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


"Yaaaawn… isn't it still night time, Iffy? I don't see… the sunlight out… so maybe I can take a longer nap?"

"Nope. Didn't I say last night that we'll be out training today?"

As of the moment, Compa, Neptune and IF were out in the quiet streets of Lastation, right before the door to Chian's cafeteria. With the exception of IF, each party member were showing signs of drowsiness – and that in itself wasn't surprising seeing as while it was already morning, the sun hadn't broken through the horizon yet.

"You mean level grinding?"

"…whatever. Anyway, before we can accept any more requests, I believe it would be to our advantage if we get some experience in how each other fights so we don't need to have long planning sessions during a fight against someone we can't handle without any tactics."

In the past week alone, IF and Shidou had been placed in battles that were beyond their expectations in difficulty. While instances like those weren't exactly rare in quests given out by the guild or the basilicom, the alarming frequency had IF on edge especially since Shidou had been forced to use the power he had obtained from the crystal in both instances but in each instance, it was questionable if Shidou would have actually won if there wasn't anyone to support him. As much as IF hated to admit it, if Neptune or Compa weren't there, the battle would have most likely ended in their definitive loss.

To lessen the burden on her partner and to ease her own worries no matter how little, increasing their overall battle potential was the next best option.

Of course, there was always the option of abandoning Neptune, but IF and Shidou weren't the type to abandon a quest just because it got difficult – furthermore, they both considered Neptune and Compa a friend. With their somewhat nomadic tendencies, friends were important for the both of them.

"But didn't you lose your weapon yesterday, Iffy?" Compa asked, trying to rub the drowsiness from her eyes.

"Chian apparently had some stored in her factory." IF said, showing off her new katars. It didn't have an insignia of creation, and it had only had one main blade instead of the two bladed one she had held yesterday but IF held the weapon rather comfortably. "Well, it's not as sturdy as my last katars, but I'll just have to make do with these until we can either get back to Planeptune or get one in Leanbox."

The door to Chian's cafeteria swung open, revealing Shidou's slightly weary figure. He had his usual great sword strapped to his back, but he was also bringing along a basket.

"…those are just sandwiches, right?" IF asked apprehensively.

"Did you want something else?"

"…"

Shidou, despite preparing the breakfast himself, was slightly drowsy and missed his chance to tease IF. Rather, it was more correct to say he didn't have the energy for it.

Morning training like the one he was going to participate in was a rarity. It was a bit common in the weeks that followed after he had signed up in the guild, but as he got used to how battles were supposed to go and that his body had reached the minimal required physical condition, morning training became less and less frequent.

Before the silence could get awkward, the door once again swung open revealing the form of their recent acquaintance, Noire.

"Noire? What are you doing waking up so early?" Shidou asked, a bit of his drowsiness knocked out by the unexpected arrival of the newcomer.

"I could ask the same of you guys. The basilicom and the guild shouldn't be open at these times barring emergencies."

Despite having no memory, it seems that Noire had a good grasp of what it was like to live in Lastation. Shidou and Neptune were lacking in the common sense front, and it made Noire's amnesia seem partial instead of complete.

"We're planning to go out training." IF answered not the least bit surprised at the knowledge that Noire had. "We had an encounter… with someone as strong as the one we fought yesterday a few days ago, so in case this starts becoming a common trend, we need to get stronger."

"…let me join."

"Eh? Nowa wants to join too?"

"Who are you calling Nowa!? My name is Noire!"

"Eehhh… Nowa is a lot more cuter, and Noire sounds so pretentious…"

"Grrr… I'll show you pretentious-"

"N-now, now… there's no need to get into an argument!" Shidou interjected hastily, immediately getting in between Noire and Neptune. "A-anyway, Noire, you know how to fight?"

"…I-I suppose so, I mean, I do have a sword with me when you found me, right?" She said somewhat hesitantly.

There was an odd sense of dissonance with how hesitant Noire had said those words, but Shidou supposed it was because she was thinking that there must have been a reason why she was carrying a weapon by her waist in the first place.

Perhaps it would be like how Shidou was with cooking – her muscle memory might have remained.

"By the way, Nowa, what's with the glasses?"

Now that Neptune pointed it out, Shidou noticed that Noire was indeed wearing a pair of round red-framed glasses.

"I just remembered – yeah, that's right." She said nodding to herself. "If I don't wear these glasses, people might mistake me for Lady Black Heart."

…do glasses work as a means to dissuade people on thinking she wasn't who she was cosplaying? Shidou felt it would have been more prudent if Noire had changed clothing to something that Lady Black Heart hadn't supposedly wore out in public. Although given the circumstances, it was unlikely they could have produced clothing for Noire in short notice.

