Pichi Pichi Pitch
Chapter 11
Noel, Caren, and Coco wandered through the snow, Caren leading the way. "Caren, how far is it, I'm cold and tired!" Coco said. "Coco, like I said a few seconds ago, we've only been out for five minutes, and we've still got a few meters to go before we reach the place where Hippo would meet us. We won't be out here much longer." Caren said getting irritated by her constant complaining and whining about how it's cold out here. "Actually I think that's it up ahead." Noel pointing to a frozen over place where the oceans tide rolled but froze almost instantly when it touched the snow.
"Yeah, that's it. Hippo should be here soon if he already hasn't gotten here." Caren said, just then a figure flew right by them and then stopped a few yards away. "Ai! What's that, a snow monster!?" Coco said as she jumped into Noel's arms. "Get a hold of yourself Coco, there's no such things as snow monsters, it's probably an otter, they're known to be in these parts." Noel said, as she dropped Coco to snow.
The figure approached them at incredible speed. "There you are, we must find Lucia and the others!" Said the figure in a loudly and scared Coco so much she started beating the figure. "Oh my gosh Hippo, are you okay?" Caren asked as she knelt by Hippo. "Why am I always the one to get beat up for caring about a few troublesome girls?" He asked.
"Sorry, you scared me, I thought you were a snow monster." Coco explained. "Well, we must hurry, I can't let Lucia get too close to Kaito, and Rina and Hanon too!" He said as he ran for the airport. "Oh man, he'll ruin this for them! We gotta do something." Noel whispered as they ran to catch him. "I got a plan, Coco, you grab him, Noel, you use that scarf he has to tie his mouth shut, and I'll say he had an accident when we get there and we'll keep him under lock down til we leave." Caren said. "Right, sounds like a plan." Noel said.
They carried out their plan, only he didn't go without fidgeting a lot, and almost made it to the airport without being caught, but they got him. They entered the airport with him tied to their arms to keep him from waking up and running away. "What happened to Hippo?" Lucia asked as she ran to them. "Well, we found him and he met with a vicious otter who tackled him and he fell unconscious." Caren lied, at first Lucia couldn't believe it, but slowly started to believe their story. "Okay, well, the airport got a call from Subaru, he's about ten minutes away from here." Lucia said.
"Great, so all we gotta do is wait ten more minutes. And pray he doesn't wake up for that ten minutes plus the ride there." Caren said, but the last sentence she whispered so only Coco, and Noel could hear her. "Yeah, so what should we do?" She asked. "Well, I'm cold and tired, I'm sitting down." Coco said and plopped into a chair a few away from Rina and Hama-saki. "Okay, I'm going back to my seat." Lucia said as she sat back down next to Kaito, and flashed a smile to him. "So all we gotta do is keep him quiet and we're safe!" Caren urged.
The ten minutes flew by faster than they thought it would and they ended up seeing their ride right outside withing seconds. Subaru stepped out and Caren ran out to greet him. "Subaru!" She shouted as she gave him a hug. "I missed to Caren, I haven't seen you in like three months. Anyways, you guys ready to go?" He said. "Yup, we just gotta load our small luggage and we can go, and the sooner the better." She said thinking about Hippo. "Okay, let's load then." He said and went inside and everyone greeted him, and started loading what little luggage they had.
They were done in a flash and were on the way, and the vehicle was a big van that had wheels that move best in the snow. So it moved faster than a normal van with regular wheels did. Hippo didn't wake up until they were half way there, but as soon as Coco saw a sign of waking, she tapped his head and he went out like a light. That was so close, if he wakes up, all hell will break loose. She thought. "Well, here we are, this is the place where I study, it makes a great place to stay in snow storms and it's warm inside, plus there are plenty of rooms for you to sleep in." Subaru said as they entered the building, Hippo still asleep.
"Wow, it's bigger than I remember. You sure this is okay? Will we keep you from your studies?" Caren asked. "Not at all, your welcome to stay, besides I get lonely and I owe you since you helped me with that one experiment where it involved a person." He said with a smile. "Oh yeah, you do owe me for that, I couldn't sit still or talk right for three weeks." She said as she laughed.
