Strangely enough, this time, there wasn't anything weird that happened when I writing this.
*Opens mailbox, is crushed by overflowing stack of paper*
Krking: While the Blink Dagger's effect is definitely something I could imagine the SI picking up and cherishing, the overall shape of the 'Dagger' is not only an eyesore, but also the exact wrong kind of dagger to use, for his method of attack. Seriously, the thing looks like a weaponised banana, and the only thing that shape of knife would be good for would be slashing. All in all, unless that effect comes in a puncturing knife, I doubt that dagger will see the light of day.
Truemmerphantom: I am a horrible person.
"So... How exactly do you know about so many different universes, then? Do you dimensionally travel a lot?" asks IF, head still tilted in my direction.
"I've seen worlds live, and I've seen worlds die. Often not through my own eyes, but from the eyes of others, from the eyes of the guilty, and from the eyes of the innocent. I've watched those that I've come to care for be slaughtered like animals, or to turn on their friends and family. I've seen corruption and hatred where was once trust, I've seen death and mourning where was once joy. I've watched you die, dozens of times. I've watched us all die." I answer.
"I... I can't imagine."
"It breaks you. Bit by bit. At first, it's horrifying. You can't understand what you've seen. You hold onto the pain, as it eats away at you, bit by bloody bit. But eventually, the worst part comes."
"The worst part?"
"The worst part is when, the time comes for you to lose another piece of yourself, the time to give up just a slight bit more of your pain, but you find nothing remaining. You are hollow, you are empty. There is nothing left, and the pain no longer stings your flesh. You know I'm not quite sane, yes? It'd be difficult to remain sane, after having experienced what I've experienced."
To Broach Or To Put up: I wish you luck as well.
TrueOverlordBear: Yaaay, friendship points!
Bestboy: Done. I'm already told that, whenever I laugh, that I sound like a deranged psychopath. Channelling that for intimidation factor would definitely be doable.
Ligoya: I do not like Vert, mostly because honestly, she doesn't have enough substance to her character for me to be really attached to her. I mean, Noire constantly has the gags involving her, along with being Neptune's best friend. Blanc, while also a flat character (in more ways than one), is drawn into the spotlight by the trouble-making twin sisters, plus I really enjoy the 'angry quiet girl' character archetype.
Vert, on the other hand, has... what exactly going for her? Besides the MMO addiction (which honestly cheeses me off for a different reason - Whenever someone brags as much as she does about their characters/achievements/un-killable max-defenses doorstop tank, I have the urge to strangle them through their screen. Either that, or build a displacement cheesemage and see if I can't force them into somewhere they can't get out of), all Vert has going for her are pseudo-fanservice, (which mostly is used as a gag to annoy Blanc), and later, stealing Nepgear. I mean... Okay, I guess.
Oh, and because if I told them I liked all of the goddesses except for Vert, they'd be stuck arguing for a couple of minutes, more than enough time for me to get the hell out of dodge.
"Okay, so we'll check out the guard's recommendation. If that doesn't go through, we'll pop into the iron mines, and go from there."
That's the plan, as IF has just so eloquently stated. I suppose the first thing to do, however, is to make sure the guard is in fact still there.
Compa's walking a lot closer to me than she was before. Was saying that much really enough for her to begin trusting me? I suppose I'll take my blessings as they come, but I still feel guilty.
I'd tell them…
Would I, though? My memory is not only foggy at times, but I don't know everything. I don't know where each place is, I don't know each character inside and out. My 'experience' is one of an outsider, of someone who sees numbers, rather than people.
And what may be good on paper, might not be so in practice.
Compa just caught my eye, and probably saw me frowning, because she just shot me a quick smile.
She's right. I need to stop worrying. We have a job to do.
"Oh hey, Gramps!~" speaks RED. It seems she's found the guard.
"I'm only in my early twenties…" murmurs the guard in mounting annoyance. "Besides, why are you calling me gramps, if that guy with you is at least as old as I am?"
RED turns to me, quickly scans me, and then shrugs. "He might be an old guy too, but at least he's funny.~ You're silly too, but I like him more than I do you.~"
I blink at the short girl. "Is that supposed to be a compliment?"