"Does that mean Ms. Nowa cosplays as Lady Black Heart?"

"…didn't I say I don't want to be called like that? B-but, yes, you could say that whoever I was before must have held mys- I mean, Lady Black Heart rather highly."

"Right." IF said curtly. "Anyway, we're wasting time talking here, so if you want to come along Ms. Noire, then be our guest. If you really do know your way with the sword, then I suppose my partner over here can learn a thing or two from you."

"Hey! Shin, can learn how to use the sword from me!"

"…Nep, in that form of yours, you're more of a brawns over brains type." IF said bluntly.

The purple haired preteen flinched at the remark.

"I-I can be plenty smart!"

"Name me one instance where you actually used your brain to get us out of a mess in the past few days."

"…by the way, Shin, what's for breakfast?"

"…so you're not even going to grace me with a reply, huh?" IF sighed, holding her head in frustration. "Let's get going. We're not eating until we at least take out some monsters!"


Half an hour after leaving the main city of Lastation's border, the party of five had reached West Wind Valley with the help of IF's map that she had downloaded to her cellphone and Noire's directions.

For an amnesiac, she seemed to have a solid grasp of the landscape around Lastation which gave credence that she must have lived in Lastation before losing her memories. It was a far cry from Neptune and Shidou's own state where they couldn't recall even the landscape of Planeptune despite being found there.

"Can we eat yet?"

"We just got here, Nep. At least take out some monsters before we settle down for breakfast." IF replied, easily denying Neptune's request.

The cool air of Lastation mixed with the currently absent sun made the area rather cold to the point that Shidou was slightly regretting the fact that he didn't bring warmer clothes. With the exception of himself, Noire's clothing didn't seem to have much insulating capability but she seemed to weather the cold air rather easily. IF had her jacket, Neptune had her purple parka and even Compa wore a white wool sweater. In comparison to the girls, Shidou felt a bit under dressed for the weather.

With his usual blue unbuttoned short sleeved shirt, a black undershirt and black pants, his clothing didn't provide much in terms of protection from the weather. He could of course use the warming spell he had learned in Lowee, but he wasn't too experienced with the arcane arts that he could casually alter the output of a spell.

"So let's split up into two groups. Neptune, you're with me. I'm going to drill some basic commands that I should have done a few days ago… by the end of today, you'll know how to fetch a stick with eye contact alone."

"…why does it seem like you're making me sound like a dog, Iffy?"

"It's just your imagination, Nep!" IF said a bit too cheerfully as she pulled the purple-haired girl with her. "Compa, I'll have you join the other two in case they get injured out here."

"L-leave it to me!"

It had been a while since Shidou had seen IF enter what he dubbed as 'training mode.' It made him feel a bit of nostalgia at the scene despite not being directly in the receiving end of things.

"So what exactly do we do?" Noire asked, bringing Shidou out of his thoughts.

"I-I'm not too clear either on what we should do, Mr. Shidou... Iffy didn't say much apart from making sure that we don't get injured."

"…well, she did say to hunt monsters for warm up." Shidou said, recalling IF's words earlier and previous training sessions he had undergone with IF. "Although to make this more productive, let's gather some monster parts as well. I think I read up from IF's phone that there's a type of monster here that drops a specific item."

While neither IF or Shidou could be considered poor, it was best to have a steady means of income so that any stored money could be relegated for emergency funds. Chian providing them with shelter and a place to eat was practically CPU sent given that the overall cost of living in Lastation was horrendously high. Not only that, if Compa had not been with them, Shidou was sure that most of the money would have been used for medical fees…

"…hunting monsters is a warm up?"

"It wasn't before, but I suppose she has confidence in our strength… IF seems to have a good assessment of you, Noire." Shidou pointed out.

"Are you sure it's because of me?"

"Absolutely." Shidou said without hesitation, making the twin-tailed girl's eyes widen in surprise at his bluntness. "Despite being with IF for over a year now, she's still reminding me of things she taught me in the first few months of my time in the guild. You must have really impressed her with the way you carry yourself for her to believe your fighting capability without actually seeing it."

That wasn't mentioning the fact that IF wasn't too keen in sending Shidou on his own to hunt monsters.

"I-is that so? Then it's best I don't fall behind your expectations then…"

"My expectations?"

"I mean, IF's expectations!"

Compa was beginning to look unsatisfied by the recent interactions, as evident by her following words.

"Muuu… Please don't leave me behind! I wish to meet your expectations too, Mr. Shidou!"

"When did this conversation turn towards my expectations!?"

