Author’s corner: HELLO HELLO! A new chapter for you today! Hooray!
ANYWAY, the reason I didn’t upload anything yesterday was mostly because my pet golem went sick, so I had to take him to a jeweler so that he could take a look at him. Luckily, it was nothing serious… Jokes aside, it was just one of those days were you wake up without a shred of motivation. No reason at all, just couldn’t bring myself to write.
ALSO, tomorrow I will go back to Beepy’s story, so you have been warned. That, and I think that this arc might be coming to an end fairly soon, with one or two more chapters to come.
ALSO(2), This chapter ended up being more about showing how Richard will react to Maya than anything else. Still, I found it kind of funny, since the two ended up being somewhat similar in a weird way.
Have a good read!
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I made my way back to Yuu’s and Mary’s temporary home while leaving Hattori and Yuu back at my house. A sense of fulfillment filling my chest, I entered the apartment, only to see that it was as lively as when I left. This still didn’t help much with making my arrival go unnoticed, as the moment I came in, Fuyuki and Red turned to me with curious expression.
“Why did Yuu suddenly leave like that?” Fuyuki asked.
“Yeah, she looked really angry…” Red said while giving me an incriminating gaze.
I shrugged without hiding my smug smile, my reply was the simple answer of it being family matters. Fuyuki seemed to understand what I mean, since she widened her eyes and went ‘Ara Ara’ while shaking her head. Red, however, didn’t understand and simply frowned confused.
Anyway, since there wasn’t much for me to do, I decided to start with one of the first things I usually do when visiting a friend’s house.
I went to the fridge and opened it, seeing if there was anything interesting, I could snatch as a snack. However, I met a horrifying scene.
“This is bad. Really bad.” I said with a terrified expression.
“Indeed. This can be a terrible situation for milady.” Maya said while popping up besides me. I blinked surprised before nodding. “You creature that lives here longer than we do. What can we do to amend this situation.” She asked me, and I stopped to think for a second.
“There’s a place we can go nearby. But since it’s Saturday, it would only be open until noon, so we should go there quickly.” I told her, making her frown.
“Why, Us?” She asked me with a look of disgust. “Do you really want to follow me around so that you can engrave this deliciously sexy body into your mind to…”
“Do you speak Portuguese?” I interrupted her, making her frown once again.
“You win this time.” She said coldly, and I gave her my best smile.
“What are you guys talking about?” Mary asked while she arrived besides us. “It almost seems like you guys are doing something that matters for life and death.”
“But it is a dire situation like that.” I said while grabbing one of Mary’s shoulders and putting on my best look of desperation.
“Please, fear not, milady. For I shall save us from this situation!” Maya said while holding her other shoulder. “And then, I would accept a reward from you in the matter of intimate contact between the two of us.”
We saw as Mary looked completely lost on what was happening, and before she even had the chance to try and get answers from us, Maya and I had already left the apartment once again, warning the others that it would take us a few minutes to come back.
On the way out we met with Yuu, who was leaving my apartment while stomping her way out. She blinked surprised when she saw me and Maya walking together and tilted her head confused.
“Did something happen, Shishou?” She asked me when we approached her.
“We are in dire situations, Yukihime-dono.” Maya said.
“Yeah.” I said in a heavy tone while taking a deep breath. “Look, I know it’s difficult to believe me, but I need you to stay calm while we tell you this, okay?” I told her while looking at her seriously. She widened her eyes and nodded while looking serious. “You see… We just… At your house…”
“We opened it…” Maya said while making a pained face. “We shouldn’t… but we found out a terrible, terrible secret.”
“What is it?” Yuu asked, shocked. Me and the maid exchanged glances and nodded in accordance.
“The fridge…” “…Is empty!” We said in synch.
Yuu widened her eyes in sheer shock and terror, before finally frowning and looking at us confused while she made sense of the situation.
“You were fooling with me?” She tilted her head.
“What makes you think that I would fool around such serious matter?” I put on a fake angry tone which surprised her.
“I feel disappointed by the fact that Yukihime-dono does not trust me.” Maya said while faking some tears.
“Look! Now you made the poor maid cry!” I said while pointing to Maya.
“Waah! So-Sorry Shihsou! Sorry Maya-san!” Yuu said panicky while looking between the two of us in panic.
I looked at her with a fake scowl that made her shrink in fear for a moment. Then I turned to Maya who was spying between her fingers with an amused expression.
“If you want forgiveness then ask her!” I told Yuu. “She’s the one who feels the most hurt!” Yuu nodded hurriedly while turning to Maya.
Except that since they spoke in Japanese, I couldn’t quite get the meaning behind their words, besides the initial sorry, I mean. And their names.
