Hopeful Days XIV – Hitting The City
After that start for his day, Makoto dragged himself back to the dorm and took a long and cold shower.
Once he was out the brunette took his dirty clothes to the first floor and put them on the washing machine, then he pulled out his phone and looked at the time.
"It's still kinda early." At least it would take some time until lunch. "Maybe I should go hang out with Tanaka-san?" He smiles and makes his decision.
Makoto goes back to his room and grabs his e-Handbook. He steps out of the door and opens the map in the device.
The brunette follows the map until he reaches a small barn just past the main building.
"I guess it's here." Makoto says, turning his e-Handbook off and putting it in his pocket.
He approaches the door and knocks on it twice, after some seconds Gundham's voice echoes from inside the barn.
"Who is trying to enter my demonic domain?" The older boy asks. "If it is Owari, turn back now, you can not eat my familiars! Stop asking!"
Makoto raises a eyebrow. "It's me! Naegi Makoto!" He yells and then there's a short moment of silence.
Soon the door to the barn opens and Gundham steps outside, quickly closing the door behind him. "Oh! Child of light!" The older boy smiles. "What brings someone like you to my devildom?"
"Well, you said we could hang out today so-" The brunette replied and Gundham looked at him with a surprised expression.
"Uh-" He blushes and hides his face underneath his scarf. "-Yes, I did." Gundham then whispers. "-I just didn't thought you would actually show up…" Shaking his head, the older boy looks at Makoto and smiles. "Well then, come in child of light!" He opens the door to the barn and invites the brunette in. "The demonic energy inside might be a bit strong for a being of light such as yourself, so you might feel a bit nauseous."
The Luckster nods, not understanding half of what he just said.
"Woah!" Makoto blinks as he enters the barn and the other boy closes the door behind it.
While the place looked like a barn from the outside, the inside of it was more like a veterinarian room with lots of equipment and food for animals all around.
Another thing that got Makoto's attention was just the sheer variety of animals that are freely running around inside the building.
Dogs, cats, crabs and lizards being just some of them.
"It's a little messy, but I hope you don't mind that." Gundham walks past the boy and towards the center of the room. "The familiars can get pretty agitated at this time of day." He sits down on a small table and Makoto soon follows.
"It's a lot less messy than I imagined." The brunette sits down and smiles. "You take care of all those alone?" Makoto asks and Gundham nods.
"Yes-" One of Gundham's hamsters runs up to his scarf and climbs it. "-Although those are the least troublesome familiars." He says and the brunette looks at him with a curious look.
"Least troublesome?"
"Yes, the lions and bears on the back tend to cause a lot of damage when I'm not looking." The senpai explains, making Makoto choke on nothing.
"Lions and bears!?" Exclaims the luckster with widened eyes. "Like, actual lions and bears?"
Gundham nods. "Yes. I let them roam around in the back because they are so mischievous." He smiles and chuckles. "The last batch that was sent to me especially, those familiars are quite hard to tame!"
"You let them roam free?" Makoto asks, now feeling a bit nervous.
Suddenly Gundham expression changes to one of apprehension. "I don't use cages in here." His tone is quite serious. "Animals only attack humans when provoked or as a last resort to get food, as they are well feed in here, there is no point in imprisoning them."
Makoto is slightly taken aback by the other boy's change in tone, although he should expect that from the Ultimate Breeder.
Gundham was clearly very close to animal life and it made sense that he would be against cruel things like cages.
"Sorry." Makoto bows and apologizes.
The older Ultimate sighs. "No that's okay, a child of light such as yourself wouldn't be used to seeing high-level familiars roaming around freely." He closes his eyes and says "But! I can guarantee you that those high-level familiars are tamed and do not mean any harm to you!"
Nodding the luckster smiles softly. "I see." As a brown cat leaps onto Makoto's lap and a dog nestles between his legs, the brunette giggles. "You just mentioned that animals get sent to you?" He asks and the other boy shakes his head.
"That is correct." Gundham closes his eyes. "Animal protection groups sent me hurt or untamed familiars." The older boy opens his eyes and smirks. "I help train them so they can be sent to a conservation clinic in town."
Makoto smiles widely and says with admiration in his voice. "Wow! That's awesome!" Gundham blushes and looks away.
The older Ultimate smiles softly, it's been a while since he talked with someone that wasn't Sonia or Chiaki, so openly like this.
It was quite the nice feeling.
Time flew by as Makoto and Gundham hanged out, the two boys talked for about a hour and then went on to take care of the animals.
The older Ultimate was surprised by just how much Makoto managed to get along with the small critters. The dogs, the cats and hell, even the crabs seemed to just like the younger boy.
Sonia was the only other person that he ever brought to his workshop and had the same effect on the animals.
Although Gundham couldn't deny why that was, Makoto and Sonia are both children if light and they could very easily illuminates the darkest room in his devildom with their brilliant auras!
But everything that it's good had to end.
So as lunch time went by, Makoto had to leave although he promised to visit again some other day.
