CHAPTER 14 . . . 50% DATA LOST . . . SECURITY SYSTEM ENHANCED . . .
CREATOR'S CONNECTION: LOST
ATTEMPTING TO RECONNECT . . . . . . FAIL. RETRY . . . . . FAIL.
NOTE: NONE FOUND
REVIEW RECEIVED . . . NO FEEDBACK FROM CREATOR . . .
FORCE START THE CHAPTER . . . COMPLETED.
Kurome's POV
This is not good. Not, good, at all.
I know about how it feels when someone you trust the most suddenly acts in the way you don't expect them to do the exact things they don't like doing so. I nearly get used to that, even more so after the person who pardoned me for all the things I have done to his closest people. I thought he would uphold what he believes in, and do not betray anyone.
But now, I don't know if I could believe in him anymore.
Kuro Orleans, who helped even the most corrupted person in Gamindustri regain her humanity, just denied offering his help to a person who has his sister being captured by his worst enemy. And then after that, he destroyed properties of an Academy without a warning. And even worse: the person who's basically him, T.O, is not responding to us for ten minutes already. We don't even know if the Creator is with us or not…
Raven decides to pull her sword out. Ozpin warns her: "I don't think it's a good idea…" "He can't be killed, right? This is to check if he's there or not." She swings her sword down… and it's grabbed by an extremely annoyed T.O. "I'm not in a very good mood, Raven. I advise you to not do so from now on." The woman sheathes her sword and smirks: "That's for pacing out and scaring us."
Ruby asks him in worry: "What happened, T.O? Why did Kuro suddenly act like that?"
T.O shakes his head. "I can't even get through to The Creator, let alone Kuro. It seems we lost connection to each other, so I don't know what Kuro or Creator is thinking anymore."
That throws us in constant fear, as I ask him: "What can we do now? Can you call his friends or his family?" "No. For some reasons I lost all authorities to try to see Kuro's mind, even when I still have my power. All we can do now is to see the world wrapping by itself."
Monty asks in concern: "But, can you guess why Kuro locked access to the secret basement of Beacon?" "No idea. That place lost its purpose when MAGES. is freed. Unless the Relic of Vale is there as well…"
Ozpin shakes his head. "No, the Relic is in different place." "Then I can't guess anything else that's the best situation here."
We turn silence for a bit… Then, Ruby says: "Let's…just watch. We might find out the reason in the future, like the last time…"
Ruby asks back: "What do you mean you didn't know sir?" "Well miss Rose, it's…" Then the elevator suddenly goes down, as the two look at it in concern, and a few seconds later, it goes up and stops, and Kuro walks out of it. Ozpin decides to stand on his way and asks: "Sir Orleans, what have you done down there? Professor Goodwitch was not happy that…" Kuro interrupts: "You don't need to worry about it. You will all understand…" Kuro then moves slightly out of Ozpin's position and starts walking again, but then stops as Ruby hugs him from behind. "Kuro, please, tell us. You just left without a word, and you just destroyed a part of the school. Please, there has to be a reason, right?" Kuro sighs. "Yes, I do. But, it's not the right time to tell you." He then pries her arms out and walks away…
Weiss: "This… this is… what is going on right now?"
Blake: "No clear answer… Nothing is making sense anymore…"
The exchange's recorded and watched by Cinder's team, as Mercury asks Emerald: "Okay… Did you do something to him?" "Obviously not. He's immune to my Semblance. And I haven't even manipulated anyone of his friends as well."
"I feel his power link being disconnected." The three looks at Sachi, who now looks like a normal teenage girl with no trace of craziness. "Not to where I'm from, but from somewhere else. He felt it, that's why his power's going crazy and unstable. He's no longer invulnerable. If you want to evade, now it's the good chance."
"Hmm… if he's vulnerable, then we don't have to rush it. We can enjoy this while you can." Cinder says with full confidence that they're able to take Kuro and his friends later on. "But that doesn't mean we're being careless. Mercury, Emerald, can you go and get us more details about their strength?" The two comply and walk out of the room. The 'maiden' then looks at the vengeful ghost. "Now, what do you suggest us to do?" "Just leave Kuro to me, I will personally deal with him, and then you can deal the final blow."
