Hi guys. I'm a bit sorry for the formatting in this chapter, in order to call Marucho what I wanted Drago to call him, I had to sacrifice the ease of reading in some places. To respond to reviews, AliceGI I will have Shun and Alice romance, although since it's not going to be that huge of a focus for now, I don't think I will really mention it. Maybe in chapter 7 (which is the chapter I do have Shun and Alice appear for a short time) I'll do something like make it noticeable.
Please, if you're reading this, don't forget to review your feedback on this! Your feedback means a lot to me in terms of how the story flows.
"See, I'm closing my eyes,
And if my wish comes true, the earth will sprout flowers
Tomorrow I'll do nothing but dream and leave yesterday behind
If I knew that you were smiling somewhere else, I wonder if I would regret it?"
- Plastic tree, "Aria"
"So Maru-chan-sama is very wealthy?" Drago asked as Dan walked to Marucho's home. He was still explaining things to Drago about what changed. Although, Marucho being rich was something that never changed, but Dan had a suspicion that they probably never explained it to the beasts.
"Yea." Dan walked past the pier, a shortcut to his friend's home. The water was crashing against the boardwalk in an almost soothing motion, slow and steady. It was a nice day, sunny and a little breezy. He probably wouldn't mind living another day like this. "Drago. Um, hey. What did you do when I didn't summon you?"
"I would sleep." Replied the red ball. "However when you began to stop calling me, I forcibly woke up to take care of the Pyrus kingdom." Dan's eyebrows furrowed together.
"The "Pyrus Kingdom"?" He muttered to himself. It felt familiar, but he couldn't grasp onto what exactly it was.
"Yes. I have been the one keeping it together and protecting it from otherworldly forces-"
"Wait a minute." Dan cut him off. "You're telling me that everything we thought up was real?" Drago appeared to nod.
"Yes." Dan frowned. He didn't know how to respond. How was he supposed to respond? He suddenly found out everything he thought up as a child was real. It was a shock. "Danma? Is this it?" Dan had unconsciously walked to a skyscraper that took up the area of an entire city block. Dan nodded.
"Yeah." He walked inside. Marucho was in the lobby of the area, waiting on one of the couches.
"Dan!" Marucho stood. The kid was tall, a maybe around 15 centimeters shorter than Dan. His hair was parted in the middle and fell lightly on both sides of his head. He had on his red framed glasses, and wore a black suit.
"Maru-chan! Lookin' classy dude." Dan greeted, giving his old friend a hug. Marucho returned it. Dan grabbed Drago from his pocket. "This is Drago."
"Incredible!" Marucho inspected the marble intensely, not seeming to miss a single detail. "Are you really the beast of the Fire Kingdom, Drago?"
"Maru-chan-sama, you have it wrong. I am the beast of Danma-ōsama. The legendary beast Apollonir is the beast of the Fire Kingdom." Drago corrected him, to his astonishment.
"Perhaps we may need to continue upstairs." Dan nodded.
"Alright." Dan followed Marucho to an elevator, and got inside as the younger boy pressed the button labeled '47'. As they waited in the elevator, Drago wasted no time in commenting on Marucho's appearance.
"You have gotten so tall." He remarked. "Preyas would be happy." Marucho blushed slightly.
"Ah really?" Dan could tell by the way Marucho reacted towards the name Preyas that he didn't remember him all that clearly. He couldn't blame him. It had been around 8 years since he last "interacted" with his imaginary friend. Dan could recall slightly Marucho refusing to do anything without his imaginary friend, and any wars fought involving Marucho, he would hide behind his Preyas.
"Indeed. Tell me, have the others gotten as big as you two?" Drago questioned.
"Well of course. Human beings grow, Drago." Dan chuckled at his innocence.
"Do they change too?"
"With knowledge comes change." Marucho informed. The elevator dinged with their arrival on the 47th floor. Dan grinned when they stepped off.
"So you moved up a few floors?"
"Yes. Father saw the need for expansion, so my previous floor was renovated for use by the cosmetics department." Marucho explained as he began to lead Dan to a room. They walked inside. It was a huge room, spanning two beds, a 228 centimeter smart television hanging on his wall, with room for at least 3 more to fit comfortably. Several desktop and laptop computers were laying around, and a wall video monitor sat by the door. Loose tools and electronic parts were scattered here and there, and there was a window view of the entire city.
"Geez Marucho. Really overdid it this time." Dan commented with a grin upon seeing his friend's room.
"Well of course. I had to make a few demands." Drago seemed fascinated by Marucho's room.
"It's really fit for a king." He commented. He jumped out of Dan's hand, and landed softly on the floor with a low thump. He began to waddle around, looking at everything.
