Disclaimer: I don't own Date A Live or Hyperdimension Neptunia.

Many thanks to all those who have reviewed. It's probably because of that, that this chapter came out earlier than I had planned.


"So we're finally moving to the next area, huh? Oh! The ground is split here! Did this happen in some great war long, long ago?"

Shidou gave a wry smile seeing Neptune scour the location like a child in a sugar rush.

"I betcha it was a totally crazy, epic war between some profound sort of darkness and a really great light!"

IF looked like she was at the end of her wit and gave a long suffering sigh.

Was she really that bad? Shidou couldn't quite tell since he had been bedridden during the times the trio were out doing requests from the Basilicom. That said, it seemed that Neptune and Compa were fairly competent enough that IF hadn't gone about scolding them or holding one of her famous lectures.

Or maybe it happened when he wasn't present?

Shidou liked to think he wasn't that incompetent as an adventurer after a whole year being one.

"…what's she babbling about now?"

"I'm sorry. Please be patient with her. She really doesn't remember anything… I think."

With sweat trailing down her cheeks, Compa apologized in place of Neptune.

…but was this really a result of amnesia? At the rate this was going, Shidou might start believing that he might have been some irredeemable pervert in the past that picked up ladies left and right that included those of the same gender.

"Compa, you're scaring him."

"Oh, I'm sorry Mr. Shidou! I forgot that you were an amnesiac too!"

Bowing her head to Shidou, the latter scratched his cheeks in embarrassment.

"…t-that aside, how long have you known Neptune, Ms. Compa? Did you know her before she lost her memories?"

"I've only known NepNep for a few days." Compa said. "I found her stuck head first in the ground so I pulled her out and treated her wounds."

"You… pulled her out of the ground?" A look of horror entered IF's face, one that made Shidou wonder what the heck she was thinking of. "So Neptunes grow in the ground here? How can I believe that?"

…Neptunes? Growing out of the ground?

Shidou turned his attention to said purple haired preteen bouncing around looking at the gap between landmasses energetically.

Even with his brief knowledge of the purple haired preteen, Shidou didn't think the world could handle more than one Neptune…

"Well, yes, but not from the ground. She fell from the sky Miss IF. By the way, how did you find Mr. Shidou?"

"…if you're asking if he fell from the sky or if I pulled him out of the ground, then you're sadly mistaken."

If all amnesiacs were found in some over the top way, it would be easy to identify who had amnesia, and where they first appeared. Rather, forget about amnesia – people found that way would be more likely to have some sort of brain damage!

"Oh, it's been bugging me for a while, but you call me 'Miss.' You don't have to be so formal but…"

Now that Shidou thought about it, this was a familiar conversation.

Familiar in the sense that he recalled IF saying the same words, but to him of the past…

"My name is IF. Not If, but I-F, okay?"

"Understood, Miss IF."

IF gave a slight frown before shaking her head.

"What's your name?"

"Shidou."

He had no idea what else he should say. This had been the first person that had interacted with him for this long.

"Just Shidou?"

"It's the only one I know, Miss IF.

He tried to be polite, but somehow his words only seemed to irritate the young girl before him.

"It's been bugging me for a while now, but you call me 'Miss.' You don't have to be so formal –"

Shidou wasn't sure what it was that made IF come into contact with him, when everyone around him at that time was content to ignore him, and even now, he never bothered to find out. It wasn't because he was afraid of what the answer might be, far from it.

He simply wasn't interested on what the answer was.

Even in the present, when he was a lot more impressionable than the self that had just lost his memories; he had little care for what the answer may be.

"-dou! Hey, Shidou!"

"Huh? Oh, sorry I was lost in my thoughts. What is it IF?"

"Neptune and Compa have already crossed the bridge. If we don't go soon, I'm not sure where Neptune will end up."

Nodding with a small smile, Shidou followed through the bridge to Lastation.


Lastation – the land of black regality was under the rule of the CPU Black Heart.

Each landmass has a specific theme regarding how the structures were made and how the cities or towns were designed. This made it so that by entering another landmass, it wouldn't be wrong to say that they had entered a completely different side of the world. While Shidou had never been to Lastation except in passing through it to go to another landmass, the design was as distinct as comparing Planeptune with Leanbox.

"Wow, this place is all steampunky and spiffy and futuristic! Iffy, which landmass is this?"

