Back at the Virtua Forest, away from the smoldering crater courtesy of Neptune, there was the man who was in that fight mere moments ago. He was incredibly injured from the blast, but fortunately, he remained conscious, enough to make an escape and hide in a small cave under a tree. There were people that were looking for him not a long while ago, soldiers, he gathered. But he skillfully evaded them, not even leaving a single trace for them to track.
"Urgh," He grunted from pain as he performed first-aid on his wounds, "if I was a little closer to that blast I would've been a goner!" He mused to himself.
The man's name is Kenshi, a drifter who seeks to improve his skills above all else. That is why he is now in this predicament, nearly dying because he bit more than he can chew. But in his mind, him going through such dangerous situations is the best way to hone his skills. That was the way it was done from where he is from, after all.
A very Darwinian approach, if I do say so myself.
"Damn it, I should have brought a repair kit, oh well." Kenshi said to himself, inspecting his damaged robotic left arm. He can still move the arm to do tasks such as performing first-aid on himself, granted, but using it for any kind of heavy-lifting is out of the question; not without finding a way to fix it.
"Whew, now I'm all good." Kenshi said as he finished bandaging his right leg. "Well, I've got nothing to do except to take a rest, I guess." He began to search in his inventory for something. That something was pudding, spoils from his opponent.
"I stole this thing from that CPU, it looks like food. Is this a local delicacy?" he said as he inspected the mound of sweet. Well, it looks tasty, let's try it. He thought. He took a spoonful of the pudding (using a plastic spoon that came with the cup) and took a bite out of it.
"!?"
As the sweet thing came in contact with his taste buds, his mind exploded, metaphorically, of course.
"Wha?!" He exclaimed, surprised at the sensations that he felt eating the sweet confection. He began to have a flashback, one of his past self in the desert back in his homeland.
His younger self, who has his left arm missing, was running away from a bunch of starving bandits, intent on robbing the chunk of meat he freshly butchered from an animal that bled out.
"Come on, share some your food. We promise we won't hurt you!" Said one of the starving bandits, holding a sword in his hand.
"Hell no!" Replied the younger Kenshi, "You guys are holding your weapons, 'won't hurt me' my ass! And besides, there are tons of dead carcasses over there, why are you robbing me?"
The bandits ignored his reply. They continued to chase down the young man. If Kenshi has his present strength, he would easily beat the entire group blindfolded. But during this time, he was so weak that he could barely beat a goat one on one, much less a group of people, even a starving one. Fortunately, he runs a little bit faster than his pursuers, so they couldn't close the distance on the lone drifter. Still, the chase continued for almost half an hour before the bandits decided that chasing one guy isn't worth it.
"Huff… huff… oomph!" He fell over in exhaustion. Finally, the young Kenshi was safe from anyone who would either rob him or anything that would eat him. He grabbed a piece of raw meat from his inventory and proceeded to eat it. Thanks to his physiology, he can eat raw meat without any fear of sickness unlike your standard human. Kenshi hasn't eaten for a few, so he was starving as much as the bandits that chased him earlier. Because of this, the piece of animal carcass tasted like the food of the gods for him.
Back to the present. Kenshi was staring blankly into empty space, reminiscing the days where he would go by days without food. He asked his subconscious why it made him see those memories, those were horrible memories! He thought. But he knew why it did. The pudding in his hand, it reminded him of that taste. The taste of joy. He thought. It was nice, he wished this moment lasted forever. He was in heaven.
But the crushing weight of reality brought him down– No, actually, it was his stomach.
"!?" Kenshi was perplexed, all around him were the discarded cups of pudding strewn across the ground. While his mind was in la-la land, his body was unconsciously eating all of the pudding he had stolen from the goddess.
"What the fu–" He cursed in surprise. "Okay, I am NOT eating that… 'thing' again." He promised to himself. Whether he would actually keep that promise we would see later.
But, now that he is now full—and presumably rested for a while now given that he seemed less tired, he noticed—it is time to go to the serious part. He then pulled out some kind of container that is used to house a scroll. It looks very old, it seems to threaten to fall itself apart but by whatever material it is made of, it actually holds itself pretty nicely. He opened the container. And sure enough, a scroll is found inside. Unlike the container it is housed in, the scroll seem to not have aged as much, perhaps some kind of mechanism is present in the container, is it magical, or technological in nature? Kenshi briefly pondered on the intricacy of the container, but whatever it is, it remarkably preserved the scroll and its contents. Whatever information it holds, it must be very important.
"She'd better give me something good for this." With that, he opened the scroll. Looking at the contents, he grinned.
"Bingo."
