Ch 22: The Surprise Event
Things became quite hectic for Vert as she prepared for the dreaded announcement ceremony. Of course, it was not the actual planning and setting up of the event that required so much of her focus (all of that was being efficiently handled by her Basilicom staff members and the Ran Rans). No, for Vert, the busywork came from making sure all of her armed forces were properly deployed and prepared for the inevitable disaster to follow.
After witnessing the nation-wide chaos that Sync had managed to produce with a single TV broadcast, Vert was not about to foolishly head into a similar situation without taking some proper precautions. To that end, she had deployed most of her army to provide a rather overkill amount of security around the main pavilion in front of the Basilicom where the event was to be held. The rest of the army had been stationed all around the other major cities with similar orders to stay on high alert while the air force was told to prepare for an immediate nation-wide aerial bombardment of knockout gas at her command. As for the navy, they were told to form a temporary blockade around Leanbox with strict orders not to allow anyone or anything through during the day of the event. If things really did deteriorate into a nation-wide crisis, Vert was determined to keep the rioting contained within her own nation. She had a feeling that neither Noire nor Blanc would be so forgiving of a crazed fan invasion into their lands as Neptune had been about K-Sha's incursion.
Ironically enough, Vert's precautions to prevent a riot ended up stirring up her citizens even before the day of the announcement. As expected, the massive increase in military activity did not go unnoticed by the Leanbox public. Having only been told that their CPU would soon be making an important announcement - and receiving no further information about the recent military deployments in the meantime - the citizens of Leanbox were quick to assume the worst. Rumors and theories immediately spread like wildfire as whispers filled the streets about the start of another Console War. According to some, Noire was apparently preparing to invade their country, pointing (rather mistakenly) to the recent invasion of Planeptune as proof of the Tsundere's plan for conquest. Meanwhile, others claimed that Blanc had finally snapped at the sad fact of being pitifully lacking in the chest area compared to their glorious Lady Vert and was coming to seek her vengeance. There were even some who proclaimed that Lady Vert was preparing to invade and annex Planeptune in order to officially turn Nepgear into her younger sister. Despite all these vastly differing theories though, one thing remained true in all of the citizens' minds: They would support their beloved goddess no matter the circumstance. Rather than panicking about the onset of another war, the citizens banded together in a stunning show of national pride as they braced themselves for the coming conflict and waited for their great goddess to make her appearance and lead the way forward when the time came.
Of course, Vert had absolutely no idea that any of this was happening as she was too busy running to and fro from her office and room trying to double-check her event preparations while also getting through her daily quests on her MMO.
And like that, the long day and a half passed by and the anticipated moment of the announcement ceremony finally came.
Okay... all ground forces have reported that they're in position, bombers are fully fueled and good to go, my warships have the entire island on lock-down, and the Ran Rans are prepared to head out and escort all non-violent civilians to the emergency shelters once the rioting starts.
Vert nervously bit her lips as she paced about inside her room and ran through all her preparations for the umpteenth time that day. To her, it was not a matter of if her citizens rioted but simply a matter of when. Noire's fans might have been the craziest out of the four nations but her own hardcore fans were nothing to scoff at either. The moment Sync was revealed to be their CPU Candidate, it was all but inevitable that all hell would break loose.
At this thought, Vert once again pulled out the stun pike she had brought over from her adventure in Lastation. After turning it on and confirming to herself that it was still charged, she put it away and took multiple deep breaths to calm herself.
You've got this Vert. This can't be any worse than the time you had to make a public apology after forgetting to include a Start button on the new computer operating system.
Indeed, her logical side agreed. I highly doubt anything can top that major screw up.
Vert gave a wince at this as she stepped into her mental landscape.
I'm already nervous enough without your contributions, thank you very much, Vert huffed at her glasses-wearing counterpart.
Logical Vert simply crossed her arms upon seeing her main self within the crowded mental meeting hall.
I highly doubt now is the time for you to come in here and get caught up in another one of your... our mental hijinks, she pointed out, choosing to ignore her main's self's previous comment.
Vert simply gave a pout to this. You're the one who decided to speak to me first!
