And there she goes. That, gonna blow her cover, and leave her with quite the reputation. Oh, amd on a short list of versus battle with Blanc.
Great chapter. Thx 4 the work.
Great chapter. Thx 4 the work.
Verdant Green
- Thread starter Drakefire
- Start date
Thank you for your service to mankind Hinum.
Rest assured, Trick will be feeling this in the morning. And in the evening. And hopefully, forever.
Trick: "I'd prefer to feel-"
SOUND OF TRICK'S BONES BREAKING
Quiet you.
Rest assured, Trick will be feeling this in the morning. And in the evening. And hopefully, forever.
Trick: "I'd prefer to feel-"
SOUND OF TRICK'S BONES BREAKING
Quiet you.
Gummy_Dragon
This too shall pass
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Crap, he lived? At least that means he can still be killed later?
- Location
- Queensland, Australia
I believe this trick is known as 'alternate stat weapons', thus allowing her to be a Strength Archer, rather than a Dexterity Archer. Which means she mades a rather scary combatant in hand-to-hand provided she's able to get her hands on you.
Looks at Trick
I think we can safely describe that as 'she got a grip on him'.
Chapter 20
"Usually, it doesn't get that bad," I rubbed the back of my head. And it was true, too. Brave pissed me off, but I still didn't exactly do anything outside the ordinary besides fighting and using fifty words of insults when only five would be necessary. Even when I was pissed as hell at Vert, I still only used words. Never nasty and hard-hitting words, granted, but still, things never came to physical blows.
The last time I'd used violence, it'd nearly been a decade ago. And by violence, I meant throwing a book at someone's head. It wasn't like they didn't deserve it, either, given how many times they'd been told to knock off their shit. It didn't hit them, either, though I also acknowledge I could have handled the situation better.
But between the stress of, everything, me blowing my stop fully was only going to be a matter of time. This time, it was just, more than it usually was. Which was something of its damn can of worms. And it wasn't going to be one I exactly liked. I wasn't a stoic. Not really. Admittedly, I could play the part when I wanted to, but I usually wore my heart on my sleeve. Even if my heart was ambivalent disinterest.
But I was going to need to keep an eye on this. Bottling things up was unhealthy, and with all the stress it was never going to help. Sure, the eruption had passed, for now. But I doubted my emotions were completely spent. I could easily still have enough temper built up for a follow-up. At least I aimed it at someone who deserved it.
When I got to Leanbox, I was going to have to take some steps. Being a member of the ASIC was already illegal, but Trick? He was getting sent into, I don't know, some type of hyper-illegal state, or something. I didn't know, and I also didn't exactly care. I didn't want that slug anywhere near my country, or any of the people in it. Super Hell. I was going to find a way to send him to Super Hell. That would serve my purposes just fine.
I took a deep breath in.
"Are you sure? You still seem a bit," Nepgear looked unsure, though I doubt my clenched fists were doing much to convenience anyone that I had calmed down even the slightest amount. I mean, I had. I wasn't frothing at the mouth anymore. But I was still steaming. Calmer, but not calm. Yet.
"Angry? Yeah, it's not every day you run into an avowed pedophile that needs to have their face vigorously kicked in," I said, trying to avoid putting too much inflection into my voice. Trick was sick. I doubted I was reading too hard into this. He'd been completely serious when he called me old. Which wasn't a big deal. I felt old, and I wasn't above joking about it, either. Sometimes, I'd just feel old. And that was something that went back to high school.
I blame them for remaking many of the games I played during my childhood.
But that was a simple fact of being confronted by decades of life. I knew I wasn't old, but I could damn well take it as a joke because it somewhat reflected how I felt on the inside.
"What's a pedophile?" I was too close to my rage-breaking point to even go into full detail on how to answer that.
"They're terrible people who do horrible things to young children and those who look like young children," I ground out. "And they deserve as much suffering as possible."
That seemed enough of an answer to placate the twins, though it wasn't enough for everyone.
"What exactly does it have to do with this Fi-Be-I?" IF asked, crossing her arms.
"It's, just the FBI. It stands for Federal Bureau of Investigations. It was made by the Federal government needing a way to investigate interstate crimes," I got several confused looks. "Which as a word salad means nothing to you as you know nothing about how the government back home works.*
Which was something I never intended to cover. Shares worked in a way close enough to the consent of the governed, as one had to keep the will of the people in mind to maintain Shares. I didn't want the chaos of talking about our system and somebody getting bit by the good idea fairy.
"The short version is that they were founded as a way to deal with bootleggers," another word that would mean nothing to them. "Smuggling Alcohol during the Prohibition Era. Their powers have expanded considerably in the century since, as they're also used to deal with crimes like human trafficking."
"I see," IF looked somewhat uncomfortable at that.
I push myself up. I guess we arrest whoever was left, or something? I looked around the room, observing the ruin.
I did a number on this place.
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
"We're fine, we're fine!" Ram protested in Nina's grip, trying to escape the young woman's grasp.
"Technically, you weren't," I said, giving Mina a healthy distance, allowing her to cry it out, rather than deal with risking the consequences.
"And wouldn't have been if it weren't for Ms. Temper Temper over there," IF jabbed her finger towards me.
"Trick started it," I whined, a complaint that was a lot less imposing when coming from someone other than an Iowa class battleship.
Nor did it do anything to help my case. My reputation. I was going to be known as the angry one rather than the mature one of the group, wasn't I?
I mean I did already have a bit of a reputation due to my fights with Judge. But that was more badass fights. I didn't want to have the reputation of being a berserker. That wasn't chill at all.
But it was friendlyish ribbing. I could live with that. Friendlyish because I was unsure where IF and I stood. She seemed to be the brains of Nepgear's group. At least, the most straight-laced member of the group. As much as people tended to be around here.
"I think you came pretty close to killing him," Compa said, and I couldn't quite exactly fully place her tone. I did my best to keep my expression blank, as Trick being six feet under sounded like the opposite of a bad thing. Even without the whole ASIC thing, Trick was what would be considered a problem on a good day, and that was me being generous.
"He's probably crawled back into some pit or another too," I paused, about to say lick but realizing that may just be not a particular word I want to use. "Recover." That was probably much better phrasing around the two kids other than saying lick his wounds. Sure, there was a chance he bled out, or whatever the ASIC commanders did that passed for bleeding out. If my bouts with Judge had taught me anything, it was that these things were far less human than I think even they realized.
However, it was far more likely that they just didn't care what happened to their bodies. The only one who might was probably Brave.
"So we probably won't have to worry about him for a while," I frown. Trying to take out an ASIC Commandment would be a goal to strive for. That was something they couldn't simply replace by hacking together some version of an already existing game in the woods. Trick and his compatriots were something that should be almost irreplaceable to the ASIC. After that display, Trick just put himself at the top of the list, mostly because he was the weakest of the four. Judge was a unit, not impossible to beat, but certainly a challenge. It would take most of us to beat him.
Brave was likely stronger than Trick, but if we could take Judge, we could take him, too. It was Magic that was going to be the biggest problem for us in a straight fight. But she was a problem for future us.
"That was still really cool! She hit him like Pow!" So they moved on to telling Nina what happened. All the more reason to stay away from the woman for the next little bit. "She was a bit like big sis."
Thump.
"Are you okay?" Nepgear looked down at me.
"Please don't tell me one of them just said that I was a bit like big sis," I groaned, rubbing my palms against my face. I was not ready for that type of responsibility, even by proxy.
"Okay, we won't," IF chuckled back, and I was so, so tempted to flip this woman off. But that would set a bad example for the kids. Nor if I was 'like their sister', having the conversation of 'how do my sweet darling angels know how to flip someone the bird now', was not in my interest. Even the slightest damned bit. I would never much not be enthused at best, to being outright pissed at worst.
It probably didn't help that I didn't have an actual standing for them as a person. I highly doubt that Vert's relationship with me was anywhere near standard for the others. There were a lot of different elements thrown into those gears from the get-go that just didn't exist for them.
I was going to have to address it at some point down the line. But at some point down the line was getting closer and closer with each passing day. We were going to rescue them. It was only a matter of time. I still had no clue what I wasn't even going to say to Vert. Not even the slightest idea of what to say. Sorry was at the top of the list, but that was also about as far as things went.
I shook my head, focusing my thoughts elsewhere.
"Hopefully the good ways," I grumbled. Again, I had no idea what their older sister was even like. At this point, I was going to take what I could get after going on what amounted to a violent bender. The back-and-forth motion of IF's hands and the somewhat wincing of Nepgear were not inspiring confidence on that front.
"She's usually really cool until you make her mad. Then she swears a lot and hits things!" Ram shouted as Rom nodded her head. "Usually when people make her angry, or when somebody calls her flat."
"I, see," I said, unsure of how to process that. I tucked that away as information that might be important later. Also under the hypothesis that the ages we Candidates possessed reflected the appearance in age of that of our older siblings. Of course, Rom and Ram's sister could easily be just, tall and flat at the same time. It wasn't like, oh who am I kidding? There was hardly anyone with responsible proportions here. And I included myself in that statement. If she was reacting to something that juvenile, then probably wasn't much older than her sisters.
"She would like what you did to Trick though," Rom muttered, a slight smile on her face.
"I approve of what I did to Trick," I crossed my arms, though I did appreciate the sentiment. More people really should approve of that. Trick more than deserved it by any metric possible. He was a damned monster, plain and simple. Sure, it'd cost me my reputation, and as much as I moaned and complained about it, I'd also do the same thing in a heartbeat.
"Yeah, yeah, keep it calm there," IF teased, as I rolled my eyes.
"But thanks anyway. Someone like that shouldn't be around kids, period," I grinned slightly. I did need that, at the end of the day. Something that at least kept my reputation afloat a little bit, even if it was only with Rom and Ram.
"Yeah, it was cool how you hit him with your bow, like Bam!" Ram swung her arms like she was holding a golf club. "Then you hit him with your elbow, like smash!"
No, my reputation.
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
"That could have gone better."
"Better! That scarcely could have gone worse!"
"At least we got footage out of it, right?"
"Well."
"Are you shitting me!"
"It wouldn't have played well even if the cameras survived. If anything, it would have bolstered her reputation."
"You have to be shitting me. All that effort, for nothing!"
"I wouldn't say nothing. We now know that aggressively beating up lolicons, how would they say it, plays well in the polls."
"That's a piece of shit! You're saying we can't beat her?"
"Are you surprised that this wouldn't be easy? She's likely been playing this game longer than any of us had figured out it existed. Before we even considered it as an option. Of course, she will make use of a stacked deck when she knows all the cards."
"If we could try and get her that angry again at something far less trivial, then it could have more of an impact."
"But we're running out of time!"
"We've been running out of time before things come to a head, yes. But by my calculations, we ran out of time a while ago."
"We have. The major players are taking their places on the board. This will be coming to a head. I doubt it's the beginning of the end, and more of, the end of the beginning."
"Fine, it's not as if the ASIC is infinitely worse than the Goddesses and their kid sisters anyway."
"Mostly because it allows us to live long enough to enact our aims."
"This is true."
"Good. Now that we have that agreed upon, who's been keeping an eye on what's happening in Lastation?"
"What's been happening in Lastation?"
"The two of you, I swear."
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
"I suppose you have shown that you're capable enough to keep them safe," I heard Mina say, as Rom and Ram dragged me around. I could have stopped them at any time if I wanted to. I was strong enough that grabbing the sisters and putting them on my shoulders would have been trivial. But they were having fun, and keeping their minds off things was the most important. And it wasn't like the Lowee Basilicom was pretty damn cool in its own right. While Leanbox's felt more like a modern information center, Lowee's had a fantastical feel to it. Almost as if it were Disney World or something similar.
"Really!" Ram let go of my hand, hurrying over to where Nepgear and Mina had been talking. Part of the reason I had taken up child wrangling duties. Give them time to talk things out, without, well, mostly Ram pestering them. Ram was a menace. Rom was a darling on her best behavior. I knew twins could be opposites, frankly, it was such a trope that I tended to expect it, even in real life. But Rom and Ram weren't just contrasted by one another, but by their very hairstyles and colored outfits they wore. I calmly walked over with Rom, almost tempted to put her on my shoulders, maybe so Ram could understand that running off first wasn't always the smart idea, but I decided against it.
"Yes, really," Mina sighed, rubbing her forehead. "They have shown capable of keeping the two of you safe." I smile, despite myself. That was good news, and I wasn't going to pretend it wasn't. It put us one, two steps, really to freeing our sisters. We just needed one more person, and then we were good to go.
We were down to just Uni, weren't we? Still, that shouldn't be too difficult. Yeah, she was stubborn, but by this point, we had the numbers. She wanted the same thing we wanted. So it was going to be a matter of just knocking on her door, maybe helping her with some stuff, then boom, time to raid the graveyard.
"Well, we just need Uni, right?" I said with a smile. She could be a bit of a brat, but I'd started to warm up to her. "That should be" I slapped my hands over my mouth to stop me from finishing what I was about to say. For the love of all that is good in the world, do not tell me I just threw out a red flag in front of Murphy like that.
Everyone stared at me, almost afraid to make a sound. The air was so still one could hear the drop of a pin.
Then came a ringing, followed by a voice, slightly panicked.
"Uni's missing!"
FUUU-
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
"She's still mad, isn't she?"
"Yep."
The last time I'd used violence, it'd nearly been a decade ago. And by violence, I meant throwing a book at someone's head. It wasn't like they didn't deserve it, either, given how many times they'd been told to knock off their shit. It didn't hit them, either, though I also acknowledge I could have handled the situation better.
But between the stress of, everything, me blowing my stop fully was only going to be a matter of time. This time, it was just, more than it usually was. Which was something of its damn can of worms. And it wasn't going to be one I exactly liked. I wasn't a stoic. Not really. Admittedly, I could play the part when I wanted to, but I usually wore my heart on my sleeve. Even if my heart was ambivalent disinterest.
But I was going to need to keep an eye on this. Bottling things up was unhealthy, and with all the stress it was never going to help. Sure, the eruption had passed, for now. But I doubted my emotions were completely spent. I could easily still have enough temper built up for a follow-up. At least I aimed it at someone who deserved it.
When I got to Leanbox, I was going to have to take some steps. Being a member of the ASIC was already illegal, but Trick? He was getting sent into, I don't know, some type of hyper-illegal state, or something. I didn't know, and I also didn't exactly care. I didn't want that slug anywhere near my country, or any of the people in it. Super Hell. I was going to find a way to send him to Super Hell. That would serve my purposes just fine.
I took a deep breath in.
"Are you sure? You still seem a bit," Nepgear looked unsure, though I doubt my clenched fists were doing much to convenience anyone that I had calmed down even the slightest amount. I mean, I had. I wasn't frothing at the mouth anymore. But I was still steaming. Calmer, but not calm. Yet.
"Angry? Yeah, it's not every day you run into an avowed pedophile that needs to have their face vigorously kicked in," I said, trying to avoid putting too much inflection into my voice. Trick was sick. I doubted I was reading too hard into this. He'd been completely serious when he called me old. Which wasn't a big deal. I felt old, and I wasn't above joking about it, either. Sometimes, I'd just feel old. And that was something that went back to high school.
I blame them for remaking many of the games I played during my childhood.
But that was a simple fact of being confronted by decades of life. I knew I wasn't old, but I could damn well take it as a joke because it somewhat reflected how I felt on the inside.
"What's a pedophile?" I was too close to my rage-breaking point to even go into full detail on how to answer that.
"They're terrible people who do horrible things to young children and those who look like young children," I ground out. "And they deserve as much suffering as possible."
That seemed enough of an answer to placate the twins, though it wasn't enough for everyone.
"What exactly does it have to do with this Fi-Be-I?" IF asked, crossing her arms.
"It's, just the FBI. It stands for Federal Bureau of Investigations. It was made by the Federal government needing a way to investigate interstate crimes," I got several confused looks. "Which as a word salad means nothing to you as you know nothing about how the government back home works.*
Which was something I never intended to cover. Shares worked in a way close enough to the consent of the governed, as one had to keep the will of the people in mind to maintain Shares. I didn't want the chaos of talking about our system and somebody getting bit by the good idea fairy.
"The short version is that they were founded as a way to deal with bootleggers," another word that would mean nothing to them. "Smuggling Alcohol during the Prohibition Era. Their powers have expanded considerably in the century since, as they're also used to deal with crimes like human trafficking."
"I see," IF looked somewhat uncomfortable at that.
I push myself up. I guess we arrest whoever was left, or something? I looked around the room, observing the ruin.
I did a number on this place.
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
"We're fine, we're fine!" Ram protested in Nina's grip, trying to escape the young woman's grasp.
"Technically, you weren't," I said, giving Mina a healthy distance, allowing her to cry it out, rather than deal with risking the consequences.
"And wouldn't have been if it weren't for Ms. Temper Temper over there," IF jabbed her finger towards me.
"Trick started it," I whined, a complaint that was a lot less imposing when coming from someone other than an Iowa class battleship.
Nor did it do anything to help my case. My reputation. I was going to be known as the angry one rather than the mature one of the group, wasn't I?
I mean I did already have a bit of a reputation due to my fights with Judge. But that was more badass fights. I didn't want to have the reputation of being a berserker. That wasn't chill at all.
But it was friendlyish ribbing. I could live with that. Friendlyish because I was unsure where IF and I stood. She seemed to be the brains of Nepgear's group. At least, the most straight-laced member of the group. As much as people tended to be around here.
"I think you came pretty close to killing him," Compa said, and I couldn't quite exactly fully place her tone. I did my best to keep my expression blank, as Trick being six feet under sounded like the opposite of a bad thing. Even without the whole ASIC thing, Trick was what would be considered a problem on a good day, and that was me being generous.
"He's probably crawled back into some pit or another too," I paused, about to say lick but realizing that may just be not a particular word I want to use. "Recover." That was probably much better phrasing around the two kids other than saying lick his wounds. Sure, there was a chance he bled out, or whatever the ASIC commanders did that passed for bleeding out. If my bouts with Judge had taught me anything, it was that these things were far less human than I think even they realized.
However, it was far more likely that they just didn't care what happened to their bodies. The only one who might was probably Brave.
"So we probably won't have to worry about him for a while," I frown. Trying to take out an ASIC Commandment would be a goal to strive for. That was something they couldn't simply replace by hacking together some version of an already existing game in the woods. Trick and his compatriots were something that should be almost irreplaceable to the ASIC. After that display, Trick just put himself at the top of the list, mostly because he was the weakest of the four. Judge was a unit, not impossible to beat, but certainly a challenge. It would take most of us to beat him.
Brave was likely stronger than Trick, but if we could take Judge, we could take him, too. It was Magic that was going to be the biggest problem for us in a straight fight. But she was a problem for future us.
