Chapter 25
Doubt
"So? Can you tell us why you're here?" Uni asks after Nepgear and Sylvie lay Maki's soaked body on the base of a tree that had a stone erected and part of the patch of grass that only had dirt on it.
". . . . ." Sylvie doesn't say anything. I'm sure she's hurt even though she's trying to hide it. After all, she did what she said she didn't want to happen again. It's funny, really, like she's supposed to hit him whenever they meet.
"Not gonna answer?"
Sylvie shakes her head and looks away from the three of us.
It's hard to find something to at least get out of this topic for now, so I try thinking of something and ask, "What was he doing over here?"
Nepgear points at the stone beside Maki. "He found some bluebirds and climbed up this tree to feed the mother's babies on his behalf."
"He was surprisingly considerate," Uni adds. "But . . ."
"But?"
She shakes her head. "No, nevermind."
Is there something that she can't disclose to us? Probably, but I'm sure she won't yield even if we try to force it out of her. The best thing to do now is to gain some more information, Maki would always say. Although, for the most part, it's just about the strange position him and Nepgear were in earlier.
"Why was Miss Nepgear on the ground?" I ask, trying to mimic what Rom would actually say.
"Ah!" Nepgear's eyes turn into two white circles and some sweat beads are blowing off of her head. "Th-that's, i-it's not, er, um, I-I was just tired! D-don't worry about it, Rom. It was from walking around for a while."
An obvious lie, but I'll just go along with it.
"A-ahem, what about you?" Nepgear asks me. "Were you worried about us?"
"Mhm, mhm!" I nod.
What would her reaction be if I said that I wasn't here for the both of them? I mean, I could try, but I don't think it'll end well. And it'll probably hurt her if I did. As much as I want to get some reactions from any of them, I have a different purpose and I don't want to sidetrack just to fulfill my own pleasure.
"By the way, why was she with you anyway?" Uni asks me.
"That's none of your concern," Sylvie answers, still not looking at any of us. This made Uni's face reddened and her cheeks puffed out.
"Oh, now you're gonna talk?"
"Anything wrong with that? I'll talk whenever I want to talk. And I'm saying it's none of your business." Oh, come on, this won't end well if she doesn't stop getting on their bad side.
"But it is my business! It doesn't make sense why Rom would be with you!"
Sylvie stands and gets near Uni. This is getting out of hand. Why is she acting like this towards them anyway? I don't think they did anything that can make her act this way, to my knowledge anyway. They both stare at each other, not uttering a single word. Nepgear and I are just on the sidelines, but I'm sure Nepgear is desperately trying to think of a way to get them out of it.
"Wh-why don't we calm down for a second here?" Nepgear asks, but they didn't listen and continue their staring contest. "What do I do? Neptune, please, I need some help here."
Sighing, I get between them and push them apart. "Please, no fighting." Sylvie's brows twitch and she rubs her arm and looks away. Whether or not she remembered that I'm here or if it was her original goal to begin with snapped her out of it or not, only she will know. I know I don't.
"Can't . . . we just be friends?" I say.
"Hmph!" Uni looks away herself with her cheeks pouting. "There's no way I'm befriending someone like her."
"But Uni—"
"No way!" She cuts Nepgear off.
Nepgear slumps her shoulders and sighs. Then, she turns to Sylvie and says, "Well, it's nice to meet you. I'm—"
"Nepgear, right? I already know who you all are, don't worry."
You know, there are some things even I don't understand from this place even now, but to think that she already knows a lot more about this place and how it works even though we're from the same place does gets on my nerves. It's like I'm the stupid one, to put it bluntly. I'd question her about it, but now's not the right time so that'll be put on hold for now.
"We're not trying to force you," Nepgear says. "It's just that, we're wondering why you showed up earlier."
"And now," Uni adds, still looking away.
Sylvie shrugs and sighs, then picks up a piece of the shattered apple and hold it out for them to see. The two looks at each other, most likely confused about what she's doing, and looks back at the apple.
"To answer your second question," Sylvie starts, "This thing here is—was the main reason."
"An apple?" Nepgear takes and examines it.
"That's right. I'm sure you two won't understand, but this thing right here, it's important to him as much is it is for me."
"I don't get it." Uni leans closer to Nepgear and inspect the apple herself. "It looks like a normal apple to me. What's so special about it?"
"Like I said, you won't get it." Sylvie moves closer to Maki, pushing his bangs aside his forehead. After sighing in relief, she strokes his hair like a mother would to a child. I would know since my own mother does it to me as well. "He's sound asleep. That's good." She pauses for a moment before saying, "I'm sorry."
