Chapter 3:

Iori and Nerisu Spend Time Together

Caladria Chronicles


Today was the day. You see, Iori and Nerisu planned on hanging out with each other, just the two of them, on this fateful Saturday. How did this happen, you might ask? Well, let’s look back at the conversation the two of them had at school, during lunch.
“Oooh! The latest volume of Destroyers of Darkness is coming out soon!” Nerisu exclaimed when she received a notification that volume eight of Destroyers of Darkness was announced to be released soon, as it had been about four months since the last one had been released. The anime had aired last year during Fall, and only went for thirteen episodes, so as soon as the second season had been released, there was a lot of hype for it. Nerisu was obsessed with the series, along with Takataka and Yuu. She, in particular, roleplayed as the protagonist, along with some of the female characters, and even made some fan-made characters who she also roleplayed as. She also bought all of the Giga-Discs so far. Giga-Discs were the successor to Blu-rays on Caladria, and are fairly recent. However, recent anime and old ones were still being released on DVDs and Blu-ray Discs, it wasn’t unheard of for existing companies and studios on Earth to target Caladria’s population when it came to anime, along with other mediums as well.
“Oh? That’s the anime you, Takataka and Yuu like, isn’t it?” Iori questioned, looking at her curiously.
“Yes, yes it is! I love it so much! We’re all going to watch season two together when it airs in Summer!” Nerisu was clearly very excited by all of this. As a result, she was bouncing up and down, which yes, also included her breasts. But the only people who took notice of this tended to be nearby classmates who were perverted in particular.
“Ah, I see. Well, have fun doing that! If anything, I can only get into psychological series, really…” Iori wasn’t the type to get into the superpowered adolescents sort of series, or as others may know it as, “chuuni” shit. He was more into thrillers, and psychological. Something like Steins;Gate would probably be up his alley, as he liked drama and science-fiction as well.
“Oh? Is that so? Maybe we should watch some together, then!” She beamed, she was excited because she liked watching anime with her friends. They all had their tastes, which would soon be revealed as this series continues.
“Sure, that’s fine by me. When’s a good time? And what should we watch? I’m generally free, most of the time… But you’ve always known that, haha.” He joked around a little, since their friendship had gone back for about ten years now.
“Hmm! Umm, we can watch Steins;Gate! It’s an anime about time travel, and is a thriller too! It’s based off a visual novel, you might have heard of it before!”
“Oh, I think I have when reading a top ten list. Probably a couple of years ago or so. Sure, that sounds like fun.”
“But wait! What if you don’t enjoy it as much because you haven’t read the visual novel yet!? I mean, there are some anime where you’re definitely recommended to read the novel first before watching the anime! Like the Grisaia trilogy, that one’s a mess!”
“It should be fine, Nerisu. Don’t worry about it. Are we going to watch it in English, or in Japanese? I’m fine, either way.”
“Well, we can start with Japanese, if you enjoy it we can move onto English! Some dubs are better in English, but personally I prefer the originals! Steins;Gate’s dub is pretty unique, I liked it even if it messed around a bit!”
“Really? That settles it, we can watch it on Saturday after you buy Destroyers of Darkness, then.”
“Yay! I’m looking forward to hanging out with you, Iori!” The bell then rang and the two scurried back to class, the day soon ending and then they went home and talked to each other in the group chat like always.
Which brings us to the present, where Iori was waiting for Nerisu down the street. The streets were busy, many people were walking around, doing their own thing as he waited for her. There were a variety of shops, one could easily do all their usual shopping here, considering that it was in Nairilune, one of Dreilune’s cities. He was wearing a dark-blue winter jacket, matching his hair, along with some black pants. To top it all off, his shoes were black Japanese shoes, like the ones school girls normally wore.The weather was cold, despite it being Spring, so this is why they weren’t wearing more revealing clothing. Suddenly, Nerisu was seen running towards him, wearing a black jacket-dress hybrid and black leggings. She was basically wearing all black, which made sense since it usually absorbed the heat. They both stuck to her body, not really showing off her curves. In any case, he just smiled and waved at her.
“You’re here! You didn’t teleport like you usually do?” He asked, normally Nerisu would be seen teleporting from area to area using her handy teleporting bra. But this time, you could see her from a couple of metres away.
“Oh! I decided to go for a walk this time, I like seeing the streets during Winter!” She replied, with a smile on her face.
