The Misadventures of Hyperdimension Peashy

Episode 20

by Derald Snyder

*Leanbox Military Base- Medical Ward*

"Mr. Adrian~..."

Adrian groaned in pain as he slowly opened his eyes. His body had bandages and wrappings all over from the 'punishment' he'd gotten from Iris Heart...

And has he looked to his left, where the voice was coming from, he saw none other than Plutia herself, causing him to rear up in fear, despite the pain he felt from such an action.

"Take it easy, Adrian," another voice up, "we're all friends here, after all..." The soldier's gaze focused on Peach, who was standing directly behind the CPU, immediately feeling his fear ease a bit. "Plutia has something she wants to tell you. Right, Ploot?"

It was then that Adrian noticed that Plutia had a somewhat guilty look on her face. "Mr. Adrian... I'm sorry for what I did. We made a big mistake... But seeing Peashy so sad and upset just got me so worked up..."

"So... I'm guessing Lisa told you the truth of what happened?" Adrian inquired to his girlfriend.

"Y-yeah... she did..." Then the dam broke, tears streaming down Peach's face as she wrapped her arms around the soldier's neck. "Oh, Adrian, I'm soooo sorry! I-I was such an idiot...! I should've known better! I should've kn-known you wouldn't do that to meeee-! *hic* *sob*" She pulled away a bit to look her boyfriend in the eye. "C-can you ever f-forgive me...?"

"...You sicced a literal horror story on me," Adrian pointed out. "Even if she *did* turn out to be a good friend of yours..."

Plutia interrupted, "But I was the one who suggested punishing you in the first place, Mr. Adrian..."

"But I said yes," Peach sighed. "I can't take that back, no matter how much I want to..."

"At least let me ease your pain, Mr. Adrian," the purple-haired CPU offered. "Heal..."

The soldier breathed in as the green wave of energy washed over him, feeling his pain ease up somewhat. "Alright Plutia, apology accepted. Thanks." He then focused his gaze back on Peach. "As for you, Peashy... if you really want to make this up to me..."

"Anything," Peach insisted.

"Then... you'll take over Keisha's training for me. That'll prove to me you're sincere..."

"Actually, it's K-Sha," Plutia corrected.

"Whatever."

"Deal," Peach agreed. "But only after Ploot goes home. I don't want to risk another fight..."

"Fight?!" Adrian's eyes went wide as realization dawned. "Plutia, you didn't..."

"Yep. I did," the goddess confirmed. "But Vert and Noire and Peashy stopped me before I could really punish her, so..."

The petty officer could only shake his head in disbelief. "Geez, talk about disproportionate retribution... is she always like this, Peach?"

"I wouldn't know," the blonde shrugged. "I only just found out the truth about her HDD myself... and that was after I Dempsey Rolled her into submission... or so I thought, anyway."

"Yeah, that really hurt..." Plutia winced at the memory. "You sure taught her well, Mr. Adrian..."

Adrian chuckled lightly. "Much as I'd like to take credit, Peach kinda taught herself that technique..."

*About a week later...*

"Hyah! Hyah! Hyah!" cried K-Sha as she hurled punches and kicks at Peach, who easily blocked every strike.

"You're bein' too predictable!" Peach taunted. "You wanna take me down, you gotta do something I'm not ready for!"

"Oh, yeah? How about this?!" K-Sha shot back, ducking under the blonde's fist before elbowing her hard in her left breast.

"Aggh!" Peach cried in pain, giving K-Sha the opening to thrust her palm under her opponent's ribcage, pushing her off balance just enough for the brunette to throw her whole body weight forward and push down with her arm, succeeding in slamming the former staff sergeant to the ground.

"Ouch," Chika winced as she and Vert watched. "That must have hurt..."

"Indeed, my breast could almost feel that pain," said Vert. "It's clear why Peach prefers to wear armor on the clock..."

Fortunately, Peach quickly recovered, jumping back to her feet. "OK, that wasn't half-bad. Just remember that males won't have such an obvious weak spot to exploit..."

"Well, maybe I could just nail them between the legs instead," K-Sha suggested.

"That could work," the blonde shrugged indifferently. "Heck, I did that to Adrian once or twice when he started training me in CQC..."

"Ouch, poor Mr. Adrian," K-Sha winced.

"Yeah, well, he got wise to *that* pretty quick..." Peach smiled wryly. "Anyway, let's move on. You know how to escape a headlock?"

"Would it surprise you if I said yes?" stated the former mercenary.

