Little Battlers eXperience

Evangeline Mech

The whole ride felt very uncomfortable for me. I was sitting as co-pilot but with Seredy nearby, I felt like he was silently glaring at me the whole way. Niara was sitting by the window of the back seat. She stared outside and let out a sigh.

"How much further?" She asked.

"Give it 20 minutes." I replied.

"Damnit."

When we finally got back to the mainland, we discussed matters with Mr. Zaizen and Yagami. After Niara told us everything, I ran through the data I had and leave everything else for Yagami to handle. Not like I had a choice, the adults felt bad for cutting my day off short so they gave me the rest of the week off. I work partially with the government and Tiny Orbit at the same time. And also often do some favors for NICS. This is what I get for being a 17 year old optima-AI using girl that graduated high school at age 16... I wish I was a normal human girl. Too bad it never came true even for my birthday.

Niara and I walked to Tiny Orbit and met up with Takuya. Yes, he's still the president of the company from five years ago. He greeted us with a smile but was then called away for a meeting right after.

"I'm bored. What should we do?" Niara asked.

"Niara, you're 18 and you're still behaving like you were four years ago." I commented.

She rolled her eyes. "The way I 'behaved' got you and Jin together, didn't it?"

I felt my face turn red at what happened back then. Following her orders had been both embarressing and lucky. But even if I still regret doing it, there's still a small sense of pride within me for actually going through with it. (If you guys read LBX W in a Nutshell, you'll know what I mean)

"How about that guy's place then?" Niara suggested with an irritated sigh. "I'm so bored I actually suggested to go there."

"Why do you hate Kirito so much?" I asked. "I mean, you're not the worst couple I've ever seen..."

"I know. I know." She said annoyed. "I don't hate him... I just utterly dislike him."

"The hell's the difference?" I asked.

We rode a train to the other side of town and went to an apartment. The building was white on the outer and the interior. Clear blue windows are seperated evenly. On the lobby were cafés, restaurants, arcades and a lot of dioramas. We used the elevator to get to the 10th of 15 floors and walked down the long hallway, all the way to the end. There was a pale grey door and the doorbell was to its right.

Niara pressed it several times and knocked the door too. Three rings, three knocks. Her signiture way of telling others it was her that's outside the door. And it gets annoying as hell.

The door opened a minute later and Kirito appeared. His posture was a lot better compared to four years ago, though his habit of drinking coke was replaced with coffee. Sometimes even cigarettes, but considering how expensive they are in Japan, he rarely smoke.

He still uses his favorite shirt. Black and white stripes, long sleeves, has a number 24 on his left chest as well as red pants. The only difference was that now, he wears a black leather jacket.

"What do you want?" He asked.

"We got bored at Tiny Orbit so we thought we might come and visit." I said smiling. Niara put on her smirk and she and Kirito had a staring contest for a bit. The he sighed and let us in.

"This is a nice little place." I commented. It was a lot better than his old home for sure. In Country A, I had once visited Kirito's home with Niara and the place was dark. I think I saw an android in there too, but they told me not to mind it. Then he went to live in Tiny Orbit, at least until he's got enough money for his own place in this town. His dorm wasn't even a dorm. It was the security systems' control room. Yet he seemed to enjoy being there... I don't know.

"Where's Kaidou?" He asked sitting down on the couch. Niara plopped down on the floor near the TV and grabbed a game controller, turning a game on.

"Still on Kamui Island." I replied, sitting on an arm chair. "He still has things to take care of there but he did promised to visit by tomorrow... Or next week."

He nodded and watched Niara playing with his upgrade play station. He's like, 20 years old, but he's really good at techs and games that he upgraded nearly every equipment he could get his hands on around here. Not to mention he also volunteered to be my mentor for these things. Even the government's impressed.

Ever since the Mizel incident, our whole group has had good connections with the government and we even work for them in certain cases.

Niara suddenly screamed and hid behind the arm chair I was sitting on. "What was that thing?!"

"Niara, that was just a game. None of it was real." I said to her.

"I hate jump scares!" She stated.

"Then why are you playing Five Nights At Freddie's?" Kirito asked in a bored tone.

Niara glared at him and turned away. I sweatdrop. "If you two are going to act like this forever, wouldn't it be better to just break up and stay as friends?"

"No." They both replied.

I raised my hands up in defense. "Suit yourself. Though you might want to try to fix up your relationship a bit." I whispered that last part.

"How do you even get through the final level? I can't even pass the tutorial!" Niara started playing Geometery Dash. And yeah, she was doing the tutorial level.

"Skills." Kirito replied.

"I'm a gamer too, you know." Niara retorted.

"Only RPGs. You barely play any game that's not RPG, other than tetris and piano tiles." Kirito muttered.

"Damn you." She said.

I sweatdrop. These two aren't the worst couple I've seen, but they're definately the most awkward to hang out with, especially if it's a double date.

I sighed and watched the two argue. By the time I actually bothered to look at the clock, it was already noon.

I stood up from the chair. "I'm borrowing the kitchen." Of course netiher of them heard.

I whipped up some instant noodles for the three of us and placed them on the coffee table. Niara was first to notice and she grabbed her bowl right away and started munching down. Kirito took his while I had already started mine five minutes ago and was a quarter way through.

After finishing, I washed the bowls as Niara and Kirito continue their arguement. Although, as much as they seem to hate each other, they are actually close friends. I'd bet my CCM that if they hadn't met each other, their lives would have been pretty dull.

"She's dead!"

"Like your parents."

"F*** you!"

"You too!"

I sweatdrop. Those insults has been overused since four years ago...