"That was still really cool! She hit him like Pow!" So they moved on to telling Nina what happened. All the more reason to stay away from the woman for the next little bit. "She was a bit like big sis."
Thump.
"Are you okay?" Nepgear looked down at me.
"Please don't tell me one of them just said that I was a bit like big sis," I groaned, rubbing my palms against my face. I was not ready for that type of responsibility, even by proxy.
"Okay, we won't," IF chuckled back, and I was so, so tempted to flip this woman off. But that would set a bad example for the kids. Nor if I was 'like their sister', having the conversation of 'how do my sweet darling angels know how to flip someone the bird now', was not in my interest. Even the slightest damned bit. I would never much not be enthused at best, to being outright pissed at worst.
It probably didn't help that I didn't have an actual standing for them as a person. I highly doubt that Vert's relationship with me was anywhere near standard for the others. There were a lot of different elements thrown into those gears from the get-go that just didn't exist for them.
I was going to have to address it at some point down the line. But at some point down the line was getting closer and closer with each passing day. We were going to rescue them. It was only a matter of time. I still had no clue what I wasn't even going to say to Vert. Not even the slightest idea of what to say. Sorry was at the top of the list, but that was also about as far as things went.
I shook my head, focusing my thoughts elsewhere.
"Hopefully the good ways," I grumbled. Again, I had no idea what their older sister was even like. At this point, I was going to take what I could get after going on what amounted to a violent bender. The back-and-forth motion of IF's hands and the somewhat wincing of Nepgear were not inspiring confidence on that front.
"She's usually really cool until you make her mad. Then she swears a lot and hits things!" Ram shouted as Rom nodded her head. "Usually when people make her angry, or when somebody calls her flat."
"I, see," I said, unsure of how to process that. I tucked that away as information that might be important later. Also under the hypothesis that the ages we Candidates possessed reflected the appearance in age of that of our older siblings. Of course, Rom and Ram's sister could easily be just, tall and flat at the same time. It wasn't like, oh who am I kidding? There was hardly anyone with responsible proportions here. And I included myself in that statement. If she was reacting to something that juvenile, then probably wasn't much older than her sisters.
"She would like what you did to Trick though," Rom muttered, a slight smile on her face.
"I approve of what I did to Trick," I crossed my arms, though I did appreciate the sentiment. More people really should approve of that. Trick more than deserved it by any metric possible. He was a damned monster, plain and simple. Sure, it'd cost me my reputation, and as much as I moaned and complained about it, I'd also do the same thing in a heartbeat.
"Yeah, yeah, keep it calm there," IF teased, as I rolled my eyes.
"But thanks anyway. Someone like that shouldn't be around kids, period," I grinned slightly. I did need that, at the end of the day. Something that at least kept my reputation afloat a little bit, even if it was only with Rom and Ram.
"Yeah, it was cool how you hit him with your bow, like Bam!" Ram swung her arms like she was holding a golf club. "Then you hit him with your elbow, like smash!"
No, my reputation.
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
"That could have gone better."
"Better! That scarcely could have gone worse!"
"At least we got footage out of it, right?"
"Well."
"Are you shitting me!"
"It wouldn't have played well even if the cameras survived. If anything, it would have bolstered her reputation."
"You have to be shitting me. All that effort, for nothing!"
"I wouldn't say nothing. We now know that aggressively beating up lolicons, how would they say it, plays well in the polls."
"That's a piece of shit! You're saying we can't beat her?"
"Are you surprised that this wouldn't be easy? She's likely been playing this game longer than any of us had figured out it existed. Before we even considered it as an option. Of course, she will make use of a stacked deck when she knows all the cards."
"If we could try and get her that angry again at something far less trivial, then it could have more of an impact."
"But we're running out of time!"
"We've been running out of time before things come to a head, yes. But by my calculations, we ran out of time a while ago."
"We have. The major players are taking their places on the board. This will be coming to a head. I doubt it's the beginning of the end, and more of, the end of the beginning."
"Fine, it's not as if the ASIC is infinitely worse than the Goddesses and their kid sisters anyway."
"Mostly because it allows us to live long enough to enact our aims."
"This is true."
"Good. Now that we have that agreed upon, who's been keeping an eye on what's happening in Lastation?"
"What's been happening in Lastation?"
"The two of you, I swear."
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
"I suppose you have shown that you're capable enough to keep them safe," I heard Mina say, as Rom and Ram dragged me around. I could have stopped them at any time if I wanted to. I was strong enough that grabbing the sisters and putting them on my shoulders would have been trivial. But they were having fun, and keeping their minds off things was the most important. And it wasn't like the Lowee Basilicom was pretty damn cool in its own right. While Leanbox's felt more like a modern information center, Lowee's had a fantastical feel to it. Almost as if it were Disney World or something similar.
"Really!" Ram let go of my hand, hurrying over to where Nepgear and Mina had been talking. Part of the reason I had taken up child wrangling duties. Give them time to talk things out, without, well, mostly Ram pestering them. Ram was a menace. Rom was a darling on her best behavior. I knew twins could be opposites, frankly, it was such a trope that I tended to expect it, even in real life. But Rom and Ram weren't just contrasted by one another, but by their very hairstyles and colored outfits they wore. I calmly walked over with Rom, almost tempted to put her on my shoulders, maybe so Ram could understand that running off first wasn't always the smart idea, but I decided against it.
"Yes, really," Mina sighed, rubbing her forehead. "They have shown capable of keeping the two of you safe." I smile, despite myself. That was good news, and I wasn't going to pretend it wasn't. It put us one, two steps, really to freeing our sisters. We just needed one more person, and then we were good to go.
We were down to just Uni, weren't we? Still, that shouldn't be too difficult. Yeah, she was stubborn, but by this point, we had the numbers. She wanted the same thing we wanted. So it was going to be a matter of just knocking on her door, maybe helping her with some stuff, then boom, time to raid the graveyard.
"Well, we just need Uni, right?" I said with a smile. She could be a bit of a brat, but I'd started to warm up to her. "That should be" I slapped my hands over my mouth to stop me from finishing what I was about to say. For the love of all that is good in the world, do not tell me I just threw out a red flag in front of Murphy like that.
Everyone stared at me, almost afraid to make a sound. The air was so still one could hear the drop of a pin.
Then came a ringing, followed by a voice, slightly panicked.
"Uni's missing!"
FUUU-
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
"She's still mad, isn't she?"
"Yep."
Avetho
Ghost-Piloting a BioMech from the Final Eon
- Location
- The KBC Void that contains Laniakea Supercluster
My mind is conjuring up the image of the group guiding the raging bull that is (or will be, more like it) Hinum all the way to annihilating whoever took Uni. Perhaps one of those three unknowns that were trying to get footage of an angry Green Sister on a berserker rampage. Frankly, Hinum letting the anger build up reminds me of myself sometimes, I too engage in emotional suppression to an unhealthy amount, many times due to stress, and the last time I let the proverbial taps open, well, the proverbial taps got metaphorically blown right off the wall and my BPM surged in two seconds flat from 70 to 160, I'm told I am the epitome of flushing red with anger, but that its creepy since my face tends to go blank. I wonder what Hinum's expression is when overwhelmed by her wrath?
Chapter 21
"Can't you just use that thing you use on Judge?"
"With you four in the splash zone? Not a chance in hell! Besides, we need to see if we can beat this guy without any tricks. Consider him a warm-up for when we face Judge, because I'm not popping that thing with our sister's nearby, either."
"Why are you the most reasonable person that I hate?"
"Oh, put a sock in it!"
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We should have stuck together from the start. Group up and beat Judge's face in, grab our sisters, and the get out before anything else went wrong. But no, we had to split up again, even if we agreed to help each other out. And now, Uni was missing. And I didn't need to explain why that was a bad thing. Sure, we'd smacked around one of their officers, badly enough that I doubt he would show his face again for a while. But frankly?
We needed Uni far more than the ASIC needed Trick. And while I doubt it was retaliation for the embarrassing defeat he suffered, that was an exchange I was willing to make.
"Stop brooding!" Ram grabbed hold of my shoulders, shaking me back and forth.
"I. Am. Not. Brooding." I protested, careful not to bite my tongue as I spoke, despite the aggressive back and forth.
"You kinda are, though," IF pointed out, as I slumped. I may have tried to protest, but I was being moody about the news. Not unjustifiably, given that this was yet another setback and a concerning one at that.
"Uni should be fine," Nepgear tapped her hands against her leg. "She's pretty strong. Maybe she went out to fight a monster and just hasn't come back yet?"
That, was the best-case scenario. Uni didn't strike me as the time to forget such important information, though. Maybe if she was in a hurry to get a monster dead? Even then, as I understood it, Leanbox's Oracle ran a tight ship at all times, even more so than Histoire, to a certain extent.
I wasn't going to say that was the best-case scenario, or hopefully. Not out loud. As much as I preferred to hope for the best and prepare for the worst, I could tell Nepgear was not taking the news particularly well, either. And while I tended to think out my issues, I didn't think the same was the case for Nepgear.
So I wasn't exactly going to vocalize that thinking it would just work out was a bit naive, because that was the exact opposite of what she needed to hear. I've been there, I've done that. Worry incessantly was not good for one's health, though it wasn't as if of pot calling the kettle black. I did it a lot myself.
But what did matter was that she was missing. Trouble or not, that was a problem. Hopefully, it would be one we could quickly fix without a lot of effort.
And my brain was well, in short, a very hot mess, even on a good day. This was only making the brain bugs even more paranoid than they already were. And that was never a good thing for anyone. It didn't help matters that I hadn't fully cooled off yet. My temper was still a bit tweaked, no matter how much I didn't like it.
Still, Uni was ideally, alright. We weren't exactly unstoppable by any metric, but even as Candidates, we were pretty strong on our own.
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The mechanical beast exploded as Nepgear cut the creature in half, delivering the finishing blow on the monster.
"I'm beginning to see why Uni might have had trouble with this," she panted as Compa began to work her healing abilities. That was a thing I started to notice. It wasn't a big deal at the moment, as Compa was a blessing and IF was around to run interference, but aside of Nepgear, all of us Candidates fought at range. Rom and Ram used magic, Uni had her gun, and I used a bow and arrows.
It wasn't bad when it came to one versus many fights.
But fights like this one? Once Compa was done with Nepgear, RED and IF, she moved over to me. The backline could quickly become compromised. Despite the trio's best efforts. And this wasn't exactly an easy dungeon, either, and the monsters mostly being machines, made it very clear on who it was that created this place.
Or paranoid brain bugs were starting to get the better of me. Still, it felt like the monsters here were focusing on us Candidates rather than the human members of our party. Which may have been good in the case of our healer not coming under fire, but bad for us in the back. I could take a few hits, but Rom and Ram were considerably more brittle compared to me. They did not have the same hit-taking capacity that I did, but they were also children, so that went a long way to explain that.
"We're getting close to the end though, but at this rate, I'm starting to think that we'll end up finding that Uni arrived at the Basilicom while we were out searching for her," IF frowned, as I stretched out my back.
"I'd take that outcome, in all honesty," I shrugged. It was better than any of the alternatives by a considerable margin. Sure, Uni would probably tease us over it, but I could take that. "This gives us a chance to stretch our legs and grab some stuff."
This place was giving us plenty of experience, and while we were probably strong enough to take a lot of things, it was hardly like gaining a few additional levels wouldn't hurt. Better to be safe than sorry when it came down to such things. Better to have them and not need them rather than need them and not have them. Which I didn't think needed explaining.
Plus, the additional little bit of quest rewards we could turn in just from killing things should be more than enough to help bump us up over the edge. Or just the things we got as rewards.
Plus, it still dealt with ASIC assets, if only a little bit. That by itself was worth it.
There was a decent amount of wreckage already in the area. Uni had been here at some point recently. Someone with a fair bit of strength had been, anyway.
"That's a big one," I heard RED gaze behind us. I smile a bit. Which while familiar, almost seemed to twist as if it was glitching out. But there was only one.
"I'll protect you, wifies!" The eccentric woman declared, already closing the range with the monster.
"She's really just rushing in there?" IF frowned as I pulled back an arrow.
"I'd be tempted to let her learn the lessons Leroy learned the hard way," I paused, RED and I's strikes occurring moments after the other. But frankly, keeping the tank in tip-top condition was a bit more important than childing her for reckless pulling.
We weren't at the many whelps, handle it, point yet.
Fire erupted from the twins' staff, joining with my more exotic arrow skills, keeping the bombardment at range. I grin as several shots find gaps in its armor, ones left behind by some previous engagement.
What Earthshaker's I fired were aimed for these points, as I took careful aim, being sure one didn't land those fighting in melee.
Nobody liked it when one of those ended up in the thick of it. Not that I blamed them. They were great for creating space when on my own. Indiscriminate AOE in a team fight? Considerably less so.
Still, one managed to slip into a gap in armor, a hole that only began to crack and spread as the limb began to shake. It swiftly became useless, before a flash of Nepgear's sword took it off completely. It stumbled from the sudden loss of balance, catching a fireball in the face for its efforts.
IF leaped up, bringing her knives along what would have been eyes, causing it to scream in even more pain. Well, I presume. I had no idea if it felt any pain or not.
It was wounded. Damaged before we had gotten here. Its body twitched as cables seemingly trying to reattach its severed arm before I put an arrow through several, pinning it to the ground. From there, it didn't take long to finish it off, as I put an arrow into its chest, Rom and Ram froze its legs, and Nepgear took off part of its head.
That was more than enough to put the nail in the coffin of the monster. Hell, I could see some weird microchip, embedded deep inside that did not look natural. As natural as such monsters could be, at any rate. I decided against messing with it. I had no idea what it actually did by any stretch of the imagination, and while I was willing to be curious, I wasn't that dumb. Usually.
But that was the boss of the area. And still no sign of Uni. That was a good sign? Maybe? She wasn't here at the place she was supposed to be, which was hopefully a sign she had just gotten waylaid and we'd only missed her on the way in.
And if it wasn't? Then we were going to have a real issue. Because if she wasn't here, and hadn't gone back, then where the hell had she gone?
"Over there!" I heard IF shout, her finger pointed to a nearby rock formation.
Well. That wasn't a good sign. We all rushed over, Compa reaching her first, fingers pressing against Uni's wrist.
"She's stable," Compa's words made us all breathe a sigh of relief. Still, that was all around what one would consider a very bad sign. It wasn't a monster that did this. A monster wouldn't leave someone unconscious most of the time. Someone or something else had been here.
And the list of things that could go toe to toe with a Candidate that weren't powerful monsters? It was a damn short list.
We needed to get her back to the Basilicom. The faster the better.
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I loved flying. I hated having to carry people when I flew. The human body plan was not made with ferrying other human beings through the sky in mind. But it was doable. Not expectly pleasant, given that Uni had to be carried herself, something that made things even more difficult, given how it meant Rom and Ram also had to carry someone. We had to fly pretty low too, just in case someone got dropped by accident. It was far less subtle, but we managed to go undetected until we arrived at the Basilicom, landing on the upper levels. It didn't take long to alert Kei to our presence on the, leading to the Lastation Oracle making her way up to see us.
Kei was tiny, and one of the few people I'd mistaken to be a man when I first met her. Which wasn't exactly hard to do, and I doubted I was the only one. She didn't give off tomboy energy, despite her preference for suits and short hair. Her short stature made it easy to underestimate her, as she looked far more like a child than the calculated businesswoman she very actively was.
I knew the least about her otherwise. Frankly, I'd heard more about her from working with businesses than I had from Histoire. And most of what I'd heard from them was a mixture of being impressed by her skills, and utter terror. What I did know was that Uni was very lucky to have a woman like that at her back.
Her eyes flickered between us, before her eyes fell on Uni, Kei's expression softening slightly.
"I guess that explains why she hadn't returned," I detected a bit of edge under the woman's voice as if she were about to find the responsible party and stab them. Not I could blame her for such an expression. Uni was still out cold. I didn't doubt that she would wake up, but the situation was, not great. Thankfully, nobody saw us on the way in, so no diplomatic incidents. Yet.
That always felt like a thing I had to say. Yet. No diplomatic issues yet.
"I'm guessing you found her like this?" Kei curtly said, fingers tight against the palms of her hands.
"I'm sorry, but we did. We don't have any idea what happened," Nepgear nodded, who was still clearly concerned about her friend. All of us were. Uni wasn't weak by any stretch of the imagination. So something that had been able to knock her out like this was a bit, concerning, to say the least. Monsters wouldn't do this. They wouldn't just knock someone out in the first place. Some smarter ones might, but there was nothing to show that was the case this time around.
Compa continued to treat the multiple bruises on Uni's body, focusing entirely on her work.
"At least she's safe now," Kei slumped slightly, rubbing her forehead.
That was the upside to this whole mess. At least Uni was now safe from whatever it was that caused this.
Of course, we had no idea what the hell was going on. And likely wouldn't until Uni woke up. Speculation was likely not going to get us anywhere, though it wasn't like I had a fairly short list of suspects.
Come on. Who else would be involved in something like this? This had the ASIC written all over it. How much it involved our little adventure in Lowee was unknown. Given the close timing, probably not. Maybe we should have just stuck together at the very least. We couldn't blitz the Graveyard, not yet, the Oracles were still working on the final things we needed to free our sisters. Sure, we needed to protect our nations, but splitting up had left us completely exposed to counterattack. Thankfully, I checked in with Chika, and everything was fairly calm. Slightly increased ASIC activity on the fringes, but I could deal with that when I returned.
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"I have to admit, I'm almost impressed." There was a shattering of steel, chains breaking with almost a casual flick of the wrist. "Almost. I do not understand why you seek to waylay me on this matter."
Or even how they thought they could be anything else than a nuisance, after all. Not even one worthy of his attention, either. They were slowing him down, yes, but only just. It wasn't like they could do anything to him. Other than be a minor annoyance.
"Objective, keep subject in Lastation for confrontational testing. All other objectives secondary."
Confrontational testing? Surely, they had to know that he was strong if they had been able to pull something like this. They had to be watching for a while. Long enough that they should know he was strong enough to beat a Goddess on his own.
"A pity." He smashed the drone to pieces, the last of the chains trying to hold him falling away like dust on the wind. They hadn't even needed to take such a step in the first place. He wasn't exactly planning on leaving Lastation in the first place. But still, if their goal was to keep him here, to test something in combat.
Well, he wouldn't be opposed to obliging just this once.
"With you four in the splash zone? Not a chance in hell! Besides, we need to see if we can beat this guy without any tricks. Consider him a warm-up for when we face Judge, because I'm not popping that thing with our sister's nearby, either."
