There's a story poll on my page. It's about what I'll write after all the short OC stories have been written and uploaded. With that being said, your feedback on that would be greatly appreciated.

[Chapter 11]

After all the introductions, the food had been finished and we went out to eat in the cafeteria. There, I met Chian.

"So, you're the girl Neptune was talking about..." She stared at my body. Honestly, even though I was a cyborg, it was still kinda creepy to get checked out. "I must say, the parts that were implemented into you are quite amazing and are of pretty high quality..."

"Really?" I slurped on the dipping noodles. "I never really thought much about it."

Chian was a woman with pretty pale skin, short blue hair and yellow eyes. She didn't seem quite old, but she looked as if she spent most of her time indoors. Probably making things...

"Well, as a fellow manufacturer, I know those parts are pretty expensive and are top-of-the-line," Chian continued, taking a sip from her tea. "Tell me, who implemented those parts into you."

I shrugged. "Some company named Avenir..."

"AVENIR!?"

Everyone had stopped eating upon hearing that name and were looking at me, dumbfounded.

"Wait! So you're telling me you got turned into a cyborg by Avenir?!" Neptune questioned. "Those dumb people that had tried to ruin Chian's life and trapped us that one time?!"

"You mean those people who are trying to ruin Lastation's reputation?!" Noire also seemed to have a connection with these people.

"You mean that company with that faggot of a representative?! The one who thinks I'm not the real CPU of my own damn nation?!" Blanc seemed to have a strong hate for them too.

"… Um..." I was taken back by all of the sudden questions. "I-I'm not sure... I just know that they're a company that fixed me up and are hoping to compete in the upcoming expo. Apparently, it has something to do with their client, which I'm pretty sure is Arfoire."

"I see..." Chian's look turned grim.

"If that's the case, they probably have a plan to kill the CPU and win the expo," IF suggested. "Since that's tomorrow, we have to come up with a plan as to what they have up their sleeves..."

Chian nodded. "Right... After all, Lady Black Heart is supposed to be there."

Apparently, Chian didn't know that they were all CPUs. I don't know how, but I did know that wearing a pair of fake glasses wasn't going to help the case.

Noire looked over at me. "Hikari, do you know what they're planning? You seemed to know a bit of what they were doing."

"Not much," I replied. "Originally, I had been told that they were making a machine capable of defeating the CPUs because that's what the client had asked for. Ganache had said that, in case that had failed due to flaws, I would be the backup. But I ended up refusing their offer to find the answers I needed."

"So you were supposed to be a backup?" I nodded at Vert's question. "They must've known that their machinery would have a flaw..."

"If that's the case, then why don't we just use Chain's weapon and beat up the machine with it?" Neptune suggested. "It's what we've been doing and Hikari even said that there were some flaws in the machine! If that's true, methinks we can just use those flaws to our advantage!"

"Wow, Nep-Nep sounded so smart!" Compa just praised her. However, there was a mistake in her plan.

"It's true that they have flaws in their machine," I admitted. "But don't you think they would have fixed it? Even if they didn't, we wouldn't even know what it was. We still need to be cautious about this."

Neptune slumped in her chair. "Ugh, you're so lame! I actually used my awesome geniusness to think up that one!

"Must not have been that genius then..." Blanc quietly said, reading a book while she ate her food.

"Well, I say that Chian just works hard on finishing her weapon for now and then we'll just have to be prepared for the expo," IF said. "That's the best we can do."

Chian nodded. "Right. Until then, I'll work hard on finishing the weapon. Since you guys got the ores and materials I needed to finish it, I'll be able to finish just in time!"

Wait...

"Hey..." I looked over at Neptune. "So, when I met you at that cave, were you trying to get those ores for Chian...?"

"Yupperoni!" Neptune formed a wide grin. "Thanks for that too!"

"What should we do while we wait for tomorrow?" Noire asked.

"Don't be dumb," IF quickly answered, shooting a look at Neptune. "That means you, Nep."