“That makes sense. Now, let’s get going, or the volume will be sold out!” He teased, just playfully joking even if she had the tendency to take it seriously…
...Which she did. In an instant, she dashed off using some of her super speed to the resident Kinokuniya, which opened up recently around the place. Iori had to take some time to catch up to, panting as soon as they finally arrived around 5 minutes later.
He caught her buying the volume, with an extremely happy expression on her face as she went over to Iori, clutching it in her hands.
“I did iiiiit! Oh, sorry about that back there! I was so worried about it being sold out that I had to rush over, and I didn’t want to teleport this time!” She rubbed the back of her head as she held onto the bag she received, containing the volume.
“It’s fine, it’s fine. I had a feeling you would do that anyway, even if I was just teasing you…”
“Gosh! Teasing me like that isn’t funny, hmph!” She puffed her cheeks, looking childish in front of him… And a bunch of other people too.
“Haha, sorry sorry! You’re very teasable, Nerisu.”
“What’s that supposed to mean!? Teasing sounds mean!” She pouted, turning away.
“Teasing is meant to be some light-hearted fun. Try not to get so offended by it.” She turned away and puffed her cheeks again, she wasn’t very happy, but it was only temporary. “W-Whatever! Anyways, let’s go get something to eat! I want to go to MgRonalds!” She stated afterwards.
“Okay, let’s take our time walking there instead, though.” He said as he went over to her, heading towards the direction where the nearest MgRonalds was.
After a while of walking, the two arrive there and they both ordered cheeseburgers with large fries, along with separate cola-flavoured soft drinks. They both sat down and started eating, taking sips every now and then.
“Hey… Do you wonder if the mascots of various fast food franchises will ever come to life and start terrorising Caladria?” Nerisu asked, with a questioning look on her face.
“...No, Nerisu, no. That’s highly unlikely and even if there was technology made to enable that, we both know that the rulers… wait, not all of them. I’d say that the ruler of Nephrine would probably make something like that, but thankfully it hasn’t happened. Anyway, as I was saying, it’s highly unlikely. And that’s pretty random, what made you think that?”
“Oh! Look at the poster over there!” She said, looking at the poster that was just near them of the lovely MgRonalds mascot turned into a giant and stomping all over the unnamed city, with UFOs attacking it along with tanks.
“...Why do they have something like this here? Is this meant to attract the kids or something? You’d honestly expect someone to make a fan-game about it…” Iori said, looking rather displeased as he stared at the poster.
“Ehehe, I hope one will pop up soon! I love playing fangames!” She replied, looking at him happily as she ate her fries.
“Maybe it will.” Iori said with a small grin, finishing off his burger.
They finished eating and drinking after a while and decided to head back to Nerisu’s place, walking there instead of teleporting. It took about ten minutes, but it was good exercise for the two of them. Nerisu’s mother, Kotone, welcomed Iori back with a smile. “Ah, Iori-san, hello. Nerisu didn’t tell me that you were spending the day with her, oh my…”
“Oh! Sorry about forgetting to do that, mother! I was in a rush, since I didn’t want to keep him waiting!”
“It’s okay, dear. Go on and enjoy yourselves.”
“Okay!” Nerisu rushed over to her room, and Iori followed after. He had been in her room many times before, and it never ceased to amaze him that she had all of those anime figurines, posters, fanbooks… she had a lot of memorabilia. Not to mention her video game collection, which triumphed the ones of others due to how rich she was. The same went for her anime, manga, light novel, music… it goes on, really. This is what it meant to be her, a spoilt princess with a heart of gold.
She quickly looked for the Giga-Disc of Steins;Gate, and inserted it in her Giga-Disc player as Iori sat on the bed. The television that Nerisu looked like the screens that you saw at the movie theatres, it was massive. It wasn’t as big as one at the theatre, but it was still huge compared to the televisions that you could buy in Caladria. It was a flat-screen that stretched at least two beds across.
The logos started showing, and soon enough they were shown the DVD menu. This Giga-Disc came with the English and Japanese dubs, which Nerisu would use to make comparison videos on the internet about the dubs in important scenes. She played the first episode, with a smile on her face. To prevent readers from being spoiled on the series, only discussion of which characters they like will be shown.
After four episodes, Iori and Nerisu took a break. “Ehehe, I can never get sick of watching it~ It’s one of my favourites!” She said, smiling at him.
