Let's Be Friends! Extra: Mercury
It was a normal day in Dreamland. Though not exactly, considering that Kirby is now under the watchful eye of someone he just met. Not too long ago, Kirby had met Meta Knight's own mentor, Kurabe, and practically befriended her in one day. Today, she came to visit once again, but she also brought along a companion. This companion reminded the puff of his friend Adeline, except her hair was much longer and she was much taller. Not only that, but the way she dressed reminded him of his mentor's second-in-command, Captain Vul, outside of the black coat she wore over her clothes. The most striking feature, though, was her body and hair were various tints of grey. Kurabe introduced her as Mercury, the second-in-command of her own battleship, before dragging Meta Knight off to, as she put it, "spend some quality time with her favorite student". Due to that, Kirby was left here under this tree with Mercury, who appeared to be completely bored as she sat and read a book. Meanwhile, Kirby himself was also getting bored.
"Ms. Mercury, don't you do anything for fun?" he murmured with a pout as he rolled next to her.
"Sometimes, but usually I'm stuck cleaning up after Kurabe's mess." She replied, turning a page.
The puff then looked up at her and noted her hat. "Can I please wear your hat?"
"No." She said without even looking up from her book.
"Why?"
"Because I said so."
The child responded with a pout. It wasn't nice to take things, but it was a good excuse to have even a little bit of fun. With this thought, Kirby climbed up the tree and quickly swiped the hat off her head. To his surprise, the woman didn't react at all.
"That's really weird. Wouldn't she have noticed?"
Just as he thought that he began to feel something oozing on him. He turned and instantly saw that her hat had melted into liquid metal. With a scream, Kirby fell out of the tree. Thankfully, he didn't hurt himself, but he pouted upon hearing the woman give a chuckle.
"You were asking what I did for fun. That's at least one thing." She replied as she reabsorbed the metal and reformed it back into a hat.
At this point, the child could no longer be angry, but amazed.
"Wow! How did you do that?!" He uttered.
The woman gave a slight shrug.
"This is actually just something I can naturally do."
"Yeah, but how?"
For a moment, the woman was slightly surprised.
"You don't know what a Limet is?"
"What's that? Is it yummy?"
She then gave a sigh. "Well, this is a pretty backwater planet, so I guess it's not a surprise you have no idea what they are."
Either she didn't notice Kirby's pouting, or she ignored it, as she only continued to speak.
"But first, I'd like to apologize for hurting your feelings with my answer. I'm really not that good with kids... honestly, what was Kurabe thinking when she asked me to come along if I was just going to babysit?"
The puff ignored the last part of that statement to speak up yet again. "Ok. Then I want to say that I'm sorry for taking your hat."
Mercury closed her book and turned to the puff, who now sat next to her underneath the tree.
"So... where to begin? To start, a Limet is not a food. It's a species of metal shapeshifter creatures that can take the form of anything we see or interact with. In fact, the name is short for "Liquid Metal Shapeshifter"."
This made the child think for a moment. "Oh, so is it like my Copy Ability?"
"No, it's not. It's... well, let me show you."
In an instant, Mercury's humanoid form transformed briefly into a silver blob and then into a form that looked just like Kirby, but silver.
"AH! YOU LOOK JUST LIKE ME NOW!"
"Yes, I can even change my color and voice to match yours if I wanted. Though that's too much work for me and it's tiring, so I don't do it too much." She replied.
This made the child even more curious.
"Then does that mean the form I first saw you in isn't your real form?"
The woman immediately fell silent.
This immediately caused Kirby to panic. "I-I'm sorry, I didn't know it was a bad thing to ask!"
"You don't need to apologize. It's really not that big of a deal. But to answer your question, all of my forms are real. Though the one you first saw is not my original form."
The child blinked quietly in curiosity.
"Then what does your original form look like? If you don't mind me asking."
With a sigh, she transformed again into a small silver blob that was roughly the size of Kirby's foot. However, she then quickly transformed back into her main humanoid form.
"Sorry if you didn't get a good look at it. I don't really like being in that form all too much."
As much as Kirby understood why, there was one thought on his mind about it.
