Laby - Nisha Labyrinth

The girls were looking at the potions silently. They knew some of the boys were completely awake after sleeping all day. They didn't want them to find out that they're going to use more potions. "I'm fine with any potion as long as I don't have to babysit someone," Eve sighed.

Elesis covered lower half of her face with her pillow. She was still wearing the butterfly hairpin. "Where did you get that hairpin from? Hm?" Lu asked and poked Elesis' left cheek. "Did Elsword give it to you when I wasn't looking?"

"It's Chung."

"What?!" Aisha shouted with widened eyes. She realized the girls were staring at her, so she forced herself to laugh. "I-I'm just surprised. I didn't know you two are close."

"We're not," Elesis muttered as her face flushed red. "It's out of nowhere."

Rena giggled and narrowed her eyes at Aisha. "What's wrong, Aisha? Are you jealous that Chung still loves you, yet he didn't give you anything?"

Aisha's face turned red. "I'm not jealous!"

"Alright! She's jealous!" Rose shouted and picked up the dark purple potion.

"I'm not!"

Musical potion: Everyone has their musical ability for today! Hm... but none of them has instrument, though?

A navy haired girl with magenta eyes knocked the door in the early morning. Nobody answered, so she went to the backyard and knocked the door that lead to the kitchen. She knew a certain someone will be awake at this hour.

She found Ciel practicing his vocal instead of cooking. Ciel greeted her and let her in. "My bad. I was too focused on practice."

"Since when you start singing?" the girl asked as she tilted her head.

"I'm not sure... but I have to practice," Ciel smiled. "Anyway, welcome back, Nisha."

"Thank you," Nisha smiled back. "You look... different."

"Really?" Ciel asked with confusion. Nisha shrugged, walked to the living room and sat on the sofa. She was out for a while to check if her friend, Laby, was safe to come out or not. Apparently the world was still cruel, so she kept her friend in the mirror she always brought.

After a few minutes, Eve walked to the living room to greet Nisha. Instead of having a normal conversation, Nisha narrowed her eyes. "What happened when I was gone? Did Add mess up with the time?"

"Yeah, about that..." Eve smiled slightly and explained what they were doing with potions.

Nisha just nodded and accepted it. "I am glad I switched place with Laby. She didn't have to participate in complicated relationship story."

"Aisha and Chung is the only complicated story, though," Eve replied.

When everyone was awake and ready for breakfast, Nisha already made two girls jealous. She knew about their love interests, but she didn't care. The seat next to Raven—that was usually spot for Ara or Aisha—was used by Nisha.

"Laby can't come out yet? Is she lonely there?" Raven asked and looked at Nisha.

Nisha shook her head and sighed. "This world needs to be peaceful first, then she can come out. I'll stay with her so she won't get lonely for now. Laby doesn't need anyone but me."

Raven chuckled at her. "I'll miss you if you go back to the mirror. Is there a way for you two to come out together?"

Nisha startled at his words, then she lowered her head and shrugged.

"Now, now! We're happy that Nisha comes home safely!" Rena shouted and clapped her hands twice. They have breakfasf like usual—except Raven and Nisha were talking a lot.

"Let's go to arcade! I want to dance!" Elesis shouted with sparkling eyes. Everyone agreed with it and decided to go out together afternoon.

Nisha sighed, but she also followed Elesis. "I want to rest, but Laby will be sad if I don't tell her new stories."

Eventually they arrive at the arcade. Everyone gets attention in an instant, especially when they hit all the perfect notes.

"Wanna dance together after this?" Raven asked Nisha who was standing on the same spot for an hour. They've been taking turns in dancing because the maximum players is two people.

"I don't like dancing. I'll watch until you're done," Nisha replied and kept staring at Rena and Ain, who were currently dancing.

Raven looked at Nisha, then looked at Rena and Ain. If they kept going like this, Nisha won't do anything for a day. He tried to find any ideas on how to make Nisha do something. Anything would be fine. It didn't have to include everyone. "Nisha, have you ever gave something for Laby?"

"You mean a gift?" Nisha asked back without looking at Raven. "No, never. She didn't need them."

"I'm sure Laby will be happy if you make something for her," Raven said, even though he didn't know what that 'something' was. He looked at the audiences around him and tried to find idea.

"Like food? I'm bad at cooking," Nisha replied. She didn't even bother to try to cook in the first place.

Raven smiled when he found something that might catch Nisha's interest. "Thread bracelets."

Nisha finally looked away from Rena and Ain. She faced Raven and waited for explanation. "We call it friendship bracelet. It's a bracelet that you make with colorful thread. It's easy to make, you can finish it in a few hours," Raven explained with a smile.