Jaune guesses, hopefully his words are true: "If what he's doing is to distract the enemies? I mean, it makes sense to lure enemies into wrong assumption, right?"
Everything thinks about his words… It's true, too many times Kuro has done that, but they're not this extreme. It could be because this world is worse than the previous ones, but that still doesn't make sense…
And T.O agrees with me: "Even when it makes sense, it doesn't to Kuro. He wouldn't use these extreme methods like this. But, if what Sachi said is true, then maybe his power got conflicted that made him unable to control himself, so he has to…"
Summer asks him in concern: "Have you…" "Still nothing."
Nora: "Hey, can you call anyone to ask for help? Like, from Gamindustri and all?"
T.O then goes into freezing mode again, but only for 5 seconds: "It seems I can. But, who should I call?"
I say, uncertainly: "I think to this point… We have to call Iris Heart…" And T.O looks at me like I just grew a second head. "Are you… sure about that?" "Aside from his wives, which I doubt it wouldn't work, she's the only one that can scare him." "Maybe…"
He follows my advice and starts calling mini Histy… "Oh, T.O? What do you need from me?" "Where's Plutia, Histoire?" Upon hearing her name called correctly, she knows we're in a bit of trouble. "What happened from your side?" "Just, call her please. This is urgent." "I see… Plutia, T.O is calling." After a few more seconds, Plutia appears on the screen. "Hey T.O! Long time no see! You want to…" "Transform into Iris Heart, Plutia. I need seriousness here."
"NONONO! T.O, are you crazy?" Ultra IF immediately reaches to the screen and screams into it. "What do you need from her that…" Upon looking at his face, she knows there's problem. "Is…is something wrong?" "IF, please, for once, let us be." IF looks at Plutia, then looks back at us, and goes out without another word. And with that, Iris Heart appears. "My oh my, I never thought you boy would ask me to come out. What's the occupation?"
"I'm teleporting you to Remnant, where Kuro is in now. There, find him, and make him spill out what he's doing." She's still not knowing what's gotten to us, so she takes his ordering as: "You boy want to be punished, that you order me that? I would…" "Iris Heart, this is serious. Kuro looks like he's ready to blast anything off regardless of what it is. I doubt his wives can do anything about this. Please, help us." Iris Heart looks at T.O's face to see if there's any lies there, but none is found. "That problematic?" "Yes. So, be ready." Then Iris Heart's body is enveloped in a light and disappears…
And appears in Kuro's house, and faces him directly from the other side of the table. And he's not looking pleased, as he's focusing at the blueprints on the table. "Hello Plutia. Sorry, but I'm not in the right mood to greet you. Can you go and…" Kuro's chin then gets grabbed by her and his head's moved up so his black eyes can meet her iris ones. "Now, Kuro. You're making you friends worried. You should apologize to them. And tell us what happened to you." "Nothing happens." "Oh really? Then why did I see the faces of many people who just looked like they got spooked?" "Probably because of…" "Even when I'm Plutia, so that's not the case." … Kuro then swats her hand out and walks away. "Sorry, but I have no time to play. You can find…" He's interrupted again as he hears the crackling sound of lightning emitting out of Iris Heart's weapon. "It seems you need to be punished my boy. Now, what should I do to you for not obeying your Mistress?" Kuro's face is facing the ground a bit, so his hair is covering his eyes. Then, a brief second before the screen turns off, a katana appears in his right hand…
Oh no… Kuro opposing against Iris Heart… This is not good. Not… good…
T.O rubs his face in annoyance. "This is getting worse… I would NEVER think Kuro would fight against Plutia like this…"
Ren: "You mean he never did that before?" "Not through real fighting. This is not the same like lover-bickering, but rather… I don't even know what to say anymore…"
Monty: "So… do you know anyone else?"
