i dont know whats going on anymore tbh
"Get up already!"
Blanc is met with a rude awakening as someone shakes her body. "Mmh?!" She immediately rolls away from the source, bumping into another figure. This, in turn, causes her to move away from whatever she just hit. "W-where-"
"Heh, she's like a pinball."
With all the rolling disorientating her, it takes her a moment to re-discover which way is up. In that direction, she sees her two sisters, sitting on the bed and looking down at her. "...Oh, um, good mo-"
"Good morning, you big sleepy log!" greets Ram with a flashy beaming grin, clearly enjoying Blanc's confused reactions as Rom simply giggles while watching.
"Me? A sleepy l-"
Ram doesn't wait any longer to start tugging her older sister up. "C'mon, we already invited our friends to help you out today. Today's gonna be loads of fun!"
She lets her pull her up. "Huh? W-who?"
"What's going on here?"
All of them look up at Mina opening the door, needing a brief moment to take in the scene. "Oh hey, Mina! We're gonna take Blanc to go training today!"
"And you already invited someone?" Mina puts a hand on her hip. "My, I forget how quickly you two wake up. But, before you leave, I need to at least discuss something about your recent aggressive actions after-"
"Excuse me, uh, Miss Nishizawa?"
From behind her stands Financier, beaming a smile as always. "Hm?"
She gestures to the trio of guests by her side. "Lady Noire, Nepgear, and Uni are here."
The Lastation goddesses wave politely, but Nepgear impatiently steps ahead of the two towards the sisters' room the moment she makes eye contact with Lowee's goddesses. "Is it true? Did Rom and Ram make up with Blanc last night?"
"Oh my, already?" mutters Mina.
"Whoa, they're already here?" Getting off of Blanc, Ram jumps off the bed and runs over to greet her friends.
As Financier and Mina step aside, Nepgear runs over to Ram, barely containing her excitement when she sees Rom close to Blanc. "Wow, I'm so glad that everything worked out! I was really worried when I had to leave yesterday, you know."
Isn't she maybe a little too ecstatic? Ram backs off a little to keep her distance. "Aw, I-It's no big deal. We just talked everything out, just like adults."
"...Oh, and um, hi, Mina. Heh…" She quickly turns around to give her own wave
The Oracle smiles and nods in humored acknowledgement. "It's true. Relative to how they acted before yesterday, our reconciliation went smoothly."
Uni smirks a little with a similar reaction to Nepgear while approaching the group. "Yeah? It's pretty incredible how quickly you all made up. It was just the day before that you were beating each other up, right? How'd it go down?"
"We…" Even after everything last night, there's something…unfavorable about disclosing her own faults to more people. Sure, she already talked about it with Blanc and Mina, but it's not like Nepgear has to know, right? "...I said it's no big deal, okay?"
Noire is last to approach them, far calmer than anyone else. "There's no way it wasn't that big of a deal, but whatever. It's still good that my advice went to good use and that things didn't go completely south. I hope you all learned a lesson or two about this kind of stuff."
Ram had not noticed her until now, so she quickly asks her, "Hey, what are you doing here, anyways? You want to help us train Blanc or something?"
"Hm? Not really," she naturally replies. "I'm just here because Mina requested a meeting with me. Isn't that right?"
"Well, yes. There is something I would like to make a request of certain historical artifacts that you may have," Mina points out, her eyes looking up in consideration.
"Oh."
There's a brief silence, as if Noire is expecting a particularly snappy and teasing answer. When she looks around, however, she doesn't spot any smug reactions or anything like that, instead seeing the twins frowning a little in disappointment. Surprisingly, even Blanc seems a little disheartened; a far cry of Noire's expectation of her to drowsily look away in disinterest. All of this compels her to relax a little and add, "W-well, I guess I can help out if I have time left, but no guarantees. I'm pretty busy today, alright?"
"Yay, more help!" cheers Rom.
Blanc smiles faintly. She hasn't talked much with this confident twin-tailed CPU, and while she was a little intimidating at first, hearing a little more from her makes her seem just as friendly as the others, even with those distant tendencies.
There is something a little bizarre about teaching someone who was an old nemesis, and is still very much a rival in a formal sense, but everyone else seems fine with it. Do they all just don't recognize the conflict of interest, or is it really just her being too aloof? She decides to hold that question off for later, refreshing her air of professionalism. "Anyways, what is it that you wanted to know more about, Mina?"
She nods. "I would like to hear from you and someone else about something we have from our archives over this way. While we could wait for her to arrive, I suppose it will be fine to commence the meeting without her for now."
"Of course; just lead the way."
"Right." Before leaving she addresses the Candidates and Blanc, "Though Lady Noire arrived earlier than I had expected, I shouldn't keep her back, so it looks like I will be postponing that discussion for later, you two. I'll be back to help with teaching Lady Blanc soon, so make sure you all behave, okay?"
"Come on, Mina, we're not little kids anymore! We'll be fine," Ram whines with a pout.
"I suppose you're right." Hearing that energetic poise is always a good way to start her day. She waves and starts walking away, with Noire immediately following closely.
Watching her sister leave, Uni finds this a good time to ask, "...By the way, I feel like I should mention: have you two heard what they've been saying about y-"
Without realizing she's interrupting her, Ram faces the others and confidently smacks her fist against her palm. "Alright, everyone. Let's get started!"
