Welcome to Bugaria: Act 1

Another rest and another awakening, another day closer to the exciting adventures she'd been longing for ever since… well, she'd rather not think about it right now, to be honest.

Vi waited in the Association as patiently as she could, fiddling with her beemerang, tossing it back and forth idly between her hands. She'd admittedly… woken up a bit earlier than she anticipated, but who could blame her? It finally was the day. No more running. No more random distractions that popped out from nowhere. Of course, if only the day would hurry up and start already, then she would be in business.

She had a feeling there already would be problems when she'd first gone to wake up Anne, only for the… 'human' to roll over in her sleep and mutter something along the lines of "Five more minutes"… and then proceeded to do it again when those five minutes passed. And Vi wasn't even going to chance trying to wake Kabbu up, so…

Vi was so, incredibly, bored. She turned over her beemerang in every which direction more times than she could count, even tossing it in the air a bit for good measure. But still, as long as she was standing here, nothing could quench her ever-increasing boredom.

Which in turn, left her alone with her thoughts… Thoughts about something that happened yesterday. They kept nagging at her, telling her to dig deeper even though she had almost nothing to base it off of. Well… despite it being "almost" nothing, it was still something.

It's just… it felt a bit too easy. How easily someone from an entirely different world was able to befriend them so quickly and then be granted permission to become an explorer with her and Kabbu on her second day with them.

She didn't blame Anne for it; Vi highly doubted she had anything to do with it, so then that meant… hm. What did it mean, exactly? There weren't exactly any clues or anything she could go off of, though… there might be-

Vi completely lost her train of thought when she heard someone run into the building. Turning her head to the side, she saw just about what she expected; a still-tired Kabbu that appeared incredibly out of breath.

"Did you… run all the way here?" Vi asked.

"I… yes." Kabbu answered in between breaths. Last night he'd told her that he was gonna go sleep somewhere nearby… at least that's what he said. "I'm not late… am I?"

"No." Vi crossed her arms. "Not according to Anne's sleep schedule, you aren't."

"…Oh. She's still an enigma, isn't she… An enigma that's our friend, of course." Kabbu said, making sure to quickly correct himself.

"Right." Vi agreed. She barely knew Kabbu but he seemed nice enough, and as for Anne, well… even after the stunt she pulled yesterday, Vi couldn't help but… relate to her. A lot, in fact.

The two of them grew silent, simply… waiting. Of course, they were slowly starting to figure out how Anne operates, so it wouldn't be much longer before…

A familiar cheer from a very certain teenager alerted them as from seemingly out of nowhere, Anne was already walking over to them, wide awake and ready to go.

"There you are!" Vi said, a hint of annoyance in her voice. "Geez, how long does it take for you to wake up?"

"It depends." Anne answered. "But don't worry, I made sure I'm prepared." She reached around and patted her backpack, and though Vi didn't really notice before, it did look very full.

"Oh? What's all in there?" Kabbu asked.

"Well, I have some snacks, my tennis racquet, a toothbrush and toothpaste, the-" Anne briefly stopped herself, glancing at her backpack for a brief moment. "A-and pretty much just school stuff that was in there too. It's nothing important."

"I'm not sure what half that stuff is, but… yay?" Vi said, unsure how to react. "But anyway, come on! We gotta go talk to Maki again before we go and I wanna get it over with as soon as possible. Like… right now." She remembered how when she arrived earlier, Maki told her that she needed to gather the rest of her team before doing anything else, and now here she was.

"Good plan." Anne agreed. "I am getting a bit… bored of this place. A change of scenery will be nice."

The three of them, led by Vi, walked over to where Maki was patiently waiting for them. Eetl was a standing bit away from them, working on something of his own. Vi walked a bit quicker than she normally did; she couldn't help it, the many thoughts in her mind caused her anticipation to skyrocket.

"Ah, you three are finally here." Maki said. "I've been waiting, but it's no matter. I'll try not to keep you too long; it's easy to see how excited you are." And it was with that statement Vi realized how easy it was for others to read her.

"But anyway, your mission is to journey through Snakemouth Den." Maki began to explain. "It lies to the west of the association. The path there is simple, although it is riddled with danger as one of you may have already experienced. There is much treasure to be found, but its jaws have claimed many."