In the corner of my eye, I can see the guard remove an aspirin container from a jacket pocket, before downing a dose. And then another.
"Don't worry!~" chirps RED. "We'll remember to bury you somewhere nice.~"
The guard clears his throat, likely having something to say. Of course, like the good protagonists that we are, we entirely ignore him.
"I'm only twenty!" I shout back, before I pause. "Uh… Actually, I might be twenty one…"
Actually…
"What year is it again?" I ask, as I turn towards IF. IF usually knows things. That assumption hasn't been wrong yet.
IF stares back at me blankly. "You're kidding me, right? How exactly did you manage to forget your age? And how exactly do you not know what year it is?"
I roll my eyes at her. "Age is a number. Once you're old enough to drink, that number honestly doesn't matter. I swear, I've filled in forms with the wrong year more times than I could count."
The guard, on the other hand, has practically reached boiling point. I can almost FEEL the heat coming off of him. Again, I'm going to ignore that.
Okay, so I was born then… and assuming that time maps 1:1 in this universe, I should definitely still be twenty. Unless some space magic time fuckery messed with how long I was alive for.
Let's… pretend that isn't an option.
"Yeah. I'm twenty." I state, smile on my face, problem now solved.
"So, uhh… what were we doing again…" I utter, as I scratch my chin. "Anyone want to go check out one of the noodle places in a bit? Apparently, there's a place nearby with really good reviews."
"YOU!" screams the nearly-forgotten guard, finger vibrating angrily in our general direction. I can see steam practically coming out of his ears. "GO TO SEPTENT RESORT. KILL TAE-KWON CATS. I SWEAR TO LADY BLACK HEART, I AM NOT PAID TO DEAL WITH THIS SHIT!"
And then he runs away, pretty much screaming at the top of his lungs in frustration.
I think all of us blink at the guy's retreating form, before RED breaks the silence.
"Geez.~ What was his problem?~"
"Well…" I trail off, as I watch the guy continue to run. He runs nearly a block and a half, before swerving directly into a bar. "He DID swear to Lady Black Heart, so…"
IF shrugs. "True, at least he did that, so he isn't an ASIC goon, that's for sure. I mean, it was sort of mean stringing him along like that, but at least we know that we can trust him… somewhat."
RED looks confused for a moment, before turning back towards us. "Maybe that Oracle lady you were talking about hired him?~"
Holy crap, she made the connection. I could have sworn IF would have been first to make it.
"What the goodness? Kei is the one who wanted us to get the Hematite in the first place! Why would she be telling us where to find it?" exclaims Nepgear. "That doesn't make any sense!"
IF lowers her face to her hands. "No… it makes perfect sense." In a much quieter voice, she continues, "Man… I'm rusty. That's two in a row now… What's next…?"
"Iffy, what do you mean?" chimes in the nurse.
"This is exactly what Kei would do." states the agent, unable to keep the annoyance out of her tone. "She's a control freak: of course she knows exactly where to find the thing she's asking for. The only question is, why?"
There's shrugs all around. "We might never know, unless we find out for ourselves." I state. Regardless of intentions, it's time to get this show on the road. "We should get going, while there's still light."
It's a little past six by the time we arrive at…
Well, it's definitely not a pretty resort. While Rebeat was in pristine condition, Septent… isn't.
Jagged scraps of metal ring the edges of the platforms, marking locations where what had once been guardrails have fallen into the water. The platforms themselves are spattered with rust, from the rain, from the waves. There's even a few places where the rotten metal has fallen through entirely, revealing the roiling waves below. If not for the solid concrete pylons still holding up the edges of the many interlinked platforms, this entire structure would have likely already fallen into the depths below.
A few, slightly more solid structures ring the outer perimeter of the resort, but even those have fallen into disrepair. Dozens of holes, enough to not even keep out the rain, have all but ruined what structural integrity they had once possessed. The wind, when it does occasionally pick up, is whistling through the dozens of holes in the structures, producing an eerie, otherworldly noise.