“I can see why… I’m liking the beginning so far, it’s interesting.” Iori said in response, smiling back.
“Oh? Who’s your favourite character, then? Mine is Kurisu, she’s so lovely!”
“Kurisu, huh… I think mine is Mayuri, she’s very cute.”
“Ooooh! Mayuri is good, I like her too! We are similar, but I might be like Kurisu at times! W-When it comes to perversion, that is.”
“I wouldn’t really know, I mean… Even if we have a pervert in our group, he doesn’t really act perverted towards you. I’m surprised, really. Maybe it’d be awkward for him?”
“You know, you have a point! I’m really glad, though! It’s not normal for me to be like that!”
“I’m honestly surprised that you said it. I mean, we’ve known each other for so long, it’s something I’ve never really noticed about you. How did you find out about it?”
“Well, I thought about how I would react to a pervert wanting to grope and stare at me in a lewd manner, and it made me realise that I’m tsundere towards perverts! W-Well, only if I’m not dating them, I mean…”
“Ah. I understand, I get what you mean. Anyway, we’ve spent a lot of time together today… Um, is there anything else you want to do?”
“Oh! Um, well… I was hoping you could sleep over, since I’ve missed our sleepovers…”
“It’s only been a couple of months... but I understand. I’ve missed them too.”
“Does that mean you can sleep over!?” Nerisu exclaimed, looking at him with stars in her eyes. She looked like she was a lost puppy, finally being picked up by a future owner.
“Oh! I probably can, I’m sure my parents wouldn’t mind.” He replied, smiling gently at her. He just wanted to pet her on the head… And so he did. He was stroking her hair gently, looking into her eyes.
“Ehehe~” She giggled as he pet her head, looking as blissful as ever. Nerisu loved headpats a lot, no matter who the person was. She would probably accept them, even if they were from someone she didn’t have a very high opinion of. She just loved them that much.
He stopped petting her after a while, satisfied with feeling her soft, luscious hair. Right now, the only problem was thinking of what to do for the rest of the day. But, Nerisu had an idea, first of all.
She started giggling again, it felt like she thought of a funny joke or something. Whatever it is, Iori had mixed feelings. Sometimes her jokes could be weird, and considering it was the two of them… Who knows what she thought of. Regardless, he decided to ask her what was up.
“Hey, Nerisu? Why are you giggling?”
“Oh!” She replied in shock, looking at him with an innocent face, though it didn’t seem that innocent after all. “I thought of something we could do! Let’s take a photo and show it to the group!”
“Um… Okay. What kind of photo? Let’s not surprise them with something really… what’s the word, extravagant?” Like her mansion, really.
“Make a funny face! I’ll make one too!”
The two of them made weird faces. Nerisu’s was of her mouth wide open, in an O shape. Iori’s was of his cheeks being smooshed together by both hands. Nerisu took the photo, and then went into the funny photo manipulation application called “Change It!” and then started adding some effects…
The result was of the two looking like eldritch abominations, their faces were dark and practically gray with outlines of their face, while their eyes were beady and red. By the time Nerisu was done with it, she shrieked. She scared herself with her own creation.
And there you have it, folks. That was the joke. She sent the photo into the group chat, waiting for the responses that would shortly arrive.
“Oh?” From Yukino.
“Oh my god, I nearly wet myself.” From Yuu.
“Wait, what are you two doing?” From Takataka.
“Ojousama, what is this?” From Mizuki.
Embarrassed, she felt that she should probably admit what happened as she was taking it.
“I actually scared myself when I looked at the final result…”
“Classic Nerisu, you seem to scare yourself so easily!” Yuu replied, laughing a little in person.
“S-Shut up, Yuu!”
“Calm down, calm down.” Iori typed, sending and then trying to act as a mediator between the two. “Anyway, how is everybody doing?”
The rest started talking amongst themselves, as Iori smiled and gave Nerisu a thumbs up, smiling at her. She smiled back at him and then gave him a hug. “Yay! You really avoided that awkward situation, Iori!” He returned the hug, and smiled back at her. “You’re welcome. He should have some more tact sometimes…”
She stopped hugging him and then smiled.
“Ehe~ What should we do now? Are you feeling hungry?”
