Chapter 2

It was supposed to be a normal day of hunting for out resident CPU Candidate of Lastation, but this simple sounding mission soon became the beginning of her friendship with a mysterious boy who called himself 'Ventus'.

With her sister, Lastation's CPU, gone off for a mission herself, she was left at home, bored out of her mind and alone with Kei, her supervisor. She wasn't unpleasant by any means, but any talk with her just ends up being about politics and business, so she'd rather stay away from her.

So, with a sudden request from the adventurer's guild, she decided to take it upon herself to finish this mission.

After a nice cool bath for the morning, she dried herself and put on her authentic black and light blue dress. She also checked on her phone, just to see if there were any messages from her best friend, Nepgear. Sadly, there hasn't been a single message since a week ago. She was starting to feel lonely, even if she didn't admit that.

With her rifle carried on her back and her hunting knife on her waist, she left the Basilicom, which was the country's main private office, which also served as a home for her and her sister.

As always, even early in the morning, the country of Lastation was already crowded and working. The countless factories stretched out as far as the eye can see, and much smoke and gases leaked into the air, much to her sister's dismay. Despite that, the streets were still clean and hardly anyone dared to litter, since they'll be hit by a hefty sum.

Overall another average day here at Lastation.

Now out of the country and in the wild, she made her way to the mesa-like area several miles away from her country, where this dragon-headed camel lived. The monster sounded absolutely stupid, but many monsters in Gamindustri was dumb looking anyways.

And then, something came crashing down from the sky, and out from the cloud of dust and smoke, came Ventus, his expression nonchalant, even while his left arm was heavily injured and bleeding.

As she went to patch his injuries up however, the dragon-camel appeared, and was quick to charge towards them, but without much help, he moved both his arms to block the attack, and kicked it back with his left leg, wind circling around it as he did so.

The battle soon escalated, with Ventus asking for backup fire as he went in to tackle it head-on, not that he actually needed much help at all. Swiftly, he overwhelmed the beast and crushed it under one of his special attacks, [Ares' Chariot].

And finally, with her voice shaky from shock and awe, she asked for his name, and he answered.

"Me? I'm Ventus, just an adventurer with a mission."

Somehow she doubted that. The power he displayed was amazing, probably even as strong as the CPUs! And the CPUs were the highest of the highest, the strongest of each respective country, wielding power to lead the country towards the right path.

"How about you? What's your name?"

"M-Me? Ah, um, m-my name's Uni."

"Uni…You must be Lastation's CPU, right? I sense share energy within you."

By that point, she went from feeling shocked to being absolutely terrified. Not just that he guessed that she was the CPU, not that it was technically correct, but he also knew that she had share energy inside her. That's not knowledge anyone would just know, especially not an adventurer!

He was suspicious, incredibly suspicious. After all, he came falling from the sky, blocked that dragon-camel's charged easily, destroyed it in a single moment with power as strong as the CPUs, and had knowledge of share energy, the culminations of the people's hopes and faith.

But even then, she could feel no danger or hostility coming from him.

"…Come with me."

No, even then, there was no way in hell was she leaving someone like him out in the open, free to do whatever he wanted. If anything, she needed to make sure first that he wasn't dangerous, and if anyone was good at that, it would be Kei.

"To Lastation you mean? Perfect!-…I mean, great, let's go."

'…Suspicious…'

With those lingering thoughts, she left the mesa-like area behind, and headed back towards Lastation with Ventus by her side.

Back at the country of Lastation, Uni and Ventus finally made their way into the Basilicom. To his pleasant surprise, the Basilicom was still as boring looking as he recalled it, with some minor renovations in some places.

"Kei! I'm baaack!"

"Huh? Oh, it's just you, Uni…Hmm? And who's that boy beside you I wonder?"

Upon her call, a young woman, with short white hair and blue eyes. She was short for her age, but her eyes held much wisdom inside. She was wearing a formal black coat, with a white shirt underneath and a blue tie to sync with her formal business clothing, the only exception to that style being her short black skirt. Her socks and shoes were exactly like Uni's, black and light blue.

For some reason, she was giving him and Uni a funny look.

"I-It's not like that! G-Go talk to him or something! I'm going to my room!"

And with that, she let out a soft 'Hmph' and left to her room, leaving Ventus behind with Kei staring intently at him, evaluating him. With a soft sigh, she brought him over to one of the vacant tables and sat down with him.

"Sorry for her attitude. She's usually like that. So, what's your name?"

"It's fine. I'm Ventus, an adventurer."

She took a moment to stare at him, her eyes staring piercingly into him. A look he knew well, and was definitely not a fan of.

"So, what do you want to ask?...And what's your relationship to Uni?"

"I fell-…We met in the field, and I was seeking some answers from her. She…Uni is Lastation's CPU, isn't she?"