"I-"
Uni is interrupted again, this time by Rom. "Uh huh. We're not good at physical stuff, so that's why we wanted your help! Sis will love seeing you fight!"
She raises an eyebrow as an immediate reaction. "You do know I can't help with melee weapons, right?" She raises her hand palm up, and, in a flash of light, she summons her rifle for everyday combat.
The bright spectacle creating the sleek, yet complex weapon draws Blanc's attention as she silently steps closer. She couldn't get a good look at it when everyone was chasing her sisters, but it really does fascinate her when she can look at it this way.
Uni's eyes steadily track her in awkward silence as Blanc approaches her like a curious deer. "Ehm…Do you like it?" she asks for a lack of anything better to say, holding it out.
It's hard to take note of every single detail, as much as she'd like to. Still, she surmises and appreciates every decision Uni deliberately made when building this, further showing her combat expertise; something Blanc wishes she can even come close to attain.
As she admires all of that, it takes a while to realize she was asked a question. Looking up at her, she realizes that she might be a bit too close to this stranger…well, except she's not supposed to be one…Err, it's still the first time she's actually talked to her. Stepping back a bit, she hurriedly answers, "It's…very intricate."
"Uh…yeah." The idea of a senior looking up at her still gives her a weird feeling. It helps a little that she looks younger than her, but she also feels like the only reason Blanc would only stare at her for this long was if she did something wrong. "...Why are you staring at me like that?" she asks, while intermittently looking away.
"Oh! U-um, sorry…" She does the same, blushing and fidgeting her hands while backing away a little more.
The other Candidates snicker a little at the unnecessarily embarrassing interaction.
Uni quickly notices, firing back, "Hey, this is the first time I've really talked to her! Don't you all think it's weird when someone who's supposed to be serious and standoffish acts like this?"
"I think it makes her cuter!" Nepgear whimsically disagrees.
She looks at her with exasperated eyes before focusing on Rom and Ram. "Then, what about you two? You basically kidnapped and beat her up because of that!"
Guilty as charged, their giddiness dissipates as they look away. "Uh…"
"Um…I guess…"
Maybe she went a little too far, even if she was right. Awkwardly calming down a bit, she asks, "N-never mind. Just, uh, anyways, Nepgear, you'll probably be more helpful with teaching Blanc, right?"
"I don't think using a hammer is that similar to using a sword, though." Following Uni, she summons her beam sword to show Blanc.
"You both swing them around to beat baddies up, right?" asks Rom while mimicking said motion.
"Well, you can also go for a stabbing motion, too. You can't really do that with a hammer, unless it's like one of those mallet toys that has a spike on top of it and a ball. What's it called…A kendama, I think?"
"Then just don't teach about stabbing stuff," points out Ram.
"I guess, but…" there's obviously going to be a difference between wielding a swift-swinging and sharp sword and a heavy tool of pure blunt force. "...Well, if it's for Blanc, then I'll do my best!"
As always, Nepgear's good-natured friendliness warms Blanc up. "Thank you! I appreciate your help."
"I guess I'll help wherever I can since I'm already here," adds Uni, arms crossed and looking away.
Didn't Noire do this same gesture while saying something similar? After studying this particular expression, Blanc appears to be holding in a small giggle and a grin.
Uni immediately notices, more surprised than irritated. "What?"
She jumps a little. "U-uh, nothing! I-it was just-"
"Uni does that a lot. Neptune calls it being tsundere or whatever, so don't get too caught up thinking about it. Let's get going!" Ram tugs on Blanc's hand to lead her outside, almost causing her to trip.
"H-huh? Where are we going?" asks a startled Blanc while running along.
"What did you just say?! Get back here!"
"Oh, Ram…"
(-)
Today's a bright and sunny day, with the vast blue sky above and the wide, white fields below. Being the morning after a night of snowfall, the cold blanket that covers the ground is near-perfectly uniform, untouched by anyone or anything…except by these five girls, leaving footprints as they run across.
After an arbitrary distance of running through the nearby field, Ram abruptly stops in front of everyone. "Alright! Training time!" she declares while pumping her fists.
"Yay, training!" cheers Rom, doing the same thing, but in a milder, "more polite" manner.
"Goodness, you two must've been waiting to do this for a while," remarks Nepgear.
After her comment, there's an extended moment where the girls silently exchange glances at each other.
"So…what are we starting off with?" Uni finally asks.
"Well…you know. We train!" answers Ram, still confident as ever.
"...You don't have a lesson plan or anything like that, do you?"
Lesson plan? Ram was never particularly fond of anything that resembled Mina's own rigorous methods of teaching magic. "We don't need one, anyways. We just need some monsters to beat up!"
Blanc starts looking around. The field is still as empty as before, so barren that she has an unobstructed view of the capital city far off in the distance on one side and a large forest on the opposite side.
"Usually, there are some monsters that show up here. Where did they go?" wonders Rom while searching around.
"Maybe someone from the guild took care of them before we came here," suggests Nepgear.
"What? But we came here right after we woke up! Who could've done all of that so early?" complains Ram.
"I mean, there are probably monsters over there." Uni points to the forest off in the distance.
"But this is such a nice field that we always play- err, uh, use." There's a short pause before she adds, "Besides, all the trees will make it harder for Blanc to attack."
"I know! We can start by using this." Rom takes out her staff and starts some sort of spell. The tip of her staff glows, gathering orbiting shards of ice.