"But why? It looks cute!"
Suddenly, her face began to change into a reddish color, and she slightly hid her eyes with her hat's brim.
"Well... thank you, I guess. To answer your question, the main reason is that all Limets look like that when they're born. I don't want to be seen as just another Limet. I want to be seen as Mercury. That and I like being tall..." She said, whispering the last part.
Then the child began to think of more questions to ask. Immediately, he thought of one.
"Ms. Mercury, what else can you do?"
"A better question is what can't I do." The woman replied with a laugh.
"Well, then what's something you can't do?"
"Beat Kurabe." She replied in a deadpan voice.
"Is there anything else?"
"Hm... while I can copy most people and objects, there are a few things I can't. For example, something that's enchanted like Meta's sword. Now it's my turn to ask something. What do you want to do? I know for a fact you're getting bored just sitting around doing nothing."
"Hm..." Kirby uttered as he slumped down to the ground in deep thought, causing Mercury to give a slight laugh.
Suddenly, a thought came to mind.
"Um... how much of Dreamland have you seen?"
"Not much. Why?"
"Maybe I can take you on a tour! I love showing people around Dreamland and it's a lot of fun!"
"Sure, why not. I don't always get the chance to just explore another world. Well... besides when I'm on recon missions."
Kirby then gave a smile.
"Well, where do you want to go first?"
While her face didn't change, it was obvious that she was deep in thought.
"Well, I have read about this place called the Fountain of Dreams. I'd like to see if it's as beautiful as the books make it out to be."
Immediately, she was given a nod in response. "Ok!" Kirby quickly got to his feet and summoned the Warp Star.
"Come on! It's a lot quicker this way!" With that suggestion, Mercury climbed on.
During the flight to the Fountain of Dreams, Kirby began to talk about Rainbow Resort and how it was one of the coldest places on Popstar. Then he noticed that Mercury had begun to grow various limbs resembling tentacles. He was honestly taken aback by this at first.
"What are you doing, Ms. Mercury?"
"Getting a good look at this place. I can grow eyes basically anywhere so I'm using my limbs to view every angle I can. That's part of the reason why I'm Kurabe's go-to for recon. Well, I'm her go-to for almost everything, really." She said with a smile.
It seemed as if sightseeing was something she enjoyed quite a bit.
"So, she really trusts you that much?" Kirby asked.
"Yeah. Honestly makes me wonder how she'd function without me with some of her questionable ways of thinking. It'd probably be chaotic, that's for sure..."
Hearing that made the child sound slightly concerned.
"Oh, don't worry. Meta's equally good at wrangling her. Er... somewhat..." She didn't sound too confident as she finished her sentence, slightly worrying Kirby.
Eventually, they reached the Fountain of Dreams and Mercury began to observe her surroundings. To make additional conversation, Kirby began to discuss his battle with Nightmare.
"So, Dedede spit me out into the sky, and I had to fight Nightmare in the air! Then we fought on the moon, and he transformed into this wizard-like form! He was kind of difficult because of all those star attacks and..."
"Oh, I already know. I read about him."
Kirby looked over to see that Mercury had transformed into a silver version of Nightmare's wizard form. This sight caused the child to laugh before the woman transformed back to her humanoid form. After taking the time to calm down from his fit of laughter, a thought came to his mind upon recalling the woman's comment.
"Do you read the reports I sometimes help Meta Knight write?"
He was given a nod in response. "I do. Kurabe usually has me read them after she's finished reading. Though sometimes I have to take over reading for her."
"Why's that?"
"Let's just say she gets very passionate about some of the details about Meta himself."
This made Kirby a bit confused.
"But usually, Meta Knight just writes what he heard from me..."
"Oh yes, his reports are always very straightforward and to the point. The problem is the tangents she goes on about how proud she is of her student and whenever she completely loses it over Meta almost dying. It's understandable, but still..."
Hearing this made Kirby think a bit. Remembering how passionate Kurabe was made him wonder if Meta Knight had similar thoughts. Was he always proud to hear about him defeating powerful enemies? Was he extremely worried when he heard about him fighting powerful beings where there was a high chance that Kirby could die? If he was, the mentor never showed it.
