So technically, this is my 100 favorite chapter. Mostly because I've decided to post a single massive chapter, rather than divert the story somewhere else for the time being. Let's be honest here, it'd probably hurt story cohesion to have that happen, right?

Ant & XxdarkangelxX2003: SKYRIM BELONGS TO THE NORDS! (But yeah, he's talking about the Goddesses.)

hillycube: I thank you from the depths of my heart for your exhaustive review. My response is simply: "Tangy."

Blacksoul123: Yay!

Part Time Prick & Ligoya: Background details are always fun to design. Don't worry, this won't be the last segment involving the greater world.

To Broach or to Put up: Did everything I could this time to avoid a cliffhanger.

Kirigiriko: You have no idea how much that means to me. Thank you.


Olympus Falls is located about a half-hour away from Lastation. We get there by following the main road for about half a kilometer, and then a side road for the rest. We arrive a little bit to the west of the main entrance, and thus we need to follow the fences for a little bit in order to get inside.

I could probably have climbed the fence, but I don't know if the rest of the group would be able to follow me. Plus, it'd sort of ruin the crawl to pop in at a random location, right?

We pass by a large, sheltered map as we head towards our destination. Needless to say, we take a stop to get a better look at what we're dealing with. It seems Olympus Falls itself is sectioned off into a relatively large region, with only a single entrance into the dungeon itself. The lines on the map surrounding the area are probably the fence. If I were to hazard a guess, I'd say that the fence's purpose is to prevent unwary travellers from accidentally walking into dangerous territory.

Either that, or to funnel adventurers in through a single way so that they're easier to track. That one could also work.

We're soon walking again.

The front entrance is way nicer than I expected. I'd say it's almost worth the extra walk.

"Wow!" murmurs Sira, as she glances about. "Kris! Kris this is so cool!"

I can't say I disagree.

Towering statues of what I assume are in a Greek inspired design flank a massive marble door. The statues themselves are over twice my height, and amazingly, intricately carved. One is a male, and the other female, but neither of the two are recognisable.

There aren't any people near the entrance, although off to the side a bit I can see a few much less impressive looking wooden benches surrounding a campfire pit. The fire's out, of course, and doesn't seem to have been lit any time recently.

"Alright everyone. You all ready for this?" asks Sira, who seems to be doing everything in her power to avoid running in place. Is she really that excited?

One by one we nod.

With the lightest touch, the marble doors part, slowly creaking inwards. The darkness ahead of us awaits. Glancing back towards us for just a second, Sira bounds ahead. The rest of us soon follow.

The inside of the fenced area is relatively lightly forested. The falls themselves are barely visible off into the distance, as is the furious river slicing its way across the region.

"So… Where do we go first?" I ask, retrieving my crowbar.

Kristina glances about, before she points towards the river. "How about we follow the river down to the end, and then work our way back up? That way we can make sure we get everything."

"Sounds good." I reply.

Actually, in a place like this, where would the boss monster be? Would it be at the delta, or at the falls themselves?

I guess we'll find that out when we bump into it.


Fighting alongside this group isn't half as fun as working beside the girls.

I guess it mostly comes down to not having the right 'flow'.

How else could you explain me forgetting who I was working with, and nearly flinging a Cardbird at Swift? Or Sira accidentally clipping me with a wayward icicle shard?

Still, with or without the occasional mishap, we work our way through. We slowly build a sloppy rhythm, and soon enough we find ourselves with enough spare mental power to hold a conversation.

"So uhh… How long have you three been adventuring for?" asks Swift, as he sinks his third arrow into a charging horsebird. The creature lets loose a cry of fury as it staggers backwards, dissolving into ones and zeroes. There's only two of them here, barely enough to get the heart rate up. "I've only been at this for six months."

"About two years now." states Kristina, following up the attack with a solid chop. The horsebird fades into data. "I've been at it slightly longer than Sira, though it can't have been longer than two months or so.."

"Yeah, but you're the one who got me into it in the first place!" smiles Sira, who then flourishes her staff, launching countless shards of ice towards the remaining foe.

"And… uhh... what about you?" asks Swift, as he turns towards me. "You look like what you know what you're doing, right? Five years? Four? Am I close? Six?"

