fic for akhikaru (1/2)
For: akhikaru
From: inaudible_d
Title: Super Nino Bros.
Pairing/Focus: Nino/Aiba, Nino/Maru, Nino/Sho
Rating: G
Warnings: People cursed as inanimate objects, dead creatures, mild violence, cross-dressing.
Summary: Nino and Masaki are brothers who are plumbers. One day, something happened to the Mushroom Kingdom and Princess Peach was kidnapped. Together, they’re adventuring the island to save Princess Peach from the villain’s evil hands.
Notes: Hey akhikaru, I saw your prompts and I just can’t write anything else but this! Although, I have to apologize in advance because I failed to include the Harisenbon girls in this because I’m not familiar with them. Also, I might have done too much in mixing the adventure world and the real world and end up shifting away from Super Mario Bros’ actual universe? LOL. I hope you like what I came with the story nonetheless! Also big big big red red red thanks to my beta who helped with this. And hugs and kisses for Nino Mod who has been very nice and kind and thoughtful and helpful and everything! :3.
“Nino, Nino, I have news for you!” Masaki came jumping on a quiet night after a long and hard day.
Nino didn’t budge, kept on cleaning and tidying up the house. He did glance at Masaki’s direction once, but that was all.
“Nino, this is big news!” Masaki insisted, pulling the side of Nino’s shirt to get his attention.
Nino winced at Masaki’s antics. He was a bit curious, actually, but yesterday Masaki had done the exact same thing and Nino had to sit down and listen seriously to his story that turned out to be about worms instead of something more important. Masaki had just found this gathering by the forest and they talked about how worms are useful to be used as a cure for, basically, everything. Nino would believe that if Masaki didn’t happen to go at least five times to use the toilet the next morning after he consumed said cure-for-everything.
So Nino kept on doing the chores, not because he wanted to, but because their house had looked more like a warehouse than a real house. Well, he and his little brother are plumbers, but that fact didn’t mean that they have to live in a house that’s so dirty and messed up they can’t even move around, did it?
But Masaki was a persistent person. He knew that his older brother would not listen to him whatever he’s trying to do, so he sat down on the top of a pile of boxes and started telling his brother the story.
“I was just going to the town to buy some groceries from the market,” he began, “when I saw this flock of people.”
“Here we go again...,” Nino murmured.
“I was attracted to that because in the middle of that there was a small man holding a piece of parchment,” Masaki continued.
“And here we go for the bullshit,” Nino mumbled, his hand holding a washcloth to clean the top of a cupboard.
“That small man said that Princess Peach was missing!” Masaki added in horror, “and to make it worse, she was kidnapped by some terrifying creatures! Those creatures also managed to curse all the people in the whole Mushroom Kingdom to be inanimate objects!”
Nino choked a laugh at Masaki’s last sentence. He put down his washcloth and came closer to Masaki.
“Masaki,” he started, “we are also people of Mushroom Kingdom, am I mistaken?” the tone he used was one that people would use to talk to a five years old kid.
“We are! But... we’re not in the town when those creatures came so we weren’t affected by the curse! I saw Ohno san’s cake shop was opened but no one was inside, and when I checked, I saw that people were actually there. But they’re not people, they’re this, I don’t know, stone-like creature. I got freaked out and ran back home.”
Nino sighed deeply. Masaki’s antics had gotten a little bit out of hand. He had to remind himself to open a new saving for taking him to the healer.
“The thing is, Nino,” Masaki said after taking a deep breath himself, “the man with parchment said, whoever able to bring Princess Peach back home and reverse the curse of those creatures will get cash prize. And they will also be crowned king! Can you imagine that? That would be awesome! I will be a king’s brother! I will be royalty!”
Nino was about to laugh at Masaki’s idea of him going to save the said princess, given the fact that his brother was a bit lunatic, but then he stopped.
“Wait, what do you mean king’s brother?” he eyed Masaki suspiciously.
“Because you will save the princess and be the king!” Masaki exclaimed excitedly, “I’m counting on you, brother! I know you can do it!”
If Masaki weren’t his brother, and taller than him, Nino would have thrown the guy out of the house right then and there and never let him in again.
~*~
One week later, Nino found himself following his brother to somewhere in the middle of the forest. Nino had refused at first when Masaki said that the new client lived in the middle of the forest, but he had to agree to go when Masaki said that the client was a terribly rich guy. Masaki said he was willing to pay however much they asked to be paid, as long as his plumbing problems were fixed. Nino wasn’t sure at first, but then Masaki showed him a pouch full of coins that the man had given as the advance payment.
In a normal situation, Nino would think twice before taking that kind of job because it was just too fishy. The thing was, it’s been a week since the princess was rumored to be kidnapped and they hadn’t gotten any client since then. Nino didn’t know if it was just coincidence or Masaki actually talked the truth about people turned into stones. It was just really weird because they would usually get at least one plumbing job a day, even though those were mostly small jobs, made them at least have a steady source of income.
They had been walking inside the forest for at least two hours by then and Nino, however eager in getting money, started to doubt his own brother. He knew they weren’t lost and repeating the same tracks because he had been keeping track by leaving small, worthless piece of nuts and bolts along the way. He was just not sure if the map Masaki was holding was leading them to the right place.
“Masaki, let me see the map,” Nino caught up after Masaki and tried to take a look on the map.
“No! You can’t see it!” Masaki, surprisingly, pulled the map away from Nino’s reach.
“Eh? Why?” Nino was alerted by then. He tried to snatch the map from Masaki’s hand.
“Look! Flying mushrooms!” Masaki exclaimed, pointing at the sky.
Nino used the opportunity that Masaki was distracted in his attempt of distracting Nino to try to snatch the map again from his hand. And he made it.
Nino ran away a bit farther from Masaki then opened the map he had in hand. His eyes grew wide when he read the destination point on the map. It's read, “The Castle”.
“Masaki? What castle are we going to?!” he shouted at Masaki who was still, distractedly, looking for the map.
“Ah!” Masaki exclaimed and ran to Nino’s direction, “give it back!”
“No,” Nino put the map behind his back, “what castle are we going to?”
“Our client’s castle!” Masaki insisted.
“Our client is in a castle?!” Nino exclaimed in surprise.
“Yes! Now give it back to me!” Masaki still insisted.
Nino hesitantly gave Masaki the map back. He started to regret his decision. Of course they will get paid a lot of money for plumbing matters, the plumbing matters were those of a castle!
Masaki took the map back and threw a triumphant smile. He was thankful Nino didn’t read the map more properly or he would have seen the small “Princess Peach is here” text under the “The Castle” text.
