The Dimensional Train Station, With Friends

Hey, Shun here!

Have you ever experienced going to a friend's house before? How about a girl friend's house?

Except for when you are childhood friends, it must've felt really awkward to visit that house. I remember going to a classmate's house during my time as a Middle Schooler.

I was the Class Representative at the time and the girl wasn't even that close with me. I was with a few of my classmates and got dragged to visit her since she was sick. Man, that was such an awkward day.

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(Shun's POV)

"Are you ready to leave, Shun? I heard that Mutsuko-oneechan will come to pick us up at the [Dimensional Train Station]!" Rokuko said while fishing out a melon bread from her inventory.

It seems like she's pretty fond of this bread, as well as the cream puffs and cream breads that are for sale at our [Dungeon Points Catalog]. I heard that she often eat it with Yukiko-san, Touka-san, and Rinka-san whenever they all go out as a group.

"Really? I didn't read the chat while I was checking the dungeon and the inn around. Can she ride the [Dimensional Train] without paying?"

After eating breakfast with Rokuko and touring around the inn and its surroundings, we immediately went back to the Grand Capsule Suite to prepare for our departure. I was wondering where Rokuko went halfway through the tour but, I guess she received a message from the group chat.

I heard mine ring but I didn't pay attention to it since I was drawing some plans on my mind regarding our dungeon.

"Yep! We asked Ritsu and it looks like it's free to ride towards your dimension since you're a native there, or something!" Rokuko exclaimed.

Then, after a brief pause, she continued.

"I heard that more perks that will be unlocked as long as we complete more quests!"

"Ah, I already heard that from Ritsu. It looks like those perks came from completing all of our subquests. Like this [Dimensional Train] for example…"

I was also wondering where my perks as [Admin] went but, it looks like those perks will unlock at the same time everyone get theirs. For now, only Ritsu have some perks, and that is the free pass to travel on different dimensions through the [Dimensional Train].

"Oh! It's good that we finished that quest, then!" Rokuko said happily.

Remembering the time when we were torn between finishing the kill quest, one of our subquests, I felt some slight mix of emotions. Well, I guess, what's important is that we saved Yukiko-san's, Touka-san's, Rinka-san's, Ritsu's, and our friends' over in that world from a rampaging deranged black octopus.

Anyway, after finishing our preparations, we both passed through the front door of the Grand Capsule Suite, which led us to the [Dimensional Train Station]. Once we reached that place, Rokuko began looking around in an excited manner.

Heck, she was even running around, looking at the new scenery surrounding her. She was accompanied by Fenny, who never left her side, and Tsuka who was also excited to look around yesterday but was considerate enough to leave it for another time.

The two had a great time looking around as we waited for the others to arrive.

"Ooooh! This place is the thing called [Train Station], Shun? Looks fancy!"

After she was done looking around with the bunny duo, she returned to my side, her eyes still sparkling.

"Hey Shun! This place is really amazing!"

Just as she said that, another group arrived. Well, it was two separate group, actually.

The first group just consists of two girls who seems to be in the cusp of becoming a teenager. Similar to Rokuko when we first arrived, the two are looking around with their eyes wide open. You could almost see the sparkles in there eyes manifest due to how amazed they look.

As for the second group, it's a group that consists of four girls who seems to be around the same age group as me, or maybe even younger. All of them were equally amazed at the sight of the [Dimensional Train Station], as they have never seen such things before.

When Rokuko saw the six of them stand right where they initially were, she immediately ran straight towards them, with Tsuka and Fenny within her embrace. The two bunnies are happy to see the new people as well, seeing how they are both waving their paws and all.

Well, Tsuka was holding Fenny's paws and waving it along with her so I guess you could say that Fenny is being forced to wave her hands?

"Pochi, Tama, Rinka, Ritsu, Yukiko, Touka, over here! I missed you all!"

Everyone seems to be a little surprised by Rokuko suddenly calling them out of the blue. However, when they saw Rokuko, they all immediately gathered around her and they began chatting.

It got to a point where they all did a group hug, almost suffocating the two bunnies. Knowing that they would get crushed if they stay there any longer, the two forcibly left Rokuko's embrace, running towards me.

That was when the six newcomers finally noticed me. The first to notice me was Pochi and Tama who showed us their pure and wide smiles once again.

They're really cute, both of them.

"Ah! It's Master [Admin-sensei] nanodesu!" Pochi exclaimed while waving her hands at me in an energetic manner.

Meanwhile, although Tama was also waving her hands energetically, she was still talking in her usual my pace kind of tone.

"[Admin-sensei]~ nyello~?"

Also, what's with the nyello? Is that 'nya' and 'hello' combined?

Following the two, the five girls walked towards me. As we waited for the remaining [Group Chat] members to arrive, we started to talk about some [Group Chat] related stuffs at first before the topic somehow changed into something like talking about the tasty sweets and beautiful accessories available at the [Dimensional Shop].

