Pre-Author's Note: I usually write these after finishing the chapter in order to keep up with the reviews, but I'mma do this now, for context, it's the same day I posted the last chapter (Barely, it's 11pm on the 15th of July), but the latest review did… Bother me a bit. Not because of the review itself, I appreciate all reviews, of course! But well…

Blaze1212: (A regular commenter, thank you for your patronage!) "wait if nepgear exist do the other candidates exist yet or later but then dies this mean Koei is just before rebirth 2 starts or after ? My mind is so lost hers hoping the next chapters give an update idea of what's going on."

You see, while I was brainstorming the next chapter, (Because along with taking a break, I'm also putting some plot points in advance. Well, I have been since Day 1, but more solidly planning them out.) I kinda realized something.

The audience knows who the Candidates are. I don't need this stupid buildup and being vague about things is just annoying.

This takes place before Re;Birth 2. I kinda remembered that the Candidates didn't know each other after the whole NepG fiasco. Now as you might have figured out, Uni has not been mentioned once. Rom and Ram are more understandable as Blanc has had very little screen time so far, but Noire is kinda like, important (Not something I would have imagined two weeks ago.) and having Uni missing is kind of a big plot hole with Nepgear existing. That, and my original idea has now gone to shit due to one bit of flavor text. (Remember the Share count Noire showed off? Yup, that's now an official plot hole! Don't worry though, I figured out a way to work that in too! Haha!)

There is a good, in-universe reason for this. For once in my life I won't resort to spelling it out through Word of God form and actually weave it into the story. (Honestly the RB1 Shares = Sisters thing was kind of stupid anyway.) like an actual fucking writer!

So uh, TL;DR. Story takes place before RB2, missing Candidates will be explained in due time, yay worldbuilding.

With that, I'mma step out and let Future Hclegend take care of any remaining comments. Time paradox? No, it's called Google Docs.

A/N: Who the fuck is this twat? Oh well, mailbag time!

EnderSoul1401: Once your fingers go numb it becomes much easier!

Huh, guess that's it. Serves me right for screwing up my analytics by publishing too fast. I'll definitely give more of a gap between chapters from now on. (I mean it this time!)

Minimum of three days. Plenty of time to brainstorm and relax while still writing.

Also, since I am stupid and forgot to do this last time, I'm temporarily changing the title to "Sociopath with a Spellblade". If you do happen to have a problem with this, please do tell me and I'll revert it back to "Misadventures of Koei Tech." I know that as the author I have final say, but I like having feedback on things because I make bad choices.

Like writing this story.

Alright, enough rambling. On with the Neppage!

Thud, thud, thud.

"Goddammit Koei! I said to rest well, not rest like a corpse!" IF's strained voice came from outside. Where was I again? Why did my head hurt? Oh god, I've forgotten EVERYTH-

Oh there it is. I think I went overboard on the Leanbox beer. Groggily falling out of bed, I prepared for the long, long road ahead. 9:45am, huh? That's a shitter.

Finally opening the door, I started at the guild member. "I didn't ask for room service." I was still blinking, the light hurt. As did my head. Why did I feel a chill down below?

"I didn't ask to see your Lowee branded boxer shorts either. Come on, we're leaving in 15. And try to look presentable."

"Sure, sure." I waved her off, before pulling out an energy drink and chugging it to add to my ever growing empty can collection. Ahh shit, that's about what, 4 beer cans? I had two during the concert, 4 while surfing and the various conversations… Ah shit. Maybe I can get some in Planeptune.

Taking a cool 10 minutes to clean up myself and after myself, I ensured everything was where it should be, including the UI gloves on my hands. Alright, let's not fuck this day up any more than I already have.

Taking a glorious step outside of the guest bedroom and to the lobby, IF and Nepgear were in fact impatiently waiting for me.

"Took you long enough" IF deadpanned. This seemed to be a running theme today. "You even missed breakfast, so if you get hungry…"

"I got it sorted." I pulled out a burger from yesterday's buffet and munched on it. Was it cold? Sure. Edible? Close enough. More importantly it was handheld for easy use.

"I'm not surprised. At least you're resourceful " IF complimented(?) me, before Vert came in.