Meanwhile, at Planeptune's Basilicom…
"Planeptune's police still haven't found the perpetrator. There might be a high chance that he has already went into the other nations, but we still haven't received any news of any sightings." Said Histoire, the oracle of Planeptune and the tome that records history.
"No luck from any of my informants either." IF said while looking at one of her many phones. "If his kidnapping of Neptune is anything to go by, then this guy must be really good at avoiding any kind of surveillance." She said. "I'm really worried if he had already left the continent or something."
"That seems highly unlikely, he seemed to have some other goals in this continent." Histoire said.
"Really? What makes you say that?" IF asked, feeling nervous at the implications.
"Well... I checked the Basilicom's archives if anything of the sort happened. And I found that there is something missing there." Histoire said.
"Really?" Now IF was worried. "What kind of information did he steal?"
"Well, it is a scroll that contains an ancient record of—"
Just then, a door slammed open. Then, Neptune entered the room with a determined face.
"I can't forgive that guy! Stealing MY pudding, that's as bad as kidnapping me!" She said. "Where is he now? I'm gonna smack him! You can't just do that to the protagonist. Come on, IF, we can't waste any time. Let's chase after him while the trail is hot."
The two occupants in the room stared at her.
"Neptune," IF started, "it's been three days since the incident. Any trail has gone cold by now."
"Nep?" Neptune looked at her confused.
"That is correct," Histoire followed, "you were immediately knocked out as soon as you hit the bed and have slept for three days since. That is likely due to fatigue caused by suddenly pushing yourself to your limit when all you do nowadays is laze around. It would have caused an enormous strain on your body."
"So–" Neptune tried to say something but then she realized something. "Wait, in those three days you haven't tried waking me up?!"
"Well…" Histoire's voice trailed off. "We tried waking you up, but you're so out of it that you just ignored any attempts."
"Oh…" Neptune was blank-faced. She then changed the subject. "Anyway. So, any progress on finding the perp?"
"Planeptune's forces and my informants have been looking for him for a while now, but we still haven't had a damn clue." IF said. "Anyway, let's forget about that for now, we'll find him sooner or later. So, how are you holding, Nep?"
"Yeah, well, as you can see, I'm as recovered as a doggoo that came out of its hibernation." Neptune said before noticing something. "Hey, where's Nep Jr., by the way? And Compa, too."
"Oh, Compa's at work right now," IF said, "and as for Gear, she's at Leanbox right now, investigating a crashed spaceship or something. She's there at Vert's request."
Now that got Neptune's alarm to set off. "Nep?! Has that dastardly blondie managed to seduce my cute little Nep Jr. during my slumber? That's underhanded! It cannot be forgiven! Come on, Iffy, let's take my little sister back!" Neptune then grabbed IF's arm and pulled her into the nearest elevator.
Before she can press the call button of the elevator, IF stopped her.
"Neptune, wait! I know you're worried about Gear, but she can take care of herself." She pulled her arm away from Neptune's grasp.
"That is correct, you do not need to worry over her well-being." Histoire added, "As… quirky as she is, Lady Vert would never stoop herself so low as to steal away Planeptune's CPU Candidate during your weakened state… or at all." She said.
"But—" Neptune tried to refute, but Histoire quickly cut her off.
"No, you have been asleep for three days straight, and that means you have missed three days of work."
"Eek!" Neptune cried out, knowing full well that Histy is… well… Pissty.
"But, I know you, you would not stay here cooped up finishing paperwork. And thus, I have a more… productive task for you." Histoire said. "Both of you will go to Lowee, Lady Blanc needs your assistance for some problem she's been having. Something about villagers being recruited by some band of mercenaries."
"Oh, Blanc needs our help?" IF said. "Well then. Neptune, let's go."
"Fine…" And with Neptune's resignation, both of them entered the elevator.
Before closing the elevator door, IF remarked to Histoire. "Hey, Histoire, can we continue our conversation another time? You know, about the thing that was stolen?"
"Very well then. Well, good-bye for now, you two." Histoire said.
The elevator door closed, leaving Histoire alone in the room.
"Hmm…" Now she is alone with her thoughts. "The scroll that Kenshi person stole from the archives… It might be my own paranoia talking, but…" She said to herself as she looked at a hat that is placed in a table nearby. Compa and IF found it when they were trying to look for Neptune's kidnapper, the goddess herself citing that it was that Kenshi's hat. "What if, kidnapping Neptune was just a distraction? I have no evidence, but the information that the scroll contains…" She proceeded into the Basilicom's balcony.
She stared into the sky. "I hope the goddesses are ready for whatever comes next."
Oohhh... Mystery? What is the scroll Kenshi stole all about? Will it even be important to the plot? Stay tuned to find out!