I did get that Maya’s attitude suddenly made a full turn after Yuu spoke some words, and suddenly she was back to her serious-looking face and was saying something to Yuu, who nodded obediently while listening to it. When they finally finished their negotiations, Yuu ran to her house in a hurry. I turned to the maid and raised an eyebrow confused.
“I made sure to bring Yukihime-dono with us.” Maya told me briefly.
“Good job.” I said briefly with a nod.
“I always do a good job.” She said smugly.
I laughed loudly at that while we made our way to the elevator. We called it and waited a few seconds while it got to our floor. By the time the elevator arrive, Yuu also reached us, now carrying a small purse swung over her shoulder.
I looked confused for a moment but then shrug it off as it wasn’t important anymore. Maya quickly pressed the ground-floor and the elevator started to slowly make its way down.
Reaching the ground floor, we left and I gave a quick greeting to the gatekeeper, who nodded briefly before opening the gate to us. I guided the girls through the streets until we reached a nearby super-market.
“Okay, so what do we need exactly?” I asked them.
“Condiments, food, meat, rice… Fish would be good too.” Maya said as she made a mental list.
“Mary said that some cleaning products would be good too.” Cygnas said from my cellphone, getting Maya by surprise. Me and Yuu simply nodded in accordance.
However, since most of the products were from a different brand from the ones they knew and I survived mostly on frozen meals and left the cleaning to the cleaning lady that went to my home twice a week. We had to some help from Cygnas, who used the power of the internet to recommend us what to buy and how to check the quality of the fruits and other fresh products that we needed.
“So… Why are you picking up so many cookies?” Maya asked me when she saw that I had a basket filled with cookies that I was going to buy.
“Cookies are a way of live I have no intention of ever abandoning.” I told her briefly with a defiant look. She blinked surprised before shrugging and turning back to whatever she was doing.
“Shishou likes cookies?” Yuu asked-me, and I nodded.
“Cookies, chocolate, ice-cream and so on. I’m a major sweet-tooth when it comes to things like that.” I said happily and almost missed Yuu nodding to herself before turning to another side of the store, as if looking for something.
I smiled a bit awkwardly when I noticed that she also added some extra cooking ingredients that, if I guessed right, would be used to make some cookies. I couldn’t help but start petting her, which left her a bit confused.
“So, not only are you after my body, you also want Yukihime-dono’s?” Maya asked in a fake tone of surprise. Yuu stared at her confused for a moment, then at herself.
“Our bodies?” She asked confused.
“You see… What it means is…” Maya started explaining in a mischievous tone, but I stopped her by covering her mouth with my hand and shoving her away.
She tried to fight back, and even if she was way fitter for a girl her size, I was still bigger so I managed to make sure no other words left her mouth. Yuu looked a bit confused at the scene, not really understanding what was happening.
“Nothing… Ignore this impure girl and keep being the innocent girl you are, okay?” I said while using my free hand to pet her head. She didn’t really understand what I meant, but nodded nonetheless, as she always did when I start petting her.
Anyway, as I happily petted Yuu, I noticed Maya looking at us with slightly jealous gaze.
“You two are in your own world…” She complained before changing into Japanese as she mulled over something. I did pick up the milady here and there.
I laughed at her a bit before turning back my attention to the market, only to notice that there were some people looking at us curiously. I smiled a bit awkwardly while taking the two girls out from the area so that we could lose the attention.
“So, what’s left?” I asked Cyg.
“Well… It seems that we got everything they had here…” She said in a pensive tone. “There are still some things left, but they don’t have, so we need to go somewhere else to find it.” She sighed.
“It is the result of going into a poor store.” Maya said dryly.
“Well, we came for emergency shopping, not to fully stock the house. What did you want?” I replied in the same tone. “Besides, this isn’t even by far the largest super-market in the town.”
“Oh yeah. I forgot we were dealing with poor people like you…” She said to me with a mocking tone.
“Oh… Are you mocking the power of the middle class?” I said in the same tone while staring right at her.
“And what that power might be?” She asked me back while laughing.
We kept there staring daggers at each other for some time, and it wasn’t until Yuu grabbed my arm and started pulling me that I finally broke free from my confrontation against the self-absorbed maid. When I turned to Yuu, I saw as she pointed to one of the cashiers that didn’t have a line.
“That one just go empty. We should take advantage of that.” She said briefly and I nodded while taking my basked and pushing the cart with my other one.
On the way I noticed Yuu pouting a little, but since I didn’t have a free hand, there wasn’t much I could do besides smile awkwardly. Maya laughed mischievously at the scene and my situation, at least until we got to the cashier, where she immediately changed to her serious self.
I went first and quickly paid for my precious dose of daily sugar on my own, then I helped the girls with their things by putting the products on plastic bags and so on. They paid with Yuu’s international credit-card after I worked as a translator for them.