"That's…close enough. She is this country's CPU Candidate."

CPUs and CPU Candidates. By the citizens, they are hailed as Goddesses, as CPUs are usually women. Each of them holds the ability to harness their people's hopes and faith into a form they call 'Share Energy', their life force of sorts. Without this share energy, they would become weak and sickly, easily prone to physical and mental attacks.

CPU Candidates are simply those that also hold the same powers as the CPU, but do not rule over the country directly. Usually, a candidate is the sister or sibling of the CPU. There are exceptions of course, but that's the minority.

"Where's the CPU?"

"Noire is currently out on a mission. She'll be back in 3 days or so."

'So her name's Noire…Never heard of her.'

He didn't really have any plans to meet with the CPU of this nation, but perhaps some extra info from the source directly could help with his mission to find his long lost sister.

"Oh, and have you noticed anything strange lately?"

Now this was the important one. With his 'awakening', his mission to now search for his sister now begins. But with how his sister has been in the past, there was no way things would go so smoothly with her around, especially not with her 'power'.

"Not that I-, actually, from what I've heard, the CPU and the Candidate of Planeptune has gone missing for around 5 days now. Do you know anything?"

"…No, sorry. But thanks for the info."

With all that talk over, Kei leans back on her chair and smiles. It wasn't a smile of happiness of relief, but of politeness, one that someone would use when they're delving in business. Which meant-

"Now…as for you payment…"

"…Sorry?"

That the information he just received was prized. 'Damn…' He cursed softly to himself, mostly because he didn't even have any credits to hand over to her, and he definitely didn't have anything of value to trade to her.

"I'm a woman of business. Any item I trade needs to be paid back. That's simply how I am."

"…Right. I don't have any credits though. Not like it'll be hard to do, I can just hunt some Dogoos outside or something, but how much do you want?"

Kei placed her hand on her chin and thought for a moment, her smart mind putting into work the best and the most reasonable prize she could ask for. And then, an amazing idea just came flying into her head.

"Actually, I don't need credits. Recently, I've been tinkering to create a…'device', but I'm missing a strong material to use as its casing. I would like you to gather me some hard materials, perhaps a carapace from a monster would work."

When she said 'hard material', the first thing that came to mind was the ore Adamantite, but that ore was long gone, even in his time, and even in the past, it was one hell of a chore to try and fine some. But the immense hardness it had made the trip all the worth.

Last he knew, the search for that damned metal took about 5 years or so, and he's not going to wait that long. He had a different mission after all. But, as she just said, there might be some monster out there with something hard enough to suffice.

Since this was Lastation, then that monster should be around that area and…yep, if his memory served him right, there should be a monster carrying something hard enough to even tank a package of 20 dynamites in one go. That should work.

"Stupid Kei…always being weird…"

Meanwhile, inside the bedroom of a certain black-haired girl, Uni was busy venting herself into her pillow, shouting and occasionally hitting it with her delicate fists.

She didn't really want to go back to her room, but as always, she failed to control how she acted, and by the time she got into her room, just appearing suddenly would just be awkward, and Kei, who was already worried sick about how she was, would just sigh even more.

Just recalling that sly look on her face when she returned with Ventus by her side was just…it was just annoying.

But, it's been about 15 minutes now, and their small talk was probably over. She could just imagine Kei sitting by her usual work table, sipping tea as she worked on the many papers she needed to fill in, and maybe continue her work on that 'device' of hers in her free time.

Taking a deep breath, she got off her bed and left the room, walking back to the main lobby of the Basilicom. There, all she saw was Kei, sitting alone at a table, drinking some tea as she read over a report that had just gotten sent in several minutes ago. Ventus was nowhere to be seen.

"Kei? Where did Ventus go?"

"Oh, finally back. He's out on an errand."

"An…errand?"

Her confusion was showed clear on her face, but Kei wasn't inclined to reply. She simply took a quick sip from her tea, put down the cup, and signed the papers before setting it down on the table, messaging her temples in preparations for another long read.

The job of the supervisor wasn't exactly a pleasant one.

Now, all they could do was wait for Ventus to come back. Of course, since Uni didn't get a clear answer as to where he went, she simply assumed he got what he wanted and left, which made her slightly annoyed, but she was convinced that it was due to her own attitude.

Little did they know, that this 'errand' of his turned out to be an entire day long.

The next day quickly arrives, and still, Ventus wasn't back. Kei was beginning to wonder if he even followed on his promise. If he didn't, then…well, it's annoying, sure, but the questions he asked was simple and general, so him getting angry at her was reasonable enough.

But then, just as she was in the process of making her morning tea, she heard someone knock on the Basilicom doors. It was unusual for someone to come this early, heck, the sun wasn't even awake yet.

