"Hey, is that that Arthur guy you were looking for?" Gilbert asked, pointing at a blind man looking a bit lost.
"Yes, that Eng- Arthur aru!" China said, rushing over to the Brit.
"England! Where in the world have you been aru?" He demanded, hugging him in a moment of public affectional display.
"Er... I got lost..." England replied awkwardly. China let him go, looking him over. "How did you get lost aru?" He asked, checking for possible injuries (protectvie much?)
"I stopped paying attention to you and then I realised that I didn't know where you were, so I called for you..." England explained slowly. Satisfied, China smiled at England relieved.
"Well, at least I've found you now aru."
"Well, actually, the fairies-"
"Thank you for your help aru!" China interrupted, not paying attention to what England had wanted to say and turning to Hungary, Prussia and Austria.
"Think nothing of it. We were glad to help." Hungary replied, smiling back at China.
"Now, if you excuse us, we really must get going now." Austria huffed out, tugging at Prussia's and Hungary's arms. Realising that they were planning on leaving, China quickly thought up something in order to stop them disappearing into the crowds.
"Ah, wait! Can I buy you a coffee or something aru? Just to show you my thanks... aru..." China quickly suggested. Austria stopped half-dragging the two nations arms off the market place and turned to China thoughtfully.
Prussia looked a bit puzzled by the sudden suggestion, Hungary suspicious, but Austria, ever the frugal man, looked thoughtfully.
"Fine, if you want to..." Austria finally said. After all, who turns down a free coffee?*
In the meantime, in the South Pole, three nations were digging up snow, ice and rubbel, trying to reach a base underground. They had been at it for hours and had to take breaks often, to return to the safety of a warm plane.
America was kind of relieved that Germany had talked him into taking the bigger and also slower plane, because it had heating inside. The three were currently outside again, digging, America occasionally complaining about how their mission was getting on so boringly slow and how absolutely, unnaturally freezing it was.
Japan and Germany ignored him for the most part.
"Hey, is it me or is it getting difficult to stand on this?" America asked after a while, noticing how wobbly and cracked the ground beneath them was becoming.
"We must be getting close to the base. You were right about it being underground America-san."
"Hey, if it's already having difficulty supporting us, I'd better get some rope, in case it crashes. We'd need to climb back out after all." Germany decided, climbing back out of the hole. He walked to the plane, entering it once again.
He looked through their emergency equipment and finally found three firm ropes. He quickly ran back, to find the hole deeper and empty.
"Huh? Hey, Amerika! Japan! Are you down there?" He called.
There were some muffled replies, probably in agreement.
"What happened?" He asked, leaning a bit closer in hopes of understanding them.
"America-san continued digging and caused the ground to collapse. We're in the base now!" Japan called up.
"OK! I'll throw some ropes down then!"
Hurriedly, Germany tightened the ropes to a rock that was conveniently nearby. He then threw the three ropes down into the hole, using on to climb down. Once reaching the bottom, America waved happily and walked over.
"Check it out dude, a secret military base!"
"... More like crime base. And it's not like none of us have been in one before..." Germany said. "So what now?"
"Well, we look for stuff, you know, material to help us prove that Italy, Japan, England and er... That Guy... Oh yeah, Canadia! are actually nations."
Japan nodded, looking around the halls, while shuddering.
"I think they have an archive on us around here somewhere... Although, if they've abandoned the base, they probably took all that with them." Japan said, leading the two down the halls.
"OK, well, let's go find that archive! Or at least a computer." America announced.
"Hai, but it's always been difficult to locate anything here." Japan replied, opening a door.
The others filed in, noticing that it was another office.
"... Now that I think about it, I never took the time to search an office..." Japan murmered softly, looking around the room. The HCS must have been in a real rush; the room was still loaded with files and paperwork.
They probably only took what was most necessary. The other two nations, which were a lot more curious than the nation that had been trapped here for decades, were flicking through the paperwork.
"Hey, what's this here?"
"What did you call us?" South Korea asked. Liechtenstein didn't respond. What does she do now? They still didn't remember her, what does she say?
"Sir, you will adress Miss Lilli as Ma'am, Madam or Miss at all times!" Lukas announced annoyed, shooting out of his own chair too.
"Wha-?"
"Why?" Sealand asked. Lukas was about to continue, but Liechtenstein tugged at his arm, shaking her head lightly. He nodded and sat down again.
"I am Lilli and am considered an important part of Liechtenstein. May I ask, what are your names?"
