Chapter 6: To the Beach!
Ah.. A nice morning in a nice calm day, where you can hear the birds chirping too.. Here in the Planeptower, there're two boys who are currently sleeping, forgetting all the reality around them and resting after previous chapter adventure(?). What am I doing here if you ask. Well, the Author also want to narrating the story sometimes you know. It's kinda boring if I just write the story without self-inserting. Oh, I should take my leave now.
"*Beep* *Beep* It's morning, wake up. It's morning, wake up." Nepclock use it's alarm to wake Nico and Raven. Both are still half asleep, and they look at each other. Raven gives him a nod, and by that he means he wants Nico to check the alarm beside him. Nico peeks at it.
"7.16 AM.." Nico told him in sleepy voice. Raven went to sleep again right away after hearing that. Nico also want to sleep, but suddenly he hear a big noisy steps outside their room. Someone is running he think.
"Good morning Nico, Ravy! Today is the day!" Neptune open the door without hesitation, making the boys awake again.
"Hmm.. for what..?" Nico sleepily asking Neptune, while Raven tries to sleep again.
"We are going to the beach near Planeptune, remember. Today is the day!" Neptune told them once again.
"Oh, hell yes! Is everyone ready to go yet?" Nico wake up right away, and jump out from the bed.
"Yup, only you and Ravy who aren't. I also invited the other CPUs to come join us. Iffy and Compa-chan will join us later after they have done their work. Histy won't though, she will look after the house for us instead. We'll be going to the beach by train, and we need to get to the station real soon before it leave at 7.30."
"Come on pal, you heard her. Get up!" Nico drags Raven out from his bed, forcing him to wake up. Both of them take turns taking a bath and finally change to their outfit. After that, they go to the living room to see Neptune and Nepgear. "We're ready now."
"Let's go! Histy, take care of the house, 'kay." Neptune waves at Histoire as they enter the elevator.
"Yes, stay safe you guys. (^_^)" she smiled seeing they go.
The group went to the Planeptune trains station, they are running as they search for the train they need to get on.
"Which train is it?" Nepgear said as she runs behind Neptune.
"That one, let's make a run for it!" Neptune point towards a certain train, then they start rushing toward it as the door is about to close. The girls and Raven enter the train quickly, and Nico makes a jump for it. He made it right before the door completely closed. "Safe!" Neptune swipes her sweats.
"That was close.." Nico is panting from the run. The group feel relieved too after they made it to the train. While they're resting on the chairs, there is an announcement in the train.
"The train will reach Mobotropolis in 20 minutes, thank you for your attention."
"..." they went silent right away. The boys and Nepgear staring at Neptune after hearing that.
"Ahh..." Neptune sweating a lot suddenly.
"Which train do we need to take again..?" Nico with disbelief look breaks the silent by asking Neptune.
"This one." she shows the tickets to Nico.
"Uhh.. Nep-nep, it's completely on the other side.." Nico forced his smile. He take a deep breath, trying to endure the pain. "How long does it take from Mobothingy to the beach?" he asks the girls since he thinks they might know it.
"I don't know. I and my sister usually fly in HDD mode everytime we go somewhere." Nepgear seems troubled too. Her words are enough to make Nico and Raven depressed. "S-s-s-sorry!" she got shocked and went sorry right away.
"Think positively Nico.. Positive thinking is important.." Nico murmured as he face palming.
"We're dead.. We're totally gonna get scolded.." Neptune looks scared, thinking what awaits them.
They decided to forgive Neptune and forget about it since it's already happen and cannot be undone. The trip to the beach roughly take 43 minutes from Mobotropolis. While in the train, Nepgear is talking to Nico and Raven about the other nation's sister, how they met, and became friends with her. After they reach the station, they see everyone has already gathered around the exit. They can feel the aura of anger from certain CPUs as they walk to them.
"What took you so long?! We've been waiting here for an hour!" Noire blast her anger at them.
"Sorry.. Neptune got us a wrong train by accident." Nico speak on behalf of their group. He tried to avoid her angry glance though. Noire once again scolded them, they only able to look down.
"There, there, Noire. At least they arrived here safely." Vert tries to calm Noire down. "Is everyone here yet?"
"Looks like it." IF answers after she's done checking around.
"I'm so happy you guys could make it too." Nepgear approaches the other sisters.