"I really hope you're being hyperbolic with that." Anne commented, a grimace on her face.

Vi couldn't help but agree with her, an image appearing in her head where she walked up to Snakemouth Den with Anne and Kabbu only for the cave to suddenly grow sentient and try to eat them before they ran away screaming. "I'm… sure he is."

"It's called an expression." Maki clarified for them. "And-"

"MAKI!" A shrill, high-pitched voice suddenly yelled, getting everyone's attention. A tall, red mantis wearing a purple scarf walked over to Maki, her hands clasped together.

"Seriously, brother!" She said. She may have appeared to be happy, but her tone of voice indicated something much different. "How long are you going to keep me waiting!?"

"My apologizes, Kina." Maki said to her, before addressing the others. "Vi, Kabbu, Anne, I must be going now. As you can see, duty calls me." He took a glance at Kina. "May you succeed in your mission." And with that, Maki and Kina left, Kina practically dragging Maki out to do who knows what.

"Well, that was sudden." Anne said. "Who was she?"

"That's Maki's sister, Kina." Kabbu explained. "I've met with her before, she's… a bit eccentric. But she means well, I'm sure. They are both officially a team, after all."

"They're a really weird bunch." Vi said. She doubted she'd be able to deal with Kina's screaming and impatience as much as Maki did.

"Yeah." Anne agreed. "Well, enough of that! Let's get going already!" She was already anticipating leaving the building, just like Vi was.

"Mhm!" Vi smiled. "Kabbu, you better not fall behind!"

"I won't!" Kabbu said, apparently taking that as a challenge.

They all laughed and joked with each other, ready to take on this challenge, to explore perhaps what could be considered previously impossible, and yet- "Hey, wait you three!" Eetl yelled from behind them, stopping them in their tracks.

"What's up, dude?" Anne asked.

"You lot know what the goal of the Snakemouth expedition is, right?" Eetl asked expectantly. Vi was pretty sure she knew, and Kabbu said he's been here for a while so he must've known too, but she couldn't speak for Anne at all, because…

"Uhmmm, ehhhhhh…" Anne struggled to answer, trying to come up with something.

"You don't know, do you." Eetl said.

"Nooope." Anne replied, which led Eetl to sigh before facepalming. "Well, I never had the chance to ask!" Anne defended. "I'll admit in between all the running and chasing and confusion and stuff, I never really had the time to stop and think about it."

"Well, now you do." Eetl said. "Going to Snakemouth Den without knowing anything is like asking to perish!"

"Shush, Eetl. Just say it." Vi cut in, a knowing smirk on her face, at this point knowing exactly how to push Eetl's buttons to get this to hurry along.

Eetl groaned, just deciding to accept it at this point. "Fine. Your goal is to find an ancient artifact that is fabled to be deep within Snakemouth Den." He explained. "Many have tried, but no one ever found it. Most never came back. I don't know what the Queen wants with it, but she is very determined to find it."

And there it was again. That's right, Vi remembered now. Yesterday Maki went to the Ant Queen and then came back, so… what happened in between? What did she say? And…

"We will find it. Don't worry." Kabbu reassured Eetl.

Vi knew she should be more focused on the adventure ahead of her; it's what's been distracting her for a while now… but still. Hm.

"Mhm." Anne agreed. "All we have to do is find this really old artifact, and we don't know what it is, what it looks like, or what it even does." Beat. "Sounds like a plan."

"I'm getting a bit worried about this…" Eetl whispered to himself.

Many concerns on her mind, the implications and theories stacking higher and higher… She wanted to say it was nothing, but… couldn't. Was it a gut feeling? Maybe. Her gut feeling told her to do many things before and each time she wondered if it was the right decision, like-

"Vi, come on!" Anne said, jolting Vi out of her thoughts.

"I'm here, I'm here!" Vi said all of a sudden, turning to find where Kabbu and Anne went. They were both already near the entrance of the building, ready to leave. Vi quickly ran up to them, recomposing herself. …Great, now she was letting this distract her from even the most basic of things.

"Are you alright, Vi?" Kabbu asked. "You seem to be… spacing out a lot this morning."