“Now let’s go! We have to arrive there before dark!” Masaki started walking again, following the map in his hand.
Nino had no other options but to follow reluctantly behind him.
~*~
The sun had started to shift to the west when Masaki said that they had reached their destination. Nino looked around and realized that they had been far away from their house, even from their kingdom. The forest was still surrounding them, and there was no sign of any living beings around.
“What do you mean arrive? I don’t see any castle at all,” Nino asked worriedly.
“We’ve arrived to the border of the kingdom, there will still be a long way from here to the castle,” Masaki replied, “but we can rest for a bit before we have to do some hard things.”
Nino was a bit alerted about what kind of hard things they would have to deal with, but then he remembered that they’re about to fix plumbings of a castle. That would surely be hard.
Masaki got food out of his rucksack and handed some to Nino. Nino didn’t feel like eating, actually. But he reminded himself that they had to do some serious jobs so he swallowed down the mushroom Masaki handed him. It tasted rather horrible, but Nino felt really good after eating it so he didn’t protest.
Just when they finished eating their food, there were weird voices from behind the bushes. Nino was alerted and he told Masaki to quickly pack his belongings and get ready to leave. Unfortunately for Nino, Masaki was always a clumsy guy and he had a tendency to drop some things when he’s rushed, making him need longer time to actually be ready.
Nino was just about to snatch the map from Masaki’s hand and led the way himself but then there were a lot of small creatures coming to their way. Those creatures looked like mushrooms but they could move and Nino swore he could see their hands. Nino didn’t know what to do at first until Masaki screamed from the other side, telling him to stomp on those creatures.
So Nino did, but the mushroom-like creatures kept coming in more amount than the amount he had killed.
“Masaki!” he screamed his brother’s name, tried to get some help.
“Nino! Come here! Run here! I found a closer way to the castle!” Masaki replied in a scream.
Nino stomped the last creatures that were the closest to his feet and ran away to Masaki’s voice. He almost freaked out when he didn’t see Masaki anywhere.
“Masaki!” he cried out again.
“Down here!” Masaki shouted back.
Nino looked down, and there was a hole on the ground. Masaki was in there already, waving at him.
“Come on, jump! This way is the closest to the castle, given the fact that we can’t use that other way anymore,” Masaki called Nino.
“But those creatures will be able to come here too, won’t they?” Nino asked a bit terrified, he was actually intimidated by the height.
“We can outrun them, they’re just small mushrooms, come on!” Masaki insisted, “We’re going to run out of time if you don’t hurry up.”
Nino looked back to behind him, to the colony of mushrooms, before taking a deep breath and jump into the hole. The hole was surprisingly not that deep. Nino felt like he was just jumping through a couple of stairs.
“Where are we?” Nino asked Masaki.
“On the gutter of the kingdom,” Masaki answered shortly, “come on, we have to keep moving.”
“What?!” Nino protested, “What are we doing here?”
“Going to the castle,” Masaki answered matter-of-fact-ly, kept going on his pace.
“Through the kingdom’s gutter?” Nino chased Masaki.
“I’ve told you, this is the only way!” Masaki insisted, not slowing down even for a second.
Nino grunted and followed Masaki since he didn’t have other options at the moment. They moved in the gutter for a good while without distraction, until Nino saw something moving not so far in front of them.
“Masaki, what are those?” he asked, fear started to creep on his spine.
Masaki squinted his eyes to see better. He froze on his feet for a second, but then continued walking casually.
“They seem dangerous but they’re actually not. Just don’t bump into them,” Masaki explained.
“And if I bump into them?” Nino started to regret following Masaki’s plan without knowing what it actually was.
“Just don’t,” Masaki answered, being completely not helpful.
They walked forward to those weird creatures and tried their best not to bump to them. They turned out to be creatures that looked like turtles, but uglier. And moved a tad bit faster.
Nino tried his best to not bump into those weird turtles while still keeping his pace to follow Masaki. Once he got cornered, so he tried his luck by jumping to the turtle’s back. The turtle got inside it’s house and slid over. He found it more fun and continued hopping from one turtle’s back to the other.
It wasn’t long until Nino got too occupied with jumping on turtles he didn’t realize they’re already reaching the exit of the pit. Masaki, who was waiting on the ladder of the pipe, had to call Nino for multiple times until he finally looked up to him. Once Nino saw Masaki, he stopped jumping over turtles and climbed the ladder to get out of the gutter.
“That was actually fun!” Nino said once they’re out of the gutter, “although I had no idea why my body felt so light and I feel stronger.”
“It’s the mushroom,” Masaki answered shortly, eyes focused to the map. His eyes grew big for a second and he mumbled something like ‘but it was supposed to be here!’ or something similar. Seemed like he had made a wrong turn somewhere on their way. It was a good thing Nino wasn’t really paying attention and stretched his body instead.
“Where are we going after this?” Nino asked.
“That way!” Masaki pointed, “I guess,” he added with a low voice.
“Okay, let’s go!” Nino led the way, still all high-spirited and steamed-up.
Masaki followed from behind him, still trying to make out the map direction. He rotated the map to the left and to the right, and he still didn’t find the correct path. He decided to then just follow his brother. Just like what he had always done his whole life.
Apparently, following his brother was a good decision to make because they started to see the castle building even though it was still far. At least they’re heading to the right way, Masaki thought, and folded the map to put it back to his rucksack.
As they got closer to the castle, there were also weird creatures that they had met before. Thanks to the power of the mushroom, Nino could beat them all with ease.
Finally, they reached the gate of the castle. The guardians of the gate let them in easily when Masaki told them about their purpose. They squinted their eyes in suspicion for a second, but then let them in.
They walked inside the castle, across a huge fountain right in the middle of the castle, until they entered the main building and met the king. They were a little surprised that the king looked a little bit small in physique, even though he tried to look intimidating with his clothes and expression.
“Who are you and what are you guys doing here?” the king asked coolly.
“Your Majesty, these people right here said that they are plumbers from Mushroom Kingdom and they want to,” one of their guards answered the king but was cut by Masaki.
“We’re here to take our Princess Peach back.”
“What?!” the king and Nino exclaimed at the same time.
“Are you trying to humiliate me?!” the king suddenly went furious.
“What do you mean, Masaki?!” Nino, felt more shocked than furious, demanded explanation from his brother.
“I might look small and girly but I am no princess, young men,” the king added.
“I’m sorry, King - I’m sorry, I don’t know your name - and I think we have a misunderstanding here,“ Nino tried to make the king calm down, while still glaring dangerously at Masaki.
