Chapter 20: Raids, Forgotten Memories and Cosplaying
Mars calmly and slowly walked down the black and white hallways of the Lastation Basilicom, his hands were in the pockets of his grey jacket, his posture was slouching forward, a fatigued expression adorned his tired face. The young man was tired, that was a given. He was also annoyed. Not many annoyed Mars and got away with it, especially of late ever since the nightmares took a firm hold in his mind. Being sleep deprived was one thing, but suffering from a week without sleep out of fear of suffering from nightmares about the past was another thing altogether. Now here he was, strolling down the hallways, passing by a few members of the staff without a polite nod or wave to them, eagerly ready to know what Kei wanted him for - it was as complete mystery to him as to what the silver haired Oracle wanted.
I hope whatever Kei wants isn't serious, I already have enough trouble to worry about. Mars thought as he passed a corner and glanced down it. He saw a few members of the Lastation Basilicom staff mingle together, discussing stocks, finances and their families. It was rather normal banter, considering who they were working for, and it sounded as if it was nothing important for Mars to eavesdrop in. Not long after first hearing them the young man continued on his walk towards Kei's office, which was located on the floor below where all of the main offices were located, all were manned by members of the staff, although the were not many Basilicom staff members in the first place.
After walking down the flight of stairs, and after passing by a few offices filled with a few workers who were tapping away at their computers, the young man finally arrived outside the office of Kei Jinguji. Mars had been inside the office only a few times, and all that he could remember of the office was paperwork, lots and lots of paperwork that almost reached the ceiling. He knew that to be called for some sort of briefing by Kei was to mean that she had some sort of mission in mind for him, whether Mars liked it or not was another matter entirely. It was no secret to everyone in the Basilicom that Kei actually bribed, or at least paid in some say, Mars with Nepsi, a famous Planeptunian fizzy drink that the young man had grown addicted to. Whether he was paid or bribed with Nepsi to do work, it always worked, no matter the job.
Well, better now than never. Mars thought as he knocked on the door, waiting for a response from the other side. Soon enough he heard a disinterested and quiet reply come from the other side of the door. Shrugging to himself, the young man opened the door and stepped inside. Kei's office was large, larger than Mars' room at least, and it was filled to the brim with paperwork, files, documents and crunched up pieces of paper. In the middle of it all sat the Oracle of Lastation in a black office chair, a half empty cup of cold tea was situated next to several pieces of paper that the Oracle was signing, her expression was tired. The young man closed the door behind him and walked up to the almost completely covered desk and looked down that the silverette woman.
"You look tired and worn out," Mars said without bothering to say hello as he sat down in front of the Oracle on the other side of the desk.
Kei glanced up at the young man and chuckled. "You look worse than I do, way worse. It is as if you went a whole week without sleeping and just drank coffee the whole time." The Oracle then glanced at her cup of tea, which was half empty. "Speaking of which, I think I am going to need something much stronger than a mere cup of tea to keep me going. I'll get someone to bring over some coffee, want any?"
Mars shrugged. "Sure. Why not?"
Kei nodded and pressed a button on some sort of communication machine to her left on the desk, she had to swipe away some loose paperwork to get to it before pressing anything though. "This is Kei, I need two cups of coffee here pronto. Oh, and bring some extra over as well, we are going to need it."
"Very well then, Lady Jinguji," was the response. Mars did not know who was responding, but it sounded like one of the staff members.
The Oracle nodded and sighed before leaning back into her chair, her gaze falling towards Mars. "I think it may be best if I have a coffee machine installed in here. I'll have to go out shopping after all, unless you would like to take care of that matter. I just might throw in a bottle or two of Nepsi in it for you."
Mars sighed and stared at Kei sternly. "Don't bribe me with Nepsi so I can do the Basilicom's shopping for you, I'm not a courier." The young man then glanced quickly around the room, his eyes darting from area to area before it settle back on the Oracle in front of him. "Where do you keep all of the Nepsi anyway?"
Kei sighed as she reached down into a locked black safe with blue and white lining, a set of buttons with numbers on them were situated in the middle with a small screen above the buttons, the Oracle pressed a few buttons and soon afterwards air escaped the safe as the door slide open, revealing bottles upon bottles of Nepsi. Kei reached down into the safe, pulled out three bottles of Planeptune's second famous fizzy drink - the first was Nep Bull - and placed them on the desk in front of Mars. "Here's three bottles of Nepsi, think of it as the beginning of your payment," she informed the young man.
Just then a knock came from the door, soon afterwards it was opened after Kei called out and a maid of sorts walked in with a tray full of cups of coffee. The maid had long black hair, dark blue eyes, and a slightly tanned look. She was wearing a standard maid outfit: a black dress with long sleeves, frilly cuffs, white stockings and a white frilly ribbon atop her head. The maid placed the full tray on the desk, bowed politely and walked out of the office, but before she closed the door the dark blue eyed maid turned back and faced Kei. "Excuse me, Lady Jinguji, but I must inform you of something odd," the maid informed the Oracle.
Kei's interest seemed to be piqued with the small declaration of news. "Really now? Tell me, what's odd?"
"Well, I know that there are hardly any maids here in the Basilicom, not to mention that we are losing maids as well, but the costumes appeared to have been handled by someone who isn't a maid. A costume is missing," the maid explained to Kei.
The silver haired Oracle raised an eyebrow with a surprised look. "Is that so? I'm interested in knowing what's going on, but I doubt it is of great importance, all that I can think of as a possible answer is that someone happens to like the costume and wants to wear it."
"You mean like cosplaying?" Mars asked as he opened a bottle of Nepsi, much to Kei's chagrin, due to the fact that the Nepsi was meant as payment. "Who the hell would cosplay around here?"