"Neptune… did you pay attention to the Basilicom when they let us pass through the terraporter?" Shidou couldn't help but mouthed out exasperatedly.

"Yeah, but what he said wasn't too interesting…"

"…I can already imagine what your teachers might have said when you're in class. Anyway, this is the Land of Black Regality – Lastation, ruled by the Console Patron Unit Black Heart."

Despite its name however, Shidou couldn't quite see the regality of the place. The air looked as if every vehicle within the land violated some law on car emissions to make it smell and look like a fog was floating all over the place.

Had Lastation always been like this? Shidou was expecting something less… smoky.

Despite the fog and smell of the place, it was also uncharacteristically cold. Was winter approaching already? Or was this the result of the landmass being near Lowee? Planeptune was often times completely blocked off from Lowee by the other landmasses making it generally warm or cool almost all year round.

"Hey, Shin. I was just wondering… does the way each landmass look have anything to do with their goddesses' preference?"

Shidou wasn't quite sure how to answer that and gave an inquisitive look towards IF.

IF crossed her arms and thought on the question for a bit. IF certainly knew a lot of information due to her time wandering before she met with Shidou, but this was mostly in relations to her occupation as an adventurer and whatever she felt like researching at that time.

Since IF had rarely been to Lastation, her own information regarding the issued question was sorely lacking.

"I don't think so." IF finally said. "The CPUs are here to protect us, but humans develop the civilization itself."

"…I can tell that the people here must be a lot of fun then."

Oddly enough, Shidou couldn't help but feel that he and Neptune were in the same wavelength.

"So the title of 'Land of Black Regality', talks about the CPU, not the landmass?" Shidou asked.

"Not quite. It must have been something regal back in the past, or it could just be judgment based on the eyes of the beholder. What about you Compa? What do you think of this place?"

Compa had been looking around just as curiously as Neptune before IF had asked her a question. Was this her first time out of Planeptune? Then again, the recent times have supposedly seen a rise in monster attacks so Shidou supposed it would actually be rarer to find someone who has gone through all four landmass.

"These factories and chimneys… remind me of an industrial revolution. I'm not familiar with this kind of thing."

"I suppose it's not appealing to mainstream kind of girls. I think it's cool." IF admitted with a shrug. "So what should we do now?"

For Shidou's part, he could freely say that he was the most comfortable around Planeptune. Perhaps it may be due to the landmass he supposedly originated from, but he had a fair bit more familiarity with the abundant advanced technologies present in the land of Purple Progress.

"Let's head over to the Basilicom." Shidou suggested. "Since we're looking for the key fragment, we can ask the Basilicom if they know of any abnormally strong monsters. They're the ones that manage the landmass, right? So they should know something so we can narrow down the locations we need to explore."

"Hey Iffy, we've been walking for a while now, but are we near the Basilicom yet?"

"…that's odd, but I was sure that the Basilicom is this way." IF said, scratching her head in confusion. Taking out her phone, she began to look up a map of the Basilicom.

IF had been to Lastation a few times before she had picked up Shidou as her partner, and while the buildings did not look too different from her memories, it seems that some things still had changed.

"Why don't we ask the people around here?" Compa suggested. "Although… hopefully someone who doesn't seem so hostile."

"Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if they were either mindless minions or heartless businessmen with the way they wore all black and have that same 'would it kill you to smile' face."

"Well, the Basilicom is bound to be different, right?" Shidou said a bit optimistically. "I mean, they serve the goddess so they should at least be a bit more accommodating than the local populace…"

"You know, you just raised a flag there, right?"

"Oh, there's someone over there that doesn't look like a businessman, Mr. Shidou!" Compa suddenly piped up preventing Shidou from commenting on Neptune's words.

Sure enough, from across the street, there was a red-haired woman that wore a blue long-sleeved vest that, alongside the shirt she wore with it, did not cover her waist. She also wore a blue and white skirt that was a few inches below her hips - this would have shown quite a lot of skin if her black socks did not reach up just a few inches below it.

The way that the young woman held herself however was what struck Shidou the most however. He had seen his fair share of adventurers during his time venturing the landmasses with IF, and it was clear that the young woman had experience going for her.

"I'll call out to her." Shidou volunteered, running up to the young woman. "Excuse me!"

"Hm?" The young woman turned around, to face Shidou then, for reasons unknown to the blue-haired boy, her eyes widened in surprise. "You - ! What are you doing here?!"

