Chapter 189 - Eager Return
If there was such a thing as breathing new life into something, then what was happening nowadays was a perfect example of that.
Standing atop one of the buildings of the city housing the Lowee resistance, arms pocketed inside his coat, one red-haired spec ops agent allowed himself a moment of reprieve as he overlooked the city in classic edgelord style… Well, save for the fact that he wasn't alone at the moment. The fact was, that he had his Archdemon Urthemiel behind him in its version of the seiza position, its Tail swaying calmly as it looked out into the city as well. Winds blew by them which generated a fluttering of the redhead's coat while a similar phenomenon could be seen on Urthemiel's wing webbing.
Down below, they could see the Loweean populace going about their business throughout the streets, men and women of all ages walking about conducting their business as usual. One could hear the daily chatter that came from these people as some silently talked on phones, others talked amongst their friends about recent events or various trends that interested them.
Guys in casual clothing joined up with one another to go into places like pubs, restaurants and brothels, though Nico found himself pleasantly surprised that the guys went into the first two more than the third one. Maybe the red light stuff wasn't as prominent on Lowee as it was compared to Nations like Leanbox and Planeptune since he knew for a FACT that Noire likely would have shut such a thing down FAST in her country. Some guys could be seen even doing some studying over at cafes that had outdoor sections.
Females in long robes with books to indicate their student status walked together and chatted like classical females, he didn't need to listen in on them to gauge what they were saying (though he could have with the gene-seed implants he had like the one affecting his hearing) because he could tell from their girly mannerisms it was likely stuff that guys would never understand about the female creature.
These things created a kind of semi normality for the city which after everything that had happened was something that is sorely needed.
There were even some interesting additions to the populace that had taken place, but more on that later.
What was more interesting, however, was the fact that there weren't just humans throughout these streets, in fact, there were various sections they could see that was filled with a mix of humans, and the Dwarves/Elves from the Tekkadan merc group. The elves kept to themselves and only talked to the few humans who had the balls to walk up to them, interestingly a lot of them being children who had their own curiosity about them. Their parents would eventually take them away without apologising for interrupting them though, much to the elves irritation and every time this happened before his eyes Nico could only roll his eyes.
'Another batch of complaints will be coming to us shortly, I bet…'
Aside from the Elves, the Dwarves did the same as their rivals in the sense that they generally kept to themselves. However, a lot more members of the Loweean military, city guard and people in the blacksmithing industries could be seen exchanging conversations with some of them. Judging from the way their lips were moving, an alternative method instead of using his SHINGAN ring to read their thoughts, Nico found they were discussing battle tactics, war stories and historical battles that their races had taken part in. Some of them seemed more exaggerated than others, but Nico found it interesting regardless that the Dwarves seemed to be integrating better than the Elves were.
Others kept their distance, yet the overall opinion could be summarized as 'mixed' at the moment. He could sense that there was a significant amount of distrust towards his Tekkadan remaining within the Lowee Citizens as well as disgust, hatred and other negative emotions however judging from their looks since he couldn't feel positive emotions with this ability, Nico could guess that there was also curiosity, intrigue and gratitude with some humans even displaying it more openly than their brethren. Those people seemed to be on the military side of things though, which made sense considering what had been going on.
'So far, so good…' Nico thought to himself, humming a bit while wetting his lips with his tongue. Behind him, his invisible Rinkaku popped out 2 Tentacles that had formed their claw tips and were currently making various hand signs that indicated his current mood. Though since they remained cloaked this wouldn't be seen by anyone. 'Looks like what Lady White Heart intended is off to a decent if shaky, start…'
It had only been a week since the Party of Spec Ops Agents had returned to the Resistance HQ after taking down the barrier isolating Lowee from the rest of the Nations. The group had decidedly disbanded once they were congratulated for their job well done with their pays being put into their respective accounts, to which each of them may not have said anything about it but the atmosphere between them had made it obvious: each of them had impacted one another with their work methods, thus would be remembering one another for future battles.
From what he had heard, each of them was now doing their own thing with Mihawk, Katakuri and Arima returning to their respective posts across Lowee and evening out the playing fields in response to the shifts in the balance between the defenders and the monster attacks. Apparently, in their absence, the number of attacks against the resistance controlled territories had increased significantly which had prompted them to quickly even things out while reorganizing their respective defence forces to allow the weariest or injured forces to recover. Further investigation by Nico himself had revealed that they had been tasked with maintaining these territories by Lady White Heart since they were meant to be capable enough to handle many different tasks thrown at them, and there was a lack of capable leaders in the resistance thanks to Lowee's fall killing off the majority of them.
Speaking of Lowee's fall…
'Now THAT was an unexpected spectacle, eh guys?' The male questioned his various alternate personas, chuckling to himself at the memories circulating through his mind. These memories were of the moment that they had handed their Captive Rimuto over to Theta and the resistance authorities, said captive having been silent and cooperative during the journey back. The moment they had done so whilst explaining his connection to the mission, Nico swore that the flames of malice had been lit up in White Heart's eyes and she would have turned into a certain green rage monster to smash that bastard to a pulp. Her rage had been so great that Nico swore that his emotion-sensing powers would have been overwhelmed by it, if he were to try to describe it then it had been like looking into the centre of a pool of lava.
'HAHAHAHAHA, BITCH NEARLY BLEW A GASKET! OH THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN HILARIOUS IF SHE DID, SHE LOOKED SO RED WHEN WE EXPLAINED THINGS TO HER. BITCH MUST HAVE WANTED TO TAKE A FEW CROTCH SHOTS AT THE BASTARD.'
'Agreed. Her rage had been quite unexpected, even for myself… It was almost impressive if you ask me, I had heard that she had a temper on her from the rumours we heard about her, but the real thing was much more interesting. She could have been better as a DPU than a CPU with such a thing, maybe even a disciple of Sparda if she could channel such rage properly into her battle techniques.'
For BOTH his personas to remark on their approval of her rage was one thing that was rare to happen, hence it raised Nico's opinion of her by a significant margin. There were few things that they could all agree on after all, and if things had been different then perhaps White Heart might have gone HDD and ripped the guy apart herself which he would have not minded seeing. Heck, he bet that his companions would have liked to see it too, his Spec Ops Companions not the girls as he could imagine that Compa wouldn't want to see it as much compared to others.
Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on who was asked, that didn't happen thanks to Theta and Financier doing their best to calm White Heart's rage enough to convince her of the bigger picture. Nico recalled how disappointed Byakko had been at the verdict since he had been in a sulk about it for the following days. It had only been through a combination of trapping him in Erebus's domain and recording the following events to show to Ouranos that managed to snap him out of it… though he had then spent a whole day worth of outside world time (meaning in the inner world more than 24 hours) hunting Nico and Biko down like they were small rabbits in vengeance.
Though thinking about it, back then Nico also internally suspected that there was another reason why White Heart had relented but didn't comment on it.
In the end, a trial had been declared for Rimuto's crimes against the Nation to be held in the following weeks. Nico honestly had no clue how it would proceed due to never really having attended such things before, but since he had been required to attend due to his participation in the mission, the redhead hoped that the trial would end in the bastard's execution. It wasn't like he had many families left after all, as apparently some research into him found that he had a divorced wife who wanted nothing to do with him and no children.
'Though, I'll be the first to admit that under that temper of hers, that Lady White Heart has some bold plans in that noggin of hers.' Nico remarked internally while gazing down at the citizens, focusing on the areas occupied by a mix of both them and the Tekkadan. Several murmurs of approval came from his alternate personas on said issue.
After calming down once Rimuto had been tossed into a dungeon cell deep beneath the HQ, White Heart had given them the usual congratulations speech before sending the Agents back on their ways. However, she had requested for Nico to remain behind to his confusion, only for that confusion to vanish when she had explained a plan that she and her fellow CPUs had concocted while he and the others had been off on their assignment.
Apparently, they had decided to try to start building up trust between Abnormals and humans by having them live together, deepening relations between one another to make it less awkward when they inevitably fight together against the invaders. This had actually been Noire and Neptune's idea initially, and they had gotten the rest of the group in on the idea as well with White Heart, Theta and Financier being the last ones to know of it. To say that the male had been stunned at the fact that NOIRE of all people had proposed something like this instead of just Neptune on her own would have been an understatement since she was a lot more on the calm, collected side than the bubbly preteen.
However, there was indeed a purpose behind this and thinking on it allowed him to see some sense behind the intentions Noire had. According to her, she believed that with the number of Loweeans left in the remaining territories there wasn't any chance of them mounting anything larger than a small raiding party like the one Theta had launched to help them get out of that trap. This made sense considering how when they had dispatched him and the other Spec Ops members the number of attacks on their territories had gone through the roof, meaning that Lowee's dire straits made it impossible for them to be picky about their prospects regarding allies. To eventually free Lowee from this situation, humans AND Abnormals needed to fight together as their lives depended on it… which was the case actually.
Of course, Nico had voiced some concerns about this, knowing that there was 500 years worth of bad blood between humans and Abnormals, that type of animosity wouldn't be going away so easily especially when one considered just how stubborn humans were were were and the Abnormals can be. Nico could attest to this with certain Abnormals coming to mind like the Ice Elves, the Dwarves not so much since much of their prior mentality had been smashed when they'd been captured by the Thousand Sons. There would be those who would try to aggravate and provoke the Abnormals into fighting them and ruining their still fragile reputation in humanity's eyes if this plan were to be initiated, and his worries weren't unfounded.
However, the counterargument launched by Lady White Heart was that there were few other options available to the Loweean people. Lowe's 'fall' really hit the nation HARD from what White Heart had admitted, with much of their culture, history and resources were stolen from them by the Youma and Demons while what remained of the resistance was struggling just to keep a hold of what's left. What they had been able to salvage during their escape into hiding had been hard enough to support them for more than a few years at best, a few months at worst, even grimmer was the lack of talented people remaining after the whole thing.
One could hardly call them a resistance at all at this point, more like a civilisation on life support called Abnormal support.
They COULD ask for reinforcements from the other Nations to bolster the military, however, the problem with that was that every Nation had its own problems to deal with. Leanbox didn't need any explanation, Lastation still had to contend with the Abnormal Dungeons which had its military stretched thin enough as it were (White Heart didn't need to comment on its civil war between Noire and Avenir either), and Planeptune's resources were inaccessible since Neptune's identity hadn't been revealed to them yet and thus they wouldn't accept any request from the other Nations. Plus it wasn't like Lowee was in any position to offer anything in return either, worsening things on their end.
Division, the ultimate enemy in politics.
'Some silver lining did happen since it definitely boosted my Tekkadan's collective ego when I explained the situation to them…' Nico remarked again, sweat dropping when he recalled the looks of amusement from his fellow Tekkadan members.
Briefly, he glanced down to the rooftop beneath his boots when he felt Urthemiel's tail graze his left one slightly when it curled in front of them both. His gaze then got taken by the sight of an old woman nearly falling over when some teenagers bumped shoulders with her, only for one of his Elven subordinates to catch her. Things looked like they would have escalated from there, but fortunately one of the teenagers had a bit more brain than his buddies and quickly defused the situation, though there had been audible fear in their eyes when gazing at the 'ruthless monsters' before leaving.
As he'd anticipated, many of them had not been too on board with the idea of further coexisting with the whole remnants of Lowee's people on a more permanent basis. Before they could have tolerated them since they would have been leaving on another assignment at any time, sating their bloodlust and desire for revenge for their lost loved ones. Now, the thought of living alongside the humans who hated and hunted them for so long did not sit well with them.
However, the reaction hadn't been as bad as what Nico had initially expected to be frank the reasoning being that the majority of the complaints came from the senior ranks who remembered such times before Lowee's fall. Those people may have been a minority in the group, but they had the most vocal opinions about this plan, whilst the 'younger ones who weren't as privy to it this beyond the stories taught by their elders and had more memories of being enslaved by the Thousand Sons didn't have as much aggravation towards it interestingly enough.