“What do you mean you don’t know my name?!” the king got even more furious, “you mean you don’t know me?! The Great King Chinen Yuri of the Iron Kingdom?!”
Masaki jumped on his feet.
“Wait! I’m sorry!” Masaki exclaimed, “I was wrong! Princess Peach is not in the Iron Kingdom! She must be in another castle!”
Nino looked at his brother disbelievingly. They just made a king angry and he simply reasoned that they got the wrong castle?
“What do you mean wrong castle?! Don’t fool around with me!” King Chinen stood on his feet, getting more and more furious with the two men in front of him.
“Please... Please forgive my brother, Your Majesty! He’s a bit lunatic and I seriously don’t understand what he’s talking about!” Nino said while bowing deeply to the king.
“Lunatic or not, he has humiliated me, The Almighty King Chinen Yuri of the Iron Kingdom. People who humiliated ME don’t get to go out of this kingdom alive!”
Nino saw how the guardians of the king came closer to them, trying to trap them in the middle. He grabbed Masaki by his arm and, quickly, he ducked down to dodge those guardians and ran away.
Leaving King Chinen Yuri of Iron Kingdom angry behind them. He ordered his guardians to chase over them while throwing profanities in between his sentences.
Of course Nino was faster and smarter so he hid in a corner while waiting for the guardians to pass before running to a completely different way.
~*~
“What the hell?!” Nino leashed his anger once they’re out of the castle, safe, once again, inside the depth of the forest.
“I’m sorry, Nino,” Masaki pant.
“What the hell are you thinking?! I don’t remember saying yes to a journey to save a princess!” Nino yelled.
“I’m sorry, Nino,” Masaki repeated.
“Now let’s go home! We have to make up the time we’ve spent for nothing!” Nino walked away from Masaki.
“We can’t!” Masaki exclaimed, made Nino stop on his track.
“What?!”
“I... have traded our house... for this map and our supply for the journey...,” Masaki said with a small tone.
“WHAT?!” Nino almost strangled Masaki for that confession.
Masaki looked at his feet, avoiding Nino’s glare.
“Masaki what do you mean you traded our house with those?” Nino tried to calm himself down, because, his brother can’t be serious, right?
“I... I met this woman on Mushroom Kingdom, she said her name is Okubo, or something,“ Masaki answered slowly, “She said she could help me if I want to save Princess Peach.”
Nino took a deep breath and counted to ten. Of course. Give it to Masaki to randomly believe all kinds of strangers he happened to meet on his way.
“But she said it wasn’t for free, so I tried to offer her the money I had with me,” Masaki lifted his face, “but she said it wasn’t enough so I took her to our house, then she said even our house won’t be enough to be traded with what she had, but I insisted her.”
Nino shook his head in disbelief. His brother could be highly troublesome sometimes.
“Although, it wasn’t her fault we got to the wrong castle,” Masaki’s voice went smaller.
“What do you mean?” Nino asked.
“I... kind of... misread the map...?” Masaki confessed.
“What? Masaki! You!” Nino went speechless.
“I’m sorry, Nino, I didn’t mean to...,” Masaki looked like he almost cried, “but at least, we can continue our journey and really bring Princess Peach home?”
“But how?” Nino was exasperated. He had run out of ideas and energy to actually take a good decision.
“I think we can try to get to that castle?” Masaki lifted his hand and pointed to behind Nino.
Nino looked back. Masaki was right. There was a castle that way. It wasn’t near, but it wasn’t unreachable either.
“We have to spend the night here on the forest, though,” Nino said. He started to accept the situation. They were homeless, they had no money. Saving the princess would be the only way to be able to continue living. Besides, marrying the princess and being a king didn’t sound so bad.
~*~
It was on the break of dawn when Nino and Masaki started their journey again. Masaki went a little bit whiny that time, didn’t want to continue the journey when the sun hadn’t even risen, but Nino insisted to go as fast as they could. If they’re going to make a journey to save a princess, they had to do it properly, Nino said.
So they walked through the depth and darkness of the forest to go to the other castle. They met the creatures they saw on the other kingdom, but because it was still early in the morning those creatures barely attacked them. They could easily kicked them away of the road to continue the journey.
Even though they departed when the sky was still practically dark, it was midday when they finally reached the castle. They got inside with the same reason they used before, ‘come to fix the plumbings’, and managed to fool the guardians yet again.
Once they were in, they were brought to the main building of the castle, just like before. They saw a young guy, who was supposed to be the king, with a beautiful woman beside him, who was probably his queen.
“We didn’t call for plumbers,” the king began the conversation, “who are you and what are you doing in my castle?”
“Where’s Princess Peach?” Nino asked directly, not wanting to waste any more time.
Surprisingly, hearing that question, the woman who sat beside the king burst out crying. She sobbed and wailed and cursed, made everyone on the room jump in surprise.
“No! Ryoko honey!” the king got panic and hugged his wife.
“Yu.. Yuuto san,” the queen whimpered and hugged his husband back.
“How dare you mention about princess in front of The Queen!” the king said angrily.
Nino and Masaki looked at each other confusedly. The queen’s act was weird, and the king’s was weirder.
“There is no princess in this castle!” the king continued, “even if there’s one, I’d protect her with everything I have so people won’t have to go looking for her! Guards, throw these people out. Or better yet, throw them into the jail and prepare the death penalty!”
Nino didn’t need another second to grab Masaki’s hand and ran away from the castle.
~*~
Nino kept running while holding Masaki’s wrist without looking back even once. He slowed down once they got inside the forest, again, and stopped when he was sure that the guards had completely lost them. He let go of Masaki’s hand and turned back, ready to scold his brother.
“Nino... I’m really sorry,” Masaki said first, “although, I don’t understand why they had to throw us out like that.”
“The queen probably has some problem and can’t have kids. But I don’t know either,” Nino answered, not very angry then when he saw Masaki’s almost crying face.
They stood there in silent for a good time, didn’t know what to say and what to do.
“Ne, Masaki,” Nino said after quite a while, “tell me, is this princess pretty?”
Masaki was baffled for a second when he heard the question, but being a good brother that he was, he reached into his rucksack and pulled out a piece of parchment. It was a picture of the princess, given by Okubo san with all the things in the rucksack. She said that it was the best picture of her she could find, drawn by the best artist of the kingdom. He gave the picture to Nino to let him see for himself.
Nino received the picture and took a good look of it. He drew a long breath in and exhaled it out. His expression was unreadable.
“Why are you asking?” Masaki carefully asked his brother.