"Hmph, you better be. Well, I'm important to you after all. So there's no way I won't come." a young girl with long black hair pigtails spoke. She wears black dress, and being tsundere a bit. She is Uni.
"Nepgear-chan.. thank you..." another young girl shyly speaks toward Nepgear. She has shoulder length brown hair. She wears a blue colored winter jacket. Her name is Rom.
"Rom, Rom! Let's go make a sandcastle later!" the other one must be her twin, Ram. She has longer brown hair than Rom, and wear same winter jacket but pink colored instead.
"Nico, Ravy, you haven't met them before, have you?" Neptune shows the boys two girls beside her.
"My name is Plutia, nice to meet you.." the first one, she has a bright pink eyes. Her hair is about waist length with very messy bangs while her hair looks to be worn down, but in a very thick braid. She wears a teal colored pajama, and also wears a pink and white stripe high socks and pink bear shaped slippers.
"I'm Peashy! Nice to meet you!" the other one is a blonde little girl with short hair, she energetically greet the boys. She wears yellow jacket with black stripes and a tail, a pair of shorts and sneakers. She also wears paw gloves.
"I'm Nico, and this gloomy guy beside me is Raven. Nice to meet you." Nico does the introduction, and of course he get a solid kick by Raven from behind.
"Anyway, I rented us a villa. It got a nice view too from there." Neptune seems happy again now.
"Hmm, as expected Nepgear." Noire smiled at her.
"Noire, I'm the one who did it! Why praised her instead?!"
"Because there's no way you could be 'that' diligent without other's help." Noire said bluntly. Neptune looks somewhat angry but doesn't deny that too. Both of them then start bad mouthing each other, being childish, even their sisters are a bit embarrassed watching them.
"Those two are really good friends, don't they." Nico giggles, seeing how they act toward each other. The others nodded to Nico's words.
"I heard that! W-wh-what do you mean with me being good friend with her! It's not like I want to be one of her friends!" Noire stuttered.
"Aaahh, Noire's tsundere is here." Neptune starts smirking, poking Noire's cheek.
"But deep inside, you want to, right?" Nico also smiling at her. Noire tries to hold back her emotions.
"That's enough, you two. Stop teasing her or she might end up hate you for real." Vert finally step in, stopping their childish act.
"Ahahaha, because she's so tempting. Well then everyone, let's go to the villa now." Neptune once again lead everyone to the villa by walking since it's not far away. Everyone start following her.
"Ah, wait.. I haven't said anything yet.." Noire still froze in her spot. After a few seconds, she starts following too, still irritated from their treatment to her. While on the route to the villa, Nico can feel the stare from the other sisters who haven't met him and Raven in person.
"Hmm? What is it, you guys?" Nico got nervous. "Umm.. Is there something on my face?"
"You're Nico and you're Raven, right?" Uni speaks in a good manner.
"Yep, and you must be Uni, Rom, and Ram. Nepgear-chan told me about you guys. Nice to meet you." Nico smile at them. Rom is hiding behind Ram though due to her shyness, but Nico doesn't really mind about that.
"Mmm.. You don't look like a bad guy to me. My onee-chan is talking about you two when she got home two days ago, she got mad and stuff." Uni stares at them. Nico only laughing a bit, he knows what she's talking about.
"Ahh, My onee-chan also talking about that too. You come from other world called.. called.." Ram seems to forget about the name.
"Earth." Nico answers for her.
"Yeah, Earth. How does it look like?"
"You sure? I feel you guys will get bored in no time. I mean, there's nothing interesting in our world." Nico looks unsure about it.
"Why not? we got some time to kill before we reach the villa." Uni seems interested too.
"I wanna hear it, let me join!" Peashy suddenly jump in.
"Haa~ you guys gonna talk about his world? Let me join too, I want to know about it." Nepgear who happen to hear them also join as well.
"Very well then. Earth.. It's a planet, not really small but it got a lot of islands and some continents. It's not futuristic like you guys and..." Nico tells them about the earth, and Raven just watches them from behind.
"Seems like they getting along with them pretty quickly." Neptune take a glance.
"Yeah, it's rare to see Uni like that." Noire looks happy too.
"Isn't that great, I guess they are really kind persons." Vert smiled.
"Well, as long as they don't disturb me, I won't complain." Blanc sounds happy, maybe because she thinks that her little sisters are not going to annoy her for a while.