"Eh?"

"Uh, er – I- I must have mistaken you for someone else! Please don't mind my earlier outburst!"

"I-is that so? I'm sorry to bother you, but I was wondering if you could tell us where the central Basilicom is."

"Us?"

The young woman turned to look behind Shidou, quickly spotting the forms of IF, Compa and Neptune. It was hard to miss the three girls as they stood out like a sore thumb in comparison to the rather uniform color that those who were walking about wore.

"Those must be…" A look of realization seemed to pass by the young woman's expression before she shook her head and faced Shidou once again. "Right, if you wish to head to the Basilicom, I suggest that you take a right turn from that street. From there, it's pretty straightforward and after a couple of minutes walking, you'll see the Basilicom."

"Thank you!"

Once Shidou turned and left, the red-haired adventurer gave a soft sigh. Her eyes reflecting a strange almost wistful emotion as she watched the blue-haired boy speak to his companions.

"To think I would see him here... is the world laughing at me?"

With those strange words, the red-hared adventurer shook her head lightly and went off to a different direction.


The party was now at the edge of a dungeon in Lastation looking for a lost child for their new client, Chian. Perhaps due to the recession that Lastation was apparently feeling, the reward of the quest was not particularly comparable to a quest that is easier to do in Planeptune.

There were others that provided quests, but once Neptune had found out that Avenir, the local business giant monopolizing almost all forms of services in Lastation, were the quest providers, she had been adamantly against it. Shidou had also supported Neptune's words simply due to the built up stress that had accumulated at the 'interaction' done with those who worked for Avenir. IF had at least managed to convince them to reconsider for at least one quest.

Surprisingly, the people in the Basilicom had ties to the company Avenir – which had resulted into a conversation that only proved IF's words regarding Shidou's optimism…

"Um. 'scuse me! I wanna get some info on monsters. May I come in?"

Neptune had barged into the Basilicom after saying those words with what one would call an outdoor voice.

"Neptune… you don't say that if you've already entered the room." IF said, smacking a palm to her face.

"Monsters? What are you going to do with that information?"

The staff by the desk of the Basilicom wore a black suit reminiscent of many of the people that the party had passed by and given Shidou's experience with the local populace, even he began to feel that his words were beginning to sound as blind optimism. It didn't help that the tone of voice wasn't exactly courteous…

Maybe he was just out of coffee?

"We're searching for an item called a Key Fragment," Compa explains. "We must defeat strong monsters to get one."

It was the only real clue they had at any rate. Shidou hadn't been able to come into contact with Histoire in the last few days, but even if he did, he wasn't sure if he would be able to communicate with her given that the last time he was able to 'talk' with her, the dream had ended.

IF on the other hand had never heard of anything regarding an item called a Key Fragment and despite her connections and experience, she had nothing to add apart from what Compa and Neptune already knew.

"Defeat monsters? Don't be so foolish. Even the Lastation Defense Force doesn't stand a chance against them."

Given Shidou's occupation as a monster hunter alongside IF, he couldn't help but feel his opinion of the Lastation Defense Force to plummet a little.

"But you're nothing more than children! Go home!"

Shidou's fist clenched, nearly taking a menacing step forward, a firm grip appeared by his wrist and unconsciously he turned his attention to who it was that gripped him.

"It's not worth it, Shidou." IF warned. "While I myself do not plan to go to Lastation again in the near future with this stellar service, these people still work for the goddess."

IF wasn't too keen with the reception they had received ever since they had arrived in Lastation, but for someone like her, this was merely the reality of things. There would always be some place that would be unlikely to hire them simply by judging the way they looked. Throwing a tantrum would not do anything and would simply tarnish their reputation.

"We're not like those who suck up to Black Heart." The man refuted with a hateful sneer. "I don't care what people say, but don't confuse us for them. You brats better scram already or I'm going to have to hurt you!"

"So you wanna go fat man? Then bring it! We'll show you the efforts of our level grinding!" Neptune challenged, ready to take out her sword.

"That's enough Nep." IF intervened, placing a hand on the shoulder of her purple-haired party member. She directed a thin smile to the man as she gave a few more words. "We'll show ourselves out – we can't have someone as obese as your trying to do the impossible now, would we?"