In the end, they had been reluctantly willing to cooperate once the facts had been laid down before them with the elders reluctantly admitting that they could see the logic behind the move, plus there was the possibility that the Demons may have more tricks up their sleeves which was likely the case, considering they're talking about the Changer of Ways here. Currently, the Youma has been the biggest problem but thanks to their factory's destruction that problem would be easier to deal with, but the Demons? They were in a whole different league of trouble with there being calls from some in the upper Tekkadan ranks to hold a conference to discuss what advantages and disadvantages there were when dealing with them. Nobody wanted to even THINK of what it would be like to confront the Thousand Sons just yet, who strangely enough Nico had noticed hadn't been playing too much of a role in the grand scheme of things. It made him suspicious as to what they're doing.
Essentially the entire bigger picture could be summarized with the following expression: out of the frying pan and into the fire.
One thing that DID catch the Tekkadan's attention was when their leader had said that Lady White Heart had decreed she'd be paying them regular visits herself to see how they would be getting on. When one of the opposing people had asked the purpose for this, Nico had explained that it was for several reasons: PR to better showcase that they were capable allies that deserved to be respected and that she wanted to see the ones keeping her people safe for herself. Something which he had heard straight from White Heart's mouth, and the reaction had been one of stunned disbelief amidst caution.
Thus, here they were.
(EVERYTHING SEEMS TO BE STARTING WELL, FATHER. THE YOUNG HAVE BEEN SIGNIFICANTLY WEAKENED BY THE LACK OF THEIR PRODUCTION FACILITY. AS OF MY LAST SCOUTING FLIGHT, THEIR NUMBERS HAVE BEGUN SHARPLY DECREASING FROM OUR VARIOUS RAIDS.)
Urthemiel declared this within Nico's mind, the male nodding in acknowledgement while raising his head to the skies above. Despite being freed from the barrier, Lowee was still mostly dominated by the Chaos God Tzeentch and his Thousand Sons Legion, meaning that the skies were still the same and the land remained corrupted by said Chaos God. Retaking Lowee will be very much an uphill battle, it would seem, though neither he nor White Heart or anyone with a brain would expect anything less.
Speaking of battle, what Urthemiel said referred to however since they had returned from their quest with the other Agents, Nico had been having the Archdemon perform flights across the majority of the continent to check on the number of Youma to be purged from it. Of course, the Archdemon had the express order to avoid areas that were considered too dangerous for it, as even though he could take on World Class Demons on a similar footing neither of them were foolish enough to think the other invincible. Their time under Zelretch had taught them that lesson well, ESPECIALLY his Archdemon.
'That's good. Once everyone has settled in and gotten used to the new arrangements, we should start planning out our future raids against the other Youma. Since we now have a proper 'base' instead of constantly moving like an ancient tribe, there should be some benefits we can delve into here, new opportunities too. As for our old stomping grounds, we can still use them but in different ways depending on their circumstances…' The redhead mused, plans circulating through his mind about the future. Plans he'd be deliberating with his fellow Tekkadan members to keep them in the know, fostering trust and building camaraderie between them, at least that was what Nico hoped.
'BAH, WHO NEEDS ALL THIS SHITTY TACT STUFF? THOSE BITCHES'LL FOLLOW US TO HELL ON OUR ORDERS, KING! THEY OWE US FOR LEADING THEM THE WAY WE HAVE. THEY SHOULD BE GRATEFUL TO US FOR STILL BEING ON THIS PIECE OF FRAGMENTED ROCK!'
'Have you learnt nothing from our experience in leadership, you low IQ Berserker? We may have been elected as leader of the Tekkadan, but it was mostly because they didn't have many other promising prospects. I doubt that they would have let us be the leader otherwise.'
'Yeah, that's definitely true…' Nico mused, his mood souring a little while his eyes darkened. A mild aura of bloodlust began to radiate from his shoulders that he soon suppressed out of concern for it affecting the surroundings negatively, briefly noting how his coat fluttered before settling down.
What Biko had said wasn't wrong at least in his eyes, in fact, he agreed with him on some level, Nico didn't see himself as a leader no matter how hard he tried, he just did so anyways because A: he had been forced into the role and B, he'd done it out of a desire to not let what happened with the Nature Elves repeat itself.
Even Byakko had a point weirdly, while he didn't agree with his Ghoul Persona on the first set of statements, Nico did internally admit that it was because of himself that those two races were still alive at this point. At least in a general sense, since there were considerable losses along the way.
Shaking his head to clear such thoughts from his mind, Nico looked out and wondered what he could do for the day. He had done what he needed to do at the Tekkadan and the rest could be sorted out by the other higher-ups, and he didn't feel like doing much training, his body wanted to take a break from that stuff.
Understandable, he DID just return from a long-term quest.
It wasn't like he had any more Quests on the agenda today since a lot of them had been fulfilled while he had been away by the rest of his party apparently, according to gossip he'd overheard. 'Those girls have been doing well, from what I've been hearing…' Nico remarked internally with a small soft smile, fondness shining in his eyes at the thought of Neptune and the others.
With little else to do for the day, Nico proceeded to hop off the rooftop and land on the street below, mentally sending a message to his Archdemon to head back to the Tekkadan to continue their scouting operations. Hence why Urthemiel unfurled his wings and took to the skies above, flying off overhead while the redhead proceeded to head on down the streets.
Without much of a direction or purpose in mind which was quite a rarity in recent times, Nico just wandered about while taking in the sights. 'Hmmm…' the male mused while briefly coming across a bunch of people gathered around a small fire on top of a barrel for warmth, while also reading a bunch of books to one another. 'I remember when Lowee was known for its vast libraries and large book collections, some written and published in Lowee itself while others were… liberated, from other Nations.' he mused internally since the books made him think back to the days before Lowee's fall. He didn't go and talk to the people since, as the Tekkadan leader he likely wasn't very popular, a fact reinforced by some rumours and gossip he'd overheard from the populace bashing him alongside his subordinates' deeds.
As he walked away, he briefly heard the name 'Seraphim' being uttered by one of the people which led to a bunch of positive-sounding remarks. 'Seraphim…?' the male mused mentally before deciding to investigate. He did so by probing their thoughts using his SHINGAN ring as well as felt out their emotional status, to which he found himself presented with a bunch of clues to this seraphim's identity that gave him just enough to theorize on who it could be.
RING-RING-RING-RING!
Before he could decide whether to pursue this rumour further by hanging around till the people had finished talking about that name then go off to research it further himself, Nico's ears twitched when he heard his Bracer's phone function going off. "Wha-oh, someone's trying to call me… phew, almost had a heart attack there…" The male mused after nearly feeling his heart abruptly leave his chest, having practically jumped at the unexpected occurrence. One silver lining was that there wasn't anyone next to him who he knew were mischievous otherwise they would have held that over him for the rest of time.
'Note to self: never tell this to Neptune under any circumstance.' Nico mused, shoving this into his internal 'do not tell prankster Neptune folder within his memory while raising his right forearm to roll his coat sleeve back, allowing him to manipulate his Bracer's screen to allow the call to connect. Briefly, he noted the number and that it came through a specific channel, which indicated to him just who would be calling him on this said frequency since there was only one person who had access to it. "Mom?"
"Hello sweetie! How's my little boy over in that tundra of a nation that dares keep mamma Dawson away?"
The moment that he answered, a shrill shriek of delight came from the other end with more emotion conveyed from it than the words used could ever hope to match. It actually threw Nico off his game for a moment until he realized something he hadn't considered previously: that thanks to the lack of communication, his mother wouldn't have been able to call on him for anything. That revelation gave rise to a horrible feeling of guilt in his chest, she must have been worried SICK all this time.
No wonder why she greeted him so cheerily.
"Hey mom, it's good to hear your voice in all honesty." He said and boy did he mean it. The last time he recalled talking to his mother was probably shortly after his return from Zelretch's realm… holy hell, had it been that long? "But man, have I got a lot to talk to YOU about." That probably seemed like one of the biggest understatements of the century for him, ESPECIALLY certain developments that her call now reminded him of that caused Nico to start sweating slightly.
On the other end, a giddy Helen giggled happily, knowing that her son indeed had a lot to say judging by the exhausted sounding tone of voice he had. Plus, there was her mother's intuition telling her this as well.
What followed was a rather tense situation on Nico's part, because a lot of the things he'd done his mother likely wouldn't approve of. After all, despite her ideals, she was STILL a former Spec Ops Agent and someone with a lot more experience fighting Abnormals than he, hence she likely wouldn't be as flexible… but on the other hand, since HE was sort of abnormal himself same with Neptune and the girls, maybe this wouldn't be so bad.
Before he got to those things, Nico had given her the rundown on his training and progression towards regaining his memories, of which he wasn't as far as he'd like but the signs were starting to show themselves. Most of his training had revolved more about improving his existing arsenal instead of gaining new ones, his reasoning being to better understand what he could do with his newly accepted status as a demonic god/Ghoul hybrid. He even mentioned his Archdevil Arm count increasing in number alongside his intent to continue with his progression.
All this had been received quite well with his mother complimenting him on such choices, admitting that the situation over in Lowee hadn't been all that good from what she'd heard hence why knowing her son was getting stronger would be seen as a good thing in her eyes. Something she found reinforced when Nico had informed her of the general state the Nation had been reduced to with her likely being stunned with disbelief when he'd told her of Lowee's fall and how it had come to be.
In the end, Helen seemed dumbstruck with the following words escaping her lips in a rather unladylike manner. "...Holy shit, things really are bad over there."
"You bet mom, it's even affecting the Abnormals here too," Nico replied, mentally gulping as he prepared to slowly inch towards something that he felt nervous about admitting. Still, he was no pushover so he continued knowing that the mention of Abnormals got his mother's attention. "Turns out that the Chaos taint affects them as well since the Abnormal population here have shown various mutations and new forms have been discovered. When we landed here, we came under threat from a bunch of massive Abnormals that we were able to repel, only to discover everything now looking more demonic than ever before. If the whole of the world taught us to demonize Abnormals before, this will only reinforce it." he explained, remembering some of the sights he and the Party had seen during their initial travels throughout the Land of White Serenity.
Though if he were honest, Nico wasn't sure he can still call this place that.
On her end, Helen cursed under her breath and he could hear the sounds of shuffling which told Nico she was likely in her office working when she had called him. "Tch sounds like things need to get moving faster than I expected. If Leanbox wasn't enough, Lowee's cataclysmic state will be the cincher to convince the Planeptune Government to haul ass." She remarked with a scathing tone, something which Nico did not like the implications of.
Regardless, he had to query about that. "Lemme guess, things up top in Planeptune aren't going too well? Honestly, I haven't been keeping up with recent Planeptune politics...:" he questioned, arching a brow.
"Oh, where do I even start? Well, it's not as bad as Lastation but most of the political stuff has been shelved since the Government made one good decision these days: till their CPU returns, they're acting as though their nation needs to be preserved like an endangered species. They'd mostly been keeping to themselves as an isolated country, so it's basically like everyone has been quarantined or something." Helen explained, sighing afterwards with Nico imagining her leaving forward on her table while rubbing her forehead to soothe some kind of headache or something.
He didn't immediately grasp why though since what she had said sounded quite effective in dealing with this stuff. Nico initially furrowed his brow in contemplation, before he remembered a bunch of things that QUICKLY changed his tune and caused him to scowl on his side of things. "So, they're stagnating huh? That's not good…" he muttered.
There wasn't much going on within Planeptune and while that sounded good, that was actually a really bad thing. A major problem for multiple reasons, one of them being that they likely haven't placed any real countermeasures in place when a national emergency would inevitably arise. He recalled what they had seen back in the Planeptune Basilicom so long ago with that rather creepy priest, and Nico had to shudder in dread. Their lack of action and stagnation made the Nation seem OPPOSITE to their moniker: the land of purple progress.