"You might not know this, but Meta talks about you a lot."
Hearing this caused the child to perk up.
"Really?! He does!?"
The woman nodded knowingly.
"Of course. That's why I accompanied Kurabe this time. I wanted to meet this kid that captivated Meta so much."
Kirby was able to recall that during her last visit, Kurabe mentioned she came to Dreamland for a similar reason. Could it be that the knight really cared for him that much? Then another thought entered the young puff's head.
"Hey, which of the reports I helped with did you like the most?" He asked with his usual enthusiasm.
This question admittedly stumped Mercury as reading the reports was just another part of her job, not something she actively did. But she didn't want to say nothing either, as the innocent look on Kirby's face compelled her to think of something. Suddenly, an idea entered her mind.
Mercury then transformed into her imitation of Kirby, but also created three copies of herself, effectively making four silver Kirby's.
"I quite liked the report about the Mirror World."
All four Kirb-ercurys said in unison, before quickly reforming back into her humanoid form.
"Ah, the Mirror World was fun! It was confusing because of all of the labyrinths, but it was fun!"
"I remember reading about that and how you fought those counterparts of you and Meta."
"Uh-huh! Shadow Kirby was at least doing it to protect the Mirror World! Dark Meta Knight was just plain mean!" The child said with a pout.
It was at that point that Mercury was beginning to really feel the chilliness of this area. Admittedly, she was slightly surprised she was able to transform quickly so many times in this cold environment. Normally, it would take a lot longer to transform or she would be completely unable to due to how freezing it was right now. She thought of yet another idea to at least get out of this place.
"Hey, Kirby, how about we return back? I'd like to see you show off some of those Copy Abilities of yours."
"Ok! Let's do that then!"
Kirby then began to summon the Warp Star again.
"Oh, one more thing, if you were feeling cold, you could have just told me!" He added with a slight pout.
Hearing that, Mercury couldn't help but look away in embarrassment.
The Warp Star landed in the grassy field close to Kirby's house. This was likely so the puff could have easy access to some Ability Items.
"So what ability would you like me to show off?" Kirby asked.
"Hmm. How about something I wouldn't ordinarily come across on a mission? Something that's more out of the box, I guess, since I've heard that's what you're known for. Nothing like Sword, Hammer, Spear, etcetera."
The child nodded in understanding. "I have quite a few that Meta Knight considers unconventional if that's what you mean. In that case, I know just what to show off!"
Kirby left for a few minutes and when he came back, he was wearing what appeared to be a large bell on his head. "This is the Bell Ability!"
"I can see that, but what does it do?"
"Let me show you!"
The puff then performed various maneuvers with his bell weapons, creating various sizes of soundwaves as he rang them. To Mercury, this was extremely interesting, as she had never seen someone use a bell as a weapon before.
"I can also do this!" He put a bell over his head to guard. "This actually hurts enemies that try to attack me! That's what makes it special!"
"Ah. That's quite interesting."
As she said that, she stretched her arm towards the bell and gave it a small smack. Not hard not enough to hurt herself, but hard enough to make her entire body vibrate from hitting the bell.
"Pretty cool, huh?" Kirby asked, peeking out from underneath the bell.
"Yeah, it's certainly a unique ability." Mercury said, her voice a bit distorted from the vibration.
"Um... are you gonna be ok?" The puff asked, slightly worried at seeing the woman's entire body vibrate.
"I'll be fine, nothing to worry about." Mercury responded, her voice already back to normal.
"Anything else you'd like to show me?" Kirby took a moment to think.
"Hmmm... you said you wanted to see Copy Abilities you wouldn't normally see, right? I think I have another idea!" The puff ran off again and then returned wearing a leafy crown. "This is the Leaf Ability!"
"Leaf?"
The idea of using leaves as weapons was strange to Mercury, but she knew better than to doubt its effectiveness. If her time with Kurabe taught her anything, it's that even the most mundane objects can be used as deadly weapons.
"Now, watch carefully~" Kirby exclaimed playfully as he began to spin around.
