Hopeful Days VIII – The Girl by The Courtyard
Having a tea break with a bona-fide princess and an old acquaintance was definitely not on Makoto's plans for today, but he couldn't say it wasn't a fun situation to be in.
"It's been a while Tanaka-ku- I mean, Tanaka-senpai." The brunette sits down and the older boy follows suit.
"No need for formalities, light-kin." Gundham waves his hand. "As a high ranking being of light, you're close to my level as a overlord, so no need to treat me as your superior."
Makoto chuckles awkwardly at the other boy's words, he still couldn't understand what he meant by most of it.
"Wait, so you have become a overlord? Congratulations!" The brunette smiles and the older boy blushes, hiding his face in his scarf.
"I'm surprised you remembered what a said that time." Gundham replies and although his face was covered, one could easily hear his smile. "It was a arduous journey, full of combat and sadness, but at last, I conquered the demonic council and became the overlord of ice!" The older boy stops and pours some tea on his cup. "It is quite the long story, so I won't bore you with the details." He finishes, taking a sip of his tea.
Really it wasn't, but most people didn't care enough to his about his adventures.
"I mean, I have the time. So you can tell me, if you want, of course." The brunette smiles and Gundham spits his tea. "Tanaka-kun! Are you okay?" Makoto's tone turns into a more worried one.
"Y-Yes, I'm good." The overlord replies, grabbing a napkin.
It's been quite long time since anyone willingly wanted to hear his tale of demonic conquest. Sonia and Chiaki are the only ones that actually listened to him and his stories.
"B-But I mean, it is a long story." After cleaning his mess, the black-haired overlord turns to face Makoto, who just smiles back at him.
"As I said. I have the time, so if you want to tell me about it, go ahead."
Gundham's eyes sparkle with excitement, and although he tried to hide it, his tone of voice shows just how excited really is.
"Well then, allow me to tell you my tale!" Tossing his scarf to the side, the older boy smiles. "It all began after we parted ways-"
As Gundham loses himself in his own story, Sonia can help but feel giddy.
She has never seen her best fiend, as tjey liked to call each other, act flustered like that.
He really seemed to like Makoto and the brunette being wiling to go along with his theatrics certainly was a part of it.
Heck, that was the one of the motive that she got along so well with him.
A smile forms on the princess' lips and she giggles giddily to herself.
This was going to be quite the interesting year with Makoto around!
"-and after a growling battle that lasted for six whole days and five whole nights, I came out victorious." Gundham proudly states. It has been a little over an hour since he began telling his tale and the boy's hamsters had climbed onto his scarf and are now cutely napping. "Since then, I have been crowned the Supreme Overlord of Ice! Mwahahaha!"
Makoto laughs together with him, and even though it was hard to understand all the details of the story, thanks to Gundham's peculiar way of speaking, the brunette managed to more or less understand the story.
One thing he noticed was that although his demonic analogies, this was a story about getting a license to take care of animals, which Makoto thought was pretty sweet and complemented the older boy.
"Question Tanaka-san?" The Luckster looks towards the older boy. "What is your talent?"
Gundham crosses his arms. "My true talent is Ultimate Overlord of Ice and Bringer of Darkness!" He exclaims, before blushing slightly. "B-But sadly the school didn't accept that, so they call me the Ultimate Breeder." Coughing falsely, the boy smirks and looks at the brunette. "If you are free tomorrow afternoon, how about visiting me at my demonic domain? I can show you some of my current familiars!"
Makoto blinks. ' Demonic domain… ah, he's talking about his workshop.' He giggles before replying. "I'll be there."
Gundham tries to hide his smile, but it's very clear to see how happy he was.
Meanwhile, Sonia was beaming.
She haven't talked a lot during this short one hour, mostly because she felt like she didn't need to.
Her best fiend never looked so happy when talking to someone, it was contagious really!
Makoto had this peaceful and serene aura about him that probably could calm down even a serial killer, it was quite the sight.
"Oh, look at the time!" The Ultimate Princess pulls out her phone and smiles. "There's something me and Gundham want to show you!"
"It's already that time?" The older boy asks and she nods. "Good, we shall now depart to the land of promise!"
Makoto looks at the two confused, but decides that it's best for him to just go along.
"Where are we going?" Makoto asks while following the two older students.
"A resting place to beings of light." Nonchalantly replies Gundham, only making the younger boy more confused.
Sonia giggles. "It's a courtyard." She clarifies. "Nanami-chan hangs around there when she's not at class or on her workshop."
Makoto's eyes widen. "Chiaki-chan-" He stops in place, prompting the other two to do the same.
"Something wrong?" The blond princess asks worried.
"No." The Luckster replies, before looking at the ground. "It's just-" He sighs and looks back towards the princess. "-I'm kinda nervous, that's all."
There's a brief moment of silence, before Sonia speaks up. "That's understandable, you two haven't talked for a year." She smiles and walks up to the boy. "But-" Putting her pale hands on his shoulders, the princess closes her eyes and smiles. "-if the way she always talks about you is any indication, I don't think there will be any problems."
Makoto blushes a bit. "T-Thanks, Sonia-senpai."
The girl giggles and turns around. "Now, go get her tiger!" She says with a smile on her face, not noticing the brunette blushing furiously behind her.
"W-What do you mean by that?" Makoto asks, but the princess is already walking away while humming to herself. "W-Wait!" The Luckster yells and runs to catch up with her.
Gundham just smirks and calmly follows the two.
After some more minutes of walking, Makoto, Sonia and Gundham finally enter the courtyard.
It's a spacious open space, beds of flowers giving it a very lively vibe. At the center of the courtyard, a single large three stands proud with a lovely little pond in front of it and a bench just under the three.
While getting closer to the center point, Makoto's heart starts to beat faster as he notices a figure sitting down on the bench.
Mauve hair gently flowing in the air as a calm breeze blows past it, pink eyes glued to a portable console in her hands as her fingers skillfully press button after button in quick succession.
The brunette luckster stops in place, just a some meters away from his childhood friend. His eyes can't help but analyze every detail from her.
It's only been a year, yet, Chiaki had grown into quite the beautiful young lady.
Looking at her like that, Makoto couldn't help but feel a little out of place. She had grown in a lot of places, not just physically. She wasn't just that awkward girl he met before, now she was friends with Ultimates, you know? People way more interesting and unique than him.
The brunette feels a gentle hand in his shoulder. Looking back, he sees Sonia with a smile on her lips, the blond princess nods.
Gundham also shakes his head with a smirk on his face.
With one last exchange of glances, both older teens walk away, leaving three two childhood friends alone for the first time in a year.
Taking a deep breath, the brunette luckster walks up to the bench and says. "Hey!"
No response. She just keeps pressing buttons.
He chuckles, when Chiaki focused on something, especially games, it was hard to grab her attention without getting physical.
Before Makoto can say anything more, Chiaki pauses the game and looks up.
Pink eyes met hazel as the two look at each other.
For some seconds that felt like minutes, there's no reaction on her face, until she opens the most beautiful smile Makoto has ever seen.
"Glad to see you again… Makoto-kun!"
Hopeful Days VIII – The Girl by The Courtyard
Gundham is such a fun character to write and while he may not have a big role in this story, at least for now, I will probably find a way to stick him here and there just for the funsies.
Anyways hope y'all liked the chapter and see you around!