Chapter 14: NESP

Kirby was currently walking through the residential district of the closest town to his home. The other day, he received a letter from his friend NESP, telling to come visit today. Why NESP couldn't just ask him in person, the puff didn't know.

"Ok, this should be it... hello? Anyone home?" Kirby asked while knocking.

"Come right in, Kirby." NESP said.

Kirby opened the door and narrowly dodged a bucket of water falling on him.

"Dang it, that took me a whole five seconds to put that prank up too..." He uttered in disappointment.

"You've done it to me enough that I pretty much know what's coming. You shouldn't prank people anyway!" Kirby replied with a pout.

"Right, sorry, sorry..."

Kirby gave a nod before continuing. "So, what do you want to do today? I know you asked me to come over to visit, so I want to know."

NESP seemed to give a slight giggle at that. "Ah, right, right. How about we play a game?"

Admittedly, Kirby was slightly hesitant to answer. Some of NESP's games were pranks that could easily get dangerous, and it always worried him because he didn't want outsiders to get hurt.

"Um... sure! What do you want to play? Checkers? Chess? Quartet Connect? Go Fish? Detective?"

"Oh, I don't want to play any board games."

The puff tilted his head in confusion.

"The rules to this game are very simple. I run away while you chase me. If you manage to tag me even once, you win. But if I successfully avoid you for an hour, I win."

"That sounds like fun! Wait, how do I know you won't use your powers to keep me in place?"

"I promise I won't use my telekinesis on you."

NESP said, putting extra emphasis on the "on" part, causing slight worry. However, he decided to shove those thoughts to the back of his mind. I mean, how many times has any of NESP's games actually harmed him? Ok...maybe he did get hurt a handful of times, but there's no way he'd do it again this time, right? Right?

After agreeing to the game's rules, the duo stepped outside.

"Oh, before I forget, I have one more rule, Kirby." NESP said.

"What is it?"

"To make things more fair for me, you're not allowed to use any Copy Abilities like Wing or Wheel. If you try to, that counts as cheating and it means I can use telekinesis on you."

Kirby gave a nod in response.

"Ah, that makes sense. So... about this game then, how do we start? Do I let you get a head start or do we both start at the same time?" Kirby asked, scratching his head.

NESP gave a mischievous smile.

"We start when I say go."

With that NESP slowly floated away.

"NESP, where are you going? I can't hear you say go if you're too far from me." Kirby yelled out.

Then it hit him, the game had already begun.

"NESP, YOU CHEATER!"

With that shout, he began to sprint after his friend. At first, the duo were keeping good pace with each other, but it was clear that Kirby's speed could almost outmatch his friend. More than likely, that was also why many of the rules were set in place, specifically what Copy Abilities Kirby couldn't use.

During the chase they ended up in the town's marketplace. Apparently, today was also some kind of harvest festival, as there were stalls everywhere selling different types of fruit and vegetables. This gave NESP an idea. Using his telekinesis, he grabbed a banana, peeled it, and threw the peel on the ground.

"This should slip him up." He uttered with a giggle.

That stopped however, as Kirby simply inhaled the peel.

"Yeah, should have seen that coming..." NESP said to himself.

"Come on... there's gotta be something else I can use! Oh, hello!"

NESP then saw that there was a pie vendor.

"It's a bit cliché but funny regardless."

He then picked up ten pies and threw nine of them at Kirby, who quickly ate them all. The last pie, however, was thrown upwards and was now quickly falling towards Kirby's head. This pie made contact, forcing Kirby to stop and clean himself.

"HAHAHA, I hope you like dessert Kirby!" He yelled while looking at his friend.

"I do!"

This straightforward response just made NESP laugh even more, that is until he crashed into a brick wall. He stumbled back a bit before he realized then that Kirby was coming right at him. Thinking quickly, he began to fly over the wall and then used his powers to bend a nearby metal shelving unit full of flowerpots. The pots fell towards Kirby, who managed to quickly dodge out of the way. However, by the time he was able to look back up, NESP was already gone. Puffing his cheeks in slight irritation, he inhaled some air and began to float up to the wall's top. Upon reaching the top, he saw NESP running along the rooftops and gave chase. Noting that Kirby was slowly catching up to him, NESP gave a leap of faith to the ground below, hoping to land in something soft below. Instead, he landed on a stand owned by one of the many vendors.

"MY CABBAGES!"

Quickly thinking, the esper used his power to put the stand back together.

"Crap...crap...crap..."

He nervously looked up and back trying to figure out where Kirby was. Just then, he saw the puff floating down from the rooftops. Quickly, he finished putting the stand back together and ran off.

The chase then took them to a construction zone. NESP was quickly looking around to see what he could send towards his friend to slow him down. He then gazed upon a wrecking ball from one of the machines. Immediately, he sent the wrecking ball towards Kirby, but the puff then jumped onto it. Noticing this, NESP attempted to send the wrecking ball in another direction but then he heard a shout from his friend.

"You can't do that, NESP! You said you wouldn't use your powers on me! I'm on the ball right now, so by using your powers on the ball, you're using them on me!"

"Drat! How does he come up with that logic!?" NESP thought as he quickly stopped using his powers and began to run off again, quickly sliding underneath one of the fences to make a quick escape.

