Nico tapped a pencil anxiously against the desk as she waited for school to end. The plan would involve the trio missing practice, and even thought Nico really didn't want to do that, it was worth the sacrifice.
She clutched the small plastic helicopter in one hand and the remote control in the other. The plan was simple, attach a small camera to the helicopter, and put it in Sakura's handbag without her knowing.
Getting anxious, Nico watched the clock tick slowly as it was merely moments before school would end. She didn't want to blink because she didn't want to miss it.
But she did end up blinking.
And she did end up missing it.
Moving as swiftly as she could, Nico dashed out of the classroom at light speed and raced outside. Thankfully Hanayo and Rin were already positioned where they were supposed to be, standing outside of the school.
Running towards the duo, she held out the helicopter to her right and went to run past them.
Quickly Rin snatched the helicopter out of her hand and Nico dashed away. Everything was going to according to plan.
She hid behind a nearby tree as she watched the event unfold. The first years approached Sakura as she walked out of the building. Rin eagerly struck up a conversation and instantly got Sakura involved as she was making big motions with her hands as she talked. Behind them, all Hanayo had to do was slip the helicopter into the bag.
But Hanayo just stood there.
She was practically frozen, and Nico could tell that Rin was getting slightly worried as Hanayo wasn't fulfilling her part of the plan.
"Hanayo you freaking wimp what are you doing?" Nico knew the girl couldn't hear her, but she hoped by some grace of God that Hanayo would do her part.
Nico watched as Rin tried to keep the conversation up, but it was clearly dying.
Thankfully, Hanayo snapped back into reality and swiftly dropped the helicopter into the handbag.
Nico and Rin sighed in relief simultaneously. Rin waved goodbye to Sakura as Hanayo followed behind her, and Nico watched as a short man in a suit and tie opened the door to a fancy looking car for Sakura. He took her bag and placed it into the trunk before they drove off.
After Sakura was out of sight, Rin and Hanayo dashed over to Nico.
"Okay guys let's hurry before we get caught!" Nico explained, grabbing the first year's hands as she sprinted, dragging them along with her.
"I really n-need to get into better shape." Hanayo said as Nico decided the best place to go was the fast food place.
"Wow nya. It takes a while to get to her house." Rin commented as the girls settled in a booth, huddled around Nico's laptop. All they could see was a few things in the girl's handbag of course, but doing a kind of spy mission was still really cool.
Nico clutched the remote in her hand, waiting for the perfect opportunity to exit Sakura's handbag. She feared that the helicopter would make a lot of noise but she would just have to risk it.
"Oh I think we're there." Hanayo said as the handbag moved around. Items like lip gloss and mirrors swished around the bag as the view began to get rather blocked.
"Should I fly out now or wait till we're in the house?" Nico asked her companions.
"Fly out. We n-need to get their address. Of course it may p-prove hard getting back in." Hanayo decided, and Nico nodded in agreement as she pressed a few buttons on the helicopter.
Swiftly the plastic toy flew out of Sakura's handbag. Thankfully the girl didn't notice as the small helicopter flew up into the air.
"No wonder she didn't notice nya. She has headphones in." Rin pointed out, and Nico noticed the small earbuds that were probably blasting music.
Since the camera was so cheap, they could only see out of it. They couldn't hear anything, so they would have to guess what people were saying or listening to.
Flying around, Nico looked at the big house. It was huge; it was twice the size of Maki's mansion and had a beautiful garden just beyond it.
"Rin, cross out 'Lots of money' and write 'Crap ton of money'. Oh and write down the address as well please." Rin hummed in response as she scribbled down what Nico said.
After getting a good enough scope of the house, Nico decided that entering might be a good idea. Assuming that the inside was going to look just as fancy as the outside, her standards were set pretty high.
The butler-that's what Nico decided to refer to him as for simplicity-opened the door for Sakura who nodded at him. Nico had no idea how to get in; if she flew right in the butler would see her instantly.
"What do I do?" Nico asked frantically. Out of the blue Rin swiftly grabbed the controller from Nico and headed the cheap helicopter for the door.
"It's called: 'all or nothing' nya!" Rin yelled, gathering a few weird looks from the customers around her, but Nico noticed the first year payed no mind as she watched the screen attentively.
"Rin you moron, we're going to get caught." Nico tried to grab the remote back, but Rin had her mind set as Hanayo watched quizzically from the sidelines.