"Why are you the most reasonable person that I hate?"
"Oh, put a sock in it!"
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We should have stuck together from the start. Group up and beat Judge's face in, grab our sisters, and the get out before anything else went wrong. But no, we had to split up again, even if we agreed to help each other out. And now, Uni was missing. And I didn't need to explain why that was a bad thing. Sure, we'd smacked around one of their officers, badly enough that I doubt he would show his face again for a while. But frankly?
We needed Uni far more than the ASIC needed Trick. And while I doubt it was retaliation for the embarrassing defeat he suffered, that was an exchange I was willing to make.
"Stop brooding!" Ram grabbed hold of my shoulders, shaking me back and forth.
"I. Am. Not. Brooding." I protested, careful not to bite my tongue as I spoke, despite the aggressive back and forth.
"You kinda are, though," IF pointed out, as I slumped. I may have tried to protest, but I was being moody about the news. Not unjustifiably, given that this was yet another setback and a concerning one at that.
"Uni should be fine," Nepgear tapped her hands against her leg. "She's pretty strong. Maybe she went out to fight a monster and just hasn't come back yet?"
That, was the best-case scenario. Uni didn't strike me as the time to forget such important information, though. Maybe if she was in a hurry to get a monster dead? Even then, as I understood it, Leanbox's Oracle ran a tight ship at all times, even more so than Histoire, to a certain extent.
I wasn't going to say that was the best-case scenario, or hopefully. Not out loud. As much as I preferred to hope for the best and prepare for the worst, I could tell Nepgear was not taking the news particularly well, either. And while I tended to think out my issues, I didn't think the same was the case for Nepgear.
So I wasn't exactly going to vocalize that thinking it would just work out was a bit naive, because that was the exact opposite of what she needed to hear. I've been there, I've done that. Worry incessantly was not good for one's health, though it wasn't as if of pot calling the kettle black. I did it a lot myself.
But what did matter was that she was missing. Trouble or not, that was a problem. Hopefully, it would be one we could quickly fix without a lot of effort.
And my brain was well, in short, a very hot mess, even on a good day. This was only making the brain bugs even more paranoid than they already were. And that was never a good thing for anyone. It didn't help matters that I hadn't fully cooled off yet. My temper was still a bit tweaked, no matter how much I didn't like it.
Still, Uni was ideally, alright. We weren't exactly unstoppable by any metric, but even as Candidates, we were pretty strong on our own.
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The mechanical beast exploded as Nepgear cut the creature in half, delivering the finishing blow on the monster.
"I'm beginning to see why Uni might have had trouble with this," she panted as Compa began to work her healing abilities. That was a thing I started to notice. It wasn't a big deal at the moment, as Compa was a blessing and IF was around to run interference, but aside of Nepgear, all of us Candidates fought at range. Rom and Ram used magic, Uni had her gun, and I used a bow and arrows.
It wasn't bad when it came to one versus many fights.
But fights like this one? Once Compa was done with Nepgear, RED and IF, she moved over to me. The backline could quickly become compromised. Despite the trio's best efforts. And this wasn't exactly an easy dungeon, either, and the monsters mostly being machines, made it very clear on who it was that created this place.
Or paranoid brain bugs were starting to get the better of me. Still, it felt like the monsters here were focusing on us Candidates rather than the human members of our party. Which may have been good in the case of our healer not coming under fire, but bad for us in the back. I could take a few hits, but Rom and Ram were considerably more brittle compared to me. They did not have the same hit-taking capacity that I did, but they were also children, so that went a long way to explain that.
"We're getting close to the end though, but at this rate, I'm starting to think that we'll end up finding that Uni arrived at the Basilicom while we were out searching for her," IF frowned, as I stretched out my back.
"I'd take that outcome, in all honesty," I shrugged. It was better than any of the alternatives by a considerable margin. Sure, Uni would probably tease us over it, but I could take that. "This gives us a chance to stretch our legs and grab some stuff."
This place was giving us plenty of experience, and while we were probably strong enough to take a lot of things, it was hardly like gaining a few additional levels wouldn't hurt. Better to be safe than sorry when it came down to such things. Better to have them and not need them rather than need them and not have them. Which I didn't think needed explaining.
Plus, the additional little bit of quest rewards we could turn in just from killing things should be more than enough to help bump us up over the edge. Or just the things we got as rewards.
Plus, it still dealt with ASIC assets, if only a little bit. That by itself was worth it.
There was a decent amount of wreckage already in the area. Uni had been here at some point recently. Someone with a fair bit of strength had been, anyway.
"That's a big one," I heard RED gaze behind us. I smile a bit. Which while familiar, almost seemed to twist as if it was glitching out. But there was only one.
"I'll protect you, wifies!" The eccentric woman declared, already closing the range with the monster.
"She's really just rushing in there?" IF frowned as I pulled back an arrow.
"I'd be tempted to let her learn the lessons Leroy learned the hard way," I paused, RED and I's strikes occurring moments after the other. But frankly, keeping the tank in tip-top condition was a bit more important than childing her for reckless pulling.
We weren't at the many whelps, handle it, point yet.
Fire erupted from the twins' staff, joining with my more exotic arrow skills, keeping the bombardment at range. I grin as several shots find gaps in its armor, ones left behind by some previous engagement.
What Earthshaker's I fired were aimed for these points, as I took careful aim, being sure one didn't land those fighting in melee.
Nobody liked it when one of those ended up in the thick of it. Not that I blamed them. They were great for creating space when on my own. Indiscriminate AOE in a team fight? Considerably less so.
Still, one managed to slip into a gap in armor, a hole that only began to crack and spread as the limb began to shake. It swiftly became useless, before a flash of Nepgear's sword took it off completely. It stumbled from the sudden loss of balance, catching a fireball in the face for its efforts.
IF leaped up, bringing her knives along what would have been eyes, causing it to scream in even more pain. Well, I presume. I had no idea if it felt any pain or not.
It was wounded. Damaged before we had gotten here. Its body twitched as cables seemingly trying to reattach its severed arm before I put an arrow through several, pinning it to the ground. From there, it didn't take long to finish it off, as I put an arrow into its chest, Rom and Ram froze its legs, and Nepgear took off part of its head.
That was more than enough to put the nail in the coffin of the monster. Hell, I could see some weird microchip, embedded deep inside that did not look natural. As natural as such monsters could be, at any rate. I decided against messing with it. I had no idea what it actually did by any stretch of the imagination, and while I was willing to be curious, I wasn't that dumb. Usually.
But that was the boss of the area. And still no sign of Uni. That was a good sign? Maybe? She wasn't here at the place she was supposed to be, which was hopefully a sign she had just gotten waylaid and we'd only missed her on the way in.
And if it wasn't? Then we were going to have a real issue. Because if she wasn't here, and hadn't gone back, then where the hell had she gone?
"Over there!" I heard IF shout, her finger pointed to a nearby rock formation.
Well. That wasn't a good sign. We all rushed over, Compa reaching her first, fingers pressing against Uni's wrist.
"She's stable," Compa's words made us all breathe a sigh of relief. Still, that was all around what one would consider a very bad sign. It wasn't a monster that did this. A monster wouldn't leave someone unconscious most of the time. Someone or something else had been here.
And the list of things that could go toe to toe with a Candidate that weren't powerful monsters? It was a damn short list.
We needed to get her back to the Basilicom. The faster the better.
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I loved flying. I hated having to carry people when I flew. The human body plan was not made with ferrying other human beings through the sky in mind. But it was doable. Not expectly pleasant, given that Uni had to be carried herself, something that made things even more difficult, given how it meant Rom and Ram also had to carry someone. We had to fly pretty low too, just in case someone got dropped by accident. It was far less subtle, but we managed to go undetected until we arrived at the Basilicom, landing on the upper levels. It didn't take long to alert Kei to our presence on the, leading to the Lastation Oracle making her way up to see us.
Kei was tiny, and one of the few people I'd mistaken to be a man when I first met her. Which wasn't exactly hard to do, and I doubted I was the only one. She didn't give off tomboy energy, despite her preference for suits and short hair. Her short stature made it easy to underestimate her, as she looked far more like a child than the calculated businesswoman she very actively was.
I knew the least about her otherwise. Frankly, I'd heard more about her from working with businesses than I had from Histoire. And most of what I'd heard from them was a mixture of being impressed by her skills, and utter terror. What I did know was that Uni was very lucky to have a woman like that at her back.
Her eyes flickered between us, before her eyes fell on Uni, Kei's expression softening slightly.
"I guess that explains why she hadn't returned," I detected a bit of edge under the woman's voice as if she were about to find the responsible party and stab them. Not I could blame her for such an expression. Uni was still out cold. I didn't doubt that she would wake up, but the situation was, not great. Thankfully, nobody saw us on the way in, so no diplomatic incidents. Yet.
That always felt like a thing I had to say. Yet. No diplomatic issues yet.
"I'm guessing you found her like this?" Kei curtly said, fingers tight against the palms of her hands.
"I'm sorry, but we did. We don't have any idea what happened," Nepgear nodded, who was still clearly concerned about her friend. All of us were. Uni wasn't weak by any stretch of the imagination. So something that had been able to knock her out like this was a bit, concerning, to say the least. Monsters wouldn't do this. They wouldn't just knock someone out in the first place. Some smarter ones might, but there was nothing to show that was the case this time around.
Compa continued to treat the multiple bruises on Uni's body, focusing entirely on her work.
"At least she's safe now," Kei slumped slightly, rubbing her forehead.
That was the upside to this whole mess. At least Uni was now safe from whatever it was that caused this.
Of course, we had no idea what the hell was going on. And likely wouldn't until Uni woke up. Speculation was likely not going to get us anywhere, though it wasn't like I had a fairly short list of suspects.
Come on. Who else would be involved in something like this? This had the ASIC written all over it. How much it involved our little adventure in Lowee was unknown. Given the close timing, probably not. Maybe we should have just stuck together at the very least. We couldn't blitz the Graveyard, not yet, the Oracles were still working on the final things we needed to free our sisters. Sure, we needed to protect our nations, but splitting up had left us completely exposed to counterattack. Thankfully, I checked in with Chika, and everything was fairly calm. Slightly increased ASIC activity on the fringes, but I could deal with that when I returned.
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"I have to admit, I'm almost impressed." There was a shattering of steel, chains breaking with almost a casual flick of the wrist. "Almost. I do not understand why you seek to waylay me on this matter."
Or even how they thought they could be anything else than a nuisance, after all. Not even one worthy of his attention, either. They were slowing him down, yes, but only just. It wasn't like they could do anything to him. Other than be a minor annoyance.
"Objective, keep subject in Lastation for confrontational testing. All other objectives secondary."
Confrontational testing? Surely, they had to know that he was strong if they had been able to pull something like this. They had to be watching for a while. Long enough that they should know he was strong enough to beat a Goddess on his own.
"A pity." He smashed the drone to pieces, the last of the chains trying to hold him falling away like dust on the wind. They hadn't even needed to take such a step in the first place. He wasn't exactly planning on leaving Lastation in the first place. But still, if their goal was to keep him here, to test something in combat.
Well, he wouldn't be opposed to obliging just this once.
Chapter 22
Sorry this is taking a hot minute, but my move is taking a bit out of me at the moment. So this is probably what I consider very, very, very late.
I would have the World War Z snippet out by now, but with that one, I'd really rather have someone's blessing than have to beg for forgiveness, so.
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Slowly. Slowly. She had enough time to fix this. Be out and back before anyone knew she was even gone. She had to do this. Her pride was on the line. She couldn't have others fixing her mistakes. Losing was embarrassing enough. She couldn't let someone else fix her problems. Let someone else fix her sister's country.
Still, she knew this place like the back of her hand. Far better than any of her guests. She could sneak out, easy-peasy. She just had to be sure to take things slowly. One step at a time. She just needed a few more before she got the window. Then she could get around to avenging herself after she lost, too!
SQUEAK.
Uni froze mid-motion as the floorboards let out a sound beneath her feet. She stood completely still, waiting to hear any other sound, any sign that she had woken the others up. Silence filled the air as Uni slowly lifted her foot back up, taking great care to put it down on a part of the floorboards that weren't noisy.
Of course, nobody heard. Everyone was fast asleep. There was nobody awake to hear her. She had absolutely nothing to worry about. She could be in and out before anyone knew she was gone.
"Uni, what are you doing up?"
Uni swore up and down that she, at that moment, did not scream like a small child.
Everyone knew she was lying, though.
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"Hold it right there you two," I do my best to whisper shout, keeping the two twins from rushing in. I would like to have my own words with Uni. Granted, harsh ones that she probably didn't need to hear right now. Or ever. But I was willing to admit that she didn't need to hear a single word out of my mouth on the matter. As much as I wanted to call her out for her recklessness, I wasn't going to at this point.
In part because Nepgear beat me to the punch. And seemingly knew how to pull such a punch so it wouldn't emotionally shatter a person. That wasn't something I was good at.
I planned on ignoring things once I caught sight of what was going on. Nepgear seemed to have things well in hand. Nepgear was the one who convinced Uni that a united front had been needed against me in the first place. She had a far better pulse on Uni than I ever did. Plus, I kind of needed the sleep, to be honest. Sure, sleeping through, that, would be a stretch to sell. But I could be a pretty heavy sleeper.
Of course, any thoughts of sleeping through died a quick death upon a single realization. I wasn't the only one in earshot.
Or the building, really, I wouldn't be surprised if there was much, if any, difference. Sure, there was probably a contingent that would sleep through the noise, or likely come to the same conclusion as I did. Any guesses as to who wouldn't be part of that group? If you guessed, a pair of twins hardly any mentally older than ten years old?
Rom would try to be the voice of reason like she always was. But Ram would likely have none of it, and then we'd be off to the races. Not that I was still expecting anything bad to happen, but an ounce of prevention was worth a pound of cure. Until the group hugs became needed. And while I had no problem with group comfort hugs, which honestly, I expected that Uni would need.
What? I could read between the lines. She probably would need a group hug by the end of this. And it wasn't as if I couldn't read between the lines, either. Sneaking out in the middle of the night like that? After we had just found her beaten up? I knew exactly where that was going. I didn't think she'd do it, but here we were.
She was going to head out and fight Brave again. Understandable, as the man needed to be fought, and he clearly was a threat. Doing it on your own after you lost the first round? Not so much. Okay, maybe less understandable, and more unintelligent.
Then again, I think there was more to it than Uni simply wanting to avenge herself going on here. Uni was emotional, yes, but she wasn't exactly what I would consider dumb. She should know that that was a bad idea. I paused for a moment as if lost in thought.
Ah. It wasn't that she was trying to avenge herself. Not directly. I wanted to smack myself for not realizing it sooner.
I may have been a unique case, but if I wasn't, our nations were about all we had left when it came to our sisters. A slight against a nation was a slight against our sisters. We wanted to take care of our nations as best as we could. What else did we have left to honor their memories? Sure, we all wanted our sisters back, but they were still absent from our lives. For me, I wasn't ashamed to admit that there were mixed feelings. We'd only started to patch things up after I blew up in Vert's face. But for them? They had their sisters for an entire lifetime. They knew nothing else, and to have their sisters stripped from them?
Of course, they were going to defend what they had left. Even if it meant coming into conflict with those who would otherwise be their allies. In hindsight, it was pretty damn clear what was really going on.
Her loss wasn't about her losing, but what that loss meant as far as protecting the last precious thing she had to hold onto her sister. And if she could be beaten by a member of ASIC leadership?
Yeah, I could see where that would be going. None of that was good. For any of us, really.
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"Uni," Nepgear started, looking at her somewhat younger friend. For her part, Uni shifted her feet. She hadn't expected to be caught during this, least of all by Nepgear, of all people. Hinum, yes, absolutely. She was the one Uni had been most concerned about. Hinum totally would be awake for unknown reasons in the middle of the night to hear someone step on floorboards. It's what Uni would expect out of the younger Candidate. To be inexplicably ready for just about every situation no matter how unlikely it was to occur in the first place. Just get in, take names, kick face, and be done before sunset.
Because that was just how Hinum did things. She was used to fighting Judge, on her own, without any help. For all Hinum's waxing about teamwork and unity, she was the only one who didn't need it. She was more than enough on her own to solve all of these different sorts of problems. She didn't need that sort of help. She just did so without a second thought or care in the world.
She knew Hinum had an unfair advantage, but that didn't change anything. Uni knew she should be capable of much more. If a barely minted candidate could match the ASIC's highest-ranked officers, so should she. Uni should be able to do at the least that much when it came to Lastation's safety.
Right?
And yet. She lost to Brave, and it wasn't even close. She lost by a mile, to someone that was, at the end of the day, a threat to her country. And she couldn't do a single thing to stop him.
What were the odds Hinum would have been able to do without issue? Well, minimal issue. But that wasn't the issue. A newly minted Goddess would have solved things quicker than she did. She'd been solving them faster. Solve them better. With less mess and less fuss she actually thought about bringing the businesses on board and focusing purely on the ASIC rather than wasting time fighting over nothing.
"Uni?" This time, the touch on her shoulder was enough to snap her out of her thoughts, as Uni crossed her arms with a huff. She didn't need comfort, she needed to fight Brave! She needed to prove that she could do this on her own! That she didn't need anyone's help defending Lastation, as a CPU Candidate should!
"I don't have time for this!" Unit turned around, preparing to step away only for a hand to wrap around her wrist, not letting her move an inch. Uni began to turn around, preparing to shout, only to stop because of the surprising firmness that made up Nepgear's features. It wasn't angry. In fact, Uni couldn't place it, not easily. Her mouth was a thin line, instead of the nervous, or well, just smile that Uni had come to associate with Nepgear as a whole. The upbeat and positive look that seemed to be on Nepgear's face most of the time had fallen away.
"Please."
It was one word. A single word. Something that at the end of the day, should have been meaningless. Not even worth noting. But, here and now? It was more than enough.
"Please what!" Uni snapped, with a scowl.
"Stop trying to solve every single problem by yourself!" Even though Nepgear's voice wasn't loud, it still had plenty of impact. Uni almost felt herself stagger from the verbal blow. "We're all trying to get our sister's back. We're all trying to save Gamindustri. You don't have to keep doing this on your own anymore! Please, just accept getting help! You have friends that want to help you, who want you to be safe."
Uni stood there, completely taken off guard by the outburst. Nepgear considered them, friends? Of course she did, that was just how Nepgear was. But the others? There was no way they'd consider her a friend.
Of course, the moment the thought crossed Uni's mind, she felt not one, not two, but three separate impacts slam into her back, sending her tumbling to the ground. Uni groan, in part because one of those impacts was significantly larger than the others. Two pairs of arms wrapped around her waist, while a third, larger pair, gripped Uni's shoulders.