And given that the other Nations already had 3 Chaos Gods that were paying them a visit, that left only the fourth and arguably one of the WORST of them all for Planeptune: Nurgle, god of disease, decay, despair, death and destruction.
Before he could continue such thoughts Helen noted something that internally made Nico tense up with his form becoming rigid in demeanour. "You mentioned the impact on Abnormals before son, what got you so invested in them? Nothing like this was included in previous reports…"
… This was it, no turning back now. Things could either be damaged slightly or could fall apart fast depending on this next bit of information Nico felt, doing his best to speak clearly without showing signs of his nervousness. "Well, you see there have been a few developments regarding my opinion of Abnormals, opinions which many may frown upon. Now, where to even begin…"
Taking a small pause, Nico began to talk about the Tekkadan of which he had been the founder and leader, explaining what it was and how it had been contributing largely to Lowee's survival over the last few weeks. He had explained about the Nature Elves and their unfortunate fate, which had been the influence he had when freeing the first members of his future merc group from the Thousand Sons. He told her everything, not hiding anything from her and being open about his opinion, especially since with all the years of working with her professionally, Nico had concluded that Helen despised it when secrets were kept from her.
Once he finished explaining which had taken a good 10 minutes, Nico fell silent as he awaited her response, his chest tight like he were someone hanging from a noose. The redhead didn't want to entertain even the THOUGHT of her being disappointed in him, he didn't know what he'd do in that case.
"...That's all?"
"Huh? What do you mean, mom?"
"Was that what you seemed to be reluctant to share with me before?"
Blinking owlishly when hearing that short exchange, Nico would have made another query as to what she had meant by those words but stopped when he realized that she must have figured out from his previous remarks (somehow, maybe it was an experience thing) that he'd been nervous about something. However, Nico could hardly detect any kind of malice or any kind of negative emotion in her tone, he couldn't sense her emotions from across this amount of distance. "Uhhhhh… you're not wrong," he admitted slowly, confusion rising from within. "I kind of feared that with you being more experienced than me with fighting Abnormals you would be against the idea of me being the leader of some."
"Which would also make me a bit of a hypocrite, wouldn't it Nicky-Nick?" Helen countered, and when Nico tried to respond to that he closed his mouth at the last second.
Now that she mentioned it that made sense, since it WOULD be hypocritical of her to hate them when she herself had a son who was half Ghoul and half Demon, not to mention her son favoured various non-human entities and even saw a lot of them as love interests.
"I've known for a while now that you'd never be comfortable around purely human associates, years in fact. You've always been in your element either when fighting monsters, dispatching the scum of Gamindustri, etc. Those girls? They're all the proof I need, plus if YOU are the one leading them then that's great. I'd rather it be you than someone who wants to destroy the world." Helen admitted, chuckling sheepishly. Though moments later her tone turned serious with the following words leaving her mouth. "But for you to actually try to be a leader of Abnormals… man, that just further cements the twisted fuckup of a situation over there huh?"
Now, this Nico could agree with, and he readily nodded in said emotion before voicing it. "You bet, at this point, I agree with Lady White Heart: we're in this shit together whether we like it or not, this jungle's being invaded by foreign predators and we're two alpha ones trying to force them out of our turf."
His words which leaned slightly into the philosophical end, caused a small chuckle to escape his mother's lips in a way that made him imagine her playfully rolling her eyes. "Heh, someone's been getting into philosophy, I see," she commented. "Still, be careful son, even if those 'handlers' in Lowee are dead the moment the others find out what you did, there'll likely be either more assassination attempts on you or they'll try some other shit.'' She then warned him and judging by the tone she used Nico could imagine her scowling darkly at the thought of her son being harmed that way.
"Oh don't you worry about that, mom," Nico responded with a dark smirk starting to spread across his lips, his right eye starting to glow a faint red in a sign of transforming into his Kakugan. "I can handle them targeting me since they've done so for years whenever I went too far on missions. They only have to worry if they EVER try to target any close comrades of mine. THAT would definitely make me bite the hand that's been feeding me all these years." he declared strongly, almost maddingly cackling at the malicious thought swirling throughout his noggin right now.
To be frank, he didn't give a shit if the assassins targeting him thanks to his Handlers were to escalate in number. Not only was he too powerful for them to properly kill him but at tis point, it'd serve no purpose to even try anymore, what with the horrors that were closing in on their asses. The proof was how the ones in Lowee had already been slaughtered during Lowee's fall, it REALLY put a real wrench into their protocols and contingency plans for how to deal with him. Nico knew this to be true due to having become aware of these plans due to… reasons, not so legal ones but then again what was legal and what was illegal anymore? The law was merely a set of guidelines to him at this point and there are countless who skirt around it either lightly or heavily.
It only became a crime if one got caught.
But, and this was a big BUT, if those fuckers even DARED to bring Neptune and the others into this quarrel in some sort of pathetic last-ditch attempt to try and control him then heads would be rolling no matter what. None of them would be living for much longer. As long as that didn't happen, then he no longer gave a shit about whatever they did since any aggression against him was just going to be taken from where it should be focused on, meaning those idiots would be signing their own death warrants to a much more dangerous enemy.
After a short moment, Nico cleared his throat and tried to act normal like he hadn't just acted like an evil mastermind just now. Mostly because he'd noticed he'd been getting a few odd stares from a few passerby's which he didn't appreciate. "A-Anyways mom, is there anything more… business-orientated that you called me for? You don't normally call through this channel after all, given how protected it is." Nico questioned, frowning deeply while pausing in his strides.
He briefly noted that he had arrived at a circular area with a water fountain in the centre, the fountain itself having a statue of Lady White Heart pouring the water out from a large cauldron. Surrounding this place were a bunch of buildings that looked like businesses of varying sorts, making the male assure he had found himself in some kind of financial plaza or something.
"Oh, thanks for reminding me," Helen stated like someone who had just recalled they had something cooking in the oven, prompting Nico to sweatdrop. "I need you to return to Planeptune, during your little vacation away from me I was able to develop something that I want you to help test. Standard rules apply, after you finish the tests you will be allowed to keep the device in question."
Oh? Now THAT caught Nico's attention with his gaze brightening up, the thought of being able to test some new equipment filling him with a sense of giddy excitement. It had been so long since he had managed to do something akin to his usual Spec Ops work, questing notwithstanding, so there was a wave of nostalgia flowing through him right now at the thought of testing some new equipment. "Alrighty, I'll head on over immediately. You're at the Guild building, right?"
"Indeed, now get your ass over here so mommy can hug the life out of you!"
"Yes, MA'AM!"
Energetically responding to that demand with a massive grin on his lips, Nico cut the call and deactivated his Bracer. Looked like he had some stuff to do, and by god, he looked forward to being hugged by his mom once more… it'd been ages since his last one, plus he got the feeling that they'd be having some… riveting conversations that he couldn't wait to have.
After glancing around and noting the lack of people, Nico promptly switched to his DPU form before taking to the skies, rising upwards like a flaming streak before he performed a ¾ circular turn to shoot off towards Planeptune's direction.
Shooting through the Lowee airspace and out into the space between said Nation and Planeptune should have been a normal experience, or at least it shouldn't have been too big of a deal.
However, Crimson Soul had furrowed his brow when reaching the end of Loweean air space due to experiencing what could only be described as reality-warping and distorting all around him, like something was trying to prevent him from leaving the nation. Everything around him twisted in on itself like some kind of spiral with cracks seemingly spreading through the air and constant sparks of electrical energy flying through the cloud. One can't fault him for questioning what he had been seeing.
'No matter…' The transformed male thought to himself as he built up a bunch of demonic energy inside of himself which caused his body to start glowing red all over, electrical energy dancing across his multiple wings. In the following seconds, Crimson Soul released it into the atmosphere in the form of a massive wave in all directions, blasting away the phenomenon and revealing behind it the usual clear skies that Gamindustri enjoyed with a bed of clouds rolling beneath him. 'Hmph, so that's what the reality-warping powers of the Chaos Gods are like…'
'Chaos Gods in control of a Demon World can reshape it however they wish, from the land to the creatures that inhabit it. Usually, ordinary mortals who somehow wind up on said planets are either killed, devoured by Demons or get driven insane by the whacky reality-bending stuff they witness.'
That made sense, Crimson Soul remarked while flying through a small buildup of clouds, shooting through it like a bullet and leaving a massive hole in his wake. 'Be that as it may, it's a surprise that I was able to leave the landmass so easily. I would have expected some kind of resistance other than this warping phenomenon like a bunch of Demons or something, maybe even a visit from 'those two'...'
'That would probably have to do with the fact that this place isn't completely Tzeentch's just yet. Remember what Lady White Heart said about her powers nearly being taken from her? Seems that what little she has left is keeping this place from falling completely under the Changer of Ways' control. As a result, what this Chaos God can do to the landmass is more limited compared to controlling an entire planet. One could actually call that landmass a mix of normal and Demon world at this point.'
'TCH, AT LEAST THOSE PLACES ARE FUN NOT LIKE THAT BORING WIMPY ASS NATION THAT'S ALL ABOUT SO-CALLED 'PROGRESS'. MOREOVER, YOU'RE REALLY A SIMP FOR YOUR MOM AREN'T YOU, KING? STILL, SLEEP AT NIGHT KNOWING YOU PRACTICALLY WHIPPED BY HER JUST LIKE YA DUMBASS UNCLE? GUESS YA DON'T KNOW WHAT 'DOUBLE STANDARDS' ARE THESE DAYS, VISITING ONE AND NOT THE OTHER.'
If he were in his human form, Crimson Soul would have rebuked his Ghoul Persona for insulting both his mom and uncle, but thanks to his DPU mentality his indignation got crushed before it could completely rise to the surface. Furthermore, Crimson Soul sensed something behind those words which became clearer when he pondered on it some more: that Byakko was trying to get him to talk to his Uncle.
Now that he thought about it, the DPU became quick to realize that he hadn't actually talked to his uncle directly or over the phone for a while, or even in this whole story. The last time he recalled discussing something was near the time he would pay that destiny-altering visit to Compa when he'd talked to him about a recent Abnormal slaying quest he had done.
This revelation would have made his human form feel a pang of guilt if it weren't for his DPU mentality quashing it. 'You may have a point, rude one, I should contact him when I get the chance. Perhaps once I am done with whatever the mother wishes for me.' The DPU commented, cutting the link before either could reply. If there would be a time when he would be able to contact his uncle then it'd probably be after meeting with his mom since he would have more free time.
Thus, he shot forwards once more to increase his speed while heading towards Planeptune airspace.
Knowing that his transformation would likely spook the Planeptune locals, Crimson Soul had landed a couple of hundred miles off from the main capital of SEGA before returning to his human form. Once the process had finished, Nico himself promptly sped through the lands using his various movement-based abilities to cut the time shortly before arriving at the capital's gates, promptly walking through with his hands pocketed inside his coat.
While he wandered through the streets on the way to the Guild Building, the redhead male would glance around to see how the city was doing in his absence. He bore witness to various people of different appearances and genders going about their daily lives, businessmen walking together with suitcases, teenage girls with their friends walking about with shopping bags amongst others. There were some exceptions such as the random businesswoman and guys walking their children through the streets, but from what he was seeing everything looked pretty normal which had been a sobering sight compared to the look of constant worry and anxiety on their faces.
But then he looked a bit deeper by both analyzing their expressions and using his ability to sense negative emotions… to which he quickly became alarmed.
Carelessness, laziness, almost mechanical.
Those were the things that he discovered using both of these methods while he closed in on the Guild Building. Those businessmen who should be looking to get their jobs done were just going to some fast food joint and they didn't seem very enthusiastic like Planeptune's people were known to be. Those teenage girls may have looked like they were having fun, but a dive into their emotions showed the exact opposite and they were simply faking their cheerfulness. Similar things could be seen throughout the populace which all boiled down to a simple mass of uncaring laziness and lack of desire to innovate. What the hell was going on over here?
