Hopeful Days VII – Royal Treatment

"So that's what happened?" Monaca asks holding back her giggles.

Makoto sighed and nodded with a blush on his cheeks. "Y-Yeah, pretty much." He heard the greenette giggle out loud and his blush deepened. "I wasn't expecting the cat to jump out off the tree when I got there!" The brunette clarifies, but Monaca starts laughing anyway.

He was now regretting telling her why he was stuck in a tree that one time.

And why did it turn into national news anyways? It was just a boy getting stuck in a tree, nothing that special anyway.

"Hahaha!" The robotics engineer laughs as she grabs her belly.

Makoto sighed again, but soon joined her in laughing. That situation was too strange for him to even be that embarrassed about it, plus, it was a bit funny even though he was the punchline of the story.

Their laughing is interrupted by the sound of a phone ringing.

Quickly pulling her phone out of her dress pocket, Monaca looks at the name on the screen and her laugh dies almost instantly. "Of course it's him." She whispers to herself with a tired sigh.

Makoto looks worriedly at the other Ultimate. "Is everything all right?" He asks as the phone keeps on ringing.

"Yes." Monaca quickly flashes a smile before looking down to her phone again. "Could you give me a second, Naegi-kun?" He nods, his worried expression never leaving his face. Makoto walks away from the girl, leaving her alone to talk to whoever was calling her. "Yes, onii-sama…" She finally picks up the phone, annoyance clear in her voice.

Walking away to give Monaca some privacy, Makoto looks around the courtyard they ended up in front of.

He watches the greenery in front of him gently sway in the wind, before closing his eyes and taking in the fresh air once again.

Thud

The brunette opens his eyes as he feels something hitting his head. "Huh?" Looking down, he sees a half eaten nut.

" Squeee! "

Looking up, Makoto sees a chubby orange hamster looking back at him.

The brunette blinks and the animal squeaks, their eyes locked as the boy whispers a 'huh?' in confusion.

"Naegi-kun!"

Makoto is taken out of his staring contest by Monaca's voice calling him. "Y-Yes?" He turns around, but not before looking once again into the hamster's eyes just to make sure he wasn't hallucinating.

"Sadly, I won't be able to accompany you anymore today." The green-haired girl says with a sad smile on her face. "Something came up and I'll have to leave campus for the rest of the day."

"Oh-" Makoto looks at her worriedly. "-Is everything alright?"

She shakes her head. "Yes, just some small inconveniences." Closing her eyes, Monaca whispers. "That my stupid brother can't solve on his own."

Luckily the brunette doesn't catch that last part. "I see, that's too bad." He smiles softly. "Want me to accompany you to the entrance?"

The Ultimate Robotics Engineer chuckles. "Thanks for the offer, but no, I can do it alone." She waves to him and winks. "Today has been pretty fun, hope we can hangout together again sometime!"

Makoto blushes slightly and she giggles. After waving her goodbye, the brunette turns around and goes back to staring at the strange hamster that hopefully was still there and seemly wasn't just his brain being weird.

The two stare at each other for a while, until the hamster squeaks and does a motion with its head.

Makoto blinks, then motions with his hands.

You want me to follow you?

The boy instantly cringes at his own gesture. Did he really thought the hamster would understand his hand signs?

To his surprise, apparently yes.

The hamsters shakes it's head and squeaks approvingly, jumping from the tree and running off.

Makoto blinked rapidly, before sighing and following the small rodent throughout the courtyard.

The chubby hamster guides Makoto to a fairly large clubroom a little off the beaten path.

He assumed it was someone's workshop. It looked a little like his own, but bigger, at least on the outside.

Once they get in front of the door, the small rodent pushes a smaller door built onto the larger one and enters the workshop, leaving the brunette to stare at the it.

He takes a deep breath and grabs the doorknob.

Pushing the door open, Makoto's jaw hits the floor.

Inside that inconspicuous clubroom was what seemed like a living room taken right out of a European palace.

Refined wood furniture with what he assumed are gold details, white polished marble on the floor and walls and various paintings of what seemed to be European royalty.

"Oh!" A squeals brings Makoto's attention to the center of the room, where a blond girl is sitting at a table with a tea set and some plates with cake in front of her. "Welcome, welcome!" She gets up from her seat and clasps her hands together. "I was anxiously waiting for the day we would met! Naegi Makoto-kun!" The girl smiles a smile that makes Makoto's cheeks burn bright red.