"Accept our friendship, you freaking tsundere!" A voice that could only belong to Hinum said, Uni getting the impression that the only reason the taller Candidate wasn't vigorously shaking her shoulders was that doing so would result in Uni's face hitting the floor.
More. Hitting the floor more.
Which meant the two smaller groups of hands had to belong to Rom and Ram, the two younger Candidates keeping a death grip on her waist, practically sitting on the backs of Uni's knees.
"Would you get off me!" Despite intending to sound angry, the cracking of her voice stopped Uni from mustering the voice to even approach sounding intimidating.
Hinum, at the very least, repositioned herself as to not be laying on top of Uni's body. Rom and Ram did not.
"Not until you stop being stupid!" Ram said, even though without Hinum, there wasn't much the two younger Candidates could do to stop Uni from standing up.
"Excuse me?" Uni did her best to growl, trying to turn around to glare at the two limpets.
"You tried to go off on your own like that. It isn't exactly smart," Rom spoke next, her quiet voice doing more than the words of just about anyone else in the room. Rom, the same girl who couldn't hurt a fly simply because she was too meek, had called her an idiot. Implied she was an idiot. Same difference.
Hinum seemed just as surprised as anyone else by that, before the blonde shook her head as if loosening up the cobwebs in her head.
"Rom's right. Going off on your own to get revenge is, not the brightest move. I can understand why, don't get me wrong, I really do. You're a bright, if emotional, young lady, so you should know that, too," Hinum rubbed the back of her head. "But we need a united front at this point."
"None of you have had it easy out here," Nepgear spoke next. "You've been fighting for years, trying to keep each of your respective nations safe. And you've all done everything you can. Even that was sometimes not enough. But we can do this."
Uni blinked. Hinum was nodding along confidently, but there was a twinge of nervousness underneath Nepgear's voice. As if her words were for just as much herself as it was for them.
"Histoire thinks we're ready. That we have enough shares to free our sisters. But it will require all of us to work together to do so. We have to work together, otherwise, all your effort will have been for nothing."
"And yours," Hinum said, patting Nepgear on the back. "Don't sell your efforts short. If it weren't for you, we probably wouldn't even have the opportunity to even try to rescue our sisters."
Uni could feel a slight, if painful, twinge in Hinum's voice at the mention of sister. What had gone on there to have that type of response? Whenever the topic was approached, everyone was ecstatic, if nervous. Hinum?
Always gave off this air of melancholia, Uni wasn't sure of what, exactly. It was certainly nervousness, but there was something compounding it. It went beyond just how her sister would react to how things were in Leanbox.
"We should probably still fight Brave though," Uni's head whipped around at Hinum's words. "What? Leaving him in Lastation while we rescue our sisters isn't smart, either. Plus, fighting him would make for a good warm-up for Judge."
Uni nodded, despite herself. Brave was far from the worst of the ASIC generals. Frankly, he seemed like the most reasonable, to an extent. But she couldn't just let him run freely right now, not when they were so close.
Still, even she couldn't stop and notice how Nepgear shuddered at the mention of Judge's name.
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He figured it would be only a matter of time. Green Sister had entered the country. It had always been a matter of time before she had rallied the other Candidates for combat. He would consider it predictable. She was so much more hot-blooded than most people believed she was.
A three-on-one was not optimal. Green Sister, Purple Sister, and Black Sister, Uni, all working in tandem? That would be a difficult fight, not insurmountable, but challenging. At least, last he had heard, Trick was keeping the twins distracted.
Slowly, Brave stood. There was still work to be done.
I would have the World War Z snippet out by now, but with that one, I'd really rather have someone's blessing than have to beg for forgiveness, so.
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Slowly. Slowly. She had enough time to fix this. Be out and back before anyone knew she was even gone. She had to do this. Her pride was on the line. She couldn't have others fixing her mistakes. Losing was embarrassing enough. She couldn't let someone else fix her problems. Let someone else fix her sister's country.
Still, she knew this place like the back of her hand. Far better than any of her guests. She could sneak out, easy-peasy. She just had to be sure to take things slowly. One step at a time. She just needed a few more before she got the window. Then she could get around to avenging herself after she lost, too!
SQUEAK.
Uni froze mid-motion as the floorboards let out a sound beneath her feet. She stood completely still, waiting to hear any other sound, any sign that she had woken the others up. Silence filled the air as Uni slowly lifted her foot back up, taking great care to put it down on a part of the floorboards that weren't noisy.
Of course, nobody heard. Everyone was fast asleep. There was nobody awake to hear her. She had absolutely nothing to worry about. She could be in and out before anyone knew she was gone.
"Uni, what are you doing up?"
Uni swore up and down that she, at that moment, did not scream like a small child.
Everyone knew she was lying, though.
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"Hold it right there you two," I do my best to whisper shout, keeping the two twins from rushing in. I would like to have my own words with Uni. Granted, harsh ones that she probably didn't need to hear right now. Or ever. But I was willing to admit that she didn't need to hear a single word out of my mouth on the matter. As much as I wanted to call her out for her recklessness, I wasn't going to at this point.
In part because Nepgear beat me to the punch. And seemingly knew how to pull such a punch so it wouldn't emotionally shatter a person. That wasn't something I was good at.
I planned on ignoring things once I caught sight of what was going on. Nepgear seemed to have things well in hand. Nepgear was the one who convinced Uni that a united front had been needed against me in the first place. She had a far better pulse on Uni than I ever did. Plus, I kind of needed the sleep, to be honest. Sure, sleeping through, that, would be a stretch to sell. But I could be a pretty heavy sleeper.
Of course, any thoughts of sleeping through died a quick death upon a single realization. I wasn't the only one in earshot.
Or the building, really, I wouldn't be surprised if there was much, if any, difference. Sure, there was probably a contingent that would sleep through the noise, or likely come to the same conclusion as I did. Any guesses as to who wouldn't be part of that group? If you guessed, a pair of twins hardly any mentally older than ten years old?
Rom would try to be the voice of reason like she always was. But Ram would likely have none of it, and then we'd be off to the races. Not that I was still expecting anything bad to happen, but an ounce of prevention was worth a pound of cure. Until the group hugs became needed. And while I had no problem with group comfort hugs, which honestly, I expected that Uni would need.
What? I could read between the lines. She probably would need a group hug by the end of this. And it wasn't as if I couldn't read between the lines, either. Sneaking out in the middle of the night like that? After we had just found her beaten up? I knew exactly where that was going. I didn't think she'd do it, but here we were.
She was going to head out and fight Brave again. Understandable, as the man needed to be fought, and he clearly was a threat. Doing it on your own after you lost the first round? Not so much. Okay, maybe less understandable, and more unintelligent.
Then again, I think there was more to it than Uni simply wanting to avenge herself going on here. Uni was emotional, yes, but she wasn't exactly what I would consider dumb. She should know that that was a bad idea. I paused for a moment as if lost in thought.
Ah. It wasn't that she was trying to avenge herself. Not directly. I wanted to smack myself for not realizing it sooner.
I may have been a unique case, but if I wasn't, our nations were about all we had left when it came to our sisters. A slight against a nation was a slight against our sisters. We wanted to take care of our nations as best as we could. What else did we have left to honor their memories? Sure, we all wanted our sisters back, but they were still absent from our lives. For me, I wasn't ashamed to admit that there were mixed feelings. We'd only started to patch things up after I blew up in Vert's face. But for them? They had their sisters for an entire lifetime. They knew nothing else, and to have their sisters stripped from them?
Of course, they were going to defend what they had left. Even if it meant coming into conflict with those who would otherwise be their allies. In hindsight, it was pretty damn clear what was really going on.
Her loss wasn't about her losing, but what that loss meant as far as protecting the last precious thing she had to hold onto her sister. And if she could be beaten by a member of ASIC leadership?
Yeah, I could see where that would be going. None of that was good. For any of us, really.
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"Uni," Nepgear started, looking at her somewhat younger friend. For her part, Uni shifted her feet. She hadn't expected to be caught during this, least of all by Nepgear, of all people. Hinum, yes, absolutely. She was the one Uni had been most concerned about. Hinum totally would be awake for unknown reasons in the middle of the night to hear someone step on floorboards. It's what Uni would expect out of the younger Candidate. To be inexplicably ready for just about every situation no matter how unlikely it was to occur in the first place. Just get in, take names, kick face, and be done before sunset.
Because that was just how Hinum did things. She was used to fighting Judge, on her own, without any help. For all Hinum's waxing about teamwork and unity, she was the only one who didn't need it. She was more than enough on her own to solve all of these different sorts of problems. She didn't need that sort of help. She just did so without a second thought or care in the world.
She knew Hinum had an unfair advantage, but that didn't change anything. Uni knew she should be capable of much more. If a barely minted candidate could match the ASIC's highest-ranked officers, so should she. Uni should be able to do at the least that much when it came to Lastation's safety.
Right?
And yet. She lost to Brave, and it wasn't even close. She lost by a mile, to someone that was, at the end of the day, a threat to her country. And she couldn't do a single thing to stop him.
What were the odds Hinum would have been able to do without issue? Well, minimal issue. But that wasn't the issue. A newly minted Goddess would have solved things quicker than she did. She'd been solving them faster. Solve them better. With less mess and less fuss she actually thought about bringing the businesses on board and focusing purely on the ASIC rather than wasting time fighting over nothing.
"Uni?" This time, the touch on her shoulder was enough to snap her out of her thoughts, as Uni crossed her arms with a huff. She didn't need comfort, she needed to fight Brave! She needed to prove that she could do this on her own! That she didn't need anyone's help defending Lastation, as a CPU Candidate should!
"I don't have time for this!" Unit turned around, preparing to step away only for a hand to wrap around her wrist, not letting her move an inch. Uni began to turn around, preparing to shout, only to stop because of the surprising firmness that made up Nepgear's features. It wasn't angry. In fact, Uni couldn't place it, not easily. Her mouth was a thin line, instead of the nervous, or well, just smile that Uni had come to associate with Nepgear as a whole. The upbeat and positive look that seemed to be on Nepgear's face most of the time had fallen away.
"Please."
It was one word. A single word. Something that at the end of the day, should have been meaningless. Not even worth noting. But, here and now? It was more than enough.
"Please what!" Uni snapped, with a scowl.
"Stop trying to solve every single problem by yourself!" Even though Nepgear's voice wasn't loud, it still had plenty of impact. Uni almost felt herself stagger from the verbal blow. "We're all trying to get our sister's back. We're all trying to save Gamindustri. You don't have to keep doing this on your own anymore! Please, just accept getting help! You have friends that want to help you, who want you to be safe."
Uni stood there, completely taken off guard by the outburst. Nepgear considered them, friends? Of course she did, that was just how Nepgear was. But the others? There was no way they'd consider her a friend.
Of course, the moment the thought crossed Uni's mind, she felt not one, not two, but three separate impacts slam into her back, sending her tumbling to the ground. Uni groan, in part because one of those impacts was significantly larger than the others. Two pairs of arms wrapped around her waist, while a third, larger pair, gripped Uni's shoulders.
"Accept our friendship, you freaking tsundere!" A voice that could only belong to Hinum said, Uni getting the impression that the only reason the taller Candidate wasn't vigorously shaking her shoulders was that doing so would result in Uni's face hitting the floor.
More. Hitting the floor more.
Which meant the two smaller groups of hands had to belong to Rom and Ram, the two younger Candidates keeping a death grip on her waist, practically sitting on the backs of Uni's knees.
"Would you get off me!" Despite intending to sound angry, the cracking of her voice stopped Uni from mustering the voice to even approach sounding intimidating.
Hinum, at the very least, repositioned herself as to not be laying on top of Uni's body. Rom and Ram did not.
"Not until you stop being stupid!" Ram said, even though without Hinum, there wasn't much the two younger Candidates could do to stop Uni from standing up.
"Excuse me?" Uni did her best to growl, trying to turn around to glare at the two limpets.
"You tried to go off on your own like that. It isn't exactly smart," Rom spoke next, her quiet voice doing more than the words of just about anyone else in the room. Rom, the same girl who couldn't hurt a fly simply because she was too meek, had called her an idiot. Implied she was an idiot. Same difference.
Hinum seemed just as surprised as anyone else by that, before the blonde shook her head as if loosening up the cobwebs in her head.
"Rom's right. Going off on your own to get revenge is, not the brightest move. I can understand why, don't get me wrong, I really do. You're a bright, if emotional, young lady, so you should know that, too," Hinum rubbed the back of her head. "But we need a united front at this point."
"None of you have had it easy out here," Nepgear spoke next. "You've been fighting for years, trying to keep each of your respective nations safe. And you've all done everything you can. Even that was sometimes not enough. But we can do this."
Uni blinked. Hinum was nodding along confidently, but there was a twinge of nervousness underneath Nepgear's voice. As if her words were for just as much herself as it was for them.
"Histoire thinks we're ready. That we have enough shares to free our sisters. But it will require all of us to work together to do so. We have to work together, otherwise, all your effort will have been for nothing."
"And yours," Hinum said, patting Nepgear on the back. "Don't sell your efforts short. If it weren't for you, we probably wouldn't even have the opportunity to even try to rescue our sisters."
Uni could feel a slight, if painful, twinge in Hinum's voice at the mention of sister. What had gone on there to have that type of response? Whenever the topic was approached, everyone was ecstatic, if nervous. Hinum?
Always gave off this air of melancholia, Uni wasn't sure of what, exactly. It was certainly nervousness, but there was something compounding it. It went beyond just how her sister would react to how things were in Leanbox.
"We should probably still fight Brave though," Uni's head whipped around at Hinum's words. "What? Leaving him in Lastation while we rescue our sisters isn't smart, either. Plus, fighting him would make for a good warm-up for Judge."
Uni nodded, despite herself. Brave was far from the worst of the ASIC generals. Frankly, he seemed like the most reasonable, to an extent. But she couldn't just let him run freely right now, not when they were so close.
Still, even she couldn't stop and notice how Nepgear shuddered at the mention of Judge's name.
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He figured it would be only a matter of time. Green Sister had entered the country. It had always been a matter of time before she had rallied the other Candidates for combat. He would consider it predictable. She was so much more hot-blooded than most people believed she was.
A three-on-one was not optimal. Green Sister, Purple Sister, and Black Sister, Uni, all working in tandem? That would be a difficult fight, not insurmountable, but challenging. At least, last he had heard, Trick was keeping the twins distracted.
Slowly, Brave stood. There was still work to be done.
TharjaDoesWrite
Tharja the Kat Dragon
- Location
- Muse City
He probably doesn't think much about Rom and Ram, probably thinks they're weak.
Solarshade
Friendly Local Dyson Swarm
Looks like an autocorrect typo snuck in:
Chapter 23
Getting started way later than I wanted to. Screw living in interesting times.
I digress, however. Let's get this show on the road!
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"Nepgear? You awake yet?" IF entered the floor where all the Candidates should have been sleeping. However, the sound of silence was the only thing that met her ears. Not the most alarming thing in the world, yet something felt off. Something felt, if not wrong, then to the very least, not right.
Slowly, IF made her way to the room she knew Nepgear was staying and threw the door open. Only to find nothing. The bed was neatly made, impeccable, with no sign of a struggle. Uni's was much the same, neat and tidy.
The twins revealed nothing, their beds were a mess, however, sheets strewn about every which way without a care in the world. As if the two had left in a hurry.
As for Hinum, it was much the same, blankets bundled up at the end of the bed, not even the slightest bit of effort put into making it back nice and proper, as if she had kicked off the sheets during the night and couldn't be bothered.
Two beds neatly made, as if they had expected to leave. Three beds looked as if their occupants had left in a complete hurry, as if they had much more important things to worry about than being tidy.
IF frowned. There was no way that was not going to be a good thing. Not even close. Her first though was that Uni talked Nepgear into doing something stupid, and Hinum, Rom, and Ram later noticed and went after them. Without, for whatever reason, deciding to inform the rest of them about what was going on.
Though with Hinum and the twins being able to fly, they certainly would be able to cover more ground on that front than any of the rest of them could. But still, it would be nice to be informed if something had gone wrong.
IF enters the kitchen on the floor, before noticing something. Several somethings. First was the pile of dishes in the sink. Enough for around five people, give or take. The second was a note, sitting on the table.
She picked it up, her eyes moving across the page as she went before her face became a scowl.
She was going to kill her.
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To whom it may concern,
Which is probably IF. Sorry that we didn't decide to grab the rest of you guys for this, but I think this is something better handled on our own at the moment. Well, for Uni, anyway. We're going out Brave hunting. Yes, it's dangerous, but there are also five of us, so we should be fine.
We should be able to handle it. Uni didn't want to leave anything, because she's like that, but I figured it would be for the best to at least inform you of what we're doing at any point in time, especially on a matter like this.
I will do everything in my power to make sure that everything goes well and to make sure that every, if not satisfied, is at least mollified at the end of the day. Hopefully, we will have this wrapped up in time to be back for lunch.
From,
Hinum
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She was absolutely going to kill her. Out of all the knuckle-brained, pear-headed schemes, she'd decided to go out again, despite the state they found Uni in last time.
Instead of being the voice of reason, Hinum decided it was best to join them in what amounted to hunting down Brave and punching him in the face. There was no other way one could look at this. Again, they could fly, unlike the rest of them, but going off on their own was still completely reckless.
But, of course, Hinum went along with it anyway. Sometimes, IF swore, the girl was nowhere near as clever or smart as she thought she was some days, and this was turning out to be very much one of them. Going off with them like that without waking anyone else up?
Then again, Nepgear should have been the voice of reason even if Hinum wasn't, and frankly, IF was very much not convinced Hinum was ever really that, despite her efforts to at least come across as such.
So the fact the two of them went along with it wasn't great. It was outright concerning. IF looked down at the letter again before she was about to crumple it in her hand.
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PS: The only reason I or anyone else even considered this is because Uni tried to sneak out under the cover of darkness on her own once already. Likely to fight Brave. So it's best to nip that in the bud as quickly as possible, before she does something to actually get herself hurt.
Hurt more, at any rate. As I said, I'll do my best to keep everyone, at worst, mollified.
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One of these days, ideally someday very, very soon, I'd just, fly. Go out and explore. Have fun, touch the clouds, and see the world. Just, frolic, up where nobody could find me and nobody could see me. Do this for fun and leisure, rather than transportation or combat. Just, enjoy flying around, and having fun.
It was a shame that I hadn't been able to. I'd always wanted to just, fly. Under no power but my own, with no restrictions other than what I wished. Despite my fear of heights that was, by this point, long since gone, I'd always wanted something like this.