"Who knows? I for one do not fully care, so long as they return the costume intact; a lot of money was spent on it." Kei then turned her attention towards Mars. "As for you, stop drinking the Nepsi. THey are your payment, not for your consumption as of this moment."
The young man grumbled under his breath but continued to drink the opened bottle of Nepsi before looking back at Kei, who had an annoyed look in her tired expression. "Whatever. Just tell me what needs to be done already," Mars grumbled as he threw the empty bottle into the trash bin.
As the maid bowed once more before cleaving the office, closing the door behind her as she left, the silver haired Oracle glanced sternly at Mars while she drank her cup of coffee. "I understand that patience is not one of your better virtue, but try to contain yourself from drinking these Nepsi bottles all at once; they are advanced payment. Now, drink the coffee before it gets cold."
The scruffy brown haired man complied with Kei's stern request, although he did so grudgingly - the young man did not like being told what to do, no matter who it was or what the situation happened to be. After the young man drank half of his cup of coffee, which surprised Kei due to the coffee still being rather hot, he glanced sternly at the silverette Oracle. "Alright then, explain to me why I am here, aside from getting you a coffee machine for your office," Mars demanded as politely as he could, but politeness was just not in his vocabulary.
Nevertheless, Kei did not seem to be fazed by it, instead she merely nodded her head once before taking a sip of coffee. "The job that I have for you is rather important, for if it is ignored then relations between Lastation and Planeptune could potentially fall."
"So what is it?" Mars asked after he drank some more coffee.
"You see, the job sounds easier than how I just described it, but it is rather serious." The Oracle drank some more of her coffee before continuing. "Over the past two weeks Lastation has been sending spare mechanical parts, machinery and robots of all shapes and sizes over to Planeptune for their use; it's an extra part of the trade agreement that had been set up two to three weeks ago. However, over the last several days there had been reports of our trade caravans being ambushed along the roads to the Planeptunian border. Survivors indicate that the attacks were led by a few people whose eyes would glow red whenever they were in combat, at least the initial attacks on the caravans indicated that anyway, goddess knows what goes on now."
Mars narrowed his eyes and gripped the sides of his seat, the news that there were several possible War Gods and War Goddesses leading attacks against trade caravans secretly excited him; the deaths of the caravaners meant little to the young man. "When were they last sighted? Where is this trade route? And are they War Gods?" he asked the Oracle.
Kei shrugged. "I don't know if they are War Gods, but if they area, which is the most likely case, then they have had no part of the last two raids. The last two raids were conducted by robots, although a War God could be behind the recent attacks. I need you to force the attackers out of the area and be brought to justice, but try not to make a ruckus while you are out there. Once you get back from securing the trade route come back and you shall be paid, and paid well."
Mars drank the rest of his coffee before standing up eagerly. "Alright then, you've got a deal, Kei. I'll be back before dinner, at least I hope so. Just give me the location of the attacks and I will take care of the rest."
The Oracle of Lastation smiled as she gave the young man a map with notes and circles indicating where the attacks had taken place. "Good luck, Mars, you will need it. Take the other two bottles of Nepsi with you, drink them at your own leisure."
The young man gladly took the remaining two bottle of Nepsi, he opened the second bottle and began to drink out of it before his attention turned back towards Kei. "Oh, by the way, where's Uni? I went to check up on her this morning but she was already gone somewhere, even Noire did not know, although she was acting a little weird and it was clear that she did not want me around at all. What's up with both?"
The silver haired Oracle rubbed her chin and hummed thoughtfully to herself for a short moment, after a minute of thinking to herself Kei glanced back up at Mars with an answer. "Hmm, well I remember Uni informing me that she was off to do a quest for the Guild, apparently there has been some trouble in the abandoned mines in the north-east area of Lastation; she may be back by afternoon tea, possibly four or five in the afternoon. As for Noire, even I do not know what is wrong with her, she has been rather secretive for the last few days and I do not know why. I think it is best if you leave her alone for the moment." She then leaned back into her chair and glanced over at the door. "Go on then, you have a mission to complete, and it is not going to wait all day for you."
"Well, that could have gone better, but I guess it was all that I could do at that moment," Mars murmured to himself as he strolled back to the Basilicom, several plastic bags were hanging around his shoulders and arms, a small coffee machine was hanging out of one of the bags, a worn out expression was adorning the young man's face. "Still, did Kei have to order so much? Surely they must have members of the staff that do this sort of stuff."
Mars had just finished shopping for specific items that Kei had requested earlier in the day after he had finished his mission in resecuring the trade routes, which he succeeded in common brutal fashion. From what Mars had gathered it seemed as if the raids on the trade caravans had been led by several War Gods, but over the last few days they had slowly dispersed, leaving behind a young woman who less than prepared for Mars' arrival. It was her greatest and last mistake. Mars chuckled malevolently as he remembered her fate. She was too easy to deal with. Who knew that she was afraid of water? Lucky for me that there was a lake nearby that I drowned her in; she definitely deserved it for not giving me the information that I wanted about Maximilian and this new Project of his.
As the young man turned down a corner and walked onto another street, passing by people who did their best to ignore the sniper rifle that was strapped to his back, he reached into one of his pockets and pulled out a small piece of copper ore. "Heh, who knew that the War Gods had discovered a source of copper ore down by the Black Road highway? I best get this sample to Kei, she'll know what to do. Hmm, speaking of Kei, I wonder how much Nepsi she's going to give me? I hope plenty to satisfy me for the day. Should I give some to Uni? Maybe."