"Oh, leaving already? That's a bit of a shame, but I understand that you have places to go. Can I at least register you on my mobile device?" Vert pulled out a green smartphone. I uh…

"Sure?" I say, before I realized she was talking to Nepgear. "Oh, you too Koei. You're a barrel of laughs to be around!" Well, I'll take it. As Noire said last night, I could now register contacts on the UI gloves and call them anytime. Noire was on there already, but that was to be expected, considering this pair was one used for testing the feature.

After exchanging phone numbers, we said our goodbyes and made off to the Leanbox station. As Lastation acted as a "hub" for the other Nations, we'd have to change at Lastation Station and head right for Planeptune. Still better than walking.

Vert has left the party.

The trip itself mostly consisted of Nepgear and IF chatting away while I fiddled with the UI gloves some more. Turns out they only had a call feature, not a text feature. At the very least, I could use a hand to take a non-video call if I wished (Something patched in last minute, it looked like.) so I didn't need to broadcast my calls at the very least.

One thing that struck me as odd,was the way that Nepgear glanced at me occasionally. We were sat to each other, so it wasn't as noticeable as it was when she sat across from me, but I still saw her taking a few glances with a worried expression. I wanted to ask her what was up, as we did barely talk yesterday. I wonder if that's the issue.

I wanted to keep myself distracted the entire time to that I had an excuse not to confront Nepgear about it, but eventually I ran out of pages to check. Sighing in resignation at the lack of decent articles to read, I turned to Nepgear. "What?"

Nepgear for her part, tried to look like she didn't spend half the trip taking nervous looks at me. She failed, but bless her she tried. "G-goodness, what's up Koei?"

IF was fiddling on her phone, wanting no part in this, but shot a quick "You're going to regret this" glance at me. Seriously, those beautiful emerald eyes give that girl so much expression….

Uh, right. Nepgear. "It's just that you've been shooting glances at me the entire trip. Kinda unnerving. If it's about the UI gloves, I can show them off a bit if you want."

"It's not that." Nepgear stated, clearly regretting not sitting next to IF instead. "It's just that well… I'm worried about what will happen to you in the future?"

Huh. Wait, what? "You're worried about me? We've barely talked. Hell, I think IF and I talked more this morning."

IF glanced up from her phone for a moment. "Only because somebody decided to sleep in. If I didn't invite you myself I would have left you to get thrown out."

"Eloquent as ever, my dear IF." IF gave an eye roll and promptly went back to tapping away on her phone. "Anyway, you shouldn't worry about me, NepG. I'm an adventurer. I take care of myself!"

Nepgear's worried expression didn't change. Failed the speech check it seems. "Still you're pretty low level, what if you angered something far above you level?" Been there, done that. "Or worse, managed to turn a CPU against you?" I did that on my second day here. Actually, I did both. What is this now, day 7? Was I in Lastation General for 3 full days, or was I only out for two woke up on the third?

"Hey IF, how long was I in Lastation General for?" I needed this done with now.

IF rolled her jade eyes before glancing at me again, clearly unamused. "You were in for 3 days. Though you were out for two of them then left on the third. Slightly confusing, but… Why are you asking this anyway?"

"G-goodness, you were in hospital? Are you okay?" Ah, there's the regret setting in. Thanks for the warning at least, IF.

"Oh, it was only a minor dragon attack." I wave it off like being attacked by an angry goddess was a totally normal thing. Also Noire is a dragon now because reasons. Plus I still owed her for the gloves.

"Dragons aren't "no big deal", Koei! The baby ones wipe out inexperienced adventurers easily and fully grown ones can even give CPUs like my-my-my-my… My friend trouble!" That was a lot of stammering, almost as if she was hiding something. Now the question was do I ignore it or do I ask her what she meant?

Nepgear at this point was sweating bullets. Poor girl is probably just nervous around new people. I'll give her the benefit of the doubt. "Alright, alright. I won't charge in head first trying to impale a dragon in the eye next time." Though I never did, that would be a cool idea if I did face one eventually. "But are you alright? You're practically having a breakdown here. Should I go find another seat so you can calm down?" I know I said I was bad at socializing, but even I could see this girl needed a hug.

"G-goodness no, but thank you for the offer. It's just kinda scary when someone mentions things like fighting monsters and getting injured without so much as a blink." That is a fair assessment of my mental state.

"Ahh, that's the life NepG. That is the life." I lean back, sneakily taking a glance at IF, who met mine with a "you and me are having a talk after this" look, while still having her phone held up.