"It looks fun behind.. I kinda want join them too, but I will feel bad about it." Plutia being considerable since it will be too much for Nico to handle alone.
"...And there are some great sceneries at there too, but I wish I can show you guys how it looks. Our phones are still being fixed back in Planeptune." Nico said.
"Ah, about that. You boys, here is your phones." IF hands the phones to Nico and Raven. "They've done fixing them already in the morning. The guy also added some new features on it, like world map, but you will know the rest later once you start using it."
"And the data inside?" Nico asks while they turn it on.
"Still good, nothing's gone he said."
"I'm so glad.. Thanks, Iffy. You're lifesaver." Nico looks relieved.
"No problem." IF continues her chat with Compa.
"Alright, let's continue. Where we at again? Ah yes, the scenery. Take a look." Nico shows the young girls a lot of scenery pictures. They seem amazed that Earth is prettier than they thought, aside from the futuristic stuff that is. Without realizing it, they all have arrived at the beach, the villa isn't that too far from where they at.
"We're here!" Neptune shouting, just like winning a lottery.
"So pretty.." some of them got caught with the beauty of it.
"It's sea! Sea!" Ram seems can't hold back her excitement, while Rom just sparkling by seeing it.
"Oii, Nepkoo. Don't forget to change to swimwear first." IF shouts at Neptune who about to jump right away into the water.
"You guys go ahead and use the villa. We'll change elsewhere." Nico and Raven go to the nearest bathroom, while the girls get changed in the house. After they all have done changing to swimming outfit, they gather in front of the villa.
"There's volleyball court nearby, who wanna play volley?" Nico who happen see it, ask the girls. The CPUs decide to play volley, while the Candidates, Peashy, and Plutia decide to make a sandcastle or something. The boys, Compa, and IF are going to watch the CPUs playing.
"Let's do 2 on 2. I'll go with Blanc." Neptune stands beside Blanc without confirming her first, however she doesn't mind at all.
"Then I'll go with Vert." Noire also does the same. They face toward each other, like some kind of championship. Neptune asks IF to be the score counter while Compa be the referee. After Compa done reading the rules for them, they start playing volley.
After a while, Neptune's team at the losing side with the score 15 for Noire's team and 9 for Neptune's. When Blanc does an attack, the ball accidentally hit Vert's chest and bounce off, making Blanc agitated, due to her small.. I mean she think Vert does it on purpose (Blanc glares at the Author). The game continues, Noire does the serve, and Blanc passes to Neptune. She suddenly jumps up.
"Victory Spike!" she hit the ball hard, the ball lands on Noire's court and bounced, making a V shape.
"Ah! That's cheating!" Noire who got shocked, yells at Neptune.
"Fufufuu.. It's not cheating. The rules only said we're not allowed to use weapons, not skills." Neptune smile arrogantly.
"So you wanna play like that, huh?" Noire snapped. They start again. This time Neptune does the serve, but Noire suddenly transform to HDD mode. "Take this!" she fly toward the ball and hit it hard, allowing them to score easily.
"Why did you transform?!" Neptune got shocked from it.
"The rules never said that we're not allowed to transform." Noire replies with the same tone as Neptune before. The atmosphere becomes serious somehow. Both team are competing with full power. IF seems having a headache seeing their behavior, while Compa seems having fun watching them play.
"Umm.. I feel I'm the one at fault here.. Ravy, let's go to where their sisters at.. If we stay here any longer, we might end up as their victim." Nico whispering at Raven.
"You go first." Raven whisper back. They wait until nobody look at them, and then they sneak their way out. They went to the sisters since they're doing something safe. "I'll just sit back here, you go play with them." Raven tells Nico before he goes under the umbrella that the girls set up.
"Hmm? Okay then. Hey girls, how's it going?" Nico then approaches the girls who look like putting a finishing touch to their works.
"Just a little more... Done!" Ram shouts happily after she, Rom, and Nepgear finished making their sandcastle.
"It's done.." Rom seems happy too.
"Ooh, nice build there, the details are also good." Nico who just comes, squats and looks at it carefully.
"Ah, Nico-san, you come to make one too?" Nepgear looks at him.
"No, no. I'm just here to see what you guys up to." Nico replies.
"Where's your friend? The quiet one." Ram looks around.
"Ah, you mean Ravy? He sits under the umbrella and watch us from there. Anyway, which castle is that from? It's somewhat familiar." Nico trying to remember it.