"Well, I'm Peter Kirkland, he's Raivis Galante and he's Im Yong Soo!" Sealand announced, smiling nervously. He noticed a dark glare coming from Lukas and quickly added "Ma'am".
"Do you live in Liechtenstein?" She further inquired.
"No, we're from Switzerland, we're just spending our holiday here... Ma'am." Sealand explained.
"Is that so..." Liechtenstein sighed. So, here were three people, who she knew were nations. But what does she do with them? Tell them the whole truth? They'll think she's insane!
... Unless...
"Say... Do you three lack memories from before about a year ago?" All three paled with shock written all over their face.
Bingo! Liechtenstein thought, making sure that her face stayed passive.
"Well..." South Korea started, only to be inturrupted by Liechtenstein.
"You were found somewhere alone with no memories of what happened a year ago, am I right?" She asked, keeping her smile under tight locks.
"Y-yes..." Sealand muttered.
"Yes, I thought so... Er... Herr Friedli, how far did I get with my tale again?"
"You were just getting to the point of discovery."
"Well... Herr Kirkland, Herr Galante, Herr... Yong Soo**? Please feel free to take a seat." The three nodded and sat down in the chairs. Liechtenstein pushed her bowl of Müsli*** away and took a deep breath.
"Now, the reason I can guess what had happened is because something similar happened to me." Liechtenstein began to explain shyly.
"... I was found in a... Container, badly beaten and taken to a hospital for treatment. I had no memories of my past when I woke up there, that is, until yesterday." Liechtenstein left a pause, remembering once again how her life as Lilli Kirkland was. It had certainly been... Interesting...
Switzerland certainly wouldn't have approved of some of the things she'd done as a human (and for that matter, when Arthur found out about them, he wasn't that thrilled either).
"... And... I know you, from before I ended up in the container." Liechtenstein explained. She gave Lukas a look, silently asking him to call the Swiss Guard in as soon as Sealand, South Korea and Latvia made any moves to make a run after she told them the truth.
"You do? Tell us, tell us!" Both South Korea and Sealand demanded, getting out of their seats. Latvia merely looked up curiously, to nervous to make any comment.
"Well... First I guess I'll start with your real names... You could say that your current names are merely aliases."
"Well?"
"Peter, your real name is Sealand, Im, your real one is South Korea and Raivis, yours is Latvia..." She rambled out quickly.
"What? Are you crazy? What are you talking about?" Sealand yelped, immediately jumping out of his seat again, only to be forced back in.
Three Swiss Guards had entered the room without the others noticing and were now forcing the three to stay put.
"Just... Give it some thought?" Liechtenstein asked, hoping she hadn't been too blunt and outgoing about the whole topic.
The three silenced, thinking about what she'd said.
"Well..." Sealand started after a pause. "... It'd explain a lot about me..."
Well... This is strangely not awkward aru... China thought to himself. England had become silent, listening to the three strangers with interest.
Prussia was going on about how he managed to put some guy in his place, with Hungary making side comments, on what had basically really happened and Austria just drank his coffee silently, with very little interest in the actual conversation.
China had in all honesty expected there to be an awkward silence, but he had forgotten that Prussia was never silent (unless he was depressed, which he currently was most certainly not).
And England seemed to be taking it well, that he was suddenly forced to have coffee with complete strangers.
At least, that's what China thought until England delibaretly nudged both his and China's spoons to the floor.
"Oh shoot, sorry China..." England apologised.
"Er, it's OK." China replied, slightly confused by the younger nations' actions. He got under the table to pick the spoon up, England hurriedly joining him.
"China, what the hell are you doing?" England hissed quietly. China looked up surprised.
"What do you mean aru?"
"Who are they? Why are you so keen on keeping them here?" He whispered back, picking up his spoon.
"They're other nations England." China quietly replied. He studied England's reaction, but those damned sunglasses made his expressions near impossible to read.
England didn't say anything on the three strangers being nations as well and sat up again, having picked up his spoon.
China sighed and picked his spoon up, also getting up.
Prussia was still chattering animatedly, Hungary with an amused smile on her face, especially when she shot his chat down with snarky remarks or the cold, solid truth.
Somehow that didn't stop him from talking about how awesome he was anyway.
"Ah, sorry, but we really must go now." Austria finally announced. China was about to try and stop them, having still not successfully gotten them to arrange another meeting, but England stopped him.
"It was nice meeting you." Hungary said, smiling.
"Yeah, you too." England replied. "Ah, Gilbert, we really must go out for a drink sometime. The way you got that meal at a restaurant free of charge is amaz- awesome." He continued, looking roughly in Prussia's direction.