Her eyes can mean so many things, it's kinda impressive. I guess she's just expressive with her eyes rather than her face. Still sent a shiver of "oh shit" down my spine, but it was cute in a way. What is wrong with me…

The rest of the subway to Lastation was in silence, thankfully. Nepgear offered to go get some refreshments for the second, thankfully shorter leg of the journey to Planeptune itself. This left me with IF and oh boy, she can hide anger.

"The absolute hell is wrong with you? Is it normal for you to scare girls half to death, or are you just as dense are you are incompetent!?" IF coming out in full force, tearing into me like I'd torn into that burger before we left.

"I don't know what you're on about…" I tried to brush it off like it was nothing.

I failed.

"A dragon? A fucking DRAGON, KOEI? Those are the most dangerous monsters in all of Gamindustri! You think a Turtle or a WhaleKing is bad, wait until you fight something that is the size of either of them, has no weak spots to exploit and can breathe fire, along with the giant freakin' claws! You think casually brushing that off wouldn't worry someone? If I didn't know the truth already I'd be concerned!"

"I… I… Came up with the first thing I could think of when I thought "monsters with claws"." I was not coming out of this alive, wasn't I?

"YOU COULD HAVE EASILY PASSED YOUR INJURY OFF AS FALLING DOWN THE FRIGGING STAIRS LIKE THE DRUNKARD YOU ARE, DUMBASS!" Ow, my ears.

"Ow…" Before I could get anymore of a lashing, Nepgear returned with 3 red cans stacked on top of each other. Clearly worried. "Goodness, IF! What happened?"

IF took a few moments to calm herself before answering simply. "Koei lied about the dragon."

"Oh." Nepgear was disappointed, then furrowed her brow in anger. "You really shouldn't lie about that Koei. People die to dragons. People lose their family and friends to dragons. You getting off with a 3 day stint in the hospital is nothing." Geez, Nepgear's pretty scary when she's angry as well.

"Ah… I see now. I thought if I passed off my injury as something heroic, you'd have respect for me." More bullshit, but it's believable bullshit. "The truth is… I was attacked by a bandit. I tried fighting back, but they overpowered me and slashed my chest open." I lifted my shirt to reveal the scar, still healing but a fair bit better than it was. "I just feel it's embarrassing to be injured in such a way. My apologies, Nepgear."

Nepgear's face softened, before placing down the cans and… giving me a hug? "It's alright. Goodness knows I shouldn't be so worried about everyone I meet over minor things." Minor, my ass. Go a round with Noire and see if you do better.

From behind Nepgear, IF shot a thumbs up and mouthed "Good work. I'll forgive you too." before she let me go of her embrace. I'll admit, it was… nice. But why do I think that hugging IF would have been better?

"You shouldn't lie about such things though." Nepgear chided, though I noticed her lose eye contact with me for a moment. "Even if people make fun of you for being injured by a bandit, it's still better than lying about it. At least, that's what I think." Nepgear handed a can. "Here, it's a drink called Duct Tear Popper. I heard it was really good from… Some woman, once." Nepgear put a hand to her head, as if she was misremembering "I think?"

Whatever. Glad that mess is over. Opening up the can I took a swig. It tasted like victory… and 23 other ingredients. Now that I think about it, if you say Duct Tear Popper fast, it's almost-

Oh the train's here, time to chug!

Lastation to Planeptune was uneventful, but Nepgear did seem to be happier than before. IF too was hiding a small smile behind her stoic face. It was almost unnoticeable, but it was there.

Helping matters was the shorter trip time, being only about 20 minutes as opposed to the hour or so it took from Leanbox to Lastation. The silence was at least a welcome change of pace, all things considered.

Eventually the train came to a stop and we were in Planeptune, the Land of Purple Progress. Even something as functional as the subway station showed this off, with there being purple LEDs in the floor pointing to (and from) the exit to keep people orderly. Neat stuff.

Though despite being called the Land of Purple Progress, much like the other nations, it had an unspoken secondary colour to contract with the "main" colour. Lowee had cyan/blue, Lastation and Leanbox had gold and Planeptune had white. White and purple did make for a very clean pair of colours, even if it must have been a btich to keep clean.

Exiting the tunnel, I was taken aback. Planeptune looked straight up futuristic compared to the other nations, large white and purple towards pointed up towards the sky as a unified act of defiance against the sky.