TAN is walking back to their room, as Tilith asks Nepgear in worry: "Did you know what's going on with Kuro?" "I… don't know either. Goodness, suddenly acting up without any explanations…" Then, all of them widen their eyes when they see their room door missing, and the doorframe indicates that something has slammed through it forcefully. Adam asks in disbelief: "Someone broke into our room?" The trio then walks into their room to see it's completely wasted. "What the… hell is going on?"
"Nepgear! Tilith! Adam!" They turn back to see a worried Velvet. "Kuro and Iris Heart are fighting against each other! And it looks like they're ready to kill the other!"
Blood on our faces drains away as we hear those words. Two powerful Deities, fighting to the death…
Nepgear: "What the goodness? Why did they…" Sword-clashing sounds appear in multiple spots on the sky, as they look through the smashed window in their room to see Kuro, in Hybrid Heart form, fighting Iris Heart with no signal of stopping soon. Then Adam spots Shanghai on the sofa, as he picks her up and asks: "What is going on here? Why is Kuro acting so weird like that?" The doll shakes her head, meaning that she doesn't know either. The Faunus looks to the fight, just in time to see Iris Heart kicking Hybrid Heart right down to the ground. He then puts the doll in a bag he found on the table, and runs out to the hall with the girls following him…
At the fight scene…
'The power they're emitting… it's definitely more powerful than the Maiden's power…' Cinder thinks, while watching the CPUs clashing swords, neither of them letting their opponent overpower themselves. Emerald and Mercury are hanging their mouths in shock due to the heavy atmosphere between the fighting Deities. Sachi only smirks, knowing something like this can happen everyday.
With a last strike, the two knock each other back a few feet away. Iris Heart's smirk is still there, but she's already tired a bit. "Ara ara, you for once decide to fight with all you have. That would make the punishment on your body will be more painful."
Hybrid Heart isn't having any of that. "Iris, if you value our friendship, then step aside and let me do my work."
Iris Heart whacks her whip-blade on the ground, creating even more sparks. No one has ever pushed her this far, not even the past Kuro. "I'm afraid not. My boys and girls are worried that you are…" That's her cue to stop a thrust move from Kuro's Gehaburn. "No mood for talk anymore? Then let's continue our fight."
Nora, the happy-go-lucky girl of the group, is not happy at all. "Come on, Iris Heart! Defeat him!"
Monty uses his shaking hand to grab tightly on his mug. "If this goes on more, Salem would push her plan faster."
T.O grunts. "The plan's ruined. I'm calling them…"
"AH!" Iris Heart shouts in pain as Hybrid Heart kicks her in the stomach, sending her bounce on the ground a few times before lying down on her back. Iris Heart slowly raises her head up, to see her opponent slowly walking to her, Share Blade emitting bright light, as Kuro raises it up…
"Phoenix Flare/Hydro Blast!" Two orbs of fire and water hit the Deity in the chest and send him back a good ten meters. He looks at the damage, then looks at the people who do the spell, to see Charlotte and Kirche pointing their staff and wand to him. They're standing between him and Iris Heart…
"What's wrong with you, Hybrid Heart?" Charlotte asks him, concern and anger in her voice. "Why did you attack her like that? She only wants you to tell us what you're thinking." And Kirche continues. "T.O is losing his composure as well. He told us that you didn't even help a person saving his sister. Where's the Deity that promised us to help everyone?"
Hybrid Heart's body sinks down a bit, as his hands slowly move the weapon down. Feeling the danger has gone through, the girls slowly move the staff and the wand down… Then…
T.O suddenly roars: "KURO!" And disappears...
Kuro suddenly grabs his swords tight and thrusts both of them to the unprepared girls. But T.O appears just in time and thrusts his cane to the flying Deity, hitting him right in the face and throws him off even further. As Hybrid Heart slowly stands up, T.O shouts to his other self: "Are you crazy? Even your own wife and her friend? I know you did bad things sometimes, but to have the guts to murder even them… what changed you that much? Him?"