IF's scathing words startled Neptune and Shidou from doing anything more, and before the man could try and say any words to refute it, IF had already turned around and with the rest of the party following her.

"Oh, that was impressive Iffy! It's nice that we had the last shot seeing how rude that guy was…"

"It was a little tense, but I think that the man deserved those words…" Compa said, agreeing albeit a bit worriedly.

"Don't worry about it. It's not like they can arrest us for stating the obvious." IF shrugged. "At the very least, if they brought this case up to the CPU, then they'd be the laughing stock instead. You know, unless the CPU was in cahoots with them."

It was hard to imagine that the CPU was not aware of the comings and goings within her own Basilicom.

"But… is this alright, IF? I mean, wouldn't this negatively affect our chances of getting any requests from Lastation in the future?"

Having calmed down after leaving the Basilicom, Shidou began to worry about the repercussions of their own actions.

"It's too late to do anything about it now. And besides, weren't you about to do something worse than I did?"

"That may be true…"

"Like I said, don't worry about it." IF said, bringing up her phone once more. "I don't have that large of an attachment for Lastation anyway, if this action prevents us from taking any quests here, then so be it. There's still three other landmasses that would allow us to work. Right now, we're just here for the key fragment. Although the Basilicom's help would make our search easier, it's not like we can't just gather information using the local populace."

From there, IF took charge for information gathering and after several conversations with even more irritating business men, they had learned that Avenir was one of the companies handing out quests to anyone who is capable of doing so.

Given the rather… stellar presentation that Avenir's influence had in Lastation, IF had decided to forgo working with the aforementioned company in favor of anyone else willing to hand out requests at these tough times.

Their search had landed them to the small workspace of Chian, an aspiring engineer.

She was a lot more amicable than most of the people they had come across in Lastation, but as she was not in any way connected to Avenir, her quests did not pay much in terms of money. Much like the populace who were struggling with the recession, Chian was also in the brink of bankruptcy and it was perhaps due to her own conduct and amiable disposition that made the party accept a request from her despite the mediocre reward.

Since there wasn't much information in regards to monsters from their search, this quest would allow them to gauge just how strong the monsters were and use that as a baseline as to where strong monsters would appear based on the words of the local populace.

With the quest accepted, the party had eventually found themselves in a cavern in the northern parts of Lastation.

"Wow, we've probably already taken over a hundred steps and no random encounters? Did someone bring a super repel?"

"…there isn't anything convenient like that as far as I know." Shidou replied with a wry smile. "But it's less of a monster repellent but more of someone already passing by here."

Shidou motioned over to a spot a distance away from the main path, and located there was several bodies of monsters with tell-tale slashes in their body. The slices were clean – almost as if the blade that passed by through the monster's hide met no resistance.

IF approached the body, alongside Neptune and Compa, and upon looking at the slices that Shidou indicated, she nodded her head in affirmation.

"From what we've seen of the weapon's shop in Lastation, I don't think there are any adventurers from here capable of delivering a clean cut like that. A weapon from Planeptune might be possible and perhaps Lowee, but from Lastation… it's far too improbable."

"So another adventurer has taken the quest before us? Man that blows! It's like kill-stealing but for quests!"

"Technically, it wouldn't be kill-stealing if she saw it before us, Neptune."

Given Shidou's reply, it seems he was quickly getting acclimated on how to deal with Neptune. It also helped that he had played a few games at IF's behest during some of their breaks.

"So do we head back? Whoever delivered these cuts looks pretty competent to me."

"…let's first confirm the safety of the child. I would feel bad if are assumptions are wrong and the child ends up being stuck here longer." Compa interjected.

Compa couldn't simply abandon someone that had requested for their help, and she was less willing to hand over the safety of someone else to someone whom she could not see or even confirm their existence.

"So onwards! We might even get a new party member if we meet this adventurer!"

Neptune led the way once again, with Compa right behind her. Shidou and IF did not particularly mind, given that it was sometimes common to see other adventurers in caverns such as this, there was little worry for it to be a bandit of some sort. Even if there was, IF and Shidou had experience dealing with those kind of trouble.

"By the way, what did this child look like anyway?"

"Black silhouette with a question mark on their body... That's what's stated in the request form."

"…this was given by the mother, right?"

"Yup."

"…"

"Now you can see why I'm so reluctant in getting quests like these, right?"

While Shidou tried to convince himself that this was normal, IF spotted a movement from the corner of her eyes in a separate junction that Neptune and Compa had taken.