Blanc watches with fascination, though still subconsciously alert for anything involving magic and her sisters.
"Here!" In almost an instant, she conjures an ice wall to instantly spring up in front of them, almost twice as tall as her.
"Huh?!" The speed at which it appeared right in front of her, causes Blanc to flinch and fall backwards.
Nepgear is first to notice. "Blanny, are y-" she quickly shuts her mouth.
Uni frowns, part perplexed and part amused. "'Blanny?' Didn't she get mad when anyone but C-sha called her that?"
"Heh heh…" Though her cheeks are slightly flush, she doesn't seem that embarrassed. "Well, it is a bit cute, and I don't think Blanc minds, right?"
"I don't mind," she answers, clearly unbothered and unaware.
"Ooh, that's right! We can just make a bunch of these!" Ram raises her own staff in excitement before noticing Blanc sitting on the ground. "Alright, get to it! Get out your hammer and start…training!"
"Oh, um, right." She flinches a little when she uses her hand to stand herself up from the bitterly cold snow. It takes her a while to remember how to summon it, but she readies her hammer and approaches the ice wall before stopping. She, too, doesn't exactly know how to "train," and her sisters' excitedly anticipating her next move is only rushing her.
"Y'know, you looked pretty strong when we took down Plutia a few days ago," mentions Nepgear. "Maybe try smashing it to check your strength…I guess?" The logic wasn't completely there, but it was better than doing nothing.
"Sure." She raises her hammer and…Well, first, she should ask herself which way should she swing it: from her side, or with an overhead swing? She might not know much about breaking stuff, but there clearly is a most correct way to do it that involves considering the target's shape and size. Thinking about possible variables to consider causes her to double-guess herself even more.
From the onlookers' perspective, it looks somewhat humorous how she's holding her hammer as if she's preparing for a stroke in golf. She isn't completely clueless if she can wield such a heavy object with ease, but her hesitance and lack of urgency really doesn't help how slow this "training" is taking. All Uni can mutter is a drawn out "Eh…"
Just as she's about to shout at her to hurry up, Ram runs up to Uni and whispers something to her.
"Really? That's not exactly a good idea."
Ram nods, more than certain about her plan.
"Alright…"
Oblivious to this conversation, Blanc continues to study the geometry of the light blue wall in front of her, lightly tapping various spots on it with her hammer. Just as she's at the apex of her practice swing…
Bang!
"Eep!" At the sudden noise of a gunshot striking the wall, her natural reflexes cause her to finish the swing at full force. So much force, in fact, that not only does she shatter the ice formation into pieces with just that one hit, but the hammer follows through straight into the ground, causing her to almost fall forward.
The others flinch at the sound and minor shockwave of the impact. "That's about what I expected, heh…" Nepgear wonders if she should've said something to make them reconsider that.
Blanc lets go of her hammer, shaking her hands in soreness. "Ow…What was that?" She looks back and sees Uni, still holding a handgun. "Was that…"
She simply shrugs. Not really anyone's fault but hers for agreeing to Ram's plan. "Sorry about that. But, hey, it looks like you're still plenty strong."
"Yeah, you really are just as strong as before!" admires Ram. "But you can't just spend all day lining up your hit or whatever. If this was a real battle, you'd get completely destroyed before you could even take one swing!"
Obvious in retrospect. "Right, but it hurts to swing, so I'm not sure if I'm doing it properly…"
"Really? Let me see." Ram runs over, to which Blanc holds out her arms. Seeing nothing out of the usual, she takes her wrist up to her face, causing her sister to jolt a little from the sudden touch. "I don't see anything wrong," she says while turning her wrist around.
"She's talking about the recoil of the impact from swinging that thing," Uni points out. "That kind of stuff happens when you don't use your weapon properly." She then murmurs, "I might've forgotten to think about that, but honestly, I thought you'd handle it better if you're already this strong…"
Blanc leans to the side a bit to look at Uni past Ram, unsure of what she said. "Hm?"
"Uh, nothing!" she hurriedly responds. "Just, uh, practice makes perfect! That pain will eventually go away the longer you use that hammer."
Rom suddenly raises her hand in excitement. "Hey, I have an idea! I think I've seen this in a show one time." Raising her own staff, a light blue light forms in front of the tip. Moments later, twenty or so discs of ice, each roughly head size and an inch thick, fall from the light and softly land on the snow.
Ram runs over and picks one up. "Ooh, ooh! We're gonna throw them around Blanc, and then she has to break them! It's just like that minigame from that fighting game!"
"That one had you run and jump around in a big stage to hit the targets, though."
"Maybe we can do that later if we get more help. For now, this should be a good way to make her learn to attack quickly!"
Nepgear picks up a disc, also eager to see how this goes. "This looks like a fun training exercise. Uni and I are gonna help out with throwing them, right?""
"Of course!"
Uni takes a small pile in both of her hands. "We're gonna start off slow, right? Like, throw them one at a time, and make sure to call out before you throw."
"Yeah, yeah," Ram dismissively agrees. "Now, everyone, take some and stand in a circle around Blanc!"
"Alright."
"Okay!"
"Uh huh, uh huh!"
As the Candidates get into position, Blanc stays relatively stationary with her eyes darting to each one of them. Though no one hasn't actually explained what they're about to do, she can sort of guess what's going on.