"…I'm fine." Vi answered, forcing a smile onto her face. "So let's go already!"

"Right." Kabbu said as he led the way out of the building, walking down the flowery steps to the grass.

"And maybe while we're out, we might find a way for me to get home." Anne added, hopeful.

"It could be possible." Kabbu agreed. "Snakemouth Den holds many secrets, so it's not out of the question. For your sake, I do hope so."

By now, the three of them were outside, the sun shining bright over all of them. They weren't the only ones nearby, though. Standing by the nearby crystal were two other bugs; Vi had seen them once or twice before but didn't really know who they were.

"Levi! Celia!" Kabbu greeted, apparently knowing them himself. One of the bugs was a ladybug with shorter stature, carrying a sort of stick as a weapon, while the other bug was a taller blue ant wielding a shield.

"You know these two?" Vi asked as they walked over to them.

"I've talked with them a little bit." Kabbu answered. "They're an exploration team of their own, in fact."

"Oh really? That's neat." Anne said before looking at the two bugs, now within earshot of them. "Sup." She waved, a smile on her face. However, Levi and Celia only blankly stared at her for several seconds.

"Are you some kind of weird stick-bug or something?" Celia asked. "Also hey Kabbu, who's that bee with you? She doesn't look happy." Wow, this was not a good first impression.

"Stick-bug?" Anne made a weird expression. "Oh come on, was that really necessary?"

"Forgive my partner Celia, her mouth is most loose." Levi apologized. "But anyway, it is nice to see you again, Kabbu. From the looks of it, you've formed an exploration team of your own?"

"Yes, that is correct!" Kabbu said. "There were a few rough patches, but yes, the three of us are a team. The bee with me is Vi and the human is Anne."

"I've never heard of a 'human' bug before, but I'm not judging." Levi said. "What's your current mission?"

"Well, we're going to Snakemouth Den!" Vi said as smugly as she possibly could. "AND we're going to get that artifact before you can even think of getting it!"

"If you say so." Celia replied, not even bothered by what Vi said. "We're going on an expedition of our own soon, so good luck with yours!"

"Yours as well." Kabbu said with a nod.

And though they were about to leave and finally get going for real, Vi internally groaned as a certain someone decided to speak up and make her wait even longer.

"Oh, one sec before we go." Anne said, addressing Levi and Celia. "I'm a bit… new to this whole adventuring thing, I'll admit. Soooo maybe I could get a few tips from some veterans like you?" She gestured to them, hoping they would at least give a satisfactory answer.

"Hm, I don't think it would be too much trouble." Levi said.

"But let's make it quick, please!" Celia cut in. She put a hand to her chin. "So anyway Anne, first things first. You have a weapon?"

Anne thought for a moment before snapping her fingers in realization. "Oh, yeah yeah!" She sifted through her backpack for a moment. "I think I have… this!" Anne pulled out her tennis racquet, showing it off to Levi and Celia. "This is my tennis racquet, it's… the closet thing to a weapon I have. Would this work?"

"Maybe. Have you tried it out in combat?" Celia asked.

"I can assure you that it is indeed powerful." Kabbu spoke for Anne. "…Speaking from experience."

"Yeah, it really looked like it hurt when Anne hit you with that." Vi said, trying to add to the conversation while also hoping it would be over soon. She really just wanted to get a move on already.

"I see. Well, what I'm about to say could be helpful to all three of you, so be sure to listen." Levi said. Vi really didn't want to listen but at the same time there was nothing else she could do, so…

"In order for you three to function properly as a team, you'll need to work with each other, not separately." Levi began to explain. "That includes combining your abilities, for example Anne your tennis racquet with whatever your teammates have. It's important for you all to stay in tune with each other, or else you'll fall out of sync very fast."

"Trust me, we learned that the hard way." Celia added. "Long story."

"Hm…" Anne stood there for a moment, eyes scrunched as she took into consideration everything they said before… "You know, that's actually pretty good advice."

"I guess it was." Vi grumbled. This was getting more boring by the second, ughhhhh…

"Thank you Levi, Celia. We will definitely take that into consideration." Kabbu said. "We won't take up anymore of your time, we should be going now."

