Quick notice before you read this chapter:
For those of you who skipped the previous announcement, there's a poll on my profile. Also free cans of Nepsi for those who cast their vote. I've already handed out three cans (which is already three more than I first anticipated).
I also promised I would be responding to reviews in the story from now on… So here goes:
-To Broach Or To Put Up: I think I did misunderstand you at first. Glad you cleared that up. But yes, my intent was indeed to make it quick, unexpected and simple. I can already say though that there won't be any more sudden dark moments without any build up like this anymore.
On a side note, there's actually something I just recently noticed when going back and fact-checking somethings in the first chapter. Up until now, I've been describing Toby with an orange bodywarmer and a red shirt… Turns out in the original concept it was the other way around.
I guess I should fix it real quick.
Chapter 8: Phantasmal Angel
Toby opened his closet, ready to get dressed for today. "Just as heroic as Nep and the others she says," Toby mumbled to himself in a hateful tone, taking a red- and an orange body warmer out of his closet. "Yeah. Right. As if Neptune's heroic. She's just… Lazy. And nothing like the Neptune. At least the Nep in the games does somewhat work… Like a little."
Carefully considering which body warmer he should wear today, he looked both from top to bottom before putting the red one back in the closet. Can't be the Orange Outplay if you don't wear orange.
A few days have passed since IF kicked Toby out of the party. Ever since, Toby has cut off all contact with any of the CPUs, candidates and their companions. He wasn't in the mood to face any of them any time soon. Even to this day, he complains to himself how they treated him like a tool.
leaving his apartment, Toby walked down the ruined street, his hands in his pockets. He was on his way to the Guild to see if there were any new quests for him to do. Considering he no longer works at N.E.P. — being in a whole different dimension and what not — Toby had to find another source of income. He quickly figured the guild pays its agents very generously depending on how difficult the quests are they complete and as it turns out, Toby seems to be fairly skilled at slaying monsters.
"Stupid Neptune," he thought, "always making me fetch her pudding. Tsk. Not to mention Noire looking down on me. Not to mention Blanc using me as her personal anger management assistant. And then there's Vert. Ugh! Vert, of all people. Just… Agh!"
Toby kicked a can of Nepsi out of his way and sighed. For some reason, he was feeling a lot more frustration welling up inside of him. "Ugh… I just… Need something to distract me. Maybe killing some more Horsebirds will do."
Reaching the Guild, the automatic doors slid open before him. The familiar scenery made him feel a little more at ease. The digital billboards, the holographic quest screen, the large purple round carpet in the middle of the room with the emblem of Planeptune stitched to it, everything about it felt warm and welcoming. The only thing he didn't like was the giant hologram of Purple Heart by the left wall.
Toby approached the quest booth, trying his best to look away from the Purple Heart hologram, and logged in. "Let's see… 'Orange_Outplay'... Password… NiftySiri."
Scrolling through the list of quests, he heard a familiar voice call out to him from behind. "Oi! Tobias!"
Toby turned his head. It was Vektor, the detective.
"Oh. Hey Vektor," Toby kindly greeted with a smile. "How you doing? Did you, Espia and Charm get that fetch quest done already with those Mean Beans?"
Vektor, a tall, muscled man with a detective-esq raincoat is one of Toby's friends at the guild. The two met on Toby's first day of questing and quickly formed a sort of old-time friends bond.
"Nah. We still workin' on it. Charm just wouldn't stop complainin' about his feet were hurtin'. Seriously. The guy can fly. Why would his feet hurt?"
The teen shrugged. "Sounds like something Charm would say to get out of work. You and Espia really should stop falling for it."
Vektor let out a loud laugh. "Charm might be a little quirky and lazy, but he never falls short when we need him."
"Yeah, fair enough," Toby said, thinking the description might fit Neptune as well. "Anyway, I'm a bit behind schedule. I really have to get going."