Leading this metaphorical charge was the Planeptune Tower, the crowning jewel of the Nation and the home of the Basilicom. Ah, I love convenient design. The city itself was pretty crowded to boot, with a lot of vendors seeming to focus towards on the go business types rather than anything else. One thing I also noticed was the abundance of technology, with a lot of the populace using either phones or purple UI gloves, probably custom made as I spotted a distinctive N on the back of a few of them, pretty similar to Nepgear's iconography.

Of course, all this was simply dressing for the glorious Basilicom and the inevitable meeting with Histoire, onwards we go!

"Sorry, no visitors allowed today. The CPU forbade it." The guards blocked the door with their fancy beam swords, denying us entry. How inconvenient.

"This isn't right, I told her last night…" IF pulled out something from one of her pockets and showed it the guards. "Planeptune Basilicom Staff, let me in."

"Fair enough miss Factory, but the other two will have to stay outside." The guard sure was persistent on not letting us in. Spoilsport.

"Sorry Gear, Koei, but I need to have a talk with the Oracle. Come back in about an hour, okay? Go do a quest or something." IF then ran off.

"Later, Miss Factory!" I yelled at her. It was so worth it to hear that scream of anger, haha. My ass is grass laster.

IF has left the party.

"Well NepG, to the Guild?" I give her a poke in the side to ensure she was paying attention, as she seemed distant.

"Hmm? Oh, the Guild. Let's go!" She started walking and thus, I followed her. She seemed like she knew the place, anyway.

A few minutes of wandering the crowded streets, with Nepgear ducking and dodging everyone like they were made of lava and we made it to the Guild. I decided to let Nepgear choose the quest while I waited outside. Knowing me, I'd pick another "boss" quest thinking that Nepgear and I could take it on our lonesome, then nearly die, again. I'd rather her just do it and get on with the fun part.

A few minutes later, Nepgear exited the Guild with a smile on her face. "Okay Koei, we have to go to uh… Emerald Mountain Area. Apparently some robots have been making trouble there for the critters!" Seems about right.

"Lead the way, then." I reply, equipping Serenity and placing it on my back. It was only a minor weight but damn it felt good to have it by my side again. Speaking of weapons, actually…

"Hey, NepG. Do you use a weapon?" I asked. I mean it was a valid question, I didn't see any weapon on her. Or Vert for that matter.

"Oh, my weapon?" Nepgear pulled a beam sword, similar to the ones the guards used from her inventory. It seemed to have a brighter glow, along with the personal touch on an N on the hilt. Neat.

"You like it? I modified it myself!" It was certainly quite impressive for modified blade.

"Yeah, pretty cool," I shot a thumbs up. "You gotta show how you handle it in a fight, though!" I must admit, having an ally with me on quest for once was getting me slightly pumped. Getting back into the game, so to speak.

Maybe I just wanted some murder in my life again. Too peaceful lately, even with the incident with Linda yesterday. Ah well, we were getting closer to Emerald Mountain anyway. How could I tell? It's a green friggin' mountain in a nation of purple and white, of course it'd stand out.

Though I think that was the intention. The owner of the land (And the person who originally submitted the quest) said it was a nature preserve for animals. Made sense, considering the industrialized nature of Planeptune in particular would be detrimental for the poor bastards.

Anyway, some mad scientist or other was capturing them and using them to power evil robots as some sort of alternative fuel. It'd probably go over better if he wasn't kidnapping live animals to do so.

So we arrived at Emerald Mountain Area and it was as you expect; an emerald fucking mountain. Granted the rocks had a weird checkerboard pattern to them but aside from that, it was pretty barren.

I was observing this wasteland when a yelp from Nepgear dragged me from my inner monologue (It's surprising how much I can describe within a few seconds sometimes.), as she was being attacked by a robotic crab. I believe the quest log called this a "SN1P-SNAP", pretty clever name. Not really.

The problem was it had Nepgear's dress in its claw, so if Nepgear escaped… well, that situation wouldn't be very PG now. Of course, I was behind it so I just ended up walking to it and slashing Serenity to knock off the offending claw.

It was still attached to Nepgear, but the main problem was dealt with. Now that I had aggroed it, the other clas was snapping furiously. Snip snap, snap snip. Very descriptive name. Another slash of Serenity was all it took for it to become harmless, save the sparks emitting from the limbless being. Also it still advanced towards me, probably trying to set me on fire with sparks, so I just anti-climatically kicked it over, legs desperately scuttling, trying to help itself up.