Leaves began to swirl around him, as if it was some type of tornado. During this, Mercury noticed something: the leaves were cutting the surrounding patches off grass in half. Kirby then launched the leaves at a nearby rock, completely shredding it into pieces.
"Those leaves are quite sharp, aren't they?" She asked.
"Yup! But that's not all!"
The child used leaves to create an uppercut and then jumped into the air and threw them at the ground.
"It's simple, but it also seems practical." The woman observed.
"Oh, one more thing!" He then covered himself with a pile of leaves.
"...what's this?"
"It's a way for me to not take damage from attacks with this Copy Ability!"
Mercury nodded in continued interest. "Do you have any others you'd like to show me?"
Kirby instantly got up from his pile of leaves. "Oh, I know! Wait here!"
The puff ran off yet again and then came back wearing a mask of some kind.
"This Copy Ability is Wrestler!" He exclaimed cheerfully.
"Wrestler? I believe Meta noted that Ability as just being a flashier Suplex in his Copy Ability Exam report..."
"They're two different abilities! Why does everyone say they're the same?!" Kirby shouted before stopping as he realized what Mercury had just said. "Huh?! You know about the Copy Ability Exam!?"
"You didn't know? Meta sends us a photocopy of his report on that every year."
Kirby seemed to pout a bit at that. The Copy Ability Exam was just that, a yearly exam that tests how much the child had improved with and can adapt with his various Copy Abilities. If anything, this revelation helped Kirby understand why Meta Knight was always so on edge whenever the time to administer the exam is near.
"Then... um... do you still want me to show off even though you already read the report?"
"Yes, please continue. I'd love to see it in action myself."
"Well ok! I just need a training dummy..." The puff then quickly looked around.
"Say no more." Mercury removed her black jacket and threw it on the ground where it then took the form of a punching bag.
"Ah! Thank you, Ms. Mercury! But um... if that's part of your body, won't that hurt you?"
"As long as it's separated from my main body, I won't feel a thing. So, feel free to go crazy."
With Mercury's permission, Kirby immediately grabbed the bag and jumped several feet into the air and quickly came back to ground with a pile driver. Then he grabbed it again, this time using a suplex on it and ended his little demonstration by punching the bag up into the sky, where it stayed for what seemed like forever until finally coming back down.
"Well, I did say go crazy..." The woman uttered, both impressed and slightly terrified by Kirby's raw power.
It was one thing to hear about this through conversation and reports, but it was another thing to see it firsthand.
"So, since you've read the results of those exams, any other ability you would like to see?" The child asked, jumping with excitement.
"Is there any ability you haven't been tested on?" She replied, clearly wanting to learn as much as she can.
"Well, there is one..."
Kirby discarded the Wrestler ability and inhaled the metal punching bag, becoming Metal Kirby.
"So, you can become metal? Fascinating. What can you do with it?"
"Honestly, not too much. I move much slower; I can't jump really high. But..."
Kirby slowly walked towards a tree stump and walked right through it like it was nothing.
"I'm a whole lot stronger! I can even walk through lava if I wanted!"
This further impressed Mercury.
"So, you're practically invincible in that form. Why don't you use it more often?"
"Well, I feel restricted. Like sure, I can't feel pain, but..."
"You just don't feel like yourself." Mercury said, understanding what Kirby was getting at.
"Uh-huh! Like we've even tested Abilities that I can only use a limited number of times... though we don't do it anymore now... pretty sure Meta Knight only banned them because he doesn't want me using Microphone..." The puff uttered with a pout.
Mercury also read that in the report, so she only remained silent for a moment.
"Well... anyway, thank you for showing your Copy Abilities to me. I greatly appreciated it."
"You're welcome! I had a lot of fun showing them off!"
It was then that the woman began to see why her superior liked this child.
Shortly afterwards, Kirby discarded the Metal Ability, which turned into a pile of liquid metal. This pile was instantly reabsorbed by Mercury. After reabsorbing the metal to retrieve her jacket, Mercury then proposed an idea.
"Hey, Kirby. Seeing how Kurabe and Meta are still not back, I think I know what we can do. Let's play a game of hide and seek. I'll warn you-"
"Ok!"