Worried that they were assassins in disguise(she's seen several in her life as a supervisor), she took hold of her specially-crafted short sword and made her way towards the door. She put her guard up…that is, until she saw through the glass that it was Ventus waiting on the other side, idly waiting for the doors to be opened.

Seeing as she was worried for nothing, she sighed and set her short sword down. She finally opened the door after that and let Ventus in, much to his relief.

As expected, he didn't exactly return cleanly. Wherever he went, he returned with his white shirt dirtied and even ripped in some places, his black jeans dusty, and his left arm still bandaged with the one Uni did on him.

Oh, and he was carrying a big white bag on his back.

"…You're back. Took you quite long."

Ventus simply sighed and shrugged his shoulders, finally letting down the large white bag he's been carrying for several hours now. And the fact that he could only use his right side to carry the bag didn't help, at all.

But, the errand.

As was promised, he reached into the white bag, and pulled out two different things. A torn-off scale of what seems to have been a large snake, and a… purple turtle shell?

"Here. Take these. Those two are both tough, so choose them to your liking."

At the moment her fingers came in contact with the scales, her eyes went wide-open, shocked. This sleek, yet tough feeling, as if this scale was near-unbreakable. The reflections of the lights from the lighting above.

It was of extremely high quality. And…well, the turtle shell was also pretty tough, but…well, it just looked slightly disappointing, so this snake scale was already way more than enough.

"Where…did you find this?"

"…A man has his secrets."

And the fact that Ventus denied giving her an answer only proved to heighten her curiosity for such an exquisite material. If she could get a line of this scale going, the industry will improve drastically. But, then again, she might be thinking a bit too far.

'Actually…that bag…'

Perhaps she forgot to take notice due to her morning wake, but now that her focus was back on, she wondered what was actually in that bag. After all, he could've just left it at the place he found this scale to speed up the process. Yet, he still carried it, all they way here.

"D-Don't tell me-!?"

C-Could that entire bag contain an entire package of scales!?...And maybe some of those purple turtle shell around? If so, whatever snake he killed must be quite…proportionate.

"It's as you guessed. Well, I suppose I'm-"

"W-Wait. I, uh, well…"

As a business woman, she wasn't afraid to take her chances and dive into the deep end to get what she wanted. Now that Ventus had the knowledge that Noire was the CPU, and the knowledge of where she could find this amazing material, there was no way she could just let him go!

But if he knew that, he'd instantly declined. In fact, he could already feel a shiver crawl up his spine from that brief outburst of hers.

Until he realised that the shiver he felt wasn't from Kei.

'…!?'

As someone who likes to travel, he relies quite a bit on his intuition to carry him through. Due to that, his instincts have been polished for quite a while, turning it into a sharp weapon he could use in battle, or outside.

It isn't perfect, not by a long shot. But it was good enough to signal to him if something bad, like REALLY bad was happening.

*Beep…Beep…Beep…*

"Hmm? Who is…N…Noire?"

Looking at her phone, she saw that Lastation's CPU, Noire, had just left a voice message for her, exactly 17 seconds ago. She raised an eyebrow, mostly because she knew that Noire was not someone who would do that. Her pride was quite troublesome.

With some scepticism lingering, she clicked the message and listened.

"Hah…Hah…Kei, it's me. I…Damnit, they're *BOOOM*, damnit. They're already here. Just-, c…me t…Gi…a…na m…nta…n-"

The voice was that of a young woman's, her voice sounding to be quite sassy and to the point. But none of those traits could be heard, only the sound of fatigue and a soft sigh as an explosion coloured the scene.

The message fizzled out soon after that, with a sound of another explosion, finally knocking the message out. Clearly, it was a help message. Asking her to go where, Kei didn't know, but nor did she care. Her hand was already holding onto her short sword, and she was already charging towards the exit.

"You're just going to charge out there? Do you even know where to go?"

It was a foolish decision, to just charge out there blindly. After all, this Noire didn't exactly leave out much details as to where it was, she couldn't even mention the name correctly as the message fizzled out before she could do so.

That is, if you're talking about a normal person.

Kei here was a business woman, and a smart one at that. While she hides some things from others, even her own superiors and Noire, she does so with good intentions. And right there, at Noire's phone, she implanted a location chip, so she could track where she last was.

"Of course. Gihanna Mountain, a place located close to where Noire went to for her mission. Now move."

She hated stubborn people, hence why she gets along quite badly with Noire and Uni. She was already prepared to charge through with force, but Ventus was quick to follow.

"Let me join. I…have a bad feeling about this."

"…I feel the same way."

And so, while the day before was the start of his and Uni's friendship, today, and their mission to follow, serves as an appetizer to what their intertwining fates may uncover.

With her short sword in hand, and Ventus' right fist clenched and ready, they went out the Basilicom and headed straight for Gihanna Mountain.