Somehow the helicopter was able to fly into the house without the man noticing and Rin quickly had it follow Sakura.
Nico used this opportunity to see as much as she could out of the cheap little camera.
"Hanayo, you're on notebook duty! Write: 'extremely big house' and 'lots of expensive furniture'." Nico called to the girl who snapped back into reality and nodded in response.
"O-okay!" was the response as Hanayo quickly grabbed the notebook and began scribbling down what Nico had said.
Rin and Nico watched the laptop screen as the little plastic toy followed Sakura up a flight of stairs to a second level of the mansion.
"Two levels Hanayo…No scratch that three." Nico said the last part in awe as she looked at the beauty of the absurdly large home. Nico would kill to have her family live in a place like that. Sakura probably just had rich parents who inherited some kind of worldwide business.
Nico scoffed at her own thoughts, which obviously didn't go unnoticed by the first years, but they just ignored it and continued their duties.
"Okay, I think she's entering her room nya." Rin said excitedly as Sakura opened the door to one of the rooms.
"Good work. Follow in right after her. Hanayo jot down that her room is on the third floor." Nico ordered as Hanayo shook her head.
"I f-feel like we are stalking this poor girl Nico." Hanayo admitted, but did as Nico asked.
Nico laughed bitterly. "Hanayo, she is certainly not poor. And that's fact at this point." Hanayo shrugged and Nico watched her digest the thought, but turned her attention back to the screen.
Rin had parked the helicopter on a high shelf within the extremely large bedroom.
"My bedroom is barely a quarter of the size of this one nya." Rin commented. Nico's jaw dropped as she looked at the large bedroom.
It was cliché that the room was doused in pink and other bright, girly colors. The bed was huge; Nico assumed that it was at least a queen sized bed. There was an array of cosmetics sitting on a desk in the corner of the room with a large mirror hanging on the wall. Directly across from the overly large bed was a large flat screen television.
What intrigued Nico the most was a small remote with a red button sitting on one of the pillows on the bed.
"Okay, is this good enough Nico?" Rin asked to which Nico merely nodded to in response.
"Just shush Rin; we need to find all the data we can." Nico explained. Rin opened her mouth to speak, but Nico stuck a finger up to her lips. Rin nodded, did a silent salute, and focused her energy onto the small laptop screen.
Sakura dropped her handbag onto the floor and walked over to her bed. She sat on it, sinking slightly into the obviously comfy mattress. Nico watched with curious eyes as Sakura grabbed the remote control and pressed the red button.
"Stewart, I'll have one cup of iced tea. Please have it ready for me in the garden." Nico's mouth dropped as the butler, now identified as Stewart, replied with a yes through a speaker on the back of the remote.
"That's crazy." Nico muttered to herself as she looked at the device. "Hanayo scratch out 'Crap ton of money' and write 'So rich they could murder someone without anybody knowing'." This caused Hanayo to gulp, but she did was the third year said.
Rin couldn't help but add something. "Also write: 'Insanely powerful remote that can control minds across the galaxy—."
"Rin, I get to do the talking, you just point stuff out." Nico interrupted. Rin's demeanor sagged slightly as she pouted.
"Yes Captain." Hanayo tried to comfort the poor girl, but to no avail.
Nico looked at Rin, and actually felt…bad. She was hanging out way too much with the first years.
Sighing in annoyance, Nico turned to Hanayo. "Hanayo write down what Rin just said please." Hanayo smiled eagerly and scribbled down what Nico said.
But Rin was a little different.
She slowly turned her head to Nico, her mouth wide open as she began to make an "Aw" sound. It slowly escalated and got louder and louder as neither Nico nor Hanayo knew what exactly was happening.
"Uh… Rin what are you—."
"Thank you Nico-chan!" Rin cheered loudly and happily, wrapping her hands around the unsuspecting third year who groaned. Nico heard Hanayo gigging from where she sat and shot a dirty glare at her. Surprisingly, Hanayo just kept laughing.
"G-get off of me Rin, we're on a job here you know!" Nico shouted, shoving the first year back in her spot, her eyes intently looking at the screen.
But what she saw on the screen scared the living crap out of her.
Sakura's faced was shoved up extremely close to the camera, and obviously she had found the helicopter because as soon as it happened Nico immediately grabbed the remote from Rin and tried to fly the plastic toy away.
"Ah! She's so creepy!" Nico yelped as Sakura examined the small helicopter. Nico heard Hanayo scribbling down something. "Don't write that down!"