The woman blinked for a moment as she realized that she was cut off.
"Are you sure? I can guarantee that it'll be the toughest game of hide and seek you'll ever play." She said, planning to use her shapeshifting to her advantage.
"I'm completely ok with it and... wait, are you going to shapeshift?" The puff then followed up as if he had realized what she was thinking.
"You can use all of your abilities if you wish. We both have special gifts, it's only fair that we both get to use them. Besides, it's just a friendly game after all." Kirby nodded in understanding at this.
"Ok then! Let's play! Are you gonna go hide first?"
"So, you already want to challenge yourself? Very well." She said with a chuckle. "But first, what's the highest number you can count to?"
"Um... I dunno!"
"Can you count to one hundred?"
"Uh-huh!"
"Then let's go with that. I should have plenty of time to hide somewhere before you're done."
The puff agreed with a nod. "Ok! I'll start counting! Now you go hide, Ms. Mercury!"
Then Kirby turned to the tree and covered his eyes.
"1... 2... 3... 4... 5..."
With those words said, Mercury headed off to go find a hiding spot.
"98...99...100! Ready or not, here I come!"
With that exclamation, Kirby opened his eyes and turned away from the tree. As expected, Mercury was no longer standing there. It was also at this point that the puff realized that when she had said "this would be a challenge" she really meant it. Perhaps they should've made the time limit shorter? No, there's no way she could've gone that far, especially since she could apparently change into anything. Then a thought entered Kirby's head. Mercury did say that he could use any ability he has, so he decided to use his natural ability to sense emotions to sense her. What he found though was nothing... well, not exactly. He could feel a faint emotion coming from the general area, but not enough to pinpoint her exact location. At least that was enough to confirm that she didn't run off too far.
"Oh yeah... Ms. Kurabe is like me and Meta Knight. I guess Ms. Mercury is used to hiding from her."
Well, at least he now knew she was close by. As Kirby was searching, the idea of simply inhaling everything crossed his mind, but he quickly threw it out. While he wanted to win, he also didn't want to potentially hurt his new friend.
Suddenly, he noticed that a group of butterflies were acting strangely around a patch of flowers. He ran over to see what was going on and he noticed that they only landed on them for a brief moment before flying off. It was almost like they became startled upon making contact with the flowers. There was only one meaning to this: one of these flowers was Mercury. But how was he going to figure out which one was the right one? Kirby knew he could just pluck all of them, but that would just harm the real flowers if he pulled one out. Maybe if he took note which ones the butterflies were scared away from. But wait...it seemed to be this entire patch of flowers. Does that mean this entire patch of flowers is Mercury in disguise? There was only one way to find out. With a running start, Kirby leaped to the patch.
"I FOUND YOU~!"
With an additional plop, the flowers transformed back into Mercury's humanoid form.
"Ow... ow... ow... that was right in my core..." The woman uttered, clenching her chest.
"AH! I'M SO SORRY! ARE YOU OK!?" The child panicked.
"Yeah, I'm fine. I just didn't expect that to hit my core..." She gave a slightly weak smile.
"Are you really sure you'll be ok?"
"Positive." She said with a sigh.
"Ah! I found you! That means I won, right?"
The sudden change in moods slightly caught Mercury off guard, but she was able to follow along.
"Yeah, you did."
The puff's eyes sparkled upon hearing this. "That was a lot of fun! Let's do it again! You'll be "it" this time, Ms. Mercury!"
With the amount of hyper energy the child was exerting, the woman couldn't say no.
"Very well. I'll go count to one hundred and you go hide." She received a nod in response as she headed towards the tree.
"Honestly, this shouldn't be so hard. He's just a child, so finding him should be easy." She thought with a slight smirk.
Upon reaching the tree, Mercury covered her eyes and began to count.
"1... 2... 3... 4... 5..."
It was then that Kirby ran off.
"98... 99... 100! Ready or not, here I come!" Mercury shouted as she opened her eyes and turned away from the tree.
Now, to find where Kirby went. He couldn't have run too far, so he must be nearby. As she walked around, though, she found that searching for Kirby was going to be much tougher than she initially thought. Even after using her recon trick to create multiple limbs and search around the area, she couldn't find a single trace of the child.