Toby was about to walk past Vektor, but the man put his hand on his shoulder, preventing him from leaving. "Slow down, kiddo. Ya didn't think I'm just here to waste time listenin' to mah detective stories, right?"
The teen raised an eyebrow. "Would you be surprised if I thought you would?"
"Not even in the slightest."
The two of them let out a small laugh. "Alright, fair enough," Toby admitted. "What was it you were going to say?"
Vektor's expression quickly shifted to a more serious one. "Listen. Tobias. I know you told us to keep quiet about you to Miss IF and the others, but I think you should give them a second chance."
Toby rolled his eyes. "This again? I told you already, I don't want to see any of them again. I moved to a better, more expensive apartment and I asked the lot of you to keep quiet about me just to avoid her altogether. I honestly don't want to see her face again for a long time."
The detective's grip tightened. "It's not just Miss IF askin' for ya. Lady Nepgear, as well as Compa, have been gettin' worried about ya. They-"
Toby shook Vektor's hand off his shoulder. "Enough of this Vektor. They've been treating me like a tool ever since I joined up with them. There's plenty of other people they can abuse for that. Just not me anymore."
Vektor sighed. "Well, kiddo. Alright. I suppose I can keep my big mouth shut for a little longer… I just wanted to help, Tobias. Nothing more."
"I know… Thanks, Vektor."
Moving past Vektor, Toby left the guild, heading for the Crystal Caverns to start his handful of quests.
As he stepped outside, he looked up to the sky. Unexpectedly, he saw Black Heart fly over at top speed, followed by White Heart and Green Heart. They seemed to be heading east, to Lowee.
Toby quickly lowered his head and kept walking. "Screw them... "
Approximately two hours later
"Out of my sight!" Toby shouted, kicking the Kupokitty into the chasm before him. "That should be the last of them…"
Taking several bottles of healing grass out of his hammerspace, the teen began chugging them down like his morning coffee. He preferred to drink several bitter bottles of medicine rather than the extremely bitter alternative. Plus, it's actually cheaper to buy the lesser healing items in bulk.
After finishing his last bottle, the teen smacked his lips twice. It actually gets kind of bearable if you're a fan of bitter drinks like coffee, for example.
"..."
The teen looked around for a bit. While the caves were beautifully decorated with crystals of all sorts of colours, enlightening every dark corner, he felt kind of alone. Sure, he'd gone questing on his own several times this week. But for some reason today he felt especially lonely
Shaking his head, Toby pushed the thought away. "I'm fine on my own. I've got Siri. Hey. Siri. Did I finish all quests yet?"
*Bleep* "Nifty, I am currently updating. Please wait. Estimated wait time: 6 hours and 44 minutes."
"..."
Feeling like fate was trying to insult him, Toby headed deeper into the cave.
Running into several low-level monsters like Tulips, Pixelvaders and the occasional Plummet, Toby cut through each of them without breaking a sweat. After all the grinding he did, he got quite adept at one-shotting monsters by hitting one of their vital spots. Pros of using a rapier and being a fencer. The only hard part about this was finding the vital spot at first. But once he gets that out of the way, he no longer has to put any effort into fighting low-level monsters anymore.
Eventually, he reached the deepest part of the cave. It was a large open room with a single massive blue crystal in the middle, shining as bright as the neon signs of Planeptune at night. Beside that, far above him were even more crystals hanging from the ceiling like icicles. There were also several stalagmites scattered around the room, mostly populating near the walls.
"...That's it?" Toby mumbled out loud, sheathing his rapier. "No big boss? No rare loot? Not even a single monster? Gah. What a waste of time… Whatever. I'm out of healing items anyway."
Taking an escape button from his hammerspace, the teen got ready to exit the dungeon when suddenly he heard an ear deafening roar.
*RAAAWRRR*
Slightly startled, he jumped a little and frantically looked around. From behind the massive crystal stepped a pale white Ancient Dragon, giving the teen a frightening look with its red eyes.