“A little, yes. I’d like to have some fruit, at the very least. I want to try and eat something healthy after all the junk food today…”
“Ah! Of course, of course! We have plenty of fruit, along with vegetables too!” Nerisu quickly lead him into the kitchen, the massive kitchen (like the rest of the house, really) that stored a lot of food. Regardless of how much food it stored, Nerisu and her family managed to eat a lot of it before it spoiled. She went to get a mango out, and started cutting it up, then used a spoon to scoop it out and eat. Iori got an apple instead.
He started eating into it, and smiled. “You know, apples are my favourite fruit. You like mangos, don’t you?”
“Yes! Mangos are my favourite, they’re so sweet at times!” She happily replied, with a grin on her face.
They eventually finished it off, quicker than they did with the fast food, and placed them both in the bin.
Nerisu’s mansion had a pool in the backyard, it was pretty big and made the backyard look like one of those beach resorts with the chairs scattered around, tables included too. Remembering this, Nerisu decided to bring it up, despite the fact that we had a swimming episode about a couple of chapters back. This will be the last one for now, I swear.
“Hey, Iori! Do you want to go swimming in my backyard with me? We can teleport back to your place and get your swimming trunks, if you like!”
“Sure. Well, I already have a teleporting bra, so I can just do that on my own. But I appreciate the thought.”
“You do!? Wow, you must have saved up a lot for it! They’re pretty expensive, you know!”
“Ah… It was a Christmas present. I am really thankful for it, though. It’s very convenient, like you always say.”
“Well, okay! I’ll go and get changed, and I’ll wait for you outside!”
In a flash, Nerisu rushed over to her room to get changed into her swimsuit. Iori teleported back to his house, which was of an average size and wasn’t too small, or big, then rushed into his room to get his swimming trunks. He decided to wear different ones this time, they were star patterned. He changed into the trunks and teleported back to Nerisu’s house, into the bathroom this time. He would be leaving his clothes in there so that he could get changed and avoid an awkward moment with Nerisu if he left them in her room.
With that done, he headed out to the backyard pool and saw Nerisu in her swimsuit. She was wearing a red two piece bikini, similar to her favourite one that she always wore but without the white parts. He waved while walking towards her.
“I’m here!”
“Oh, great! I won’t be doing much swimming, I’ll be using the pool inflatable we have here!” She pointed over to the sky blue rectangular-shaped pool inflatable that was floating in the water, ready to be used.
“Really? I’ll join you, then. I like looking around your backyard, anyway.”
“Oh! Okay!” She jumped straight into the pool, and swam over to the inflatable. Iori just got in normally and walked over to it, sitting beside her. He noticed that even if her hair was wet, it didn’t seem to go back to being straight, or wavy… He’s always known her hair is originally wavy, it was something they all knew since she never styled her hair when she was younger.
“Nerisu, you use a special gel to style your hair, don’t you? It’s basically waterproof now.”
“Yes, I do! I’m really glad they made it, it makes it so much easier! I don’t always have to style my hair because of it, ehehe~”
He smiled a bit as she said that. She always had a thing for convenience, despite how easily she was able to do several things. If anything, she still would be fine if she lived in the seventeenth century or so.
“I see… You have your phone with you, right? Why don’t we take a photo?”
“Okay, sure! Let’s do that!” Conveniently, her phone was on the pool toy and was waterproof, which prevented any mishaps from happening. She posed for the camera, along with Iori, and they took a photo and she posted it in the group chat.
“You two look like you’re having fun~” Yukino replied.
“Yes, we are! We should all have a sleepover sometime!” Nerisu cheerfully posted, she really liked sleepovers. She was fine without them, but she just liked spending time with people a lot.
“Fuhahaha! My power will only be increased if I’m around my fellow comrades, so I accept!” That was Takataka.
Mizuki sent a sticker of a rabbit sighing, and then sent another saying okay.
“Maybe during the school holidays? That would be a good time, I bet.” Yuu joined in, too.
“Then it’s settled! We’ll all hang out during the school holidays, then! Let’s have long sleepovers!!” Which is what Nerisu really wanted, but I’m honestly not sure if I can write something like that. It would be abridged, at the very least.
“How about three days? That sounds good enough to me.” And that was Yuu, again.
“Yeah, that sounds good. I’m looking forward to it!” Iori replied, with a smile on his face. Even if he was closer to Nerisu, he still really enjoyed hanging out with the group. They were a good, friendly bunch. And yes, he had his waterproof phone too.