Nino looked at Masaki again, still holding the piece of parchment on his hand.
“I’ve said it, right? If we’re going to rescue a princess, we have to do it properly,” Nino paused to took another deep breath, “I just wanted to make sure that this will be actually worth it, and Masaki, I think I just fell in love.”
~*~
After the earth-shaking confession that Nino did earlier, he somehow found new source of energy to continue the journey. He told Masaki to stay on his place while he looked around to look for another castle. When he finally saw one not so far away, he returned to where Masaki was and told Masaki to continue their journey to there.
Nino was high-spirited that Masaki was thankful that he wouldn’t need to use the supply he had from Okubo san. She said the things were powerful and strong and Masaki was only allowed to use that in an emergency. Masaki broke the promise once by giving the mushroom to Nino earlier on their journey so they were a little short in supply. That’s why he was really thankful that Nino seemed to be not needing the extra power for the time being.
When they reached the third castle, it was already dark. They still used the same reason to be allowed to enter the castle, and the guardians, not so surprisingly, let them enter.
They met the king who sat on his throne like he was, well, a king. He had some beautiful servants around him. One was holding a plate of food and the other one a tray with wine bottle and a glass. He seemed pretty much like he was enjoying himself when Nino and Masaki entered the room. He didn’t even pay much attention when the guard told him about their presence.
Feeling a bit envious because the king seemed very comfortable and happy, and the fact that he might be having Princess Peach as his prisoner, Nino threw a piercing look to the king and yelled, “where is Princess Peach?!”
The king was startled by that and sat up straightly. He looked at Nino, observing him from head to toe, then, instead of answering Nino’s question, he told his servants to go.
“That’s enough, Yokoko, Nishikiko, you’re dismissed for today,” he said, waving his hand.
“Hai, Maruyama sama,” they replied in sync before bowing down and left.
“I asked, where is Princess Peach?!” Nino repeated his question, felt more angry then when the king didn’t answer right away. Masaki patted his back to try to calm him down.
“Calm down, little man,” the king replied, “Princess Peach is upstairs, asleep and well.”
Nino squinted his eyes, feeling suspicious.
“I know you want to take her back with you, right?” the king added, “what if I give you a place to stay tonight and we discuss about my condition about it tomorrow?”
“What condition?!” Nino replied abruptly.
“Calm down, little man, I said tomorrow,” the king raised his tone, “I can give you a place to stay for the night and we can discuss it tomorrow. Why do I have to repeat my words?” he sighed dramatically.
“Why would I want to stay here tonight?” Nino hissed.
The king laughed at Nino’s question, “you have nowhere else to stay, right? You stay here tonight and you can take your princess home tomorrow, with some conditions, of course.”
“Why can’t I take her now?!” Nino cut.
“Or,” the king continued, raising one of his eyebrows in annoyance, “I’ll tell the guards that you’re disturbing me and I want you to be fed to my lions in my dungeon.”
“Nino, I think it’ll be best if we take the offer,” Masaki whispered.
“But this guy’s so suspicious,” Nino whispered back.
“But we have nowhere else to stay,” Masaki insisted, “besides, what can we do even if we have Princess Peach now? We don’t even know the way to go home. And I don’t want to be fed to lions,” Masaki added quickly.
Nino sighed. His brother had a point. Besides, why would this king lie to them about the princess and offer them to stay?
“Okay then,” Nino answered the king, “but you better not lie about Princess Peach’s presence here.”
The king laughed, “why would I lie and give two shabby men like you guys a shelter to stay for the night if I don’t really have her? Okura, take them to the guest room,” he ordered the closest guard from him.
Nino and Masaki looked at each other and followed the guard to their room.
~*~
“Subaru, make sure you tell Yokoko to keep them inside their room until noon at least,” Maruyama said to the other guard beside him, who bowed obediently and quickly go to inform the servant.
“Too bad that I don’t have any princess here, little man, probably your princess is in another castle,” Maruyama giggled, “let’s just forget about her and you can be my princess instead,” he laughed viciously.
~*~
Nino paced around the room. It was noon already and there were no signs that they’ll meet Princess Peach soon. The only woman they got to meet was one of the king’s servant, who said her name was Yokoko and told them to enjoy their stay.
Nino didn’t want to enjoy their stay. He had been restless from the previous night, feeling himself unable to sleep thinking about Princess Peach. It was wicked how a single hand-drawn picture could made him fall in love that instantly. He hadn’t stopped thinking about her ever since. The fact that the king wouldn’t let him meet her made him anxious and worried the whole night.
“Nino, why don’t you sit down?” Masaki called him, bringing him back from his daydream.
“Masaki, I think there’s something wrong with this castle,” Nino said instead.
Masaki looked at Nino confusedly.
“Why wouldn’t he let us meet Princess Peach already? I start to wonder that probably the princess is not here and he’s just making up a story,” Nino explained.
“But why?” Masaki asked.
“I don’t know. That’s what I’m trying to find out. But how..,” Nino continued walking around the room.
Suddenly, faintly, he heard some voices from outside the room. Women voices. He quietly walked closer to the door and listened carefully.
“Why are we keeping them here?” a woman asked.
“Well, you don’t hear this from me, but, I think Maru likes the small guy,” another woman, who Nino was sure was Yokoko, answered.
“What?! That’s obscene!” the first woman exclaimed in surprise.
“Sshhh! They could hear you,” Yokoko shushed her, “you don’t hear this from me, okay, but Maru lied about the princess orange they were looking for and even gave them a place to stay. What else do you think he wants?”
“It’s Peach,” Nino hissed, then quickly closed his mouth with his hand.
“Masaki, I need to tell you something,” Nino walked quickly to the other side of the room where Masaki was having his meal obliviously.
Nino told him about the conversation and his plan to run away. He told Masaki to gather his belonging and get ready so they could be ready to run away whenever the room’s door was opened.
Masaki did as he was told reluctantly. He was feeling comfortable with the king’s treatment and imagining another journey across a forest or gutter or whatever else made him a little bit frustrated. He managed to put everything back into his rucksack in time, though. Just right before the door was opened and Yokoko waltzed in with another batch of food.
They ran out of the room as fast as they could and Nino magically found the way out of the castle. Their journey wasn’t over yet.
~*~
“They WHAT?!” Maruyama said furiously to Yokoko.
“I’m sorry, Maruyama sama,” Yokoko bowed deeply.
“You don’t,” Maruyama grunted.
“Subaru, prepare the punishment room for Yokoko! She needs to be taught how huge the mistake she has made,” Maruyama hissed furiously.
