Chapter 52
I took the little amount of Credits we received for completing the easy quest. A hundred Credits. Wow, I could probably buy a pack of gum with that. I slid the money into my wallet and walked out of the guild to meet with Neptune and Nepgear, who were talking amongst themselves.
"Since we worked so, so hard on that quest, we should go visit your friends at the other nations!" Neptune proposed.
"But, um, wouldn't that be slacking off?" Nepgear asked timidly.
Neptune grinned widely. "It's not 'slacking off', it's just a peacekeeping mission that comes with snacks and games!"
I sighed. "That's not true." I poked at her forehead. "You just want to go laze around in the other nations while receiving snacks and playing games!"
She averted her gaze and scratched her head. "Hehe... Ya caught me."
Nepgear watched her sister in wonder. "Neptune, is that true?"
Neptune clutched her stomach as if she had been injured there. "There it is! Nepgear's patented gaze-o-suspicion! Do you really not trust your sweet, loving big sister!?" She sniffled.
Nepgear shook her head. "No, no! Well, I guess you're right. If it's only a quick visit, Histoire shouldn't have a problem," Nepgear looked back at me. "That's fine, right?"
I sighed and patted her head. "You really do succumb to peer pressure way too easily. But I guess it's fine."
The girls chorused. "Yay!"
"Gyah!" I fell to the ground as Neptune glomped me.
"Yay! And since you're here, Histoire will have to believe we did our work!" Neptune nuzzled against me. Um, you do realize I have a girlfriend, right?
"Hey, no fair!" Nepgear puffed out her cheeks. "I want to snuggle with him too!" Wait, what!?
"Ah!"
Nepgear lunged towards me and also began to snuggle with me. "Hehehe. Snuggling with sis and Silver is so nice!" Well, these two didn't seem to be getting off anytime soon.
"Hey you two! We're still in public! We can't do this with people around!" But it was too late. People had already begun to crowd around us.
"Look mommy! It's that one boy from the store!"
The mother glared at me with a twisted expression. "Disgusting," she snarled. Why do I keep meeting you two!?
"Look at that guy," a teen said, pointing at me. "Guy's got two chicks on him!"
Another teen beside him slapped him on the back. "Boy's got game!"
An old man also glared at me. "Kids these days..." he muttered. There goes my reputation...
We were now walking over towards Leanbox. Neptune was frolicking happily, while Nepgear and I were watching her from behind. "Hm?"
Nepgear looked over at me. "What's wrong?"
I shook my head. "Nothing's wrong. It's just that I noticed something different."
"Different?"
I called out to Neptune. "Hey, Neptune!"
She stopped prancing and turned back to me. Now I could see what was different. Neptune's attire had changed. Instead of her usual hoodie dress, it was now a short jacket with the same design. She wore a dark purple dress with lilac lining along the bottom. She still wore her purple plug-like strings, the jacket was still buttoned by the N button, her choker remained the same and she now wore two white bracelets with spikes coming off of one side. Besides that, the rest of her attire remained the same.
Pointing a finger towards her, I asked, "Did you get new duds Neptune?"
She grinned and puffed out her chest. "Hehe!" Neptune twirled around to reveal her outfit. "Pretty cool, right? I bought it myself!"
"Really?"
Nepgear shook her head. "No, Histoire made her buy new clothes."
Neptune frowned. "Yeah," she pointed towards her boots. "Except I couldn't find any new shoes because none of them were my size."
I crossed my arms. "I see..."
"Hello~! Anyone home?" Neptune looked around the Leanbox living area. "Vert? Where are you?"
"Maybe she's doing her work?" Nepgear suggested.
Neptune chuckled. "There's no way Vert's working," Neptune opened the door to her room and pointed in. "See?"
We peered in to fine Vert at her computer, wearing her headphones, playing an MMO. Come on now.
Vert let out a sigh while she mashed on her keyboard. "This cooldown timer won't let me rebuild here in time. I must take a different approach."
Nepgear ran her hand through her hair. "Well, she's sitting at her PC, so she must be doing some work with spreadsheets or documents, right?"
Oh Nepgear, you innocent little girl. "Yeah, that's not true at all."
Neptune nodded in agreement. "That's statistically impossible," Neptune tapped Vert's shoulder. "Hey Vert, you're all up in some MMO, aren't you?"