"Yeah, sorry, I didn't know it would explode like that." He said. "Well, actually it burst into flames, then exploded." Caren corrected. "Okay, miss smarty pants, I'll show you where you'll stay, how long are you staying anyway?" He said as he led them up the stairs. "Well, we're only here for tonight then we gotta leave to search the terrain tomorrow, and when we finish that we'll stay one more night, then we'll leave." Rina said. "But the guys stay here." Lucia finished. "Sounds like a plan, but I do warn you guys, my research can be noisy." He said with a smile. "We don't mind at all, we come a very noisy place." Hamasaki said.
"Do you mind if your all spread out or in the same room?" He asked as they stopped. "What do you mean?" Hanon asked. "Well, I gotta know if you mind sharing rooms with both guys and girls." He said. "Well, I don't mind." Seira said. "Me neither." Coco and Noel said. "I think everyone doesn't mind." Lucia said. Okay then, this room will be for Lucia, Hanon, Rina, Nagisa, Kaito, and Hamasaki. There are sliding doors to divide the room for privacy." He said and continued to walk to the next room. "This will be the room the rest of you will be staying in." He said and they all went into their assigned rooms.
"Hey Caren, you said he didn't know about the mermaid thing right?" Hanon said. "Yeah, so be quiet." Caren said. "But where do we go to have a bath, I'm itching to touch water again. After a flight of over a thousand feet in the air, I need water." Hanon whispered. "If you wish to take a bath, the baths are down the hall to your right." He said and Hanon grabbed Lucia and Rina and sped to the baths.
"Hanon don't drag us, we can walk you know!" They objected. "Wow, she wasn't kidding when she said she wanted water." Caren said, she sweat dropped. "Hey guys come in the waters great!" Hanon screamed. "What? She's in there already?" Noel said. "Well, let's go!" Seira said as all the girls ran for the bath room. "Well, I guess we better just start getting ready for bed, it's late and they gotta go early tomorrow." Hamasaki said. "Yeah, come on Nagisa." Kaito said as he dragged him into the room."Ahh, this feels so good, after a long flight, it feels nice to get your legs wet and sprout your fins."
Hanon said as she splish splashed her tail around. "Hanon, your getting water on the floor!" Caren said. "Sorry, I just feel so relaxed, and I gotta wave my tail around to enjoy what time I have to be like this because I won't have time to enjoy my fins when we leave tomorrow." Hanon said and everyone quiet down. "Well, we gotta put our duty first, we only have four days til it begins." Rina said. "And who knows what'll happen if we fail." Noel said. "But it's nice not to think about it, when we say we'll find the staffs and save our seas, it makes me happy, and I know we'll be successful!" Seira said.
"Your right, after all, we do have Aqua Regina on our side, as long as we do our part without fail, we'll win." Lucia said. "Yeah!" Everyone shouted. Soon they got out and dried themselves back to their human forms and dressed into their sleep wear. They all went to their rooms and said goodnight to each other. Lucia said she was going to be a minute and ended up going to the roof. The roof wasn't cold because it was an observatory like place.
She sat by the window and looked into the snow and saw nothing but white."Lucia, why'd you come up here?" Asked a voice, she turned around and it was Kaito. "I just came to think." She said."Think, think, think, that's all you've been doing the last few days." He said as he sat next to her. "Well, there's a lot to think about." She mumbled. "Okay, like what?" He asked. "Well, there's the problem of going and looking through a huge sea for an old kingdom. Then there's the fact that I gotta part from you again." Sh said sadly. "Is that what your worried about? Come on, you managed a week without me, I think a day or two won't hurt you." He said.
"But still, I don't know what'll happen, and I can't say whether or not we'll find that kingdom, the odds are slim." She said. "You can't worry about every little thing that hurts you or everyone else, you gotta live with it. There's bound to be problems that gotta end badly once in a while, but if you worry about it, it just gets harder to deal with." He said as he wrapped his arms around her. "I guess your right. I'm sorry for all the trouble this must be causing you though." She said as she closed her eyes and buried her face in his chest. "I don't have problems as long as I'm here with you." He said.
"Thank you." She said softly. "Just remember what I told you, I'll stay on the surface right where you left me, so you'll be fine." He said and kissed the top of her head. "Right." She said. She really is that scared of this whole event? Well, I can't blame her, but she seems so frightened by this. He thought for a minute. "Is it okay if we stay like this for the night?" She asked quietly. "Sure, anything for you." He said, and she fell asleep, but just after she said "I love you."