"I might have underestimated him a bit..." She thought.
As she kept searching, she began to notice that the sun was starting to set, signifying that it was now almost nighttime. Which meant that her boss and Meta Knight should be back soon.
"Oh no... this is bad..." She began to pick up her running. "If I really did lose him, those two will skin my core alive!"
As she was running, she decided to retrace her steps. She started counting at the tree and left immediately after finishing the count. She had since looked at every other part of the area. She even ran to Kirby's house to see if he was hiding in there. Wait... she started at the tree but didn't take the time to actually look at it. Upon returning to the tree, the woman looked up into the tree's branches and saw Kirby peacefully sleeping there.
"So, there you are!"
The sudden shout made the child panic and fall out of the tree, only to be caught by Mercury.
"AHHHH! IT'S ABOUT TIME YOU FOUND ME! I WAS GETTING BORED!" The puff shouted with a pout.
"Were you up in that tree the entire time?" Mercury asked, glad that she found him but also mentally kicking herself for not checking such an obvious spot.
"Yup! I thought you would've noticed that a while ago!"
"I would have noticed sooner if I didn't get overconfident." She thought to herself.
"Well... at least I wasn't bored during this game. You're a lot better than I expected, Kirby."
The child gave a giggle. "You're also really good, Ms. Mercury!"
"Thank you." She said, still slightly embarrassed due to the fact that she hadn't looked in such an obvious location.
"Well, those two should be getting back here any minute now." She continued, sitting under the tree.
"Ah, don't you want to do one more thing? I'm sure those two might take a while to get back or something!"
"...fine, you win." She said, trying to sound like it was a hard decision, even though Kirby could tell she wanted to keep playing as well.
"What do you want to do, Kirby?"
The child hummed a bit, as if he were thinking deeply about what he wanted to do.
"Do you have any interesting stories about when Meta Knight was still with you and Ms. Kurabe? He almost never talks about it so I kinda wanna hear something about it..."
An idea formed instantly.
"There's one that comes to mind. It was not too long after Meta left the GranEssex. I remember this moment very fondly, as it was one of the few times he asked for my help with something that wasn't combat related."
"Ah, what was it?" Kirby asked with excitement.
"Well, it happened on one of those days where Kurabe had a meeting with the others and I was running the GranEssex..."
"Mercury, may I come in?" Meta called out while knocking on the door to Mercury's room.
"It's open, feel free to."
The door opened and the knight walked in, looking noticeably tense about something. The woman then decided to ask him about it.
"Ah, Meta. This is an unexpected surprise! What can I do for you?"
Meta Knight stared at the floor, wrapping his cape around himself for a moment before continuing.
"Could you help me... think of a gift for sensei?"
There was a moment of silence, as if Mercury were surprised at what she was hearing. Though this only seemed to make the knight even more tense than before.
"If... if you don't want to, that's fine..."
"No, no, it's fine. I just didn't expect someone like you to ask something like that..."
Admittedly, she was equally surprised due to the fact that this was probably the most he had spoken to her outside of battle.
"But where did this idea come from, Meta? If you don't mind me asking..."
A slight nod.
"A month from now will be the five-year anniversary of me completing my training as her student. She says it's not a big deal, but I disagree. The problem is... I'm not good at thinking of things like that. I don't know where to start..."
Remembering how socially awkward the knight could be at times, Mercury instantly understood.
"Ok, do you have any ideas?"
"I know she likes jewelry, even if she pretends to not be interested in it. I just don't know what kind of jewelry to get..."
Mercury put a bit of time into thinking.
"Hm... how about a bracelet? Or a broach... or a pendant... ah... this might be a bit more difficult to think of than I first thought..."
As she was thinking, Mercury noticed Meta Knight's sword, Galaxia. Then an idea came to her.
"Meta, you're good at crafting, correct?"
A single nod was all she received.
"Ok then, we're going to make a necklace based on Galaxia." He only looked at her silently.
"...is he seriously asking me to explain?" She thought before speaking again.