"An albino Ancient Dragon? This has to be some kind of rare encounter. And with rare encounters comes rare drops…"
The sides of Toby's mouth curved up. This was exactly the challenge he'd been looking. "Man, this like that one scene of the HDN anime where Noire got her butt kicked in the first episode. Dead end in a cave. Massive dragon. Heck, I'm even all by my lonesome self."
*RAAARRRGGG*
The dragon dashed forward and smashed the ground before Toby, making him leap backwards. "Heh. The only difference is that I'm not going to lose!"
Unsheathing his blade, Toby pointed it to the monster while putting his off-hand behind his back. "Let's turn you into the myth you're supposed to be!"
The dragon raised his claw again and slashed at Toby, which easily parried it back with his blade. Using this opening, he lunged forward and slashed the monster's legs, pushing it off balance.
Not wasting any time, Toby jumped on the dragon's back and stabbed it right between its wings, making an attempt to finish the fight quickly.
As the monster let out a roar of pain, Toby smirked cockily. "I've seen pirates scarier than you, you good for nothing firefly," he insulted, pushing his blade in further.
Enraged, the dragon pushed itself up and slammed its back into a wall right after Toby pulled his blade out and jumped off over its head.
Landing on both his feet, he returned his gaze to the dragon. The wall behind it began showing large cracks, forming like lightning and reaching up to the ceiling. Looking up, he saw several large crystals fall down, one big enough to crush him heading straight for him.
"Whoa crap!" Toby cried, barely jumping out of the way.
With Toby mid-air and unable to dodge, the dragon seized its chance and spat a fireball the size of a basketball at the teen.
With widened eyes, Toby covered his face by crossing his arms before it, hoping it would lessen the impact. Obviously, it didn't.
"Gwaaargh!"
Dropping to the ground, he rolled around to try and extinguish himself, failing to notice the dragon creeping up to him. "Hot, hot! HOT! Fire! Argh! Oowww!"
With the dragon inching even closer, it raised its massive foot. Toby, finally realising what was about to happen, looked up at his impending doom. "Damn it… It really is the first episode of the anime. Except there's no Neptune to rescue me."
As the beast slammed its foot down, Toby instinctively held his blade up, piercing the monster right as it attacked.
enraged, the monster let out another roar of pain. But as much as it was hurt, it didn't stop pushing its foot down. Toby, still pinned down, desperately pushed his feet against the dragon's.
"Nggh… N-no! Not… Like… This!" Toby moaned under his breath.
Using all his strength, the teen held the dragon in place. His entire body was screaming for him to stop, to give in to the pressure. His muscles were burning. His mind felt like it was going blank. His lungs were slowly getting crushed by the sheer weight of the beast, making it difficult to breathe.
Gritting his teeth and closing his eyes, Toby made one final attempt to push the dragon back, taking a deep breath before using all he has left.
"Come on… Come… ON!"
Pushing both his blade and his feet up, the beast barely inched backwards. Not far enough to give him any breathing space.
Crying in agony, Toby made one last effort to escape. Slightly tilting his blade, he tried to redirect the beast's foot to the side.
Surprisingly, it worked.
The beast's paw smashed a few inches to Toby's left, crushing the ground and creating a shockwave strong enough to send him flying.
For a moment, Toby wasn't sure what had happened. With his ears ringing and his heart beating like crazy, he slowly opened his eyes, only to be faced with the stone cold ground. He tried to get up, but each of his limbs felt like they were on fire.
Forcefully pushing himself up into a sitting position, the teen tried to get a good view of his surroundings. His view was hazy and his head felt as heavy as a rock.
As his eyes slowly adjusted, he finally saw the pale dragon, laying on the floor on the opposite side of the room. The beast must've knocked him quite far for him to be all the way over here.
But of course, if the beast's corpse is still here, it means it's still alive. Otherwise, it would have vanished into data never to be seen again.