Peach just chuckled. "Alright, then... show me!" she declared as she advanced, quickly grabbing K-Sha in a tight headlock. "Can you get outta this?!"

"Oh no! Peashy, say it isn't so!" A male voice cried out. The two looked up to see Adrian a short distance away, leaning on a crutch. "I thought you loved me, and here I see you embracing another girl intimately! How could you do this to me?!" His tone was absolutely dripping with sarcasm.

K-Sha just rolled her eyes, before pressing her finger into the pressure point just below Peashy's nose, causing her to recoil in pain, her grip loosening just enough for the brunette to pry herself loose. "Consider yourself dumped, Peashy! I'm going back to Noire!"

"Oh, K-Sha, must you be such a heart-breaker?!" Peach cried over-dramatically. All three then burst into laughter.

"How nice," observed Vert, "that they're able to joke about their misunderstanding now..."

"I guess," Chika said, "but shouldn't Petty Officer Johns' leg have been healed by now?"

"Thanks for reminding me, Chika," Peach called to her as she marched up to her boyfriend, before unceremoniously kicking his crutch away.

"Auuuugh, my leg!" Adrian cried, falling to the ground and clutching at said limb.

"Oh, stop it," Peach shook her head. "You're not fooling me, I know you're not that hurt."

"...You're right, I'm not." The soldier promptly stood to his feet. "Still gonna be a few days before I'm fit to return to service, though..."

"I'm just glad you two have made up," Vert nodded. "Honestly, this whole thing could have been avoided if K-Sha had just trained under Peach in the first place... She *was* the combat instructor for Adrian's unit before she was dismissed, after all..."

"Which I had to take over after she was discharged," Adrian pointed out. "Even though I'm more of a jack-of-all-trades..."

"Well, it makes sense, you *were* the one who taught me initially," Peach said.

"Well, I personally think Peach is the better teacher," K-Sha cut in. "No offense, Mr. Adrian, but you always seemed to treat me with kid gloves... Like you were afraid to hurt me. At least Miss Peach doesn't pull her punches..."

"Please don't call me 'Miss'..." Peach sighed.

Adrian just shrugged. "Yeah, well, I take one look at you, and I see a cute innocent little girl, though I know you're not... After all, you're crazy good with guns, though you waste a bit too much ammo, in my opinion..."

"So you don't think I'm cute, Adrian?" Peach moaned with mock sadness.

"Cute yes, innocent no," her boyfriend shot back. "Need I remind you, the very first thing you did when we first met was to take a swing at me..."

"What." Chika deadpanned.

"Seriously?!" gasped K-Sha. "What he'd do?"

"Technically, nothing," Peach admitted. "But after I clobbered his drunk friend, he felt compelled to step in... and I ended up flat on my back. Of course, all I knew how to do back then was punch, and punch harder..."

"But I could tell you had potential, which was why I started teaching you," said Adrian. "Man, you shoulda seen the look on my friend's face when I told him we'd started dating!" He began to laugh. "He was all like, 'How could you do this to me, Adrian! I thought we were friends!' and stuff..."

K-Sha and Peach were both laughing now, while Chika was tittering a bit. Even Vert had one hand politely covering her mouth as she chuckled.

"Yeah," Peach managed to get out, "and I wonder how he reacted when it came out that I was Sergeant DeRommer!"

"Heh, I think he said something along the lines of, 'Why am I not surprised'..." Chika laughed harder at this.

"All right, children, that's enough," Vert gently admonished. "It's almost dinnertime after all, and Chika needs to get the food ready..."

"What! It's that late already?!" Chika gasped. "Why didn't you say so, Lady Vert?! I've got to get back to the Basilicom and start cooking! Especially since I cook for three now!" With that, she dashed off.

"Yeah, I guess that's it for our lesson today," sighed Peach. "So I'll see you next week, K-Sha, same time, same place, OK?"

"Sure," the brunette nodded. "See you later, Mr. Adrian, Peach!" she called as she ran off, stopping briefly to retrieve her school bag. "I'm coming home, Noire~!"

"Bye!" The blonde waved.

"What a sweet kid," Adrian chuckled. "Guess I'd better be shoving off too..."

"You sure you don't need any help?" Peach asked as she handed her boyfriend's crutch to him.

"I'll be fine," Adrian shook his head. "Love you, Peashy."

"Love you, Adrian." Then they kissed.

And so another day passed in Leanbox...

*Episode 20- End*