As the brunette away, Gundham smiled.
"You found yourself a good one, Nanami." He chuckles to himself then goes back to tending the animals.
The rest of Makoto's day went as normal as the boy could hope for, he hanged out a bit with Sayaka and helped Kiyotaka organize their classroom for the upcoming classes next week.
Soon enough, the afternoon fell upon the brunette luckster and his phone beeped as a message came in.
'Yo dude, down to hit the city?' Reads Leon's massage.
Makoto bites his lips.
He… wasn't sure, being out so late would probably end up being more trouble than it's worth, but on the other side, it could be a great way to know more about his classmates.
'Sure I'm down.' The brunette sends the reply and receives another message instantly.
'Sick! Me and Oowada are by the entrance gate!'
Makoto sighs, he still wasn't sure about this, but hey, there's no way that anything could go wrong… right?
Meeting up with Leon and Mondo in front of the entrance gate, the other two boys offer Makoto a wave.
"Yo dude, didn't think you would actually show up." The redhead while approaching Makoto.
"Me neither, didn't took you for that kind of guy." Mondo adds with a shrug.
Laughing awkwardly, the brunette scratches the back of his head and replies. "I'm really not, but it's always good to try new things right?" He then says. "What exactly are we doing anyways?"
The biker crosses his arms. "For tonight I'll just show you around the city, there's a nice arcade my boys like to hang around that is open at this time." Mondo finishes and Leon sighs.
"I'd prefer to go clubbing to he honest." The baseball star says partly disappointed.
"There's some good ones around here, but I don't think Naegi here would be very comfortable going to one of those." Mondo replies, still with his arms crossed.
Makoto was a bit confused by everything, so he decided to ask. "What exactly do you mean by clubbing?" Overall, the brunette knew what he meant, but part of him was still unsure.
"You know, hoppin' into a club, dancing a bit, maybe talk to some chicks?" Explains the Ultimate Baseball Star. "Ya never done that Naegi?" He asks, making the brunette blush.
Mondo snorts. "By his reaction I'd say no."
"Isn't this type of stuff a bit too wild for our age?" Questions the luckster.
Leon chuckles. "Yeah! But when you're famous this type of shit really doesn't matter." The redhead smiles and winks at Makoto. "If you know what I mean!"
Makoto… really didn't, but in a way he kinda did get it.
The brunette remembers overhearing some classmates of his back in middle-school, gossiping about Enoshima Junko being spotted in a club by a paparazzi.
That once again put into perspective just how different the world between Makoto and the other Ultimates really is.
They have been doing those things that in the brunette's mind are solely done by adults since they are even younger than now.
Kind of a wild perceptive to have, but it made a certain degree of sense to him.
"And if you're really not fond of breaking the rules a bit, there's clubs around that accept people our age." Says Mondo with a chuckle. "They are kinda shitty though."
Leon puts a arm around the shoulders of both boys and smiles. "We have been talking for a long time, let's just go already!"
The other two nod and they start walking out of the school.
Nightlife in town was just as busy as the brunette thought it would be. Be it people going into bars or clubs, friends talking and hanging out or tourists enjoying what the town had to offer, no matter where you looked it was easy to see people just, enjoying themselves.
Makoto never was the type to hang outside past afternoon, so this was all a nice, new experience to the brunette.
Mondo showed the two around town and no matter where they went, people would always seem to recognize and respect the biker.
All the while, the trio of boys continued to talk between themselves and got to know each other a lot better.
"So that's why you disappeared from the baseball league?" Makoto asked and Leon nodded slightly, his eyes not moving from the arcade machine.
After walking around town for a while, the boys decided to go into a arcade and started playing a random two player machine they found.
"Yeah man, I just kinda got tired of sports." The redhead replies, his face being illuminated by the light of the arcade's screen. "Ya know, maybe my real talent lies somewhere else." The words 'game over' appear on screen and the redhead sighs. "Damn, I lost."
He steps to the side and Mondo moves in to start his turn on the machine.
"Well, that is quite a simple explanation." Makoto replies as watches Leon moving to a vending machine nearby and grabbing a soda for himself. "There are some wild theories on the internet as to why you quit." The brunette says and Leon lifts a eyebrow.
"Really? I normally don't pay much attention to what people think of me, so I didn't really check anything." He takes a sip from his soda, then chuckles "Unless they are chicks, of course."
Makoto chuckled. 'That sounds about right.' In this little hang out session of them, the brunette learned that Leon was a bit of a ladies man.
"Speaking of chicks-" The baseball star smirks. "-what's up with you and Maizono?" At his question, the luckster blushes and Leon's smirk gets bigger. "Dude! Don't tell me that you're already in her good graces?"
Mondo snorts in back. "I doubt it!"
The luckster shakes his head, still with red cheeks. "I-It's nothing like that!" He falsely coughs, then continues. "We just went to the same middle-school."
"Huh? So childhood friends then?" Leon asks and Makoto blushes even more.
"No dude! We barely talked back then." The brunette sighed.