His mumbling was soon distracted by a curious sight which captivated his eyes. From what the young man could see there was a familiar woman wearing rather fancy clothes, although she wore them everyday, along with the white stockings and there held up by her dress. Her raven haired twin tails fluttered behind her, her red eyes was fixated on the Basilicom in the distance, and for some reason the familiar woman was wearing red eyeglasses while she was carrying a wrapped up brown parcel under her left arm. She was walking in a hurried state on the other side of the road, her direction of choice apparently appeared to be the Basilicom. Mars sighed deeply as he recognised who the twin tailed woman was. "Hey, Noire! What are you doing?" Mars called out loudly for everyone to hear.
Noire swiftly glanced around with a frightened look on her face before her glance landed on Mars, with a furious glare she crossed the mildly empty road and stomped over to Mars. She was furious with the young man for some reason that eluded his reasoning. "What the hell, Mars? Don't go bellowing out my name at random in public!" she whispered harshly at him, her teeth clenching together tightly.
Mars shrugged. "So what? It doesn't matter if people know you're wandering around, right?"
Noire glanced away, her cheeks bright red. "I-I-It does matter! No one must know that I'm wandering around back towards the Basilicom!"
"And why is that?" Mars asked sternly, crossing his arms as he began to interrogate the tsundere CPU of Lastation. As she squirmed around, fidgeting nervously on the spot, the young man sighed and rubbed his temples. "Why do you have to be such a tsundere?"
"I am not a tsundere!" Noire yelled loudly for everyone to hear, although that was unintentional. Once the Lastationite Goddess recovered from the outburst she quickly glanced around to see everyone nearby looking at her with confused expressions. The raven haired CPU's face burned bright red as her gaze fell to the ground for a couple of seconds. Soon after she grabbed Mars' right wrist and ran off with him down the street before they turned down an empty alleyway. Once they stopped Noire quickly let her grip on Mars wrist go as she leaned up against an outside wall. "Damn it, Mars! Don't go and provoke me like that in public! What the hell were you thinking?!"
"I was merely attempting to get answers, you psychotic tsundere of a CPU," Mars replied with a snarl, rubbing his wrist to relieve him from the sting of pain that came from Noire's extremely tight grip. As the raven haired goddess grumbled audibly at Mars calling her a 'psychotic tsundere', all while she attempted to calm herself down, the young man glanced at the red glasses she was wearing with a confused look. "So what's with the glasses?"
This rose Noire from her stupor. "Huh? Oh, the glasses? Well, isn't it obvious? For someone who is supposed to be rather smart, according to Neptune and Vert, you are lacking in common sense about disguises. Get it, barbarian? I'm in disguise."
Mars glared viciously at Noire, the thought of firing another warning shot came to his mind, but luckily for the two of them he managed to push it aside. Nonetheless, he was pissed off. "Watch your language, Noire, I'm not as friendly as those two goddesses think I am. Don't piss me off. Anyway, why the poor disguise in the first place? Is it unnatural for the CPU to roam her own nation? Plus, what's with the parcel? Did you order something?"
"What's with all the questions?" Noire replied with a question of her own, narrowing her eyes suspiciously at the young man.
"I'm just curious is all. So, what's in it?" When Noire glanced away again, her cheek burning red once more, Mars had an idea that involved the 'disguise' and the parcel. "Oh, I think I'm starting to get it. You ordered something embarrassing, haven't you? Let me guess, it's BL manga and light novels isn't it?"
Noire glared at Mars, her clenched teeth bare to see, her grip on the parcel tightened as her hands reddened along with her cheeks, but instead it was out of rage. "Wh-What the hell is wrong with you?! Like hell I would read that kind of shit like Vert does! It's something completely different?!"
"So what is it?" Mars asked in a serious tone, but as he expected Noire looked away out of embarrassment. "So you're not going to tell me? Fine, alright then."
Noire sighed, glad that the argumentative questioning was now over. After a minute of awkward silence between the two of them the CPU of Lastation attempted to talk about something to lighten the mood between them; it was something Histoire had suggested when Noire asked her for advice with talking to people years ago. "So… um, wh-what have you been up to? Apart from shopping of course."
"Well, I've been dealing with those raids on the trade caravans since the morning, then I went shopping as you can see, got some supplies for the kitchen and Kei, including that coffee machine that you can see," Mars replied, his gaze falling down towards the small coffee machine. Suddenly he placed the bags around his right arm and shoulder down onto the ground, he reached into the right pocket of his jacket and pulled out the copper ore for Noire to gaze at. "I also found this after I dealt with those attackers, which turned out to be some War Goddess and a few robots. It's just a bit of copper ore, but there's a lot more where I found it."
"Copper Ore? You found this stuff near the Black Road highway, and there's more of it around there?" Noire asked with an astounded tone as she took hold of the ore, examining it carefully. "And wait a minute, did you say 'War Goddess'? You mean one of those who attacked you, Uni and Nepgear in Planeptune? What happened to her?"
Mars rubbed the back his head head and nodded. "Yeah, she was one of them, but not the same person who tackled me. The robots are destroyed and the War Goddess is dead; she drowned in the lake while trying to escape me." It was not the whole truth, but it was not a complete lie either; the War Goddess had been forcefully drowned by an angry Mars. Nonetheless, Mars went back to talking about the copper deposits. "And yes, there's more of that copper around there, I think it was just to the south-east of the road, near the rocky hills east of Lake Dubh."
"Really? Interesting. You should give that to Kei and let her handle it from there, it'll give her something else to do besides all the work that I should be doing." Noire gave the ore of copper back to Mars, who placed it back in his pocket. "You should give it to Kei when we get back. That is, I assume you are returning to the Basilicom. I-I-If you want, w-we can… w-w-walk together…"
Mars would have smiled if he could at Noire's attempt in being friendly with him, he also knew that she was just trying her best at it. With a sigh he nodded his head, silently thanking himself for interrupting Noire's embarrassed stuttering. "Alright then, Noire, I can walk with you. We're heading for the same destination anyway."