The movement, soon made itself apparent and from the shadows, stepped a woman with waist length white hair and a get-up oddly similar to Neptune's transformed form - she even had wings that gave her a somewhat ethereal quality that made it hard to look away. Her eyes had a pattern that was eerily familiar and she held a large sword that was one step to being a great sword like the one that Shidou held furthermore, the weapon itself looked like nothing that could normally be found in Lastation.

"Civilians?" The white haired woman remarked. "If you're lost, I'd be more than happy to escort you back to town."

Confidence radiated from her that wasn't all too different from when Neptune would have transformed into her other form. Despite not knowing the woman before them, IF and Shidou had an instinctual grasp that this person was not someone to be underestimated, yet at the same time, IF found it a bit irritating that she had been marked as a 'normal civilian' instead of a fellow adventurer.

"We're adventurers." IF said. "So we're not normal civilians to say the least. We came here to find a missing child."

"Missing child? Oh, that. I've already accomplished the request, so there's no longer a need for worry."

While Shidou was relieved upon hearing that, he still felt a little depressed at that information simply because that limited the credits they obtained for the day. Money itself wasn't exactly a large issue in lieu of the previous quests IF and Shidou had accomplished in the past year, but given that their party size had doubled and that everything in Lastation was expensive due to the recent recession, it meant that money troubles would soon be present in the horizon. And with all the monsters taken care of, they couldn't quite gauge how strong the monsters were in this area of Lastation to use as a baseline.

For the first day of being in Lastation, this did not bode well for their search for the Key Fragment.

"Looks like we'll have to gather ores and herbs then. Thanks for informing us, miss. We'll be going further ahead to gather some materials before heading back."

Even if the overall price of anything sold in Lastation would be frightfully low, getting any sort of money at this time would be a better alternative than getting nothing at all.

"Before that, there's a question I'd like to ask you."

"?"

"I heard that someone else took the same quest going by Neptune. Do you know of her?"

A bit surprised at that question, it took a while before IF or Shidou could formulate a reply. Although in hindsight, it made sense seeing as Neptune had elected herself as the team leader and representative of their party. With that information however, that meant the woman in front of them had not only received the quest second but she had finished the dungeon and rescued the child before they could even reach the quest destination.

That spoke of speed that was simply inhuman.

At the very least, it alluded that the person in front of them had an ability for transportation - and given the wings that she had, it wouldn't be incorrect to say that she most likely had flown here.

"Neptune? Are you an acquaintance of her, by any chance?" Shidou asked politely.

IF was naturally suspicious of the newcomer, given what she could deduce from her ability but Shidou was not the sort to overthink a person's character unless there were explicit signs that told him of something about the person. It was a form of naivety that was unique to Shidou perhaps due to his own lacking memories or that he tended to assume the best in people.

Furthermore, the reason why he had asked such a question was that Neptune shared a predicament similar to Shidou.

Amnesia.

Neptune had no memory of her past, and the only distinct memories she had were of the last two weeks. Shidou had faced something similar more than a year ago, and could thus sympathize with those feelings. It was to the extent that he knew what one would wish upon losing their memories – to find someone who knew of them before they had lost those memories.

"…you could say that."

"Is that so?" Shidou smiled. "Wait here, I'll go get-"

"Shidou, I'll do it. You wait here with her."

IF had stopped Shidou before he could run off into the dungeon to look for their wayward party representative.

"Are you sure?"

"I'm the quickest of us and you've just recently recovered." IF interjected, before she quieted down to the point that only Shidou could feasibly hear her. "Inquire. Don't do anything else."

IF gave a few parting words to the white haired woman before dashing quickly into the dungeon.

Shidou was not entirely sure what IF had meant by those words, but the overall meaning was a given. Seeing as IF and Shidou had been living together for over a year, and that instances where one was absent from another's side for longer than half a day could be counted with one hand, it was no surprise that Shidou could read IF as well as he could.

Is she a friend or foe?

There was no guarantee that those they would encounter who knew Neptune would not be friends or family. Acquaintance was a loose term that referred to someone a person knows, and the term itself is not limited simply to friends or family. It could even refer to a person that's no different from a stranger – the only prerequisite to being considered an acquaintance, after all, was that they had met before.

This meant that the term can also encompass the relationship of enemies.

