"Watch out!" They yelled in unison, when the icicle on the robot's left arm broke off. For Rubis, it was less out of real panic, and more out of habit.
Seconds later, the ice shattered on Dameko's forehead like it had hit solid concrete. Her sister didn't even look up from the booster she was currently tinkering with.
"What?" She turned back, "Oh, morning, Blanny! You're up early!"
"Nothing. I just heard engine sounds, and—" Blanc eyed the ice fragments on Dameko's grey hair. "Are you okay?"
"Ha! That didn't even tickle. My toughness doesn't go away with retirement, just like her magic." Dameko pointed to Rubis. "Sorry for waking you up, by the way. I gotta' change these boosters after last night's chase."
"...What chase?"
Rubis sighed. There went her hope of breaking the news of their failed mission to Blanc with tact and subtleness.
"My apology. I felt a disturbance in my tracking magic last night, so I asked Dameko to take me on a search. I didn't want to wake you up."
"But we did run into one of them!" Dameko quickly added, "That beetle CPU was flying towards the World Labyrinth shores. I carpet-bombed her till she dived into the water, and if I had my sonar attachment on, she wouldn't have—"
"We were acting without your knowledge again, and I take full responsibility for this failure." She closed her eyes, and made a small bow.
"Please don't. I'm...not mad at you." Blanc's voice was calm, but her clenched fists betrayed her clear discomfort. "You are just looking after your successor. I'll ask C-Sha to direct her crew to search the coast, once she woke up."
"Uh-oh. Nope, Blanny." Dameko put the wrench aside, and walked up to Blanc. "You aren't mad at us, but you aren't happy, either."
"Dameko, that's enough."
"Sheesh! The responsible sibling is talking!" Dameko stuck out her tongue at her, before turning back to Blanc.
"Okay, my sister did tell me her illusions were triggered by sound. We couldn't find you any ear plugs in the middle of the night, and squeezing all of us into the sound-proof cockpit is gonna be super uncomfortable, so I just took her with me and flew off. But I get it, we shouldn't have left you behind—"
"That's not it." Blanc held up a hand, and glanced towards Rubis. "See, I...have read a lot of stories about Ruby Heart. I wouldn't get to see you in that form anymore, but..."
"I promise you, Blanny, you haven't missed anything exciting!" Dameko quickly cut in. "Really, it's a good thing you won't see her in HDD anymore, because she'd nag your ears off! Even Histy said she was too harsh and preachy, but I think she was just scared that Ruby Heart would take over her job of scolding Planeptune's CPUs, and then she'd have nothing to do."
"That sounds...a little terrifying, honestly." A small smile flashed across Blanc's face, before she averted her gaze. "Back to what I was saying, Ruby Heart united the sixty tribes of the tundra, and built Lowee into the most powerful nation of the old days. The books only talked about you as Ruby Sister, Dameko, but I'm sure you'd been a great CPU, too."
"Eh. Kinda. Not really. Without my screwups, Lastation wouldn't exist today!"
"Oh. Okay." Blanc scowled a little at her words. "I don't know the details, and you must have your reasons for remaining in hiding. But when I was born, Lowee was going through a difficult time. People were saying that Ruby Heart would weep if she could see her nation now. That the two CPUs who came before me were lousy at their jobs, which is why they never stood a chance against the Deity of Sin."
"They are not—!" Dameko's protest was cut short, as Rubis stepped forth and put a hand to her mouth.
"Back then, I...didn't feel like I was up to the task, either. I'm nothing like the great warrior Goddess in the books. Hell, I couldn't even give a proper speech without sounding like I was reading off a script." Blanc closed her eyes. "Until Mina suggested I should go out, and visit all these places I saw in my books."
"So many of them...don't exist anymore. Destroyed by monsters, taken over by criminals, fallen into disrepair because no one cares about some shitty old buildings while their kids are scared and crying. The more I saw, the worse I felt. How dare they? How dare these bastards mess up MY nation, and how could I just sit in my room and read, while all...these were going on outside?"
"I was so mad at myself and these villains, I didn't know which unlocked my HDD Form in the end. Either way, I'm finally strong enough to show these bullies that Lowee is not their playground, and I'll never let them make any kids cry again. But..." Blanc paused. "Before Rom and Ram were born, there were times when I was alone, and started wondering if I could ever be good enough."
"Lowee is safe and beautiful again, yet it had been a paradise under Ruby Heart, and nothing I did could ever top her achievements. There were times when I wished Lowee had a Histoire, someone who had seen its glorious past, who could tell me how to bring Lowee back to its previous height."