Taking a few deep breaths, Toby attempted to stand, but as soon as he set down his first foot, he quickly collapsed and fell face first onto the floor. Perhaps fighting an Ancient Dragon after a gauntlet of low-level monsters wasn't such a good idea after all.
Dropping on his head, Toby felt everything slowly going black. The last thing he remembered was… smelling something sweet. Almost as refreshing as a nice flower.
"..."
"..."
"... Huh!?"
The teen's eyes shot open as he came back to the world of the living. He tried to sit up, but his muscles were still feeling quite sore, so he quickly gave up on it.
With his vision clear again, Toby gazed around. He was in an unfamiliar setting.
"Wait… What happened?" he wondered out loud. "Did I-… Uh… Where am I?"
Recollecting his thoughts, he retraced his steps. He remembered going to the guild and accepting a load of quests before running into Vektor. He also remembered kicking a Kupo Kitty into in the face, which arguably is not an important detail to remember.
"Oh wait. I lost to an Ancient Dragon!" Toby realised, his jaw slightly dropping. "So… how am I alive?... And… Why can't I move? Why do I feel so warm?"
Looking down, he saw nothing but blankets. Stacks and stacks of blankets resting on top of him, keeping nice and warm. "... Whose bed is this?"
Letting his eyes wander once more, Toby looked around the pink-ish room. It was a little smaller than Neptune's room, but it also was tidier than hers. To his left, there were several pictures of cute monsters hanging on the wall with a pair of thick photo albums, each resting on a book stand before them. The album on the left had the title 'things I made' written on it while the one on the right had the title 'things I ruined' written on it.
To his right, there was a simple green chair resting before a desk with some pens and pencils scattered across it. There also was a bouquet of white flowers, held together by a thick piece of rope resting on the chair. What an odd place to put some flowers.
The room also smelled pretty nice… Just a little detail he noticed.
With his body feeling like lead, Toby made the obvious choice of relaxing and waiting for something to happen, rather than get out of bed and make something happen.
Closing his eyes again, the teen was about to drift back to sleep, right as he heard the door creak open.
"Doo dee doo~! La dee da~!" A girl with a rather soft voice sang.
Opening his eyes, Toby examined the girl. She had dark blonde hair tied in two fluffy twin tails and wore an unbuttoned, green blouse with nothing below it. It was quite revealing considering you could see her stomach and the side of her flat chest... Not to mention her skirt. It just barely didn't cover her knees.
More noticeable were her accessories. She had a long piece of rope tightly wrapped around her neck, representing something like a noose a little too much. She also wore one of the same flowers of the bouquet in her hair.
Holding a tray with what appeared to be two bowls of soup, the girl set it down on the desk after pushing some of the pens and pencils out of the way. "I hope he likes tomato soup. I mean, I like tomato soup. But I know some people don't like it. So I also brought a bowl of miso soup… But maybe he's one of those people that dislikes both… Oww… Maybe I should've just made some yummy stew. Everyone loves stew."
Pacing worriedly around the room, the girl mumbled to herself on what she should do if he didn't like the soup she made.
"This girl… Ignoring the fact she's incredibly cute, was she the one who dragged me out of that cave and put me in bed? She doesn't look so tough. What was she doing in that cave anyway?"
looking to his right, the appetizing smell of the soup filled his lungs. "I should probably say something… Maybe she'll feed me if I ask her to… Not for any creepy motives or anything. But mostly because I can barely move right now. And I'm feeling quite hungry."
The girl, still looking more than worried, practically had her face buried in her hands by now. "Oww… Maybe he doesn't like soup at all. I should've ordered pizza," she whined.
"I don't dislike soup," Toby spoke up, making the girl stop in her tracks and turn to him with a beaming smile.
"Huh? Really? Hooray! I knew you'd love yummy soup for your tummy!"
"Uhh… Yeah. Totally?"
"..."
"..."
A moment of silence befell the two until the girl suddenly let out a yelp of surprise. "Eep! Y-you're… Awake?"