This seemed to brighten Noire up; for some reason she appeared to be trying to be friendly towards the young man. Mars did not seem to mind that though as he picked up his bags and walked side-by-side with the CPU of Lastation, their destination was the Lastation Basilicom. Despite being in close proximity to each other, due to Noire laying aside most of her concerns about Mars going a bit wild with his Anti-Energy, the two of them did not strike up a new conversation or continue the previous one, leaving only silence between and around them. Some time later as they approached the Basilicom Noire's gaze turned back towards the young man, finally breaking the silence. "So, what's the deal between you and Uni? The two of you act like you're some sort of couple, plus there have been some rumours spreading across the four nations about the two of you," Noire asked Mars with curiosity.
Mars sighed and shook his head, he could not believe that out of all the people who could have or had asked him that question it just had to be Noire of all people, which was rather surprising to him. Ever since their trip to the convention in Lowee the rumours surrounding a supposed relationship between the young man and the CPU Candidate of Lastation were voiced, unsurprisingly it was also rumoured that Mars was in a polygamous relationship with both Uni and Vert, which was of course not true, although that did not stop Vert from teasing him about it. While the rumours had started to die down, especially the polygamous one, there was still some uncertainty, which made Uni too embarrassed to be seen in public with the young man. "Look, me and Uni are not in a relationship if that is what you are getting at, we don't like each other in that sort of way," Mars replied without glancing at Noire.
"Jeez, I was only being friendly, no need to get all uptight with me," Noire said as her tone became less friendly. "I was only asking because I was curious. The two of you are just… odd together, as if there's some sort of feeling or emotion that the two of you understand that's driving you to be friends."
The young man kept silent about it, he knew what Noire was talking about but he decided not to tell her what both he and Uni were suffering from that drove them to bond together, although not even the CPU Candidate would fully understand it. It's the look in her eyes, she's been going through what I have been suffering all throughout my life, at least the life I can remember. Mars thought, refusing to make any comments towards Noire's words, other than a grunt and a shoulder shrug.
"Tch. Fine, it wasn't as if I was trying to get your opinion or anything," Noire grumbled in her tsundere way. "Still, I just want to say… th-th-thank you."
This time Mars appeared stunned. He glanced over at Noire with a look of shock in his usually deadpanned expression. "What do you mean by 'thank you'? Why are you thanking me all of a sudden?"
"It's because of Uni," Noire responded, her expression becoming mixed with sadness. "Before you came along my sister was, well, she was just distant, always preferring to be alone with her guns and spend time with everyone else when needed, even Nepgear had trouble getting Uni out of her shell at times. Uni wasn't always like that though, after she was born I had been thoroughly training her to be the perfect CPU, from battling monsters to working day and night with paperwork that kept the nation up and running. I don't know what specifically happened, but Uni became more distant from everyone and preferred to do everything by herself, which was a good thing until became more determined, more distant and hard headed."
As Mars nodded, listening to all Noire had to say, the Goddess of Lastation continued, but this time it was about her attempts to make Uni like her. "Although, all I do is just make her work really hard to catch up to my level, which she is still far behind, and edge her on to catch up with my level of expertise; it's the only way she'll become a great CPU like me," the raven haired CPU continued.
I'm not surprised about Uni being distant and hard headed at all, Noire has put her through some tough training regiments that have really made her feel terrible, then that Tsundere Queen goes and finishes everything without a sweat. No wonder Uni has low confidence and self-esteem. Mars thought as he sighed. He stared at Noire with a monotone look on his face. "So she's a little brighter, is that what you're saying?" he asked. When the CPU nodded. "Well that's good and all, but you need to recognise a part of the problem that caused it in first place: you."
This time the Lastationite Goddess looked at Mars with an overly shocked expression, which was soon replaced by outrage. "What do you mean by that?! I've been helping her to be like me, even to make her become better than me. Just how can that be a bad thing?! If she is supposed to become the next CPU then Uni has to do her greatest to the best of her abilities!"
Mars walked in front of Noire and glared at her, stopping the goddess in her tracks. He seemed serious with what he had to say. "Your relationship with Uni is in a steady decline because of your expectations towards her. Uni is living in your shadow, trying to become like you but failing due to no confidence in her abilities and no self-esteem for herself, she attempts to try and win some sort of praise from you but all you do is give her the 'tough love' act and instead of making her feel as if she has to do better she becomes more depressed. Think about it for a while."
The young man then stormed off, leaving a bewildered Noire by herself to contemplate all that he had said. So he really does care for Uni. I… I actually don't mind it, I don't mind it at all. Those two are close after all. Still, what Mars said… urgh, screw him. Soon afterwards the CPU ran after Mars as they entered the Basilicom, but instead of resuming the conversation with the young man Noire headed straight to her room, making Mars a little confused.
Despite the oddity of Noire's departure Mars gave it no further thought, aside from thinking about the strangely thoughtful look on her face, the young man decided to make his way to Kei's office to drop off the shopping, the coffee machine and the copper ore for the Oracle to deal with on her own. On the way to Kei's office Mars' phone began to ring, which confused the young man for a moment. Only three people in all of Gamindustri knew his number: UNi, Nepgear and a person he sometimes wish was dead. The shaggy brown haired man picked up his cell phone and pressed the 'answer' button after checking the number of the caller, his expression was grim and uncertain upon seeing the number. "Who is this?" Mars asked harshly.
"It's me, Pelagius the Toymaker, the one you shot in the kneecaps before smashing them with your booted feet," the caller replied, a grunt of pain soon followed. "I mean, seriously, I knew that I deserved it but did you really have to smash my kneecaps in with your feet? Being shot in the head would have sufficed."
Mars snarled viciously, his teeth clenched tightly in anger. "Shut the fuck up. You should be glad that I put the happiness of others before my own desires, that is how it has always been for me."
