Chapter 8
Pov (Kaito)
Planeptune Basilicom
An hour after Breakfast
"So, Neptune, what kind of quest do you want to do today?" I asked, "Preferably not in the Virtua Forest area."
"Why not there?" the girl in question asked, "Just an easy fetch quest for today."
"Well for starters your sister and I had a spar in a successful attempt to bring out her true power. Secondly; that's fine so long as you talk with a few of your citizens while we're out." I said, "The whole point of us going questing while i'm here is to raise your nation's Shares."
"Fine!" She said letting out a defeated sigh, "You're just like Noire when it comes to work."
"Sorry for trying to look out for someone that I consider a friend!" I snapped, "I don't want to see the nation that I was born in fall!"
"Yeah; yeah whatever you say mister." Neptune said dismissively, "We might as well leave now."
"Fine by me. The sooner we leave; the sooner we get back." I said appealing to her lazy nature, "We'll play whatever game you want if you complete your quest before I finish mine. We have a deal?"
"You're on!" she exclaimed, "No one can beat me when I get serious."
"Histoire! Gear! We're leaving." I called out, "We'll be back in a while!"
"Be safe you two!" Histoire yelled back, "Especially you, Kaito."
"See you two when you get back!" Nepgear yelled from her room.
Three hours later
Planeptune streets
"I can't believe that you beat me!" Neptune whined, "I was looking forward to showing you how fun games can be."
"Noire and I play games together occasionally." I said, "She said she wanted to make up for lost time."
"Whatever!" she said depressed. "You leave tomorrow anyway."
"True, but we still have the rest of today." I said, "We could easily help your people out around the town."
"Let's just get back to Neptower. I'm too tired for this today." she said.
"Fine; you did work rather hard on your quest today." I said, "We'll have to do this again the next time I have an extended visit."
Neptower
20 minutes later
"We're back, Histy!" Neptune yelled as we walked out of the elevator and towards her room.
"You two were gone for quite awhile." Histoire said floating into the room, "Did your quest go as planned?"
"Sort of." I said, "After we turned it into a competition; Neptune didn't want to stop until she beat me."
"What were the stakes?" the little fairy asked worriedly.
"I'd play whatever game she wanted with her if she won." I said, "I won though."
"Well it's good that Neptune finally did her job; although I can't say I agree with her motives." Histoire said, "I'm happy that you seem to be making friends with all of the CPU's."
"Blanc's going to be the hard one." I said, "Noire said something about going to Lowee next week a couple of days ago. I'll stop by to see Blanc and the twins if I can."
"You do that." she said, "From what I saw Rom and Ram seemed to like you. That's never happened with someone they had just met."
"I try my best to be a likeable person." I said, "When do you think you'll have my trainer ready for me?"
"By the time you leave with Noire and Uni." she responded, "If I don't have a person to train you; I'll at least have a guide for you. Noire should be able to help you after that."
"That's fine." I said, "I plan on taking the both of them to that place when they come to get me."
"You don't mean there!? Do you?" she asked shocked.
"Yes I do, Histoire, I already took Nepgear there yesterday." I said, "After that we had our spar."
"You really have opened up haven't you?" Histoire asked.
"Yes I have. I have a favor to ask of you though, but please keep this a secret." I said.
"What favor?" she asked.
"If you can try to find out if there's a form beyond HDD. Before you ask why; the reason is while I was sealed inside Uni the Shares flowing through her showed me the CPU's, who were in HDD, transform into an even higher form during a very difficult time." I said, "If you find anything on this let me know; I don't care how long it takes."
"I'll make sure to do that then." she said, "I'll keep it a secret for as long as I can, but this may take me 3 months to find."
"So long as you're sure it can be done. I don't want you to tire yourself out on a wild goose chase." I said, "I love you like I did my mother, I came to see Nepgear as a little sister yesterday, Uni kinda feels like a daughter to me after the work Noire and I put in plus my sacrifice to keep her alive, and I have feelings for Noire that I can't quite place."
"You really have grown from that little three year old boy I met all those years ago." Histoire said, "You never wanted to talk to anyone about your father after that incident."
"I know; don't remind me." I said, "Shortly after that I started to put my faith in Black Heart more than the other CPU's; which was when you moved me to Lastation after making sure I was okay to live on my own."
"At the time I didn't know what to do with you, so I asked Kei to set up a residence for you." Histoire said, "I couldn't keep you hidden in the basilicom much longer than I had."
"I understand and it was for the best." I said, "Anyway you can get back to whatever it was that you were doing. I'm going to see if Gear wants to show me around Planeptune more."
"Have fun." Histoire said floating back to her room, "I'm sure she will. She told me about everything the two of you did yesterday. Nepgear has taken to you like a younger sister."
Walking towards Nepgear's room the door opened. "Oh! Kaito, your back earlier than I thought." the girl said.
"Neptune fizzled out after a few quests, so we came back." I said, "I was wondering if you would like to show me around Planeptune a bit more before I leave tomorrow."
"Sure!" the girl said excitedly, "Just give me a few minutes to get ready."
"Take your time. It's only one in the afternoon and we have until eight tonight." I said, "We can take as long as we want today."
"After the fun we had yesterday; I wouldn't want to waste even a second!" Nepgear said, "You're one of, if not, the only guy friend that I have!"
"Just get ready so we can go already." I said deadpanning.
