'm here for. I have some questions that need answering from you. Don't lie to me. You won't get away with an 'I don't know' as an answer."

"Okay . . .?" Whatever it is, it shouldn't be much of a problem. "All right, ask away."

"Good. Then I'll get straight to the point." She clears her throat and went close to me. Once she did, she grabs me by the collar and pulls me so close that her eyes engulfed in flames almost catches my eyepatch on fire. "What were you doing in an alleyway with my sister?"

"Eh? What, look, that was just a misunderstanding."

"Hm . . . Positive?" I nod. "All right . . . next question. You didn't do anything weird with her, did you? If you did, I won't forgive you."

"All I did was ask her what she was doing. Nothing else. Well, I guess I did slam my hands on the wall behind her, but that's only to make sure she doesn't get away!"

"Wh-what?! Y-you did something s-so embarrassing like that?"

"What's so embarrassing about that?"

"Of, of course you can't just do that to anyone! That's almost the same as c-c-conf . . ." She keeps mumbling the last part. Can't say I know what she's saying, but the way she pokes her two index fingers together makes me want to know.

"Same as what?" I ask, placing a hand to my hip.

"Nothing! Forget what I said!" That's difficult to do unless I erase my own memories, but that's not even possible to begin with. "A-anyway, I won't forgive you if you do any funny business with her. Remember that."

"I'll keep that in mind." Guess it's no exaggeration when I say that both she and Uni really are sisters.

"So . . . I was thinking . . ."

"Hm? Yeah, go ahead."

"I, I was thinking that since you're a tiny bit familiar with Uni . . ." True, I guess? We haven't really talked much about each other. "M-maybe we can also be like, you know? . . ." That's tough to figure out though. I'm not a mind reader.

"Like what?"

"You know! That, that thing . . ." What thing? Can't she just spill it out instead of making me guess?

"Yes, yes, and what could it be?"

"C-come on, you should get it by now." Like I said, I'm not a mind reader, woman.

"Oho~ What do we have here? Is the lonely Noire actually trying to get some friends for once?" Neptune gasps. "Or wait . . . are you trying to get something more than that? Like a b—"

". . . . . ."

"Aaahh! N-Neptune?! Wh-what are you talking about? I'm just showing my hospitality as a CPU to him. That's all."

"Hmmm~" Neptune whistles.

"Ah, geez! Look, there's no special meaning behind this, okay?" Noire says.

"Oh yeah? That right? Hey, Maki, what do you—"

I turn around and lean on the tree behind me, using my arm as a support on the tree as I rest my head on it. Taking in slow deep breaths, my other hand squeezes at the spot on the stomach area where the churning is.

"Hey, are you okay?" Noire asks.

"I'm . . ." It takes me a few quick seconds before answering. "I'm fine."

"Are you sure? You don't look so good. Why don't you have Compa check on you? Even if she's not an expert, she should at least be able to help."

I shake my head. "There's nothing she can do about this."

"What do you mean?" Her eyebrows raise.

"It just means it's nothing you should be concerned about. Don't worry, it's nothing fatal." At least, to my knowledge, nothing like that ever happened yet.

"Y-you're right, I guess. Actually, I'm here because I heard you don't have any place to stay."

"Yes, that's true. What about it?"

She places both of her hands to her hips, then flick one of her pigtails, and looks at me with a smile of someone who won the race. "Why don't you stay in Lastation? I'll make sure you get a proper place to stay as well as work. Sounds like a good deal, doesn't it? What do you say?" The way she said it sounded completely different from how she was speaking earlier. It's more refined and has a wall of unbreaking confidence.

Technically speaking, it's a very good deal. It's all those jobless people could ever hope for. However, even with that being said, it's not a necessity for me. Sure, she can get me a job to keep myself fed, but I'm sure the way things will work will be nothing like my days in Lluna.

One more thing, from what I've seen and experience (in Planeptune anyway), the city is a pretty vast place to live in. I'm not sure how people can tolerate that amount of crowd, but if I get to stay in a place in the city, I'm one hundred percent sure that I'll get claustrophobic. I guess that's one of the reasons why I'm living in a forest, but that's not the only reason why.

Still, it would be rude of me if I turn down her offer before even checking the place out. It won't hurt if I did take a look of the whole Gamindustri.

"Well, what do you say?" Noire asks again.

"All right, but I want to check the place out before deciding to accept the offer. That won't be a problem, will it?"

"Of course not. Why don't you come with us after the picnic is over?"

"Fine by me."

Neptune laughs slyly. "You better be careful there, Maki. She might try to convince you with her bod~ Oh, but you shouldn't be worried though. I'm pretty sure she's gonna suck at trying to seduce you anyway."

"H-hey! I won't suck at it . . ." Noire retorts.

"That's what you're worried about?" I ask.

"N-no! I'm not going to seduce you! You're not even my type of guy anyway!"

I pick up the empty cup I used to put the fire out and walk towards the water jug to fill it again. Even when I'm slightly far from them, they still say something that still reaches my ears. Although, Neptune's laughter is loud enough for everyone to hear.

"Good job, Noire. I'm sure he'll be happy to come with you after this."

"Sh-shut up!"

I shake my head. Noire didn't do anything wrong. It's just that the longer I talk to her, the more she reminds me of the Princess' younger sister. It might be stupid, I know, but it's not like I can just walk up to her and keep on talking with her like it's nothing.

That's just not possible.

The way she acts, the way she speaks, but most of all, the way her crimson eyes stare at me the same way the younger princess would, it's just too much.

*Riiinggg*

I take out my phone with my other hand and turn it on. The moment the message displayed on the screen flashes on me, I frown. Then I close it and return it to where I took it out from and continue my way to the water jug sitting on the table where everyone else is.