A/N: Wow... okay, it's been... uh, way too long. Sorry about that, guys. The My Hero Academia Fandom just sorta swooped me away for a bit, and now the Linked Universe Fandom (a small niche of the Zelda Fandom) is doing the same. But I HAVE NOT left the APH fandom, so don't worry.
I remind you now—I will NEVER abandon a posted story.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY CLO!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY KAY!!
That aside, today (the 10th of Jan) is a very special day. And so was Jan 4th! Why? Because the 4th is the birthday of my friend LoveAPHUkeFrance and the 10th is the birthday of another friend of mine, Clo! These two have provided me with a MASSIVE amount of Hetalia fanart (Yang and Adelchi, mostly). And I want to thank them publicly! You guys rock!! (And so do you, FunkyBowtie, who's my other massive Adelchi/Yang fanart provider. No worries!! I've got your birthday down in May, so I'll try to update this story again for you on your birthday!! :D)
That being said, I now have far too much fanart to post link by link. So! I've gone ahead and compiled a few albums for this artwork to share with everyone!! :D Please enjoy! ^^
Reminder that any fanart should be sent to aizawa@email.com
From APHUkeFrance: https://imgur.com/gallery/utrrfjK
From Clo: https://imgur.com/gallery/fiXZccH
From FunkyBowtie: https://imgur.com/gallery/geglQmO
And the rest of the fanart from everyone else!! https://imgur.com/gallery/uGt9Jcs
I'm so sorry if I've missed your fanart submission!! I'm not an organized person, so please let me know, and I'll post it on the next chapter! :) Also, I had several pieces of fanart that I lost the names of the creators to. I really love them all, but my e-mail has literally thousands of files in it, and I really don't want to sift through them all at this time. If some of this art is yours, shoot me a PM and I'll rename it with your username! :3
https://imgur.com/gallery/8BrVuvP
Oh yeah! We've got a Discord, now! It's currently overrun with bnha fans, so Hetalians! Let's show 'em what we're made of!! :D discord.gg/tUvMxQHvx5
~~~
"It's really clean." Klaus noted the moment they'd stepped inside the building. The door was quietly shut behind them.
"Wow, it's actually clean." Markus hummed to himself, obviously not having heard Klaus. "Doesn't feel like an abandoned place."
"It's possible that whoever lived here was killed by the aforementioned monsters haunting it recently." Kuro spoke up. "Clean or not, keep your guard up."
"No... it's something more." Feli started before a loud crash was heard from the kitchen.
There's the plate. Klaus jumped while Kuro and Feli fell into defensive stances.
"The hell was that?" Kuro narrowed his eyes as he made towards the kitchen.
"Hold on." Feli put a hand on his arm. "Splitting up is a bad decision. If something's here, then it'll likely be drawn towards the loud sound too. Or haven't you noticed how quiet it is?"
The other three paused to listen to the eerie silence of the house. There was no sign of life, and certainly no sound of fighting.
"Where are the others?" Klaus abruptly asked, looking around. "They should've been here by now?"
"If they're being this quiet, it's safe to assume that whatever's here hunts by sound." Markus sighed, speaking in a much quieter tone.
"See?" I turned to look at my group. "Logic."
"Wow, Ying. Look, they actually have common sense." Memory Yang pointed out with a smirk. "Bet you wish your group had that."
You can say that again. Feli replied mentally. Now stay quiet. That Thing should attack in three... two...
"One." Yang finished with a grin as the Thing suddenly appeared at the stairs.
It hissed at the group of startled 2Ps. "Don't just stand there, idiots!" Feli snarled, not sparing the others a glance as he leapt into action.
The Thing roared as Feli blocked the claw swipe and Kuro dutifully backed him up by blocking its other clawed hand. The two fought well together, and Feli grinned as he pushed away, sliding across the floor in a crouch. "Well, now. It's pretty strong. Can't say it looks like any monster I know, though."