I shake my head, before I bash in the now-frozen monster's skull with my crowbar. "Nope. Actually… Now that I think about it, I've been only at this for… what, a week? Maybe two? Sorta haven't done much to keep track of time."

There's a bit of silence, before Kristina snorts and rolls her eyes. "Yeah, I don't think that's even possible. Just how fast were you being power-leveled? Like, how did you even get any experience?"

"Wow… that's like a new world record or something…" murmurs Swift. "It seems the Goddesses themselves truly smile upon you…"

"Yes. They do." I respond offhandedly as I lower myself to the ground. These credit chips aren't going to pick themselves up. "Hey, so just checking, but who's going to be collecting the credits?"

Sira glances towards her companion, before she shrugs. "We'll just round-robin the chips, I guess."

Good enough for me.

"So seriously though. How did you pull it off?" asks Kristina, who bends down to assist me. "I've heard stories of people who've done five levels in a week… But twenty or more?"

"Well…" I respond after a few moments of thought, "I started by going solo, for like a few days, until I almost died and had to be rescued. After that, I guess me and my group have just been picking fights with things that really, really should have killed us?"

Sira blinks at me, before she asks, "Is everything okay up there? You sure you don't have a few screws loose?"

"Bingo. I'm glad you've caught on so quickly." I respond with a nod, before handing her a handful of chips. "Your share?"

Sira nods and accepts the loot. She hands a couple to Swift, and begins to cash her portion in.

"Why do I get the feeling that you're the sort of person that'd charge right into the Graveyard?" smirks Kristina. Her tone is light… Is that some sort of saying around here? I guess I'll need to learn the slang of this world sooner or later.

"Kristina!" hisses Swift, eyes wide in horror. "That's just -"

"Actually, she's probably right." I interrupt, and Swift immediately falls silent. "Like, I'm pretty sure I'll be willingly going to the Graveyard some time this week. I mean, I'm probably not going to like it, but I'm definitely going."

Swift's mouth hangs open for a moment, before he nervously laughs back at me. "Ahhh… Ummm… Ahehhh… Funny joke..."

The two narrow-lidded stares I receive back from the girls, on the other hand, tell a different story.

"I… umm… Think we should keep moving…" states Swift with a forced smile. "Please uhhh… Don't say that again, please?"

And with that, we're all silent once more. Did I just commit faux pas? I'm pretty sure I just committed faux pas.


The river ends in a delta, where the stream splits into a dozen channels, each carving their way through the earth. The shrubbery is thick here, probably due to the natural irrigation.

The others are stopping to refill their bottles of water, or to dip their toes in the stream. I don't really feel thirsty right now though, so I instead choose to take a look at the surrounding area.

The rustling of the bushes nearby grabs my attention. Carefully, I inch forward, crouched low to minimize my chance of being detected.

There are a cluster of Dogoos gathered around a single shrub. They look like garden-variety ones too, not ones with some sort of weird color, hue or texture. Probably trash-tier. Nothing to worry about, that's for sure. I let out a sigh of relief, and move closer.

A more detailed inspection shows that they're… eating? Or at least chewing something. Do Dogoos even have teeth?

Amidst the occasional murmurs of 'gooey' or 'dooo', the occupied slimes seem to be bobbing up and down, and every once in a while moving forwards lunging towards the bush.

"Hey! Derek? Where'd you go?" shouts Swift from behind me.

The Dogoos all jump straight up, before they scamper away in different directions.

I shoot the archer an annoyed look, before I turn back towards him. "What?" I respond.

"Oh. The others found a cool statue that I thought you'd want to look at!" he responds. "Uhh… What are you doing over here anyway?"

"I was just checking out that plant." I reply, pointing at the bush for emphasis. "There were some Dogoos gathered around it."

Swift follows my finger, before he wanders towards it and plucks something from it. "Huh, a Goosberry bush? Yeah, I guess that this'd be a good place for them to grow…"

"Gooseberry?" I echo, as I follow him.