"Umm… Yes. I, uh… should probably thank you for dragging me out of that cave and all. I'm Tobias Karston by the way. Nice to meet you."
The girl's face turned as red as her tomato soup as she took a few steps back. She let out a few incoherent murmurs while covering her face with her hands.
Something about this made Toby's inner otaku speak up. "D'aww. She's like a shy little sister. So cute..."
Clearing his throat, Toby kindly asked the girl the most standard question when meeting someone new. "So what's your name?"
"... Li-... Lithyum. I'm Lithyum. Nice to-... Meet you," she whimpered, shivering as she spoke.
"My god, so adorable. I could just eat her up… No. Focus Tobias. Let's stay professional and behave in a mannered human fashion."
"I see… Well, Lithyum, nice to meet you." Freeing his right hand from the blankets, he held it out for a handshake. Lithyum examined the hand as if she didn't know the gesture. She then timidly used both hands to shake Toby's. After letting go, she looked her palms with intrigue silently.
"... Cuteness… Overload… Gaaah!"
Making one final attempt at suppressing his inner creep, Toby shook his head. "I, uh… I am feeling kinda hungry. This might sound... Weird, but could you feed me some of that delicious smelling soup you brought? I'm kinda sore from… you know."
"O-oh! Right! Uh! Right on it mister Karston!"
"Mister? I'm not that old, right? I mean, compared to her I probably am. How old is she anyway? Did she really defeat that albino dragon, despite her age? So many questions."
"Alright. Open wide. Here comes a little birdie."
Before he knew it, Lithyum was already holding a spoonful of tomato soup before him. Opening his mouth, Lithyum slowly fed him the soup. While it was still a little too warm, the taste was absolutely wonderful. It was just like the soup his mother used to make, if not better. He hadn't eaten anything so delightful since before he was transported to Gamindustri.
Swallowing the soup, Toby felt the need to praise the girl for her cooking skills. "This is so good. Did you make this yourself?"
Lithyum, already holding another spoon before him blushed a little. "H-huh? Really? You really love it? Hooray! Toby likes my cooking!"
Eagerly opening his mouth for another helping of the soup, Toby let the delicious meal swirl in his mouth a little to savour the flavour. Because of the soup, Toby failed to notice the girl actually called him Toby instead of mister Karston or simply Tobias.
"Anyway," Lithyum said, preparing another spoonful of soup, "I should probably tell you a little about myself. I'm Lithyum. I'm eighteen and I work for the guild as an agent. I also love video games, flowers and rope. I'm also a professional duelist. No one can match me when it comes to fencing. I also kicked that mean dragon's butt and put all the loot in your inventory."
Answering all of his questions, Toby was a little spooked. Not only because it felt like she just read his mind, but mostly because she was actually a full year older than him.
"R-really now? That's… awfully nice of you."
"Tee hee… I got more praise," she said with a lovely grin. "... Huh… Did I say that out loud?"
"Did you say what out loud?" Toby pretended to ask, not wanting to further embarrass the girl.
"Oh… Okay… Is there anything else you want? Another blanket? A glass of milk? Maybe a cute teddy to cuddle with?"
"Uh… No, I'm good. Thanks. Mind if I ask one more question?"
Slightly tilting her head, the girl gave Toby a quizzical look. "Hm? What is it?"
"What exactly were you doing in that cave?"
Freezing in place, the girl's face lit up like a stoplight again. "I-, uhh… Well I-, Err… T-Toby. I… Err…"
"Hey, relax. You can tell me. I won't judge you or anything."
"R-really… Alright… Then…"
Lithyum put her spoon down and made an apologetic bow. "I'm sorry! I actually followed you inside and… And… You're always with such beautiful ladies. So I never really dared to approach you… Ever since you first stepped into the guild. But today you were all alone and… And I thought… But I was too shy to approach you, even when you were alone and-... mmm… This is hard!"