"It's from Maryo game, the one that always near a flag pole." Ram puts some finishing touches on it.
"Hmm, I see. Uni-chan, you don't make a sandcastle too?" Nico who saw Uni just standing around, watching the others building sandcastle, asks her.
"No, making sandcastles is just for kids, and why do you add -chan when you called me?! D-don't get all friendly-friendly with me so suddenly!" Uni suddenly angry at Nico.
"Uni-chan, you can't be honest with yourself, are you.." Nico sighs. Uni is clenching her teeth, holding back her.. her tsundere (︶w︶). Nepgear called her to join them making another one. In the end, she decided to make too.
"I'm also done!" Peashy comes to them after she finished making something. Nico went to see it, and he only saw a pudding-shaped sandcastle with something written on it, says Nepudding.
"Peashy-chan, you like pudding..?" Nico asks.
"Mmm! I love pudding!" She has a big smile when she answers his question. Nico smiles, seeing how happy she is.
"I'm done too~" sounds like Plutia done something too. Nico comes to her.
"Oh, you too Plutia-san? What did you maAAA..! What the what!?" Nico who was about to scream, closes his mouth right away. Still, he can't hide his shock.
"What's wrong Nico-san?" Nepgear approaches Nico. He points towards a big giant robot made from sand, right in front of them. "Hwaah! What is that giant thing?!" she is shocked too.
"Huh? It's Nepgeardam~ I made it in 1:1 scale." Plutia smiled as she told the name.
What the.. It wasn't there when I arrived before.. And is that seriously made of sand?!
"Ah.. so tired.." Neptune's voice can be heard from behind, when Nico and Nepgear turn around, they saw a zomb- the CPUs. They all look pale and in a really bad shape. IF and Compa just follow them from behind, in case someone is lazy and can't walk anymore.
"You girls done with the volley? So, which team win?" Nico tries to start a topic.
"About that.. nobody win, since all the balls got busted up every few hits from us. So we decided to end it as a tie." Vert tells them what happened back there. Nico's shivering as he imagines it, they all went to HDD mode just for playing volley.
"Uhh.. Ahem. We haven't enjoy the sea yet, right? Let's go, before it's too late." Nico pulls himself together.
"Ehh.. I wanna get back and enjoy some puddings.." Neptune with lazy voice.
"Yeah, don't you see we just got back here." Noire sounds irritated, the other two just nodding to their words.
"I know, but it's better than never. After all, you girls haven't spend some times with your sisters today." Nico tries to convince them. After hearing Nico's words, the CPUs went quiet, seeing their sisters expression of being left out, ignored, exiled! Okay that's too much.. In the end, they willingly join. While the rest go play at the seashore, Nico approaches Raven who is still sitting on the back.
"Come on Ravy, don't you just sit there. Let's go too." Nico pulls his hand, forcing him to join them.
They all play together at the sea. Neptune and Nico mostly teasing Noire until she got mad and chase them around. Nepgear, Uni, Peashy and Plutia go splashing water at each other. Vert and Blanc somehow end up arguing about their 'size'. Rom and Ram start bugging Raven now, since they found he has similar attitude with Blanc. IF teaches Compa how to swim well enough.
After they had enough, they changed to their casual outfit and going to rest in the villa. Neptune says that she's going to give others some puddings for snacks. However, Nico says he'll be outside on the terrace for a while, enjoying the sunset. Nico who is currently alone at the moment, sits on the terrace and pulls out his phone. He opens a photo contains him, his parents, and his sister.
"... God, why I had to be such an asshole when I was still able to talk to my family.." Nico talks to himself while looking at the photo. "And now I can't even say anything other than sorry.. after everything I had done. I should have made you guys proud while I could.." Nico with sad voice.
Noire who is about to call Nico to get back inside, accidentally heard him talking to himself. She peeks at Nico and sees the photo too. Nico who is not aware of Noire's presence, keeps mourning. Then Noire slowly leaves Nico alone for now, she doesn't want to disturb him. After that, Nico went inside the villa and took some rest too with the other. Currently, they are talking about stuff until Vert brought up something.
"So, how do we sleep tonight? The rooms are not enough for all of us. There're only two bedrooms in here."
"I know what you mean, the rooms can't fit if I and Ravy use one, and the rest in one room. And it might be awkward if we sleep in the same room with girls, you know what I mean. It's okay, you girls can sleep in the bedrooms. I and Ravy can sleep here." Nico explains for the girls (and the readers) and Raven agrees with him.