Prussia grinned (not that England could see this) and nodded in agreement.
"That would be totally awesome. Look, I'll give you my- Er... I'll give your buddy my phone number, then you can call any time!" Prussia announced, taking out a piece of paper and quickly writing his number down, handing it to China.
"Look guys, we've really got to go!" Austria pressed on frustrated.
"Well, catch 'cha later Arthur, er... I mean England!" Prussia said, saying bye to the two strange citizens, as Austria quickly pulled both him and Hungary out of the restaurant.
"Why'd you stop me?" China asked after a while, having finished his own coffee (finally).
"We don't want to appear stalker-ish." England replied simply. "That was America's mistake. We want the three to trust us as soon as possible and we won't do that if we appear like creeps."
China didn't say anything, slightly insulted by England's attitude, but didn't further comment.
"Anyway, which nations were they?" England asked, having been unable to place the accents.
"They were Austria, Hungary and Prussia."
"Oh..." England replied, placing a hand on his chest. He rubbed it slightly, feeling slightly different. He didn't quite understand it, but for the most part he ignored it.
"So, which one is which?..."
Back in the HCS base, the three nations America, Japan and Germany were shuffling through the corridors, checking out rooms and gathering information.
So far, they hadn't found much, however they discovered that the HCS had a lot of connections with criminal gangs.
These connections explained how so many criminal empires had managed to turn up all over the world during the last century and be so powerful.
The HCS had been developing weaponry and supplying weaponry for them, in exchange for their services, such as kidnapping nearly every personification on the planet.
And so it also turned out, that a lot of leads America had discovered weren't actually dead-ends. Had he been able to look further, he would have eventually found the HCS.
Luckily for them, crime was back under control to an extent, in other words, most highly professional criminals were locked behind bars.
Which meant that the proffessionality of HCS had already gone down, which explained why it was so easy to capture those spies.
They were having to hire amateurs to do their dirty work. It also matched what Japan remembered hearing from the first few days of the Nation-Nap Mystery and why, over the years, Nations found it more and more easy to escape.
So, although the seventeen nations or the world for that matter, didn't know it (until Germany, America and Japan found out of course), they actually were helping the nations escape, by getting crime back under control.
It was kind of a pleasant thought, that you hadn't been sitting around uselessly for the last century.
But otherwise, no information was found on the nations. The HCS seemed to have taken it all.
"They must have left some photos or something guys!" America complained, as they searched yet another floor and came up with nothing.
Japan shrugged. "We at least have proof that the HCS is a threat to human society and supplied criminal empires with new weaponry regularely. That is enough to get them trialled and sentenced."
"Yeah, but they won't get punished for what they did to us!" America whined in reply. Both Germany and Japan shrugged.
"And how will the other personifications convince their governments that they're the country in human form?" America pointed out. "They don't have any proof in being what they claim to be and humans are very logical creatures nowadays.*"
Germany frowned at this.
America had a point. It would be very difficult to convince the humans of their existance, especially since so many people like to think logically and scientifically, a very small percentage believing in the supernatural (not including religion, naturally).
"Japan, I think we're going to have to check every single floor thoroughly. I know, that on the next floors are just cells, but... Even you have never been to the very bottom." Germany said, subtily suggesting what he wanted them to do.
"No..." Japan replied, paling at the thought.
"Huh? What's going on guys?" America asked, not having caught Germany's drift.
"America, he wants us to... He wants us to check the floors below the cells."
"So?"
"America, that's where they keep the dead nations."
*Beware of people who offer to buy coffee for you. They often knew you in another life.
** I don't get his name. Is his first name Im and last name Yong Soo or what? Aaah, why are names so complicated? TT^TT
*** German? Austrian? Swiss? breakfast meal.
* This basically means if someone comes up to you, claiming to be a witch, you'll give them a weird look. However, do that four centuries ago and you'd be burned at the stake... Or drowned... Or somethin' like that. You know?
I apologise for any OOCness. I'm not that familiar with either Latvia or South Korea or Sealand really... So please forgive me. Also, please forgive this chapter for being short and rushed, but I'm not good at writing fillers or exciting parts well (so what in the world am I good at writing?)
Anyway, roll up guys and guess which nations'll be discovered dead! ... I make that sound like a good thing. =.="
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter. :)
Review?
Review Reply to Lyn (not sure if you'll see this)
Feliciano isn't blind to begin with. Otherwise he wouldn't be allowed to cook (not that blind people can't cook, but...)