~*~
Part 2
From: inaudible_d
Title: Super Nino Bros.
Pairing/Focus: Nino/Aiba, Nino/Maru, Nino/Sho
Rating: G
Warnings: People cursed as inanimate objects, dead creatures, mild violence, cross-dressing.
Summary: Nino and Masaki are brothers who are plumbers. One day, something happened to the Mushroom Kingdom and Princess Peach was kidnapped. Together, they’re adventuring the island to save Princess Peach from the villain’s evil hands.
Notes: Hey akhikaru, I saw your prompts and I just can’t write anything else but this! Although, I have to apologize in advance because I failed to include the Harisenbon girls in this because I’m not familiar with them. Also, I might have done too much in mixing the adventure world and the real world and end up shifting away from Super Mario Bros’ actual universe? LOL. I hope you like what I came with the story nonetheless! Also big big big red red red thanks to my beta who helped with this. And hugs and kisses for Nino Mod who has been very nice and kind and thoughtful and helpful and everything! :3.
“Nino, Nino, I have news for you!” Masaki came jumping on a quiet night after a long and hard day.
Nino didn’t budge, kept on cleaning and tidying up the house. He did glance at Masaki’s direction once, but that was all.
“Nino, this is big news!” Masaki insisted, pulling the side of Nino’s shirt to get his attention.
Nino winced at Masaki’s antics. He was a bit curious, actually, but yesterday Masaki had done the exact same thing and Nino had to sit down and listen seriously to his story that turned out to be about worms instead of something more important. Masaki had just found this gathering by the forest and they talked about how worms are useful to be used as a cure for, basically, everything. Nino would believe that if Masaki didn’t happen to go at least five times to use the toilet the next morning after he consumed said cure-for-everything.
So Nino kept on doing the chores, not because he wanted to, but because their house had looked more like a warehouse than a real house. Well, he and his little brother are plumbers, but that fact didn’t mean that they have to live in a house that’s so dirty and messed up they can’t even move around, did it?
But Masaki was a persistent person. He knew that his older brother would not listen to him whatever he’s trying to do, so he sat down on the top of a pile of boxes and started telling his brother the story.
“I was just going to the town to buy some groceries from the market,” he began, “when I saw this flock of people.”
“Here we go again...,” Nino murmured.
“I was attracted to that because in the middle of that there was a small man holding a piece of parchment,” Masaki continued.
“And here we go for the bullshit,” Nino mumbled, his hand holding a washcloth to clean the top of a cupboard.
“That small man said that Princess Peach was missing!” Masaki added in horror, “and to make it worse, she was kidnapped by some terrifying creatures! Those creatures also managed to curse all the people in the whole Mushroom Kingdom to be inanimate objects!”
Nino choked a laugh at Masaki’s last sentence. He put down his washcloth and came closer to Masaki.
“Masaki,” he started, “we are also people of Mushroom Kingdom, am I mistaken?” the tone he used was one that people would use to talk to a five years old kid.
“We are! But... we’re not in the town when those creatures came so we weren’t affected by the curse! I saw Ohno san’s cake shop was opened but no one was inside, and when I checked, I saw that people were actually there. But they’re not people, they’re this, I don’t know, stone-like creature. I got freaked out and ran back home.”
Nino sighed deeply. Masaki’s antics had gotten a little bit out of hand. He had to remind himself to open a new saving for taking him to the healer.
“The thing is, Nino,” Masaki said after taking a deep breath himself, “the man with parchment said, whoever able to bring Princess Peach back home and reverse the curse of those creatures will get cash prize. And they will also be crowned king! Can you imagine that? That would be awesome! I will be a king’s brother! I will be royalty!”
Nino was about to laugh at Masaki’s idea of him going to save the said princess, given the fact that his brother was a bit lunatic, but then he stopped.
“Wait, what do you mean king’s brother?” he eyed Masaki suspiciously.
“Because you will save the princess and be the king!” Masaki exclaimed excitedly, “I’m counting on you, brother! I know you can do it!”
If Masaki weren’t his brother, and taller than him, Nino would have thrown the guy out of the house right then and there and never let him in again.
~*~
One week later, Nino found himself following his brother to somewhere in the middle of the forest. Nino had refused at first when Masaki said that the new client lived in the middle of the forest, but he had to agree to go when Masaki said that the client was a terribly rich guy. Masaki said he was willing to pay however much they asked to be paid, as long as his plumbing problems were fixed. Nino wasn’t sure at first, but then Masaki showed him a pouch full of coins that the man had given as the advance payment.
In a normal situation, Nino would think twice before taking that kind of job because it was just too fishy. The thing was, it’s been a week since the princess was rumored to be kidnapped and they hadn’t gotten any client since then. Nino didn’t know if it was just coincidence or Masaki actually talked the truth about people turned into stones. It was just really weird because they would usually get at least one plumbing job a day, even though those were mostly small jobs, made them at least have a steady source of income.
They had been walking inside the forest for at least two hours by then and Nino, however eager in getting money, started to doubt his own brother. He knew they weren’t lost and repeating the same tracks because he had been keeping track by leaving small, worthless piece of nuts and bolts along the way. He was just not sure if the map Masaki was holding was leading them to the right place.
“Masaki, let me see the map,” Nino caught up after Masaki and tried to take a look on the map.
“No! You can’t see it!” Masaki, surprisingly, pulled the map away from Nino’s reach.
“Eh? Why?” Nino was alerted by then. He tried to snatch the map from Masaki’s hand.
“Look! Flying mushrooms!” Masaki exclaimed, pointing at the sky.
Nino used the opportunity that Masaki was distracted in his attempt of distracting Nino to try to snatch the map again from his hand. And he made it.
Nino ran away a bit farther from Masaki then opened the map he had in hand. His eyes grew wide when he read the destination point on the map. It's read, “The Castle”.
“Masaki? What castle are we going to?!” he shouted at Masaki who was still, distractedly, looking for the map.
“Ah!” Masaki exclaimed and ran to Nino’s direction, “give it back!”
“No,” Nino put the map behind his back, “what castle are we going to?”
“Our client’s castle!” Masaki insisted.
“Our client is in a castle?!” Nino exclaimed in surprise.
“Yes! Now give it back to me!” Masaki still insisted.
Nino hesitantly gave Masaki the map back. He started to regret his decision. Of course they will get paid a lot of money for plumbing matters, the plumbing matters were those of a castle!
Masaki took the map back and threw a triumphant smile. He was thankful Nino didn’t read the map more properly or he would have seen the small “Princess Peach is here” text under the “The Castle” text.