"Iffy, you need to take a chill pill!" Neptune said. "I'll have you know that I know how much 67 cups of pudding costs, plus tax!"

"That might just have something to do with the fact that you buy it so much," Noire said. "Besides that, you don't really think before doing anything..."

"Why do you all gang up on me!? I'm useful and the protagonist! Come on!" Neptune just continued to whine.

"Hahaha!" Chian just laughed. "Well, just don't do anything stupid. After all, tomorrow is the day when we have to compete against Avenir. Just try to get a good night's rest and be prepared as best as possible tomorrow."

"Right!"

We all nodded and proceeded to finish our food.

I sat in the room where I had been resting. It was a spacious room filled with rows of beds. This was where everybody slept. However, it was sometime in the evening and everyone was out doing their own thing. I was just laying on a bed, staring up at the fluorescent lights and thinking, once again, about all that had happened.

Vert's offer was still fresh in my mind from earlier.

"…"

"Simply put, we'd like for you to join us in taking down Arfoire..."

At the time, I hadn't accepted nor denied their offer, so it still loomed over me.

Now, it wasn't really a matter of my hate for the CPUs; it was quite the opposite.

I had been tricked and had ended up helping Arfoire in the end. I didn't want to be a liability to them, yet I did want to help considering Arfoire was the one who had ruined my life.

But one thing that I had begun wondering was why all the CPUs were working together, rather than fighting one another in the Console Wars?

"…" I closed my eyes, letting my head sink into the pillow. "There's a lot to think about..."

"Oh, Hikari?"

Opening my eyes, I turned my head to the door. Standing there was Noire, who looked surprised to see me in here. "Hey, Noire. What's up?"

"N-Nothing!" She quickly sputtered, averting her gaze for some reason. "I-It's not like I was hoping you'd be in here or anything!"

"…" Even an idiot wouldn't fall for such a blatantly obvious lie. Well, actually... "R-Right. Well, did you want to talk? I've just been sitting here and thinking anyway."

"Y-You wouldn't mind?" I shook my head at her question. "Sure, but only cause you asked for it."

Clearly, she wasn't being honest with herself. Too bad she sucked at hiding it...

I looked over at Noire while she looked down at her legs. For some reason, she was blushing a bit. "Can I ask you something, Noire?"

"H-Huh?" She snapped from her thoughts and quickly turned her head up to me. "Y-Yeah, sure... W-What is it?"

"What happened to the Console Wars?" I asked. "I had been assuming that you four had been fighting up in Celestia forever. So why are you all down here and working together?"

"…" My question had seemed to surprise her. "Well, at some point, we had all ganged up on Neptune and defeated her, knocking her off of Celestia too. She had seemed to also gain amnesia from that too. Before we could continue fighting, the situations we had been ignoring down in our nations had gotten worse. Because of that, we had been forced off Celestia to deal with our nations.

"You know what had happened in my nation, but similar problems had also occurred in the other nations due to Arfoire. But, Neptune had begun to travel around the nations to look for Key Fragments for a person named Histoire, who they were trying to help. She had come here before and had helped me out. At the time, I had refused to join her, so she continued to the other nations to help them. Eventually, because of Arfoire, Blanc and Vert ended up joining Neptune in her journey for the Key Fragments and stopping Arfoire. I guess I got somehow dragged into it too."

Noire finished her explanation and let out a long sigh. "Sorry, I didn't mean to ramble too much."

"No, it's fine," I shook my head. "Thank you for telling me, it really helped. And, again, thanks for giving me the answers I needed. I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't done so..."

"I-It wasn't anything special!" Noire stumbled over her words. "I was surprised that it was you who had been destroying Lastation though."

I shrugged. "Sorry, but I couldn't think of any other way to draw you out for answers."

"Well, at least it's all sorted out now," Noire smiled. "Can we be friends though?"

I returned her smile with my own. "I already said so. So, sure."

We shook hands.

Maybe I hadn't been like this before, but I didn't want to go back to being the blind person I used to be.

I wanted to live this life, with these people.

With a will to protect them and atone for my sins through action...