"No, no. How about we all sleep in the livingroom? We can move the furnitures aside and we all can fit in." Neptune tells her idea.
"Nep-nep, I said it's ok-"
"That's not a bad idea, coming from her." Blanc agrees right away. Nico got cut off before he can finish.
"Yeah, let's do it that way." Noire too. They all start moving some stuffs now.
"Ah.. Wait.." Nico tries to stop them.
"Don't worry Nicky-san, Ravy-san. They're doing this for you." Compa tells him while she helps the others. Nico and Raven feel bad letting the girls do the moving, so they help them too.
After everyone done moving the furnitures aside, they put the beds down in the living room. It's night by the time they finished it, so they are going to sleep now.
"Ahh.. it's not so bad doing this once a while, together with everyone." Noire said while she relax her body.
"You mean you have no friends to do a sleep party?" Nico quick reply.
"Yeah, since I got no... wait! W-what are you trying to make me say!? It's not like you got a lot of friends too!" Noire mad at Nico right away. Nico went silent.
"I got Ravy.. but.. Yeah.. I guess you're right." Nico with slow tone, accepts it.
"Huh?"
"You so mean Noire.." Vert feels bad for Nico. The other girls stare at Noire.
"I-I didn't mean to hurt him! I'm just-" Noire panicked.
"No, you're not wrong at all. No need to say sorry, I'm used to it anyway." Nico tries to smile.
"Hey Nicky.. I've been wondering, what kind of life you have back in your world?" Neptune asks, she didn't read the atmosphere at all.
"E-eh.. ju-just an ordinary life. You know, as a highschool student where all you do... just studying and doing homeworks." Nico stutters for no reason, and somehow has an awkward feeling to it.
"Is that so? Okay then." Neptune just going with the flow
"Wait, I know you lied to her. When we gathered inside the villa, I saw you sitting on the terrace. You kept looking at a photo on your phone. It looks like there's you and your family, and you said that you're sorry for what have you done before. And surely it's not normal. I'm sorry if I was eavesdropping you, but care to tell the meaning of it?" Noire quickly cuts in. She caught Nico lying about it. Everyone except Raven staring at Nico after hearing Noire's words.
"I can't escape anymore, can I? *sigh* Oh well, you got me.. It's mostly my personal problem, and I feel you guys gonna hate me once I done telling the whole story." Nico surrenders.
"I promise I won't. After all you have done until now, there's no way I will. And like I said last time, we're family now." Neptune with her heartwarming words.
"You don't look like a bad person to me at all." Vert agrees with her.
"Only idiots would hate other person just because of their story..." Blanc also says the same.
"I'll lend my ears for you. D-don't get me wrong, I had to since I accidentally hurt your feeling, not because I want to." Noire being tsundere again.
"I want to hear your story, so we'll know you better, right Peashy-chan?" Plutia seems eager to hear him, even though they all know she might sleep during the storytelling.
"Umm! Peashy want to hear it!" Peashy's a bit pushy. The other sisters also agree to hear Nico's story.
"Alright, alright, if you guys insist.. where should I start from.. that one seems good." Nico murmured.
Next chapter, Nico's young life revealed!
In case you didn't know, I did a little change at the prologue where I accidentally wrote 4 floating islands in the HDN world. It should be a big continent, like in the MK2 or Rebirth:2, I got mixed up somehow (maybe since I tried to combine the whole HDN series). Again, sorry for my poor writing skill (;ω;)
Omake
"And there are some great scenery at there too, but I wish I can show you guys how it looks. Our phones are still being fixed back in Planeptune." Nico said.
"Ah, about that. You boys, here is your phones." IF hands the phones to Nico and Raven. "They've done it already in the morning. The guy also add some new features on it, like world map, but you will know the rest later once you start using it."
"And the data inside?" Nico asks while they turn it on.
"Still good, nothing's gone he said."
"Thanks, Iffy. You're lifesaver." Nico looks relieved.
"No problem." IF continue her chat with Compa.
"Umm.. IF-chan? Are you sure this is our phones..? I think you got it swapped with yours by accident.." Nico suddenly stops IF.
"Why?" IF looks at him confused.
"Well.. there's a lot of Comp-" Nico about to says what he saw.
"WAAAHHH! Wait!" IF stops him from spilli.. talking.