"As do we." Levi nodded. "Very well, stay careful out there. Snakemouth Den is known for being incredibly dangerous."

And with that ominous warning, Levi and Celia finally left to do their own thing. Finally, Vi could get a move on. Yes the advice given to them did sound like it could be useful but… bleh. She really just wanted to get started already, and now it was finally time for that. Hooray.

The three of them walked past the open gate (did it ever close? Vi was only just now realizing that) further in the outskirts. Vi was already plenty familiar with some parts of this place from her previous escapades here the past few days, but… here she was. The very first steps toward her new adventures, her new life…

But she still couldn't stop thinking; couldn't stop wondering…

"Alright, here we go!" Anne cheered, gripping her tennis racquet tightly.

"Now, don't think will be easy, Anne." Kabbu warned. Oh here we go. "Like everyone's told us, Snakemouth Den is going to be rough. And even moreso for you, since you're not from this world, and everything would be new and strange for you. So for now… you should let Vi and I stay ahead and protect you. If need-be, of course."

Aaaand there he went again making decisions for her. Plus, Vi already knew not to underestimate Anne. According to her she did spend multiple days in the wild before they found her, after all.

"Pssssh, you don't need to do that." Anne said, disregarding him. "Besides, you two are already letting me tag along with you. The least I could do is help you guys out. And besides," She waved her tennis racquet around. "Don't think for a second that I'm going to let this go to waste."

…That's it. Vi couldn't take being silent anymore, it was getting too aggravating. "Anne, you're really forgetting something here."

"Wait, what." Anne stopped in her tracks, getting a tiny bit panicky. "Did I forget something back at the Association, oh great someone probably already took whatever it was and now it's gone forever and-"

"Wha-no!" Vi interrupted, wondering where the heck that came from.

"Oh."

"Listen, what I meant was that you forgot that we didn't let you tag along." Vi clarified. "Remember what Maki said after he got back from meeting with Queen Elizant? About how Anne coming along with us was a special request?" She made sure to emphasize.

"…Yeah?" Kabbu asked, his tone making it clear he was unsure of where she was going, which only frustrated her more.

"Well doesn't that sound suspicious?" Vi questioned. Silence. "At least a little bit?" More silence. Was this seriously happening right now?

"No, not really." Anne answered. Wha- "In fact, it's actually kinda generous. And kinda makes sense. After all, it gives me two people who know this place to help me out."

"See Anne, that's exactly what I was talking about." Kabbu said.

"I said 'help me out', not be my babysitter. I'm 13, I'm pretty sure I can handle myself just fine." Anne responded before turning her attention back to Vi. "But yeah. Not suspicious."

To be quite frank, Vi didn't expect this sort of response at all. She thought they would agree with her or at least understand her, but… was she the one that was reading too far into things? "But… it doesn't seem strange, even a little bit?"

"I think you're thinking about this too much, Vi." Kabbu answered. It didn't seem like either of them were trying to lie to her… "And besides! This means you get to travel with your new friends, which always should be a good time!"

"…" He was right, to be fair. Was this really a big deal after all? Was she thinking about this way more than any reasonable bug would? "I guess you're right about that." She crossed her arms. Great, the more she thought about it the stupider she sounded. "Nevermind, let's go." She hoped she could lighten up a bit and forget about this, even if a part of her was still worried. …And annoyed.

The three of them walked through outskirts, mostly being quiet for a bit. Snakemouth Den was still pretty far away, and from Vi's estimate, it would… still be a couple hours before they were even close.

"Okay, we need to make sure we're actually prepared for this." Anne said, her tennis racquet at the ready just in case. "Cause everyone has said that Snakemouth Den is extremely dangerous so I just want to be sure that we're all ready." Her tone did sound a bit worried, even if she tried to hide it.

"Those other guys said we have to work together as a team." Anne continued. "And that we have to have weapons. You two have weapons, right?" She raised an eyebrow.

"Um, hello?" Vi couldn't believe that Anne already forgot. "My beemerang?" She got out her orange boomerang, tossing it in the air a few times.

"My horn can be pretty good as a weapon." Kabbu added. "I just, er… have to make sure it doesn't break off."