Nisha turned to silence for a moment. She didn't find any positive outcome from the bracelet, but... if she made it, will Laby be happy, even if it's messy? She wanted to keep Laby's happiness, after all.

"Teach me. I want to make one," Nisha said with determined will. They went away from the arcade and bought threads for the bracelet.

Unexpectedly, Lu and Ciel followed them to the shop. "I'm not saying I hate crowds, but there were too many people," Lu said as she used her hand as a fan to cool herself. The shop's air conditioner felt like a really cold room right now and they love it.

After Nisha picked the color she wanted, they paid for it and went back to the arcade. They took the empty seat near the front entrance. Raven taught her how to make the bracelet. Nisha nodded in understatement, but the early result didn't look good at all.

"Nisha, you're bad at this. You need to make it with love, not power!" Lu advised as she pointed the bracelet Nisha was working on. Instead of a straight line, it went diagonal to the right side.

"But I need power to protect Laby. I got this!" Nisha nodded and continued. Sadly the result was the same.

Ciel came to them with two cotton candies. Lu snatched it from Ciel's hand immediately and ate it. He gave the other one to Nisha, but she refused. "Sorry, I don't eat clouds."

"It's sweet! Come on, try it," Lu insisted as she forced Nisha to eat it. At first, Nisha didn't enjoy it at all, but then a smile was formed on her face.

After a few hours of dancing, everyone went to karaoke. The loud speakers and music were definitely not Nisha's liking, but she stayed there in the corner and kept making the bracelet. Apparently Chung didn't really like it either, so he stayed beside Nisha and talked with her a bit.

"Oh, I found the popular rap song!" Elesis shouted and offered her mic. "Who wants to rap? I can't rap."

Ciel took the mic with confidence. Rena forced herself to laugh and offered her mic too. Nobody took it, so it was a bit awkward.

Add sighed and grabbed the mic. "Fine, I'll do it."

"Hm? A kid like you can rap?" Rose smirked and pinched Add's cheeks.

They actually rapped pretty well and everyone was cheering. Although... Nisha and Chung were busy with themselves. "Why are you not joining them?" Nisha asked as she looked at Chung. This was the first time she looked away from the bracelet ever since they entered the karaoke room.

Chung smiled slightly. "I'm not into these kind of music."

"Is that so?" Nisha shrugged and looked at the bracelet she finally finished. It didn't look good at all, but she did her best. She didn't know how it turned out this bad, even though she used less power like Lu told her.

While the others were still singing, Raven walked toward them. "Are you guys not enjoying this?" he asked with a smile and stared at them.

"I don't enjoy, but I'm fine with it," Nisha answered with honesty. At the same time, she wondered if Laby would love to hear songs and music. Maybe she would like to try playing an instrument too. She put the bracelet on her pocket. "Why are you guys not playing any instrument?"

"Instrument isn't cheap and needs a lot of care," Chung answered.

Nisha nodded. "So it's impossible to bring it around. You might break it in the middle of the journey."

"Even water can damage the instrument," Chung continued.

Nisha nodded again, then looked at his eyes. "So you can play an instrument? Play something for us before the potion ran out."

"That would be a great idea, to be honest. Sadly we don't have any instruments," Raven smiled sadly. His eyes widened a bit and looked at Nisha. "Hey, we still have time. Wanna go to music store? We can see a lot of instruments."

Nisha stood up with a smile. "Take us there."

"Us?" Raven repeated with confused look.

"Chung, you're coming too. Show me which instrument you can play," Nisha said as she grabbed Chung's hand. "We're going to music store and go home after that," she said to everyone and waved her hand. The three of them walked away and left the room.

"My god! She's destroying my plan!" Aisha shouted and pouted at the door.

"Does anyone remember when Raven and Nisha became that close?" Ara asked with confused look. She found this bond questionable in so many ways. "I remember Laby switched place with Nisha, but then Nisha went out for several weeks after that. When did they have the chance to talk?"

"Just ask her," Lu shrugged and narrowed her eyes at them, especially Aisha. "Maybe you don't have a chance anymore, Aisha. You're a player."

"What do you mean?!" Aisha whined and hid her face with her hands.

Elsword laughed at her reaction and smirked. "It's obvious, though! You're just dating for fun!"

Ara shook her head and sighed. "Bad Aisha. Really bad!"

Rena chuckled and smiled. "It's not about Raven. You missed Chung, right?" she asked as she pointed her finger at Aisha.

They turned to silence. Only the music playing on the speaker, but nobody was singing. At this point, nobody knew whether Rena was correct or completely wrong. Only Aisha knew the answer.

Nisha looked at her surroundings when they arrived at the music store. The shining instruments, wooden instruments with strings, drums, and many more were attracting her. She literally looked at them one by one and asked the shopkeeper how to play it.