Note to self. Avoid landing on the ground at all costs. Last thing I want is to need a tetanus shot. Or for Nepgear to have to drag me out of the ocean while in HDD. I can swim, yeah, but I don't want to take a risk with whatever monsters are in the ocean's depths.
Actually, I'm pretty sure Compa is able to administer tetanus shots. Hopefully she'd use a regular syringe, and not the gigantic battle-syringe, though.
"Ew…~" murmurs RED, as she kicks a loose chunk of railing into the water. "What a dump.~"
I can't help but agree. This place… definitely was abandoned for a good reason.
"Be careful where you step…" I mutter, as I glance at the dented ground below. "I'm not sure some of the rusty sections are able to support a human being…"
Our progress is rather slow as we make our way through the resort. Twice, I need to move my foot quickly, as the rotten metal fails below me. Luckily for the girls, though, I'm much heavier than them, so they aren't running into that sort of problem.
That might be because they aren't stepping in the still pools of water that have formed upon some of the more battered sections, but honestly, only an idiot would do that.
… Says the idiot who almost just did that. Good job, me. There's of course monsters here, and they're definitely more strong than the ones in Rebeat - enough that I need to watch where exactly I stand, when I dodge out of their attacks. Honestly, the ghost things are the only real thing that survives multiple hits, and that's just because they refuse to go down.
Still, like everything else, continual slashing, stabbing, and bludgeoning does the trick, and even the most stubborn monster goes down in a blink. I'd say we're quite a solid team, already.
We're practically silent as we march forward, save for the occasional swish of swinging weapons, or the click of a person reaching down to collect the fallen chips. Honestly, it's almost as if we had turned on Symbol Attack, and Skip Cutscenes.
Oh, and while the others are handing their credit chips to Nepgear, I'm… Well, I'm not. Sure, that might make me a bit of a dick, but again, I need all the money I can get. Still, these things are only dropping chump change. The real money will come when I turn in my hunt quest for the ghosts.
"Uhh… Iffy…" begins Compa suddenly, as she hops over a small gap in the floor, "M… Derek said that Hematite was unrefined ore, right?"
IF follows her over, but nods towards the blonde. "Right, it's iron ore. I had a few of my contacts confirm it, but yeah, Derek was right about that."
"So… where would monsters that live here get iron ore from?"
There's blinks all around. I don't even need to go airborne: my long legs are more than enough to bridge the gap.
"That's… a good question." answers IF, as she scratches her head in confusion.
"Maybe the monsters eat iron, or something?" guesses Nepgear. "There's definitely enough metal around here to make a good chunk… And it'd explain why this resort is such a mess..."
"They're cats, Nepgear." I interject. "Not goats. I don't think they eat metal. And even if they did, that'd just be a chunk of iron, not a chunk of iron ore."
"Yeah!~" chirps in RED, closing the distance to the rest of us with a running leap. "That sounds like something a giant rock monster would do!~"
"I don't think we'd find any rock monsters out here, RED." answers IF, tone flat.
I restrain a snort.
"Something the matter, Derek?" asks Compa.
"But what if it wasn't a rock..." I begin.
"It wasn't a rock?~"
"It was a rock… LOBSTER!" I shout.
Worst joke ever, although the guitar riff playing in my head is just as awesome as it always is.
"You're weird.~" states RED, eyebrow raised.
I smile back at the redhead. "I know. That's why you girls bother to keep me around."
Again, we fade into silence, as we continue our march over the rusted metal. Honestly, there's enough rusty metal here to fill its own personal scrap yard.
"Okay… So the cats should be somewhere near here?" asks Compa.
Even though all of us have stopped… why can I still hear footsteps?
Tamp… Tamp… They're distant, but I can definitely hear them over the whistling. The acoustics of this place are a mess.
"Oh, there they are!" states Nepgear, finger pointed forwards. I can vaguely see the outlines of something, or rather several somethings: it seems her eyes are much better than mine. Or because I'm not entirely focused on where she's pointing.
My attention is on the area around us.
Tamp… Tamp… Tamp… The noises... They're closer… and coming from… behind?