"I bought one Melon Bread from the [Dungeon Points Catalog] and one from the [Dimensional Shop] to compare their tastes last week. There's not much difference between them when I tasted them!" Rokuko said as she recounted how the two melon breads tasted.

Huh, this is surprisingly good information. Now I know that there's not much difference between the quality of goods between the goods you can buy at the [Dimensional Shop] and the [Dungeon Points Catalog].

All this information, and Rokuko stumbled upon it after getting curious enough about the differences between the tastes of the two melon breads from each shop. It sounds kinda hilarious, if I'm being honest.

Finally, after waiting for another 5 minutes or so, Mutsuko, Rikka, Satania-san, and Kaede-san finally arrived. It seems like they were late because they stayed up playing [NWO] and overslept.

That seems to be the case with the others as well, except for Pochi and Tama who came a little late because Liza wanted them to look presentable. The more I hear about that caretaker of theirs, the more I think that she's really such a diligent person.

Anyway, now that we're all gathered together, we could finally go and travel to Mutsuko's dimension, our destination.

Now that I think about it though, our group really is quite big now, isn't it? For someone who didn't really have that many friends ever since, this big of a social circle is kinda surreal, to be honest.

I'm not the type who would go out of my way to engage in a conversation previously but, after meeting all of them, and especially after that previous quest, I found myself talking more and engaging in conversations more.

My thoughts aside, we finally boarded the [Dimensional Train] after we all paid for the travel costs. Mutsuko paid for the three newer group members, saying that it was her who invited them, rendering them unable to refuse her offer.

Seems like Mutsuko's taken into account the fact that they don't have much d-coins as of yet.

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"Moooooom, I'm baaaack~! I'm here with my friends!" Mutsuko shouted as she swung their house's front door wide open.

She then gestured for us to come in so, after removing our footwears, we followed her inside.

"Come on, let's go inside, guys."

Rokuko and Satania-san confidently walked behind Mutsuko while Pochi, Tama, Rikka, and Kaede-san were all hiding behind me, Touka-san, Rinka-san, and Yukiko-san who are walking behind the three who are leading our group. As expected, Pochi and Tama are still a bit shy when it comes to meeting with strangers.

It's a bit unexpected that Kaede-san and Rikka would become shy though. Eh, wait, nevermind. Looks like Kaede-san chose to stay behind since she wanted to reassure the two beastkin girls.

Even Yukiko-san and Rinka-san did the same when they saw how anxious the two looked. Touka-san wanted to do the same, it seems, but she was preoccupied with petting Tsuka.

Anyway, eventually, we finally reached what seems to be the living room of the Sakaki Family's house. This house is relatively normal in size, given how a family of five could live comfortably inside it without problems.

"Oh, you finally brought your friends home, eh, dear. Welcome, everyone, please take a seat. You all just arrived in time. I was just about to cook some food for my son's friend… Good thing I brought many ingredients with me."

The one who said that was Mutsuko's mom, who looks very much like her. However, unlike Mutsuko, her mom have a pretty wavy black hair. That's the only thing that they differ at, though.

"I'll help in cooking, mom!" Mutsuko exclaimed before standing up.

"Are you sure, dear? I don't remember teaching you much about cooking…" Mutsuko's mom said worriedly.

"Yep!"

Are you worried about your daughter's habit of putting weird, medicinal things that could be found in the wild in her cooking, Ms. Sakaki? Don't worry, I have taught her not to do that willy nilly during our last quest.

Although she did develop some rather wild dishes, I think they are more than edible. Some of them are pretty good, even.

Immediately after Mutsuko voiced her desire to join in cooking, Kaede-san, Yukiko-san, and Touka-san offered their help as well. Rikka was too shy to express her desire to join in while Rinka-san isn't confident in her cooking.

Also, since it's already gonna be cramped inside the kitchen, Ritsu decided not to join in while Satania has been oddly quiet this entire time. The moment the five people left though, I finally directed my gaze to the still quiet Satania-san.

It was then that I noticed that she was looking at a pink-haired girl very intently. Beside her was a guy who seems to be around my age, as well as a girl who's the spitting image of Mutsuko.

The moment I and the guy's eyes met, we both bobbed our head slightly as a sign of greeting.

"Hello…" the guy said. If I remember correctly, this should be Mutsuko's younger brother, Sakaki Yuichi.

I don't know who the pink haired girl is but, I certainly remember who the other girl is. She's that girl who mistook me as Mutsuko's boyfriend, Sakaki Yoriko.

"Hello. You should be Mutsuko-san's siblings, right? I'm Shirakami Shun. It's nice to make your acquaintance."

The moment I said that, Mutsuko's brother, Sakaki Yuichi, looked up at a location a little over my head before his eyes widened.

"[Administrator]? What does that mean?"

"Hmm?"

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※~To be continued~※

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Author's Remarks:

※ I must admit. It was hard to think up of things to write when you're in an extremely bad mood. Long story short, I got my pay for my work and it was not the amount I was expecting to get. Seriously. All that hardwork for this…