Hybrid Heart doesn't answer as he prepares another attack. T.O sees it and calls out his mech. "If you do not talk and continue this, I will have to…"
What am I watching now? Death battle between brothers? All of us are holding our breaths, hoping for some miracles to stop them from fighting…
"WOULD ADAM TAURUS, KURO ORLEANS, COCO ADEL AND YATSUHASHI DAICHI RETURN TO THE ARENA? YOUR FIGHT WILL START IN A FEW MINUTES!" The voice of Peter Port snaps them off, as Hybrid Heart simply discharges his blades, pockets them and disappears…
We let out our breaths, as miss Glynda says in disbelief: "I thought it's going to be bloodshed…"
Ozpin doesn't say anything, as Ironwood shakes his body a bit to register what just appeared before him. "Can't believe that Kuro just changed like that… Could this go any worse?" Which snaps Ozpin out of his daze. "You just have to say it, don't you James?"
T.O grunts. "This is not going to end well." He then turns, makes the mech disappear and asks Iris Heart: "You alright?" "Not really." One of very few times would Iris Heart reveal her true feeling. Charlotte immediately works on healing her as the Goddess says her thank. Kirche then asks T.O: "What just happened?" "I don't even know. Never thought he would have the guts to do so. And the worse thing is that I lost my connection to both him and the Creator."
Charlotte asks him while continuing her work: "Mind giving us any details that could cause that?" "I do, but…" He looks around to see Paladins surrounding them with the guns pointing directly at them. "We're going to have a long talk with the Headmasters about this."
Ozpin's office…
Ruby, Nepgear, Jaune, Velvet are standing before Ozpin's deck, as the Protectors and White Fang leader are standing behind Ozpin's chair. They're watching the fight between Iris Heart and Hybrid Heart the camera system has caught on. After that, Ozpin speaks: "How's Iris Heart doing?"
Nepgear answers: "She's fine, but she gets sore in multiple places."
Ghira speaks, still not over with the scene: "I can't believe a pacific person like him would do this…"
T.O: "That doesn't mean he can't do so. What I'm more worried here is the plan. I can't call the Creator either, and Kuro would never act like this."
Jaune: "You said he suddenly acted up when he refused to offer help to an enemy, sir Ozpin?" "I did say so. You know him, so it's downright wrong when he did so."
Velvet then says: "My mother said he sometimes did so in the bad, but nowhere bad like this time…"
Summer asks me: "How bad did he…" "Overworking and such."
Qrow, for once, doesn't have the wine bottle in his hand. "You said a Deity can be corrupted, right? Then this could happen to Kuro, am I right?"
T.O: "I… won't lie, so I will say: Yes, it's possible. But that's highly in the opposite sides. The chance for him to be so is like the chance to tone down how often your Semblance acts up."
Glynda suddenly remembers about the double round, as she immediately turns on another screen to check, to see...
"KURO ORLEANS AND ADAM TAURUS WIN THE MATCH BY A GOOD STRIKE…LITERALLY." Coco and Yatsuhashi are laying on the ground, clearly confused of what just happened to them. A second they are preparing their weapons, and the next one they got hit by what seems to be a direct hit from a falling Bullhead and the explosion after that, and their Aura drains to red zone instantly. As they sit up to look at their opponents, they're surprised to see no smile on Kuro's face, as he walks away. They then turn to Adam, who shakes his head in confusion as well.
"Kuro is not himself anymore…"
Ruby shouts fearfully: "What are we gonna do? He could come here and kill us while no one knows!"
Raven is a bit scared of Kuro now, but doesn't let it view on her face. "That's probably more terrifying when we got chased by Grimm…"
Summer is thinking the same. "That one time didn't come close to this…Can't we find a way to backstab him?"
Oobleck: "Knowing who he is, I don't think it's possible."
Brave sighs in relief: "At least he didn't kill them…"
T.O: "That would be the worst case. I don't know what he's planning anymore…"
Nepgear asks Ozpin: "You lost access to the underground basement, right? Can I have a look at this?" "Sure, go ahead miss Planeptune." She nods and heads to the elevator and tries to hack into it. During that, T.O continues: "But due to the fact he's still using Gehaburn and Share Blade, corruption sounds ridiculous. So, it's his own doing."