…
"AMBUSH!" I shout, as I whirl around, knife in hand. With the momentum of the pivot, I hurl my left knife into the noise.
It really says something about how much my credibility has risen; all four of the girls immediately draw their weapons and turn. Either that, or they had already drawn their weapons to face the cats, and I was just lucky.
Unfortunately for us, I… might've jumped the gun a bit.
A lot. I jumped the gun a lot.
"Drop the… ACK!" cries Uni, as she barely dodges my thrown knife. The dodge is sloppy, and she nearly falls into the ocean.
The knife, on the other hand, continues past the black-haired Candidate, and falls into the ocean with a splash.
Crud.
This… probably wasn't a good idea. How could I forget that Uni was supposed to show up here?
"What… What the hell, Nepgear?" Uni sputters, in an angry, slightly confused voice. "Are you TRYING to kill me?"
"Oh… uhh… Hi Uni!" stutters Nepgear, as she banishes her saber, completely forgetting about the cats behind (actually forward, but we've all turned a quick one-eighty) us. "Derek, this is Uni, or as you probably know her, Lady Black Sister, the CPU Candidate of Lastation!"
And that single line redirects the entire fiasco onto me. Greaaaat.
"Yes… I might've jumped the gun a bit there. Sorry." I admit, eyes to the ground, as I banish my remaining knife. "I'm… so sorry. This place creeps me out. I have no idea why they haven't torn it down yet."
They of course haven't torn it down, because it's storing the Mascot. After all, no one would ever consider looking for something so important in a scrap heap like this.
Uni raises an eyebrow in my general direction. "Lady… When did you recruit someone from Lastation?"
"Oh…~ Is this the one of the other CPU Wifeys?~" chimes in RED, suddenly extremely interested in the conversation.
"Wifeys?" murmurs Uni, eyebrow now practically buried in her hairline. She closes her eyes for several moments, perhaps counting up to some value in her head, before turning to back to Nepgear. "Okay, I know you three were desperate, but seriously, why did you decide to recruit such weirdos?"
"We mostly recruited them because they bailed us out of a tight situation back in Planeptune." states IF.
I shoot the agent a betrayed look, but if she sees me, she continues on without breaking her stride. "But they can fight, and having back up is never a bad thing, right?"
Ouch. Yeah, that's probably not the best thing to say to Uni.
"Pfft." spits Uni, as she glances over at us. It's… well, I'd say its closest approximate is a glance of scorn. "Or, you could become so strong, you don't need backup."
Nepgear blinks back at the black Candidate. "But why would you want to?"
"Bah, what do you know? Besides, what are you doing here, anyway?"
I want to say something, but…
"We're looking for Hematite for Miss Kei. Apparently, the cat monsters over there…" Nepgear gestures over her shoulder, where our feline foes await, "Are carrying a chunk of it. But IF and …"
"Ixnay on the eorythey!" I rather loudly whisper to Nepgear. She blinks twice, before shrugging.
Uni is giving me a look of utter confusion, but manages to get the conversation back on track quite handily. "Wait, you're looking for Hematite, too?"
"Wow! Hey Uni, if we're both looking for Hematite, then we should work together again!" cheers Nepgear.
Uni responds, but her tone is bitter, rather than angry. "No! I can do this on my own! And no, you can't take that Hematite!"
I don't know if anyone else hears the quiet voice following, "Not like you'd need my help… with the big group you've got there…"
Nepgear pouts back. "What? Are you still mad at me? Is that why you're so against helping us?"
"Umm… Derek, while Ge-Ge and Miss Uni are talking, we should probably do something about these monsters… It looks like they don't want to sit around any longer…"
A quick glance behind me reveals a trio of bipedal cats wearing masks, each about the size of a rottweiler. The hackles on the things are fully extended, which honestly makes them resemble giant puff balls slightly more so than that of a lean cat. Still, a monster is a monster, no matter what they look like.
Compa, IF and RED have already taken up aggressive positions, even while Uni and Nepgear were talking. I really need to pay more attention to my surroundings.