When I turn to the other two, Uni crouches on the river and dips her hand on the water. The river itself went back to its original state after a short while, but I'm not sure if it's the same for me or the others here.
"Uni . . .," Nepgear says.
"Don't get me wrong. I'm just cooling off for a bit here."
Nepgear didn't say anything to her any further. Instead, she asks Sylvie, "How long have you been friends with him—"
"You have a nurse with you, yes?" She cuts Nepgear off.
"Well, um, yes, but—"
"Good, then we need to hurry. One thing I can say for certain is he need some proper treatment."
"Can't you have him drink that same potion you gave me?" I ask. It worked wonders for me, so wouldn't it work for him also?
She shakes her head no. "It sounds stupid, but my potions don't affect him at all. If he drinks some, it'll be the same as drinking water in a small bottle. I may be able to make potions to remedy wounds and sickness, but it doesn't always work. The ones I gave you were just test potions. And to be honest, I was surprised that it actually worked.
"But now it's not the time for that. Come, let's hu—"
"And why should we listen to you?" Uni stands, but doesn't turn towards us. "Why don't you just leave us all alone? We don't need your help!"
Sylvie gets taken aback, even I did myself, but Nepgear doesn't though. But her expression shows more of a concerned one than anything else really. I can partly understand why she doesn't approve of her, and I can't just blurt out anything about the two of them in my state. They might find it strange if someone they know knows more about her, plus they won't believe me if I say it to them straight. The only thing I can do is wait if either Maki or Sylvie opens up to the others.
"I won't blame you," Sylvie says, "But it's him we're talking about here and right now he needs treatment."
"Uni, please, just this once?" Nepgear pleads.
Uni crosses her arms and yells. "Fine! But I'm not going anywhere near her. Got that?"
"Sounds like a plan," Sylvie says, about to grab the upper part of Maki's body until his head jerks sideways. "Ri—Maki!"
Everyone gathers around him, leaning closer, and anticipate for any more movements. And thankfully, his right eye starts to open up even if it's doing it slowly. Once it opens up completely, then squints. I'm more than relieved to see him fine, but I'm sure it's not completely.
"Where . . . where am I?" Maki asks, raising his upper body.
I want to dive in there and hug him, but Sylvie beats me to it. Seriously, why does everyone take the thing that I want to do the most? But there's no point complaining now, is there?
"You're all right!" Sylvie tightens her hug. This is it, now they can do something between themselves. It's what I'm expecting, but Maki turns away from her and doesn't say a single word. Does he still not believe it's her? In any case, I still can't interfere, otherwise it might turn for the worse.
"H-hey! Get off him!" Uni breaks the hug and pushes Sylvie away.
"What's your problem? It's not like you know him a lot more than I do, do you now?"
Uni doesn't say anything, but Nepgear quickly announces, "L-let's all go back to the others first before anything else. I'm sure we're all tired."
"That fine by me," Uni says, but quickly adds, "But she's not coming with us."
"I wouldn't dream of it." Sylvie starts off to the other direction from the picnic and I catch up to her. She didn't say anything to Maki at all! It wasn't in the plan. Is she hesitating, of all times? This is a perfect chance, so why is she not using it? It makes no sense.
"Sylvie, wait!" She thankfully stops and turns around to face me. The little run got me out of breath. "Why?"
She kneels and rubs my head, ruffling my hair. "I'm sorry, Princess, but I don't think I can face him after all. I'll give him some space for now. I think that'll make it easier for him as well as for me. I'm sorry, even though you gave me some encouragement, I'm just not ready."
"But are you sure you want to leave it like this?" It's just not fair. Why is she giving up like this?
"I'm sure you're wondering why I'm giving up, but the truth is, I'm not. It'll take a while, maybe a full cycle of moons here. Although, it doesn't seem like there's any here, but I'll come back and convince him."
She made up her mind, huh? There's nothing more I can say, or rather, I don't have anything to say.
"But will I see you again?"
The smile on her face is both pretty and sharp.
"Don't worry about it, you will. Gamindustri isn't that too big of a place to go around with. But if you're curious where I'm headed, I'll be in a place where people say it has a kind of 'Regality' on it." She winks, but I didn't understand what she meant.
It's disheartening to lose someone who knows about me, but I can't just force her to stay. I can't even come along with her; I'm sure Blanc wouldn't be too happy hearing that if I told her.
"I'll see you around, Princess."
~0~0~0~
Was it right letting Sylvie leave like that?
The same question keeps swirling around my head each time I try to think about what happened, how Sylvie hit me with something real hard, and kicking me to the river. Does she really hate me that much to kick me with full force? There's no other reason behind it, nothing else comes to mind anyway.
"Water fight!"
"Neptune, stop it!"