Kirby followed after him, but as he climbed over the fence he was greeted by several baseballs being sent straight towards him! Thankfully, Kirby managed to dodge the attacks, but he was able to clearly see that NESP was far ahead of him. Seeing this, he gave a slight pout in annoyance before hopping to his feet and continuing the chase throughout the countryside.

The chase then led to one of Dedede's many castles, which seemed to be bustling more than usual. They first entered in through the castle library. Just as Kirby entered through the window, he saw several books being hurled straight at him as NESP tossed them with his powers. Using his own instincts, he managed to dodge each and every one of the books, leading him to the hallway outside where his friend had escaped to. Hoping to quickly get Kirby off his tail, NESP cut through the kitchen. The moment the puff entered this room, the Waddle Dees panicked and attempted to chase him out in vain as he rushed past them.

"Excuse me! Pardon me! I have to get through here fast!"

As much as his current setting was making him hungry, he also knew he could easily grab some food later. He was playing with his friend right now! With that thought in mind, he managed to make his way to the double door on the other side of the room.

After getting through the kitchen, Kirby found himself in a dining room and NESP on the other side waiting for him. He knew it was probably a trap, but it wasn't like he could really do anything about it. So, he kept on moving forward, but as soon as he got to the middle of the room, the big chandelier that hung above began to fall. Right before it could crush Kirby, a big hand caught it. looked up and the hand's owner was revealed to be King Dedede.

"Yo, ya mind telling me what's going on?" He said, sounding annoyed at the damage being caused and clearly trying his best not to sound too angry.

"Oh, hi Dedede! I'm playing a game with my friend, NESP." Kirby replied with his usual cheerful tone.

"A game that involves wrecking my castle?" Dedede uttered, sounding slightly angrier upon saying that.

"Oh... well, the game is NESP runs away while I chase him. If I tag him, I win."

"And the chase just happened to end up here?"

"Yup!"

The king seemed to mull over that statement for a bit.

"So, the quicker you finish this game, the quicker y'all will get out of my castle?" he asked.

"Um... yeah!"

Dedede gave a slightly sinister grin. "How 'bout I lend ya a hand?"

Before Kirby could respond, the king ran out the same door that NESP had during their conversation and placed the puff on the ground.

"Wait, Dedede, what are you-?"

He then pulled out his hammer and hit him like a golf ball in NESP's direction.

"I think I lost him..." NESP uttered with a slight giggle.

That was until he saw Kirby flying straight towards him. Internally panicking, he looked round for the first thing he could use to stop him. Just as he looked to the side, a door he was beginning to pass by opened, and Bandana peeked out.

"What's with all of this noise?"

That was when NESP saw the piano behind him. Quickly using his powers, he took the piano and threw it out the door, completely knocking Bandana out and held it out in front of him as an attempt to stop Kirby. There was then a loud crash as the puff slammed into the instrument at full velocity, causing it to splinter and bend. Not only that, but the force of it caused NESP to lose his hold on it, sending it crashing to the floor with Kirby underneath it.

"Better luck next time, Kirby!" The esper said in self-perceived victory.

That smugness soon turned into concern.

"Kirby?"

NESP froze for a moment in horror upon hearing a lack of response from his friend. There wasn't even a small groan, like he expected. Did he really... no... he couldn't have!

"Oh no no no, I didn't mean for this to happen! Hold on, Kirby, I'll get you out!"

Without wasting time, he got the piano off the floor, revealing a seemingly unconscious Kirby.

"Hey, Kirby, are you ok!?"

"H-ha..." The puff uttered quietly, as if he were in a daze.

"Help?" His friend asked in worry.

"HA! I got you!" Kirby said, getting up on his feet as if nothing happened. He then placed a hand on the bewildered NESP's head.

"Tag, I win!" he exclaimed cheerfully, his friend still attempting to process what just happened.

"Hold on, hold on. Back up. Are you not really hurt at all?"

"Nope! I've been hit by way worse before! A piano is nothing to be worried about!"

"So... then you just pretended to get hurt?" His friend question in slight confusion.

"Well, I had to get the jump on you somehow!"

NESP had an unreadable expression, which soon turned to laughter. His laugh proved to be contagious as Kirby soon joined in.

After apologizing to King Dedede and Bandana, the duo left Castle Dedede. The two were now sitting down somewhere in Green Greens to take a rest. While Kirby was as relaxed as ever, NESP had more of a worried expression.

"Hey, Kirby. Are you upset with me?"

Kirby looked at him in confusion. "What? Of course not! Why would I be mad?"

NESP hesitated for a moment before he continued to speak. "Well, I did cause a lot of problems for you during the whole game. Not only that, but I think I caused a lot of problems for others during it as well."

The puff thought for a moment. "Hmm... maybe we should apologize to some of the people we ran into. I think our game actually did cause a lot of damage, I think..."

His friend seemed to lower his head.

"But I also think we can wait on that. I really did have a lot of fun playing your game!" he suddenly added with a smile.

"Yeah, I did, too." NESP smiled back.

It was then that the puff stood up.

"Now, how about you try to catch... me!"

"...wait, what?"

Before NESP could ask, Kirby already ran off. For a moment, he could only stare in silence before he gave a slight chuckle and chased after him.

A short but simple chapter. Hope you enjoyed!