"Is that really the truth? Perhaps it is because you have been influenced by Lady Black Sister due to the few months you two have spent together," the Toymaker replied before returning to his pained groans, the sounds of wheels against tiles could be heard from Mars' end. The Toymaker of Lowee was in a wheelchair with broken knees that were almost impossible to operate on. The news had spread across Gamindustri like wildfire, everyone who knew him had been shocked that a man had shot both his knees before stomping on them; no one knew who did the deed though, the Toymaker reported that it was some stranger in a black jacket and hoodie with a concealed face and stank like alcohol.
Mars decided to ignore the Toymaker's questioning and ask a different question. "So, how's your wife handling the news, as well as your child?"
Pelagius sighed sadly before answering. "Not well I'm afraid, I think she almost had a heart attack upon hearing the news, mind you this was all while she happened to be giving birth to our child; she almost died of childbirth thanks to you. Although Margaret is well at the moment, as well as our little girl. Our child, Rose, looks just like Margaret. I'll sent you a picture if you like."
"No thanks, I'm not a big fan of crying, sweaty babies; they never seem to shut up," Mars responded as he turned around a corner and walked down a flight of stairs. "Anyway, aside from telling me how much pain you are in as well as the state Margaret and Rose are in, why have you called me?"
"Information about Project Mars." The Toymaker sounded serious, and so did the expression on Mars' face. "After you so kindly smashed my knees in you said you wanted information about the Project, so I've been doing a little research in my spare time and have found a few things that failed to get deleted or destroyed. Old documents, files and images, all those sorts of things, although it mainly is just a load of rubbish. However, I found some of my old notes from when I was a part of the Project, and there's a passage about you in it."
"What does it say? Tell me!" the young man demanded. He had stopped walking and was now leaning up against the wall.
"Well, I believe it is you, hard to tell but the description does fit a younger you." Then came the rustling of paper as the Toymaker searched through his findings before he reported to Mars about the part in the notes about the young man. "It says: 'Got a new kid in today, the scouts refused to mention where they picked him up, but it sure looked like the kid had been through hell and back. Scruffy brown hair, blue eyes filled with anger, a worn out expression on his face; no idea what happened and I care less. Maximilian took an interest in the boy, kept glaring at him while mumbling about something. First impression from the kid was one full of hostility, kept refusing to answer questions and the like, couldn't even tell us his age, although we rounded it up to at least nine or ten to twelve years of age. The Director ordered for us to wipe the kid's memory so the rest of the team could begin the 'Hatred Stage'. Let's hope he survives the ordeal, this could take years, especially since we'll have to keep erasing his memory for all the anger to take hold so the kid can become the greatest and most dangerous weapon.'"
Mars rubbed his temples, speechless at the news. Eventually the young man sighed deeply and felt tinges of pain in his heart and scars. The small yet important piece of news about the young man's obscure past had made his breathing pattern even more irregular, less air was going into his lungs and more were escaping from them. "So, you're saying that I've been a test subject of Project Mars for almost ten years? I… I don't know what to say about it. Almost ten to fifteen years of my life, gone thanks to a memory wipe? A 'Hatred Stage'? What's that?"
Pelagius grunted in pain as he wheeled himself down the hallways of his home's main corridor. "The Hatred Stage was meant to instill huge amounts of rage and hatred into a test subject by torturing them, afterwards they would have their memory wiped but the negative emotions would remain. That is why you have large gaps in your memory. It was meant to create a new generation of gods and goddesses, for what purpose I do not know, barely any of us were informed about the main goal of Project Mars." He then sighed sadly. "I know an apology is out of the question for you, but I am truly and completely sorry for what happened to you."
"Shut up, I don't need your pity," Mars growled as he massaged the area above his heart while regaining his breath. Once done the young man sighed and returned his attention to the conversation at hand. "So, anything else?"
"No, not yet. I'm still looking for the person who deleted nearly everything about Project Mars, I'll get in touch with you once I find anything." After a short silence that followed the Toymaker added a serious comment. "You should have killed me, Mars, for your sake."
"I know. Don't make me regret my decision, for your family's sake," was Mars' response before he ended the call, placing the phone back into his jeans, his mind heavy with thoughts about himself and Project Mars. With a heavy sigh the young man picked himself off the wall and walked in the direction of Kei's office.
Once Mars had returned to Kei's office he set the bags down on the ground, set the coffee machine up around a nearby powerpoint and informed the Oracle about the mission. The silverette woman was surprised about the news of a copper deposit near where the raids had been occurring, but she did show a lot of interest in it. After giving some thought about it the Oracle gave Mars a piece of paper that Noire had to sign, apparently Kei was going to open a mine around the copper deposit and she needed Noire's signature to start it up, that is why Mars was heading to the Lastation CPU's room after failing to find her in the office. As the young man approached Noire's room he thought he could hear the tsundere goddess humming happily, about what he did not know.
What the hell is going on in there? She's happy about something, but it's hard to tell what is happening. Mars thought as he pressed his left ear against the door. Hmm, if she's in a good mood it might have had to do something about that package she was carrying earlier. If that's the case then it'll mean that I won't be beaten up just by barging in.
Mars swung open the door without knocking and entered Noire's room, and was in for a surprise. Noire's room was large, overly large, in fact it was huge. Dark coloured shelves littered the walls alongside mannequins, cupboards, wardrobes, dressers and weapon stands were situated all over the walls, there was even an area where a person could change in private in case someone else was in the room. The walls were black, white and grey with a large glass window at one end of the room, the ceiling was coloured white and an AC unit was located in one of the corners of the oversized room. In the centre of the room was the CPU of Lastation herself, but there was something off about her, and it only took a few seconds for the young man to recognise that the problem was Noire outfit. "Um, Noire, what are you doing wearing that?" Mars asked, dumbfounded with what the goddess was wearing.