However, it wasn't as if I could just sit back and enjoy the moment, no matter how much I wanted too. This, just like every other time, was not one where I could relax. This was a combat mission. Or, at the very least, we were heading towards one, at any rate. So I couldn't afford to let myself get too distracted right now.
"Are we there yet?" The age-old question. One asked by just about every child on a trip that took longer than twenty minutes. Yes, I may be projecting just a bit, but in the end, the answer was the same as every time the question had ever been asked.
"We'll get there when we get there," I responded calmly but firmly, looking up toward the ground as I did so, before returning my body to a normal position as we flew.
It was the first time I'd really seen the twins transformed, now that I thought about it. While their outfits were identical, Ram's hair was almost neon pink, while Rom's was practically neon blue. Each sported the opposite for their eyes, blue for Ram, and pink for Rom. It was almost like yin and yang, in a way.
"But you said that the last time we asked!" I chuckled at the complaint. Honestly, it had been far from the worst thing I could have said to the two of them on that front. But this wasn't the first time they asked that question, and I highly doubt it would be the last. Not until we managed to arrive.
"Because asking the same question gets the same answer," I smile, even if I could at least understand the twins and their utter lack of patience. Kids. I was enjoying this. I used to be the older sibling, so this felt, natural, in a way. But I could understand why they were getting antsy. We'd been flying for a good long while now, and still had a ways to go. And while flying was certainly better than driving, it could get boring after a while if one couldn't make their own entertainment.
"You know, out of anyone, I wasn't expecting it to be you the one who's doing loop-DI-loops," Uni turned her head, her hair has gone from pitch black to snow-white.
"What? I couldn't fly until a few years ago, and I've been too busy to just cut loose with it," I counter with a slight shrug. I ducked below everyone else, only to slowly rise back up. My eyes were still scanning below us, and checking above as well, just to be on the safe side.
What? I'd watched Avatar, I knew that there could be things flying above you that could be a problem. Unlikely to be one? Yes. But just because something was unlikely to happen, did not inherently mean that Murphy would not punish someone for showing hubris of any stripe.
Because Murphy was an asshole.
"Still, we should be getting close to the Endless Zone now," Nepgear looked down towards the ground, looking for the area Uni suspected Brave was. I was keeping an eye out for it as well, even if I had no idea what it looked like. We were flying decently high up, so things just somewhat blurred together, and I was never great at spitting things, much less with us being so far up.
I lowered slightly, hoping to get a clearer picture, even if it didn't particularly matter much. What were the odds of me seeing anything all that noteworthy up here? Certainly, not that quickly approaching dot.
Wait. Approaching dot? My eyes flicker back to the sight below, narrowing as they did. Immediately, my bow formed in my hand, as I began to pull back an arrow. Only for the blow to smack straight into my body, launching me backward into the air. I managed to stop the spin, fist tightening around my bow as I glared.
This time, I didn't even bother with an arrow, raising my bow backward before swinging it down like a club, intercepting the weapon in a clash of sparks.
"You," Brave ground out, his face full of contempt, a look I gave right back. Though I kept my mouth shut, several thoughts roared in my head. Hypocrite, fool, idiot, and more screamed in my head as I pushed back against the attack. However, Brave may have been many things, but weak was not one of them. Nor was unskilled.
He pushed me back, preparing to press his attack.
"Fireball!"
Only for an orb of orange flames to come barreling down on him from the side. Brave, to his credit, immediately pivoted to face the oncoming threat, weaving around it, leaving it to fly by and eventually petter out. While it was good to have the heat off me, it wasn't like I could shift away completely, and start to open the range.
Right now, that would leave Ram completely exposed. Even if I wasn't as good in a melee fight, I had far better defenses than the twins.
Frankly, that went compared to everyone else in the group. I could take a hit. Leaving a melee fighter in the middle of a range group was always going to be problematic.
So I went in again, shouting as I brought the bow down. Brave blocked, of course, easily parrying the strike. However, before he could take advantage of his parry.
"Ice Spike!"
A lance of ice cleaved through the air, forcing him to block the attack before he could properly punish my own reckless one. I flitted out of his immediate range once again, still hovering close by, making my intentions clear. Looking down at Brave, I smirked slightly, which was enough to get his attention, the man surging forward towards me as I blocked another powerful strike, gritting my teeth from the strain.
Yeah, he was strong all right. And surprisingly quick. He was absolutely angry at me. And unlike Underling, he was not the type to have anger make him sloppy. Which was the worst type of person to fight. Because they could take that anger and make sure you had a very, very bad day.
And Brave was, without a doubt, one of those people. I should have taken a gentler hand from the start. Wrong time, wrong place, and at the end of the day, I couldn't turn back that clock. Just live with the consequences of my actions.
It was Nepgear's appearance that allowed me to open the range properly, her sword swings taking up most of Brave's attention, allowing me to get elevation. It wasn't a sniper's nest by any stretch of the term, but controlling the high ground was just as if not more important now than it was otherwise.
Rom and Ram also opened the range, though they were still a bit closer to Brave than I was comfortable with. Still, from up here, I could screen for them.
I draw back my bowstring, aiming downwards. This fight would be akin to a match of ping pong. Brave did not like me one bit, and it made sense that he would try to isolate and drop me first. Of course, Nepgear was a problem he couldn't ignore. Even if he beat Uni on his own, we outnumbered him. That, even on a good day, could be enough to win a fight by itself.
Especially as we weren't exactly lining up here. Each one of us had our own firing arcs, giving us a clear shot with minimal chance of friendly fire. This was a textbook example of what you wanted to do when you had someone outnumbered. The only question is where Uni was.
Nepgear and Brave reared back for another clash only for.
"Stop!" Only for Uni to appear between the two. To their credit, both immediately did so. Nepgear in surprise and concern, while I couldn't exactly get a bead on the expression on Braves face, she also seemed fairly surprised by Uni's throwing herself between the two of them.
I frowned slightly, though I returned the arrow in my bow to a more neutral position. Out of all the Commanders of the ASIC, Brave was the least of a monster. Trick was Trick and deserved nothing but being consigned to the lowest pit of hell, Judge was an angry brute that took a beating, while Magik? I had next to nothing on her, other than the fact she was the strongest of the lot.
The thing was, nobody had really seen her either, something that I was both very grateful for and also concerned me greatly. What? When your opponent's biggest gun is running around doing other things, that's usually not a good sign. She was doing God knows what, who knows where. And the fact that she never sat right with me, especially as I lacked any real means to even attempt to contest whatever she was doing.
But Brave? I did speak with the man. I understood, at least, that he was honest about his desire to protect children. But he was going about it in the stupidest way possible. The ASIC was not the organization it claimed to be. In Leanbox, I outright dragged that fact into the light, kicking and screaming. While I could sympathize with why someone who chose to commit piracy in limited circumstances back home, in Gameindustri, piracy had much more real, and concerning, power.
Which I should have seen coming the moment Shares were mentioned for the first time. Piracy was its own force in the world, with its own power, with the ASIC being able to collect Shares of its own. And if Shares were the power of a Goddess, well, then it wasn't much of a guess for what exactly the ASIC was doing with their own shares.
That particular revelation did not leave me in a good mood. Of course, it would go into feeding some Goddess. It's just that said Goddess quite literally was the end of the world.
So when someone say they want to help the children, while serving something would kill all the children that they were trying to help? Recipe for quickly losing my temper. And that wasn't accounting for the fact that "for the children" was already a term I associated with hypocrites of the highest order.
Despite that, I was more than willing to give Uni a shot at resolving this, well, peacefully.
I just doubted that she could.
"Brave, please, stop! You know that supporting the ASIC is wrong!" Uni said, both shouting and pleading in equal measure. There were tears in her eyes, or close enough to it. Brave's face, granted, seemed to soften for the slightest, tiniest of moments. Then his face hardened again.
"And do you think the world as it is now is safe? That children can be free to play whatever games they want?" He snapped back. I wasn't sure which could be heard more. My rising blood pressure or the grinding of my teeth. He was still seriously on that stuff? He believed that calling forth an actual apocalypse, the end of the world would give him what he wanted. Still? The ASIC was nothing more than a damned cult!
He was mad. Simply mad. There was nothing that would be saving children as any part of a result with him.
"The ASIC isn't going to help any children, Brave," Uni's response was factually correct.
But it was one that Brave was never going to accept.
He glared up at me as if I was the one responsible for people being able to see the obvious. That the ASIC would do children far more harm than it ever would good. I understood why. Games, especially a lot of the ones children liked, were games that weren't exactly cheap. And for most of the population, money was a finite thing.
But piracy wasn't going to be the solution to that. Not even by a long shot.
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
"Can't you just use that thing you use on Judge?"
"With you four in the splash zone? Not a chance in hell! Besides, we need to see if we can beat this guy without any tricks. Consider him a warm-up for when we face Judge, because I'm not popping that thing with our sister's nearby, either."
"Why are you the most reasonable person that I hate?"
"Oh, put a sock in it!"
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
Yeah, it was becoming apparent that Brave, for all his skill, was not expecting to take five Candidates at once in a fight. Once Uni began to join in? It wasn't going to go well.
Rom and Ram peppered Brave with spells, fire, and ice, lashing out against him. Nor could he pursue one or the other for long. Nepgear was quick to capitalize on any distractions, while Uni and I were also attacking at range. It was a withering crossfire.
And I wasn't exactly wrong about it being good practice. HDD gave us so much additional mobility, it was kinda of crazy. We would have never been able to do anything like this with two feet on the ground. Mobility was an advantage in a fight, and I fully intended to abuse it to the best of my abilities.
Of course, Brave and Judge were completely different fighters, no matter how one tried to cut it. Judge may not give a damn about us trying to redirect attention away from one another. Then again, Judge was typically angry enough for a strategy like that to work.
"I will admit, you're stronger than I expected," Brave finally spoke, panting heavily. "Even without Trick's failure, it would have been my loss."
Despite his seeming exhaustion, he didn't exactly seem all too worried. I scowled, readying another arrow. Then, the blade in Brave's hand almost seemed to blur, wind screaming in a sudden cyclone. Nepgear was spent flying backward, spinning head over heels, while I immediately backed off, trying to spot Brave.
But by the time the storm died down, Brave was gone. I tried to see if I could spot anything moving around, but I couldn't find a damn thing.
"Is he gone?" Rom asked, floating up closer to me. I turned around, scanning the skies behind us. But they were empty and blue, save for a few small clouds some distance away.
Brave was gone.
I digress, however. Let's get this show on the road!
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
"Nepgear? You awake yet?" IF entered the floor where all the Candidates should have been sleeping. However, the sound of silence was the only thing that met her ears. Not the most alarming thing in the world, yet something felt off. Something felt, if not wrong, then to the very least, not right.
Slowly, IF made her way to the room she knew Nepgear was staying and threw the door open. Only to find nothing. The bed was neatly made, impeccable, with no sign of a struggle. Uni's was much the same, neat and tidy.
The twins revealed nothing, their beds were a mess, however, sheets strewn about every which way without a care in the world. As if the two had left in a hurry.
As for Hinum, it was much the same, blankets bundled up at the end of the bed, not even the slightest bit of effort put into making it back nice and proper, as if she had kicked off the sheets during the night and couldn't be bothered.
Two beds neatly made, as if they had expected to leave. Three beds looked as if their occupants had left in a complete hurry, as if they had much more important things to worry about than being tidy.
IF frowned. There was no way that was not going to be a good thing. Not even close. Her first though was that Uni talked Nepgear into doing something stupid, and Hinum, Rom, and Ram later noticed and went after them. Without, for whatever reason, deciding to inform the rest of them about what was going on.
Though with Hinum and the twins being able to fly, they certainly would be able to cover more ground on that front than any of the rest of them could. But still, it would be nice to be informed if something had gone wrong.
IF enters the kitchen on the floor, before noticing something. Several somethings. First was the pile of dishes in the sink. Enough for around five people, give or take. The second was a note, sitting on the table.
She picked it up, her eyes moving across the page as she went before her face became a scowl.
She was going to kill her.
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
To whom it may concern,
Which is probably IF. Sorry that we didn't decide to grab the rest of you guys for this, but I think this is something better handled on our own at the moment. Well, for Uni, anyway. We're going out Brave hunting. Yes, it's dangerous, but there are also five of us, so we should be fine.
We should be able to handle it. Uni didn't want to leave anything, because she's like that, but I figured it would be for the best to at least inform you of what we're doing at any point in time, especially on a matter like this.
I will do everything in my power to make sure that everything goes well and to make sure that every, if not satisfied, is at least mollified at the end of the day. Hopefully, we will have this wrapped up in time to be back for lunch.
From,
Hinum
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
She was absolutely going to kill her. Out of all the knuckle-brained, pear-headed schemes, she'd decided to go out again, despite the state they found Uni in last time.
Instead of being the voice of reason, Hinum decided it was best to join them in what amounted to hunting down Brave and punching him in the face. There was no other way one could look at this. Again, they could fly, unlike the rest of them, but going off on their own was still completely reckless.
But, of course, Hinum went along with it anyway. Sometimes, IF swore, the girl was nowhere near as clever or smart as she thought she was some days, and this was turning out to be very much one of them. Going off with them like that without waking anyone else up?
Then again, Nepgear should have been the voice of reason even if Hinum wasn't, and frankly, IF was very much not convinced Hinum was ever really that, despite her efforts to at least come across as such.
So the fact the two of them went along with it wasn't great. It was outright concerning. IF looked down at the letter again before she was about to crumple it in her hand.
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
PS: The only reason I or anyone else even considered this is because Uni tried to sneak out under the cover of darkness on her own once already. Likely to fight Brave. So it's best to nip that in the bud as quickly as possible, before she does something to actually get herself hurt.
Hurt more, at any rate. As I said, I'll do my best to keep everyone, at worst, mollified.
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
One of these days, ideally someday very, very soon, I'd just, fly. Go out and explore. Have fun, touch the clouds, and see the world. Just, frolic, up where nobody could find me and nobody could see me. Do this for fun and leisure, rather than transportation or combat. Just, enjoy flying around, and having fun.
It was a shame that I hadn't been able to. I'd always wanted to just, fly. Under no power but my own, with no restrictions other than what I wished. Despite my fear of heights that was, by this point, long since gone, I'd always wanted something like this.
However, it wasn't as if I could just sit back and enjoy the moment, no matter how much I wanted too. This, just like every other time, was not one where I could relax. This was a combat mission. Or, at the very least, we were heading towards one, at any rate. So I couldn't afford to let myself get too distracted right now.
"Are we there yet?" The age-old question. One asked by just about every child on a trip that took longer than twenty minutes. Yes, I may be projecting just a bit, but in the end, the answer was the same as every time the question had ever been asked.
"We'll get there when we get there," I responded calmly but firmly, looking up toward the ground as I did so, before returning my body to a normal position as we flew.
It was the first time I'd really seen the twins transformed, now that I thought about it. While their outfits were identical, Ram's hair was almost neon pink, while Rom's was practically neon blue. Each sported the opposite for their eyes, blue for Ram, and pink for Rom. It was almost like yin and yang, in a way.
"But you said that the last time we asked!" I chuckled at the complaint. Honestly, it had been far from the worst thing I could have said to the two of them on that front. But this wasn't the first time they asked that question, and I highly doubt it would be the last. Not until we managed to arrive.
"Because asking the same question gets the same answer," I smile, even if I could at least understand the twins and their utter lack of patience. Kids. I was enjoying this. I used to be the older sibling, so this felt, natural, in a way. But I could understand why they were getting antsy. We'd been flying for a good long while now, and still had a ways to go. And while flying was certainly better than driving, it could get boring after a while if one couldn't make their own entertainment.
"You know, out of anyone, I wasn't expecting it to be you the one who's doing loop-DI-loops," Uni turned her head, her hair has gone from pitch black to snow-white.
"What? I couldn't fly until a few years ago, and I've been too busy to just cut loose with it," I counter with a slight shrug. I ducked below everyone else, only to slowly rise back up. My eyes were still scanning below us, and checking above as well, just to be on the safe side.
What? I'd watched Avatar, I knew that there could be things flying above you that could be a problem. Unlikely to be one? Yes. But just because something was unlikely to happen, did not inherently mean that Murphy would not punish someone for showing hubris of any stripe.
Because Murphy was an asshole.
"Still, we should be getting close to the Endless Zone now," Nepgear looked down towards the ground, looking for the area Uni suspected Brave was. I was keeping an eye out for it as well, even if I had no idea what it looked like. We were flying decently high up, so things just somewhat blurred together, and I was never great at spitting things, much less with us being so far up.
I lowered slightly, hoping to get a clearer picture, even if it didn't particularly matter much. What were the odds of me seeing anything all that noteworthy up here? Certainly, not that quickly approaching dot.
Wait. Approaching dot? My eyes flicker back to the sight below, narrowing as they did. Immediately, my bow formed in my hand, as I began to pull back an arrow. Only for the blow to smack straight into my body, launching me backward into the air. I managed to stop the spin, fist tightening around my bow as I glared.
This time, I didn't even bother with an arrow, raising my bow backward before swinging it down like a club, intercepting the weapon in a clash of sparks.
"You," Brave ground out, his face full of contempt, a look I gave right back. Though I kept my mouth shut, several thoughts roared in my head. Hypocrite, fool, idiot, and more screamed in my head as I pushed back against the attack. However, Brave may have been many things, but weak was not one of them. Nor was unskilled.
He pushed me back, preparing to press his attack.
"Fireball!"
Only for an orb of orange flames to come barreling down on him from the side. Brave, to his credit, immediately pivoted to face the oncoming threat, weaving around it, leaving it to fly by and eventually petter out. While it was good to have the heat off me, it wasn't like I could shift away completely, and start to open the range.
Right now, that would leave Ram completely exposed. Even if I wasn't as good in a melee fight, I had far better defenses than the twins.
Frankly, that went compared to everyone else in the group. I could take a hit. Leaving a melee fighter in the middle of a range group was always going to be problematic.
So I went in again, shouting as I brought the bow down. Brave blocked, of course, easily parrying the strike. However, before he could take advantage of his parry.
"Ice Spike!"
A lance of ice cleaved through the air, forcing him to block the attack before he could properly punish my own reckless one. I flitted out of his immediate range once again, still hovering close by, making my intentions clear. Looking down at Brave, I smirked slightly, which was enough to get his attention, the man surging forward towards me as I blocked another powerful strike, gritting my teeth from the strain.
Yeah, he was strong all right. And surprisingly quick. He was absolutely angry at me. And unlike Underling, he was not the type to have anger make him sloppy. Which was the worst type of person to fight. Because they could take that anger and make sure you had a very, very bad day.