"No… Goosberry." corrects the archer, and he lifts something up for me to see. It's a deep red, and about the size of a golf ball, although it seems to be nearly perfectly round. "I don't know anyone who actually eats them, but they're supposed to be real good for medicines and stuff like that if you grind em up. Plus, when I was younger I used to play with them. There are a few bushes by the river near my house."

"Nice. I'll grab a few for later then." I speak. The berries themselves are growing out of cup-shaped leaves… I can't actually see where the berry itself is connected to the plant. Carefully, I grip one of the larger ones, and pry it from the bush.

The berry is incredibly firm. Even pressing it with my fingers does very little to deform it. "What are these… I wonder if they'd bounce if I threw them at the pavement…"

"Oh, so you played with them too? I always liked to throw them at the ground as hard as I could, and see how high they'd bounce back up!" chirps the archer. "Of course, sometimes the birds or the Dogoos would steal them, but it's not like they're hard to come by, right?"

I pick the the two dozen largest berries I can find into my inventory. I don't know if I'll be able to craft anything with them, but worst-case scenario, I'll finally be able to reward Seamus for being a good little torch. It's the absolute least I can do.

"Alright." I state. "What were you hoping to show me?"

My attention is soon directed towards a statue, sitting in the dead center of the delta. The statue seems to be of a scarred, bald man wearing a nothing but a loincloth, screaming with his head pointed skywards as he holds two crude bladed weapons chained to his wrists. Add in the fact that it seems to be speckled with rust, and it definitely doesn't look like anyone has been looking after it.

After a bit of discussion back and forth about whether the statue was supposed to be of a hero or a villain, we all agree that whoever the statue is of is probably someone we would not want to bump into. With one final check around the area, we begin our trek up the river.


Fifteen more minutes of unsatisfying trash encounters later, we finally reach a marble building. From within, we can hear the sound of the waterfall.

Carefully, we step inside, to be greeted by a marble tile floor, an arched ceiling, and dozens of lit torches illuminating the interior. Statues of the HDD forms of the four CPUs stand in the four corners, lovingly - if not disturbingly - detailed. Blanc seems to be scaled upwards slightly, and Vert downwards, as they all seem to be more or less the same height.

Each of the statues is holding their weapons aloft in a threatening manner, as if battling an unseen foe. Or each other. That's an option too. Swift takes his time to bow to each statue in turn, whereas Sira and Kristina instead move towards the center of the building to double-check their equipment.

I, on the other hand, take a closer look at the Purple Heart statue. I more or less chose the statue at random. And by random, I mean I just picked the closest one.

Does Neptune have visible abs in person? Because this is actually kind of weird. This statue has a twelve-pack. Why did they spend time carving a detailed twelve-pack in this statue?

Actually, now that I look at it, yeah. Either the Goddesses have absolutely insane body proportions, or these statues are a little bit inaccurate. And I can only imagine the back pain that this rack would cause on a regular human.

Shaking my head in confusion, I step back to the group. "The boss must be up ahead." murmurs Kristina, as she raises her sword. "You three ready? This one will be pretty tough."

"C'mon, Kris! You know me, I'm always ready!" smiles Sira, who twirls her staff playfully. "We should really do this more often… This is a lot of fun!"

"I'm ready." replies Swift, who is done his whole prayer thing. "The Goddesses are watching over us! There's no way we'll lose!"

"Bring it on." I smirk. "Let's see what this monster's made of."

With one final set of exchanged nods, we step out from the building.


The waterfall is plainly visible, just a few dozen meters ahead of us. I try to strain my eyes to see past it to see the obviously-lurking monster, but I can't see a damn thing past the deluge. The river is frothy and violent here, as the ground below redirects the massive force from the descending water. Carefully, we all step forwards, silent save for the sound of grass crunching under our feet.

"Do you see anything…?" asks Swift, to which I shake my head. "It's probably in the waterfall. Or in the river or something."

"Want me to shoot it?" he asks, drawing his bow. I'm not sure whether or not he'd be able to even shoot through the water… but it won't hurt to try, right?

"Go for it." I speak, drawing my crowbar once more. I also double check my leg pistol… It's loaded. Good. Actually, let's try out my new ammunition. Might as well, right?