"Well, since Galaxia chose you to weld her, a gift like that would be a lot more personal, don't you think?"
"I know that. I like the idea." He then replied in his usual blunt way.
She gave a slight sigh at that response.
"Alright. Then let's work on this together."
"And after a lot of trial and error, we finished just in time for the anniversary. I really wish I had a camera at that time. The look of joy on both of their faces was priceless."
Kirby himself seemed to smile at the conclusion of the story as well. "Does Ms. Kurabe still have the necklace?"
"Of course she does. She always carries it on her."
"I can show it to you if you'd like to see it, Kirby." A new voice said, quickly revealing themselves to be Kurabe joined by an embarrassed looking Meta Knight.
"They're back!"
"Ah, how long have you been there, Lady Kurabe?" Mercury looked behind her superior to the knight.
"Enough to hear the whole story."
"So, what were you two doing?" Kirby asked with his usual curiosity.
"Oh, nothing major. Just spending time together, making a few plans for the future. Having a civil discussion about the next time we come to Dreamland." Kurabe replied. Mercury swore she saw Meta Knight roll his eyes at the mention of "civil".
"So can I see it, please?"
"Why, of course."
While Kirby was preoccupied marveling at the necklace, Meta Knight approached Mercury.
"Thank you for agreeing to this Mercury. I hope he wasn't too much trouble..."
"It's no problem, Meta. I enjoyed spending time with the kid. I can see why you care for him so much."
"Yes, he's quite special, isn't he?"
"Yeah, he really is amazing."
"...you know, Mercury, you're welcome to visit whenever you like."
"I'll keep that in mind."
Shortly after that conversation, they heard the child speak up in his usual excitement.
"Now what are we going to do?"
"Well, I think we're going to return to the GranEssex now. Bukiset should be done with the resupplying by now."
"Which Bukiset? We have eight people named Bukiset working on our ship..."
"All of them."
Mercury gave a slight sigh at that response.
"Well, it was good to see you two again..." Meta Knight replied, though he seemed to mumble something else after that, causing Kurabe to pout a bit.
"Young man, what have I said about mumbling?" She uttered in an annoyed tone.
He responded with a slightly irritated sigh. "Except for what we were discussing..."
"Just drop it, milady. We can discuss it later." Mercury said before Kurabe could give a response.
"Fine, fine. I'll let it go for now." She then turned to the child and gave him a pat on the head.
"Hopefully, we can stay a bit longer next time. Take care of yourself until then, ok?"
"Ok..."
It was clear to her subordinate that, while Kirby appeared to be happy, he was also sad at them leaving so soon.
"Oh, one more thing before we leave..." Mercury knelt down to the puff's level. Then, she took off her hat and put it on his head.
"Thanks for hanging out with me today. I had a lot of fun." She said with a smile.
Kirby silently smiled back.
A short time later, Kirby and Meta Knight watched in silence as the GranEssex took off. Suddenly, the puff decided to speak up.
"Meta-sensei, when do you think we'll see them again?"
"You can always ask Mercury herself."
"But I forgot to give her my number..."
"You don't need a phone for that."
Kirby looked at his mentor in confusion. "What do you mean?"
Meta Knight simply pointed at the hat Kirby was given.
"Thanks for ruining the surprise, Meta." The hat suddenly said.
"Mercury!?" The child jumped in surprise upon hearing the voice.
"The one and only. While my main body is on the GranEssex, I can still send my consciousness to this hat. So, we can talk to each other whenever we want."
Kirby smiled with excitement.
"Really!? You're the best, Mercury!"
A short wholesome extra story. It's a nice story that establishes a bit more about Mercury, who appeared before in a single chapter of Only Neat Life. Hope all of you enjoyed it.
Speaking of Neat Life, yes the next chapter of that will be done soon. I just needed a bit of a break from it. It's yet another break from the usual format.
Omake (Bonus)
Kirby: "What would you like to play?"
Mercury: "Ever heard of DDR? It's a dancing game."
Kirby: "That sounds like fun!"
(5 minutes later)
Kirby: "No fair, you cheated!"
Mercury: "Hey there's no rules against growing extra legs."