And Brave was, without a doubt, one of those people. I should have taken a gentler hand from the start. Wrong time, wrong place, and at the end of the day, I couldn't turn back that clock. Just live with the consequences of my actions.
It was Nepgear's appearance that allowed me to open the range properly, her sword swings taking up most of Brave's attention, allowing me to get elevation. It wasn't a sniper's nest by any stretch of the term, but controlling the high ground was just as if not more important now than it was otherwise.
Rom and Ram also opened the range, though they were still a bit closer to Brave than I was comfortable with. Still, from up here, I could screen for them.
I draw back my bowstring, aiming downwards. This fight would be akin to a match of ping pong. Brave did not like me one bit, and it made sense that he would try to isolate and drop me first. Of course, Nepgear was a problem he couldn't ignore. Even if he beat Uni on his own, we outnumbered him. That, even on a good day, could be enough to win a fight by itself.
Especially as we weren't exactly lining up here. Each one of us had our own firing arcs, giving us a clear shot with minimal chance of friendly fire. This was a textbook example of what you wanted to do when you had someone outnumbered. The only question is where Uni was.
Nepgear and Brave reared back for another clash only for.
"Stop!" Only for Uni to appear between the two. To their credit, both immediately did so. Nepgear in surprise and concern, while I couldn't exactly get a bead on the expression on Braves face, she also seemed fairly surprised by Uni's throwing herself between the two of them.
I frowned slightly, though I returned the arrow in my bow to a more neutral position. Out of all the Commanders of the ASIC, Brave was the least of a monster. Trick was Trick and deserved nothing but being consigned to the lowest pit of hell, Judge was an angry brute that took a beating, while Magik? I had next to nothing on her, other than the fact she was the strongest of the lot.
The thing was, nobody had really seen her either, something that I was both very grateful for and also concerned me greatly. What? When your opponent's biggest gun is running around doing other things, that's usually not a good sign. She was doing God knows what, who knows where. And the fact that she never sat right with me, especially as I lacked any real means to even attempt to contest whatever she was doing.
But Brave? I did speak with the man. I understood, at least, that he was honest about his desire to protect children. But he was going about it in the stupidest way possible. The ASIC was not the organization it claimed to be. In Leanbox, I outright dragged that fact into the light, kicking and screaming. While I could sympathize with why someone who chose to commit piracy in limited circumstances back home, in Gameindustri, piracy had much more real, and concerning, power.
Which I should have seen coming the moment Shares were mentioned for the first time. Piracy was its own force in the world, with its own power, with the ASIC being able to collect Shares of its own. And if Shares were the power of a Goddess, well, then it wasn't much of a guess for what exactly the ASIC was doing with their own shares.
That particular revelation did not leave me in a good mood. Of course, it would go into feeding some Goddess. It's just that said Goddess quite literally was the end of the world.
So when someone say they want to help the children, while serving something would kill all the children that they were trying to help? Recipe for quickly losing my temper. And that wasn't accounting for the fact that "for the children" was already a term I associated with hypocrites of the highest order.
Despite that, I was more than willing to give Uni a shot at resolving this, well, peacefully.
I just doubted that she could.
"Brave, please, stop! You know that supporting the ASIC is wrong!" Uni said, both shouting and pleading in equal measure. There were tears in her eyes, or close enough to it. Brave's face, granted, seemed to soften for the slightest, tiniest of moments. Then his face hardened again.
"And do you think the world as it is now is safe? That children can be free to play whatever games they want?" He snapped back. I wasn't sure which could be heard more. My rising blood pressure or the grinding of my teeth. He was still seriously on that stuff? He believed that calling forth an actual apocalypse, the end of the world would give him what he wanted. Still? The ASIC was nothing more than a damned cult!
He was mad. Simply mad. There was nothing that would be saving children as any part of a result with him.
"The ASIC isn't going to help any children, Brave," Uni's response was factually correct.
But it was one that Brave was never going to accept.
He glared up at me as if I was the one responsible for people being able to see the obvious. That the ASIC would do children far more harm than it ever would good. I understood why. Games, especially a lot of the ones children liked, were games that weren't exactly cheap. And for most of the population, money was a finite thing.
But piracy wasn't going to be the solution to that. Not even by a long shot.
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
"Can't you just use that thing you use on Judge?"
"With you four in the splash zone? Not a chance in hell! Besides, we need to see if we can beat this guy without any tricks. Consider him a warm-up for when we face Judge, because I'm not popping that thing with our sister's nearby, either."
"Why are you the most reasonable person that I hate?"
"Oh, put a sock in it!"
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
Yeah, it was becoming apparent that Brave, for all his skill, was not expecting to take five Candidates at once in a fight. Once Uni began to join in? It wasn't going to go well.
Rom and Ram peppered Brave with spells, fire, and ice, lashing out against him. Nor could he pursue one or the other for long. Nepgear was quick to capitalize on any distractions, while Uni and I were also attacking at range. It was a withering crossfire.
And I wasn't exactly wrong about it being good practice. HDD gave us so much additional mobility, it was kinda of crazy. We would have never been able to do anything like this with two feet on the ground. Mobility was an advantage in a fight, and I fully intended to abuse it to the best of my abilities.
Of course, Brave and Judge were completely different fighters, no matter how one tried to cut it. Judge may not give a damn about us trying to redirect attention away from one another. Then again, Judge was typically angry enough for a strategy like that to work.
"I will admit, you're stronger than I expected," Brave finally spoke, panting heavily. "Even without Trick's failure, it would have been my loss."
Despite his seeming exhaustion, he didn't exactly seem all too worried. I scowled, readying another arrow. Then, the blade in Brave's hand almost seemed to blur, wind screaming in a sudden cyclone. Nepgear was spent flying backward, spinning head over heels, while I immediately backed off, trying to spot Brave.
But by the time the storm died down, Brave was gone. I tried to see if I could spot anything moving around, but I couldn't find a damn thing.
"Is he gone?" Rom asked, floating up closer to me. I turned around, scanning the skies behind us. But they were empty and blue, save for a few small clouds some distance away.
Brave was gone.
- Location
- Quebec
Spare me from deluded fools that understand not the hypocrisy of their actions.
Gummy_Dragon
This too shall pass
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Brave has learned the Joestar family technique!
"If the current world won't allow children to have vidya gaem, destroy the world and start over. That surely counts as protecting kids." - CFW Brave, probably.
Chapter 24
"So, this is what hell looks like."
"One of these days, I'm going to be able to understand your sense of humor."
"I wasn't joking."
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
The good news was that the ASIC facility was ripe for the picking with Brave gone. It didn't take us long to deal with the place, leaving it unable to aid the ASIC and its efforts. It's a good thing, both short and long-term, given the size of the place. I hesitated to think of just how many resources that thing consumed as part of the ASIC's efforts, and how much material it provided for them.
Sadly, Lastation was likely dotted with the things. Even if not of a similar scale, the nation had issues with corruption, one of the many things I tried to come down on as hard as I could get away with. Corruption was a blight, a taint, and it was one that the ASIC used to spread its influence.
With the rich choosing to help such projects? I didn't like having to work with people who were so willing to sacrifice their long-term well-being to make a few quick bucks, but I'd at least gotten most of those in Leanbox on my side. Carrots and sticks were effective. Especially when I made it abundantly clear what the ASIC actually wanted. There were few bigger sticks than that group of crazies wants to end the world.
Did it feel great to use? Not really. Did it get the job done? Not as effectively as one might hope, but I kinda expected that. Back where I was originally born, being willing to destroy a lot of things for short-term gains was an incredibly common practice. I was used to at least the feeling of disappointment.
But the fly-back was where the real hard part began. Sorry, did I say begin? That wasn't right. The storm for that had been brewing almost since the fight had ended.
"What is a cult?" It was Rom who asked the question. I let out a sigh, halfway through a loop, righting myself. I wasn't going to explain something like that while goofing off while flying. Everyone had seen me do it as is, but I wasn't going to make things worse by trying to explain a topic as heavy-handed as cults while flying around like an utter maniac.
"Cults," I start, pausing, trying to best figure out how to put things. "What you have to understand is back where I was originally from, religion works, a lot differently than it does here."
That by itself was the understatement of the century. Faith here was tangible. What you prayed to in Gamindustri was real. An active force in the world. Something that one could interact with. Something that, at least, on the level of a pure number, was aware of that faith because that faith was their fuel source. Goddesses were real and could do real work. Back on Earth? Such things were hotly contested. Which faith had it right, and which interpretation had it right? Who at the end of the day, was correct? There wasn't an answer, just a bunch of people screaming at one another that they were right, and the others were wrong. Yeah, sure, there were far more willing to at least try to coexist to some extent. But the loudest voices had the largest shits or something like that.
"If there is anything like us back home, and that is very much an if, they don't make their presence known," I let out a sigh. "You have a lot of different people, often in the same nation, believing different things, or even slightly different variations of the same thing. A lot of people have answers, or at least, pretend they do. And that's just for organized religion. Cults?"
I wasn't going to lie, I had my beef on the matter.
"They tell people they have all the answers, the ability to solve all their problems, and their leaders? Have the charisma to make people believe that they really can solve those problems, that they are the solution. And these sorts of things? They're toxic. They want to spread, but they also want their followers to isolate themselves from their friends and family. To replace that family with a toxic, parasocial connection," I breathed. "The least offensive of these just grift, to fleace their followers for what they're worth. Making money from their little group of followers."
"And the worst?"
"Monsters. They completely isolate their victims from their families, and turn them against the people who want to help them get better. They build up a fanatical devotion to the point that if the leader ordered them to do so, they would commit any crime. No matter how heinous, terrible, or monstrous. They would even be willing to take their own lives, long or short term," I paused for a moment. "They manipulate, control, deceive, and kill, and will continue to double down no matter how many times you point out to them that their leaders only see them as tools to use."
"And where exactly are you going with this?" Uni snapped with a huff, crossing her arms.
"I'm saying this is something that should be very familiar to everyone listening right now," I said bluntly.
"You're saying the ASIC is a cult. Or, at least, you view it like a cult from your old home?" Leave it to Nepgear to piece things together. Then again, Uni was not pleased about things, and Rom and Ram were children.
"It's closer to a crime organization that also is a cult," I shrugged. "But the difference is academical at best, and not particularly relevant."
I certainly never treated them as much differently. Both could be stopped the same way, an ounce of prevention being worth a pound of cure. Cutting off the need to engage in criminal activities and preventing a cult from preying on desperate people? Those two things went hand in hand, after all. Desperate times made people turn to crime to make ends meet, and the ASIC offered a solution to that desperation. I would almost be impressed by the levels they were willing to go to and just how far ahead they had planned. They really were planning on being the poison while selling the "solution" to the poison. Another thing I wasn't unused to thanks to Earth. So many people that hat trick it was almost refreshing to see it again. At least not as many people have their heads far enough up their asses that they would completely bury their heads in the sand.
Any credit I could give them only went so far, as they were also trying to end the world as a mission statement. Most of the lower-ranking members didn't, and outside of the most misanthropic, most wouldn't approve, either. Of course, that was something kept under wraps. Even some of the higher-ups didn't know. It even went far up as Brave, though I suspected at least a few below him on the totem pole would have known.
Judge and Trick likely knew, but I highly doubted either of them particularly cared. Judge liked fighting far too much to give even the slightest of shits about what happened after he won, and Trick was a sick monster that would just be happy to continue his behavior without being touched until the world came to an end. Sick piece of crap that he was. And Magic?
Again, had next to jack shit on her, but that was only a sign that she was likely more than willing to go through with it her violation. The end of the world. Full stop. Brave was the only member of the higher-ups not aware of what was going on behind the curtain. I would find it sad if it weren't for the fact of his willingness not to see what he had gotten involved with ending the world.
"And that has what to do with Brave, exactly?" Uni was still not getting it.
"The hardest part of getting someone out of a cult is just that. Getting them out of a cult. A cult is going to isolate someone from their emotional support network, cut them off from their friends and family, to make sure the only 'friends' and 'family' you have are part of the cult, completely and utterly," I pause. "Can you imagine, how difficult it is to pull someone out of that? To have them refuse to listen to what their ears and eyes tell them because they were simply told to ignore it? Or worse, told how to think their way through things so they don't have to come to that realization? That they're being lied to and manipulated. How do you keep doing your best to try and help them, but they keep choosing to double down, refusing to see what lies in front of their face? All because if they do so, the worldview they've built up for and around themselves starts to crumble away. Because if they were wrong about this person or group or people, then everything they've done is for nothing. The emotional stress, the self-inflicted losses, everything you've worked for is worth less than nothing. That is the position that Brave is in. If he admits he is wrong about the ASIC, even for the slightest moment, that means he's wrong. He's been wrong for who knows how long. How many people do you think there are that are willing to admit, even for the slightest of moments, that their entire worldview, and the actions they have taken, have all been built on a foundation of lies? The answer is, the overwhelming majority of people. Most people don't want to ask themselves that question. Most don't even consider it, even for the slightest of moments. That's where Brave is right now."
I let the silence hang in the air. I wasn't even going to touch on how disingenuous 'for the children' tended to be most of the time. Brave, at the very least, seemed to have his heart in the right place, but his mind and the organization he chose to serve? Yeah, no. I hoped that he would come to his senses at some point, but that wasn't going to be happening anytime soon.
"So, you're just going to give up?" Uni glared at me.
"No. I just realize that if Brave wants to unplug his head from his ass," Rom snickered at my words, but I moved on anyway. "It will be because he has chosen to do so of his own volition. None of us are going to be able to change his mind. None of us can do it for him. If he is going to do better, then it will be because he has chosen to do so. No more, no less."
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Of course, just because we had arrived back at Lastation's Basilicom, didn't mean that was the end of it. Far from it. Well, it was the end of the fairly heavy topic of discussion on cults and an example of why Earth could sometimes go bite an ass, but that wasn't the biggest deal in the world anymore.
What was a much more pressing matter was the fact that IF was not exactly happy. She had her reasons, don't get me wrong. But flying was the fastest route there, and well? Trying to carry everyone in the party was simply an impossible task. Well, not exactly, but it was problematic enough that I didn't want to try it. If we had been attacked by Brave in transit, things would have gone a whole lot worse.
And frankly, speed getting there was always going to be a factor. I had no clue how long Brave would be there for. While Uni was largely reckless, getting there as soon as possible was the smarter play long term. We drove him off.
With Trick hiding who knows where, and Brave likely to be licking his wounds, that left Judge and Magic as the only two high-ranking members of the ASIC active. And given how Magic didn't seem to exist most of the time, it was really just down to Judge.
And we could take that. Not easily. Without me being able to drop my hardest-hitting attacks onto him, it was never going to be easy. But again, it was going to be a five-on-one, at minimum. That was an uphill battle, even for a brute like Judge. He certainly could take a beating, but we had numbers on our side.
Still, the prospect made my heart thunder against my rib cage. Nerves ate away at the back of my neck, sending shutters down it. It wasn't because of the fight, either. Or even the Graveyard, for that matter. Yeah, the Graveyard was going to be a problem, but it wasn't what made me nervous. We were on the edge. Everyone was so close to getting their older sisters back. I was so close to getting Vert back.
I wasn't looking forward to that conversation. Yes, we had been on the mend, before Vert was captured by Magic and locked away in the Graveyard. But that was three years ago. Three years was a long time. A considerable amount of time. What would she think about things? How long it took for us to finally get around to rescuing her? And more importantly, would she approve?
Would she approve of the changes I made to help fight the ASIC? Would she approve of the policies I came up with and implemented? Would she approve of how I chose to fight the ASIC to keep Leanbox safe?
I didn't know the answer to that question. I really didn't. Chika would know, but at the same time, I was equally scared to ask. Chika knew Vert better than anyone else. Quite possibly, too well, one may argue. But I didn't want to ask her because learning it from Chika may have just been worse than hearing it from Vert's own mouth. Sure, I could trust Chika to tell me the truth, but the fact she might have been willing to go along with stuff that she knew Vert wouldn't approve of?
May just be enough to break my heart.
I would rather hear Vert's disapproval from her own mouth, rather than anyone else. I hoped she wouldn't. I knew some of my measures could be somewhat heavy-handed, but with the ASIC being what it was, a damn cult, trying to do right by the people was the only solution I had. When we are powered by faith, my mind could have no other options. No other path. Trying to keep people happy and earn their loyalty, while being harsh to those who decided to abuse that good faith for their own purposes.
If she disapproved, I wanted her to let me know. To tell me so. I hoped it wasn't the case, but the amount of changes I'd had to make. It probably felt to an extent a different country now. At least behind the scenes. That was going to be a pain to even partially revert, but much of what I had done had been made necessary by the ASIC and the ASIC alone. With them gone, reverting them would be necessary. A pain, but a needed one.
But that was my own thoughts. I couldn't imagine that anyone else also had their doubts. Little insidious whispers tickled at the back of their minds. The torments of every mistake and screwup that was made over the last three years. Which were no doubt numerous for every party, including myself. Things we could have done better. Steps we could and should have taken.
Not helped by IF being generally annoyed at us. I understood why she was annoyed, but Brave couldn't match all five of us, and easily could have been gone if we didn't arrive quick enough. I'd rather have him off the board for the time being, especially if we were going to make a move on the Graveyard soon. I would have suggested going after him anyway, even without the excuse of his conflict with Uni.
Then came a flicker, which broke me out of my thoughts, as a hologram of Histoire appeared in the air. At that point, I didn't need to hear anything else.
It was time.
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Yeah, one last Chapter before we finally get to the moment Hinum has spent the past three years looking forward to and dreading.
"One of these days, I'm going to be able to understand your sense of humor."
"I wasn't joking."
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The good news was that the ASIC facility was ripe for the picking with Brave gone. It didn't take us long to deal with the place, leaving it unable to aid the ASIC and its efforts. It's a good thing, both short and long-term, given the size of the place. I hesitated to think of just how many resources that thing consumed as part of the ASIC's efforts, and how much material it provided for them.
Sadly, Lastation was likely dotted with the things. Even if not of a similar scale, the nation had issues with corruption, one of the many things I tried to come down on as hard as I could get away with. Corruption was a blight, a taint, and it was one that the ASIC used to spread its influence.
With the rich choosing to help such projects? I didn't like having to work with people who were so willing to sacrifice their long-term well-being to make a few quick bucks, but I'd at least gotten most of those in Leanbox on my side. Carrots and sticks were effective. Especially when I made it abundantly clear what the ASIC actually wanted. There were few bigger sticks than that group of crazies wants to end the world.
Did it feel great to use? Not really. Did it get the job done? Not as effectively as one might hope, but I kinda expected that. Back where I was originally born, being willing to destroy a lot of things for short-term gains was an incredibly common practice. I was used to at least the feeling of disappointment.