"Nico escape! She's going to kill us all nya!" Rin once again swiped the remote from Nico's grip and began mashing buttons in an attempt to free the helicopter from Sakura. But no matter what Rin did, Nico knew there was no escape from this demon.
"Okay guys, I think we got enough info. We just need to hide the fact that we planted the helicopter on her." Nico explained, slamming the laptop shut. Hanayo nodded frantically in agreement while Rin pouted.
"That was fun. And that helicopter cost a lot of money; why did Hanayo and I have to pay for it nya?" Rin asked Nico.
"Uh…Well because you're first years and I'm a third year, of course!" Nico tried to come up with the best explanation for not chipping in. She didn't really have that much money to spare at the moment.
She watched Rin ponder the crappy lie for a few moments.
"I guess that makes sense nya." Rin replied and it almost made Nico want to face palm.
"Nico, is this good enough for you?" Hanayo said snapping Nico back into what was happening. Hanayo held out the notepad to Nico.
Grabbing the notes, Nico read them over to see just how much information they had gathered on Takado Sakura. She tried to ignore Rin's giant stickman drawing and focused on what Hanayo wrote down. Her writing was much neater then Meow-Meow's. Who is Rin…Nico decided not to use Rin's nicknames at all.
Slipping her laptop into her backpack, Nico sat up from the booth. "Alright guys, we got some more brainstorming to do. Meet up here after practice tomorrow." Her two companions nodded happily.
"W-wait, Nico, what are we going to do about Eli and Umi? They p-probably won't be too happy with us since we missed practice." Hanayo reminded, shuddering slightly.
"Ugh, that's a good point." Nice admitted, thinking of a way they could get out of the situation they were in.
Rin's obnoxious laughter broke her train of thought.
"Don't even worry about it nya." Rin said, shaking her head. "Rin's got this one!" Her new trademark thumbs up appeared as she grinned confidently.
Nico shrugged; at least she wouldn't have to deal with it now. "Alright Rin, you got it. I better get going, see you guys." Nico waved goodbye as she headed for the exit.
"Bye Nico!"
"Have an s-safe walk home Nico!" Those two were starting to become more and more fun to hang out with Nico noticed.
She chuckled lightly to herself.
And they're just a pair of first years.
Nico felt like an idiot.
In review, she and Hanayo had left it to Rin to come up with an excuse to get them out of their sticky situation. The three approached the roof together so at least they would have some support.
When they arrived everybody stared at them. Nico felt a little uncomfortable, but of course didn't let it show and just smirked. Rin was as confident with her plan as ever, but poor Hanayo was shaking like crazy.
"Hey guys, sorry about yesterday." Nico apologized, bowing to the group. Hopefully they would feed right into it.
Now it was Hanayo's turn to speak. But it was the plastic helicopter situation all over again.
The girl just froze. She didn't say anything; she was just looking off into space as her shaking stopped completely. It was as if she wasn't even there anymore, and Nico began to get a little nervous.
Trying to bring her back to reality, Nico lightly kicked Hanayo's foot, who thankfully snapped back.
"Uh…I-I am s-so v-v-very sorry a-about m-m-missing p-p-practice." Though Hanayo was stuttering like a fool, she was able to squeak out her line and robotically bow down. Nico mentally face palmed at the display, but was thankful that it was over with.
Now it was Rin's turn to carry it for the team.
"Right, nya, we're really sorry about missing practice yesterday. But something really awful happened to Nico!" Rin lied straight though her teeth as Nico's eyes wide. Oh great.
"Oh yeah," Eli said in a scary tone. "And what exactly happened to Nico Rin?" Nico was deadly afraid that Rin would back down, but the girl just kept on blabbering.
"Well, we were all heading up to practice right? And then Nico was like 'wow guys it's pretty slippery' and Kayo-chin and I agreed with her nya. We assumed that the floor was recently washed, so as we walked up the stairs Nico slipped!" Rin then gasped as if to add to the drama, and surprisingly Hanayo did too. It was as if she believed what Rin was saying even though it wasn't true at all. "She tumbled down the stairs and Kayo-chin and I quickly raced down after her. Thankfully she wasn't harmed too much nya, but she had an awful headache!" As if to emphasize the point, Rin clutched her head. "Oh it was awful! And of course Kayo-chin and I didn't want to leave her alone so we walked her home. It was such a sad moment nya." Rin ended the part very emotionally, and Nico could've sworn she heard light sobbing coming from Hanayo.