Vert's eyes were glued to the screen. "Yes, unfortunately, you've come at a rather bad time. I entered a castle siege right before your arrival. I will be preoccupied for another three or maybe four hours." Damn.
"I...see," Nepgear said.
Neptune squinted her eyes and stared at Vert with disappointment. "So let me get this straight. We were just playing games at my place, and then you run home to play some more games?"
"Won't you upset Chika if you play games so much?" Nepgear asked.
"Yeah, by the way," I looked around. "Where is she?" I don't need her trying to flirt with me again. Especially since I now have a girlfriend.
Vert simply smiled. "There's no need to worry about that. Chika will not be returning for some time."
Nepgear seemed shock. "Huh? Did she go somewhere?"
I spun back to Vert. "Yeah, what happened? Did she get sick?"
Neptune grinned. "Did she finally get tired of trying to get your attention, oh magical Senpai?"
Vert shook her head. "Not at all. She's still trying her hardest to grab my attention. Right now, she is visiting a factory that produces Leanbox hardware. She mentioned a labor strike. They seek better pay, or they said they've promised to jump off the factory roof. So Chika is desperately trying to dissuade them from taking such drastic measures."
Man, that sounds kind of like my dimension. Mostly in the American region of it. Minimum wage was a bitch there.
"Huh!? Why?!" I demanded.
"Yeah," Neptune agreed. "This really isn't the time to be taking over another castle or whatever!"
Vert returned to statement with a glare. "Whatever do you mean!? With her gone, I can burn through some games without hearing any complaints."
Nepgear stared at her with disappointment. "I question your priorities sometimes." Me too Nepgear, me too.
Vert's screen flashed and she returned her attention to the screen. "Ah! I was so busy talking, that I failed to heal my comrades properly. I apologize, but will you please allow me to concentrate?"
Neptune sighed. "Welp, that's that! Let's all log out of this party!"
Nepgear nodded. "Okay, let's not disturb her."
Before we walked out, I glanced once more at Vert. I worry about this girl.
"Here we are! Lastation! The land of Tsunderes!" Neptune exclaimed as we approached the Basilicom doors.
"I think that may just be Noire and Uni," I said.
We opened the doors to the Basilicom and quickly rode the elevator up towards the second floor.
*Ding!*
"Hello!"
"We're barging in!"
Uni peeked her head out of the hallway to peer at us. "Oh! Hey, Nepgear. And hi to your big sister, too." Uni smiled and waved at us.
She glanced over at me and she blushed before turning away from me. "H-hi Silver, how have you been?" Uni asked shyly. I don't see why you're being so shy. Wait...
I waved back at her. "Hey, Uni. How have you been with your sister?"
She gave a small smile. "We-We've been getting along..."
I nodded. "That's good to hear."
*Smack!*
Neptune smacked me on the head and I fell forward. "Ow! Why'd you do that!?" I glared back at her.
"Well, seeing as I'M the main character, I think it's time for me to return to the dialogue!"
"But I've only had a few bits of dialogue."
"Doesn't matter! I'm the main character, end of story!" Yeah, you're the main character.
Nepgear flashed Uni a bright smile. "It's been a while, Uni."
Neptune motioned her arms to face Uni. "Dudette, I've told you to drop the big sister thing. It's like you aren't actually talking to me! So just call me Neptune, 'cuz that's my name!"
Uni bowed her head apologetically towards Neptune. "Oh, sorry. I can't quite get used to saying it, um... Neptune..."
I looked around. "By the way where's Kei? I don't see her anywhere. Did she quit?"
Uni frowned. "No, she didn't exactly quit. She just said something about it being too peaceful for her to run the Basilicom and being a waste of her talents. So, she left and went and started her own business. Eventually, she got so caught up in it that she's never here at the Basilicom anymore."
"And Noire?"
Uni sighed. "My sister's locked herself in her office and is working. She said something about having to make up for lost time."
Nepgear smiled. "That sounds like Noire all right. She can manage to play but find a way to get her things done."
Neptune waved off Nepgear's statement. "Meh. She's always so serious. That's why she and I are on different wavelengths!" Yeah, but not in the good way.
Uni just stared at Neptune. "Maybe you shouldn't brag about being lazy," she suggested.
Neptune stared at Uni with sympathy. "Man, you must be pretty busy now Mini-Noire. Now you gotta do the Oracle's work in her place!" Well Histoire has to do her work and yours, so I think Histoire has a rougher time. But I still do feel bad for Uni.