"So you know of Neptune?" The white-haired woman asked, after a moment of awkward silence.

"I've only known her for a week, and I can say she's a good friend if a bit ditzy."

'A bit ditzy' was an understatement and if IF's expressions after a quest with Neptune were any indication, 'good' might be pushing it.

"…something tells me that's not the only thing running in your mind."

"A-anyway, what about you erm…"

Now that Shidou thought about it, introductions hadn't been done at all.

"Ah, that was rude of me… my name is Shidou." He said after scratching his cheeks in embarrassment. "I'm an adventurer from the Guild."

"Guild? Which guild did you originate from?"

Shidou felt that was a particularly odd question. Unlike the Basilicom that normally has those who work under it being devoted to the CPU of their particular nation, the guild in itself was an organization that spans all four landmasses. Thus, unlike the Basilicom, it wouldn't be odd to find a member of a guild worshipping a CPU of a nation outside of their birth place.

However, there seemed to be a notion where the place one registered for in the guild would be the CPU that they held as the one to worship. It was not true in all cases, but it was a common enough event. After all, it was rare to find adventurers leaving the landmass they registered in; an event which was becoming more and more common due to the constantly rising monster population. Shidou and IF on the other hand were part of the rare few that commonly traversed the landmasses.

"Planeptune."

Despite that, Shidou felt no need to lie.

It wasn't that Shidou held the CPU Purple Heart in a higher pedestal than the other CPUs, but it wouldn't be wrong to say that he had a vague form of 'nationality' of his supposed place of origin. His own lacking memories made it difficult to decide which CPU he should hold in higher regard which had the added effect of making him rather indecisive regarding these sort of subjects.

It also didn't help that he felt more at home in the technologically advanced city of Planeptune.

Before anything else could be said on the matter, the sound of footsteps entered their ears and soon enough, IF had arrived with Neptune and Compa.

"It has been a while, Neptune." The white-haired woman greeted (?).

Neptune for her part showed no signs of recognizing the person before her and happily skips over.

"Oh? So you know me? Then tell me who I am!"

For the white haired woman's part, she looked bewildered and took a step back.

"Wait, you don't know me?"

"Hm? Should I know about you?"

Now that Shidou thought about it, neither he nor IF had alluded to Neptune's lost memory to the white-haired woman.

"Oh, I see what's going on…" The white-haired woman said laughing to herself rather stiffly. "You don't wish to include normal civilians into this matter, is that right? Well, it hardly matters to me since they're your followers anyway!"

"Followers? Umm… Miss, we're friends of NepNep-" Compa started, before being interrupted by Neptune.

"And party members!"

"…and we're of the same party."

"Do you still intend on going with this farce?!" The white haired woman bristled in anger. "Don't think I haven't forgotten the humiliation you have given to me, Neptune!"

Shidou, IF and Compa felt their hairs stand on end as a dangerous aura encompassed the area.

"Whoa, whoa, humiliation? What are you talking about Ms. white hair?"

"No matter, if you intend to continue with playing memory loss then I'll just have you lose your life with it!"


Author's Notes:

It was actually a bit difficult to write this part of the story for me, so revisions for this chapter alone took quite a while. Thankfully, I have most of the initial visit to Lastation already written (about 60-70%) so unless I decide on a rewriting spree, it shouldn't take longer than 2 months (at the most) to have the next chapter rolling. One of the reasons why this chapter took quite a while to get out, apart from the difficulty in revising, is because of work!

I can definitely say I'm not too fond of my work place... given how much time it takes to get to and from there (although not quite long for some people, but the work hours and my need for quite a bit of sleep makes the time wasted too long for me) alongside the rather disappointing jobs I've been given in the past month (where the only thing I struggle with is trying to stay awake during work hours), my writing time has been relegated to the weekends. Which is also the time I use to relax (read: play video games). Hopefully this will change when I get a new laptop instead of borrowing my sibling's laptop.

Excuses aside, I'm sorry if I had gone and skipped Chian's introduction. I'll try to work it out a bit in the future (or, worst case scenario, rewrite this chapter to add the scene), but I had mostly skipped it since not much would have changed in the interaction despite how different this world is from the original (if it isn't obvious yet, it would be a lot obvious later).

As usual, please leave a review or simply follow and/or favorite this story if it appeals to you! I'll try to get the next chapter out in a month or two, but no promises.