These two are A-class idiots Nico thought as she rolled her eyes. She could tell all of μ's was looking at them funny, so she tried to save it.
"Rin's over exaggerating. I just got a mild headache and the two were kind enough to walk me home. Can we just start practice?" Nico pleaded, hoping that she had appeased to them.
All of the girls looked at each other. Honoka shrugged.
"Sure, at least you are here now. Just try not to miss another practice please; Love Live is coming up pretty soon." Honoka smiled and Nico thanked God for Honoka's kind spirit.
"Thank you." The trio dropped off their things and joined the practice. People still eyed them warily, but Nico tried not to pay attention as she tried to catch up with anything she missed the previous day. Thankfully they were able to get through the practice and things went well.
After practice the group of three grabbed their stuff together, chatting away mindlessly.
"That practice was rough nya. Umi really got after us." Rin pouted. Hanayo nodded in agreement.
"Y-yeah, she was pretty scary."
"Well, all that matters is that we got through it." Nico finished and the two first years hummed along with her.
"Nicocchi!" a familiar voice called out. Nico turned to see Eli and Nozomi approaching. "We feel like we haven't seen a lot of you lately." Nozomi said.
"I agree; you've been zipping in and out of class recently. What's up?" Eli added.
Nico probably should've expected that something like this would happen sooner or later. But she was just too busy with the whole Sakura thing and dealing with Hanayo and Rin that her best friends totally slipped her mind.
"Sorry guys, I have just been super busy lately. You know idol stuff. I need to keep up my appearance." Nico struck a valiant pose, awkwardly chuckling as the two looked at her questioningly.
"What's up Nicochhi?" Nozomi asked more directly this time, her hands once again opening up and curling. "Or are we just going to have to force it out of you?" Her tone became playful as Eli shook her head.
Nico took a step back as Nozomi threatened to move inward. I'm freaking screwed!
"Oh, s-sorry Nozomi, we just have been borrowing Nico f-for a while. We're d-doing a study on p-people with lots o-of dedication and focus on t-their dream. We thought N-Nico would be perfect." Hanayo lied perfectly, in Nico's opinion, even though she stuttered a few times. That was normal for Hanayo.
Smiling in relief Nico nodded along with her.
"But wouldn't Maki be working on this project too? She is in the same class." Eli questioned further. Hanayo froze at this question, not expecting something else to be thrown at her.
"It's not for school nya." Rin butt into the conversation, saving Nico and Hanayo. "I just thought it would be interesting nya. Kayo-chin and I haven't got a lot to do lately besides school and μ's so we thought it could be fun." Rin explained happily.
The third years looked at the trio for a few moments before Eli shrugged.
"Whatever you guys say I suppose. Well we're off, see you later!" Eli bid farewell as she walked into the school. Nozomi smiled at her friend as she shook her head.
"Oh Elicchi, I didn't know you were this dense. Good luck with your 'work'." Nozomi smiled cheekily, heading in after Eli.
At long last the group of three sighed relief. That had been tough, especially coming from Eli and Nozomi.
"Thanks you guys, you totally saved me." Nico admitted. She could see that Hanayo was still shuddering from the event that just occurred, but Rin just stuck up a thumb.
"Don't worry about it Nico! You are our Captain! And the crew looks out for each other nya." Rin grinned as Hanayo giggled.
"I a-agree. Nico is our Captain." And for once, Hanayo saluted to Nico who was dumbfounded.
What a pair of goofs. They're clowns, and goofs, and definitely idiots. But I guess… They're my crew. Nico was surprised on how she took such pride in the first years.
She heard the pair giggling as Nico quickly gave her head a good shake and turned her back to them. "Anyways, back to the plan! Maki is top priority here, and now that we have learned quite a bit about Sakura, we need to see how much Maki really…likes her." Nico said the last two words with disgust. The two girls behind her sounded in agreement as they marched down the stairs.
Yes, it was time to shake Maki back into reality. That Sakura girl was nothing in comparison to Nico. You didn't need money or a pretty face to win over someone. You just needed a good heart; a determined heart. And Nico was certain she had that.
"Hey, Nico," Hanayo's voice snapped Nico back to reality.
"Yes Hanayo?"
"I-If you don't m-mind me asking, why e-exactly do you n-not want S-Sakura to end up with Maki?" Hanayo definitely just shot the elephant in the room.