“Now let’s go! We have to arrive there before dark!” Masaki started walking again, following the map in his hand.
Nino had no other options but to follow reluctantly behind him.
~*~
The sun had started to shift to the west when Masaki said that they had reached their destination. Nino looked around and realized that they had been far away from their house, even from their kingdom. The forest was still surrounding them, and there was no sign of any living beings around.
“What do you mean arrive? I don’t see any castle at all,” Nino asked worriedly.
“We’ve arrived to the border of the kingdom, there will still be a long way from here to the castle,” Masaki replied, “but we can rest for a bit before we have to do some hard things.”
Nino was a bit alerted about what kind of hard things they would have to deal with, but then he remembered that they’re about to fix plumbings of a castle. That would surely be hard.
Masaki got food out of his rucksack and handed some to Nino. Nino didn’t feel like eating, actually. But he reminded himself that they had to do some serious jobs so he swallowed down the mushroom Masaki handed him. It tasted rather horrible, but Nino felt really good after eating it so he didn’t protest.
Just when they finished eating their food, there were weird voices from behind the bushes. Nino was alerted and he told Masaki to quickly pack his belongings and get ready to leave. Unfortunately for Nino, Masaki was always a clumsy guy and he had a tendency to drop some things when he’s rushed, making him need longer time to actually be ready.
Nino was just about to snatch the map from Masaki’s hand and led the way himself but then there were a lot of small creatures coming to their way. Those creatures looked like mushrooms but they could move and Nino swore he could see their hands. Nino didn’t know what to do at first until Masaki screamed from the other side, telling him to stomp on those creatures.
So Nino did, but the mushroom-like creatures kept coming in more amount than the amount he had killed.
“Masaki!” he screamed his brother’s name, tried to get some help.
“Nino! Come here! Run here! I found a closer way to the castle!” Masaki replied in a scream.
Nino stomped the last creatures that were the closest to his feet and ran away to Masaki’s voice. He almost freaked out when he didn’t see Masaki anywhere.
“Masaki!” he cried out again.
“Down here!” Masaki shouted back.
Nino looked down, and there was a hole on the ground. Masaki was in there already, waving at him.
“Come on, jump! This way is the closest to the castle, given the fact that we can’t use that other way anymore,” Masaki called Nino.
“But those creatures will be able to come here too, won’t they?” Nino asked a bit terrified, he was actually intimidated by the height.
“We can outrun them, they’re just small mushrooms, come on!” Masaki insisted, “We’re going to run out of time if you don’t hurry up.”
Nino looked back to behind him, to the colony of mushrooms, before taking a deep breath and jump into the hole. The hole was surprisingly not that deep. Nino felt like he was just jumping through a couple of stairs.
“Where are we?” Nino asked Masaki.
“On the gutter of the kingdom,” Masaki answered shortly, “come on, we have to keep moving.”
“What?!” Nino protested, “What are we doing here?”
“Going to the castle,” Masaki answered matter-of-fact-ly, kept going on his pace.
“Through the kingdom’s gutter?” Nino chased Masaki.
“I’ve told you, this is the only way!” Masaki insisted, not slowing down even for a second.
Nino grunted and followed Masaki since he didn’t have other options at the moment. They moved in the gutter for a good while without distraction, until Nino saw something moving not so far in front of them.
“Masaki, what are those?” he asked, fear started to creep on his spine.
Masaki squinted his eyes to see better. He froze on his feet for a second, but then continued walking casually.
“They seem dangerous but they’re actually not. Just don’t bump into them,” Masaki explained.
“And if I bump into them?” Nino started to regret following Masaki’s plan without knowing what it actually was.
“Just don’t,” Masaki answered, being completely not helpful.
They walked forward to those weird creatures and tried their best not to bump to them. They turned out to be creatures that looked like turtles, but uglier. And moved a tad bit faster.
Nino tried his best to not bump into those weird turtles while still keeping his pace to follow Masaki. Once he got cornered, so he tried his luck by jumping to the turtle’s back. The turtle got inside it’s house and slid over. He found it more fun and continued hopping from one turtle’s back to the other.
It wasn’t long until Nino got too occupied with jumping on turtles he didn’t realize they’re already reaching the exit of the pit. Masaki, who was waiting on the ladder of the pipe, had to call Nino for multiple times until he finally looked up to him. Once Nino saw Masaki, he stopped jumping over turtles and climbed the ladder to get out of the gutter.
“That was actually fun!” Nino said once they’re out of the gutter, “although I had no idea why my body felt so light and I feel stronger.”
“It’s the mushroom,” Masaki answered shortly, eyes focused to the map. His eyes grew big for a second and he mumbled something like ‘but it was supposed to be here!’ or something similar. Seemed like he had made a wrong turn somewhere on their way. It was a good thing Nino wasn’t really paying attention and stretched his body instead.
“Where are we going after this?” Nino asked.
“That way!” Masaki pointed, “I guess,” he added with a low voice.
“Okay, let’s go!” Nino led the way, still all high-spirited and steamed-up.
Masaki followed from behind him, still trying to make out the map direction. He rotated the map to the left and to the right, and he still didn’t find the correct path. He decided to then just follow his brother. Just like what he had always done his whole life.
Apparently, following his brother was a good decision to make because they started to see the castle building even though it was still far. At least they’re heading to the right way, Masaki thought, and folded the map to put it back to his rucksack.
As they got closer to the castle, there were also weird creatures that they had met before. Thanks to the power of the mushroom, Nino could beat them all with ease.
Finally, they reached the gate of the castle. The guardians of the gate let them in easily when Masaki told them about their purpose. They squinted their eyes in suspicion for a second, but then let them in.
They walked inside the castle, across a huge fountain right in the middle of the castle, until they entered the main building and met the king. They were a little surprised that the king looked a little bit small in physique, even though he tried to look intimidating with his clothes and expression.
“Who are you and what are you guys doing here?” the king asked coolly.
“Your Majesty, these people right here said that they are plumbers from Mushroom Kingdom and they want to,” one of their guards answered the king but was cut by Masaki.
“We’re here to take our Princess Peach back.”
“What?!” the king and Nino exclaimed at the same time.
“Are you trying to humiliate me?!” the king suddenly went furious.
“What do you mean, Masaki?!” Nino, felt more shocked than furious, demanded explanation from his brother.
“I might look small and girly but I am no princess, young men,” the king added.
“I’m sorry, King - I’m sorry, I don’t know your name - and I think we have a misunderstanding here,“ Nino tried to make the king calm down, while still glaring dangerously at Masaki.