But the fly-back was where the real hard part began. Sorry, did I say begin? That wasn't right. The storm for that had been brewing almost since the fight had ended.
"What is a cult?" It was Rom who asked the question. I let out a sigh, halfway through a loop, righting myself. I wasn't going to explain something like that while goofing off while flying. Everyone had seen me do it as is, but I wasn't going to make things worse by trying to explain a topic as heavy-handed as cults while flying around like an utter maniac.
"Cults," I start, pausing, trying to best figure out how to put things. "What you have to understand is back where I was originally from, religion works, a lot differently than it does here."
That by itself was the understatement of the century. Faith here was tangible. What you prayed to in Gamindustri was real. An active force in the world. Something that one could interact with. Something that, at least, on the level of a pure number, was aware of that faith because that faith was their fuel source. Goddesses were real and could do real work. Back on Earth? Such things were hotly contested. Which faith had it right, and which interpretation had it right? Who at the end of the day, was correct? There wasn't an answer, just a bunch of people screaming at one another that they were right, and the others were wrong. Yeah, sure, there were far more willing to at least try to coexist to some extent. But the loudest voices had the largest shits or something like that.
"If there is anything like us back home, and that is very much an if, they don't make their presence known," I let out a sigh. "You have a lot of different people, often in the same nation, believing different things, or even slightly different variations of the same thing. A lot of people have answers, or at least, pretend they do. And that's just for organized religion. Cults?"
I wasn't going to lie, I had my beef on the matter.
"They tell people they have all the answers, the ability to solve all their problems, and their leaders? Have the charisma to make people believe that they really can solve those problems, that they are the solution. And these sorts of things? They're toxic. They want to spread, but they also want their followers to isolate themselves from their friends and family. To replace that family with a toxic, parasocial connection," I breathed. "The least offensive of these just grift, to fleace their followers for what they're worth. Making money from their little group of followers."
"And the worst?"
"Monsters. They completely isolate their victims from their families, and turn them against the people who want to help them get better. They build up a fanatical devotion to the point that if the leader ordered them to do so, they would commit any crime. No matter how heinous, terrible, or monstrous. They would even be willing to take their own lives, long or short term," I paused for a moment. "They manipulate, control, deceive, and kill, and will continue to double down no matter how many times you point out to them that their leaders only see them as tools to use."
"And where exactly are you going with this?" Uni snapped with a huff, crossing her arms.
"I'm saying this is something that should be very familiar to everyone listening right now," I said bluntly.
"You're saying the ASIC is a cult. Or, at least, you view it like a cult from your old home?" Leave it to Nepgear to piece things together. Then again, Uni was not pleased about things, and Rom and Ram were children.
"It's closer to a crime organization that also is a cult," I shrugged. "But the difference is academical at best, and not particularly relevant."
I certainly never treated them as much differently. Both could be stopped the same way, an ounce of prevention being worth a pound of cure. Cutting off the need to engage in criminal activities and preventing a cult from preying on desperate people? Those two things went hand in hand, after all. Desperate times made people turn to crime to make ends meet, and the ASIC offered a solution to that desperation. I would almost be impressed by the levels they were willing to go to and just how far ahead they had planned. They really were planning on being the poison while selling the "solution" to the poison. Another thing I wasn't unused to thanks to Earth. So many people that hat trick it was almost refreshing to see it again. At least not as many people have their heads far enough up their asses that they would completely bury their heads in the sand.
Any credit I could give them only went so far, as they were also trying to end the world as a mission statement. Most of the lower-ranking members didn't, and outside of the most misanthropic, most wouldn't approve, either. Of course, that was something kept under wraps. Even some of the higher-ups didn't know. It even went far up as Brave, though I suspected at least a few below him on the totem pole would have known.
Judge and Trick likely knew, but I highly doubted either of them particularly cared. Judge liked fighting far too much to give even the slightest of shits about what happened after he won, and Trick was a sick monster that would just be happy to continue his behavior without being touched until the world came to an end. Sick piece of crap that he was. And Magic?
Again, had next to jack shit on her, but that was only a sign that she was likely more than willing to go through with it her violation. The end of the world. Full stop. Brave was the only member of the higher-ups not aware of what was going on behind the curtain. I would find it sad if it weren't for the fact of his willingness not to see what he had gotten involved with ending the world.
"And that has what to do with Brave, exactly?" Uni was still not getting it.
"The hardest part of getting someone out of a cult is just that. Getting them out of a cult. A cult is going to isolate someone from their emotional support network, cut them off from their friends and family, to make sure the only 'friends' and 'family' you have are part of the cult, completely and utterly," I pause. "Can you imagine, how difficult it is to pull someone out of that? To have them refuse to listen to what their ears and eyes tell them because they were simply told to ignore it? Or worse, told how to think their way through things so they don't have to come to that realization? That they're being lied to and manipulated. How do you keep doing your best to try and help them, but they keep choosing to double down, refusing to see what lies in front of their face? All because if they do so, the worldview they've built up for and around themselves starts to crumble away. Because if they were wrong about this person or group or people, then everything they've done is for nothing. The emotional stress, the self-inflicted losses, everything you've worked for is worth less than nothing. That is the position that Brave is in. If he admits he is wrong about the ASIC, even for the slightest moment, that means he's wrong. He's been wrong for who knows how long. How many people do you think there are that are willing to admit, even for the slightest of moments, that their entire worldview, and the actions they have taken, have all been built on a foundation of lies? The answer is, the overwhelming majority of people. Most people don't want to ask themselves that question. Most don't even consider it, even for the slightest of moments. That's where Brave is right now."
I let the silence hang in the air. I wasn't even going to touch on how disingenuous 'for the children' tended to be most of the time. Brave, at the very least, seemed to have his heart in the right place, but his mind and the organization he chose to serve? Yeah, no. I hoped that he would come to his senses at some point, but that wasn't going to be happening anytime soon.
"So, you're just going to give up?" Uni glared at me.
"No. I just realize that if Brave wants to unplug his head from his ass," Rom snickered at my words, but I moved on anyway. "It will be because he has chosen to do so of his own volition. None of us are going to be able to change his mind. None of us can do it for him. If he is going to do better, then it will be because he has chosen to do so. No more, no less."
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
Of course, just because we had arrived back at Lastation's Basilicom, didn't mean that was the end of it. Far from it. Well, it was the end of the fairly heavy topic of discussion on cults and an example of why Earth could sometimes go bite an ass, but that wasn't the biggest deal in the world anymore.
What was a much more pressing matter was the fact that IF was not exactly happy. She had her reasons, don't get me wrong. But flying was the fastest route there, and well? Trying to carry everyone in the party was simply an impossible task. Well, not exactly, but it was problematic enough that I didn't want to try it. If we had been attacked by Brave in transit, things would have gone a whole lot worse.
And frankly, speed getting there was always going to be a factor. I had no clue how long Brave would be there for. While Uni was largely reckless, getting there as soon as possible was the smarter play long term. We drove him off.
With Trick hiding who knows where, and Brave likely to be licking his wounds, that left Judge and Magic as the only two high-ranking members of the ASIC active. And given how Magic didn't seem to exist most of the time, it was really just down to Judge.
And we could take that. Not easily. Without me being able to drop my hardest-hitting attacks onto him, it was never going to be easy. But again, it was going to be a five-on-one, at minimum. That was an uphill battle, even for a brute like Judge. He certainly could take a beating, but we had numbers on our side.
Still, the prospect made my heart thunder against my rib cage. Nerves ate away at the back of my neck, sending shutters down it. It wasn't because of the fight, either. Or even the Graveyard, for that matter. Yeah, the Graveyard was going to be a problem, but it wasn't what made me nervous. We were on the edge. Everyone was so close to getting their older sisters back. I was so close to getting Vert back.
I wasn't looking forward to that conversation. Yes, we had been on the mend, before Vert was captured by Magic and locked away in the Graveyard. But that was three years ago. Three years was a long time. A considerable amount of time. What would she think about things? How long it took for us to finally get around to rescuing her? And more importantly, would she approve?
Would she approve of the changes I made to help fight the ASIC? Would she approve of the policies I came up with and implemented? Would she approve of how I chose to fight the ASIC to keep Leanbox safe?
I didn't know the answer to that question. I really didn't. Chika would know, but at the same time, I was equally scared to ask. Chika knew Vert better than anyone else. Quite possibly, too well, one may argue. But I didn't want to ask her because learning it from Chika may have just been worse than hearing it from Vert's own mouth. Sure, I could trust Chika to tell me the truth, but the fact she might have been willing to go along with stuff that she knew Vert wouldn't approve of?
May just be enough to break my heart.
I would rather hear Vert's disapproval from her own mouth, rather than anyone else. I hoped she wouldn't. I knew some of my measures could be somewhat heavy-handed, but with the ASIC being what it was, a damn cult, trying to do right by the people was the only solution I had. When we are powered by faith, my mind could have no other options. No other path. Trying to keep people happy and earn their loyalty, while being harsh to those who decided to abuse that good faith for their own purposes.
If she disapproved, I wanted her to let me know. To tell me so. I hoped it wasn't the case, but the amount of changes I'd had to make. It probably felt to an extent a different country now. At least behind the scenes. That was going to be a pain to even partially revert, but much of what I had done had been made necessary by the ASIC and the ASIC alone. With them gone, reverting them would be necessary. A pain, but a needed one.
But that was my own thoughts. I couldn't imagine that anyone else also had their doubts. Little insidious whispers tickled at the back of their minds. The torments of every mistake and screwup that was made over the last three years. Which were no doubt numerous for every party, including myself. Things we could have done better. Steps we could and should have taken.
Not helped by IF being generally annoyed at us. I understood why she was annoyed, but Brave couldn't match all five of us, and easily could have been gone if we didn't arrive quick enough. I'd rather have him off the board for the time being, especially if we were going to make a move on the Graveyard soon. I would have suggested going after him anyway, even without the excuse of his conflict with Uni.
Then came a flicker, which broke me out of my thoughts, as a hologram of Histoire appeared in the air. At that point, I didn't need to hear anything else.
It was time.
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
Yeah, one last Chapter before we finally get to the moment Hinum has spent the past three years looking forward to and dreading.
- Location
- Quebec
It's just going to end in a hug. Hinum is being silly right now but big sister is going to make everything better.
The suspect
Certified bucket hat
Yeah Hinum is likely overthinking it and Vert is just gonna be glad that both Hinum and her people are fine, her worry is understandable and will be put to rest only by talking to Vert but it's going to be fine.
Most of the stuff she implemented is pretty tame for being in 3 years of facing an existential treath, yeah it was implied that there was some degree of basically propaganda (in a chapter she mentions that there are less posters) and some other things but nothing particularly bad or that implies, let's say, martial law or similar.
On another note this means that we are also close to get interaction between the other CPU's and Hinum too which are gonna be interesting/fun for sure.
Most of the stuff she implemented is pretty tame for being in 3 years of facing an existential treath, yeah it was implied that there was some degree of basically propaganda (in a chapter she mentions that there are less posters) and some other things but nothing particularly bad or that implies, let's say, martial law or similar.
On another note this means that we are also close to get interaction between the other CPU's and Hinum too which are gonna be interesting/fun for sure.
- Location
- Elsewhere
"So I had to do some things while you were away..."
"Like what? Did you rearrange the furniture in the apartment? Break the coffee machine? ...did you use my spears as arrows again?"
"No! I mean restructuring the financial sector!"
"I have no idea what that means. We have a financial sector?"
"Like what? Did you rearrange the furniture in the apartment? Break the coffee machine? ...did you use my spears as arrows again?"
"No! I mean restructuring the financial sector!"
"I have no idea what that means. We have a financial sector?"
Chapter 25
It begins!
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Yeah, this place was creepier than I thought it would be. How did a place look so mechanical, yet so rotten at the same time? And the sky wasn't helping either. I don't even think I could consider it a sky. Just. Everything about this place was all sorts of wrong.
"Betting you wished you tried to bombard the place while you had the chance," Uni was being snide, but I didn't entirely disagree. This place was rapidly growing on the list of places I wanted to erase grid square by grid square. And while there was no doubt in my mind that such a move would bait away Judge, I doubted Magic wouldn't have some type of contingency. Not after last time where Compa and IF were able to stroll into the place after I grabbed Judges attention.
And I'd rather not find out what the contingency was until we were clear of this place, thank you very much. Judge at least was predictable. Magic I had next to nothing on, and Nepgear didn't have much to say about her other than that she was overwhelmingly strong.
"It would have its upsides," I admitted. "But our sisters are here." So no matter how much I wanted to see this place burned from orbit, it simply wasn't going to be in the cards. Exterminatis wasn't going to be the call until we got them back. After that? I'd feel perfectly fine throwing this place straight into hell.
A difficult task, given that it was trying to be hell. That's the feeling I got. As if someone was trying to make this place a legitimate hell. Just replace flames and torture with decay, rot, and burnt out electronics. Honestly, this was about as close to Phyrexia as I ever wanted to get, and this shit was straight up their alley.
Yeah, when I was thinking about the oily shit stains from that one set of magic that I hated because the bad guy's won so cleanly and utterly it was kinda sad to think about? That was a sign that this was getting under my skin. First moment I could, I swear I was going to put this creepy place to the torch.
I felt Ram pull on my sleeve. "You don't like this place, do you?"
"Is it really that obvious?" I frowned slightly, but it probably was. This place gave me the creeps. It shouldn't exist, period. The place felt, wrong. Completely devoid of not just life, but, anything, really. There was nothing here. I couldn't even call it a graveyard. There were no markings, no tombstones. Just a mass of wires, cables, broken plastic, and other game-related debris.
It wasn't a graveyard. It was a mass, unmarked, open-air, grave. A grave of something that by my logic and reasoning, really didn't live. Yes, games were important, a fair bit more than they were back home, but it just felt, wrong. This entire place was wrong. Thankfully, the Sharicite crystal carried by Nepgear repealed some of the feelings of utter wrongness.
"We're getting close," IF said, holding up a hand as we slunk through the area. There was no way that Judge wasn't around here somewhere, either. Having eyes in the sky would be somewhat useful right now, but part of me was terrified by what I'd see. Just an endless expanse of cables, wires, and decay?
The fact that IF could even tell where we were in this junkyard sea of scrap and trash was impressive in its own right. I had no idea how. Everything looked the same to me. If I wasn't following IF right now, I'd have long since been lost. This place wasn't just a maze, it was one that looked exactly the same.
Then we saw it. We all saw it. It was hard to describe. Nepgear had given us a heads-up on what to expect. But there was a difference between being told what to expect and seeing it for yourself. My blood felt as if it went cold, yet hot at the same time. I balked at the sight, stepping back, but my eyes were burned with bubbling anger and disgust.
This is what they were doing to them? To her? I felt me nails dig into my palms as my knuckles whitened. And yet, there was still no Judge. Had the really left our sisters unguarded? Again? Surely not. There had to be more protection than this. It couldn't just be this straightforward. The ASIC had to have something planned in this little hellhole.
THUM!
Before we could get closer to our sisters, something hit the ground hard, sending up a plum of debris as what I could only hope was just plastic.
But I don't think anyone would be surprised by the fact that it wasn't. The body that loomed out of the dust was more than familiar enough to me.
"Judge," I let out a growl, my body coiling like a spring, ready to transform and release my power outwards.
"I was starting to wonder when you insects would finally crawl back into my domain," he rumbled, glaring down at all of us with his armored frame. Judge was even more imposing up close, especially without any wounds from when I hit him from afar. "I will enjoy killing you all."
He seemed to look at us with the same contempt as insects. But I wasn't buying that expression. You didn't enjoy killing an insect. It was just something that happened. Then again, Judge was a battle-hungry psychopath who would enjoy just being let off his chain and running completely wild.
"You really think you can take us on!" Uni shouted though I could tell there was a slight waver in her voice. I'd told them about my encounters with Judge as well, letting them know what to expect. I'd driven him off a few times in the past, but I always weakened him first. Judge was a powerhouse, but by this point, we should be more than strong enough. I doubt it would be easy, but it was well within the realm of possibility.
"You're barely worth my time!" Judge's voice boomed like thunder, swinging his axe above his head as we transformed and scattered.
We had a plan, of course. There was no way I was doing this without some type of plan, even if the plan lasted all of three seconds because that's how plans tended to work. Though, in truth, it was the same thing we did with Brave, just with more people. RED, IF, and Compa would break for cover, mostly to act as support.
Judge and Brave were completely different combatants. Brave, while I would never call him soft or squishy by any stretch of the term, didn't have Judge's defenses. Brave had to make an effort to dodge or block attacks. Judge? Judge was like a freight train. A bull in a china shop. He was going to zero in on a target, and he wasn't stopping for anything. He certainly didn't in my fights with him.
The difference is, Judge could absolutely take hits that I had no doubt Brave couldn't. Including my opener. And that was the biggest problem. We couldn't lead off with that. Hell, I couldn't even make use of it. Meaning we had to break through his armor and whittle him down the hard way. The hard way.
And that wasn't going to be fun. I hoped to be able to confuse him, surround him, and act like an annoying swarm of flies to overwhelm him, as he tried to go from target to target in anger. Piss him off and prey on that anger. I even planned for him to hyperfocus, faking a worse hit and falling out of the air, right towards Compa, who would patch us up to good as new.
The opening seconds were glorious. Arrow's slammed into his armor, Uni's rifle unleashed a barrage of lasers into him. Rom and Ram's magic bathed Judge in sheets of ice and flame, steam erupting where the two met in a violent eruption. Judge's body disappeared for a brief moment into the cloud of steam, as we continued to launch shot after shot into him.
If he wasn't dropping out of the sky, then he wasn't unconscious. And if he wasn't unconscious, then Judge could still fight.
"Truly," Judge's voice rumbled from the cloud of steam, an almost nondistinct blur as we continued to hammer into him. "Pathetic!"
Shit! I forgot how fast he was when he wanted to be! I shot upward, opening the range as Judge surged forward, nearly on top of my position. I pulled back my bowstring, firing a few more shots into him in the time it took for him to stop. Thankfully, all that mass meant he couldn't bank worth a damn. Another upside. Fly like a butterfly and sting like a bee, all that jazz.
Judge launched himself towards me again, forcing me to fly upwards, spiraling as I went as his axe missed me by mere inches. I launched a few more arrows at him as he came around again, continuing to force me to climb upwards. Uni, Ram, Rom, and Nepgear were all following behind him with their attacks landing, but it wasn't doing much against him. I wanted to dive, to bring me closer and to get an interlocking field of fire going, but.
I may have had speed, but Judge had mass. Judge had a lot of mass. Something like that in a dive was not a thing I wanted anything to do with. Gravity pulling him along on top of his usual force? No, thank you. I'd rather play chicken with a train doing a stop sign violation.