Before Rom or Ram could overenthusiastically start them off, Nepgear takes initiative and raises a disc. "Ready, everyone? I'm gonna toss the first one!" She waits for Blanc to turn around and nod at her, gingerly adjusting her grip. "One…Two…Three!"
Her generous warning allows her to picture the disc's aerial path from Nepgear's rather light underhand toss in her mind. She might be spending too much time thinking about it, though, as she only acts just as it's about to land on the floor. With swift control, she merely punts it with a light swing. Nevertheless, the hammer's material is far sturdier than the ice and shatters it with ease.
Though an unorthodox approach, the way she swung surprises Nepgear. "Nice! That looked like a professional swing."
Her encouraging cheerfulness only flatters her even more. "Really? Thanks…"
Uni, though, raises an eyebrow before announcing. "Alright, I'm gonna throw mine next."
"Huh?" By the time Blanc turns around to look at her, the disc is already in motion. Her toss is just as light as Nepgear's, but it seems like she aimed somewhere considerably farther away from Blanc, and it barely flips around as it neatly rotates around its center while facing her at all times. Even though she reacted late, she still waits for the last moment to perform a similar light swing that is both swift and reserved.
Just those two swings are enough for the Candidates to quickly see what's off about her. "Y'know, it's okay to swing hard," asserts Uni.
Blanc has to think about that for a moment. "...Do I have to?" She doesn't want her hands hurting again because of that "recoil" thing she mentioned.
"Do you have to?! Of co-…" Despite her exasperation and clearly being the more knowledgeable one, Uni still feels like there's something wrong with scolding or getting mad at her because of her new personali…err, because she's still her senior. "Okay, it's good to attack with confidence, though-"
Ram shouts, "Yes you do! This is supposed to be about getting you to fight and smash baddies, not whatever you were doing!"
It's more than obvious when she puts it like that, isn't it? Makes her wonder why she was swinging so conservatively in the first place. "Oh. S-sorry."
Instead of getting more annoyed by an apology like that as she usually would, she manages to quickly calm down and silently accepts it. It's more important right now to think of a solution to this problem of theirs. "Hm…" She frowns in concentration for a bit before raising her staff to create another ice target, this time appearing darker, heavier, and more opaque than the others. "Alright, Blanc. This one won't break no matter what, so now we're gonna find out how far you can launch this thing!"
Rom catches on to her sister's plan and eagerly adds, "And don't think about it too hard! Just think about hitting it really far away."
"Right!" she answers while adjusting her grip once more.
"And here!" Ram doesn't wait to throw the disc, nor does she have a specific direction to aim in.
"O-oh!" Despite having little warning, she keeps her objective in mind, channeling all of her focus and might into making a side swing where she thinks the disc will be…at least, until she hesitates at the last moment, questioning herself about if she really is on-target. The end result: a complete miss, off by a few inches. Combining her sudden indecisiveness and all the power she put into this attack, she follows through with her swing by too much. Far too much, actually. It's more appropriate to think of the hammer controlling Blanc as it forces her to rapidly swing it around her in a circle. "W-woah?!"
From behind her, Uni reacts just in time to Blanc's spinning swing, and she jumps back just enough to avoid being side-checked by her hammer. "H-hey, watch it!"
Not even acknowledging what the Candidate just said, she finally realizes what's happening and stops the hammer from making her spin any more, only to fall forwards upon abruptly doing so. "Oof…"
"...What the-"
"Shh!" Nepgear holds up a silencing finger, stopping Uni before she can finish that sentence, earning and ignoring an eye roll.
Despite the freezing cold below her, the feeling that she's being scorched by judging gazes leaves her uncomfortably hot with humiliation. Perhaps she could just avoid looking at them to avoid further shame, but she still feels the need to turn her attention to her sisters.
"Um…" Rom does her best to not look disappointed and offers a slow smile.
Ram, on the other hand, is wearing a quivering smirk, ready to burst into giggling. When she notices Blanc looking at her, she quickly straightens her face. "Uh, yeah. That was pretty pathetic."
Pretty blunt, and it's pretty hard for Blanc to disagree with them, either. Nevertheless, she only reacts by silently looking back down at the snow, further dwelling on her own ineptitude.
Nepgear is quick to empathize with her and act, stepping up to her and offering her a hand. "Hey, are you alright?"
Her world-famous cheerfulness quickly lifts her spirits back up. Smiling back, she takes her hand. "Yeah. Thanks."
"No problem!"
After getting up, Blanc finds herself keeping her gaze on Nepgear. Out of all the Candidates, she has definitely been the most mature, helpful, and supportive of her so far. Her sisters should definitely support her more now that she made up with them, but that doesn't change the fact that Planeptune's Candidate has a lot of role-model-like qualities that she'd like to follow. If anything, she's just like an older-
Without warning, another ice block rises from the ground right behind Blanc. The noise and vibration from such a heavy evocation almost causes Blanc to fall again. "H-hey…"
Everyone, including Rom, turns their attention to the caster, her staff still glowing.
With all eyes on her, Ram opens her mouth to speak, but her words need a moment to catch up with her thoughts. "...Let's use another giant ice block to practice your swings, I guess."
"That's good! We already saw how strong you are, so let's help you get your bearings with your hammer. Once you feel sure of yourself, you'll be able to go all out much easier," adds Nepgear, trying to finish Ram's idea. "Actually, have you seen Uni shoot stuff? She's only able to aim at things so easily because she keeps her cool no matter what!"