The room falls into silence, as they register the words T.O just said…
Ruby notices me hyperventilating, as she hugs me from behind to calm me down: "It's okay, it's okay Kurome… calm down…" I nod and start regaining my steady breath… in… out… "Thanks, Ruby." "You're welcome."
Jaune asks me in concern: "What made you reacting like that?" "It's… I don't want to be sent into the isolate area of Zerodimension again…" 'I won't allow it. You can have my words for that.' 'Thanks, T.O.'
T.O then remembers a certain event: "Did he try to recreate that?"
Ironwood asks in confusion: "What?" "In the original, Yang fought Mercury, but Emerald manipulated her mind, so that she thought she countered his attack in the end, but turned out to be her attacking the stand-still opponent. That caused uproar all around Remnant, and led the Grimm closer to the Kingdoms."
Ruby asks back in disbelief: "Kuro's going to do something like that?" "Knowing how unstable he is now, it's possible. Even high chance it is."
Nepgear: "Can't we do anything about it?" "I'm… not sure… But the problem is, what will he gain from that? If he didn't do this, then it made sense that he lured them here for home advantages. Now… zero idea."
Ghira: "Lure them here?" "We were planning to fight Salem and Deity of Sins in Beacon… Ozpin, I thought you knew?"
The Headmaster sighs. "Yes. But, he did say he would provide protection…"
T.O: "I know he would. But… *Sigh* What we can do now is watch, and find out what the hell Kuro is thinking… Damn, I forgot something, I will see you later." Then he uses his teleportation to go somewhere…
Nepgear, knowing that we're watching them, asks me: "Kurome, can you see where he's going?"
I open another screen, to see T.O in team TANK's room but not Kuro's house, with Plutia sleeping in Kirche's lap on the bed, with Charlotte just notices T.O and immediately says: "Explain." Just one simple word, but that holds a lot of demands and her emotions in it: confused, anger, betrayed, hurtful, and so on… T.O sighs: "Even I don't know, Charlotte. I can't contact The Creator either, so we're in the dark now."
Kirche speaks in disbelief: "I heard you said Kuro got problems, I didn't think it would be this bad…"
Charlotte: "So now our training is to fight against him, not with him anymore…"
Ruby asks: "What training?"
Charlotte answers: "We didn't let Kuro know, but we feel like he's in trouble, so we're training to increase our strength to help him helping this world. But if the situation comes to this, we have no choice but to fight him."
T.O: "I hope we don't have to."
Adam then enters the room: "Have you seen Kuro anywhere?" T.O shakes his head. "No." "Damn… things are getting worse… luckily Atlas students haven't connected the dots yet. But they did show their concerns when they saw Kuro not smiling anymore."
T.O looks around the room one more, before teleports away to the past CPU's location. They're in a café which is not owned by the shopkeeper, as Summer notices his arrival. "T.O, did you know…" And he repeats exactly what he said before. Willow slams her hands on the table, making the glasses shake, and shouts: "That damn bastard dared to do so?" Kali covers her mouth with her hands in shock. "We are talking about the same person, right? Then why…" "Like I said. I don't know who to blame…" Raven asks: "You said he didn't help his enemy right? How about you save his sister?" "Not that I don't have the authority, but I don't know how to do so without involving… Thanks Neptune, you just gave me an idea. See you later."
He then reappears in team TANK's room, where he sees Kirche and Charlotte are laying at Plutia's both sides, hugging her and sleeping quietly.
"Oh, right! How could we forget that?"
Monty asks me: "What do you remember?" "Kirche has a bottle of Phoenix Essence. It could revive anyone with no problems and no consequences."
T.O: "Kuro should have used this option from the beginning." He then nudges Kirche, as she slowly sits up. "Urgh, what happened?" And that throws T.O off guard. "Kirche, what do you mean by that?" She then looks at the person, as she tries to remember: "Umm…we're just watching over Plutia, then… that's it."