'This is… what the hell is this? Was this what mom was so rattled about?' Nico wondered with shocked, wide eyes at the sheer lack of LIFE he was seeing from these people. Heck the closer he got to the Guild Building additional signs that there was something horribly wrong became apparent. 'Everyone just feels like they're just existing, not actually doing anything or if they are, they aren't very enthusiastic about it.' He could only imagine how Neptune would take this or even Noire considering their one-sided rivalry.
'This is worrying, in multiple ways. For a land known for its progression in development and everything it does while enjoying life, the people seem to have lost their spirit. This stuff wreaks of someone who would follow Nurgle, the plague God. Could demonic incursions have already begun?'
'Not sure, but from what I have seen there haven't been any demonic sightings on Planeptune soil and I bet that mom would have told me if there were. Heck if there were then there'd be a lot more news about it.' Nico replied to his Demon persona, scowling at the sights around him while wondering if this was a sign of things to come. He would have to ask his mother what's been going on here because this seemed quite serious.
A while later he had made it to the Guild Building and into the Spec Ops section, travelling up to his mother's office.
Approaching his mother's door, Nico promptly reached out with his senses to check for any signs of hostility on the other side, just like when he'd brought his comrades to meet his mother back in Planeptune. Fortunately for him, none told him that his mother likely wasn't too pissed off with any company if she had any hence why he casually opened the door to step inside, closing it behind him.
Afterwards, Nico looked to the desk and bore witness to the sight of Helen at her desk with a bunch of document piles and a plastic package in front of her. She looked to be hard at work with a furrowed brow and a deep frown on her lipstick-clad lips with the sounds of scribbling resonating throughout the room from her pen. Internally he had to whistle at the sight, he could imagine her wrists being achy as hell by the time night took over.
"Hey mom, you called for me-"
GLOMP!
From the moment he started speaking Helen had sharply raised her head with a look similar to a deer caught in a headlight. In the following seconds, Nico lost almost all oxygen in his lungs when a bullet known as his mother slammed into him with her arms quickly forming a serpentine embrace around him. Thankfully, his sharp reflexes resulted in his arms being able to raise themselves in time to wrap around his mother when she'd hugged him in an equally powerful embrace.
"Nicky-Niiiiiiick!" She squealed happily while rocking her adoptive son back and forth like a pendulum clock, several giggles escaping her lips that sounded like they came from a teenage schoolgirl instead of an older woman. She had no concerns about knocking her son to the ground and pinning him under her since he had the superhuman strength and endurance needed to withstand her glomp. "It's been so long, my boy! Let mommy have a look at you!"
A sheepish chuckle escaped his lips while Helen proceeded to pull back and yet keep her hands firmly latched onto his shoulders, giving his body a lookover for even the slightest sign of injury even though both of them knew the unlikeliness of that ever happening. It also helped that Nico had prepped himself beforehand, knowing that his mother would likely react this way to him coming here. Her reaction also succeeded in wiping out his previous dreaded thoughts about the population's abysmal lack of motivation. "Heh, I know that we've not seen each other for a while mom, but this is a bit excessive!" he remarked, a lopsided smirk on his lips.
His words only served to make her give him a 'are you kidding me?' kind of look. "Nope, momma's got the right to smother you, no questions asked!" she stated in a disciplined manner, although it looked cuter than anything which only made Nico snicker in amusement.
This happened while the woman still had her hands on him and he didn't mind at all, especially since this was the reason why he loved hugs so much. They took so much stress from his shoulders not to mention he got to give some warm affection to the one he was hugging, which usually was his close companions. Though since his mother was much better at giving hugs than him, he hoped to one day be as good at giving hugs as she was.
"Now then…" Once she was confident that her son was ok… after a several hours long search of course that all mothers would support her for, Helen regarded her son with a wide smile. One which only someone like her could put on her face as she began querying into her son's life… or rather, his love life in particular. "How's the relationship developing between you and those girls? Will I be a grandmother shortly?" she questioned.
Immediately thoughts filled his mind of some erotic situations between him and the girls in question, to which Nico's features gained a crimson hue as he scowled angrily. "Mom!" He protested weakly, sounding more like a whine since he could never be truly mad at her. Afterwards, he took a deep breath and began to speak while dragging his right hand from his forehead down his face, knowing that his mother wouldn't be stopping till she got what she wanted. "Nothing like that's going on you know! Everything's only been calming down after we arrived at Lowee, to which we haven't been able to spend much time together," he explained, frowning.
Ever since their arrival at Lowee Nico had been hard-pressed to find some time to spend with the girls in between his personal training, leading the Tekkadan etc. In fact, leading that group had been a massively time-consuming task that had taken him away from his loved ones. It wasn't something he could avoid, but Nico really missed the girls during his time waging those constant skirmishes against the various Youma hordes and retook Lowee territory from the invaders. It wasn't just him who had been busy either from what he had heard upon his return from removing the barrier around Lowee either, which only made spending time with them increasingly difficult.
"But you HAVE declared your feelings to them, yes?" Helen pressed with a beaming smile like she hadn't cared much for what he had said to her. In fact, one could say she was hounding him like the press would celebrities for the latest details on the romance between the group. A romance she had predicted would happen ever since she learned that these girls had liked her son back when she had met them before.
"...We're in the in-between stages, I'd say." Nico eventually replied after trying to find the best way to describe the dynamic going on. It wasn't so easy to define relationships although there had definitely been progressing made. "At the hot spring I told them that I loved them, but because I'm a bit of a fucked up person in the head I wanted to focus on that first. If they fall for someone else then they can pursue them as I don't want to inconvenience them, some of them like Lucy and Compa have waited far too long after all. So essentially, I'd say we're more than friends but less than lovers… though that doesn't mean we don't act like we're romantically involved at times."
Hearing all this, Helen furrowed her brows for a moment as she thought about what she had heard. Whatever she had been thinking Nico refused to check no matter how much his Ghoul Persona pestered him to, such was the respect he had for his mother. After a few moments, she finally sighed before giving her verdict with her arms crossed under her bosom. "Well, I guess that's to be expected of you, dear. I can see your point about the whole mental stuff, though if you ask me its better to just man the fuck up and take the plunge with them already," she responded, her tone hardening at the end with a look of being done with this shit forming on her face.
Nico internally tensed at this verdict, doing his best to control himself in front of his mother who gave him the same look she gave to her husband when he had done something stupid. Internally stunned by the coldness in her response, Nico nonetheless agreed with her point about him needing to man the fuck up. The problem was that he just didn't think he had the right mentality for it yet, his mind still succumbing to his hallucinations and it didn't help that sometimes his fucked up mind would conjure them even when he was happy and not thinking about his past.
Heck even now when he idly glanced behind Helen at her chair, he could see the same shadowy figure that he'd seen in his dreams looming there, watching him intently. Sometimes he had to wonder what was real and what wasn't, since the barriers between the two in his mind were starting to crumble, something which horrifically alarmed him.
He needed to get on top of this, and FAST.
Luckily, Nico hadn't been idle in this endeavour and had instead been coming up with plans for the following days ahead of him assuming things didn't go to shit like they normally did. "Good thing that I plan on chilling in these coming days mom," he told her, getting the woman's attention which prompted him to continue. "These days, I intend to try and spend time with them as much as possible, watching memes with Neptune, working on chores with Compa, motorcycle riding with IF just to name a few. Oh, and don't worry I've made sure to keep them entirely in the loop about these possible plans, I tell them practically everything these days in whatever way I can. They've each given me their opinions about that..." he added at the end, sighing afterwards. "Man, didn't realize that relationships could be so complex, yet so demanding and fulfilling at the same time… makes me miss them a whole hell bunch."
In Helen's mind, the woman found herself perplexed, perplexed at the situation her son had found herself in. It sounded like he was indeed trying to get on top of things but thanks to the overall shitty situation Lowee was in, combined with their ongoing quest for the Key Fragments, he hadn't had the time he desired to spend with the girls which forced him to look for any means possible to keep in contact with them. Her wanting him to 'man up' had essentially been rather useless in this conversation since not only was it shared by her son but real-life circumstances prevented him from achieving much.
Then again, perhaps she could help him out with those plans of his…
"I see, then may I suggest a few things?" she questioned, getting his attention. "You mentioned that you're the leader of the Tekkadan now, right? They'll have bound to have heard the rumours about you having multiple mates, so it could be good to take your girls out hunting with them on their skirmishes, have them grow closer to the Tekkadan to where they could become honorary members and be viewed highly by them, that way you can kill two birds with one stone: get them accustomed to your comrades AND spend more time with them," she suggested.
A bit of hesitancy swelled within his chest at that idea as he mauled it over inside his mind. "I dunno mom…" he muttered, trailing off while cupping his chin as memories of his subordinates ran through his noggin. "That does sound good but shouldn't there be more convenient options out there? Like shopping, eating etc…?" he wondered, trying to recall what people did regarding dating options… which sadly wasn't all that much. What little he did know of this stuff came from the movies that Neptune and Compa sometimes watched that he overheard, they had been the reason why he'd realized the latter's feelings towards him in the first place. But other than that, his dating knowledge was rather limited.
Fortunately for him, his mother had a MUCH better experience in this regard of which she declared her intent to provide him with said experience. "That's all well and good dear, but you have to remember: you and the girls haven't gotten into a normal relationship so certain conventions have to go out the window at least for a time. Lowee isn't in top form and you can't just keep leaving for other Nations either since you both have your own commitments, so until the situation over there's sorted you'll have to make do with the cards you've been dealt. It won't be easy, but like everything in relationships nothing ever is."
While Nico pondered this information with his multiple Personas, Helen quickly came up with a couple of options from the top of her head while drawing upon her own experiences. "Hmm, for dating activities you COULD do, perhaps going drinking at taverns would be a good start, I can tell that I would especially enjoy that since she's the type of woman who would conduct adult activities like that to ease her stress…" she mused, which wasn't wrong since IF had admitted to visiting brothels and stuff before she had met Nico and the rest for stress relief.
Helen hadn't needed to ask her about it since she could tell with her womanly intuition.
"Huh, I see…" Nico muttered in curiosity, already imagining what a drunk IF would look like although he doubted that it was even possible for her to get drunk anymore due to her body's different biology. Still, it sounded like a decent pastime to take her out on if they could find an available tavern, one that he noted mentally for further reference. Not only that but it could also be practical since they could listen in on all the… 'No Nico, stop that train of thought, if we go to a Tavern together it'd be for date purposes only, it'd devalue the date itself otherwise! The date would be the biggest priority there!' he chided himself internally before he could go down that path.
He could also imagine Lucy and Raven like to go to places like this with the former wanting to try and get him drunk for some late night pow-wow while the latter would see the practicals behind the activity. Maybe he could have such a thing be part of their eventual date which likely would be happening within the next few days if his bros in Team RAIL had any say about it.
A while passed with Nico and Helen discussing ways he could spend time with the girls, what activities they could partake in. Many suggestions had been thrown back and forth with the older woman gaining more and more approval of the things her son was suggesting, especially since he showed himself to be taking into account the girls individual tastes such as when he suggested he study medical matters with Compa who still wanted to be a nurse despite her changes or learn how to cook so he could make some good pudding for Neptune while they watched memes together (though he admittingly felt that goal would be nigh-impossible given his lack of tasting ability).
One might consider Nico a naive, impulsive dense moron when it came to romance but at least he had his head and heart in the right place.
Eventually, something caught the redhead male's eye when he had idly glanced at her desk, seeing something barely poking out from behind it. Curiosity got the better of him and, combined with him sensing that there was something more to this summons, Nico decided to inquire into it. "So um, mom, not that this wasn't a great talk or anything but is that the device you wanted me to test run?" he questioned, gesturing with a gloved hand towards the object behind the Desk.