"Well, someone like that does exist. Everyone thought you were gone, including me. Now that you've shown up on my doorsteps, I have to ask...why haven't you done anything?"
She knew this question was coming. The fact that Blanc didn't even sound angry, just deeply disappointed, made it cut much deeper. Dameko clutched onto her sleeves, and she didn't need to look back to know her sister was shaking.
"I know you've lost most of your powers after retirement, and can't fight the threats face-on. Still, you could've given me advice, since you've done a great job before...heck, even helping me teach the twins!" Blanc raised her voice, but it soon faded back into a quiet whisper. "Am I just not worthy of your attention? Are my predecessors unworthy, too? Because they've died to the Deity of Sin?"
"No." A meek, but solemn voice came from behind them. "It's because the Deity of Sin would not have existed without Ruby Heart."
"Hey! It isn't all her faults!"
"Ah! I-I didn't mean to say it out loud!" Rei covered her mouth at Dameko's retort, "I'm sorry, please forget that I've ever been here, I'll be going back to my room right away—!"
Before she could utter a warning, Rei had already tumbled down the small slope leading up to the front gate. Her glasses landed on top of a puddle, now frozen solid after last night's temperature drop. As she propped herself up, her left elbow slipped on another patch of thin ice, causing her to fall down again with a scream.
"Are you alright?!"
Still fumbling for her glasses, Rei flinched when Blanc grabbed her hands and helped her stand back up. "Yeah, it's...all my fault, really. I-I hope I haven't woken anyone up."
"Don't worry. You can't be louder than the robot engines." Blanc gestured for her to stay there, before picking up her glasses and handing it back to her. "What did you mean, when you said the Deity of Sin...? I'm not mad at you. I just want to know."
"I..." Rei sighed. "O-Okay, I will tell you, but please don't beat me up afterwards?"
"You have my words. I won't hurt you just for telling the truth. And you will, right?"
"Of course! So, uh," Rei shuddered uncomfortably, as she shook the mud water off her suit jacket. "C-Can we go inside first? I mean, if you are all fine with the cold, then I'm sorry for asking..."
"Have any of you ever wondered why I don't think having CPUs is a good thing?"
"No. I figured as much." Rei sighed at the silence, and shifted her gaze back to the tea table. "People said it was because I'd lost my mind. If the CPUs have stopped the Deity of Sin from destroying the world, t-they must be a good thing to have, right? I never got to say anything else before they walked away, but...the CPUs, they lost the first time."
"I-I'm not saying losing makes them bad, of course! It's just, when the CPUs were gone, the nations couldn't do anything to stop the criminals. They started worshipping the evil deity, like it was...the next best thing. If people couldn't get anything done without CPUs, then perhaps w-we shouldn't be so dependent on them in the first place?"
"Basilicoms and Guilds exist for that reason. We need more help running the nation than you think."
"T-True. Still, if you really, really want to do something..." Rei sneaked a glance at Blanc, who had been quietly stirring her tea. "And I don't mean playing games or writing books. It's something you know people won't agree to, but you think it can't possibly be wrong. Can your Oracle stop you? Can the people in your Guild stop you?"
"I'll at least listen to their opinions first."
"Then you are a good CPU. Better than ours, perhaps." Rei let out a sad chuckle. "Not every CPU will listen. And I-I'm just wondering, what if they flat-out refuse to listen? What if they are too childish to realize their actions are bad for the people, or worse, they don't care about what their people think anymore? W-What's stopping another Kurome from appearing in the future?"
"She's...corrupted by her power."
"And so can any other Goddesses. It doesn't even have to be a real, visible power. They may just become awful people in general, and if a powerless, but awful person can cause so much hurt, what will they do with the power of a nation behind them? T-They can be defeated or replaced, sure...but maybe we shouldn't have given them so much power to abuse in the first place!" Rei practically yelled out the last sentence, and blushed when the front desk clerk gave her a weird look.
"Anyways, sorry for rambling, I swear I'm going back on topic! I was writing my pamphlets, looking up stuff about CPUs who aren't...good to their people in the past, like Lowee's fourth CPU—" Rei gulped when she saw Dameko's expression darken. "I-In my defense, Planeptune's old history books often make digs at other nations, and I didn't know if they were being truthful! S-So I went to Lowee's library, to check it out myself."
"The Deity of Sin is born in Lowee. That's pretty much all people know. But more detailed records a-aren't even locked up. It's just, no one bothers to read them, because of how long these books were. I dozed off a few times while reading, too, until I found something different from the rest. It...really doesn't paint Ruby Heart in a good light."