"H-huh?" Uni looks up upon hearing her name. Where'd this sudden compliment come from?
Though her interest is piqued, it's hard for Blanc to visualize how good her focus can be. "Hmm…Can you show me, please?" she asks Uni.
It's not very often that people want her to show off to them, but she still tries to appear a little humble. "I mean, it's not something that's so easy to see; you can only really feel it once you get enough practice for yourself…but, um, sure. Just throw a few of those discs up, and I'll shoot them out of the air!"
Once she collects a couple and is about to do just that, she stops and asks, "How high should I throw them?"
"Doesn't really matter," she replies, more focused about picking the right handgun before looking back at her.
"Um…Okay, then." She proceeds to chuck them up at what she thinks is a normal height…
…Which ends up being several yards into the sky, almost disappearing from everyone's view. It catches Uni a little bit off-guard, but still not by much. In one smooth motion, she aims her pistol up, takes a moment to line up everything, and fires twice.
It's only a little audible, but the two sounds of shattering ice is enough to impress everyone. In particular, while the whole thing may have only lasted for less than a second, Blanc is still trying to analyze every minute movement Uni made to perform such an elegant attack. Obviously, learning about handling guns is only marginally useful for someone like her, but she can spend forever admiring that nonchalant, yet focused aiming. Will she ever be able to just take someone out without as much as a thought, just like that?
Still a little bored, Uni looks back to Blanc to check her reaction; apparently the only thing that can break her trance as she looks away. It is a little flattering, if still bizarre seeing her act this way. "Hm?"
What's the best way to express her awe? "...That was really cool. I'd really want to…" Another thought of hers interrupts that one as her attention wanders over to one of her sisters' staff. "Hmm…Hey, Ram? How do you use magic like that?"
"Huh?" Her question distracts Ram from their training as if answering her is more important. "Hm, it's mostly about having a really good imagination. The better you can picture in your mind what the spell will look like when you cast it, the stronger it becomes!" Looking down at her staff, she adds, "And also, you have to really want the spell to work…or something. I think it works best if we're feeling super confident or determined…or angry, I guess, and that makes the spell deal more damage."
Rom has become equally engaged with responding. After all, it's nice to have someone appreciate how much time they've spent learning magic. "Oh, and another part is that you have to think about a lot of science stuff every time you think about it. I don't remember everything that Mina taught us about it, but she said something about explaining to ourselves how the spell works also makes it more reliable."
"Why'd you ask, anyway?"
"Because…I think it looks fun to learn." She holds her hammer like a wand, still having no trouble wielding it with one hand, and thinks about the last spell she cast, Gefahrlichtern. Without much thought, she creates the same, ball-sized, and low-energy ice shards as the last time she used that spell. As she strikes them into the air in no specific direction, her attack is leaving her looking for something fast or powerful, despite being the same as before.
"Hm?" The Candidates observe her in silence, unsure of what she's trying to do.
Blanc closes her eyes and reminds herself of what her sisters told her. How do these particles of ice spontaneously appear out of thin air? Perhaps a form of rapid freezing of water vapor in a specific pattern, right? Can she manipulate them further after launching them? If so, how? Each of these questions she entertains easily leads her into more and more of them. Without noticing it, her hammer's tip glows brighter than before, and the ice shards, numbering considerably higher this time, start forming.
She opens her eyes, content at how blindingly bright her hammer has become. Then, she moves her hammer around and marvels at how precisely she can freely move the ice shards as they follow her aim. "Huh…"
Nepgear and Uni both share a similar curiosity, refraining from questioning her until after she's done. The latter can see her reasoning and asks the twins, "Hey, did Blanc use this spell a lot in the past?"
"I don't think I've seen Blanc do that," notes Rom with intrigue. "E-err…She's done the ice shard thing and shoots them at people a few times before, but she was really quick with it."
"I guess being used as bullets is the best thing ice shards are for, huh. Maybe she's rediscovering some other way of using them." Both Ram and her sister are equally enthralled instead of trying to rush everyone with training just a few minutes ago.
After a bit, Blanc then swings her hammer elsewhere, pointing it to the ground several yards away. In an instant, the ice shards blast through the air at a far faster and deadlier speed, all of them arranged in a near-perfect single-file line. She can faintly hear the crisp sound of each shard breaking on the one in front of it, one by one. Running over to where she shot, she indeed sees that there are only two or three holes, each with a shard implanted deep in the snow and into the ground, with a pile of ice debris scattered around them.
While a pleasant but mild surprise for everyone else, Uni makes a double-take at those shots. "Wait, how'd she fire those bullets…shards so accurately? You two never did anything like that, right?"
"Yeah we do. Sometimes, Rom pelts enemies with a lot of ice cubes as an attack."
"No, err…Let me put it like this: did you ever imagine Blanc ever using a gun? Because that's what this reminds me of."
"Huh. That's weird to think about. I guess she really liked watching you shoot stuff," Rom tilts her head, then grins a little. "We also like seeing you and Nepgear shoot pretty lasers."
"Uh, thanks." Brushing off the last part of what Rom said, she wonders if she's thinking about it too much. She doesn't expect the others to think much of it like her, but that accuracy is too…remarkable. Even if Blanc somehow has retained some battle experience, it's not like she used to be good at ranged combat, unless she had some sharpshooting past that she was never aware of. It took her a long while to perfect her own rifles to achieve something like that, and for someone who should be a novice to just conjecture something like that on a whim is a cheap stab to her pride, to say the least…Or maybe she's just being pettily envious, superficially putting her friends down when she should really be helping them out.