I didn't really care enough to kill it yet, so I went to Nepgear, trying to pry the pincer off her dress and failing. "Man, if this thing wasn't built for evil, it'd probably make a good sentient vice." I ponder aloud, attempting to jam Serenity to force it open. After some grunting and help from Nepgear's own beam sword, the accursed claw came off.

"Phew, thanks Koei." I shot a thumbs up return now looking for more mechs to "liberate." (Since they have animals inside of them, I believe destroying the enemy would also kill the animal inside, which wouldn't be good.)

Spotting a nearby mechanized squirrel, I readied up to fight it. If I had to guess, the robotic outer shells were based on the animal themselves. Maybe there was sort of neural connection that would allow the animals to "control" their new bodies, or are they just an unwilling battery for these mechanized menace-

"SLASH WAVE!" Nepgear interrupted my pondering by slashing towards the enemy, a purple wave of energy bursting from the sword. I guess that's why it's called that, then.

The squirrel looked more like a deer in the headlights as the energy wave struck it, surprisingly destroying the shell in one hit as it fell in half. What was even more surprising was that the squirrel inside was perfectly fine, running off before its prison faded into data.

"Guess that moral quandary is solved." I mutter, before nonchalantly pointing Serenity to the SN1P-SNAP and blasted it with a frostbolt. Similarly, the crab also was fine, and scuttled off towards the shore.

We were at it for at least half an hour, the mechs proving no threat to our combined might, and it seemed we had cleared the area of bots.

"Well, is that all of them, NepG?" I turned towards my ally, who had a strangely fearful look on her face. "Err, NepG?"

She simply pointed ahead of her and I turned around. Aw shit. A giant, mechanized lobster stood in our path, painted blood red, with cold, unfeeling eyes looking directly at us. The claws seemed to have turrets on them and were slowly extending towards us- oh i see where this is going.

"NEPG GET DOWN!" I yell, tackling her out of the way before the robot's flamethrowers started up. Even a good few meters away I could feel the blasting heat. Jesus christ, what kind of madman would make this?

"Oh~ I see you found H34VY-L0B5TER!" A fenimine voice came out of nowhere. It certainly wasn't Nepgear's. Why are my gloves vibrating again, I'M FIGHTING A MECHA LOBSTER!

Opening up the UI gloves, I saw a robot on the other side. A very pink robot with neon green "eyes" I guess? It looked like a mecha from some anime I never watched, only more flamboyant.

"The fuck." I simply stated, clearly sick of this shit already.

"My, my, such coarse language. Didn't your mother tell you to mind your language around strangers?" The voice was certainly male, just a few octaves higher to sound like a female.

"Who is that?" Nepgear finally got over her shock and was standing beside me, analysing the robot. "I didn't know you knew an actual AI, Koei!"

"I don't!" I clarified, not wanting to push the matter any further. "I think he hacked into my UI gloves or something because nobody should have this number except Vert and IF!"

"And my precious Noire~" The robot added, earning me a confused stare from Nepgear. "I can't believe you wouldn't mention her, she is a goddess in every way!"

"She's just a work friend, I swear!" I'm lying through my teeth at this point. This damn pink robot was going to spill the beans on my "relationship" with the CPU of Lastation. But why?

"Oh come now Koei, surely you wouldn't give up an opportunity to be with the CPU of Lastation now, would you?"

Silence. Oppressive silence. I didn't even want to look at Nepgear at the moment. I just felt rage building inside me.

"Alright." I state, barely containing the absolute fury in my voice. "I'll play your game. You're the guy who enslaved all these animals."

"Absolutely~!" He replied, completely unaware of my fury. Or just ignoring it. "I'm also the one who put in that quest for you two to go on. I can't believe either of you bought that sob story about this place. If people wanted to build a real nature preserve, they'd go to Leanbox!"

"W-why?" Nepgear finally spoke up. She seemed devastated that her trust was broken, though I couldn't tell who she was more upset at. "Why would you do all this?"

"Easy question to answer, actually. Koei Tech here is in the way of my future wife, Noire! So he has to die!" With that tone it seemed he was just talking about the weather, not murder.

"Woah woah woah, I have no interest in Noire. Where would you get that from?" I mean, I wasn't lying for once. She was cute when flustered, but that's about as far as my feelings go for her. We're friends, dammit!

"Your conversation in Lastation of course! About war and peace. I figured if I was the one to stop the Console Wars, then Noire would have no choice but to fall for me!" Again with that nonchalance.