"Oh no." That's all of us speaking in unison.
T.O: 'Yep, oh no.' "Kirche, check your item list. Can you find your Phoenix Essence?" She nods and starts checking… "I LOST IT!"
Taiyang shouts: "What the hell? How can she lose it?"
Ozpin gives out the worst scenario: "Kuro knew from the beginning."
"DAMN IT!" T.O snaps and punches the bed over his head. "Kuro and The Creator are working with each other! That's why even when he looked like he's out of control, he still hasn't killed anyone!"
Charlotte and Plutia wake up, as Plutia asks grumpily: "Boo, T.O. Why are you so loud?"
T.O says nothing and opens a small portal and pulls out from it a piece of rock, then tries to throw it back, but it just bounces on an invisible wall and drops to the floor. "Both of them blocked our way out! Kurome, stop all accesses to Remnant! We can't let anyone go here anymore!"
"Y…Yes. Give me a second…" I use my power to start closing the portals between worlds…
Summer asks me: "What's going on?" "It seems the portals to Remnant are one-way trips now. We can't let anyone else use them at the moment."
Ruby: "So T.O is stuck now?" "Unfortunately…yes."
T.O: "At least we're still able to communicate to the other worlds. What are we going to do now?"
Charlotte deadpans: "Then how about finding where Kuro is?" "Sorry to be rude, Charlotte, but if we could do so, we wouldn't have this goose chase."
"Uh, Charlotte? We got bad news." T.O and the girls look at the doorway to see Nepgear entering with the Sapphire ring in her hand.
"… Kuro is so dead after this."
Charlotte's face darkens as she receives the ring, and Nepgear's bad news: "Kuro said he needed to do what he's doing, in order to make sure his plans go smooth. He gave it back to you, with a message: He will be back to retrieve it." And her Aura flares up dangerously. "CHARLOTTE! Calm down please!" "Why should I? My husband's out there, doing unforgiven things to people. Do you think I should calm down now?" "Well, no, but…" "Charlotte, I think she meant by not scaring her with that." That earns T.O a glare from the furious mage, but she does let her Aura die down a bit.
"I don't want to change the subject…" Kirche speaks up. "But wasn't the plan planned to be executed during the final round?"
T.O: "Can't be so sure… With how screwed up the situation is…"
Nepgear then says: "I notice that the elevator isn't hacked." T.O immediately asks: "What do you mean?" "I mean, there's no hacking, and the button that is connected to send the elevator to the basement… connects to nothing."
Monty: "What do you mean by nothing, miss Nepgear?"
T.O: "Meaning it's no longer there… Why bother destroying it when you would just send it to another dimension, Kuro?"
Plutia: "It's like when we fought Yellow Heart in his lab…"
T.O immediately asks: "What do you mean?" "Well…"
Flashback
Anonydeath, after being defeated and his device's about to be destroyed, tries to tempt Nepgear: "Now dear, if you destroy it, you would lose circuitry and programs you can't never replicate in the future…" "PLEASE, STOP TELLING ME ABOUT IT!"
Purple Heart sighs at her sister's nervousness. "Alright, step back Nepgear, let us handle this."
Taiyang asks: "Um, why are their outfits looked different?" "This is the parallel version of Hyperdimension CPUs. They are from Ultradimension."
After a small vote, Ultra White Heart, Ultra Black Heart, Ultra Green Heart and Purple raise their weapons up and swing it down… only to be blocked by Kuro with his barrier up. Taking the small moment of them being shocked, he releases a shockwave that knocks them back. "Sorry, but the device's not going to be destroyed today."
Iris Heart's facial appearance doesn't show it, but she's surprised that he returned after he left them deal with Eden and Yellow Heart for years…
Raven: "So he betrayed them before…"
Present
T.O: "That actually made sense. Yellow Heart is Peashy, and he never wants to hurt her, but nobody else knows about it, so he decided to side with her for a while. Continue, Plutia."
Flashback
… And she's releasing her sadistic smile. "Ara Kury, so that's why you left us? You're siding with Eden?"