Eventually, conversations ended and the trio went further into the monster infested area using a different direction from where IF and Neptune had left earlier.

Despite the time that was eaten up by conversations and the walk to getting here, sunlight had yet to break the horizon which made Shidou think that they had woke up a bit too early…

There was a lack of overall light in the surrounding area, as the moon seemed to be entering the phase of 'new moon' and was barely visible in the sky. The only reason the party could see anything without the use of flashlights or spells was because of the man-made lights that were scattered at the side of the most used roads.

That said, some lights were no longer working either due to some electricity problem or that the lamp itself had been destroyed at some point.

"Three ravens… if I'm right, we can extract 'Night Fang Feather' from them." Shidou mentioned to the other two beside him as they took cover behind one of the larger rocks protruding around the area.

The three spotted monsters were far larger than a 'normal' raven and was roughly half of Shidou's height when standing.

"Night Fang Feather?" Compa asked with an expression that said she had never heard of it before.

Given that Compa was a nurse-in-training, Shidou supposed it would be too much for her to know of a monster drop.

"It's a synthesis component for making potions of induced darkness. An acquaintance of IF and I tend to make all sorts of weird potions from just about anything. Ravens are one of the more easily hunt-able ones seeing as they pop up in three out of four landmasses."

"Potions of induced darkness?"

"It can cause temporary blindness on those drenched by the potion or those who gets a whiff of it." Shidou explained. "It can be used to prevent enemies from accurately attacking you, or to make a quick getaway. It's been pretty handy in situations where there are suddenly too many enemies to take on at once."

An incident regarding rats, zombies and bunnies rose to the forefront of Shidou's thoughts… it was the first time he remembered screaming in sync with IF as they ran away.

"Do we need to take them out in any specific way?" Noire said, posing her own question.

"No need to go for any unnecessary risks and besides the feather is quite literally littered over the monster's body. We just need to extract the feather before instantaneous degradation begins – in other words, while the Raven is still alive."

Instantaneous degradation is a term that monster hunters in the guild tended to refer to the quick disappearance of monster bodies after their death. Unlike other living creatures such as livestock, degradation was often 10 times faster for monsters (sometimes even 100 times). That being the case, it did not mean that there were parts that couldn't be extracted once a monster loses its life, but the parts that held a high value in the market were often the ones that were extracted before a monster died as instantaneous degradation doesn't affect parts that were extracted before the monster had begun to decompose.

To that end there were certain materials that existed in the market that specifically acted as a tranquilizer just so that certain parts could be extracted from the monster's body safely and with little damage to the part being extracted.

"Hmph. That should be easy enough." Noire said confidently, swinging her rapier a few times with surprising agility.

"Okay then, since this is just a warm up, there's not much need for an overly complicated plan and I'm not too good with those kinds of plans anyway since I'm still learning." Shidou said, giving a wry smile. "Noire, can you take out one of those ravens on your own?" Seeing the twin-tailed girl nod, he continued. "Then I'll take the attention of the other two ravens while you take out the raven and extract some of the feathers. Compa, just provide covering fire to us based on your judgment."

"Based on my judgment…?"

"Don't worry too much." Shidou said giving what he hoped was a reassuring smile. "Whatever happens, I'm more or less experienced with these kinds of requests so there's no need for worry unless something really strong appears."

"Right!"

Although Shidou felt that Compa should have chosen a weapon that didn't make one feel they had to protect their butt all the time…

"Now then…"

Shidou took a deep breath, gripping his great sword with one hand and allowed energy to seep from his body towards the blade.

White motes of light gathered at a steady pace, and within seconds, the great sword began to give off its own illumination.

Shidou realized that the energy gathering phase was far too slow, but if he did not do it like this, he risked letting another form of energy go out of control – a constant problem ever since he had unlocked Sandalphon.

"Let's begin!"

Satisfied with the energy gathered, Shidou rushed out of the covering rocks and slammed his blade towards the ground in the direction of the three ravens.

"Sword Crash!"

A torrent of blue light carved its way from Shidou's blade to the ravens leaving a trail of destruction at its wake. Unlike the beam of light created by Sandalphon however, the power was much weaker and its speed almost a fraction of that same power. Nevertheless, utilization of that skill was unlikely to incapacitate or injure Shidou any time soon.

The ravens scattered away from the attack, but one in particular was chipped at the wing causing its flight to be delayed.

It was already too late by the time it regained its balance.

"Too easy!"

With speed matching up to IF's own, Noire reached the flailing raven and, in a blink of an eye, had pierced both of its wing with her rapier and carved a deep gouge on its stomach.