"I'm done with your shit, robot dude. Once I kill your lobster, I'm going to make YOU boil." I close the UI Gloves as the mechanized crustacean turned towards me. It seemed to take offense at my remark.

"K-Koei, are you al-"

"Shut up and fight. I'll explain when I don't have a burning rage." My murderous intent was barely being contained at this point, so it was a good thing this very tough looking lobster was in my way.

Warning! Boss Fight Approaching:

Koei Tech and Nepgear

Vs.

H34VY-L0B5TER

Ready? FIGHT!

Now Playing: Heavy Lobster (Kirby and the Rainbow Curse)

"Time to cook this motherfucker. FIREBLAST!" I yelled, pointing Serenity straight at it. What could only be described as an inferno contained within an explosive ball shot towards the robot, directly hitting it in its left eye, causing a large explosion and a cybernetic scream of pain as it stumbled backwards.

"Seems I did some damage." I mutter, before Nepgear rushed forward, taking advantage of the stun. "I'll slash you into pieces! Mirage Dance!" A series of stylish sword slashes occurred, all towards the right eye, before she charged… through it? Fancy footwork indeed, Nepgear.

At this point, the lobster was seeing red as much as I was. Well, if it could anyway. It started flailing wildly, unleashing fireballs similar to the one I cast earlier, trying to hit either of us. I attempted to dodge around them, but the random movements got to me and i was smashed across the face by a blazing hot claw.

"Agh!" It hurt quite a bit, as you might imagine. Flying several meters and hitting the ground pretty hard, I had to take a moment to recover. Opening my UI gloves-

I said opening my UI gloves. OPENING MY UI GLOVES.

"Ah, trying to access your inventory?" The voice came again, though with no video feed this time. "Sadly the Lastation servers have some downtime. Please try again later~"

Son of a bitch. Whoever this guy is, he certainly knows how to build and manipulate technology. Guess I just had to take the damage for now. Getting up, fresh wound still burning, I saw Nepgear struggling to dodge the crazed crustacean, never mind getting a clean shot off on it.

Rushing back towards the fight, I leapt up on the back of the lobster and attempted to hack away from it. Unfortunately it seemed the armored backside simply deflected any slashes I tried, and it was moving too erratically for me to safely cast a spell.

"NepG, find some way to stun it! I have faith in you!" I yelled as I attempted to keep balance. Maybe I could pry off the shell? Jamming Serenity into the very bottom of a segment of armor, I attempted to use Serenity as a jack to force it off.

At this point the lobster decided it wanted to keep the armor and reared up, tossing me backwards. Even worse, due to how hard I jammed Serenity in there, it was stuck fast, leaving me entirely unarmed.

My anger turned to fear as the lobster regained optical sensors and turned towards me. The fried left eye and scratched right eye stared with all the fury I had thrown at it and then some. The "mouth" then opened, revealing a larger cannon that instantly started charging. That was a big laser. And it was pointed right at me.

"Well, I had a good run." I shrugged. I mean this isn't the first time I was staring death in the face and this time I was surely fu-

"We will carve our way into the future! Violet Buster!" Nepgear's voice rang out before a girl similar to Nepgear dropped in from above with a katana, impaling Heavy Lobster right through the brain, stunning it briefly. "Go for it Nep Jr.!"

Nepgear unleashed a flurry of slashes, each one seeming even more powerful and flashy than the last, before finishing off by fucking decapitating the lobster entirely, shutting it down permamently before exploding into data spectacularly.

(End Song)

Slowly getting up due to the pain in my… everything, Nepgear rushed to hold me up by her shoulder. "Sorry about the delay Koei, but I needed some backup from my sister."

"You have… A sister?" The adrenaline drained from my body, I could barely stand, let alone ask questions.

"Yuparooni!" The cheerful voice of the other girl erupted, her running over with both her katana and Serenity in tow. She did look similar to Nepgear, though she had much more purple on her dress and a very small jacket covering her shoulders. Of course she had the N iconography on her top, along with USB cords on her jacket. Her arms had weird, sem-torn looking bracelets on them, along with a collar(?) on her neck. Looking down, she wore counterpart blue striped socks to Nepgear's pink and very similar but different boots with more Ns on them. Her hair was shorter, but had two d-pad clips instead of one. The real kicker was that despite her overall younger look compared to her sister, she had eyes that glinted of experience and determination. Or maybe I was seeing things due to a concussion.