“What do you mean you don’t know my name?!” the king got even more furious, “you mean you don’t know me?! The Great King Chinen Yuri of the Iron Kingdom?!”
Masaki jumped on his feet.
“Wait! I’m sorry!” Masaki exclaimed, “I was wrong! Princess Peach is not in the Iron Kingdom! She must be in another castle!”
Nino looked at his brother disbelievingly. They just made a king angry and he simply reasoned that they got the wrong castle?
“What do you mean wrong castle?! Don’t fool around with me!” King Chinen stood on his feet, getting more and more furious with the two men in front of him.
“Please... Please forgive my brother, Your Majesty! He’s a bit lunatic and I seriously don’t understand what he’s talking about!” Nino said while bowing deeply to the king.
“Lunatic or not, he has humiliated me, The Almighty King Chinen Yuri of the Iron Kingdom. People who humiliated ME don’t get to go out of this kingdom alive!”
Nino saw how the guardians of the king came closer to them, trying to trap them in the middle. He grabbed Masaki by his arm and, quickly, he ducked down to dodge those guardians and ran away.
Leaving King Chinen Yuri of Iron Kingdom angry behind them. He ordered his guardians to chase over them while throwing profanities in between his sentences.
Of course Nino was faster and smarter so he hid in a corner while waiting for the guardians to pass before running to a completely different way.
~*~
“What the hell?!” Nino leashed his anger once they’re out of the castle, safe, once again, inside the depth of the forest.
“I’m sorry, Nino,” Masaki pant.
“What the hell are you thinking?! I don’t remember saying yes to a journey to save a princess!” Nino yelled.
“I’m sorry, Nino,” Masaki repeated.
“Now let’s go home! We have to make up the time we’ve spent for nothing!” Nino walked away from Masaki.
“We can’t!” Masaki exclaimed, made Nino stop on his track.
“What?!”
“I... have traded our house... for this map and our supply for the journey...,” Masaki said with a small tone.
“WHAT?!” Nino almost strangled Masaki for that confession.
Masaki looked at his feet, avoiding Nino’s glare.
“Masaki what do you mean you traded our house with those?” Nino tried to calm himself down, because, his brother can’t be serious, right?
“I... I met this woman on Mushroom Kingdom, she said her name is Okubo, or something,“ Masaki answered slowly, “She said she could help me if I want to save Princess Peach.”
Nino took a deep breath and counted to ten. Of course. Give it to Masaki to randomly believe all kinds of strangers he happened to meet on his way.
“But she said it wasn’t for free, so I tried to offer her the money I had with me,” Masaki lifted his face, “but she said it wasn’t enough so I took her to our house, then she said even our house won’t be enough to be traded with what she had, but I insisted her.”
Nino shook his head in disbelief. His brother could be highly troublesome sometimes.
“Although, it wasn’t her fault we got to the wrong castle,” Masaki’s voice went smaller.
“What do you mean?” Nino asked.
“I... kind of... misread the map...?” Masaki confessed.
“What? Masaki! You!” Nino went speechless.
“I’m sorry, Nino, I didn’t mean to...,” Masaki looked like he almost cried, “but at least, we can continue our journey and really bring Princess Peach home?”
“But how?” Nino was exasperated. He had run out of ideas and energy to actually take a good decision.
“I think we can try to get to that castle?” Masaki lifted his hand and pointed to behind Nino.
Nino looked back. Masaki was right. There was a castle that way. It wasn’t near, but it wasn’t unreachable either.
“We have to spend the night here on the forest, though,” Nino said. He started to accept the situation. They were homeless, they had no money. Saving the princess would be the only way to be able to continue living. Besides, marrying the princess and being a king didn’t sound so bad.
~*~
It was on the break of dawn when Nino and Masaki started their journey again. Masaki went a little bit whiny that time, didn’t want to continue the journey when the sun hadn’t even risen, but Nino insisted to go as fast as they could. If they’re going to make a journey to save a princess, they had to do it properly, Nino said.
So they walked through the depth and darkness of the forest to go to the other castle. They met the creatures they saw on the other kingdom, but because it was still early in the morning those creatures barely attacked them. They could easily kicked them away of the road to continue the journey.
Even though they departed when the sky was still practically dark, it was midday when they finally reached the castle. They got inside with the same reason they used before, ‘come to fix the plumbings’, and managed to fool the guardians yet again.
Once they were in, they were brought to the main building of the castle, just like before. They saw a young guy, who was supposed to be the king, with a beautiful woman beside him, who was probably his queen.
“We didn’t call for plumbers,” the king began the conversation, “who are you and what are you doing in my castle?”
“Where’s Princess Peach?” Nino asked directly, not wanting to waste any more time.
Surprisingly, hearing that question, the woman who sat beside the king burst out crying. She sobbed and wailed and cursed, made everyone on the room jump in surprise.
“No! Ryoko honey!” the king got panic and hugged his wife.
“Yu.. Yuuto san,” the queen whimpered and hugged his husband back.
“How dare you mention about princess in front of The Queen!” the king said angrily.
Nino and Masaki looked at each other confusedly. The queen’s act was weird, and the king’s was weirder.
“There is no princess in this castle!” the king continued, “even if there’s one, I’d protect her with everything I have so people won’t have to go looking for her! Guards, throw these people out. Or better yet, throw them into the jail and prepare the death penalty!”
Nino didn’t need another second to grab Masaki’s hand and ran away from the castle.
~*~
Nino kept running while holding Masaki’s wrist without looking back even once. He slowed down once they got inside the forest, again, and stopped when he was sure that the guards had completely lost them. He let go of Masaki’s hand and turned back, ready to scold his brother.
“Nino... I’m really sorry,” Masaki said first, “although, I don’t understand why they had to throw us out like that.”
“The queen probably has some problem and can’t have kids. But I don’t know either,” Nino answered, not very angry then when he saw Masaki’s almost crying face.
They stood there in silent for a good time, didn’t know what to say and what to do.
“Ne, Masaki,” Nino said after quite a while, “tell me, is this princess pretty?”
Masaki was baffled for a second when he heard the question, but being a good brother that he was, he reached into his rucksack and pulled out a piece of parchment. It was a picture of the princess, given by Okubo san with all the things in the rucksack. She said that it was the best picture of her she could find, drawn by the best artist of the kingdom. He gave the picture to Nino to let him see for himself.
Nino received the picture and took a good look of it. He drew a long breath in and exhaled it out. His expression was unreadable.
“Why are you asking?” Masaki carefully asked his brother.