Noire quickly turned around and stared at Mars with wide eyes, her cheeks bright red with embarrassment. The tsundere Goddess of Lastation was wearing a short gothic lolita dress with black and white lining, a dark purple ribbon around the neck, a white undershirt with a frilly collar, frilly white cuffs. an open black jacket with dark purple buttons, dark blue stocking with white lining and black heeled boots. The raven haired goddess had been looking at herself in the large mirror, standing in different poses before Mars had barged in without warning. She yelped as her eyes met his. "M-M-M-MARS?! Wh-Wh-What are you doing here?!" Noire yelled as she wrapped her arms around herself.
The young man stood still and stared at Noire with wonder, a small tinge of red appeared on his cheeks as he proceed to stare at her exposed thighs and the shirt that constricted her chest tightly. He shook his head vigorously and mentally slapped himself to regain his composure. "Oh, um, er… I-I'm here to get you to sign... " Mars began to explain, but Noire did not seem to care about his excuse.
"I don't care! Just get out, close the door behind you and don't come back!" Noire yelled loudly as she pointed towards the door.
Mars continued stand still, staring at the CPU before him as he ignored her shouting. Finally he spoke his mind. "Hey, Noire, are you cosplaying?" he asked her in a serious tone.
Noire's entire face went red with embarrassment as she shook her head, furiously denying the allegation. "No! Like hell I'm cosplaying! Th-This isn't what it l-looks like!" Noire yelled at him. After a few minutes of awkward silence Noire spoke again, this time admitting the truth. "Tch. Fine, I'll tell the truth, no sense in hiding it after what you've seen. I… I am c-c-cosplaying. B-But don't think that this is a daily occurrence, th-th-this is a one time thing only! I-I'm not a fan of cosplaying!"
"Sure you're not, but whatever you say, Noire," Mars responded in an uncaring tone. He walked up to the tsundere goddess and looked at her sternly for a couple of seconds, he then walked off with a heavy sighed and leaned up against a nearby wall close to Noire. "Do you enjoy cosplaying, Noire?"
The raven haired CPU nodded, gazing away from the young man, her words almost quiet. "Yeah, I enjoy it. S-S-So what?"
"So nothing. If you like it then you like it. Simple," Mars replied. He gazed over to his left and saw the missing maid costume hanging up on a clothes rack nearby, the young man could not help but chuckle. "It's nice to see that you have a hobby, other than working your butt off everyday."
"Huh? Y-You're not going to make fun of me because I like cosplaying?" Norie asked, stunned that Mars was not going about his usual round of antics.
The young man shook his head, his scruffy brown hair wavering around. "That's right, I'm not going to do that. After all, why should I? We all need a hobby that speaks to our innerselves, so if you happen to like dressing up in different outfits then go ahead, I won't judge you for that… well, not much anyway."
Noire growled at Mars, but appeared to have lighten up slightly. Although she did have a question. "So, does this mean that you have a hobby as well?" the cosplaying goddess asked the young man with curiosity, yet never able to look at him despite his reassurance that he did not mind Norie cosplaying.
Mars shook his head in response before speaking. "No, I haven't got a hobby, unless doing missions for the Guild, drinking Nepsi and making fun of tsunderes are a hobby. Actually, I don't think they are a hobby come to think of it." He then sighed and continued in a quiet voice that Noire had trouble hearing. "Besides, how can I have a hobby if I don't even understand myself?"
The raven haired goddess stared sadly at Mars, barely able to hold back herself from trying to cheer him up. The young man looked sad, very sad, as if he was trying to remember something about himself but just could not. Finally, after steeling her nerves back into shape, Noire grabbed a nearby small poster, which was more like an advertisement flyer to be exact, and handed it over to Mars without saying a word, only a bright blush made the young man question what the goddess was doing. Mars took the advertisement and gazed at it for what seemed like a long time before he looked back at the CPU of Lastation, who appeared to be highly embarrassed. The flyer was advertising a convention in Sony City - a city located to the south-east of Lastation City and happened to have a trading harbour along the coast - where people could gather and show off their costumes, play games and compete in tournaments, apparently it also read that the winner of the best costume competition would win a Lastation console of their choice; all of the events seemed to be based around anime and manga for some reason. Once Mars reread the costume competition part he glanced back at Noire, who was now simply gazing at the ground.
"So, you want me to accompany you to the convention so you can win the competition, is that it?" Mars asked, raising an eyebrow.
"I-I-It isn't just because of that, y-you need some cheering up is all, that's the second reason," Noire responded, rubbing her upper left arm, her gaze finally meeting the young man's eyes for a moment, a small and embarrassed smile began to grow on her face. "Look, you need something to do, like a hobby, so maybe you can get into cosplaying. I-I-It'll be n-nice to actually… to actually have someone to do cosplaying with."
Mars would have smiled if he could, the smile that Noire was showing brightened his heart, just like how Uni would always make it flutter. With such an honest request, especially coming from the queen of all tsunderes in Gamindustri, and without a hobby to enjoy, the young man felt he should go with Noire. Who knows, maybe he would enjoy it, so long as the Lastationite Goddess signed the form for Kei to open a new copper mine. As Noire signed the paperwork Mars asked her a question that was on his mind. "Does Uni, or in fact anyone know about this hobby of yours?"
Noire shook her head. "No, she doesn't. You're the only one who knows about this." The raven haired goddess stared sternly at Mars, her eyes were looking directly at his. "So… um, d-d-do you r-really want to come to the c-convention with m-me?" When the young man nodded Noire smiled brightly, she had never been as happy like that for a very long time. This is going to be a good day, I just know it.