With a small motion, I retrieve my pistol, dislodge the ammunition chamber, and tip the contents out onto the ground. The discarded shells fade into data. Carefully, I switch my adapter to the Killachine rounds, and load the revolver back up. It definitely weighs a bit more now, but it's still nothing to worry about. Let's try to see the crab block this.

Nothing seems to have happened by the time we reach the waterfall itself. I still can't see a damn thing behind it, nor in the pools near it. I mean, there's a few confused fish, plenty of kelp, and a few discarded plastic bottles, but no giant monsters. I debate poking my crowbar into the river.

"Behind us!" shouts Sira, and with that, goodbye thinking. I dive to the left, just as something absolutely massive slams into the ground behind me.

Recovering as quickly as I can, I get my first look at our foe. Standing a good one and a half times my height, is a gigantic blue-green crab encrusted with barnacles. It's glaring down at us with malice in its tiny black orb-like eyes, clicking as it does so. Its right claw is absolutely massive. Geez, imagine how many people you could feed with one of these things.

"Colossal Crustacean… Stormclaw Fiddler." I murmur to no one in particular, before it begins moving once more and I scamper away to make space.

Not a second too soon. The crab's massive claw rises skyward, before it slams down with a resounding thud. The space where I was not a moment ago is now home to a gigantic claw.

"Eeesh." I murmur, glancing around towards the rest of the team. Good, they seem to be okay. Slowly, I begin circling my foe, looking for my opening. There's no way I'll be able to hurt this thing with brute strength alone.

"Wow… It nearly squashed us like a bug!" shouts Sira, "I'm going to use my special! Frigid Whirlwind!"

The wind begins to pick up, as the air grows colder around the crab itself. I can see large, snowflake-shaped shards of ice forming and striking the crab's carapace, but it seems that they're just not enough to punch through the thing's shell.

The crab moves forward to intercept something, probably a strike from Kristina. I can see the whirlwind beginning to dissipate.

That's my queue, I suppose.

As I rush forward towards an exposed hind leg, the crab suddenly spins towards me, just barely clipping me with the back of its massive claw. Biting back a curse, I drop to the ground to avoid being dunked into the rushing river.

It doesn't want me doing that, apparently.

That means that I definitely should keep doing it. Screw this crab: I'm mad now.

From where I'm standing, I can barely tell the difference between the sounds of Sira's spells and Swift's arrows, but either way the constant hail is a refreshing reminder that I'm not alone.

I can see one of the crab's extended eye stalks gazing back at me, waiting for me to move. Its other eye is focused on the rest of the group.

I shake my head, before I drop my crowbar, draw my pistol, and aim at the right eyestalk. The eye spasms slightly from the laser pointer now aimed directly at it, but either way, it will soon have much bigger problems to worry about.

I click the trigger.

Turns out big bullets have one hell of a kick. And make a hell of a lot of noise too.

My gun's recoil sends it directly into my midsection. I'm glad that it only hit the midsection, rather than just flying right into my face. Or into the river. That'd be bad too.

I shake away the daze and glance up to see my handiwork.

I definitely pissed it off, that's for sure.

The crab's right eye is entirely gone. I'm not sure whether I atomized it, or if it disintegrated, but either way it's flailing about in anger, shrieking the entire way. Its other eye has been retracted back into its body… I can't get a good bead on it from here. There's just too much shell in the way.

The crab's backing up towards me… I should probably get out of the way! I bend down to pick my crowbar back up, and break into a sprint to better reposition.

I circle back around the crab. I slot my revolver back into the holster as I do so.

"What was that?" asks Sira, voice tinged in concern as I complete my rotation. "Was that one of your specials?"

"Yeah." I respond, nodding towards her. "Has it slowed down any?"

"Kris's landed a few good hits since you took out its eye. It's not really attacking that much though, mostly just soaking hits. Do you think you can do the other one?"

I blink at the crab, before I shake my head. "Not without distracting it, that's for sure. I'm not sure it'll let itself be hit like that again. When I was looking at it from behind, it was protecting its other eye."

The crab lets out a cry of pain, and my vision is directed forwards. A silver arrow is sticking from the joint of the Fiddler's large claw. The arrow sits there for a moment, before it explodes in another flash of light. I can see Swift pumping his arm in success.