Toby's eyes widened as he awkwardly averted his gaze. "Is she saying she has been stalking me ever since I did my first quest? I mean… That's dedication, considering I've been here for about a little less than a month now. But why? Wait. She can't be trying to confess to me right? This is getting weird."
With girl before him practically at her breaking point, Toby decided to interrupt her once more. "A-actually, never mind. It's fine… Hey. You're probably wondering why I'm not with those 'beautiful women' anymore, right?"
The girl gave a weak nod in response.
"Yeah. Mostly because they kicked me out of their party. I've kinda been going on quests alone for some time now."
Shocked, Lithyum literally jumped the bed on top of Toby, causing him to let out a loud grunt. "WHAT!? No way! Why would anyone wanna dump someone as awesome, handsome, coolsome and 'other words that end with -some' as you!?"
"I dunno. I just… wasn't living up their standards, I guess."
Smashing her fist in the palm of her hand, the girl gave him a determined look. "Well no more! From now on, you'll be the party leader of our party! That way you'll never be alone again."
"... Our party? Wait. You don't mean-"
"Uh-huh! We're going questing. Together. No questions asked."
Toby looked the girl over once more. "She doesn't look like much. But she did say she managed to defeat that Ancient Dragon and all. Actually. Now that I'm seeing her from this close. I can practically see inside her shirt and see her-"
Knowing where the thought was going, Toby quickly looked the other way. "NO! Look. The. Other. Way. Tobias. Now."
Lithyum, on the other hand, seemed to be oblivious to the fact that her chest was completely visible for him to see. "Hm? Hey. Toby. Are you feeling alright? Your face is turning really really red."
"I-I-I'm fine, Lithyum. I just, err, I'll let you join my party if you get off of me. Okay?"
"Really!? Yippie! I made a new friend!"
Jumping off, causing Toby to let out another grunt as she pushed herself off by pressing her hands against his ribs, Lithyum quickly took a selfie with her phone of Toby and herself. "And because I made a new friend, I made something new. I need to add this to my photo album!"
The girl eagerly rushed out of the room, looking as happy as a Neptune in a pudding store.
…
"Neptune… I wonder how they are doing. Anarchy Arena is in a few days. I wonder if they'll be fine."
Toby checked his watch. He had about 5 new messages from IF.
"... They'll be fine. I'm sure of it. Right now, I should just relax and have some fun with Lithyum… That's… Not as weird as it sounds. Good thing no one can read my mind."
A few days later
"Histoire. You called?" IF asked as she pushed the double doors to the meeting room open.
"IF. I am glad you could make it on such a short notice. Please. Take a seat."
IF sat down on the opposite side of the table from the Oracle. Histoire had asked IF to come meet her as soon as she could for an emergency meeting. Considering today is the final day before the Anarchy Arena event, the agent had a pretty rough idea of what Histoire wanted to discuss.
The tiny fairy cleared her throat and took a small sheet of paper from her hammerspace. "Now then. There are several things I'd like to discuss before I get to the main topic of this meeting. First of all, I'd like to tell you why I have only summoned you and not anyone else."
IF raised her hand like a student wanting to ask a question to its teacher. "I think I already know why. It's because of… You know. Uni."
Histoire nodded. "Close. But you are half right. Noire and Nepgear have both been feeling exceptionally down. While Noire seems to suppress her sorrows by training, Nepgear, on the other hand, has not left her room for days. I fear we may not get through this crisis with them both in such a state of dismay."
Histoire cleared her throat, trying to stay as professional as she could. "But… That subject is for another time. There is something else I would like to inform you about before we press on."
Taking another piece of paper from her hammerspace, the tome slid a few pictures across the table to IF. "These are pictures taken by the guild. They're from the excavation site Uni was found."
Taking one of the pictures in hand, IF examined it carefully, looking for any details she might've missed before. "Right… What about them?"
"According to my research, I have all the reason to believe that this excavation site was in actuality a burial site of an ancient, long forgotten evil CPU."