Uni shrugged. "It's nothing special. I mostly just stamp and push a bunch of papers. It's not that difficult. Anyone could do it," she stated. Everyone except for lazy people like Neptune. "When all's said and done, my sister handles most of it anyways."
"…"
"…"
Neptune and Nepgear stared at each other. Nepgear nudged her sister. "You know, Neptune... Hearing this makes it sound like..."
Neptune nodded and finished her sister's sentence. "Yeah, compared to these two workaholics, we look pretty pathetic." And now you realize the truth.
"Anyway, Nepgear," Uni broke the two Planeptune girls from their trance. "What brings you to Lastation?"
Nepgear let out a dry laugh. "Oh! Well, we were getting some work done ourselves, but we thought we'd come here to take a break..." That's not the best thing to say.
Uni's jaw fell. "Huh!? You came all this way for a break? Jeez, I'm too busy to be your host for a reason like that!"
Nepgear bowed her head. "Y-you're right. I'm sorry. We'll leave as soon as we can." Girl, you succumb to peer pressure way too easily.
We headed for the elevator but heard Uni call out to us. "W-Wait! You're making it sound like I'm kicking you out or something. At least let me offer some drinks or something," Uni complained. "Oh, I just happened to buy a two-player game recently. If you want, I guess I can let you try it." Uni, you're Tsundere is showing.
Nepgear cocked her head. "Are you sure that's okay? You were just saying how busy you wer—!"
Uni's face reddened. "Wh-What!? Are you saying that you don't want to play it with me?!" This makes me want to cringe.
Nepgear shook her head furiously. "No, I'd love to, but..."
Uni took Nepgear's hand. "Then stop trying to turn me down! C'mon, let's fire it up!"
"O-Okay."
As the two Candidates scurried away, Neptune shook her head. "Sometimes, I wonder if the Lastation sisters are clones..."
"You're not the only one Neptune, you're not the only one..."
Neptune peered over at me. "But hey, it's great that Uni has Nepgear for a friend! That's one more than Noire has anyways." Wow, poor Noire. Maybe I should hang out with her sometime. It'd be nice to catch up with her.
"Man, I've always loved Lowee and it's snow," Neptune stated as she kicked over a pile of snow.
Our last stop was Lowee and we were just outside the castle.
Neptune hurried up the stairs to Lowee's Basilicom and kicked the door open as Nepgear and I caught up with her.
*Bang!*
"Heya, Blanc! We wanna hang out, so come hang!"
*Vsh!*
As Neptune walked through the front door, an object flew past her, missing by only hairs. "What the!? I think that was the sound of the wind getting it's head chopped off." I swear, the more time that passes, the less sense you make Neptune. "Whoa!"
*Ga-thunk!*
Another object hit Neptune square in the head and she fell to the floor as Nepgear and I helped her to her feet.
Nepgear examined her sister. "That oversized book hit you right on your head! Neptune, are you alright!?"
"Yeah! Bulls-eye! You're such a slowpoke big...sis...huh?" A voice came from our left.
Turning to that direction, we found Ram staring us down.
Nepgear pointed towards the gigantic book. "Ram, are you responsible for that?"
Ram seemed surprised. "Oh, you're not Blanc," she waved Neptune off. "It's fine. It's only Neptune anyways."
Neptune slowly pulled herself up. "Nep Jr., methinks you should be worried about this giant bruise on my head!"
Nepgear returned to aiding her sister. "I'm sorry! How's it feeling!"
"Honestly, I feel like I just almost died," Neptune jabbed her finger towards Ram. "C'mon Ram. Your pranks are starting to get too violent for my tastebuds!"
Ram stuck out her tongue. "Bleh! It's your fault for being such a bad dodger!" The logic of children.
"Hm? What's going on? Ram, you're being too loud."
We all turned to the new voice. It was Blanc, who had a children's book in one hand and her other hand was holding Rom's hand, who walked close by Blanc.
Rom's face lit up when she saw Nepgear. "Oh! It's Miss Nepgear...!" Rom smiled shyly.
Nepgear waved at Rom. "Hello, Rom. What were you and Blanc up to?"
"She was...reading a picture book to me..." That's cute.
Blanc stared at the three of us. "You guys chose to play with Ram? How brave of you all."
Neptune flailed her arms. "You call THIS playing!? Look at the dent in my skull!" Neptune complained as she pointed to the bump on her head.