"Yeesh. That sounds painful." Anne commented. "Hm, I guess we're all prepared after all. Good." …Despite the fact that Vi could count many more things they would need other than just weapons in order to actually be prepared.

The three of them stopped when there was a rustling by some of the tall weeds near them. Vi prepped her beemerang, ready for what might be her first challenge. But when the rusting stopped, from out behind the weeds waddled… a singular Seedling.

"Awww…" Anne said, clasping her hands to her cheeks. "When it's not attacking me it's sooo cute!" The Seedling was still a bit away from them, and to be quite frank Vi didn't consider it "cute".

"Oh, it's just a single Seedling?" Kabbu asked.

He apparently spoke too soon, because seconds later another Seedling walked up from the same spot the first one did. And another one. …And another one. The group's eyes followed each new Seedling that joined the pack until there were around several total. They all stood there, occasionally waddling around a little, but generally minded their own business for the most part.

"Wow. That's a lot." Vi commented. "Oi, let's get 'em!" She gripped her beemerang tightly, ready to swing her beemerang and-

"Er, do we really have to do that?" Kabbu asked. "There's… a lot of them; they usually travel in packs after all. It might be wiser to try and quietly walk by them, they… aren't really blocking our path. We really shouldn't provoke them."

While Vi understood where Kabbu was coming from, she really needed some action. She needed to do something in order to distract herself. The sense of glory and adventure within her was bubbling, itching to be let out.

The more she stared at the Seedlings, the more she was able to quickly formulate her own plan on how to get rid of these Seedlings. It would be so easy; this was going to be a piece of cake. A sly smirk slowly formed on her face as she raised her beemerang and…

"Vi, please don't do what I think you're about to." Kabbu warned. "I really think that-"

Both of them were caught off-guard when Anne suddenly charged at the Seedlings, yelling out some sort of battle cry as she had her tennis racquet raised above her head.

Vi and Kabbu could only watch in disbelief as Anne struck the Seedlings with the racquet, sending a number of them back. However, they were all angry now, and that anger was directed at her. They jumped at her, she fought back just as hard. However, even as Anne tried to get rid of them, their stamina and herd mentality slowly became too much for her.

And when one of them hit her in the chest, that was when she knew she was in over her head. "Fall back! Fall back!" Anne yelled, trying to get them off of her. Once she had her chance, she got up and ran from them, the horde of Seedlings chasing her.

"Anne!" Kabbu yelled. "Vi, hurry!"

Grumbling a bit internally, Vi nodded before throwing her beemerang at the many Seedlings. It hit them before flying back to her, distracting the Seedlings from Anne, which allowed her to stop running and take a breather.

Once the Seedlings were distracted and disoriented, Kabbu ran at them, attacking them with his horn. "Shoo! Get out of here!" He yelled. He didn't stop until each and every last one ran off. It wasn't really the best method for getting rid of them, but it had to work for now.

And just like that, it was peaceful again. Anne took several deep breaths, looking a bit disheveled. "Whoa. That was wild."

"Anne, what were you thinking?" Kabbu scolded, a little angry but mostly worried. "Why'd you recklessly charge at them like that?"

"Well, I was trying to get rid of them for you guys." Anne explained, not taking it too seriously. "Besides, that was payback for them constantly attacking me before I met you guys. It's about time someone delivered a little justice around here."

Kabbu let out a sigh, shaking his head. "All that we accomplished was scattering them, which means that there's a chance they'll be back later… So we really should be on our guard."

"You're being really overdramatic, you know." Vi pointed out. "Who cares, they're just Seedlings!" What she didn't say out loud was how unbearably annoyed she was at Anne for what she did. Come on, did she really have to do that? Vi already had a plan figured out and everything!

"Well, yes they are Seedlings." Kabbu said. "They might not be able to do much on their own, but in packs they can-"

"Uggghhhhhh this is so boring!" Anne groaned, interrupting what potentially might've been valuable info. "Those little Seedling guys are gone, they don't even matter anymore. Besides, what reason would they even have to come back, anyway?"

"…Hm. I suppose I didn't consider that." Kabbu conceded. Great, now nobody was ever going to hear it. Vi tried to calm herself down, but every passing incident made it increasingly harder.