Leon chuckles and wraps a arm around Makoto's shoulder. "No worries man, I was just teasin'!"
The sound effect of a game-over rings across the arcade and Mondo gets out of the machine. "Well, I'm done here." He points to the arcade. "Anyone else wants to go?" Both of the other boys shake their heads. "Great, then let's scramble, this place was going to close anyway."
Paying for their time in there, the three boys step out of the arcade and into the town once again.
Their conversation turns lighthearted again as they make their way towards the center of town.
"So, where to next?" Leon asks excitedly.
"Uh, I think I'm done for today guys." The brunette says as the other two glance at him.
"C'mon Naegi! The night's still young!" Says Leon while pointing towards the city.
Mondo chuckles. "The little guy isn't on the same level as us when it comes to those types of things." Says the biker with smirk. "Let him have his rest."
'Guess I'm gonna have to deal with a lot of teasing from now on.' The Luckster thinks to himself. "Well, thanks for today Oowada-kun, Kuwata-kun." Makoto bows politely. "I had a lot of fun."
The other two boys smile softly at him. "Same here." Leon punched Makoto's shoulder gently. "We gotta hangout like that again."
"Yeah." The Luckster chuckles. "I'll see you two tomorrow." He says his goodbyes to his new friends and turns around.
Mondo and Leon soon disappear in the crowd of people and Makoto starts going back to school.
While walking down the street, the brunette gets distracted with his thoughts.
School barely started and a lot has happened, he met so many different people already and thankfully they all seems nice.
Well, almost everyone.
Still! Makoto thought that he would take more time to get used to the Ultimates and their… peculiar personalities, he was still very grateful that they seemed to accept someone as average as him.
"W-Watch out!" Someone suddenly yells, taking Makoto out of his thoughts.
"Hu- Ah!"
"Kyah!"
The boy barely has any time to react to someone just crashing into him out of nowhere.
Falling on opposite side of each other, Makoto takes some seconds to understand what happened and when he does, the boy gets up quickly and extends his hand towards the person that crashed into him.
"I'm so sorry, I was distrac… ted…" The brunette blinks slowly, then blushes slightly.
Fallen down in front of him is a beautiful girl, she has white pale skin and ashy-blond hair with a ahoge standing on top.
She was absolutely stunning.
"Uh, my head." The blond caresses her head a little bit, then opens her light purplish eyes and stares at Makoto's hand. "Oh!" She quickly grabs it and he helps her get up. "S-Sorry about that! I didn't see you walking there." The girl bows politely.
Makoto scratches the back of his head awkwardly. "N-No it's my fault, I should have paid more attention to where I was going." The brunette then looks to the side and sees her backpack. "Here, let me help you get your stuff." He gets down and starts to grab what seemed like scattered school supplies.
"Thank you." She gets on her knees and starts helping him out.
Soon enough, the two have finished organizing her supplies and putting them back in the backpack.
"Thank you again." Says the blond with a smile that makes the brunette blush.
"W-Well, it was because of me that it happened, so no need to thank me." He smiles back and the blond chuckles softly.
"Yeah that's true, still thank you." She bows once again before noticing something. "Oh no, I'm gonna be late!" The girl quickly runs past Makoto and back onto the busy streets. "Thanks again!" She yells before running off.
The brunette luckster just stares at the blond girl running off, just now noticing that she was wearing a school uniform and the little piano Keychain dangling from her backpack.
Soon, the mysterious girl disappears in the busy crowd.
"…" Makoto stares at nothing for a second, then shakes his head. "I should get back to school." He turns around and goes back to walking. 'Still… who was that girl?' Thinks the brunette while putting his hands in the pockets of his hoodie. 'She was beautiful…' with another shake of his head, the brunette sighs and goes back to his route.
Those are some strange thoughts, but it didn't matter, he would probably never see that girl again anyway.
With that, Makoto goes back to Hope's Peak.
Turns out that Makoto wasn't out for that long and he still was on time before the school closed for the night.
Standing in front of the door to his room, the brunette takes a deep breath and enters his bedroom.
He was ready to get some rest for the day.
What Makoto couldn't see was that someone was peeking at him from Mukuro's room.
"Didn't knew you are one of those types Makoto-kun! How naught~ upupupu!" A girly voice says to herself, before giggling and closing the door.
Hopeful Days XIV – Hitting The City
Okay, I'm gonna be real with you.
This chapter was a pain in the ass to write, in fact, I've rewritten it 4 different times, each time with completely different endings.
The first draft had a moment with Junko that while I thought it was a cute concept to work with, it just wasn't clicking with me, same with the second draft had a alternative Kaede encounter which I might use in the future with some alterations and the third one had a whole scene with Maki of all people.
Point is, I had trouble writing this one, and to be honest I didn't really like how it came out.
It also didn't help that I bought Granblue Fantasy Versus Rising and that has been consuming all my free time lately.
Anyways, hope y'all enjoyed the chapter and see you around!
P.S: Djeeta is the superior Granblue MC.