She would have used harsher words. It wasn't a story for her to tell, however. She'd have given up all attempts of self-deception long ago. So she remained silent, and Rei, seeing no angry outbursts from the audiences, resumed her speech.
"A year before she stepped down, the commoners were protesting against the unfair favors she'd given to mages and martial aristocrats, who struck back in the court gatherings. They suggested to Ruby Heart that she should reduce these protesters to a lower caste, and take away their rights to be protected like regular subjects."
"She didn't accept the proposal, b-but she did crack down on the protesters, banning a lot of popular newspapers and books, before she summoned the leaders of the protest to the Basilicom, telling them to bring their followers, too. They thought she was finally going to listen." A slight bitterness bled into Rei's voice. "Instead, she told them if they didn't like what she brought to Lowee, they could always go live a few years like their ancestors, just to give them some p-perspective on things."
"Then she exiled all of them to the World Labyrinth Forest in the far north. S-She didn't expect them to hunt for food like the nomads of the old days, and sent them enough supplies to last a year, but if they didn't come back after one year, they'd never be allowed to set foot in Lowee again."
"Of course they were angry. She didn't even think their opinions were worth anything, and now she was dumping her own people in the middle of nowhere, forcing them to agree with her or leave forever. T-These exiled people had families who didn't want to come along, you know?" Rei closed her eyes. "Even if they came back, they'd have to rebuild their life from the grounds up..."
"Among them was a witch named Arfoire, who was kicked out of the Academy after she had worked so hard to become a teacher, and...she started preaching to people during their exile. Saying they had no reason to endure this tyranny, and, with their very hatred and despair, they could create a weapon powerful enough to depose the strongest Goddess on this continent."
That name, and its bearer's humanity were no more, the moment she became the Deity of Sin's first vessel. Yet Rubis still shuddered when Rei spoke it. How her vengeance had haunted Lowee in the past centuries, hanging over the land like a curse.
"That was the last report the guard captain sent back to the city, and...the book ends. I-I might be stupid, but it isn't hard to put two and two together. Since the other books talked about how Ruby Heart destroyed the Deity of Sin's first vessel, and created the first Game Mascot to seal the Killachines before she stepped down."
That witch must've known that the Deity of Sin's first physical form would be destroyed with ease, like every other foe Ruby Heart had faced before. The mighty, self-righteous warrior, returning to her court in triumph, without even realizing that hatred couldn't be slayed by bullets or blades.
How her ignorance had doomed her successors.
Rubis glanced up and met Blanc's stare. Like she should have, long ago. She was hoping that Dameko would speak out the rest of her faults, because if anyone were qualified to expose the full extent of her failures, it would be her. Instead, her sister only fidgeted with her teacup in complete silence.
"Okay, you said you wouldn't beat me up, but maybe y-you'll change your mind, after hearing my honest thoughts. I still have to say it, though!" Rei took a deep breath. "P-People think CPUs are good, because they've defeated the Deity of Sin, but it wouldn't have existed in the first place...if a CPU hadn't failed her people terribly. Yet you only knew her as this perfect warrior, and so does the rest of Lowee."
She wasn't hiding the bitterness in her voice now. "Why does it seem like CPUs can get away with anything, while people like me...are punished for things I can't even remember doing?"
"Get away with anything?" Dameko gritted her teeth, "Well, you know nothing about—!"
"Sit back, please. You aren't going to convince her by getting mad."
"Yeah, that's...a lot to take in," Blanc said. "And I'm still not gonna beat you up, Rei. Stop shaking. But I do want to ask you one thing."
"Uh, alright?"
"Do you think that, just because Ruby Heart made a terrible, unjust decision, it makes Arfoire and the ASIC right?" Blanc asked. "If what Mina told me about the Killachines is true, they would have killed every living things in sight, including the cultists themselves—"
"They are the cultists."
"You mean...?"
The dreadful memories almost choked her back into silence. "The Deity of Sin's first victims are the people who summoned it. It absorbed their body, and when it spewed them back out, they became something...just like itself. All the human bodies it consumed end up as Killachines."
"You heard her. What have the people killed by the Deity of Sin done wrong? Did they deserve to be used as murder tools after their death? What have the two CPUs before me done wrong?" Blanc stood up, "If they wanted to get even, they'd gone overboard long ago, and they had no rights to drag down generations of innocent people in their revenge!"
Rei didn't make a reply. She just bit into her lips and nodded, under Blanc's intense stare.
"I can see where she's coming from," Rubis broke the silence.
"...What?"