Especially the next hour or so.

While it could be considered that it passed without incident, in Vi's eyes it didn't. It was agonizing.

They were just walking along the path peacefully when Anne suddenly stopped to grab a few things out of her backpack. "That's right, I can't believe I forgot to do this ever since I got here!"

"…Anne, what are you doing?" Kabbu asked, just as confused as Vi was.

"I'm gonna brush my teeth. You know. Keep them clean." Anne held up her toothbrush and toothpaste. Vi only knew what they even were because Anne told her and Kabbu earlier. "This toothpaste won't last forever so I've gotta make it count."

"Do you have to do that right now?" Vi asked in a huff.

"Uh, yeah." Anne rolled her eyes. "Otherwise if I come home with bad teeth then my mom will kill me."

Anne proceeded to spend the next several minutes brushing her 'teeth' as she called it before they were all finally able to get a move on, and even then that wasn't the end of it. Vi was talking to Kabbu about something that she couldn't even remember thanks to Anne announcing "SNACK BREAK" out of nowhere, startling both of them.

"Snack break?" Vi questioned, wondering what Anne could possibly mean by that.

"Yeah, you know." Anne grabbed a packet of some snack out of her backpack as well as a small bottle of an orange liquid. "There's nothing like a pack of goldfish and a bottle of orange juice to keep ya going on the road. You dudes want in on this?"

"No thanks, but the offer is appreciated." Kabbu answered, while Vi merely shook her head. She did not want to even touch human food.

Anne shrugged before taking a swig of her orange juice, only for her face to contort into disgust before she spit it out, getting the drink all over Kabbu and Vi. "Ugh, why did I think drinking orange juice after brushing my teeth was a good idea?" Anne asked, a disgusted look on her face.

Even after Anne apologized and Kabbu and Vi washed themselves off, there was still more to come. It got to the point where Anne was just asking random, off-the-wall questions that didn't make much sense.

"Does this place have seasons like my world does? Do you have chocolate here? No wait don't tell me, I wanna be surprised. Oooh, do you have boy bands that everyone goes crazy for in message boards? And wait, is everything bug sized here?" There was an almost haunting pause after her last question as she considered all the implications of it.

"What does half of that even mean?" Vi questioned. "Some of those words don't mean anything!"

"If you were stranded in my world, you'd be asking pretty similar questions." Anne said.

"I… would do my best to stay calm." Kabbu gave his input. "As long as I didn't leave anything behind."

One of Vi's eyes twitched a little bit. She told herself to stay calm, though she wasn't sure how much longer she'd be able to.

Before too long, they reached a more open area, plentiful with space to walk around and relax. There was a clear path ahead, and a more off-beaten path to the side. Of course, it was pretty obvious that the path ahead was to Snakemouth Den, but…

"You know, I wonder where that other path leads." Vi said aloud. The group stopped walking as they turned to where Vi was looking. Vi smiled a little. Yeah, it would be fun to stop and explore where this other path led, she could already feel her mind easing up a bit-

"Oh, that place?" Anne asked. Wait, she knew about it already? "Psssh, that's boring. This is around where Chuck was… and I don't want to be rude and disturb him, so let's just go on ahead."

Anne began walking forward, as if nothing was wrong. As if nothing was wrong. But there was. It was very wrong. Standing there, taking control over everything, being a nuisance, trying to tell her what she could and couldn't do-

"Are you serious right now?" Vi yelled, her frustration exploding out of her. She couldn't take it anymore. All the tiny little things kept adding up and- "Do you think you can just- just keep bossing me around like this?"

Anne stopped in her tracks, turning around. "Excuse me?" She asked, sounding a bit offended. "What the heck are you talking about?"

Of course she would try and deny it. Vi stood her ground. "Like how you keep saying what I should do, or how you keep trying to act like you know more than you do and ruin things for the rest of us! And you're just… I don't know, acting like a nuisance!"

"Um… maybe we shouldn't-" Kabbu tried to intervene, though his pleas would be ignored and interrupted.

"I'm just trying to help you guys!" Anne argued. "And you should appreciate that I'm trying to help be part of the team! I'm not just gonna sit on my butt while you two do all the work."