"Oh!" cuts in Nepgear, as she finally takes in the situation. "Wait, Uni, can you wait a second? I need to help out the rest of my team for a bit…"
And then she charges directly into the fight, leaving behind a gobsmacked Uni. "Is… Is she serious?" asks the raven-haired girl.
I can't help but stare at the Planeptune Candidate too. "I'm afraid she is…"
What do I call Uni? I mean, Lady Black Sister is probably what someone from Lastation would call her, but absolutely no one in the game ever gives her the title.
That might be because no one in the party from Lastation, but still, I'm going to avoid calling her that, at all costs.
"Oh… and um…" I begin. I'm gesturing with my hands. Why am I gesturing with my hands?
"Yes?" answers Uni, "What is it?"
"I'm... really sorry for throwing a knife at you." I answer. Blunt answers is probably the way to go. "But yeah! I'd feel bad for not earning my keep here, so I guess I better join them too!"
With a final nod in the Lastation Candidate's direction, I charge into combat. I don't linger long enough to see her reaction. Honestly, with an introduction as bad I just had, I… don't want to.
I close the distance in seconds. I briefly exchange glances with Compa a I pass her, before lunging in for my assault.
My first jab into one of the cat's midsection was probably slightly more frustrated than it should have been, but honestly, I feel justified in doing so. The fact that I follow up the stab with a scooping soccer kick, (which elicits a rather satisfying 'MROOOOWWWWW' from my furred victim as it gets launched) is probably just me being petty.
Compa's on the ball, by the way: she spears the now-airborne cat with the point of her syringe. And by spears, I mean the needle goes straight through the cat's midsection, causing the creature to thrash immobilized for a few moments, before it fades into binary.
RED and IF clean up the second cat in a nearly identical amount of time. It turns out, cats dislike being lit on fire, followed by being bludgeoned by toys. On the plus side, that action definitely put out the fire. On the minus, the cat was on fire for the rest of its life. It was also on fire for a remarkably short amount of time.
I don't even get to see what Nepgear does to the remaining cat: probably just straight up bisected the thing. From the lack of light shows, I'd say she didn't even need to go HDD to deal with it. All I know for sure, is that the thing was gone before I even managed to turn away from Uni.
All in all, the entire fight's over in about thirty seconds tops: barely even enough to work up a sweat. We quickly collect our spoils, hand the consumable items and materials to Nepgear for storage, and then do a quick scan to make sure we got all of the monsters.
"Well, that was easy." I say, as I roll my shoulders dramatically. My knives are banished, as I begin to turn back towards the Lastation Candidate.
Compa does a routine check-in, mostly to ensure none of us were injured (we aren't, poor monsters were barely even were able to react before we butchered them). Potential injuries checked, the rest of the group turn back to face Uni.
Uni, of course, is staring back at us, although I can see a brief glimpse of her mouth hanging slightly open. Still, she catches herself quickly, and recovers before any of the others turn around fully.
Nepgear is the slowest to turn back around, but when she does, she is clutching something shiny in her left hand.
"All right! We got the Hematite!" she cheers, but she follows her proclamation with a slight whine. "And wow, it's heavier than I thought it'd be."
"He… Hey!" sputters Uni. "Nepgear, that was pretty rude, just leaving me when I was in the middle of talking!"
"Oh… Umm... I'm sorry." answers Nepgear. Her sword's gone in a blink, and she's back to being awkward.
Uni pauses to take in a breath, before she raises a finger towards Nepgear. "Nepgear… I'm not leaving without that Hematite."
There's a moment of silence, as everyone (besides Nepgear) glance between each other. I can see IF mouth the word 'Flank?' to me, but I shake my head.
This is their fight. I'm not going to rob them of it.
"Nepgear… I need…" begins Uni, before she abandons her thought mid-sentence. There's a flash of light, as Uni's form is replaced with that of Black Sister, complete with her gigantic rifle. "Nepgear. I need to see which of the two of us are stronger. Duel me, and the winner will get the Hematite."
"I… I accept!" answers Nepgear, with not even a moment of hesitation. The flash of light as she summons her weapon is all but drowned out by the glare of her activating her HDD.