Ch. 26

(POV:Neko)

"Neko! Hurry up already!" called Nemu.

"Coming!" I yelled back. I tossed my phone into my bag and walked into the surf. As the waves overran my shins, I tossed the Raku problem to the back of my mind. I reached Nemu in a spot about a meter deep.

"What now?" she asked. I thought for a second before I had an idea.

"How good of a swimmer are you?" I asked.

"Really good." She replied with a grin.

"Ok, follow me, but if you start to get tired let me know immediately. Ok?"

"Alright." she replied. I walked away from the shore until the water was above my head, then began to swim away from shore. We swam parallel to shore, using our goggles to view the reef under us. About 15 minutes later, we swam into the beach. As Nemu collapsed in the sand from exhaustion, I sat down next to her.

"Idiot. Tell me before you get that tired. Honestly." I scolded her.

"Hmph." she responded, to tired to make an actual reply. She recovered enough strength to sit up about a minute and a half later.

"So what was that thing about earlier?" Nemu asked.

"Mr. Raku had someone trailing us. I told them off. But don't worry about it. You should enjoy the trip. I was going to leave it until we got back, but then those two showed up. But I dealt with it, so we shouldn't have any trouble until after the trip." I said. I laid my back against the sand, relaxing the back muscles.

"Harry!" someone called. I took no notice.

"Harry, is that you!?" said the voice again, only this time louder. What was with that person? Then my mind connected the dots. That was right. That was my name. I sat up, looking towards the voice. A girl about my age stood in shock about 2 meters away from me.

"H-Harry?! Is that really you?!" asked the girl in an astonished voice.

"If you are referring to a Harry Aki, then yes, that is me. What do you need?" I said.

"Neko, do you know this person?" Nemu asked.

"She seems familiar, but I don't know her name, or where I saw her before." I replied.

"You don't remember me?" the girl asked. I nodded in response.

"I guess that is only to be expected. After all, you barely talked to me in school, and you were in SAO when I moved away. But still, to know that you made it out, and then moved to Japan… that is truly incredible." The girl said in a amazed voice. However, it was the eyes sent my sixth sense nuts. They were glazed over, in a state of shock. Nemu must have sensed it too, because she leaned closer to me. She too, had been in that death game after all. However, even I couldn't have predicted what happened next.

She seemed nervous about what to say next, then seemed to nod to herself. She raised her head and said in a matter-of-factly voice: "I...I have a crush on you.".

(POV:Nemu)

"I...I have a crush on you." said the girl. Neko's body straightened in surprise. Then my mind fully processed what she had just said. She… she wouldn't dare. I wouldn't let her.

(POV:Neko)

As I sat there, fully processing what the girl had just said, Nemu suddenly grabbed my arm and yanked it back, nearly causing me to topple over.

"No! He's mine!" Nemu declared.

"N-Nemu, what had gotten into you!?" I asked her. However, any reply she might have made was cut off but quick pitter-patter of feet running on sand. I turned my head to face the direction of the sound. Filling my view was the girl charging me, arms open wide as though to hug me. Yelping in fright, I tried to throw myself to the side, but Nemu's death lock on my arm held me in place. Then she threw herself on top of me, wrapping me in a bear hug. She moved her head as though to kiss me, but then her weight was hurled off of me by a very ticked Nemu. As the two girls began to fight, I tried to comprehend what had just happened. The change in Nemu was completely different, and the girl's actions simply didn't compute. I did what any sane man would. I ran.

(POV:Nemu)

"You learned that he was alive not even 5 minutes ago! I beat you! I've known him for over 2 years!" I barked at the girl.

"I had a crush on him for over 3 years! I beat you!" the girl yelled back. I turned to Neko.

"Well! which one of us do you choose!?" I barked at him. Only to realize that he wasn't there. Instead stood a very confused looking Clark.

"What?! Where did he go?!" exclaimed the girl.

"I-If you're looking for Neko, he ran that way." Clark said, pointing towards the forest. I took of, the girl not even a second behind.

(POV:Clark)

As Nemu and the girl took off for the forest, I stood in shock, trying to understand what just happened.

"Thanks Clark. I needed to get away from them." said Neko, walking up to me.

"I can understand why." I said, taking one last glance over my shoulder at the forest. The two girls had disappeared from view.

"What were you doing here anyway?" asked Neko.

"Hmm? Ohh. Nemu's parents asked me to hunt you guys down when she saw you guys swimming out along the beach. You guys were fast."

"Yeah, I guess. Let's head back. That forest isn't too big, and I don't want to be here when Nemu and that girl come out." said Neko, leading the way.

(POV:Neko)

What had that been all about? I asked myself. I had zero idea as to what set Nemu off like that, and that girl was a complete stranger to me. I still had no clue as I sat up that night, working on a hacked system for the Amusphere. Nemu trudged back in the door around midnight, and promptly crashed in her bed. Just what was going on?

Author's Note: I think I may need to call a priest. I have been laughing the entire time I was writing this chapter. I wonder if any of you can guess what will happen next. Well, anyway, I hope you got a kick out of this chapter. Also, sorry for missing yesterday's upload. I had a crap ton dropped on me last night. As in was up during the AM hours trying to finish stuff up. I hope this long one makes up for it. And thanks to Forever Forgotten Heart for the review. I really appreciate the feedback(The POV Alerts have been added back in). Thanks for reading!