Maybe it would have been better off for me if she yelled at me when I woke up, but she didn't, and when she did, it was hard to find the right words for it. It hit harder than the slap on my cheek.
"Go ahead and try me, Noire. You ain't gonna beat me in this!"
"And you think I'm gonna let you?"
I didn't exactly saw it clearly, but I'm sure she had an apple with her. Although, the next thing I knew the apple were scattered around the place. Seeing it on her hand, even if it was only briefly, reminded me of my birthday but can't remember how old I was back then. It doesn't matter anyway. I tried forgetting about my birthday a long time ago, but she kept reminding me and doesn't waste a single moment to let me treat it as a normal day.
"Come, Nepgear, let your dear sister wash your back."
"A-ah, y-you don't need to. I-I can do it myself."
"Oh, but surely you can let me, no? It will be hard for you to reach in some parts, so let me and I'll make sure that there won't be any spot left untouched."
"V-Vert!"
I lean back onto the trunk of the tree, with me sitting on a large branch, then let my one leg fall to hang about. My head also rests on the trunk as I cock my head up and close my eyes. Both of my eyes are free from any restraints for this moment since the others are enjoying a bath on the river. And I mean all of them.
They did instruct me to stay inside one of the tents, but it gets very boring at some point. And the stars are showing up more than usual tonight and I don't want to miss them.
So, I snuck out and climbed a tree to get a good view of the sky. Although it's good, they were a lot noisier than what I anticipated them to. But don't get me wrong, I made sure I was on a tree with a good distance away from any of them. I don't want to have another case of being thrown soaps and buckets to no end.
"Such a peaceful night . . ." At least what's most of it anyway.
Just then, a rustle sounds from a nearby bush.
"You can come out now. I know you're in there," I say, getting up.
"Th-there's no one here! I-it's just your imagination!" What a terrible liar. And way too easy to spot.
"Oh, I see. That makes sense." And I'm going along with it anyway. But after a moment, I jump down and land on the same bush that made the rustling sound. The moment I do, Uni stumbles back and falls to the ground on her behind. For one thing, I'm not judging, but why exactly? "What are you doing over here?"
She quickly regains her composure, stumbling a bit before dusting off some dirt off her dress.
"I-it's nothing. I saw you went out of the tent, so I followed you to make sure you didn't try to peek at any of them or something." I can't take her seriously with the bright tint of redness on her face.
"Well, I'm not, so why don't you go ahead and join with the others. I'm sure you'd want a bath yourself."
"I-I can take one later!"
Forcing her to leave won't end up well for me. From my short travel with her, she's quite stubborn on some stuff, but it doesn't make it harder to talk to her though. Although, she might just not be honest with herself and to others, but who am I to say? I can't read her mind.
"In that case, want to have a chat?"
I face my back on her and fall forward. This is something I usually do to scare people in my spare time, but in her case, it's for a different purpose. Doing this does require some thing to keep in mind. For one thing, both feet need to latch onto the branch properly to make sure I won't fall out of nowhere, and another one being to adjust the body's weight to prevent myself from swinging like a pendulum. The latter part is harder to do, but it's very rewarding once mastered.
Also, it's a good idea to do it with some sturdy shoes and not barefoot or any other footwear that exposes the skin.
The moment my face got near Uni's, she steps back a bit.
"Wh-what are you doing?" she asks.
"It's hard to talk when we're a bit far from each other. Grab on," I show her my hands, "we can continue talking up the tree."
"Can't we just talk down here?"
"You have a point, but the scenery is better up here. Come on, just take my hands."
She crosses her arms and looks away. "I don't want to. I-it's too embarrassing."
This is a thing that can get a bit tricky when it comes to convincing people like her. But there was something I learned from an elf from Lluna, and no it's not Sylvie. She said something about "reverse sigh coal gee?" No, I don't think that was it, but somewhere along the line. Hmm, maybe I can try it out. I do remember some key things she told me to look out for. Welp, here goes nothing.
"Ahh, I see. The stars are just prettier up here, but I guess that's too childish for you."
"E-eh?" It's actually working. Who knew?
"Forgive me. I guess I should've considered that fact about you. Well, I'll just head back up and—"
"Wait!" Jackpot.
"Anything wrong?"
"I-I d-didn't say I didn't want to . . ." But she just did. "F-fine, if you're that desperate, th-then I guess I can make an exception."
"Really?" She slowly nods. "Great! Now, hold on." She did as she is told and places her hands on mine. They're also on the soft side, maybe a bit more than IF's. "Ready, go." I pull us both up the tree. It's actually harder to do it with another person, but I somehow manage to do it. Once I get a good footing, I support Uni's sides to make sure she doesn't fall from the tree the moment she lands on the branch. "You okay?"