Feathers fell by the wayside and after observing that at least a dozen were already on the ground, she ended the 'battle' with the raven with a single thrust to the raven's head.

Based on Shidou's observation of that moment in battle, it was clear that Noire had a veritable amount of battle experience as she took down the raven without hesitating or doing any sort of wasted movement. Her speed was top notch, and her weapon took advantage of her nimble frame.

There was no doubt that she was above Shidou in terms of swordplay and agility.

One of the two ravens that had its attention on Shidou flew down, intent on crashing to him with its claws. Using the flat side of his blade, Shidou defended from the blow and not even a second after the impact, pink explosions impacted the side of the raven.

"Mr. Shidou!"

"Right!"

With the Raven knocked off balance, Shidou used his left hand to grasp a handful of feathers and tore the feathers free; once that was done, he pivoted in place and cleaved the raven in half with his sword. The weight of his blade made the action go seamlessly with almost no resistance.

The third raven by this point of time had flown high up in the air, cautiously circling above them.

"So only one left." Noire said, standing beside Shidou as she looked up towards the last raven. "What's the plan?"

"I didn't bring my arrows… and I don't exactly have ranged magic good at taking out aerial enemies." Shidou said, observing the flying raven. "Do you have any, Noire?"

"No."

"Ms. Compa, can you shoot it down?"

"I'll try!"

Firing a few shots towards the wayward raven, Shidou was hardly surprised that none of the shots hit its mark.

Not only was the raven nearly as dark as the morning sky, it was far too high up for someone like Compa to reliably aim at. If IF were here, she would have most likely pelted the raven with her magic and if Neptune were here, she could have transformed to fly at the raven.

Shidou could do something himself if he tried to use Sandalphon, but he felt it wasn't exactly a prudent idea to do so seeing as this was just a raven and getting incapacitated over it and so early in the morning would just earn him a stern scolding from IF.

"Wait… is that raven glowing?"

Shidou's eyes widened in surprise as, true to Noire's words, the raven began to glow ominously.

"Listen well, Shidou. If you're ever in a situation where you're facing a monster that suddenly changed mid-battle, it's better off if you run."

He turned around, his words spilling out of his mouth even before he could face Compa.

"Run?"

"Ms. Compa, stop!"

The pink-haired nurse stopped at the command but not before she released one more shot towards the glowing raven.

"Well, it's not like it's a common occurrence, but if the event ever does come up, you would know immediately. Anyway, comparing the pre-transformed monster to the transformed version would be like comparing your blank-slate self with the you of the present. The difference is like night and day – like a boss monster suddenly went one-winged angel on you but it isn't even funny since this is just a common mob."

The last shot that Compa fired seemed to fly in slow motion from Shidou's point of view as it, unlike the many others that Compa had fired earlier, flew with its aim true.

"…so it's like a common mob monster suddenly leveling up to a boss worthy foe?"

"Yep."

The light engulfed the raven and once the light faded away, a giant and slightly discolored version of the raven appeared.

"Why does it occur?"

The last shot of Compa impacted the raven, but unlike the one she had shot at earlier, the raven barely flinched from the attack. The shot did not seem to hurt it, but it certainly got its attention as it turned towards Compa, its eyes glinting menacingly.

"Nobody knows. It just popped up one day, sometime three years ago. We've fought several ones actually, but during those times we were often with a pick up group so the danger level isn't so high."

Shidou focused energy onto his legs, uncaring if that energy seeped in. Although the distance between him and Compa was merely twenty meters and the distance between her and the raven was several times that, he had no idea how strong the raven would have become once it had changed.

"What do they call it?"

A sharp pain entered Shidou's legs, but he paid it no mind. The pupils of his eyes shifted and began to glow, radiating power unlike his normally passive eyes.

"They call it, going Viral."

The ground beneath Shidou shattered, almost at the same time as the raven flew with a burst of speed unlike its brethren earlier. Although the targets were the same, the purpose of reaching the target differed for the monster and Shidou.

It was a race that Shidou could not bear to lose.


Author's Notes:

A bit shorter than most other updates, but it was hard to bring out anymore given what else I've written.

So yeah, it's been a while. The next chapter will come soon but it would be more of a side story seeing as it depicts a certain event that occurred before the story 'Lost Fragments' started. As for how soon... definitely faster than this update and who knows? Depending on certain factors, it may come within the week.

To answer some reviews... there might be small timeskips here and there, but nothing larger than a month as of the moment. As for Shidou cross-dressing, I have no plans for that as of yet although given the people he's with and what he has experienced in the light novel, I won't say that the chances of it happening is impossible.