Glancing at the said package, Helen's eyes brightened upon seeing it as she proceeded to walk behind her Desk. "Ah yes, this is the device. I just got the first one brought here for your testing operation, Nicky-Nick," she replied, smirking a little as she reached down and picked the object up, revealing it to be a rather rectangular-shaped package wrapped in what looked like paper wrapping that she then placed vertically on top of her Desk's contents. She then gestured to him to come over, which Nico complied with, the male now standing before her Desk as his Rinkaku promptly shredded the wrapping to pieces…
Revealing a cardboard box with a lid that 2 Tentacles pulled open, revealing a Bracer.
'Huh? A Bracer? This thing's what they want me to test…?' Nico wondered incredulously, about to inquire into it when he quickly noticed a few things that garnered his attention. 'Hold on a minute…'
The first thing he noticed was that there was only one of them, unlike the pair that adorned his two arms. The Bracer was composed of a single metallic strip and a bunch of outstretched pieces on either side to give it this metallic spinal appearance. Those clamps looked to 'clamp' (Nico wanted to hit himself for that one) down around the forearm so no chance of it falling off. Then there was a black construct on the back of it which looked to be shaped like a handheld gaming console the entire bracer's length, though there was a 7-inch touchscreen in the centre. Additionally, there were two thumbsticks on either side of said screen, a directional pad on the left, ABXY buttons on the right, two shoulder buttons on each side of the unit, four additional buttons on the rear of the console, as well as two trackpads under each thumbstick. Finally, there was a simple black case wrapped around it with a simple clip at the centre like some kind of suitcase.
Immediately the first thing that came to mind when viewing it was a certain land of Black Regality since it had similarities to their consoles and architecture. "Did Lastation have any influence on this thing's design by chance?" Nico questioned while arching a brow, running his hand along with the Bracer's open case. His fingertips then ran across the console itself, briefly caressing the touchscreen and the trackpads. The more he looked at it the more certain he became of its origins, of which he glanced up at his mother for her answer to his query.
An answer which came physically first in the form of an affirming nod, before a verbal explanation followed suit. "You bet, this is something of a joint operation between Lastation and Planeptune engineers. The former had more control over its development while we just constructed it in our facilities. There's likely going to be factories built in Lastation with the ability to mass-produce these at some point, but that's for the future. Anyways Nicky-Nick, meet your new companion: the Omnibracer." she presented proudly, gesturing for him to slide his forearm into the left side of the now christened 'Omnibracer'.
"Omnibracer?" The said male questioned in confusion while adhering to his mother's silent demand, slipping his left arm beneath the various taken off his two Bracers though since his instincts had told him to do so beforehand. The moment his arm had been in the position the whole Bracer seemingly came to life, the screen coming online as its clamps closed tightly around his arm to firmly put it in its proper place, the male briefly twitching at the newfound tightness.
Helen nodded, smirking as she watched her son hold the new Omnibracer at stomach level, slanting his arm about to look at it from different angles. She crossed her arms under her chest as she leaned back on her chair, one leg crossed over the other as she began to explain. "Developed to resemble an upcoming new Lastation handheld, it acts as both a bracer and quite literally a gaming PC in a handheld format," she told him, gesturing to the console within the case. "Its hardware allows it to be used in two ways: as a military tool with the matching tools with some additions. Then it can also operate as a handheld console-sized desktop with the hardware it possesses, plus its upgraded AI has enough processing power to warrant only one Bracer for optimal efficiency. You could call it a step up in almost every way, making sure one doesn't need to carry a laptop for work and one for games.``
"Huh, I see… but um, how would I play games when I only have one hand available?" Nico questioned, gesturing to the Bracer and the lack of ability to grasp it with his left hand. "Playing with one hand seems to be kinda stupid and bad design if you ask me." The moment he asked that bit his answer came when he pressed an unknown button and the console itself 'detached' from the Bracer, the male quickly catching it before it could fall to the ground. His eyes widened in disbelief afterwards while he held the console like a typical handheld, the casing having been left on the Bracer itself. "Huh…"
Watching her son fiddle with the Console, Helen smirked a bit wider as Nico put the Console back in the case in which he heard various clamping sounds to indicate it being securely fastened onto it. "There's little holographic technology so there's a small screen to work with, unfortunately, but the utility one gets in return is something to commend." she explained just when Nico navigated through what he supposed was some kind of menu screen and found a 'map' option, which he pressed on the touchscreen since it would be easier to do while the console was on his Bracer.
Following that, the screen itself lit up and he saw what looked like an image of the entire Guild Building appear on the screen, looking quite detailed. There were quite a few options on a list-like menu to the right side which he played around with a bit, which made the image swerve around like some kind of 3D illusion, zoom in, zoom out, strip parts away like the outer walls to show the corridors and support structures etc. There was going to be a LOT of functions he needed to see, Nico bet after losing everything for now.
"And what about my old ones? What'll happen to them?" he questioned again just after Helen had fiddled with one of them and a bright light shone onto his Omnibracer. He looked at it and after a few seconds, he saw a 'download complete' message appear.
To explain what she had done, Helen promptly waved a hand in the old Bracer's direction. "Just moved all your data. Items and equipment onto your Omnibracer. I've left those blank for now, so you can either keep them or hand them over to someone of your choosing. It's up to you really. Oh, I almost forgot your Omnibracers processing units have gotten the latest data about the Dungeons on every nation, all the updated maps, our most updated monster Bestiary, what you have in there is pretty much all the Spec Ops knowledge in one database. Nearly EVERYTHING is in there." she told him, her eyes glinting somewhat evilly at the end there.
Now THAT made Nico whistle in amazement as he looked down at the new Omnibracer, likely one of his potentially greatest tools in his Spec Ops Career. A shame he didn't have access to hologram technology but Nico honestly didn't mind too much, he just had to get used to a smaller screen like when he was using a Phone. But with the information that his mother had indicated was now within this baby combined with his old data, items, equipment and with possible new functions added to it, this Omnibracer seemed like it would live up to its namesake.
Guess he could put more stock in that whole 'Lastation only does everything' motto.
But for now, he would have to test it out in the field and to do that he would have to head back to Lowee. He already had a couple of ideas for how he could field test this thing and Nico honestly felt a little excited already. This was just like when he first received Cavaliere when it had been an ordinary Skimmer, only now he had something he likely wouldn't even NEED to Desecrate to make it look cooler.
"Alright then, I'll give this baby a whirl then I'll send you the combat data by the end of the day. Sounds decent?"
"Agreed. Now then, go get 'em, tiger."
Nico chuckled with mirth at that, grabbing his old Bracers to store them inside his new toy, before waving an index finger at his mother. "No mom, not Tiger: Centipede," he said, turning on his heels and leaving the office with Helen shaking her head with a faint giggle, muttering something about rude boys and promises to ride a certain stallion into the night again.
Putting her horny thoughts aside for the moment which wasn't as easy when considering her hidden building sexual frustration, it wasn't long before Helen's smile faded away to be replaced by a deep frown of concern. 'Still, this doesn't mean I can rest easy. My husband may be helping me clean up the trash trying to be annoying but I can't afford to be reckless, not when things are the way they are right now…' she thought, heaving a sigh out from her lips.
A part of her remained overjoyed at the prospect of her boy being free from the whole being constantly observed thing on Lowee, and thanks to that said nation's situation it hadn't exactly been easy to do that over there either. However, this could not be said for the other Nations who still have their trash observing him from the shadows and keeping watch over his movements when around civilian populations. The fact that he had demonic powers likely wasn't something that they knew he had just yet due to it being harder to watch him outside the city where Abnormals, the Gamindustri monsters who haven't been featured much since the story's beginning and the chaotic Khorne forces ran rampant.
Ironic, that the safest place for him to be himself turned out to be in the thickest of all this chaos.
'Nevertheless, it won't be long till I can strike again at those old codgers in power…' Helen mused internally while walking back around to her desk once again. When she had heard about the situation in Lowee she had both been appalled by how bad things were, but also comprehending of the opportunity is now presented for her to expose the chinks in the armours of every leader involved with handling her beloved son. With such a 'hole' in their 'system', her son would be mostly safe from any attempts to capture or kill him due to the dangers there being too great for mortals to comprehend which would give her the chance to stab the majority of them in the back and destroy such measures, allowing her son to go on with his life like a normal person. 'I just have to do what I can and bide my time till the opportune moment arises…'
Speaking of doing what she could, her gaze glanced down towards a hidden compartment to which she reached down and grasped its handle. Pulling back, she drew the compartment out to view what lay within: a brownish folder with golden outlines. Taking it out and adjusting it in her hands so she could see its front, Helen eyed the 'CLASSIFIED' label on it and smiled to herself in satisfaction, seeing that nobody had managed to crack it open. Only she could do that thanks to this File having something on it that was included in the Omnibracer's new functions.
Hence once she put her finger on a certain spot on the folder's seam she heard several clicking sounds before opening the folder and moved to the massive title in big, bold lettering on the first document:
Chaos Initiative.
'Huh, this thing really IS unique…'
Riding on his Skimmer Cavaliere through the airspace between Lowee and Planeptune, one Nico sat on the Skimmer's seat in the lotus position looking through the various functions on his newly christened Omnibracer. He had decided to get a good look at what he now had to work with so he could better plan how to utilize it in the field tests, tests he planned to conduct within Lowee since it would kill multiple birds with one stone: test the data in a battle zone which would add to its validity, as well as get some practice in fighting some Dungeon monsters for once.
Monsters likely mutated by the Chaos taint infesting the Landmass, but monsters nonetheless.
Thing was, he had only spent about 10 minutes on 2 specific functions so far and already he was seeing some interesting applications for this thing in multiple different fields such as medical (which likely would make Compa extremely happy if she got her hands on one) and on more daily professions within the comfort of human cities. The problem was that he had heard from some researchers discussing this during his leaving the Guild Building that this technology was likely going to be limited to the Spec Ops branches of different Nations which he found to be quite stupid frankly.
As for those two functions, the first one had been named the 'Hoard', likely after the Hoard the more draconian of monsters and Abnormals had when they stored valuables within their lairs. Nico had visited many of such places during his Spec Ops career hence why he had a sizable stock of items at his disposal. But anyways, this 'Hoard' function worked mostly like his previous Void Storage in that it stored one's materials and equipment in a pocket dimension and freezes them in stasis, letting the user take them out in the same condition these items were in when they first entered.
Thing was, it actually took one step further in allowing fully grown humans to be stored within, or perhaps it would be better to say that it could store humanoid beings and other such lifeforms within itself. Like those inanimate items, those beings would be put in a suspended stasis state to preserve them till they were taken out. Nico planned on testing that in the Dungeons, but if that worked then he could really view the medical applications for this in a positive light especially if an Agent wanted to bring their wounded comrades to safety. Just put them within this 'Hoard' then take them out near a hospital or clinic depending on the injury then job done.
From a more militaristic perspective, he could see this as a way to transport troops behind enemy lines, plop them in certain places then wreck their shit. He could see how certain figures like Commanders or Generals could be transported in secret from one place or another, the possibilities could be mind-boggling if this were to be the case. Heck, they'd make Escort Missions a cinch since they could hide their escorts within these Hoards and then go to the target destination to drop them off there without much chance of the escortee getting into shit.
As for how he found this thing, Nico had seen there was a digital manual downloaded into its database (which true to his mother's word had GINORMOUS storage space) to explain the functions, hence he had been reviewing it along his way back.
The SECOND function he had found was something which Nico saw as oh so spicy, a function aptly named 'Smithy' if what he'd read about it was any indication. According to the digital manual, the Smithy was a function deeply connected to the Omnibracer's Database since it used blueprints and recipes stored there to craft items out of collected materials throughout the land anytime, anywhere. This would allow the user to create valuable equipment out on the battlefield that would then be used to preserve and achieve victory, perform emergency first aid, or move quickly throughout the battleground like a certain average height famous military commander whose initials were NB.