"Nor one I know." Kuro agreed.
"The hell is that!?" Markus growled as his bladed hockey stick barely made a scratch on the thick hide.
"Something that needs to die." Klaus blocked another swipe aimed for Markus.
"Hey, doesn't that forehead look big? Like a nice target?" Feli's grin grew.
"Indeed." Kuro chuckled darkly. "Would you like the honor?" He gave Feli a sidelong glance.
"Gladly." He leapt forward at the same time as Kuro. The Thing screeched as the Japanese man's blade stopped its claws from reaching the Italian, as said Italian pierced its forehead with his knife.
The beast fell to the ground and vanished—dead.
"Well, that was unexpected." Markus panted, leaning against his weapon.
"If that was all it was, the others should've been able to take care of it easily." Feli theorized.
"You think there's more of them?" Kuro scowled.
"I wouldn't discount it. My gut still says to be wary."
"Right." Kuro sighed. "In that case, let's explore together. If we're lucky, we'll find the others."
"Hn." Feli nodded as the group went off to explore.
The scene changed abruptly to show them in the Safe Room with all the other 2Ps.
"I think we skipped a lot." Prussia blinked.
"Just a bit." I nodded. "Honestly, the 2Ps were both easier and much harder to guide through the Mansion." I admitted. "Easier in that they took my warnings seriously, but harder because if I slipped up even a little, they'd notice. They were much more observant. There were several times they figured out it was me, and they really didn't trust me after I impersonated Luciano."
"I doubt we would." Kuro nodded in agreement.
"Sometimes, I just played as myself from the start—as I had initially. But I really admire the way you all stick together and look out for one another. There was rarely any infighting or distrust in your group." I smiled at the 2Ps.
"I'm honestly surprised your group didn't trust your warnings." Kuro huffed.
"Well, they're a lot more trusting and much easier to manipulate during Looping..."
"I'll say." Luciano cut in. "Whenever I played as you, they'd brush off any oddities with scarcely another thought. The only ones I had to be careful around were Vino and Kiku."
"And Lavi could almost always tell it was me." I sighed. "I'm just glad he only showed up a handful of times—and those few times he did show up, I managed to keep him alive."
"Well, there was that one time." Yang started with a wince.
"Yeah, but that was before this one. For once, it looked like the memories skipped that one over." I sighed in relief.
"Any break is a good one." Luciano agreed.
"Speaking of breaks...?" England spoke up, raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah, it's probably time for one." I agreed. "I don't believe anything important happened in this loop—Viktor died just a few days after we met up."
"Ah, it was that one, then. That'd be... what... 483?" Luciano tilted his head as he thought.
"Something like that." I shrugged. "We were only swapped for about 300 loops."
"Only." Kuro shook his head as our break room came back into existence.
"It's been a bit of a long day." China spoke up suddenly. "I'm going to make dinner, aru."
"I'll help." Japan offered.
"Then hurry up—I'm tired!"
"Hai, hai."
"You know, it's still a bit surreal." I sighed as I leaned back into the couch, Yang at my side.
"You mean the whole memory thing? Or the Mansion thing?"
"Both?" I chuckled humorlessly. "Sometimes I really still can't believe that we made it out of that hellish nightmare."
"Sometimes the nightmare never seems to end." Luciano plopped down beside me.
"Oi, who invited you to this conversation?" Yang sent him a miffed look.
"I don't need an invitation to talk to my brothers, idiota." Luciano shook his head fondly. "At any rate, I get the feeling that things are going to start picking up, soon."
"Me, too." I agreed. "With any luck, we'll be done with these memories soon. Though we're still really early in the Looping... that has me concerned."
"Don't worry so much. Things will move at their own pace, and at the very least it should be faster than the first time around." He put an arm around my shoulder.
"Easy for you to say." I scoffed, but leaned into his touch nonetheless. "Grazie, for being here for me, fratello."
"Always, idiota."
"Don't worry, Ying. We've gotcha."