"Help? Help?" Vi couldn't believe the audacity of Anne right now, did she really just- "You haven't helped at all! All you've been doing is slowing us down and getting everything off-track!" By now she was completely focused-in on this, completely ignoring everything else around her.

"Please you two, I don't think-"

"What do you know about what I'm doing?" Anne questioned. "I haven't seen you try to help or contribute at all!"

"Well I try, but then you jump in and screw everything up!" Vi argued. "Maybe it would be better if you just stayed to the side and let ME do all the work!"

"So just because I mess up a tiny few things it means I'm not qualified to do anything?" Anne asked. "Do you realize how insane that sounds?"

"Guys, this really isn't-"

"I don't care! That's how it's gonna be!" Vi yelled, at this point nearly screaming. "You're not going to RUIN this for me!"

"You're ruining it by making a huge scene about it!" Anne pointed out.

"HEY!" Kabbu all but screamed.

"WHAT?" Vi and Anne both screamed back, looking right at him. This finally got Vi to get out of her own little world and back into reality. …And upon seeing what she saw, maybe she should've done that a little earlier.

There was at least over two dozen if not more Seedlings surrounding the three of them in a large circle, blocking any semblance of a way out. They stood there in positions that made it obvious that they were going to attack, but were impossible to predict when.

"They're just Seedlings, huh?" Anne asked, mocking what Vi said earlier.

"I didn't know this would happen!" Vi yelled. What, she was getting blamed for this?

"This is what I tried to warn you about!" Kabbu said. "The Seedlings from before must've alerted the rest of their pack and now they're all about to swarm us!" He got into a defensive stance, prepping himself for anything.

"Ooooh boy this looks really bad." Anne said, nearly frozen in place. She gripped her tennis racquet tightly; sweat dropping from her face due to the not-so favorable situation.

"Don't worry, everyone! I'll get you all out of this!" Kabbu announced, a glare in his eye aimed at the Seedlings.

To be quite honest, Vi wasn't doing much better. There were three of them and many Seedlings, so they were greatly outnumbered. What made it worse was that the three of them were completely focused on different things.

Anne was scared out of her mind, Kabbu was about seconds away from outright charging the Seedlings (which Vi knew would end badly) and Vi herself knew that her plan from earlier had no chance of working with this many Seedlings. …Although…

While she didn't pay attention that well when Anne was talking to Levi and Celia earlier, there was one thing that stuck out in her mind. Something that could perhaps help them get out of this situation pretty much unscathed. But first…

"Oi!" Vi yelled, trying to get Anne's attention. She needed to do this now. "Bugaria to Anne, hello!"

"What? What could you possibly want now that we're trapped here?" Anne yelled, still angry. …Angry at her, but that didn't matter right now. The gears turned in VI's head once again, coming up with a fast solution to the problem they were all in.

"Listen to me!" Vi said. "I have a way we can get out of this, but you're going to have to trust me! And Kabbu, don't do anything just yet!" She added. Kabbu stopped where he was to listen to her.

"Okay, that is literally one of the most cliché sayings ever!" Anne said.

"Who cares? Do you want to be trampled and attacked by all of these guys? Cause I know I don't!" Vi desperately hoped Anne would listen; even if they were still at odds with each other this was an extremely time-sensitive situation.

And as the seconds passed, Vi briefly wondered if she might've gone a bit too far earlier when she yelled at Anne; internally kicking herself for causing her to- actually, no. Though Anne deliberated on it for a bit too long for Vi's liking, she did eventually nod, giving her support. Phew.

"Okay, here's what I need you to do:" Vi began, having no better way to explain it. "I'm gonna throw my beemerang," She held up the orange weapon. "And then you're gonna hit it with your tennis racquet, got it?"

Anne was a moment away from questioning it, but she resisted. "Got it." She said. Vi prayed this would work, please, please…

Vi threw her beemerang at the Seedlings. They were getting restless by now; Vi gulped a tiny bit. The beemerang hit one of the Seedlings… she sidestepped… please, please… she didn't want her adventure to end so soon…

When the beemerang got close enough, Anne prepared herself before swinging her tennis racquet, making direct contact. By either a miracle or sheer luck, what Vi hoped would happen from this actually worked. The beemerang spun in a huge circle around them, hitting many of the surrounding Seedlings. This disoriented them and caused them to scatter a little, before the beemerang flew right back into Vi's hands.