Additionally, if there were the Blueprints and materials used the Smithy can restore items to their optimal states. For example, a rusty katana could be restored to an optimal condition when stored inside the Omnibracer's Hoard as long as a katana blueprint and the necessary materials were within said hoard, it kind of resembled a video game crafting system, one of the examples Nico could think of being the monstrosity hunter series. This could be used in a multitude of possible ways too such as restoring one's damaged weapons on the battlefield or fashioning new weapons such as ammo for guns or arrows for bow-like weapons. Heck, if one Agent's weapon broke as long as they had the blueprints and materials they would be able to quickly restore it to its optimal condition and continue fighting.
After discovering this system and learning about it, Nico had spent the next 10 minutes crafting what materials he had into more reliable medical items that he intended to provide to his troops in the Tekkadan. They would need them more than he, due to his regenerative prowess being as broken as it was, and by the time he had finished the male had a drastically decreased Hoard size but a sizable amount of healing items. So all in all, not a bad trade if one were to ask him.
He would have tried to find the rest of the functions, but then a warning grunt from his Skimmer alerted him to the fact that he was nearing Loweean airspace, much to Nico's internal annoyance. This annoyance swelled in potency when he looked ahead and noticed what looked like a purplish-blue storm cloud crackling with bright blue lightning in the distance. Judging from what his senses were telling him, that was simply some kind of obstacle provided by Tzeentch to prevent him from coming back. Nico internally noted that he would have to be wary of exiting and entering the Nation from now on if the Chaos God saw fit to do something like this.
'Alright then, I can fawn over my new gear later.' He mused with a narrowing of his eyes in determination. He adjusted his position so that he sat properly on Cavaliere's seat whilst gripping the demonic Skimmer's handles rigidly. He felt his inner Ghoul and Demon howling with glee at the challenge ahead of them, something which he shared considering the bloodthirsty smirk forming on his lips. 'Right now, I better focus on actually arriving!'
Thus, the redhead dove into the storm cloud and continued his journey back into Lowee.
3 hours later, Nico heaved a heavy sigh of relief when he found himself approaching Lowee's massive landmass, the storm cloud from before having seemingly vanished from view about 2 hours into the flight.
It hadn't been easy navigating through it either and he had seen things that only those high on drugs would have witnessed. Was that due to Tzeentch or something Slaanesh wanted to do? He didn't know, nor did he want to. Regardless, Nico had managed to break through the cloud and into the usual multi-coloured skies of Lowee, the former land of white serenity.
The redhead doubted that the cloud would be too much trouble for the militaries of the other nations to handle, especially Lastation's. That cloud felt like it had been specifically designed to try and shoot him out of the skies, Nico believed this due to sensing a large amount of malice directed at him during the flight, and now that he was close to the Landmass itself there was this hint of annoyance in the atmosphere, furthering his theory. Odds were that those DPUs were somehow responsible, or maybe it was a different party.
Nico shuddered at that part while he looked down at his left arm where his Omnibracer lay, secure on the said body part. 'It was a good thing that I downloaded Lowee's data on dungeons previously, so let's see if I can find out where the mapping function is located…' the male thought as his Skimmer started flying over Lowee's snowy plains below.
Leaning back on his seat, Nico raised his left arm and activated his Omnibracer using his right hand, opening up the home screen. Now, for reference, the home screen had a mostly dark red background with a single circular platform at the bottom middle section of the screen. To the left was a list of tabs with different options headlined on them, one of them catching his attention.
'Omnicom? I distinctly remember seeing that in the manual… if I recall correctly, it's a piece of software that was meant to handle things like communications and networks, consolidating my previous Bracers' communications functions into one. Sending/receiving calls, launching encrypted messages, forming online unhackable chat rooms, abysmally tight firewalls and the like were formed by Omnicom. It also deals with the functions like the Scanner, Motion Tracker and map functions from its predecessor.' he thought, recalling the little he had read about it.
With this knowledge in mind, Nico pressed the Omnicom tab and a few more ones sprouted out of it like some kind of mindmap, the previous ones vanishing. Looking at the new tabs, Nico quickly found the 'Map' tab and pressed on it, soon seeing a map of the four Nations appear on his screen. 'Alright, I'm getting somewhere…'
Moments later, he figured out how to zoom in on specific areas and his current location (which was highlighted as a black arrow-shaped marker), to which he happened to be flying over the southern areas of Lowee, past the main capital MICROSOFT which no doubt was under the control of Arfoire and her cronies. With this progress made, Nico grinned to himself. "Alright, the closest dungeon's the Lowee Snowfield so I'll pay that place a visit to field test these babies. It's already proving to be a decent addition to my arsenal…" the male mused, grasping his Skimmer's handles and revving them, kicking his ride into overdrive as he sped off for the Lowee Snowfield.
Finally, Nico found himself at the entrance to the Lowee Snowfield dungeon, flying through it before switching his Skimmer to land mode, Cavaliere tucking in its wings to drop onto the ground below. The impact was a rough one due to the way he had landed, but Nico had been used to such things by now so it wasn't long till he regained his bearings and performed a powerslide, grinding his Skimmer to a halt.
Once his momentum had ceased and the male had balanced his ride by kicking out its stand, Nico dismounted Cavaliere and promptly clicked his fingers, the whole thing vanishing into him again. "Phew, that was a bumpy ride… now then, since I've finally gotten here it's time I start making use of the other functions. Probably will encounter some Chaos tainted monsters too, but they should be easy to take care of." Nico mused to himself, nodding firmly with his weapon loadout decided in his mind.
To that end, Nico took out his Rebellion and Donner/Schlag combo, noting the twisted scenery around him. Around the snowfield, he could see some impossible-looking formations of ice and trees, which looked like they should have immediately fallen upon their creation but somehow they didn't. There were some which had oddly shaped icicles hanging from their branches that looked grossly like forked tongues. There were patches of grass around a wooden fence that had once been meant to keep the outside forces out of the field though it now served more like a cage than anything. The snow on the ground had certain indentations on it that resembled facial features such as eyes, mouths, fangs etc.
All in all, a rather normal sight for this place.
In the following moments, Nico journeyed into the Lowee Snowfield Dungeon with his oversized twin pistols in hands, Rebellion diagonally strapped to his back. The male journeyed up its hill with his feet digging their footprints into the snow with loud crunching sounds like he was going through a forest, strangely enough. Nico ignored it though, as well as the faint grunting sounds that came from beneath him since such oddities were commonplace to him by this point.
Once he reached the hilltop, the redhead kept his Omnicom active and scanned the area for signs of hostels ambushing him which had been tactics he had been more than used to since his arrival on this twisted rock. The moment that he got to the top…
BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP!
Seconds after the beeping sounds that came from his Omnibracer Nico glanced around when several explosions of snow and vapour erupted around him. Following them, several silhouettes jumped out and launched themselves towards him, consisting mostly of… skeletons, ones made from crystal with crowns of spikes protruding out from their skulls. Their maws were filled with sharp fangs, their eyes ablaze with mindless bloodlust while their fingers ended in scythe-like claws. Lastly were the various differently-shaped limbs which
It immediately became apparent that these creatures had once been normal denizens of Gamindustri, not even Abnormals in terms of strength and threat level. They had been part of this world for centuries, way longer than the Abnormals who had taken the title of 'monsters' for themselves, yet sadly the taint of Chaos had infected them judging by all the sigils and carvings one could see on their bodies. Now, they could be seen as worse than any Abnormal due to their abominable states and their near-mindless savagery. If there was one thing that Lowee's resistance could be thankful to the Youma for it would be that their presence had caused the monster population to decline drastically. Hence why Lowee's resistance wasn't as concerned with them as they were with the Youma and Demons.
Yet all the same…
"Hmph."
SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH!
In an instant Nico's Rinkaku erupted forth from his back, invisible to all five senses like it usually was unless he willed it not to be, and ruthlessly cut the monsters down without a shred of mercy. Not like they had ever mercilessly cut something down in the past, a Ghoul's Kagune wasn't something known for that. They sliced off limbs, beheaded, cut, stabbed, pretty much performed every move in the book on their master's order to obliterate them from existence, executing them with deadly efficiency.
'Did not expect that.'
Biko's words resonated throughout his mind, prompting a response from the male as he proceeded down the hill where he could smell monster scents. His inner Ghoul relished the thought of being used to shed more blood, and judging from the distant gleeful howling he heard from Byakko, Nico wasn't the only one. 'Yeah well, I've got many weapons, doesn't mean the ones I have out are the ones I'm using. Plus I wanna get back into the swing of things revolving around my Kagune. This is practically a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me, and part of me hopes I can finally get rid of that trauma by shedding my enemy's blood.' he countered, something which his Demon Persona couldn't refute.
If one had a big enough arsenal it didn't matter which weapon they had out, one might intend to use a completely different weapon.
This had been a strategy that he and his alternate selves had devised to try and get Nico's massive arsenal used up more, which would hopefully lead to him streamlining it. As good as a varied arsenal was it would be a detriment to his abilities if he couldn't have a grasp on it or something which, now that he thought about it, made his Omnibracer even better since it condensed his previous set's functions into a smaller set.
What followed could only be described as a massive basket of whoop-ass that Nico had opened up on the Dungeon's monsters utilizing his Kagune, more specifically his Rinkaku and a bit of his Koukaku (although that one was used sparingly). The more he fought, the more Nico began to recall things that he had done before such as reshaping his Kagune into unusual tools of warfare, he remembered the way a Kagune's shape could be altered depending on one's intelligence, he practically revised the essentials to Kagune manipulation.
During this carnage, Nico also reviewed the various Omnibracer functions, finding the following ones to have been made in addition to the one's he'd discovered previously:
The first one took the form of ID locks. Now, an ID lock was something that involved using one's genetic fingerprint to lock away important data according to the Manual. Because of the sensitive nature of intel/items that would be stored within these Bracers, every Omnibracer apparently had ID locks on them which were tied to the genetic data of their users. Anywho tried to steal these from their owners would find themselves electrocuted to death, the electrocution having a voltage of 500 volts, and considering that the human body's limit was between 100 to 250 volts (with there being cases where people died from currents of 42 volts or less), one could see why this would be an effective deterrent. Nico wasn't sure what it would be like with non-humans like him though, but he didn't fancy finding out.
The second was Omnicom's use in combat since it could use scanning functions on enemies to identify various weak spots on their frames by scanning them, before installing that data in real-time inside the Database. Obviously, Nico could see why there was such a BS amount of storage space in this thing with a feature like this, not to mention this allowed one to have a lot of data about their enemies that they could share with others if they're hunting similar-looking creatures. For example, a water monster could have a specific weakness one Agent discovered, so by sending that data to another Agent or even their superiors in the Spec Ops program, they ensured others would be prepared to face it which would lead to fewer lives lost.
'You know, with how useful these are they'd go GREAT with the high-speed tactics I and the Tekkadan employ. Living off the land with the Smithy and storing our wounded using the Hoard would be quite the effective tool…'
'Unfortunately, I doubt that the Spec Ops would be too fond of Abnormals wielding something like this. They would be even further pissed if you just let them mass produce their own versions since it would be like you giving away secrets to an enemy. Additionally, I doubt the Tekkadan would trust anything made by human hands, you being an exceptional case. The 500-year long grudge still flows through a lot of them.'
'Yeah, that's true…'
Though as he fought and gathered data for later, Nico noticed something off.
The number of monsters in this place, tainted or not… there weren't nearly as many as he had expected. Nico had expected there to be monsters in the hundreds at most since there wouldn't have been any adventurers to keep their population low nor did he hear about any Youma in the area which was even stranger considering how close this place was to the Lowee Capital.
Even his alternate Personas and apparently his Archdevil Arms found it weird that there weren't that many around… until all of them sensed something in the distance that they hadn't bothered paying attention to previously.
"?!"
Instinctively, Nico tensed when he felt several demonic energy signatures near his position that were located at the end of the Dungeon. However, in the following second, he relaxed when he sensed that these signatures were familiar, VERY familiar to him to the point where they brought a smile onto his face. 'Heh, wonder what those two were doing out here…' Nico mused to himself, dismissing his twin pistols and pocketing his hands inside his Trench Coat while walking forwards…
Till he stood before what could only be described as a warzone.