Kuro: "You could say something like that…"
"DADDY! DON'T YOU BULLY HIM!" Yellow Heart appears from somewhere and stands between Anonydeath and the CPUs. And the hacker 'cheers': "My dear! Thanks for being here! Did you follow him here?" And Yellow Heart asks back in confusion: "Who, daddy? I felt like you're in trouble, so I came over here…"
Purple Heart: "So now she has Kuro with her…things are not going well…" "Who said about siding with Yellow Heart?" Kuro says up, stunning the Hyperdimension CPU. "The code in Anonydeath's device is too value, it could help fixing the children-turn-monsters to return back to their normal life."
Ozpin tenses up a bit. "Care to explain, Kurome?" "Remember about the CPU's memories? That's enough for an explanation."
Purple Sister: "Goodness…then who are you siding with?" Kuro just smirks and draws out his katana on both his hands. "How about you girls find it for yourselves?"
White Heart growls: "Running your mouth like that won't save you." "You will see…"
But, for some reasons, Kuro is only in defensive stance, while Yellow Heart fights with all she has… And when Purple Sister shoots the last shot to Kuro, he just moves a bit to the left, and lets the hit destroy the device… But Anonydeath this time doesn't whine. "You got all the data, Kuro?" He raises his phone up. "All in here." And it's grabbed by the extended blade of Iris Heart's weapon, as she takes the phone to her. "Thanks for this, but that won't reduce your punishment…"
"Um, Daddy? Why am I feeling so tired?" Yellow Heart's body starts glowing up steadily, as her eyes are showing tiredness in it. Green Heart shouts in delight: "She can't maintain her HDD Form anymore! We will see who's the real girl behind that monstrous form of hers!" Which Iris Heart agrees: "I also wonder about that as well… I can hardly wait…"
"Even when she's Peashy?" That drops the truth bomb on the CPUs' heads as their smiles fade away and they look at the person who just said that in shock, before the light comes from Yellow Heart blinds them a bit…
"AW! I'm all tiny now!" "WHAT?" All of the CPUs shout out when they see the child who they thought they wouldn't meet again before them, who retained her appearance as when she left them. Then Iris Heart glares at Kuro, one of the 'culprits': "How dare you do so to our precious child! Wiping her memories and turning her back against us?" He just lets out a small chuckle, making the Deity want to step on him with full force. "The second half, yes. The first half though, I didn't do it. What I have done was blocking her memories. You can try to wake her up…" Then Kuro lets the CPUs a whole five minutes to try and recall Peashy's memories, but he knows how futile it is at the moment…
"Heads up, girls! I just activated the lab's self-destruct sequence! A minute later and this place will bury you down, if you're not fast enough…"
Pyrrha jumps up in disbelief: "That guy wanted to kill everyone there?"
Present T.O: "No. He would never do so. That's just a little distraction from him so he could escape there with Peashy…"
The CPUs nearly shouts when Kuro just sends the hacker a disappointed look: "Really Anonydeath? Scaring them like that? You haven't even installed one in the first place." "Oh come on now Kuro, don't ruin my running plan like that." The girls just release their breaths in relief, only to widen their eyes in terror as Kuro pulls out a remote and presses the button…
"WARNING! WARNING! SELF-DESTRUCTION HAS BEEN TRIGGERED! 5 MINUTES UNTIL THE PLACE GOES DOWN! ALL PERSONALS ESCAPE THE PLACE NOW!"
… Monty asks T.O: "Hey T.O, that didn't happen in the original, right?" "Yeah. Guess that's something being changed."
Purple Sister shouts with her body shaken: "What the goodness, Kuro? Why did you do it?" He picks up Peashy, who's whining a bit about her headache, and says: "Just to get away from you all for a while. The 5 minutes is to let you escape here safety." He then salutes: "For now, goodbye, and we will see each other again." Then the two and Anonydeath vanish in bright light.
Black Heart shouts up: "How dare he do this to us! I thought we're friends!"
