Disclaimer: IF/CH still owns the Nepverse and not me.
It was just another normal day in Gamindustri with the guild being open, and requests fulfilled. However, what was a little unusual here was that within the Lastation guild was a small girl dressed in pink and white, contrasting the usual loner colours of Lastation. Yet still, people mostly went about their own business like a normal day, as most people do recognise the uniquely dressed individual as Ram, one of the CPU Candidates of Lowee.
Truthfully though, Ram had ventured over here because she had heard from Rom that Nepgear was visiting. Of course, normally Ram would not have cared much about who was visiting, but recent developments with the relationship between the CPU Candidate of Planeptune and the other CPU Candidate of Lowee had made things rather complicated for Ram to deal with. Surprisingly, the rest of the CPUs did not object to it, seeing how cute the two of them were. However, there are some that are bothered by such a relationship, specifically Ram, who felt the disenfranchisement while at home.
Unable to deal the scene at home, Ram fled to Lastation as temporary sanctuary while accepting guild requests.
"Hello, I would like to accept the usual requests..." Ram said to the guild attendant, ready for the day of work, even if it was unusual for her to be in Lastation.
"Very well, we do have a high priority request today, so do be careful," the manager advised, before printing out the quest card for Ram.
"Yeah, yeah..."
Very soon, Ram was on her way out to the nearby abandoned factory for the quest. This quest was to eliminate a rogue tank that had gone out of control and was only recently tracked to this remote location. Ram had only ventured part way into the factory when she already recognised that this was one of the old defunct hideout that ASIC used from years back. Not surprising though, as most remote places nobody had bothered to clean up or demolish, especially with a place that used to produce illegal Arfoire chips.
What was a surprise though, was that Ram noticed signs of forced entry, as well as automated security that were freshly broken down. Clearly somebody had taken on the same quest as she did and was already ahead. Not wanting to fall behind and lose out on this quest, Ram quickly ran in and turned off to the side of the building. She had remembered a shortcut to the innermost part of the building and most likely location of the rogue tank, so she found the small opening in one of the giant walls and crawled through.
Immediately, Ram saw the broken down tank moving very haphazardly as well as the metal plating breaking down with smoke coming out, clearly it was in a state of disrepair, but it all worked in her favour here. Knowing that the other person could be here any time now, Ram went all out and gathered her energy to charge her Absolute Zero spell and without drawing attention. Once the spell was completed, Ram blasted the unsuspecting machine with ice and defeated it quickly. The only thing left of the tank was a small canister of its energy source, which Ram picked up, knowing that it would sell for quite a handful of credits in Lastation.
No sooner did she pocket the canister though, another person had entered the scene with a protest. "Hey, my objective!"
"Too bad, you got here too slow! Early bird gets the-huh, oh, it's you!" Ram replied, having recognised the other figure in the room was Uni, Lastation's CPU Candidate.
"Um, what are you doing here in Lastation?"
"Just getting some work done."
"Well, at least now I know where Lastation's shares went."
"Oh don't worry about that small stuff, it's easy since you work all the time anyway."
"What, hey I don't work all the time, I try to visit Nepgear once in awhile..." Uni trailed off, as what Ram said earlier was true in that she had been working all the time. "Besides, don't you usually work with your sister?"
"Well..." Ram paused, slowly gritted her teeth a little before continuing, "you wouldn't understand, I... gotta go!" Ram finished and then began a full sprint past Uni and headed towards the exit.
"Hey, wait a second!" Uni called, but Ram had no intention to stop and continued to run. "What was that about... Oh, right. I think I know..."
Without much reason to stay around the derelict factory, Uni walked out and headed back to Lastation to confirm the completion of her quest, even though this time she would not get the credits since Ram completed the objective ahead of her. Still, no sooner had Uni exited the guild hall she spotted Ram sitting by herself on the bench near the park. Having nothing much more to do today, Uni slowly moved towards the unsuspecting Ram to see what was going on.
"It's no good, even after all this work it's just not the same..." Ram muttered, frowning as she looked towards the ground.
"Are you bothered by Nepgear too?" Uni asked, showing up nearby and catching Ram by surprise.
"Yikes, you're here! Ugh, and what about Nepgear?"
"You're being troubled by her aren't you?"
Ram had a mixture of a pout and and anger but she relented here, "Yeah..."
"I know that feeling too actually..." Uni admitted while taking a seat next to Ram, equally deflated at her own situation.
"You too huh, I guess since you always talked-or used to talk with Nepgear."
"Well yeah, but then once she got together with Rom, it's been rather quiet."
"Hehe, I guess we're in the same situation then. I mean, I find it hard to say much to Rom these days when all she does is talk about what she does with Nepgear... Nepgear this, Nepgear that, it... almost sounds annoying. I don't know, I almost feel as if... I hate Nepgear, as if she's trying to take Rom away..." Ram sighed, not liking how things are turning out.