"It doesn't mean I agree with her. Still, I have to acknowledge that, even if we are born from the people's faith, we can be every bit as foolish and fallible as our subjects, making terrible blunders with the best intention in mind. Especially when we've lived so long, all of our people's grievances started sounding like the petty whining of young children."
"How do you deal with children throwing a tantrum? If you think you know what's the best for them, and you don't believe you can ever be wrong, of course you'll never listen. I had made all of my worst mistakes, thinking it had to be right and just and sensible—it's for the stability of the nation, for Lowee's future, for the greater good of all..."
"I only realize how terribly I've failed, after hurting those who are dearest to me." She turned towards Rei. "I want to present you with another perspective, though. CPUs can forcefully impose their wish upon the people, yes, but don't you think it can be the other way around too? That the people can shackle their Goddesses with expectations, and blame them for things they have no control over?"
"Like...what?"
"Do you know the Goddess before Blanc? Her name is Delphinus, and she was born into a nation divided. Between those who wanted to abandon the trappings of Lowee's past legacies, and others who were holding onto these legacies at all costs. Because of that, she's...different."
"She means that Delph' is busty, and doesn't look like a kid." Dameko added.
"That's possible?" Blanc gasped, "I thought Lowee's Shares..."
"Indeed. It doesn't earn her any admiration, though. She's often ridiculed for her looks, and every decision she made seemed to displease half of the nation."
"What? But why? How could they?" Blanc averted her gaze, teeth gritted. "Yeah, our people are perfectly okay with the...flatness, I get it! I really do! But maybe having a kid CPU isn't normal for everyone else, and they'd think the nation was stuck in its infancy and behind the times? Why wouldn't the people of Lowee want someone who's...different?"
"Oh, you have no idea. These elderly Lowee patriots are the worst! It's not like they could freeze time and let everything stay the same, if they made her feel bad for having boobs. Guess what? They did it anyways." Dameko huffed. "If I wasn't pretending to be Delph's Candidate, I'd have told them, to their face, that their 'proper Goddess of old' thought they were all giant dummies!"
"...You what?"
"Eh, she kinda asked me to pose as her Candidate. Told me our citizens would at least be happy, now that they knew Lowee's next CPU wouldn't be a gross old woman—"
Dameko slammed her fist onto the table. She knew her sister's physical strength was meagre compared to her toughness, but Rei still nearly jumped out of her chair at the thud.
"I'm so sick of people obsessing over boobs and the lack of them! It shouldn't even matter! Yet they kept making it into such a big deal, until Delph' just stopped appearing in public and sulked in her room all day."
"When the Deity of Sin was reborn, and Uranus came to us, I asked her not to go to the Graveyard. Begged her. She told me this was the first and only time the entire nation would be proud of her, the best decision she could've made as the worst Goddess of Lowee, and she'd rather die a warrior's death than fading away into nothing, alone and forgotten..."
Dameko's voice was shaking now. "Blanny. Were people not jerks, I'd have stayed after she was gone. They...They just forgot about Delph' so quickly, after a 'proper' Goddess appears."
"I don't wanna say I hate my own people, but they sure made me super angry. I was scared that I'd end up getting mad at you, too, even if you hadn't done anything wrong." Dameko made a quick glance at Rubis, before burying her face in her palms. "It's...there's just too much hurt for it to be a good thing. I'd been avoiding her for the very same reason."
She should've been the person patting Dameko's back, comforting her, offering her tissue papers. Yet, once again, her successor had carried her weight for her, and she doubted Dameko would want any consolation from her right now.
So she quietly stood up and followed behind Rei, as the woman slinked out of the lounge.
"Ah!" Rei's look was one of sheer panic when Rubis tapped her on the shoulder. "I-I'm sorry for making your sister cry, I...didn't know, I'd said the dumbest things, I shouldn't have brought it up—"
"No. I have to thank you for your honesty," Rubis said. "Just to make it clear, I will never accept getting rid of CPUs altogether. But if my mistakes have taught me anything, it is that a Goddess has to know what her people truly want, to admit her imperfections and listen to the multitude of voices, no matter how absurd it may sound."
She looked straight into Rei's eyes. "Will you be willing to help? To become a listener of people who don't usually get heard, just like yourself?"
"W-W-What? I'm not up to the task! I mean, thank you for trusting me with something so important, but I can't even talk to people without annoying them..." Rei lowered her head. "I'll just end up being a disappointment again."
"That's alright. It's not an order. If you changed your mind, you can tell me anytime."
Nodding frantically, Rei turned away and bolted in the opposite direction.
"One last thing," she said, just as Rei was about to run up the nearest staircase. "If my observations hold true, you are braver than you think you are. I may not agree with you, but I admire your determination."