Sony City was an important harbour city, rich with trade, famous for the main branch of the company that helped create Lastation's consoles and now it was being used for what was essentially an anime and manga festival for cosplayers from all across Lastation, even a few people from the other three nations of Planeptune, Leanbox and Lowee had made the journey. The city was smaller than Lastation, it was resembled a large town instead of a city, but that did not stop it from being just as important as the capital itself. The streets were bright with fluorescent lights; dozens upon dozens of stores littered the streets; hundreds of people strolled around the place, laughing, smiling, drinking, eating, kissing. Everyone was enjoying themselves to the fullest, and it made Noire brighten up, especially since she and Mars just suffered a loss with the competition.
"Grrr, that should have been us up on that stage, not those two brats!" Norie cursed under her breath, clenching her right fist tightly out of anger. She and Mars had lost the best cosplay competition to two kids who had dressed up as some main characters out of a highly popular ninja anime and manga series. Noire and Mars had come second with their gothic lolita and butler outfits, much to the raven haired CPU's chagrin.
"Well maybe if you had shown more of your thighs and the shirt that constricted your chest then we could have won the competition," Mars responded, glancing at his companion with a raised eyebrow.
Noire's response was rather typical of her: the CPU of Lastation blushed madly, gazed away and pulled up her stockings to hide more of her thighs so Mars could not see them. "Sh-Shut up, pervert! Don't make me slap you for your pervertedness!"
Mars shrugged in an uncaring way. "Meh, wouldn't be the first time I'd be slapped for 'pervertedness', Uni usually does that to me while blushing like crazy whenever I compliment her, just like the time when I said she had a good looking butt."
The young man soon wish he had not said that. Noire turned her head around swiftly and glared viciously at him, she grabbed him by the shoulders and shook the young man back and forward violently. "You what?! You say Uni's b-b-butt?! When?! How?! Why?!"
The butler-looking young man grabbed Noire's arms and forced her back, he sighed and regained his posture while straightening his costume. "It isn't what you think it is, Noire. Technically I haven't seen her butt, but I like to tease her is all. There isn't anything to worry about, I wouldn't be a complete and utter pervert towards Uni, in fact if anyone were to do that to her then I'll teach them a lesson."
Noire stared at Mars, surprised to see a serious expression on his face. He was being honest, mostly at least, but he was being serious about looking after Uni from perverts. The raven haired goddess could not help but chuckle in amusement. "Oh my, Mars, I had no idea that my little sister meant to much to you. Do you like her or something?" Noire questioned the young man, turning the tables against him as a cheeky grin formed across her face, her arms crossed beneath her breasts.
The brown haired man stuttered his words involuntarily as he attempted to answer Noire's question, eventually he gave in and sighed heavily. "Look, what I'm about to say is personal to me, so don't tell anyone what I am about to tell you. Understood?" Noire nodded, agreeing to the terms laid before her. Mars sighed again as he stood up straight. "Alright then. You see, it isn't as simple as 'liking' Uni in any sort of way. She's my fr-friend, I'm not used to having friends so I'm sorry for stuttering like that. Anyway, the reason why I'm caring towards Uni is because I owe her a lot. I owe her for all those moments that she helped me, gave me a place to stay, gave me food and drink, and just about everything really. I owe Uni big time, and looking out for her is just a way to attain that goal." Mars then glanced away, an embarrassed expression adorning his face. "Also… I just like being with her."
The CPU of Lastation could not help but smile brightly in response to Mars' explanation about his closeness to Uni, it did warm up her heart knowing that the young man truly did care for the CPU Candidate, and not in a perverted way like some of the few men in Gamindustri always thought of. It's actually good to hear that from Mars, it isn't everyday that someone would say anything like that with honest intentions, not that I would give anyone a chance in the first place. Noire thought as the two of them began to walk once more down the brightly lighted street. Still, it sounds as if Mars might have some feelings for her… maybe. Although it sounds as if he doesn't understand his own feelings, if he has any.
Together Mars and Noire strolled through the streets of Sony City, taking in all that the convention had to offer. Food, drink, games, it mattered little to them. After walking around the city for about two hours Noire and Mars arrived inside a store filled with anime, manga and other relatable merchandise; Noire's eyes were wide and her smile was bright. "This is amazing!" she exclaimed, her voice full of excitement. The raven haired, gothic lolita-wearing goddess ran up to a shelf full of the latest manga and began to skim through it, her excitement never going away.
"You like anime and manga?" Mars asked, somewhat surprised. After a few seconds of thought he quickly realised that the answer to that question was rather simple.
Noire glanced at the young man, an embarrassed expression adorned her face as her cheeks blushed red. "Y-Y-Yeah, I do. It's how I got into c-cosplaying in the first place," the goddess replied. Not long afterwards Noire gazed back towards the manga book in her hands, her attention fully stolen by it. "How about you go and find something in here that interests you, if anything here could manage that."
The young man raised an eyebrow and walked off, deciding it was best to not comment on Noire's choice of wording. He left her behind and roamed down the aisles, glancing at the different manga books, light novels and posters that were spread all over the shelves, stacked neatly in order from issue to issue, all in different sections in the store. There were small signs over each section, giving small descriptions of the genre the products were associated with. Mars skimmed through a few light novels with disinterest, not completely caring about what he was looking at. Nothing seem to interest him at all, that was until he reached an obscure corner of the store and found himself in the errotic section. Mars glanced around with curiosity, his gaze falling upon the different manga, anime and light novels that were stacked on the shelves, the front covers left little to the imagination.
"Huh, interesting," was all Mars could say. The young man picked up one of the manga books on the shelf and began to look through it, once he reached a certain page his eyes shot wide open with shock. "Whoa… so that's what hentai looks like. Should I get this for Uni? Maybe even Noire? It'll give them something to 'think' about." Mars tilted his head sideways as he viewed an overlly errotic image, his mind was sent racing with all sorts of thoughts.