Putting down the picture, IF raised an eyebrow. "That's… an oddly specific detail. How'd you come to that conclusion?"
"After three days of research, I found an old folk legend in my records describing a place in Lowee similar to this one. The legend itself isn't as interesting. But if you are curious, it's about a warrior named Silver sealing an evil tyrant away. As legend speaks, he was a rather stylish fighter... Truly someone worthy of becoming a hero."
IF, looking the tome straight into the eyes, wondered whether or not Histoire was actually telling the truth. But she stopped doubting her when she realised she was serious.
"In any case," Histoire continued, "considering the only way to undo the seal was by using the blood of a CPU, I can only assume that this is exactly why Uni's body was this brutalised when Noire found her."
"So you're saying there will be another CPU running amok we have to worry about?"
Histoire shook her head. "Not exactly. Not only did these two heroes seal her away, they also trapped her soul in the Celestial Amulet. A necklace. This is the only record I have of this item. But it seems to be able to contain the soul of a CPU, or even a human."
"A soul container with the soul of a CPU. Why would Geoff need the soul of a CPU? Ugh. Just thinking about what kind of mayhem he could cause with something so powerful is making my head hurt."
"Indeed. This is something truly worrisome. But I'm afraid not even I have the answer to this, as I do not think Geoffrey is capable of reviving a CPU without her body."
Histoire, storing each of the pictures she took out back in her hammerspace, gave IF a serious look once more. "Now then. About the reason why I have summoned you personally..."
IF silently gestured Histoire to continue.
"As you know, our doctors are preparing Neptune for her examination as we speak. By tomorrow, she will be, I quote, 'cut open for further research'. I would never allow such a doctor to examine Neptune if I could have managed to find what exactly is wrong with her, but as it stands, he is the best man we have."
After all this time, not even Compa nor Histoire could find what was wrong with Neptune. And with each passing day, her condition seemed to be worsening. Running out of options, the tome called for the best doctor in Gamindustri. This doctor, however, has a questionable method of operating. While he keeps it mostly a secret, his assistants have seen him use everyday objects such as vacuum cleaners and duct tape while operating.
But in the end, it's the result that matter. And each of his patients did survive and lived their lives normally after their operations.
"Right. But we're still one member short," IF commented.
The day after she kicked Toby out of the party, she had already found a replacement. One of her old friends, Falcom, happened to just be in town. Eager to help her friend in need, Falcom didn't hesitate to take Toby's place as the eighth member. But now that Neptune is no longer able to participate, it seems like Falcom will instead be the seventh participant.
"Indeed," Histoire responded. "IF... As it stands right now, we are clearly running out of options. You said you have started looking for a replacement for Neptune about a week ago, correct?"
"Yeah," IF answered with hollow tone. "But... This is going to sound crazy, but everyone I was going to ask went missing as of late. RED, 5pb., Cave, Broccoli, Tekken, Marvy, everyone. No one has seen them for days," IF grimaced at the thought. "And I don't want to ask any agent from the guild either. They're just not the kind of people to enough fit in with the others. Not because they're weak or anything. But because most of them are lone wolves. We need someone that we know can perform well with others or we'll be digging our own graves."
"I understand. Then I hope you will also understand what I'm about to tell you."
Histoire leaned forward with both her hands on her lap, looking even more serious than before. "IF… We need to take Toby back in the party."
Alright, be honest with me. How many of you did not see this coming? I mean, obviously, I wouldn't kill of Toby like that.
Hey there. Thanks again for reading. And also thanks for voting on the poll on my profile page (hint hint ;P). Anyway, I just want to quickly announce that I've found a replacement beta reader. He wishes to stay anonymous (I dunno why), but I can safely say he's already made a good impact on the story and on future chapters. Kudos to him.
For those who've read the announce, I decided to not use any BGM this chapter. It'll fit in better with next chapter's setting. So look forward to seeing it then.
Anyway, thanks for reading. Until next time.