As Uni dwells on this, Blanc seems to have just remembered that there were four others waiting on her and looks back at them. She's been losing herself in her imagination and thinking about what her powers allow her to create, and here she is wasting others' time. She looks back at them, hoping that she hasn't annoyed them too much.
Wanting to look more into just how much potential she has, Uni picks up one of the ice frisbees Ram gave her and holds it up.
Without exchanging any words, she nods in understanding and eagerly raises her hammer, preparing the spell once more as more ice shards form around it.
Uni nods back. She makes a hearty throw high into the air. "Hyup!" If Blanc can perfectly hit this on her first try, she'll feel…Actually, she isn't sure how she'll react.
From her position, the disc is fairly hard to see. Or, at least, it's moving too fast and is fairly small to aim at. Nevertheless, she squints and tries her best to aim her hammer at where bullets will intersect with her target.
By the time she draws her focus to the supposed impact, however, she sees she had underestimated how fast her icicles can fly as they simply fly past the disc, disappearing into the empty sky.
"Ooh, I'll throw one next!" exclaims Nepgear as she picks up a target from her pile, waving it at Blanc while coming closer.
"Okay!" Despite her mistake, she finds herself staying determined, promptly preparing her next attack.
Nepgear comes closer until she's only a few yards away, then makes another light, but still serviceable toss. "And go!"
The shorter distance between them makes a big difference to Blanc; she feels like she can precisely aim at even the smallest and faintest scratch on the disc if she wants to. Remembering to correct her perception of how fast her newfound attack is, she takes aim and watches her icicles fly at jet-like speeds.
The first few miss, but the next several spikes directly strike the disc, albeit at an off-centered spot. While the first one simply sticks to the ice, the next few that hit right next to it eventually cause the whole thing to shatter in no time. The circle harmoniously splits into jagged but nearly similar slices, each flying in different directions.
"Woah…" Blanc stares at her work with awe, only getting more elated thinking about her potential power with magic.
"Ooh, nice shot!" compliments Nepgear.
The comment apparently goes unnoticed by Blanc, as she pensively looks down at her hammer again, not hesitating to delve deeper into what other kinds of moves she can come up with next.
Seemingly being the only one to clearly notice that she's already starting to disconnect herself from the Candidates again, Rom speaks up. "Um…This training session is…"
"It's definitely weird, I'll say that," finishes Uni. "She's supposed to not have any of her previous memories, right? I don't know if you all already figured this out, but, to me, it looks like she's already pretty proficient with…Eh, okay maybe not a lot of stuff, but she doesn't act like someone who's completely new with battling skills."
"Hmm…" As an innate reaction, a wry smirk starts to form on Ram's face. "...Hey, are you jealous that she's as good as you at aiming?"'
"What? No! Don't be ridiculous," she naturally refutes. "Anyone can aim bullets that fly that fast."
"Yeah? So what you're saying is that we can use your guns just as well as you?"
Rom grins in a more innocent manner. "Blanc never let us touch guns, but we really want to see what it's like to use one."
"Really? She sees you use all kinds of destructive magic almost every day, but she's suddenly not okay with…Well, actually, giving you guns does seem a little disastrous…" She shakes her head to refocus herself. "A-anyway, couldn't you change your magic to do whatever Blanc's doing right now? You could probably make up something resembling ballistic projectiles even better than her."
"Yeah, but…y'know! Pew pew!" says Ram while making finger guns.
"If you let us borrow your stuff, we can let you try out one of our staves," adds Rom.
She isn't too interested in magic, but a little bit of variety never hurt anyone…Wait, she's letting them distract her again! "Hey, didn't you want us to be helping her with melee combat, or something? I know I said I wasn't going to be of much help, but-"
"Oh, yeah! That's right!" exclaims Ram, surprised at her own forgetfulness. "She got distracted trying to do all of this stuff because she saw you do it!"
"What?! Don't blame me for that! We all got distracted; you should've said something before I went ahead and did that!" she fires back.
"Hey, I don't think there's anything wrong in training whatever she likes," comments Nepgear while observing Blanc.
"I don't know…" doubts Rom. "I kinda like how we do all the magic stuff while Blanc does physical damage. And, she does a good job of keeping enemies away from us too."
"I understand what you're saying. No one was better at enduring attacks than Blanc, but I think it'd be cool for her to use more magic than before. Besides, if we run into someone who's good at resisting magic, you still have all of us to help out!"
"Hm…" Rom was thinking more in terms of just her and her sisters. She wouldn't say it out loud, but while the Candidates are always a good team that sticks together, they're not as inseparable as the family of Lowee's goddesses.
"Besides, isn't C-sha always hanging out with you? She's really good with melee combat, too," argues Uni.
At first, her stubbornness urges Ram to argue with something that she knows she can't. Then, her face suddenly lights up after remembering something and avowedly admits, "You know what? I agree. We should let her use whatever she wants. It's what she would've wanted."
"Huh?" Whatever caused her to change her mind, Uni and Nepgear are left wondering what it was, being unable to see what it is from her vague reasoning.
"...Right!" Rom quickly syncs herself to Ram's wavelength, nodding with reassurance.