The question seemed to surprise Rin as well for she looked at Hanayo with a startled expression. But it also intrigued the cat girl, who also turned her attention to Nico.
Nico pondered the question herself. Why does this rile her up so much? Nico wasn't so sure herself, but it just didn't seem…right. She tried to think of a way to explain it.
Before Nico knew it, the trio were outside. She looked up at the clear blue sky and thought for a few moments.
"You guys know that Eli and Nozomi are really great friends right?" Nico asked. The first years nodded, it was pretty obvious. "Well, just think. What would Eli do if somebody wanted to take Nozomi away?" The question caused the pair to think for a few moments. They seemed to digest what exactly was going on with Nico.
Turning to the young girls, Nico wore a tired, confused, angry, happy, and incomplete look on her face. That was the only way to describe it.
"She would do whatever she could to get her back." Smiling bitterly, Nico turned her attention away from the two and began the walk to the fast food restaurant.
The two girls finally understood what was going on, and Nico was afraid that they wouldn't help her anymore, but to her surprise the two girls ran up to her; Hanayo grabbing her left hand, Rin grabbing her right.
"Nico, don't you remember what Hanayo said at the very beginning of all of this, nya?" Rin asked. Nico tried to think back to what exactly happened, but Hanayo cut her thoughts off.
"Nico, we're not really sure what's going on between you and Maki, and Maki and Sakura too of course. But we're not here to ask questions, we're here to help you out. So whatever you need, we'll be there for you."
Nico began to cry.
Hey guys! I hope you liked that chapter. It was origianally going to be two seperate ones but I just added them together. Hope you like the whole NicoRinPana thing going on :D
Review Corner Yo!
(Just saying, the Review corner is a little long. So feel free to skip :D. I've decided not to post the comments right on here so it doens't seem like there's way more about the story then there really is)
1. Rakik
I don't blame you for being skeptic, but that's kind of the gimmick of a self inserted Mary Sue. They usually miraculously have everyone fall in love with them in like two words, not dependent on personality, so I was hoping that that's how it would come across. Even though it is very strange for Maki, i'll agree. But I'm good that Nico reeled you back in. Personally I love writing Nico as a character, especially with the whole NicoRinPana. I hope Nico kicks Sakura's ass too, though I don't know how that'll turn out. XD. You don't need to thank me for anything, I should be thanking you for giving this story a chance. I will try my best to do daily updates, but that might be a little hard if the chapters need to be long too. So I'll either do shorter chapters daily or longer chapters every second day. I'm not really sure, I'll figure it out :P
2. Aveo Her
Oh cool, glad that you got too read two chappies off the bat! Hopefully it was a good introduction for you into the story. Hopefully you didn't have to wait too long for this chapter. :D
3. IHasRainbows (Is this a play on IHasCupquake maybe?)
Actually when I first planned out this story, well "planned", I was barely going to have Rin or Hanayo in it. Originally I was going to have Eli and Umi help out Nico, which is probably still going to happen, I just thought having the dynamic duo would be easier and more fun to write with. Glad you love it!
4. NicoNicoNii17
I'm really sorry. I don't speak Spanish so I'm exactly sure what you're saying, but I Google Translated it (which isn't all that reliable) and this is how it came out:
Nooo no one can interupt the following nicomaki uu Sakura plan to wipe out! For some reason the staff take very irritated just thinking I can not be nnnnnnnn ahh mmmmmm this interesting fight hope the next single I
I can kind of see what you're saying lol. I know, Sakura is as annoying as fuck, and I'm glad to see that you are so into it. Hope this lives up to your expectations and continue reading :)
5. Nahoma
Yeah sorry about that. I just get mixed up a bit and I promise I'll try not to make a rookie mistake like that again. I'm okay with you being a grammar nazi, at least you're a nice one. Thanks a ton for answering the questions, and don't be afraid to make long comments.
6. Sweatpants
NicoRinPana is my life right now. Just saying. Thanks for answering the questions, I take all feedback into great consideration. If you're interested in the story, here it is: Natures Princess by Funaho Misaki. It's not complete BTW, but it's still a funny read. But it is Yuri.
7. Jenkist
This comment really made me smile. Thanks a lot for that, really uplifted my day :). Hope you like this chapter as well.
8. yzyr
I'm awesome that you share in my love of NicoRinPana. I actually didn't even like it that much until I started writng this story, and it opened me up to a beautiful world :D. Thanks for the luck, I'll need it, and I hope you have a great day as well Reader :P :D