"Y-yeah." She was able to keep herself from falling and sat on the branch. Then she looks up the starry sky. "It is pretty from up here."
"See? What did I tell you?"
"All right, all right, you win. Happy now?"
"Pretty much, yeah." Oh, I'm not closing my eye or covering it with bandages since the moon isn't full right now. I do, however, go back to leaning on the trunk of the tree. It's not really for the sake of relaxation, but because this is how I usually go about in Lunelit Forest.
"What do you plan on doing now?" Uni asks.
"Hrm, maybe go around cities and scavenge for any lingering girls suspiciously hiding in an alleyway." She glares at me; I wave her off. "Just kidding. Your sister invited me to check Lastation out, so I'll be heading there."
"Hmm?" Does she not believe me?
"Well, I'm actually trying to find a good place to build a home."
Her legs then begin swinging back and forth. "There are some good spots near the park. You can see if you can find a house there." A good offer, but not exactly what I'm looking for.
"Thanks, but that won't be necessary."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, I admit, while living in a city does sounds nice, it's not something I'm used to."
She turns her head to my direction, tilting it most probably confused from my statement right there. Like how pretty much every single people in this world thinks I'm a madman for asking them questions they have no answers to, hers is the same.
"How so?"
"I prefer living somewhere far from other people, but not too far since I do want to have some form of access to supplies. Believe me, it's quite relaxing to have a large place for your own. Sounds lonely, doesn't it? Though, I'm sure it's completely different from yours."
"Y-yeah, different."
She doesn't sound too confident with her answer. I may have offended her or something.
"Sorry, did I say something I shouldn't have?"
She shakes her head. "N-no, you're wrong! It's not—" she pauses. "A-anyway, d-don't you get anxious when there's nobody around?"
My hand finds its way to the back of my head and scratches it. "I'd agree with you, but that isn't exactly the case for me at all. There are people visiting me, well, only one person really. It gets on my nerves sometimes, but her liveliness is always welcome."
"Who's that then?" Uni asks, fondling her hair and at the same time looking somewhere else.
"It's—"
"Hey! What are you two doing up there?!"
I had to grab the branch tightly to prevent myself from falling. Uni almost fall over herself, but I manage to catch her arm before she gains any more momentum. When I trace where the voice came from, another voice shouts at us. Then, that's when we notice both Neptune and Noire standing at the bottom of the tree, their hairs still soaked from the bathing.
I'm sure it was Neptune who shouted at us. Her hands are still cupping around her mouth after all. Although, I did find it strange that they found us like this.
"Maki and Uni sitting on a tree, K—ow!" Noire smacks a fist on Neptune's head.
"I-it's not what you think!" Uni's face is getting redder and redder, almost about the same tint as the color of my red hair. "W-we were just having a chat! That's all!"
Noire points a shaky finger at me. "Y-you didn't do anything weird to my sister, did you?"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, calm down," I say. "I didn't do anything to her, I swear. Don't get the wrong idea."
"Look, I'll just—kyaa!"
Uni starts to slip and fall down the tree. Without thinking twice, I jump down faster than her, catch her mid-air, and land on the ground with a small ring of dust cloud. Her body is a lot lighter than I thought.
Neptune gasps. "It's the famous bridal carry! Noire, your sister got to experience it before you did~ Too bad, huh?"
"Sh-shut up!"
I place Uni down and stretch my whole body once I did.
"Let's head back. I'm sure the others are waiting for us."
"Hey," Noire says. "We're not finished yet!"
"Oh, I'm sure we are! I'm already getting a head start from all of you! Don't blame me if you fall behind!" As I keep on shouting at them, the distance between us grows bigger. I've had enough things happening for one day.
~0~0~0~
-Nepstation-
Neptune: You're watching Nepstation! I'm your host, Neptune! And I'm here with . . .
Uni: Hello everyone. I'll be today's co-host.
Neptune: Man, the picnic's over already? You should've seen it! I got some water in Noire's nose. It was hilarious. Ahaha!
Uni: Sure, it was, Neptune.
Neptune: Anyway~ Here's today's announcements. No preview again, though. Read the note, Uni!
Uni: "As of today, my schedule will become compact to the point that I might only be able to have a short period of writing instead of long ones. So, updates will become inconsistent. That's all. See you in the next chapter."
Neptune: And that'll conclude today's forecast!
Uni: It's pretty short compared to the others.
Neptune: Oh, what can you do? Even Zidawn isn't here to man the camera today. So, all we can do is make a short one. I would make it longer, but my puddings are calling for me.
Uni: *Sigh* All right. See you all next time.
Neptune: Pudding, here I come!