"Hey, wanna get out of your dumb narration for a minute?" Wait, what? "You heard me bucko, you've had what, 30k words to talk to yourself? Let Neptune have some limelight!"

"I'm clearly hallucinating at this point and need medical attention." I say to nobody in particular. "This girl is speaking nonsense and I think it's because I took a superheated lobster claw to the face."

I heard a sigh from Nepgear. "Nope, she's always like this. Speaking of medical attention, though…"

I felt Nepgear shove a bottle of healing potion into my mouth before I could respond with her free hand. Drinking it down, I did feel slightly better, though my face still had the burning pain, along with the feeling of bruising on my chest. Of course I had to land on my scar…

"You there, smaller Nepgear. What's your name?" I felt my strength come back somewhat, but I still needed Nepgear to support me a bit.

"I told you once, dangit! Neptune! N-E-P-T-U-N-E! You got wax in your ears or what?" So abrasive.

"I nearly died to a fucking robot lobster, I'm sorry if I don't have 100% clarity on things yet." I reply. This girl was going to be fun to deal with.

"That's no way to speak to a protagonist! That lobster wasn't even worth going HDD for, how are you this incompetent? I could have defeated in ten seconds flat, danced on its grave and taken no damage with a bamboo stick, I can't believe you would supplant me as the protagonist you useless self-insert you can't even do the power fantasy right and everything in this stupid fanfiction is contrived as fuck anyway, I mean you pull the Big Damn Heroes trope twice in a row and I get Blanc's sloppy seconds what the hell kind of hack do you think you are…"

I zoned out at this point. I'd like to say it was because of the concussion, but this Neptune was giving me a headache.

Oh, there's the concussion. Well, time to pass out I guess.

Man, I should stop passing out. Alcohol or otherwise, this is getting unhealthy. Struggling to move my body, I opened my eyes to see… White and purple. Still in Planeptune, then. Still, I couldn't exactly move. It felt like my arms and legs were tied down or something.

Lifting my head, they were. Wow, way to treat an injured person. Fuckers. I don't think I even had Serenity to cut my way out. Well, time to contemplate my life choices here.

I went on a quest, completed said quest, the quest was a trap set by a gay robot who is obsessed with Noire and wants me dead, I fought a giant mecha lobster, took a claw to the face and was saved by… Neptune, right. The loud, annoying one that talked nonsense.

You know maybe I'd be better off taking that cannon to the face.

"Oh! Mr. Koei, you're awake!" A girly voice pulled me out of my self-hating thoughts. A peach coloured girl with soft caring eyes and white jumper approached me. I didn't fail to notice her… assets, and her running wasn't helping matters. Tearing myself away, she had a headband with a cute C on it, along with a red dress. I couldn't see much else, but that seemed to be the gist of it.

THe nice, big tittied lady undid my straps, allowing me to get up and face her properly. She seemed to be the one ensuring that I didn't fall out of bed at least. "I'm Compa." she said, in that saccharine voice that was as reassuring as it was vomit-inducing. Or maybe that was the concussion kicking in. "I'm surprised to see you awake so soon, you only got here about 3 hours ago!"

Huh, thought I'd be out for longer considering the injuries I took, but I guess the lobster didn't do as much damage. Speaking of, I hope I got XP for that, it seemed to be worth a lot.

Checking my UI glo- nope, they're gone. And my watch. Shit.

"Oh, your stuff is just on the side there." Compa pointed to my handheld goods. "I didn't want them being damaged after I strapped you down, so I took them off for you. I also bandaged your face wound up. It was pretty nasty when you came in, though."

You know, Compa is Spanish for "friend" and Compa here was being very friendly. Appropriate naming, honestly. "Thanks Compa." I say with a smile on my face. I couldn't help it, honestly. She was kinda cute. Wait, Compa? "You're IF's friend, right?"

She nodded enthusiastically. "Me and Iffy have been best friends since we were 5! I'm also friends with Nep-Nep and Ge-Ge, so you can be my friend too, Ko-Ko!" Oh god, the nickname was actually kinda cute.

"Alright, alright. I'll take it. Only because you stopped me falling out of this bed." I put on the UI gloves and opened up the menu. Thankfully the server was back up by this point, so I grabbed a healing potion from my inventory and started drinking it.

"Oh, I was about to ask if you still wanted a healing potion, but you got one yourself. Take it easy, though. You can get sick if you drink it too fast!" Compa seemed to be the caring mother type, even if she looked like… 16, maybe?