In the middle of their conversation, another stream of icicle bullets zoom past their legs, getting particularly close to Uni, who stumbles out of the way. "Wh-woah!"
They all watch as Blanc's attack precisely strikes the disc on top of the pile closest to Uni. Instead of just shattering upon contact, however, the leading icicle sinks in. In the next instant, it glows brightly, then the one behind does the same, then the one behind that, creating a bright chain reaction. The blueish sparkling light quickly races backwards, leaving behind a thin but sturdy bar of ice going from the disc to Blanc's hand.
The Candidates all turn their attention to the other end of the rod. Wearing a proud grin, she quickly yanks the bar, and the disc flies right at her while snapping itself off of the pole. Then, she lines up a punch, and, as it's about to hit her in the face, she strikes it right in the center, launching it far out of her sight. Finally, she exhales deeply, triumphantly satisfied by the success of her own spontaneity in spellcasting.
"Hey, that was pretty cool!" cheers Nepgear, waving to get her attention.
Any confidence she had poofs away when she notices everyone looking at her. "Um, thanks." That wasn't sarcastic, right?
"You're certainly not afraid to try new things, I'll give you that," remarks Uni while Blanc reconvenes with them. "One thing though: you didn't seem that bothered by punching something so hard."
"...Oh, yeah." She has to check her hands again. Only now are her knuckles starting to feel a little sore, but it still hurts less than when she was using her hammer.
"I don't think many people can just do that without breaking a sweat, too. If you can do that, then you shouldn't have any problems with your hammer, as long as you practice using it in lots of different ways enough times."
"Yeah? It still sounds like you're jelly when you say it like that," Ram teases again. She doesn't even disagree with Uni; it really is just for the sake of teasing.
"Knock it off! I'm not jealous!" she shouts back, quickly losing her calm again. "Look, what I'm trying to say is that I've never seen anyone train like this! Noire and I definitely don't work this way, which means I still barely have any idea how I can help. I've been just mostly following what you two want to do, but, from the looks of it, you also don't know what we should do, either."
"Hey, yeah we do!" Ram quickly retaliates before taking it back to think about it. "We can…uh…"
"Yeah, it's kind of hard to know what to teach her," admits Rom. "But at least it was fun, right?"
As Rom looks up to Blanc with an adoring smile, she reciprocates the sentiment. "...Yeah. I'm glad you brought me here."
"Yeah! It was fun for me, too!" adds Nepgear.
When Rom looks at Uni next, she comments, "I mean, it was pretty interesting to see Blanc like this."
"Maybe-"
She cuts off Ram, adding, "Yes, I had fun hanging out with everyone. A-anyways, we really should ask Mina for advice on how to help Blanc out."
"Where is Mina?" questions Rom. "She said she'd join us, right?"
"That's right, but is she still in a meeting?" Nepgear wonders next.
"It's been too long, though! And-" A very faint grumbling draws everyone's attention. "...I'm hungry," Ram simply states.
"We could break for lunch," suggests Uni, looking at her phone for the time. "Just make sure to let Mina know where we are."
Blanc is looking forward to some food as well. "What should we eat?"
"Well, we're all here, so that means we have to go out," says Ram as if it was obvious.
"Go out…?" Rom looks up in recallment.
Blanc tilts her head. "Hm? Is something wrong?"
"...Ram, we have to turn in something in the Guild Hall, right? Maybe we should do that first."
"Really?" It takes her a few seconds to remember before groaning. "Ugh. Let's just do that later."
"Oh, you have something to do there, too?" asks Nepgear. "I sorta came here because I also had to go there to turn in a quest. We can go there together!"
"Aww, but…Are you sure we can't do it later? I'm not getting any less hungry."
Uni, her hand on her chin, proposes, "Well, if we're going to a restaurant without a reservation, we're going to have to wait for a bit before a table opens up. That means there's time for you to do whatever you all need to do while Blanc and I wait for a table. If we just order something, then that'll also take some time."
"Either way, it'll still be a while before we can eat, so we might as well drop by the Guild while we wait," clarifies Nepgear.
Ram reluctantly nods. "Fine, okay."
"...But still, where should we go for lunch?"
No one answers Blanc for a moment, with most of them looking at the two girls here that should be the most knowledgeable of Lowee's restaurants.
"...How about you two choose for us?" Rom suggests with an earnest smile. "You can text us later once you decide."
"Shouldn't you be the ones leading the decision? It's your country, after all," points out Uni.
"Usually we just eat wherever C-sha takes us to," explains Ram.
"Wouldn't that mean she took you two to a lot of Lowee's restaurants?" asks Nepgear with slight disbelief.
"Well, yeah, but…" That's certainly correct; perhaps too many restaurants to choose from. "...How about we just go to Loweenie Hu-"
"Alright, alright, I'll just…pick one at random, or whichever one looks the most appealing," relents Uni, shaking her head.
"Great! So we agreed on everything?" When she doesn't instantly hear anything, she runs off into town, not waiting for Nepgear to follow. "Let's get this done ASAP!"
Rom immediately closely trails behind her sister. "I'm pretty hungry too…"
Finally, Nepgear is a bit more careful when she takes off. "Hey, wait up! We might trip!"
Once they're out of earshot, Uni mutters to herself, "I definitely am not in the mood for any fast food, but at least we avoided spending hours on deciding on what to eat. That always seems to happen between me and Noire…"
Blanc leans a bit towards Uni in an attempt to better hear her. "Hm?"