A single figure could be seen in the distance, shredding through a large bunch of chaos-tainted monsters which looked to be mixes of all kinds of different animals. The gender of this figure turned out to be female, and one to which the male had recognized immediately upon seeing her: the rookie Leanbox native Cecil. The rookie Spec Ops Agent was deep in the fray, wielding her Berial out and in a slashing frenzy, darting throughout the area and striking down her opponents with brutal savagery. Blood flowed around her like she was a blood manipulator, mixing with sparks and embers coming off her Devil Arm as she hacked, slashed, stabbed and smashed her way through her opponents.
This fascinated him, Nico happily admitted to himself as he watched the show. To him, everything looked to be a mix of savagery and gracefulness, a hybrid of the two which normally would be next to impossible to do. The way the embers flickered around her as if to shield her from the blood that would have otherwise stained her body, the way her hair fluttered in the directions her body moved in, everything seemed so… vibrant, lively, like a low flame steadily growing into its full blazing splendour.
It mesmerised him.
Unfortunately, this graceful yet savage dance got marred by a lot of wasted movements that Nico could see were causing her to slow down unnecessarily, which cost her some pointless injuries that he had noticed. 'Hmmm… looks like she's practising hard here. Those movements, do seem similar to IF's before her transformation into her BOW self. Now that I think about it, she might be nearby just suppressing her presence so much that if I don't want to find her I won't detect her…'
'That does indeed to be the case. What boggles me however is the existence of this young one's Devil Trigger, as it wasn't something I was aware of before we met her. Apparently, I must have skipped over that part in the Lexicanum, because not long after our first meeting I looked her arm up and found information about it.'
Biko's words made Nico arch a brow at his Demon Persona's lack of knowledge about Cecil's situation until he thought about it and became more understanding of how it happened especially when he recalled his joint dive into it with him and Byakko. That thing had MASSIVE amounts of intel on the DPU Era, but the problem was that it took a great mental tool to access it so it could be understandable for Biko to have missed some things during the routine dives into it.
Thus, seeing as how Cecil had things handled over there Nico decided to watch on, critically evaluating and forming recommendations within his mind.
"Haah… haha...haha…"
Moments later, and Cecil had finally finished obliterating the monsters out of existence. She currently had fallen to one knee with her sword impaling the ground before her while she grasped its hilt to use the weapon like a cane, lowering her head onto her arms to give it a rest.
Her expectations for what would soon happen after things had calmed down...
"Not bad, quite some interesting moves there. You must have been training extensively since the exam…"
"?!"
Didn't take into account the other party who had been watching her, prompting the blonde girl to look up at the source of the voice and immediately perk up on seeing Nico strolling up to her, his coat fluttering in the gentle breeze. "Ah, Nico! You're here! Were you getting some rest after your long mission?"
Nico chuckled with mirth at the sharp greeting she gave him, her bright eyes filling him with nostalgia from when he too had those eyes. Before everything about reality had truly settled in."Nah, sleep is for the weak." he stated, before glancing across the battleground to watch the various corpses burst into the usual particles… although thanks to the Chaos taint the particles had been turned a bright demonic purple with a bluish outline. Perhaps the others before had done the same and nobody had noticed. "Nice job killing those monsters girlie. Guess that explains why I found so few of them when I arrived here for some monster killing," he explained, eyeing her Devil Arm and noting the way it seemed to absorb the blood of its fallen foes into itself. Looked like it had been feeding well then, which was good since that showed that the relationship between them wasn't too bad.
"Ah!" Instantly getting what he had been hinting at before trailing off, Cecil shot upright as if she had never even started fighting any monsters in the first place. She then bounded up to him immediately afterwards somewhat like one of those characters in that cartoon show about that humanoid bunny rabbit going 'what's up doc?'. "Yup, IF's been teaching me a lot about her original combat style to help me improve! It's mainly dual-wielding though, so I've been trying to combine my Devil Bringer with my Devil Arm to compensate." She explained with a sense of enthusiasm akin to a fangirl… which ironically fit this scenario.
IF huh? Nico arched a brow at the young girl when she mentioned his brown-haired companion, so she was the reason Cecil was out here alone? That didn't seem right, if his comrade had been training her using her original style she had inherited from her father, then she had to be around somewhere witnessing everything. "Really? If that's the case then I guess she's nearby, observing you like a combat instructor would his students during a test," he remarked, glancing around to search for any signs of the said brunette BOW… ending with him glancing upwards.
"You could say that, dude. We have been out here since morning working hard instead of hard-working."
These words combined with the sense of snarky derision that Nico had long since the missed hearing, came from above where his gaze landed on the brunette in question. Said brunette currently had her hands in her coat pockets, smirking down at him while a low breeze caused her hair to flutter behind her back. The Spec Ops Agent's green eyes glowed brightly with mirth, her form is suspended in place by her four reptilian wings that gently started lowering her down to the snow-covered plains beneath her. While this happened I just HAD to make the following remark with her usual sarcastic mirth. "Not very often you have to look up to someone, eh?"
"It's a rare experience, I'll admit." Nico retorted, tilting his head while twisting his body around to face her with his Rinkaku Kagune now uncloaked. Internally he had to also admit to him being impressed with IF's development alongside Cecil's, something which he didn't keep to himself for very long. "Cecil here is apparently not the only one who's been hoofing it in the training scene, you must have gained a lot on concealing your presence." Perhaps he could have sensed her if he were actively looking for her specific energy signature, Nico hadn't bothered to check.
This admission internally made him scowl at his own lack of foresight. He should REALLY focus on changing that, lest he grow complacent and someone were to get the jump on him.
Unaware of his thoughts or maybe she was due to the comprehensive look she gave him IF finally touched down. The tips of her boots first met the snow before being followed by her stiletto heels and the rest of her body. Once she was back on the solid ground completely, the woman started strolling up to the two of them, being silent the whole way. When she stopped though, that was when she greeted Nico properly with a calm smile on her lips. "Good to see you back from your mission, bro."
"Bro?" Nico questioned, arching a brow before chuckling a little. "Had no idea you were into THAT kind of foreplay," he said right back with a teasing smirk, getting a roll of the eyes from the brunette though he could sense that his comment had rattled her inside. 'She's getting better at external facade's too…' he couldn't help but note in his mind.
However this apparent skill at hiding things didn't apply to Nico himself who quickly noticed some minute trembling across IF's body which initially confused him, but instead of asking her what was wrong he quickly put two and two together when he noticed the way she was looking at him. So, what should his response be?
He already had the answer, plus he had a suspicion as to why she was acting this way anyways.
HUG!
"?!"
Quickly closing the distance between them, Nico reached out and wrapped his arms around the BOW, pulling her into a tight and warm embrace while burning his head into her shoulder.
"E-Eh?!"
Immediately, her composure fled the scene along with her control over herself as IF's cheeks turned crimson at the unexpected affectionate gesture, her arms outstretched and stiff at being caught off guard. Her mouth hung open, unable to be closed no matter what orders came from her brain.
Meanwhile, the male in question smiled into her shoulder. It was a soft, gentle smile like the kind one would make when finally reuniting with a loved one after years of being separated from one another. "It's really great to see you too, IF. Really happy to be back…" he whispered fondly into her ear while tightening his brace and being mindful not to make it too uncomfortable. He'll never get tired of feeling the warmth of one of his comrades pressed against him like this, one of the best feelings in the world that surpassed even the rush of combat and bloodlust to him.
"A-A-Ah… U-Um, N-N-Nico? Wh-what are…?"
"No need to worry IF, Cecil's already seen us like this and I just wanna give a more physical statement of how much I missed you."
Having initially suspected that IF had wanted something like this but had held herself back in front of her student, Nico killed 2 birds with one stone by initiating the close contact and assuring her that it was alright for her to act this way since her student had seen their relationship first hand. Something he became sure of along with the widening of his smile when he felt her slowly relaxes into his embrace, promptly returning it by wrapping her arms around him while he felt her bury her face into his shoulder. Her breathing calmed down from its previously staggering state while her heartbeat settled into a comfortable rhythm, warming up the two of them.
Off to the side, Cecil nearly giggled at how even after she returned the gesture her face remained redder than tomatoes with steam rising from her forehead. 'IF's really easy to tease, isn't she? I guess that even under that tough exterior, she's just a girl like me…' she remarked mentally.
Idly, Nico pointed one of his Tentacles at her and closed his eyes, forming a single Kakugan one using its tip that gazed at her. "So Cecil, how's your training been progressing?"
"So far so good, I guess." The blonde girl replied, sheathing her Devil Arm onto her back but keeping her Devil Trigger active. Life on Lowee and the lessons her mentor had provided taught her to be on her toes all the time on the battlefield, and they were still in one. "IF and I have been going across different Dungeons to clear them of monsters, just in case any got the bright idea to invade areas controlled by the resistance or those under enemy control. Though whenever she's not available I get substitutes from the rest of the group instead and they give me advice when possible," she explained, before gaining an exciting look while proceeding to shadowbox with images of the other girls playing through her mind. "They're all so freaking strong, it's amazing! They're just as cool as IF and you!"
Oh? Nico glanced back to the woman in his arms with an arched brow as he leaned back slightly to get a better look at her face. She still looked rather timid and embarrassed still, but the flush on her cheeks was gradually getting softer. Though this didn't mean that he'd pull back now, he'd missed IF and the girls too much for a simple few minute-long hug. "Sounds like you and the girls have been busy," he remarked in an attempt to make her focus on something else and avert her feelings from embarrassment.
With a muster of courage that resembled a high school girl, IF meekly nodded while refusing to look into his gaze. "Yeah… well," Finally, she had enough of being the shy girl in this arrangement and planted the firmest gaze she could on her face before gazing up into Nico's mismatched eyes with her own. Although hers were glowing green with their pupils cat-like at the moment to showcase that she was still affected by the hug. "There were a couple of hiccups along the way through, like a bunch of Tzeentch Demons popping outta nowhere like a certain JC wrestler/actor during our sessions. Fortunately, we were able to take them out without any issues so don't try to go on a manhunt, alright?" she remarked, ending with a questioning demand when she felt the anger start to build inside the male by looking into his eyes.
Said male had the decency to look sheepish after being caught red-handed. "Hehehe, guess I'm that predictable, huh?" he remarked, awkwardly chuckling much to IF's amusement, her cheeks now slightly pink.
"You bet your ass you are, at least to us."
At that point, Cecil got an idea as she stared at the two with a small smirk spreading across her lips. "You're one to talk about predictability, IF. For someone who earned a reputation as a trickster and the title of 'Evolving Huntress,' it's no wonder. You're so popular that you even have your own fan club of both genders." she revealed, her smile now that of a Cheshire cat.
BOOM!
All that effort to regain her composure? Whelp, all of it got blown to smithereens by her student's words with IF's entire body enveloping itself in red from all the blood coursing through her thanks to her embarrassment. A meek squeak escaped her lips with the memories circulating through her mind as she dug her face back into Nico's shoulder. "Ugh, PLZ don't remind me, Cecil. I get enough of those morons and Nep's teasing as it is," she said through his shoulder, though it sounded more like a whining plea than anything.
'Heh, I can see that.' The redhead thought with a small chuckle, holding the back of IF's head and striking it gently to try and soothe her. 'it's only a matter of time before people start to take notice of IF and the others, especially with their contributions to Lowee's continued existence so far. Combined with their actions in the other nations and one would understand if people wanted to treat them like celebrities or something. The reason why they hadn't had been due to them moving about a lot so people never got to view them for long.
'BAH, THOSE DAMN SIMPS WILL RUB THEIR CROTCHES OVER ANYTHING WITH A HOLE, KING! BETTER KEEP A WATCHFUL EYE OUT, YOU MIGHT NEED TO MAKE A FEW EUNUCHS IN THE FUTURE, HEHEHEHEHE…'
Internally, Nico had to snort at the images of using his Kagune to… liberate certain body parts from men's bodies, as well as ones from any females who would try to flirt with them now that he thought about it. He could imagine the flack he'd get for doing that, but honestly, no amount of numbers could measure the number of fucks he didn't give about such a thing.