"What are you, my nurse?" I joked, taking a small swig of the potion.

"Well, I'm a nurse in training if that counts." I nearly spat out my drink.

"Fair enough." I mutter, before putting the bottle down and checking my watch. 7PM sounded about right, but I didn't have exact metrics on the days events. "Say Compa, where am I?"

"You're in the Basilicom, silly!" She stated like it was the most obvious fact in the world. She had no malice in her voice, so it just came off as friendly chatter.

"Huh." I mutter. Right, that would make sense. IF did say she was going to talk to Histoire before, so they must have let me and Nepgear in after I passed out.

That's what I assume, anyway. I was passed out at the time dammit, stop giving me shit. YOU FIGHT A MECHA LOBSTER. Wait, who am I talking to with this? Ow…

"Koei?" Compa looked worried for a moment.

"I felt a disturbance." I said weakly. I don't know what I just experienced, but it was like someone was watching me through space and time. I blame this damn concussion. Finally standing on my two legs again, it was a bit rough and I nearly fell, but I could walk again. Good, didn't want to have to be crippled from the first fight I actually finished since that damn whale. And one I helped with to boot. Whatever.

"You know where Histoire is? I think I've kept her waiting long enough." I say, though there is some hesitance in my voice from the worried look in her eyes. Girl could make demons repent with those sad eyes.

"Yeah, this way!" Compa perked right up, thankfully and walked off, letting me follow her. The halls of the Basilicom were as functional as anything else in Planeptune, though I did see some… Odd looking rooms. One in particular looked like a child's room, with game consoles and a bean bag shaped like a tentecleless Ocotogoo. I guess I'd call it a Dogoo?

Still, there were more pressing matters. Finally reaching what I assumed to be Histoire's office, Compa patted me on the back before saying a cheerful "Good luck!" as I opened the door and walked straight in.

The room was vastly different than what I expected. There didn't seem to be a floor for one, but I was stood on something to keep me from falling into the void. 1s and 0s flew around the place, giving the inky blackness some semblance of direction. Looking ahead, I saw the book fairy herself, flanked by two CPUs- wait TWO? When the fuck-

I was dallying. The one on the left, the taller one covered in black with twin pigtails seemed to be getting impatient. No time for introductions, then. Speeding up my pace, I finally stood in front of Historie.

She was.. Shorter than I expected. I thought the fairy in the help book was just scant reference to her being a tutorial NPC. No, she really was that big. If she wasn't flanked by two physical goddesses I might have laughed at how anti-climatic this was.

"Greetings Koei Tech." She spoke in a slight monotone, but still seemed happy to see me. "I am Histoire, the tome. I have been waiting for you."

"A pleasure. Apologies for the delay, I nearly died… Twice. This week." I greeted the tiny book fairy, chuckling nervously.

"Do not worry Koei, I simply wanted to meet you to ask you a simple task."

"A simple task you say? Go on then." I accept the fairy's invitation for a new quest.

"It is quite simple. I want you… To bring peace to Gamindustri."

A/N: Boom. Cliffhanger. Hey, I said no more "Part 2s". This isn't a Part 2. The next chapter is a separate entity altogether and I really need to split this up to avoid Introduction Overload™.

As for Anonydeath, who isn't even in Hyperdimension? In due time, my dudes. In due time. (He also wasn't planned until I started writing the Emerald Mountain bit, but I figured if he was behind the robots it'd be a clever little twist, instead of a generic mad scientist type. I have plans, dammit!)

Also yes, I pretty much jacked Heavy Lobster from his original appearance. The problem is that the thing had like 4 moves and two of them were just moving, so I had to improvise a bit. They can't all be generic monsters after all, that'd be boring and predictable!

So uh yeah, next chapter, more Neptune, yay… I'm finding it hard to not write her as "Less Drugged Pinkie Pie", so if she comes off as a bit of a motormouth… That's on me. I don't think Nep's going to have too major of a role, mostly due to the difficulty of writing her "In character" without repeating the joke of "Wow she's so meta Koei is annoyed by this.", but I'll try.

(Side note: This isn't a knock against Nep's character. In fact it's a compliment that I have such a clear idea of her character that writing her is difficult due to her quirks. Or maybe this is all an excuse.)

It's all an excuse. - Neptune

GET OUTTA MY AUTHOR'S NOTE!