Nino looked at Masaki again, still holding the piece of parchment on his hand.
“I’ve said it, right? If we’re going to rescue a princess, we have to do it properly,” Nino paused to took another deep breath, “I just wanted to make sure that this will be actually worth it, and Masaki, I think I just fell in love.”
~*~
After the earth-shaking confession that Nino did earlier, he somehow found new source of energy to continue the journey. He told Masaki to stay on his place while he looked around to look for another castle. When he finally saw one not so far away, he returned to where Masaki was and told Masaki to continue their journey to there.
Nino was high-spirited that Masaki was thankful that he wouldn’t need to use the supply he had from Okubo san. She said the things were powerful and strong and Masaki was only allowed to use that in an emergency. Masaki broke the promise once by giving the mushroom to Nino earlier on their journey so they were a little short in supply. That’s why he was really thankful that Nino seemed to be not needing the extra power for the time being.
When they reached the third castle, it was already dark. They still used the same reason to be allowed to enter the castle, and the guardians, not so surprisingly, let them enter.
They met the king who sat on his throne like he was, well, a king. He had some beautiful servants around him. One was holding a plate of food and the other one a tray with wine bottle and a glass. He seemed pretty much like he was enjoying himself when Nino and Masaki entered the room. He didn’t even pay much attention when the guard told him about their presence.
Feeling a bit envious because the king seemed very comfortable and happy, and the fact that he might be having Princess Peach as his prisoner, Nino threw a piercing look to the king and yelled, “where is Princess Peach?!”
The king was startled by that and sat up straightly. He looked at Nino, observing him from head to toe, then, instead of answering Nino’s question, he told his servants to go.
“That’s enough, Yokoko, Nishikiko, you’re dismissed for today,” he said, waving his hand.
“Hai, Maruyama sama,” they replied in sync before bowing down and left.
“I asked, where is Princess Peach?!” Nino repeated his question, felt more angry then when the king didn’t answer right away. Masaki patted his back to try to calm him down.
“Calm down, little man,” the king replied, “Princess Peach is upstairs, asleep and well.”
Nino squinted his eyes, feeling suspicious.
“I know you want to take her back with you, right?” the king added, “what if I give you a place to stay tonight and we discuss about my condition about it tomorrow?”
“What condition?!” Nino replied abruptly.
“Calm down, little man, I said tomorrow,” the king raised his tone, “I can give you a place to stay for the night and we can discuss it tomorrow. Why do I have to repeat my words?” he sighed dramatically.
“Why would I want to stay here tonight?” Nino hissed.
The king laughed at Nino’s question, “you have nowhere else to stay, right? You stay here tonight and you can take your princess home tomorrow, with some conditions, of course.”
“Why can’t I take her now?!” Nino cut.
“Or,” the king continued, raising one of his eyebrows in annoyance, “I’ll tell the guards that you’re disturbing me and I want you to be fed to my lions in my dungeon.”
“Nino, I think it’ll be best if we take the offer,” Masaki whispered.
“But this guy’s so suspicious,” Nino whispered back.
“But we have nowhere else to stay,” Masaki insisted, “besides, what can we do even if we have Princess Peach now? We don’t even know the way to go home. And I don’t want to be fed to lions,” Masaki added quickly.
Nino sighed. His brother had a point. Besides, why would this king lie to them about the princess and offer them to stay?
“Okay then,” Nino answered the king, “but you better not lie about Princess Peach’s presence here.”
The king laughed, “why would I lie and give two shabby men like you guys a shelter to stay for the night if I don’t really have her? Okura, take them to the guest room,” he ordered the closest guard from him.
Nino and Masaki looked at each other and followed the guard to their room.
~*~
“Subaru, make sure you tell Yokoko to keep them inside their room until noon at least,” Maruyama said to the other guard beside him, who bowed obediently and quickly go to inform the servant.
“Too bad that I don’t have any princess here, little man, probably your princess is in another castle,” Maruyama giggled, “let’s just forget about her and you can be my princess instead,” he laughed viciously.
~*~
Nino paced around the room. It was noon already and there were no signs that they’ll meet Princess Peach soon. The only woman they got to meet was one of the king’s servant, who said her name was Yokoko and told them to enjoy their stay.
Nino didn’t want to enjoy their stay. He had been restless from the previous night, feeling himself unable to sleep thinking about Princess Peach. It was wicked how a single hand-drawn picture could made him fall in love that instantly. He hadn’t stopped thinking about her ever since. The fact that the king wouldn’t let him meet her made him anxious and worried the whole night.
“Nino, why don’t you sit down?” Masaki called him, bringing him back from his daydream.
“Masaki, I think there’s something wrong with this castle,” Nino said instead.
Masaki looked at Nino confusedly.
“Why wouldn’t he let us meet Princess Peach already? I start to wonder that probably the princess is not here and he’s just making up a story,” Nino explained.
“But why?” Masaki asked.
“I don’t know. That’s what I’m trying to find out. But how..,” Nino continued walking around the room.
Suddenly, faintly, he heard some voices from outside the room. Women voices. He quietly walked closer to the door and listened carefully.
“Why are we keeping them here?” a woman asked.
“Well, you don’t hear this from me, but, I think Maru likes the small guy,” another woman, who Nino was sure was Yokoko, answered.
“What?! That’s obscene!” the first woman exclaimed in surprise.
“Sshhh! They could hear you,” Yokoko shushed her, “you don’t hear this from me, okay, but Maru lied about the princess orange they were looking for and even gave them a place to stay. What else do you think he wants?”
“It’s Peach,” Nino hissed, then quickly closed his mouth with his hand.
“Masaki, I need to tell you something,” Nino walked quickly to the other side of the room where Masaki was having his meal obliviously.
Nino told him about the conversation and his plan to run away. He told Masaki to gather his belonging and get ready so they could be ready to run away whenever the room’s door was opened.
Masaki did as he was told reluctantly. He was feeling comfortable with the king’s treatment and imagining another journey across a forest or gutter or whatever else made him a little bit frustrated. He managed to put everything back into his rucksack in time, though. Just right before the door was opened and Yokoko waltzed in with another batch of food.
They ran out of the room as fast as they could and Nino magically found the way out of the castle. Their journey wasn’t over yet.
~*~
“They WHAT?!” Maruyama said furiously to Yokoko.
“I’m sorry, Maruyama sama,” Yokoko bowed deeply.
“You don’t,” Maruyama grunted.
“Subaru, prepare the punishment room for Yokoko! She needs to be taught how huge the mistake she has made,” Maruyama hissed furiously.
~*~
Part 2