"I wasn't playing! I was trying to do a prank!" Ram corrected.
Nepgear simply laughed dryly. "It always turns out like this when we come here."
Rom gave a small nod. "Maybe, but...I like the excitement..." She glanced at Nepgear with unturned eyes. "Miss Nepgear, did you...come to play with us?"
Nepgear nodded. "Yep. It's been a long time since we last saw each other. So, I thought to stop by!" Hey, it was actually your sister's idea.
Blanc pointed at the two of us. "Nepgear, Silver, come with me. I have a book I'd like to loan to the both of you," Blanc turned to Ram. "Ram, do what you like with Neptune."
Ram jumped up into the air. "Anything? Yay!"
Neptune continued to flail her arms. "Hey, hey, hey! Wait! These teams are way too uneven!"
Blanc shrugged. "I believe this is a fair split between the brains and brawn." Well, you're not wrong.
As we walked off, the last thing we heard was Neptune's cries for help.
"Isn't Ram a bit too wild?" I asked. "Don't you guys have an Oracle?"
Blanc frowned but glanced over at me. "We did. Her name was Mina Nishizawa."
Rom nodded silently. "Yeah... Ever since Mina left, Ram's been like that..."
Nepgear sighed. "I see she still hasn't returned." Returned?
"Yes. It's been about a year since she began her journey to become a 'proper' Oracle," Blanc explained. No wonder I never met her.
Rom sniffled. "I miss her..."
Nepgear patted Rom's head. "I-I'm sorry! I didn't mean to make you cry!"
"It's fine. I know Mina will someday return," Blanc said as she pointed to a corner of the Basilicom. "Come on Rom, let's go read some more over there."
"Okay..." She waddled over with Blanc.
"We'll join too!" Nepgear and I chorused.
We had just returned to Planeptune and had accepted another quest. The quest requested to disband a citizens group protest. Now, we were walking to where the protest should be held.
"Oww... My everywhere..." Neptune rubbed her sore body. "I never knew books could hurt so much!"
I shrugged. "That's karma I guess."
"For what?"
"For spending all that time loafing around and not doing your duties as a CPU."
Neptune lightly hit my arm. "Hey! I did my work... sometimes."
"Yeah but only when I forced or bribed you to."
"Shut up!"
Before we could continue our argument, we heard a voice off in the distance. "Um, please read this pamphlet! It says why this world would be a better place without CPUs.."
"Move aside!"
"Kyah! S-Sorry!"
We inched closer to find a lady trying desperately to pass out pamphlets. She wore a black suit and tie lined with silver, she had pale skin, light green eyes, she wore a loose, white skull belt, she also wore black leggings and white knee-high boots. "E-Excuse me. Please take this pamphlet. We need proper laws, not CPUs..."
"Mommy, who's that lady?"
"Don't worry about it, son. Just keep walking." Hey, that's the same pair I saw this morning!
Honestly, this person was probably more timid than Nepgear. We approached her.
"Hey, protesters! Whaddya think you're doing?!"
She jumped back. "Eek! I-I'm so sorry!"
I cocked my head. "Is she the only one? I thought this was a rally?"
"W-Well, that was the plan, b-but nobody showed up." Wow, how sad.
"Well, we received a complaint and we must ask you to stop, Miss..."
"Oh, sorry! I'm the leader of the Citizens Group, Rei Ryghts," she announced shyly. "Um, if I may ask, who are you people? You seem somewhat familiar." I mean how could you NOT know them? They're this nation's leaders. "Wait! You two are the CPU and CPU Candidate!"
Neptune grinned. "Aww, go me! Even random people on the street recognize me now!"
"Well, you are this nation's CPU after all," I stated.
Rei began talking to herself. "What have I done? Now the CPUs and some random boy have come to punish me! I'm sorry!" She hurried away. What do you mean I'm some random boy?!
Nepgear called after her. "Oh, please don't run! ...And she's already gone."
I sighed. "Welp, I guess our job here is done. Let's just head home and call it quits for the day."
The sisters nodded in unison. "Right!"
A/N:
This chapter was pretty long, but chapters now will become longer for the sake that there is so much to put into the Ultradimension arc. Hope you all enjoyed the double upload though. I'm still trying to work out how I want this arc to be read. But, thanks for reading and I hope to see you all in the next chapter!