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The cashier quickly completed the transaction and mechanically wished us a good day. I thanked him back before taking half of the bags and raising them. My arms complained a bit for the sudden load, but it was nothing I haven’t had worse before. Yuu and Maya shared the remaining load while Yuu asked if I did not want to give her part of my bags.
The reason I denied wasn’t because I felt being a chivalrous lad nor anything like that. It was simply because I’m already used to doing this, and the fact that it weighted so much that if I tried to open my fingers to give her even one bag, everything else would fall down.
Thankfully, my apartment was really close-by, so it didn’t take us too long to reach it, and once we got to the girl’s apartment I quickly dropped all the bags on the counter and wondered if my arms would start throwing a party for the lack of weight.
Still, the worst part were my feet, that didn’t have the chance to rest for enough time ever since the genius idea of walking to the airport.
Leaving the organization of the things we brought to the girls, as Mary and Barbara immediately came to offer some help, I made my way to the sofa, where Fuyuki was comforting a Hattori that didn’t seem to know whether to laugh or cry.
I fell face-first into the couch, surprising the two who hadn’t heard me approaching.
“Ara? Rick-kun? What happened?” Fuyuki asked.
“Feet… Hurt… Hell… Pain…” I mumbled while keeping my leg up and feeling it burn. “Never… Walk… Again…”
Fuyuki laughed lightly at my words while Hattori kept quiet. I couldn’t quite see their reactions since I had my face buried into the large couch that took almost half of the small room.
“Shishou? Is everything alright?” I heard Yuu ask after some time of letting my leg cool down.
“Geez Gon. What’s with this scene?” Mary asked with a playful grin.
“…Say, War… How did you go to the airport?” Barbara asked me with an ‘it couldn’t be’ tone.
“Walking…” I replied. Barbara sighed while the others took some time to figure out what this meant.
“And why the hell did you do that?” She asked me annoyed.
“Cheaper…”
She sighed loudly at my answer before grabbing my leg and shoving me out of the sofa. Luckily, I managed to take hold of a cushion and use it to lighten the impact on my head, which I kept face down.
“Get up already, will you?” She said annoyed.
“Don’t wanna!”
“We need to get something to eat. We don’t have enough time to cook something, so we decided to go out to eat.”
“Don’t want to leave.” I said while throwing a tantrum. “Legs hurting. Can’t walk.”
There were some more exchanges between Barbara and me while she tried to make me lift, but I felt too lazy and tired to do so, and kept on the same position letting my legs relax a little. Just as she was starting to give up, I heard another pair of steps enter into the room.
“Barbara. That’s not how you do it.” My father said with a playful tone. “Sonny, want to go on an all you can eat barbeque?”
“You were saying?” I asked while raising my head from the cushion.
…
Since there were a lot of people gathered, not only did we use my father’s car, we also had to ask Paul to take his car so that we could carry the remaining people.
The final solution was that my father would take the adults, including the two bodyguards that came with us, as well as Lily who seemed to take a liking at Fuyuki who carried her in her lap.
Meanwhile, Paul carried me, Barbara, Yuu, Mary and Maya. Since there was one person too many, it was either have the girls squeeze up on the back-seat, or someone goes on the car’s trunk.
There is no need to say which option we chose, right?
Thankfully, his car’s luggage carrier was one of those that were right beneath the back-window, so I could at least get some sunlight while I suffered that humiliation of being carried as a car baggage!
And it’s absolutely not like I found it amusing, okay? I hated it! It’s not like I was using an excuse to ride on the trunk, okay?
Absolutely, okay?
“You seem awfully cheerful there, you pervert.” Maya said while spying on me.
“Just your imagination.” I said while trying to hide my grin.
“Muuh… Why does Shishou have to ride in there?” Yuu asked sullenly.
“Leave him be…” Barbara said with a weary tone. “He’s been trying to get an excuse to ride on the trunk since forever.”
“That’s a lie!” I shouted back at her.
“Yeah, right.”
Mary simply kept laughing at our exchanges.
Sadly… I mean, luckily, we quickly reached the place my father had chosen. It was a fairly well known place in the city, being one of the few hotels I actually knew that existed, and they had an all-you-can-eat menu with barbeque. It wasn’t exactly cheap, but since meat keeps coming for as long as you want, it’s more than worth it.
Hastily jumping out from the trunk, I dusted off some of the dirt in my jacket before turning to the others and asking.
“So, what are we waiting?” I asked, and they all smiled wryly before shaking their head.
“Nothing?” My father said while leading the way inside.
We quickly made our way to the largest table around and asked for the all you can eat course. The smell alone made our stomachs grumble with hunger as we waited for the meat to start arriving. I was a bit worried that Yuu, Mary or Fuyuki would end up disliking the idea of a meat free-for-all, but it was unfounded as they started to become cheerful when they saw the waiter taking the meat to another table.