The two ended up talking to the group, talking about the usual, everyday things that happen in a slice-of-life series. Yuu mentioned that one time that Iori accidentally flipped Nerisu’s skirt up, making her cry and giving him a bit of a hard time to cheer him up, and he embarrassingly told him to shut up and not talk about memories like that. Nerisu mentioned that nowadays she would probably just call the person a pervert and get pretty mad, showing that she had actually changed from back then. There was some talk about Mizuki being more of a class rep type when she was younger, and about what happened to change that, but they dropped it when she wasn’t responding. She said she was busy, but they felt that she was actually hiding that she didn’t want to talk about it…
And so, the two finished swimming (even if they didn’t do much swimming at all) and took showers, then got changed into their usual clothes they were wearing. Nerisu used the downstairs bathroom, and Iori used the upstairs bathroom. By then, dinner was ready, and Kotone called out to them and they quickly rushed into the dining room. Stirfry was the meal for dinner, and there was pudding for dessert, so they sat down next to each other and started eating.
“How was your day?” Kotone asked, smiling sweetly at the two.
“Oh! It was great, we had lots of fun! Didn’t we, Iori?” Nerisu replied, smiling at him.
“Yes, we did. It was very enjoyable, like always.” Iori said in response, giving a smile to the two as well.
“As long as you two didn’t do anything dangerous, that’s fine. I trust you two to behave yourselves.” Said Kotone.
Nerisu finished quickly, along with her mother, who excused herself and went into the main room, checking the stock exchange. It was another way for her to make money, by buying and selling stocks strategically. Things generally worked out for her.
Iori and Mikazuki soon finished, and after doing so, they excused themselves as Nerisu got up.
“What should we do now? It’s pretty late, but not late enough for us to go to bed!” Nerisu asked, tilting her head.
“How about we watch some videos? That always works when it comes to curing boredom, at least for me.” They weren’t really bored, but they just wanted something to do. Nerisu nodded and then went into her bedroom, turning her computer on and going onto the resident video sharing website they used.
She found a couple of videos, they were mostly cute animal videos where animals were being funny, like cats chasing after objects or running after their own tail. There was also a video where two people were making funny faces, trying to make the other laugh. They had stuck their tongues out, and smooshed their faces together. The two laughed hard at the videos, enjoying them immensely.
After that, they decided to watch some funny anime scene compilations. They laughed hard as well, and sooner or later it eventually became eleven o’ clock. Nerisu was starting to get tired, and decided to change into her pajamas.
“Oh, Iori?” She asked, before getting ready to change. “Are you going to your house to change into your own? I figured you would, since you can teleport too.”
“Yes, I am. I’ll be back.” Shortly afterwards, he changed into a white shirt and dark blue boxers. The weather had gotten hotter, so he felt it was fitting. He teleported back and knocked on Nerisu’s bedroom door, to see whether she had finished getting changed or not. She had, and opened the door to him, wearing a purple cat print nightgown. The cats were light blue.
“Your nightgown is cute.” Iori said, smiling at her.
“Thank you! I think it’s adorable!” She replied, grinning at him.
They both went to the bathroom to brush their teeth, along with brushing their hair before they went to bed. Afterwards, they returned to her bedroom and Nerisu got into bed, and wondered why he didn’t get into bed with her before realising why.
“You can sleep with me, if you like! Just like when we were younger!” She patted the other side, welcoming him onto the bed.
“Oh, really? Alright. I just assumed you might want me to sleep somewhere else, since it could give others the wrong idea…” He felt that it was rather intimate to sleep together, though he was glad he was able to do that with her.
“B-But I want you to sleep next to me so I don’t feel lonely…” She frowned, but soon cheered up when he petted her head and got in next to her.
“I understand, I’ll make sure that you won’t feel lonely, then… Princess.” He grinned as he called her that.
“Y-You don’t need to call me that! Gosh!” And this was why. She puffed her cheeks a little, and then closed her eyes.
“Good night!”
“Good night.”
Despite having fun with Nerisu today, there was a nagging feeling at the back of Iori’s head. When you think about it, he was the most serious member of the group. Nerisu was really nice and all, and seemed to enjoy his company a lot, but he couldn’t help but feel something about this group. Would it end up badly for him? He didn’t know yet, but would see in the future...
The two slept silently for the rest of the night, without worries of what might happen in the future.