"Thank you, mister. I'd love to go to a concert someday," Nisha smiled at the shopkeeper and gave him money. "I want melodica."

Raven sighed in relief that Nisha didn't choose a big instrument like piano or trombone. Melodica can be carried around easier in the journey. By the look of her eyes, the instrument will be protected safely.

Nisha walked toward Chung. "You've been staring at that cello for a while. Do you play that?"

Chung nodded and looked at Nisha. She showed the melodica on her hand with a smile. She connected the flexible tube and the mouthpiece into the melodica, blew the instrument through the mouthpiece and pressed random notes.

She kept playing it until they arrived at home. The 'melody' was loud enough to alert everyone in the house. Eve opened the door and welcomed them back.

She stopped playing and put her melodica on the case. "It's so loud. I like it."

"Piano would be nice," Eve said with a smile. "What song do you want to play, Nisha?"

"I don't know any song," Nisha answered. Eve browsed the popular song and music with her drone. They listen to some of them together.

Elesis dragged Raven and Chung to the backyard. "Join us! We're playing a game!"

"Chung! Join us!" Elsword pulled Chung's hand. Add sighed and massaged his forehead.

Raven went to Ain and Ciel to ask for an explanation. Elesis went back to Rena, Ara, and Rose to discuss something without giving any instruction of the game. "We're making rhymes to roast each team," Ciel explained.

Aisha and Lu were standing on the side as the judge. Rhyming wasn't really their hobby and they didn't want to participate.

Midnight came and they lost their musical ability. Elesis laughed and clapped her hands. "That was awesome, everyone! Nice!"

"I'm not doing that ever again," Add said and went back to his lab. He thought it was the most embarrassing thing to do. Rose followed him like usual.

"We can still karaoke for fun!" Ara shouted and raised her hands. "Karaoke with bad voices is much more fun!"

The statement gave so much negative vibe, but nobody denied it. Sadly, the fun part of karaoke was singing randomly.

"Too bad we didn't hear Chung play cello," Nisha commented. Raven agreed with her and now everyone was looking at Chung.

Chung smiled slightly. He didn't know Nisha would brought up the instrument part again. "If we have the chance, I can play for a bit."

Elsword glanced at him and narrowed his eyes. The words bothered him a lot. Chung didn't tell everything about himself while Elsword just ranted about a bunch of stuffs for the past few weeks. Now he felt really curious when his best friend said something he didn't know. "Wait, you can actually play?"

"Why didn't you choose to become a cellist?" Eve asked in curiosity.

"You know musician don't get money easily," Chung answered with awkward smile. It turned everyone to silence.

Eve blinked her eyes several times and stared at Chung. "That's a dark humor."

"I'll practice this one piece, then we can play together," Nisha smiled at him. "We'll play Canon in D."

Chung forced himself to laugh, then he smiled creepily and glared at Nisha with killing intent. "We don't talk about that."

"Why?" Nisha asked in confusion, but she didn't insist to get an answer.

In the end, Chung never answered her. Nisha still stayed in the backyard and looked at the mirror. She took out the poorly made bracelet from her pocket. Instead of a smooth straight line of bracelet that can be tied, it became a messy zigzag bracelet. "I tried, Laby," Nisha muttered as she put the bracelet into the mirror.

The mirror floated instantly and rubbed itself against Nisha's cheek. Nisha giggled and hugged the mirror. "I'm glad you love it, Laby."

Raven walked to the backyard and sat beside Nisha. "Did she like it?"

"She loves it," Nisha answered with a smile. She took out another messy zigzag bracelet from her pocket and tied it on Raven's human hand. "I made one for you too."

Raven startled a bit. He didn't expect that at all. He thought Nisha only cared for Laby and nothing else. The fact that Nisha made the bracelet meant that she also considered him as one of her important ones. He stared at the bracelet for quite some time, then looked at Nisha with a smile. "Thank you very much, Nisha."

"No. Thank you for being my friend, Raven," Nisha replied. She thought she wouldn't have any friends since she replaced Laby and considered as a stranger to everyone. Maybe she was wrong this whole time.

"Did you make one for yourself?"

"…Huh?"

Nisha stared at Raven for a few moment until she realized she needed a bracelet for her own. She stared at her empty hands and blinked her eyes several times. "I'll make it tomorrow morning."

Special thanks to Strgazr for the idea~

NO OFFENSE TO MUSICIANS! You're all cool 3

Fun fact: cellist has 8 note line looped for the entire Canon in D piece, so yeah, I'm pretty sure they don't like this at all

Thanks for reading!

ZetsubouIchigo

Add: Author is too dumb for that idea

Rose: True, true

Rena: You guys are so mean..