With a final, jumping strike, Kristina strikes the claw joint's brand new fault with her sword. There's a shriek from the crab, before the massive claw shudders, and then cracks under its own weight. It falls forward with a crunch.

The now disarmed crab scampers backwards, clicking its remaining much smaller arm as threateningly as it can. It's on its last legs, that's for sure, bobbing and swaying as it glances around with its one remaining eye stalk. Slowly, it moves backwards, chittering in fear. It's getting dangerously close to the river.

It's getting away!

I drop myself into a crouch, and draw my revolver with both hands. Choosing to go for a quick body shot, I brace for impact, and pull the trigger.

Crunch

My shot lands wide, just barely hitting it. My own shot is soon joined by arrows and jagged diamonds of ice, and the crab stumbles backwards. I throw in one final bullet for good measure.

The air takes on a brilliant hue as the crab's body begins to disintegrate into data, burning away until nearly nothing remains.

Nothing except for the loot, of course.

I wipe my brow, reload my handgun, and holster it once more. I consider blowing on the barrel, but let's be honest here, that'd be going overboard.

"Whoo! Good job, team!" cheers Sira, dramatically swinging her staff. "That was a tough one!"

Kristina walks over towards us, hair slightly mussed up. "Yeah, it was. You three seem to be fine though."

Swift smiles. "Yeah. I got a few lucky criticals there, that's for sure. The Goddesses themselves must've been guiding my shots."

"Yeah, do you three mind if I dig through the loot for any pieces of leftover shell?" I ask.

I get nods back. "What do you need them for?" asks Sira, who instead elects to gather the other items. "Oooh! INT boosting ring! I'm calling dibs!"

"Just materials for a new weapon." I respond. Sadly, there aren't many pieces of chitin left over…

My eyes wander over towards the giant claw still resting on the ground. I roll my eyes, as I regret my choices to not invest in gigantic crab crackers.

"Guess I'll need to salvage the claw." I murmur, as I press my crowbar into the joint, and attempt to leverage out as much as I can.

Long story short, the other three eventually wonder what I'm doing, before they pitch in to help. Kris lends her sword at cracking the shell, and Swift helps move the harvested meat over to Sira to be processed. By the end of the harvest, I've got more than enough shell for the blacksmith, in addition to a few kilograms of fresh, flash-frozen crab meat. I don't quite know what I'll do with it, but I can imagine that whatever it is, it'll be quite tasty.

Of course, that's my share. The rest of the group take portions as well. There's more than enough to go around.

Finally, after I'm paid my share of the boss's credits, we all shake hands at a job well done, and once more, we make our way back to the entrance. I don't get any items, but honestly, I got what I came for.

The sun is just starting to set when we arrive back at the guild.

"That was a lot of fun!" smiles Sira, as she turns back to face me and Swift. "We should really try and do this again, huh? Do you two have phones?"

I shake my head. "Sorry. Kind of broke."

"Aw." pouts Sira. "Well, if we see you around, want to join us next time? That was a lot of fun."

That one gets a nod back. "I'll see what I can do."

Swift, on the other hand carefully writes down a phone number, and hands it to Sira. "I gotta head home in a bit though. It's getting real late, and mom said that I should be back before it gets too dark." he states.

The sound of rapid footsteps approaching breaks our conversation. "Excuse me, are you Derek?" asks a greeter, who seems to be breathing heavily, as if she had run quite a distance.

"Yeah, that's me." I answer. "Is something the matter?"

"Lady Purple Sister has arrived, and both she and Lady Black Sister are asking for your presence." asserts the greeter.

Swift lets loose a choked noise as he stares at me in absolute lack of understanding.

Crap.

"Uhhh… I gotta take this." I respond. "You know how it is… Right? I'll, uh, see you later!"

As quickly as I can, I beat feet towards the Basilicom.


The guards part to allow me passage the moment I come within sight of the Basilicom. I'm not even short of breath by the time I arrive, probably a side benefit of all of the running around I've been doing.

I mean, I guess fearing for my life is an excellent motivator for cardio. I'm probably in better shape now than I've ever been in.