As for those who tried to flirt with HIM… well, they better hope he got to them first before the girls did.
"Yeah, I'll keep an eye out just in case," Nico answered the blonde Spec Ops Agent's unasked query while he felt IF's form relax slightly in his embrace, showing him just how the brunette felt about him being around for the foreseeable future. A moment later after the male had successfully managed to force himself to let IF go (he already missed her warmth the second it left him), the redhead focused his gaze onto Cecil or to be more specific, her Devil Bringer. "By the way, I was watching you fight earlier. Would you be open to some advice from me?" He questioned.
He may not have needed to ask, however, for Cecil's answer came immediately and with a sharpness akin to a blade. "Y-Yes, of course! Anything you say, I'll treat it with reverence!" She proclaimed towards her Idol.
"Alright then, here's a couple of things: IF's fighting style relies a lot on dual-wielding for sure, but an equally important factor is mobility. Her style makes it so she has to be constantly aware of her surroundings, more so than normal due to having to focus on using several weapons simultaneously. You might want to focus on learning how to multitask effectively which should improve your battle performance. Hopefully, it'd help eliminate unnecessary movements from your body too." He explained, pocketing one hand in his coat while raising the other and extending an index finger. Nico then proceeded to lift the middle finger. "My second point is this: Your movements before had a few wasted instances in it, which can only be resolved through training and practice I bet. It would help if you were to have all the intel you can on the enemy's movements so you can act accordingly. Spec Ops Agents tend to take time to analyze and observe their prey before going in for the kill. Similarly to assassins, one could say."
On her end of things, Cecil nodded resolutely while pulling out a notebook from within her coat, including a pen before proceeding to copy his words down to the latter. Watching from the side IF sweatdropped at this with a look of exasperation mixed with ever so slight amusement. This kind of thing had never happened when SHE had been teaching her, no Cecil did sometimes make some notes but the fervour she showed right now was reserved for Nico's alone.
Guess her idol worship ran deep…
A while later, the trio could be seen journeying out of the Dungeon with Nico summoning his Cavaliere and IF summoning her Motorcycle. During the walk the brunette had asked him about his Omnibracer when she'd finally noticed it, prompting him to explain the task his mother had sent out to him. He had just finished sending her the data that he'd gathered from the monster killing he'd done when he'd entered the Dungeon as well as the few stragglers which attacked them on their way out. None of them had been any threat though, as one would have expected from these three.
Anywho, once IF and Nico had gotten their rides started with Cecil hopping onto the brunette's one despite her wanting to be on the redhead's ride, the trio darted off towards the direction of the resistance city. It wouldn't be too long before they got back to the others and it would be likely that they would be spending the rest of the day with one another to make up for lost time… as well as the near future if the girls had their way.
Something which Nico eagerly looked forward to.
As the two drove down a snow-covered road, IF with Cecil riding shotgun behind her with her arms wrapped around her waist over her coat, the brunette in question glanced over to Nico who had driven slightly ahead of her. Knowing what would likely be awaiting them when they returned, the brunette knew that this would be the last time she would have him to herself and Cecil for the day, and despite the awkward embarrassment she had gotten during that surprise hug it had been one of the best experiences she'd had all day. Hence, she didn't want this to end so soon.
Therefore, she decided to start a conversation with him but before IF could do so Nico asked her something that caught her off guard a little. "By the way, since you've been doing so well and being so active, what have the others been up to? How have they been getting on?" he shouted back towards her through the wind.
"Eh? Ah… well, they've been quite busy I'd say!" IF eventually shouted back, internally pouting at how he had asked about the others in THEIR moment. However, she couldn't be mad at him since it was a natural question for him to ask. "Everyone distracted themselves by doing their own stuff, though in some capacity everyone's also been trying to help keep the resistance afloat in their own ways. Noire and Vert have been taking the diplomatic route by helping White Heart and her officials organize things, not to mention there's talk of trying to figure out new supply chains for the resistance. Nep however just wants to go on adventures so she's just been helping people in a general sense, sometimes raiding entire enemy encampments to give their supplies to the resistance. Sometimes she would join Blanc and the other CPUs in retaking lost territory back from Arfoire. Compa's been sticking to the medical staff for the most part, though I don't know much else save for that everyone's been garnering their own reputations and titles. You heard of mine already, the… ugh Evolving Huntress."
Glancing behind him at her, Nico noticed the embarrassed and flustered expression she gained at the mention of her newest title, something the redhead suppressed a chuckle at. There was likely more going on there too which he'd only learn once he got to know what the girls had been up to themselves, but from what I was telling him they had been quite active during his time away. It wasn't a surprise for him that this was a result, although he DID find it annoying that fan clubs were forming for them.
He could really see how Noire and Vert would try to tackle things like domestic policy, politics etc though, given their pride in their own countries and themselves as leaders. Vert may be less so but Noire most definitely, her whole reason for even coming to Leanbox back then had been to help secure assets for her Nation such as military resources and an alliance with a foreign nation against a common enemy.
Vert on the other hand would have probably tried to tackle the military side of things he guessed, considering how Leanbox had been founded by a lot of warring tribes coming together under her banner, many of them being warriors and aligned towards the military aspect of things.
As for Neptune, he honestly felt surprised that her adventurous spirit persisted in this hellish nightmare of a world. From what he'd seen Nico would have thought that such horrors would have made her grow cold to the idea of more 'innocent' things to take a turn for the 'sinful' one could say, however, Nico found himself to be pleased to be wrong and he didn't mind that at all. It just seemed like something he'd have to learn how to take in.
Compa… Compa still wanted to be in the medical profession despite accepting that she wasn't the kind of girl she had believed she was. That he kind of felt inspiring in a way. Her helping medically would imply she had spent time healing the sick and wounded soldiers/civilians or she had managed to rescue those who had been caught in ambushes by enemy forces which he could definitely see as being the case considering how OP she was now.
Yet, Nico also believed that Compa was nowhere NEAR the height of her power despite how broken she was already.
That thought… kind of unnerved him in a way, but it excited him on a primal, bestial level.
Still, there was one thing he had to admit to the brunette when it concerned her and the other girls. "I see, it's honestly amazing you girls have done so well. Not like I expected any less, but it seems you went further than I could have anticipated."
IF chuckled at this, knowing what he meant by those words. "Yeah, well we don't drag our feet while you're out here kicking ass and throwing down with the best of them, you know. We're not that stupid, nor are we damn damsels," she remarked, electing an uproarious laugh from the male.
Those words couldn't have been more true if one tried.
The male had to think back to the Gala incident when, during his being in a coma, the girls had to rely on themselves and each other to repel a demonic invasion. That had shown him that the girls would NOT be helpless maiden princesses like in those fairy tales young girls and boys were read by their parents.
Again the whole Hell verse incident further elaborated on this when instead of letting him rescue her IF had decided to break out and cause havoc, raising his respect and awe for her all the while.
"Heh, true that girlie," Nico responded with a wide smirk. "I guess you'd wanna know what I was up to during my time away too?"
IF nodded her head, her lips twitching upwards while her hair fluttered behind her much to Cecil's chagrin. The said blonde had decided to remain silent though, deciding that she didn't need to interrupt these two love birds. "That'd be nice, though I think that stuff should be reserved for when we're all together again. I can already tell that Nep's gonna grill you on the details, ESPECIALLY when we heard that one of the Agents was Rory the Reaper."
The moment that he heard that, Nico's eyes widened and his face turned pale, the male almost losing control over his demonic Skimmer had it not maintained the balance needed to keep driving. Neptune reacted like THAT to Rory's name? Heck, she and the others knew? 'Wait, of course, they'd know, Noire and Vert are part of the group and it's not like there's any need for secrecy between us.' the male thought in self admonishment, although that didn't calm his pounding heart any.
He had heard it a couple of times from Theta and other guys with girlfriends/wives that they could be… extremely territorial when their man had been around other women who they could have found more attractive. Nico understood this on a primal level since he did the same thing with any guy who tried to look at them wrong despite how hypocritical it made him look.
But, something about the way that IF had worded it… he didn't like the possibilities it opened up.
Apparently, neither did his Ghoul Persona, as he could hear distant cries of alarm and fright combined with faint giggling that could only come from one source.
"...I'd better prepare a coffin for myself if I survive then. Would you ladies be willing to do the coffin dance?" Nico questioned seriously, pulling Cavaliere's breaks to end up parallel to IF's motorcycle.
"Sure… though it's probably gonna be Compa you're gonna have to be more careful of, cause let's just say I'm glad I wasn't there when she found out that the reaper got her interest in you piqued."
"... DEFINITELY gonna need that coffin."
'Not to worry Nico, I have our Devil Arms at the ready, our Demonic Power hasn't been stronger than it is now and our arsenal is fully equipped to deal with this dilemma.'
'NOPE, WE NEED TO RUN BITCH, RUUUUUUUNNN! LEMME OUTTA THIS GRIP, YA CRAZY BI-OUCH! DON'T BITE MY NECK! WHAT ARE YOU DOING, EMULATING A GODDAMN VAMPIRE?! BIKO, SAVE ME! SHE'S GONNA DO ALL MANNER OF THINGS TO MEEEEEEEE!'
'...I pray for you, a fellow soldier.'
'FUCK YOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUUU!'
IF snorted to herself, holding back the giggles that threatened to escape her when she saw how Nico looked like he was preparing a final last stand against a great army. "Easy there, drama queen," she remarked teasingly, sliding closer so she could nudge him on the shoulder. "I'm sure it won't be THAT bad… probably."
Nico glared at her when she whispered that last word despite knowing he could have heard it. "You don't sound so sure…"
"Anyways…" ignoring the remark, IF looked back to the direction they were facing as her lips turned into a firm line. "Rory the Reaper, we all found out about her shortly after Lady White Heart announced you and the other Agents had left. A travelling vagabond who lived a nomadic lifestyle, somewhat like how I once was. Only thing is, she has a nasty habit of going on wild killing sprees at seemingly a drop of a hat. Most of her victims have been criminals and bandits though, but considering that if any of them are still alive they might have fled from Lowee's Capital when it fell… it puts things into perspective."
...right, Nico honestly hadn't thought of that. If there were any human survivors from that cataclysmic event (something he doubted very highly honestly, given what he knew of Demons, the DPUs and chaos in general), then they likely would have lost all faith in Lady White Heart to turn to banditry. Additionally, if they did they likely would have been hunted down by Demons, Youma or perhaps Rory herself which he could believe to have happened due to the said lady being so much like a berserker.
"Still…" the male began, rubbing the back of his head with his right hand while keeping the left on Cavalier's handle. "I doubt the interest will be lasting long due to us being on the move all the damn time. Plus…" now this part he felt his previous nervousness start creeping back in, something he had to force back from his being since something like this needed to be said to at least quell any worries that IF would have. "I'm not looking for any girls at the moment, and besides I've got standards as a potential partner. Why else did I fall for you girls?" he stated with an easygoing grin, hoping that he didn't sound like a complete idiot.
DOKI-DOKI!
Apparently, his words had some effect on the brown-haired Spec Ops Agent since she turned all meek and embarrassed again. She turned her red face away from him so he couldn't see, though she could still feel his gaze on her as she muttered something at a volume that Nico would have not heard if it weren't for his superhuman hearing. "...baka."
"...oh? Have you been hanging out with Noire? It seems her Tsun-Tsun has been rubbing off on you."
"Oh, don't get me started with all that crap Nico! I am NO tsundere, got it ya big lug?"
"Tsun-Tsun says what?"
"What?"
"...Hehehehehehe."
While IF plotted internally to try and murder him while looking cute and embarrassed all the while, Nico snickered as well as for Cecil along their journey home.