They also took this chance to try a bit some of Brazilian cuisine, compromised of their familiar rice, as well as some other things like the barbeque-specific salad, trooper bean and farofa. Nothing that the bad-eater I am enjoy, but they seemed to like it.
However, as we ate, there was one little thing that was annoying me like hell. As soon as I finished my first plate, I quickly stood up, which made everyone in the table look at me surprised. Everyone except my father who nodded.
I quickly made my way towards a nearby pillar, where the two bodyguards stood straight up while staring at some place above the table. They noticed me approaching and raised an eyebrow, but I simply ignored it and grabbed their hands before dragging them to the table.
They looked at me confused, but I simply pointed to the chairs besides my father and Hattori. The bodyguards looked confused at me, then at Hattori.
“Rick-kun. They are doing their jobs.” He told me briefly.
“They are ready to risk their lives for you. Might as well as give them a decent meal, right?” I said briefly before sighing. “Besides, I wouldn’t be surprised if you were to tell me that there are at least seven others bodyguards hidden somewhere nearby.”
He smiled wryly before finally nodding towards the bodyguards, who awkwardly took their place on the table and waited for the waiter to come by.
“I didn’t expect you to be that caring.” Maya said in a slightly surprised tone.
“Well, having lunch while someone is staring at your back is embarrassing.” I said with a shrug.
“Rare steak? Someone?” A waiter appeared with a plate full of meat, speaking in Portuguese.
“Me!” I said while putting my plate up, almost clashing with Maya’s.
“Geez, how can you guys like rare meat?” Barbara asked with a slight face of disgust.
“Rare meat is the tastiest!” Maya said with shining eyes. “The softness of the meat, the texture when you bite it…”
“That, and I like to sate my thirst… WITH BLOOD!” I said in a dramatic voice.
Barbara sighed loudly while Mary and Paul laughed at us. Yuu tried a piece of rare meat, but didn’t seem to enjoy it too much, so I quickly stole from her while passing her one of the well-done meat I had.
And then it became an interesting scene, with my father and Hattori talking about a product that Hattori’s industries made, and he worked with in his job; Fuyuki talking cheerfully with the bodyguard while playing with pea; and the remaining of us talking about Insania.
I found out that Incarnus got himself a rune-master class while it seems that they still got nothing from Jean. Yuu and Hanbei hadn’t had a chance to log in for some time, so they didn’t have much to talk about. Maya kept quiet for most of the
time, except for the occasional twisted comment or when we would start fighting for a piece of meat, but I did notice that she kept an ear out for everything we were talking about.
“And then, Gon goes and start showing the Wyvern why doing backflips is a viable alternative!” Cygnas said from the cellphone stand we had set up for her. “At first I was at loss, but when he finally finishes it, the wyvern says that she would try it out!”
She had started up telling the story about Rathian when Yuu asked what I did since the last time I met them, but now she was looking at me with a strange respect while Paul was almost ripping his hair off.
“A RATHIAN! THAT’S DEFINITIVELY A RATHIAN!” He said while lunging and trying to suffocate me. “YOU BASTARD! HOW THE HELL DID YOU MEET A RATHIAN?”
“HEY, STOP, WILL YA?” I said while kicking him back to his seat. “Besides, she Isn’t a Rathian, she’s a wyvern that looks like one, okay?”
“Actually, she took on the name Rathian for herself.” Barbara added before drinking her coca-cola.
“YOU BASTARD!” Paul said while jumping at me again.
“Is now that you kiss?” We heard maya asking, and we turned to her seeing her holding her cellphone towards us.
“WE AREN’T YOUR YAOI MATERIAL!” We shouted together, making her click her tongue in annoyance.
“Hmm…” Yuu said while tilting her head. We stopped to look at her and she quickly continued. “Well, knowing Shishou, I would have thought you would also try to tame her?” She said confused.
“Nah, she was level four hundred thousand millions.” I said in an exaggerated tone. “There’s no way I would have tamed her.”
“But you did get Rioreia…” Cygnas added with a smirk.
“Rioreia?” Paul asked confused.
“Wait!” Mary said while standing up and looking at me. “Isn’t Rathian the western name of Rioreia?” She asked me surprised.
“YOU FREAKING BASTARD!”
“WHY DID YOU HAVE TO TELL HIM THAT?” I complained to her as she made a wry smile, all the time trying to keep Paul away from me, and Maya away from the meat in my plate.
“Yeah. Rio is actually really small and cute!” Cygnas said cheerfully. “You would like to meet her.”
“Hmm… So Shishou got another cute pet…” Yuu said in a pensive tone, making Hanbei pat her back as if comforting her.
“…So, are you two kissing or not?” Maya said dryly.
“SHUT UP, ERO-MAID!” Me and Paul shouted at her.