I find Nepgear and Co waiting in Kei's meeting room, sitting around the table. MAGES. is also here, leaning back slightly in one of the many chairs. It seems that the recruitment was finalized?

"Oh hey, there he is!~" chirps RED the moment I step inside. "Hey!~ It seems we won't need to go looking for him after all!~"

Uni glances towards me, and begins to say something, but I quickly glance between the rest of the people in the room, before I mouth back 'later'. That gets a small pout back, but nothing more is said.

I'm not looking forward to having to explain myself, but I know that I can't put that off forever.

"So." begins IF, who rolls her eyes at me as I take a seat across from Uni. "What was so important that we had to run all of the way over here for?"

Uni flinches, but it seems that no one else has noticed. "I had a bad feeling, that's all. Exactly like I told you girls. Had to do something important."

"So what'd you do? Leave the oven on?" smiles the agent.

"I much prefer frying over baking, so it couldn't have been the oven." I respond, twirling my finger as I do. "But yeah, I just had to head back here. It's sort of personal though."

Kei clears her throat, drawing all of our attentions. "He was assisting me with a minor issue involving Lastation security."

The rest of the party glance towards the Oracle in shock. "What the goodness? Was everything okay?" asks Nepgear, who rises to her feet.

"The issue was resolved in record time." declares the Oracle. "A person of his skillset was the optimal choice for resolving the situation."

I stare at Kei in confusion for a moment, before I follow her lead. "It wasn't a big deal, but you know how it goes. Contracts, NDA, the whole shindig."

Kei glances back at me, before she slowly nods.

"Phew." murmurs Nepgear, who once more takes a seat. "We all were getting worried, since you didn't come back. We all decided to cut the trip short and head back early."

I smile back at them all. "Well, thanks! It really does mean a lot to me to know you all care so much. But yeah, I was actually just off doing a dungeon… Plus, what good would going back to Leanbox be, if we were just going to head back here in a few days anyway? I was thinking of just meeting you all here when you finally arrived."

Marvy turns towards me. "Were you off by yourself?"

"Nah." I respond. "I just joined a pick up group."

IF winces as I speak the last few words. "Ugh. Pick up groups? No thanks. They're not my sort of thing."

Marvy muffles a snort, to which IF glares back at her. "Not one word." she states.

Nepgear stretches her arms, before she glances out the window to the darkening sky. "It's been…"

She blinks, and then begins rapidly gesturing with her fingers upon the table, as if she was calculating something.

"It's been, what, a week? Two weeks?" she asks, voice tinged with worry. "Compa, how long has it been since we were last in Planeptune?"

IF glances at her friend with confusion. "What's wrong, Gear?"

Nepgear wrings her hands. "It's been a week or so, and I haven't done anything for Planeptune's shares!"

Uni murmurs, "I thought you had your shares sorted out?"

Nepgear scratches the back of her neck as she frowns slightly. "Well, Histoire does her best to keep Planeptune going… Oh goodness… I completely forgot about my duties!

I'm so sorry everyone!" Nepgear apologises, head bowed so low she nearly collides with the table. "But I really, really need to head back to Planeptune for a few days! I promise I'll be back soon, though. See you all soon!"

Compa, IF, and Marvy rise as well, and together, they leave the Basilicom.

As the distant noise of the Basilicom front door closing fades into silence, Uni sighs, before raising herself to her feet. She steps towards the door, and leaves without a single word.

I could leave her. I could just let her be.

But...

I take in a breath, before I leave my chair as well. "I need…" I begin, but I receive nods back from Kei and MAGES. RED is staring at me with a strange expression, but she shrugs as well. Apparently, nothing more is needed to be said. "See you all tomorrow?"

I step out of the room, to find myself in an empty hallway. Has she already called it a night? Or has she already left?

With hesitant steps, I turn towards her room. Should I even bother?

What would I do in her place?

Soon enough, I find myself before her door. It's closed, and just barely, I can see light shining from the cracks underneath it. I raise my knuckles to the door, and take in one last breath.

"I'm not running. Not from this." I murmur. Lightly, I knock once upon the door. "It's not who I am. It's not who I will let myself be. I can be a cowardly bastard on my own time."

There's a pause, before the door slowly opens, just a crack.