Did she hear her? "E-er, let's go."
not too much to write here
blanc exploring more combat ideas in this state seemed like a fun idea, hopefully
so uh svs still looks pretty fun and im looking forward to it
and uh i already wrote some of the next chapter
will take less time than this one
until then cya
"So, is that everything you wanted to discuss?"
"Everything that does not require her to be here," Mina answers Noire as they stand next to the front door. "I apologize if I am keeping you waiting for too long. She really must have arrived by now…"
"It's alright, I definitely got used to it by now. Though, even this is a little too late for her…"
"Ah, there you are. I've been looking for you two for a while now."
Both of them look towards the source of the voice, finding the familiar Leanbox CPU waving at them with an obliviously pleasant mood from up the stairs. "You're late, Lady Vert," affirms Mina.
"I apologize for my tardiness. When I arrived, I didn't see anyone at the front, so I've been walking around for a while, trying to find you two," she humbly explains while walking down.
"That is also something we were wondering: how did you get here? Did you fly in?" asks Mina.
"No. Otherwise, we would've been able to hear her land and disengage HDD," assures Noire. "Did you come in from the back entrance? Why?"
"Oh, no. Well, in a sense, one can think of the tunnel as a back entrance. I was just finishing up a match, you see, so the tunnel was the quickest way here."
That one word throws both of them for a loop, unable to even decide what to ask first. "Tunnel…? What…tunnel?" Mina can only utter with wide eyes.
She tilts her head. "You don't know about the tunnel that connects Lowee and Leanbox's Basilicoms? Well, I suppose it really wasn't completed until after you left."
"There's no way in hell that Blanc actually agreed to have something like that!" accuses Noire.
"It is true that Blanc did not agree or was aware of it…" Before anyone can start flaming her even more she elaborates, "But…It's actually quite a funny story! It all started when my friend, Mojang, was doing some underground exploration work in Leanbox a few months ago. She happened to stumble across an old, man-made tunnel heading north. While bare-bones, it must have been some sort of…enchantment. It was oddly comfortable enough for a goddess to fly through, unimpeded, and I noticed I was able to fly considerably faster than above ground. It's almost like an express subway for CPUs, in a way."
"And you promise that it was not you who made this tunnel?" interrogates Mina, still very much in disbelief.
She nods, still void of any guilt. "I wholeheartedly assure you, I have never seen this tunnel until she reached out to me about it. Anyways, one end of the tunnel was from just near my Basilicom, and it was heading towards just a little east of Lowee's Basilicom. There was a lot of rubble blocking us from going any farther a little north from here, but, while seeing if she could get around it, she did some digging around and managed to resurface right in Blanc's bedroom. Kind of funny, isn't it?"
"...And you didn't bother telling Blanc or anyone else about it because…" That's perhaps the shadiest part about this for Noire. "And don't say that the topic never came up! That's a lame excuse Neptune would say."
"...Alright, I won't," she replies while shrugging, earning a frustrated groan from her.
"I swear, what is wrong with…"
"This is still a breach of privacy. Did you really think that it is fine to have some crude tunnel to infiltrate another country's Basilicom?" scolds Mina.
"It's fine, isn't it? We're all friends; we aren't going to commit some sort of act of assassination or espionage."
Sighing heavily, Mina tries to scrutinize her alibi for anything else wrong. Disregarding all of her..nonsensical but still seemingly innocent antics, which is almost all of it, there's nothing she'd like to press further at the moment. "Just…Then, at the very least, could you please give me a map of the tunnel?"
"Of course." Vert pulls out her phone and, after swiping around for a bit, she shows a map of the tunnel as it spans across Gamindustri. "I'll send you the file later, but this is what it looks like."
Through the continent, a thin, completely straight line is drawn from Leanbox right to the east of Lowee. Ignoring the few branching paths at Lowee's end, it looks like the tunnel stops just short at the mainland from reaching some island northeast of the Basilicom. It's this innocuous detail that piques Mina's interest, becoming less scornful of her odd behavior. "And you are sure that this map is accurate?"
"Absolutely. Mojang also happens to be an excellent cartographer."
"I see." There's probably no point in trying to scold her further, given she still isn't feeling any remorse for her actions. "I suppose we have spent enough time on the ramifications of this…discovery, though this tunnel is potentially relevant to why I requested your presence. As with Lady Noire, I am interested in any artifacts or historical documents about Lowee's old Basilicom or your interactions with their staff that you may have."
"I'm just sayin', she's probably going to have less than what little I had to offer," adds Noire before muttering, "I also don't see why this couldn't have been a video call…"
"Hmm, not what I had expected." She thinks it over, trying to recall memories from long ago. "I would believe it's very unlikely that we have nothing about Lowee in our libraries, but I cannot recall any specifics. Funnily enough, I think my dear Chika would know more," she answers with a soft chuckle. "Anyways, what do you need them for?"
"Simply for completing our archival database, as well as that some of our museums have been lacking some information they would like. Unfortunately, the majority of primary sources from a specific era of Lowee's history have been deemed lost, so we would appreciate any help you two could offer."
"Ah, I see…" A rather admirable cause she can support. "I suppose that while we're here, we could answer any questions you have for us, no?"
"I was hoping for that, too. I already asked Lady Noire some questions, but there have been some questions I would love to ask you."
"Splendid! Let's not wait any further, then."