"All you've been able to do is run away, fly!" Judge bellowed. "You're nothing without that attack of yours!"
It was bait, and it couldn't even be more obvious if he tried. Then again, I highly doubt that Judge even had the slightest idea of what the word subtle meant. I didn't respond verbally, or turn around to fire a few arrows into his face in retaliation. Not with him right on my six like that. Too risky. Too stupid.
So I flipped him the bird instead. I didn't know if he could see it, with us moving the way we were. But the bellow of anger seemed to confirm that he had seen the gesture. Or maybe one of the others managed to find purchase with their attacks. But at this point, I found the middle finger explanation far more likely.
I weaved around him as he overshot me, as I scowled. I didn't want to have to do this, but by this point, it was increasingly necessary. I needed to dive. I couldn't keep increasing my altitude.
I rocketed downwards, doing my best to keep myself from coming down at a straight angle. It was going to take a second or two for Judge to get himself turned around, that would give me just enough time to get back down to a reasonable level and try to regroup.
Only for Judge to be there, like a rocket locked onto my hindquarters. Like a demented heat-seeking missile.
I managed to spin around him, hitting the brakes as he passed me by, me taking the time to line up a few more arrows into him.
"This isn't working!" I heard Nepgear shout, a twinge of fear in her voice as Judge quickly charged me again, shouting angrily as he did so. I couldn't catch the rest of the conversation, but Nepgear wasn't exactly wrong here. This wasn't working. It was taking way too long to chip through his armor like this. We had to come up with a different approach.
I could try and open the range, to lure him away. Drop the hammer on him while nobody else would be affected by the fallout. But I never liked tanking my own fallout in the first place, the few times I'd had too.
Then a shadow appeared above me, like a monster out of some myth.
Oh, this was going to suck.
"Hinum!"
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
She was going to get hurt. The way Judge was positioned, Hinum might even die.
They'd done everything they could hit Judge with, and it hadn't been enough. Nothing she had done had been enough. Still, it wasn't enough. She'd gotten stronger, and yet she was still as useless as she was before. Why was her best still not enough? Nepgear watched in slow motion, Judge's bellows as the weapon hands came down, Hinum trying to raise her guard.
Nepgear knew that she wasn't going to be able to get there in time. And even if she could, she wasn't strong enough to stop him. But she had to try. She was stronger. She should be stronger. Hinum believed they could win. That they would win, no matter what.
As Nepgear rushed forward, she felt a warmth inside her. They needed to win. She needed to win. No. She would win. Not because she needed too, but because she could.
"At last, you understand. May the full strength of our power flow through you now," The black mascot disk said.
"May you be successful, no matter what!" The green followed, as the heat in Nepgear's chest only began to grow.
"Take it. All of our power," the purple continued, as the heat bloomed in full, like a raging fire inside her. Then in a moment, she was there, between Judge and Hinum, swinging her sword. Judge let out a mighty yell. This time, it wasn't out of anger.
It was out of pain.
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
I, was not going to question that. I wasn't going to question that in the slightest. I don't know why Nepgear was suddenly wearing what amounted to a black two piece swimsuit. Or why she was suddenly a lot stronger than she was before. What I did know was that she saved my bacon, and that she managed to make Judge hurt.
"Finally!" Judge roared. "A challenge!"
His joyful shouting ceased the moment I took the time to put an arrow through the gash in his armor. I immediately began to create space, making sure to continue to put arrow after arrow into Judge's new weak point. Not that I and everyone else needed to be picky. Even if Nepgear's sword lacked the same impact of that initial swing, she was still doing a number on Judge's armored plates.
"You are rats!" He shouted, as Uni got a shot in with her rifle, quickly followed up by yet another blow from me.
"Come on! Just die already!" I shout back, releasing more arrows of various potencies into him. We were hurting him now, but the man just, refused to die!
"I'll kill all you insects! Crush you beneath my heel!" Judge roared, as flames burrowed through the gaps in his armor.
"You will do no such thing!" Nepgear shouted back, bringing her sword around, landing another massive gash along Judge's frame.
"No! I, cannot lose! It's impossible!" Judge roared as his body underwent a massive detonation.
We won. It was over. Holy crap, he, I underestimated him. Damn, he really have been pulling his punches that much?
"We did it! We won!" Nepgear cheered, floating there in her new suit of armor. I now had time to wonder the origins of such a thing. But that wasn't important right now.
We had sisters to wake up.
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
My lips were creased in a thin line. Vert looked as if she was in pain. So much pain. I couldn't believe it. She, didn't deserve that. Nobody did. Now that I could see her, my blood boiled even more. How dare Magik do this to her. How dare Arfoire and the ASIC do this to her! The damage I was going to do to the ASIC in particular was going to make the lose of Judge look tame, mark my words.
As the light began to glow from the Sharicite, the look of pain on their faces began to fade. Slowly, each began to stand up. Each sister faced their sister. I wasn't sure what the others were saying. The blood pounding in my ears was deafening. My feet shifted against the ground, unaware that I'd let my CPU form drop in that moment.
"Vert. I," fuck, what was I supposed to say? What had I planned to say? Three years I'd dreamed and feared this moment in equal measure. What to say, how to say it. To be convey my emotions too her. Just my, everything.
But now? In the heat of the moment? My tongue was tied. Twisted. Bend around and unable to speak. I could do nothing but stammer, trying to put into words of how sorry I was.
But whatever slights I had committed against her, Vert seemingly forgave a long time ago. Before I could get any further a pair of arms wrapped around my body, pulling me into an impossibly tight embrace.
Part of me wanted to protest. That I didn't deserve it. That I couldn't. But my mouth didn't want to move.
So I cried instead. I cried in Vert's arms as she held me close.
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
Yeah, this place was creepier than I thought it would be. How did a place look so mechanical, yet so rotten at the same time? And the sky wasn't helping either. I don't even think I could consider it a sky. Just. Everything about this place was all sorts of wrong.
"Betting you wished you tried to bombard the place while you had the chance," Uni was being snide, but I didn't entirely disagree. This place was rapidly growing on the list of places I wanted to erase grid square by grid square. And while there was no doubt in my mind that such a move would bait away Judge, I doubted Magic wouldn't have some type of contingency. Not after last time where Compa and IF were able to stroll into the place after I grabbed Judges attention.
And I'd rather not find out what the contingency was until we were clear of this place, thank you very much. Judge at least was predictable. Magic I had next to nothing on, and Nepgear didn't have much to say about her other than that she was overwhelmingly strong.
"It would have its upsides," I admitted. "But our sisters are here." So no matter how much I wanted to see this place burned from orbit, it simply wasn't going to be in the cards. Exterminatis wasn't going to be the call until we got them back. After that? I'd feel perfectly fine throwing this place straight into hell.
A difficult task, given that it was trying to be hell. That's the feeling I got. As if someone was trying to make this place a legitimate hell. Just replace flames and torture with decay, rot, and burnt out electronics. Honestly, this was about as close to Phyrexia as I ever wanted to get, and this shit was straight up their alley.
Yeah, when I was thinking about the oily shit stains from that one set of magic that I hated because the bad guy's won so cleanly and utterly it was kinda sad to think about? That was a sign that this was getting under my skin. First moment I could, I swear I was going to put this creepy place to the torch.
I felt Ram pull on my sleeve. "You don't like this place, do you?"
"Is it really that obvious?" I frowned slightly, but it probably was. This place gave me the creeps. It shouldn't exist, period. The place felt, wrong. Completely devoid of not just life, but, anything, really. There was nothing here. I couldn't even call it a graveyard. There were no markings, no tombstones. Just a mass of wires, cables, broken plastic, and other game-related debris.
It wasn't a graveyard. It was a mass, unmarked, open-air, grave. A grave of something that by my logic and reasoning, really didn't live. Yes, games were important, a fair bit more than they were back home, but it just felt, wrong. This entire place was wrong. Thankfully, the Sharicite crystal carried by Nepgear repealed some of the feelings of utter wrongness.
"We're getting close," IF said, holding up a hand as we slunk through the area. There was no way that Judge wasn't around here somewhere, either. Having eyes in the sky would be somewhat useful right now, but part of me was terrified by what I'd see. Just an endless expanse of cables, wires, and decay?
The fact that IF could even tell where we were in this junkyard sea of scrap and trash was impressive in its own right. I had no idea how. Everything looked the same to me. If I wasn't following IF right now, I'd have long since been lost. This place wasn't just a maze, it was one that looked exactly the same.
Then we saw it. We all saw it. It was hard to describe. Nepgear had given us a heads-up on what to expect. But there was a difference between being told what to expect and seeing it for yourself. My blood felt as if it went cold, yet hot at the same time. I balked at the sight, stepping back, but my eyes were burned with bubbling anger and disgust.
This is what they were doing to them? To her? I felt me nails dig into my palms as my knuckles whitened. And yet, there was still no Judge. Had the really left our sisters unguarded? Again? Surely not. There had to be more protection than this. It couldn't just be this straightforward. The ASIC had to have something planned in this little hellhole.
THUM!
Before we could get closer to our sisters, something hit the ground hard, sending up a plum of debris as what I could only hope was just plastic.
But I don't think anyone would be surprised by the fact that it wasn't. The body that loomed out of the dust was more than familiar enough to me.
"Judge," I let out a growl, my body coiling like a spring, ready to transform and release my power outwards.
"I was starting to wonder when you insects would finally crawl back into my domain," he rumbled, glaring down at all of us with his armored frame. Judge was even more imposing up close, especially without any wounds from when I hit him from afar. "I will enjoy killing you all."
He seemed to look at us with the same contempt as insects. But I wasn't buying that expression. You didn't enjoy killing an insect. It was just something that happened. Then again, Judge was a battle-hungry psychopath who would enjoy just being let off his chain and running completely wild.
"You really think you can take us on!" Uni shouted though I could tell there was a slight waver in her voice. I'd told them about my encounters with Judge as well, letting them know what to expect. I'd driven him off a few times in the past, but I always weakened him first. Judge was a powerhouse, but by this point, we should be more than strong enough. I doubt it would be easy, but it was well within the realm of possibility.
"You're barely worth my time!" Judge's voice boomed like thunder, swinging his axe above his head as we transformed and scattered.
We had a plan, of course. There was no way I was doing this without some type of plan, even if the plan lasted all of three seconds because that's how plans tended to work. Though, in truth, it was the same thing we did with Brave, just with more people. RED, IF, and Compa would break for cover, mostly to act as support.
Judge and Brave were completely different combatants. Brave, while I would never call him soft or squishy by any stretch of the term, didn't have Judge's defenses. Brave had to make an effort to dodge or block attacks. Judge? Judge was like a freight train. A bull in a china shop. He was going to zero in on a target, and he wasn't stopping for anything. He certainly didn't in my fights with him.
The difference is, Judge could absolutely take hits that I had no doubt Brave couldn't. Including my opener. And that was the biggest problem. We couldn't lead off with that. Hell, I couldn't even make use of it. Meaning we had to break through his armor and whittle him down the hard way. The hard way.
And that wasn't going to be fun. I hoped to be able to confuse him, surround him, and act like an annoying swarm of flies to overwhelm him, as he tried to go from target to target in anger. Piss him off and prey on that anger. I even planned for him to hyperfocus, faking a worse hit and falling out of the air, right towards Compa, who would patch us up to good as new.
The opening seconds were glorious. Arrow's slammed into his armor, Uni's rifle unleashed a barrage of lasers into him. Rom and Ram's magic bathed Judge in sheets of ice and flame, steam erupting where the two met in a violent eruption. Judge's body disappeared for a brief moment into the cloud of steam, as we continued to launch shot after shot into him.
If he wasn't dropping out of the sky, then he wasn't unconscious. And if he wasn't unconscious, then Judge could still fight.
"Truly," Judge's voice rumbled from the cloud of steam, an almost nondistinct blur as we continued to hammer into him. "Pathetic!"
Shit! I forgot how fast he was when he wanted to be! I shot upward, opening the range as Judge surged forward, nearly on top of my position. I pulled back my bowstring, firing a few more shots into him in the time it took for him to stop. Thankfully, all that mass meant he couldn't bank worth a damn. Another upside. Fly like a butterfly and sting like a bee, all that jazz.
Judge launched himself towards me again, forcing me to fly upwards, spiraling as I went as his axe missed me by mere inches. I launched a few more arrows at him as he came around again, continuing to force me to climb upwards. Uni, Ram, Rom, and Nepgear were all following behind him with their attacks landing, but it wasn't doing much against him. I wanted to dive, to bring me closer and to get an interlocking field of fire going, but.
I may have had speed, but Judge had mass. Judge had a lot of mass. Something like that in a dive was not a thing I wanted anything to do with. Gravity pulling him along on top of his usual force? No, thank you. I'd rather play chicken with a train doing a stop sign violation.
"All you've been able to do is run away, fly!" Judge bellowed. "You're nothing without that attack of yours!"
It was bait, and it couldn't even be more obvious if he tried. Then again, I highly doubt that Judge even had the slightest idea of what the word subtle meant. I didn't respond verbally, or turn around to fire a few arrows into his face in retaliation. Not with him right on my six like that. Too risky. Too stupid.
So I flipped him the bird instead. I didn't know if he could see it, with us moving the way we were. But the bellow of anger seemed to confirm that he had seen the gesture. Or maybe one of the others managed to find purchase with their attacks. But at this point, I found the middle finger explanation far more likely.
I weaved around him as he overshot me, as I scowled. I didn't want to have to do this, but by this point, it was increasingly necessary. I needed to dive. I couldn't keep increasing my altitude.
I rocketed downwards, doing my best to keep myself from coming down at a straight angle. It was going to take a second or two for Judge to get himself turned around, that would give me just enough time to get back down to a reasonable level and try to regroup.
Only for Judge to be there, like a rocket locked onto my hindquarters. Like a demented heat-seeking missile.
I managed to spin around him, hitting the brakes as he passed me by, me taking the time to line up a few more arrows into him.
"This isn't working!" I heard Nepgear shout, a twinge of fear in her voice as Judge quickly charged me again, shouting angrily as he did so. I couldn't catch the rest of the conversation, but Nepgear wasn't exactly wrong here. This wasn't working. It was taking way too long to chip through his armor like this. We had to come up with a different approach.
I could try and open the range, to lure him away. Drop the hammer on him while nobody else would be affected by the fallout. But I never liked tanking my own fallout in the first place, the few times I'd had too.
Then a shadow appeared above me, like a monster out of some myth.
Oh, this was going to suck.
"Hinum!"
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
She was going to get hurt. The way Judge was positioned, Hinum might even die.
They'd done everything they could hit Judge with, and it hadn't been enough. Nothing she had done had been enough. Still, it wasn't enough. She'd gotten stronger, and yet she was still as useless as she was before. Why was her best still not enough? Nepgear watched in slow motion, Judge's bellows as the weapon hands came down, Hinum trying to raise her guard.
Nepgear knew that she wasn't going to be able to get there in time. And even if she could, she wasn't strong enough to stop him. But she had to try. She was stronger. She should be stronger. Hinum believed they could win. That they would win, no matter what.
As Nepgear rushed forward, she felt a warmth inside her. They needed to win. She needed to win. No. She would win. Not because she needed too, but because she could.
"At last, you understand. May the full strength of our power flow through you now," The black mascot disk said.
"May you be successful, no matter what!" The green followed, as the heat in Nepgear's chest only began to grow.
"Take it. All of our power," the purple continued, as the heat bloomed in full, like a raging fire inside her. Then in a moment, she was there, between Judge and Hinum, swinging her sword. Judge let out a mighty yell. This time, it wasn't out of anger.
It was out of pain.
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
I, was not going to question that. I wasn't going to question that in the slightest. I don't know why Nepgear was suddenly wearing what amounted to a black two piece swimsuit. Or why she was suddenly a lot stronger than she was before. What I did know was that she saved my bacon, and that she managed to make Judge hurt.
"Finally!" Judge roared. "A challenge!"
His joyful shouting ceased the moment I took the time to put an arrow through the gash in his armor. I immediately began to create space, making sure to continue to put arrow after arrow into Judge's new weak point. Not that I and everyone else needed to be picky. Even if Nepgear's sword lacked the same impact of that initial swing, she was still doing a number on Judge's armored plates.
"You are rats!" He shouted, as Uni got a shot in with her rifle, quickly followed up by yet another blow from me.
"Come on! Just die already!" I shout back, releasing more arrows of various potencies into him. We were hurting him now, but the man just, refused to die!
"I'll kill all you insects! Crush you beneath my heel!" Judge roared, as flames burrowed through the gaps in his armor.
"You will do no such thing!" Nepgear shouted back, bringing her sword around, landing another massive gash along Judge's frame.
"No! I, cannot lose! It's impossible!" Judge roared as his body underwent a massive detonation.
We won. It was over. Holy crap, he, I underestimated him. Damn, he really have been pulling his punches that much?
"We did it! We won!" Nepgear cheered, floating there in her new suit of armor. I now had time to wonder the origins of such a thing. But that wasn't important right now.
We had sisters to wake up.
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
My lips were creased in a thin line. Vert looked as if she was in pain. So much pain. I couldn't believe it. She, didn't deserve that. Nobody did. Now that I could see her, my blood boiled even more. How dare Magik do this to her. How dare Arfoire and the ASIC do this to her! The damage I was going to do to the ASIC in particular was going to make the lose of Judge look tame, mark my words.
As the light began to glow from the Sharicite, the look of pain on their faces began to fade. Slowly, each began to stand up. Each sister faced their sister. I wasn't sure what the others were saying. The blood pounding in my ears was deafening. My feet shifted against the ground, unaware that I'd let my CPU form drop in that moment.
"Vert. I," fuck, what was I supposed to say? What had I planned to say? Three years I'd dreamed and feared this moment in equal measure. What to say, how to say it. To be convey my emotions too her. Just my, everything.
But now? In the heat of the moment? My tongue was tied. Twisted. Bend around and unable to speak. I could do nothing but stammer, trying to put into words of how sorry I was.
But whatever slights I had committed against her, Vert seemingly forgave a long time ago. Before I could get any further a pair of arms wrapped around my body, pulling me into an impossibly tight embrace.
Part of me wanted to protest. That I didn't deserve it. That I couldn't. But my mouth didn't want to move.
So I cried instead. I cried in Vert's arms as she held me close.
Marshmallow Hell time... Try to enjoy and not suffocate from it, Hinum.
- Location
- Sealed away in a pure maidens heart
Repeated word.
Felt like after Nepgear had her big moment the quality dropped a bit, Judge's death in particular felt quite weak. Really liked the fight up until that point.