"Did you want to talk?" I ask.

With a creak, the door opens all of the way. Uni's eyes stare back at me from within, an unidentifiable emotion deep within them. She nods slightly, before she gestures towards a chair near her bed.

As I step inside, I can't help but notice her not only close the door behind her, but also lock it.

Finally, she takes a seat cross-legged atop of her bed. Shakily, she states a single, nearly inaudible word. "Why?"

She swallows once, before she speaks again. "I don't… I don't understand. Why do all of this? Why do so much, just for me? You could have been killed too."

"It was worth the risk." I state. "I was worried that you were hurt."

"I…" she lowers her head. "You should have left me there… It's what I deserved."

I turn towards her in disbelief. Does she really believe what she's saying?

"I… I lost. I wanted to beat… I needed to beat CFW Brave." she states. She's not staring at me, but rather at the wall beside me. "He's the one who beat sis… But I couldn't even scratch him. I couldn't even slow him down…"

Uni takes in a shuddering breath. I can see tears beginning to fall, staining the bed below her. "And the worst bit is that he didn't even try to finish me off! He just left me there, like I was a piece of garbage… Too worthless to even care about!"

That's enough.

I step towards her, and take a seat on the bed. Carefully, I maneuver my arm around her, and rest it upon her shoulder. She flinches at my touch, but doesn't move away.

"But you aren't, are you?" I ask.

"What are you-"

"You aren't worthless. You aren't unwanted, okay?" I assert, turning to face her eye to eye. "Is that really what you think?"

I don't give her time to respond.

"If you were worthless, would I have gotten on that boat and trekked the entire way and back to come find you? All of this, in the middle of the night. I had no idea that you were even there. I did all of this, just because we're friends, Uni."

"Friends?" she echoes, as if the word is foreign to her. "You called me… Your friend…"

"Of course we're friends." I answer. I take a breath in to calm myself back down. "Look, I don't know what the exact definition of a friend is. All I know, is I enjoy hanging around you. Of all of the girls, I consider you my best friend."

"But why me?"

"Why not you?"

"It doesn't make sense though…" She shakes her head. "Derek… You've been travelling with Nepgear for as long as I've known you… And you've just met me…"

"Two weeks." I recite.

"Huh?" responds Uni. "Two weeks what?"

"I've known Nepgear for two weeks, tops." I respond. "And even with that time, I still haven't been able to really connect with them. I'm trying, I really am, but I just can't."

I take in another breath.

"Uni… Just yesterday, do you remember how I reacted back in Leanbox's magic store we visisted?"

She nods slowly. "You ran out of the store after they didn't believe you, right?"

"That… The entire time I've known the others, I haven't told a single one of them anything about it. They don't know anything at all about me." I scratch the back of my neck with my other hand. "It's not that I couldn't, it's just… How can someone let someone else in on that?"

"But you told me?" she replies with a confused expression.

"I told you because I trust you. But do you trust me?"

"I do." she responds instantly.

"Because, isn't that what friends are? Two people who trust one another?"

We're both silent for a few moments.

"Look. Even if you think you're alone in this, you're not. It might not seem like it at first, but Nepgear and the others have your back too." I smile. Her breathing is finally slowing… It seems she's calming down. "Even if they're not friends yet, you can still count on them. But just because they're not friends yet, doesn't mean they won't be friends ever."

Uni's tears have finally stopped. "I guess…" she murmurs. "Do you really think they'll want to be my friends?"

"I'm sure of it. And even if they don't, I'm not going back on what I said." I promise. "You feeling any better?"

Uni takes a moment to respond. "Yeah." She wipes her eyes on her blanket. "I don't know how you put up with me, with all this crying…"

"Don't worry. I cry when I'm emotional too. Now, if you don't mind me, I should probably get out of your room before Kei siccs calls the guards on me for potentially profaning the Candidate." I finish.

With that, I stride to the door, throw her one final lopsided grin, and then step outside, just barely able to hear the beginnings of muffled laughter coming from behind me.

"Good night, Uni." I mumble, as I close the door behind me.

I let loose a sigh of relief. I've never been the most empathetic of people… But it feels good to help. Hopefully she'll be fully recovered by tomorrow.