"Think about what?" Noire called out as she approached the young man. When her eyes found the sign in the obscure section her face flushed red, especially when she saw what Mars was looking through. "Wh-Wh-What?! A-Are you reading errotic manga?!"
The young man shrugged. "Hard to say. Want to see if it is one?" the young man asked, extending the errotic manga towards the tsundere goddess, who naturally refused it by threatening him in all sorts of ways. Mars chuckled and placed the book back on the shelf before returning his gaze to Noire. "Don't worry, I wasn't going to give it to you. So, you picked something out?"
Noire nodded after regaining her composure. "Indeed I did, I also took the liberty of getting something for you since I guessed that you would fail to find anything of interest." The goddess then took off for the counter, flicking her left twin tail as she made her way there. "Well come on, we haven't got all evening."
Noire had not bought much, instead what she chose was the latest volume of some sort of manga with the words 'Hero Academia' in it while Mars had a manga volume that involved a guy picking up girls in a dungeon; the tsundere CPU explained that the whole concept was right up Mars' alley. It did not cost much due to the sale that was occurring, so Mars decided to get a few more volumes of the manga he was given, initially surprising Noire at first. Once they left the store and continued down the street the young man straightened his bowtie and looked at the plastic bag that he was holding in his left hand. "Hmm, maybe I should have gotten something for Uni, maybe even Kei too," he mumbled to himself, unaware that Noire could hear him.
"That wouldn't be a good idea, I don't want the two of them to know that I like this sort of stuff," Noire explained, her grip on the plastic bag in her hands tightened. "I don't want either of them to make fun of me."
"I doubt that would happen. Sure, it would be a big shock to them, but they'll accept it, I'm sure of that," Mars responded as he gazed at the raven haired CPU next to him, making her blush and look away from him. Suddenly the young man's eyes narrowed suspiciously and he turned around swiftly, his eyes gazed at everything and everyone behind him and Noire.
The tsundere goddess stopped walking and looked at him with a concerned expression. "What's wrong, Mars?" Noire asked him.
Mars took one last glance around him before giving up, he sighed and looked back at Noire with his usual monotone expression returning. "Nothing. It's nothing to worry about, Noire, I just thought we were being followed."
"How the hell am I not supposed to be worried about that?!" Noire replied as she gazed around swiftly, her eyes darting from person to person, object to object.
Mars shrugged in response. "Well, it could be just my old defense senses kicking in again, they've been rusty ever since I got comfortable with living in your Basilicom for the last few months. About time I started to get it back, especially after that little incident in Planeptune with that War God."
The Lastationite Goddess grimaced as she remembered the incident, the way that Uni had described what happened that the effects that Planeptune felt. For the last few weeks Noire had been looking into any War God related appearances as well as attempting to figure who they really were, who they worked for, what they were really up to and, most important of all, why they were just like Mars. She had found little about them, much to her annoyance, but the CPU had noticed that War God sightings had started to increase in certain areas around Gamindustri, mostly around mountains, highways and the outskirts of cities. It was as if they were looking for something while slowly disrupting society. Noire had not told Mars about it because she believed, correctly, that the young man would run off into the wild to try and find them.
Mars may be tough, but from what happened in Planeptune I doubt he would survive another encounter, especially if there's more than one. Noire thought as she and Mars turned down a street, finding themselves in a street that was closed off to vehicles, leaving the place to be taken over by open stores and booths; this was the place where the lights shone more brightly and more people were gathered together than anywhere else in the city. Much to Noire's excitement she saw an open store filled with all sorts of costumes ranging from outfits seen in anime to everyday clothing; the CPU's eyes were wide with excitement as she grabbed Mars' right wrist and ran towards the store.
"Whoa! Steady on, Noire!" Mars exclaimed as he was forced into the store, Noire leading him all the way.
"But just look at all the different costumes, there's so many of them!" the raven haired goddess attempted to explain as she let go of the young man's hand and began to explore the outfits. "We can spend all day cosplaying as different characters, like this one." She was holding up a priestess costume with white and red clothing, gold lining and red accents around the drooping sleeves.
"Yeah, maybe so," Mars said as he began to search through the different cosplay outfits that were available in the racks, a weird sense of fun swirled around his mind. Maybe this isn't so bad after all, maybe I will do this sort of thing more often.
As Mars and Noire searched through the different costumes they failed to notice an oversized raven watching them from a distance atop a convenience store, it's green staring sternly at the young man, confusement swirled the raven's mind. Soon afterwards the raven glanced down a nearby alleyway and spotted a shadowy figure watching Mars and Noire, taking pictures with a camera of the two. To the raven's surprise the shadowy figure appeared to be wearing a purple and pink robotic suit, he or she also seemed to be floating just above the ground as small jetpacks built within the back of the suit kept the person afloat. After a few minutes the figure floated away, seemingly content with the pictures he or she had taken.
The raven narrowed its eyes at the figure in distrust. Annonydeath. I thought he was dead. Well, whatever comes from this is not going to go well with either Mars or Black Heart. The raven thought to herself before flying off into the falling sunset, content with its observation. She wondered what the new day will bring, good and bad, for Gamindustri, and Mars.
A/N: Took a little longer than I would have liked, but it's finally done. I apologise for those reader who prefer shorter chapters, this one was crammed with all sorts of goodies. I did consider breaking this into two separate chapters, but that only happened after I got to the end of it - I know, I'm not the best forward thinker around. Stupid brain. Anyway, you readers didn't expect a chapter focused on Mars and Noire together did you? Will Mars become a cosplayer like that tsundere goddess? Maybe, yet maybe not. Regardless, if you have suggestions or requests please do inform me and I'll read you all later.