"I see... I didn't say anything at first, but it does seem like Nepgear isn't the same since then... I used to chat with her on the phone or by mail, but now that she mostly talks about Rom sometimes I do get tired of it."
"Ahahaha~" Ram laughed nervously.
"What is it?" Uni asked, confused at the slight outburst all of a sudden.
"You know, I am just thinking how we're so similar right now, I guess we're the rejects?"
"Why would you put it that way..."
"I dunno, just seems that way. This really sucks after all. But I'm sorry for running off earlier, I guess you do understand this."
"It's all right, but I am just surprised neither Blanc or Neptune objected to any of this."
"Yeah! It's weird to think that they would actually approve of Nepgear and Rom together, I just don't understand it, and it's so frustrating! Like, why does Rom need to spend so much time with her? Ugh."
"Yeah, I wish it wasn't like that, so... what are you doing these days?"
"Well, I've actually just been doing guild work, trying not to think about those two. I usually stick around in Lowee, but Rom had mentioned Nepgear was visiting today so..."
"Ah, so that's why you are over here."
"Yup. I... for some reason it just feels weird, I don't want to cause trouble for Rom when she seems so happy, but it hurts whenever I look at her and Nepgear together, so I just cannot stay at home today.
"I see..." Uni sighed as she leaned back on the bench, reflecting on her own reaction to seeing Nepgear with Rom all the time. "It's not quite the same with me with a sister, but... I do miss the times from before talking about similar interests Nepgear, since she actually liked the same things I did."
"I... actually wonder. Is it wrong for me to wish that they would break up? That if only it could happen and I'd get Rom back to how things were before..."
"I can't answer that, but... will it really be good to see your sister heart broken?"
"Mmm, I guess not... There's nothing much we can really do about it huh..."
"No, like you, I do want to see both of them happy...even if it is hard. I have actually been just doing work like you have and trying to forget about it all."
"Yep, but that's not really healthy for us is it?"
"No, it's not... I think we may just have to accept it."
"I wonder about that... I have to see Rom everyday, and everyday there always a possibility that Nepgear will be involved."
"Well, you're not alone. I am going through the same thing, we probably shouldn't just sit here and feel sorry for ourselves."
"I suppose. I guess I do feel better after talking a little bit about this..." Ram said, before standing up and looking back towards the direction of Lowee.
"Are you heading back home already?"
"Yeah, I don't think I can be gone for too-" Ram began to explain but was interrupted by a huge growling stomach that was almost as loud as Neptune. Of course, after a whole day of doing quests and focusing on other things, it was quite easy to forget about food.
"Hey... do you want to stay here for dinner?" Uni offered, seeing that Ram may very well collapse from hunger before even reaching Lowee.
"Can I? That would be really awesome!" Ram said, entertaining the idea of enjoying food given how hungry she got.
"Sure, I mean... we're friends aren't we?" Uni asked the rhetorical question, as it was a simple question yet had weight to it: The two of them were dealing with the issue of being outside a couple bubble and trying to accept reality with conflicting emotions.
"Yeah!" Ram energetically replied, falling back and following Uni back to the Lastation basilicom. "Say, can I come over here to Lastation more often?"
"Of course, just let me visit Lowee once in awhile too..." Uni replied happily.
Once back at the basilicom, Ram phoned back to Lowee to let her family know she would be coming home later after supper. Thankfully Nepgear had already returned to Planeptune when Ram got back, as by that time Ram had been too tired to do anything else for the day. She did however, make plans to meet with Uni again in Lastation tomorrow since it had been quite beneficial to confide with a trusted friend.
The next day, Ram arrived at the park and met up with Uni again, this time with a much brighter mood and happy smile.
"Good Morning Uni!" Ram said, catching the attention of Lastation's CPU Candidate.
"Good Morning Ram, you seem more like your usual happy self," Uni replied with a smile, seeing as how contagious Ram's mood was.
"Yeah, after everything yesterday I feel better now."
"Oh right, yesterday I actually got a text message from Nepgear."
"Really? What does it say?"
"She asks if we were free to spend the day with her and Rom today."
"Oh. Does that mean we're going to meet them then?"
"No, I replied to her that maybe sometime next week would be better."
"Why's that?"
"Only because I think we might not be ready for it, and... I wanted to spend today with just you..."
"Oooh, you're the best Uni! Hey, by the way, why don't you have this?" Ram said, holding out the canister detached from the dismembered tank from yesterday's quest.
"Huh? This...! Is a super expensive piece, where'd you get it?"
"Found it from the tank in the quest yesterday, nobody knows what to do with it in Lowee, so I think you can make use of it."
"I see... umm, thank you!" Uni accepted the gift with a bright smile.
"No problem, this is what friends are for!" Ram said in response, smiling back as well.
Despite the emotional turmoil that Ram and Uni still had to face, there was a wonderful friendship that was budding, one that would no doubt be able to help them overcome the challenges ahead.
And here was something that was planned for awhile now. Part of this idea came when reading through another story titled Pudding, Coffee and Black Jelly by the Side sometime ago.