"What the- how'd you do that?" Kabbu asked, legitimately surprised.

"Teamwork, that's how!" Vi answered. "Come on, we have to get rid of all these guys before they run off!" Of course, nobody was going to argue with that.

The three of them beat back the Seedlings; it was much easier now than it would've been before, due to the Seedlings being much more disorganized. It allowed them to focus on a few at a time, and made it much easier to watch for any stragglers that tried to run off and alert any others. Though it took them a little while to defeat them all, and the Seedlings did get in a few cheap shots on them, it was only a matter of time before the three of them were victorious.

They sat down in exhaustion, not saying a word for a minute or two. They almost anticipated another Seedling to show up, but it was just the wind. …Okay then.

"I… cannot believe that just happened." Anne gasped in between breaths.

"I'm just glad we all managed to get through that with minimal injury." Kabbu said. "I'm glad both of you are safe…"

"That plan worked super well!" Vi said, a chipper smile on her face. "It worked out perfectly!" Maybe she shouldn't tell them that the plan might've been based on random chance… ah well.

"Mhm, it… sure did." Anne said, a smile on her face too, this one a bit… forced. "Great job you guys, we sure… did it…" She stopped, her smile disappearing, forming into a much more genuine frown. She let out a sigh, placing a hand on her own arm.

"Vi, you were right." Anne admitted, which did surprise Vi a bit. "I was being a burden, overly controlling, and just… screwing things up. We wouldn't have all been nearly killed by those Seedlings if I didn't recklessly charge at that group of them earlier. I was just… trying to help you guys out. Try to be an active part of the team. I know I don't really… know anything about this world, and I should've listened. I'm sorry."

…Though Anne realized everything she did wrong, Vi still felt a pang in her chest at hearing her words. She did yell at Anne pretty hard earlier, and though she did have good points to make… why did she lash out like that?

Anne stood up. "So, let's go." A soft, almost bittersweet smile was on her face. "You guys lead the way."

"Actually, wait." Vi couldn't stop herself from standing up right after. Hold on… no, this wasn't right. "I'm… I'm sorry too." Vi said, and Anne's expression changed a bit to that of confusion.

"I went too far. I yelled at you, and you had every right to argue back." Vi continued, spilling her heart out. "I know you messed some stuff up, but that's fine. Nobody blames you, you're still young. I've uh…" On second thought, maybe she shouldn't say that. "The point is, I guess you don't need us to protect you. None of us have gone to Snakemouth Den before, and we don't know what to expect, so… yeah, it's good to have someone who's active and wiling to help."

Vi paused, wondering if there was anything else she should say. "So yeah." She smiled. "You do the best you can out there." Multiple other worries piled up on her, but she shouldn't worry about that right now. The adventure may not be perfect and smooth, but she should enjoy the ride while it lasts.

"Well then!" Kabbu stood up, happy. "I'm proud of you two for making up!" Here he goes again… it was pretty cool, she had to say. How he was always so positive. "Now then, let's get a move on! If we keep at it, we'll surely get to Snakemouth Den sooner or later!"

"Hey, there's nothing saying we can't stop and take a rest at Chuck's for a bit." Anne said, pointing her thumb in the direction of the other path. "I'm sure he'd like to meet you guys." And as if this wasn't sweet enough as a happy ending, it was already getting better.

"That sounds fantastic!" Kabbu said. "I'm sure we could all use a rest after this excursion, to put it lightly."

"Yeah. Definitely." Vi agreed. Anne nodded in agreement as well, before the three of them headed off.

Vi felt much better than before, though… her earlier doubts and worries still picked at her, wanting to break through the boost she'd gotten. Not everything wrapped up cleanly, and there were still unanswered questions, but…

No. Those were nothing. She was overthinking, stressed so she thought up things that weren't even true. Her mind was clearer, so it made sense that she'd think more rationally now. There was no grand, gigantic reason why any of this was happening. Of course. The simplest solution is often the correct one, after all.

Vi's thoughts were at ease.

It was time to take a rest.