What was happening?

Meanwhile on the other side of the school, a pink-haired boy wearing a yellow jumpsuit is tinkering with some machine.

Suddenly his ears perk up and he looks around, sweat dripping down his face. "My Sonia-san senses are tingling!" He turns around and grits his surprisingly sharp teeth. "There's a disturbance in the force!"

The boy didn't knew why, but he just felt that his love life just got a whole lot harder.

Makoto blinked slowly. "U-Uh, hi?" He greets with a shy wave.

"Come in, don't be shy!" The blond motions for him to take a seat, which the boy does, very slowly. "Oh! I can't believe I'm face to face with you!" She giddily shakes in place with excitement.

"I-I'm sorry but-" The brunette boy squints his eyes. "-have we ever met before?" She seemed familiar, but Makoto couldn't pinpoint where he was seen her before.

"Oh yes, where are my manners!" The blond giggles. "My name is Sonia Nevermind, I'm the Ultimate Princess from class 77-B!" Suddenly it clicked in his head.

Sonia Nevermind, the princess from Novaselic that was doing a exchange program in Japan.

He had seen her on the news and to be perfectly honest, Makoto was awestruck by her even back then.

She was the classic exchanged beauty, but somehow the TV did nothing but make her look worse.

Her silky-smooth skin and pale blue eyes seemed more vibrant, her smile like it could light up a room just by how white her teeth was.

In other words, she was more royal and pretty in person than on TV.

"O-Oh, u-uh." Suddenly the brunette boy felt so small, and no it was not just because she was taller than him. "S-Sorry, I didn't noticed that you're royalty, your majesty." He notices as the girl smiles saddens a little.

"No need for formalities please." She says still with a smile on her face, but clearly not liking the current subject. "Just call me Sonia."

The brunette blushed. "U-Understood, Sonia-senpai." He replies and her smile beams back up.

He felt a bit weird calling her by the first name, but she was a foreigner, so it probably wasn't that big of a deal to her, he assumed.

"Y-You said you knew me?" The boy asks and she clasps her hands and shakes her head excitedly.

"Indeed! Chiaki-chan spoke very highly of you!" He blinked, before smiling. "And now I'm face to face with the legend himself!" Sonia chuckles at the boy blushing and scratching the back of his head.

He was glad Chiaki talked about him, although he wasn't sure about the whole legend stuff.

Makoto was just a normal guy after all.

"Oh, I say that because Chiaki-chan wasn't the only one that talked about you!" The blond princess explains, the boy looks at her with a confused expression, making Sonia giggle. "Another dear friend of mine had some very good things to say about you!"

Now Makoto was really confused.

Who else outside of Chiaki could have talked about him?

"Oh! Speaking of him!" Sonia giggled as the small door on her door is pushed open and three other hamsters run inside, quickly joining the chubby one on a mini table that Makoto only now noticed was under their larger table.

It was a replica of the one they are sitting in, but in hamster size. Which was way more adorable than it should have been.

The larger door opens and a booming voice echoes inside. "So we meet again, o one chosen by the light!"

While it was been a long time, Makoto could never forget that way of speaking, plus the ice-cream shaped hair.

A smile forms on the boy's lips as he gets up from his seat. "Tanaka-san!"

The taller teen smirks, putting a hand on his hip. "I told did I?" He smirk turns into a soft smile. "That we would meet again, child of light."

The brunette boy approaches his old friend and extends his hand to which Gundham quickly grabs it and the two share a handshake.

Sonia's eyes sparkle with excitement.

She has never seen her dearest friend Gundham be physical with anyone by his own volition. Normally people had to insist on even shaking hands with him, but he accepted Makoto's handshake without any excitation!

The princess was now more curious than ever about this Naegi Makoto.

Hopeful Days VII – Royal Treatment

Sonia makes her first appearance and best boy is back, truly a chapter for the ages.

I will be honest with you all, I am a little bit stumped on how I'm gonna portray Novaselic culture, I have some ideas but nothing concrete yet.

Oh well, that's a problem for future me to deal with.

Anyways hope y'all liked the chapter and see you around!