Purple Heart suddenly says: "He still is. Let's get out of here first."
During the whole time, Plutia didn't say a word. And even when they have escaped, and noticed that there was no bomb…
Present T.O facepalms: "Okay, that confirmed that he was still himself that time…"
Ozpin: "How many times did he do so?" "Too many times to count. But all of them are just distractions, and they're harmless."
White Heart speaks after catching her breath: "Okay, Purple Heart, tell us why you still think he's our friend. That bastard let Peashy eat that damn Memory without caring about…" The Planeptune Goddess interrupts her: "Yes. That made sense when he abandoned us years ago. Because he wanted to make sure that P-ko won't be hurt after the transformation."
Green Heart: "Even when there's a chance Peashy was going to turn into a monster?" "Kuro definitely knew about it, but he didn't want to interfere too much. But he also said he didn't side with Yellow Heart… why did he said that?"
Black Heart interrupts: "Leave that aside. Plutia, open his phone, we need to know what data he has in it." "Um… but that's his phone…" "Does that matter? Just give it to me." The little CPU gives the phone to her friend, as the white hair girl opens the screen, just for it to start running a record: "Sorry girls, but my phone never has the data to do so. But I'm working with both Anonydeath and Mr. Badd to deal with it. For why I let Peashy turn into a CPU, you know me already. But, if you want to have Peashy back, then you must find anything that might trigger her strongest feelings towards you all. Also, Seven Sages is not evil, they have good reasons to oppose against us. That's all I can say for now. Oh and, try to gather more Share, we will need it a lot. Meet you in the future, Goddesses of Gamindustri." A little silence… "Oh, and the bomb was a joke."
Black Heart is a bit pissed that they're tricked again, but Purple Heart, due to being in HDD Form, says in relief: "So he's still with us. I'm glad."
White Heart then turns back to Blanc. "So all of that, just to prove that Seven Sages is not our enemy?"
Nepgear answers: "Could be. He knows about human feelings more than us."
Vert: "Well then, Kuro clearly gave us the answer for this, so we should return and prepare to fight him and Yellow Heart again, and this time we will succeed."
Raven: "So that situation is the same with the present, except now we don't even know his motivation and his strange behaviors. And this time, they're fighting against Grimm and the Queens…"
T.O pinches his nose bridge: "If, for some reasons, he allied with Dos…" And his chin's poked by the pointy end of Charlotte's staff. "Don't… you dare… think about that idea."
Nepgear shudders. "That's not something to say out loud, T.O." "Sorry about that."
Kirche: "T.O, how many people do we have here?"
T.O: "The past CPUs… IF and Compa and Clementine… Velvet, Gust and MAGES. … end."
"How… For some reasons the rest just returned to Gamindustri?"
T.O: "Hey, we can't control them. They do what they want to do. Anyway, at least in here we have Project. They are strong enough to solo the high-rank Grimm. And also the ally Grimm… oh damn it, what about Chaos and Death?"
"What about us?" The two mentioned appear on the top beds, as Death speaks: "Kuro told us to stay with you guys, something about 'don't bother to find out what I'm doing'." With Chaos continues: "Even this world Death is surprised that the Deity of another world would do something opposite to his normal behavior."
Charlotte: "Even us are the same, not just… him?" "Yeah, him." "Did Kuro say anything else to you all?" "Nothing else."
T.O sighs. "There's nothing we can do now. Let's rest before we all collapse from the exhaustion that Kuro just casted on us."
"I suggest we should do the same. This is too much to think anything else aside from this." The rest silently agree as they just lay down from where they're sitting. I too do the same thing, and the dreamland starts replacing the realm…
ATTEMPTING TO RECOVER LOST DATA . . . . . . NONE FOUND
SEARCHING OTHER LOCATIONS . . . DATA TRANSFERRED TO ANOTHER CHAPTER. CONCLUSION: DATA IS STILL THERE.
ATTEMPTING TO MOVE FILES . . . ERROR
ENDING CHAPTER . . . CONFIRMED. SYSTEM SHUTTING DOWN . . .