Marucho smiled, before bringing some boxes out from his closet. They were all filled to the brim with notebooks or sketchbooks. "I was quite lucky my mom kept these as a momento of our friendship." He said. "I stayed up late reading them-they were written in my scrawl, so it was a bit hard-and got the gist of them."
"Ah yes, you were talking about logs yesterday," Drago remembered. "What were those?"
"Well you see. We used to value battles and such a lot, and we needed a way to keep track of everything. So we had 'logs', which were accounts of what happened on a certain day." Marucho told the sphere. "The ones I read told me a bit about what we used to do. A lot of battles."
"Did they say anything about Drago being real?" Dan asked.
"Well of course. But it's a bit untrustworthy considering our age. Here, I'll read this page right here." Marucho picked up a book and opened to a page that was bookmarked with a sticky note.
"19th of November, 2005.
Danma-nii and Markus-nii have gotten so skilled in battle. It's because they fight each other a lot. Although Alice-nee tries to keep relations between the Pyrus and Darkus realms okay, they always manage to have some personal battle. Preyas wishes that I were more like them, and he says that they're doing right by preparing themselves! A lot of battles means they're able to spot their weaknesses, he says. Because of that, we're going on a training camp to make sure our grasp on our kingdoms and Vestroia is firm.
"Julie-nee says she feels something uncomfortable in the Perfect Core. She says she doesn't know what, but we need to stay on guard because of it. Runo-nee says she found a way to easily summon Tigrerra. It's a shortened chant that goes: Alkei Nervana Tigrerra! It's also important because it's a chant suited to her, meaning she can only summon Tigrerra. Imagine how it would be if we could all summon our friends simply like that? But their size would prevent them from coming indoors with us..."
"Well?" Dan asked. "What does that have to do with anything?"
"I recorded down Preyas speaking to me, which is minor in all but may play a part. And Runo's shortened chant. Didn't you say you only summoned Drago by speaking his name?" Dan nodded.
"Yeah. So you're saying that since the chant was shortened, I might have summoned Drago on accident?" Marucho nodded.
"Yes. At this point in time, only Runo was able to use a shorter chant. I feel like in later logs, it's explained how everyone else's chants go. Also, the part at the end about how the beasts size would prevent them from coming inside may have something to do with Drago's marble-like appearance." Dan took the information in.
"Okay. Anything about how to make them go away-no offense Drago."
"None that I can see." Marucho told him. "That's why I think we should start reading them. I read half a years worth, but stopped around January 2006."
"Then that's where I'll start." Dan said, and began to look for the notebooks. They spent a hours reading through them all, up until when they stopped playing: August 2006. Dan groaned as he reached the last filled page there.
"Ugh! This is bothersome." He complained. "So far, all I've read are about battles against Alien Invaders called Vestals."
"Nothing about the summoning chants?" Marucho asked. Dan held up a notebook labeled 'March 2006'.
"In here is a list of everyone's shortened chants. January 2006 explains your idea for a way to compress the beasts into a compact form-marble, I'll assume- and therefore make them portable. But that's the only mention about it. Nothing in here about making them go away." Marucho furrowed his eyebrows.
"Odd...I would expect there to be some mention." He muttered. "Unless..." He walked over to one of the boxes and turned it over, emptying its contents. "I wouldn't have stopped there. No...Dan, the battle against the Vestals. Did it ever end?" Dan skimmed through the notebook again.
"Nope, not that I see."
"As I thought." Marucho said. "I suspect that-and Drago, please tell me if I'm wrong, but I suspect that I possibly took it into my own hands to end the battle against the Vestals."
"Are you serious? That's crazy!" Dan exclaimed.
"Not as crazy as our imaginary world coming to life." Marucho replied. "There's no way that I didn't further explore the possibilities of compacting the beasts to a 'travel size'. I had to, Dan. That's the only way Drago would even be here."
"Maru-chan-sama, I will only confirm that the Vestal war ended. By what means...I do not know." Drago admitted. "It could be possible that your interference ended the war, but..."
"If that were to occur, then Dan. There has to be some record. I had to write it." Marucho said. "Look for it." Dan nodded.
"Okay!" They began to look for it, digging through the piles of books. "Hey Marucho."
"Yeah Dan?"
"This has been bothering me, but...when did we name the Kingdoms?" He asked. Marucho stopped his looking.
"I don't recall...it wasn't in these books. By the time I started, we were already using names."
"So...doesn't that mean there's another set of books with answers?" The realization dawned on Marucho's face.
"Yes!" He exclaimed. "Of course! We played for almost four years, yet I only chronicled 1 and a half. Someone had to take log of the other years."
"But who?" Dan questioned out loud. "Drago do you know?" The marble shook.
"Sadly I do not."
"But I do." Marucho said, standing up and looking out the window ('He's really dramatic,' thought Dan).
"Well stop adding suspense! Who was it?" Dan asked.
"Alice-chan."