And you could have simply answered without dragging yourself down here, Logical Vert retorted back matter-of-factly.
Unable to think of a comeback for this, Vert fell silent as she instead went back to fretting about the dreaded announcement ceremony.
For a few mental minutes, only the sounds of the other Verts chatting with one another and the PerVert flipping through a lewd doujinshi could be heard within her head. Eventually, Vert turned to her logical side again with a heavy sigh.
Do you think we'll be okay? she asked in a nervous voice. Can Leanbox really survive through all this?
Logical Vert gave a scoff at her worry. Honestly, we can probably survive through a full-scale invasion with all the preparations you made. I personally think all these measures are a bit overkill but considering what we just saw in Lastation, I can't exactly fault you for your paranoia either.
This did little to alleviate Vert's worry as she began biting at her fingernails in anxiety.
Feeling a rare bout of pity for her main self, Logical Vert gave a sigh of her own before trying to calm her. As long as the boy doesn't do anything too foolish, I'm sure we'll be able to make it through this with acceptable losses.
Vert was just about to ask what her logical self constituted as 'acceptable losses' when a dark shape suddenly smashed through one of the large windows above the meeting hall.
As all of the Verts currently inside watched with various shocked looks (or vague curiosity in the case of the PerVert and Apathy Vert), a Vert wearing a black trench coat and a stylish face mask landed gracefully in the middle of the room following her dramatic entrance. With a wide smirk on her face, she tightened her grip on the metal briefcase she was holding before bolting for the exit doors.
Someone stop her! a high-pitched version of Vert's voice cried out from the broken window. As everyone turned their gaze, the diminutive form of Cupid Vert flew into the room with a harried look. Thief Vert just stole all of my hearts!
The more lawful aspects of Vert's mind immediately leaped into action at this as they tried to apprehend the fleeing thief persona. However, their paths were quickly blocked by those who were friends with the phantom thief as they tried to buy her time to escape. Unfortunately, this confrontation ended up igniting all the pent-up stress that had been accumulating in Vert's mind for the past few days as the two groups began to assault each other in a blinded rage. The various other personas in the room tried to break up the two warring factions but only ended up getting dragged into the frenzied fighting as the entire room soon devolved into an all-out senseless brawl.
Meanwhile, off in their relatively safe corner, Logical Vert simply took in this pandemonium with a deadpan look before giving the mother of all facepalms.
Hurry up and get this entire ordeal over with before your stress ends up killing all of us, she managed to mutter to her main self.
Vert quietly gave a nod as she watched the PerVert grab Biker Vert's motorcycle and beat it's owner over the head with it for knocking away her unholy doujinshi. Suppressing the urge to give a facepalm of her own, the CPU quickly left the mental war zone and made her escape back to the slightly less insane realm of reality.
"Talking to your imaginary friends again, sis?"
Vert gave a startled yelp as Sync's voice came from behind her just as she returned from the depths of her mental madhouse.
"Stop sneaking up on me like that!" she complained, turning around with a flustered look. "And I wasn't talking to-"
The rest of her words died off into stunned silence as she fully laid eyes on the boy. Or more specifically, the new clothes he was wearing.
Rather than a simple tuxedo like Vert had been expecting, her tailor had apparently decided to go all-out with her latest project. As it was, Sync was now wearing a royal-looking white tunic bordered with green and black accents, a loose black belt with flowing green embroidery around his waist, and an expensive-looking pair of white slacks that ended just above his matching black dress shoes. To top it all off, his signature green coat had been replaced by a regal black cape that featured a dark green interior. It was clear extra effort and skill had been put into this outerwear as the intricate silver embroidery, stylish high collar, and asymmetrical design that fully hid its wearer's right arm from view expertly served its purpose of acting as the fancy ensemble's centerpiece.
Seeing Vert continue to gawk at him with her mouth hanging open, Sync gave a teasing smile as he stylishly brushed aside his hair with his left hand like a stereotypical bishounen anime character.
"I'm guessing you like what you see?"
Luckily for the CPU, the PerVert was too busy piledriving DJ Vert through a table at the moment to realize what was going on and start filling her head with inappropriate thoughts. Even so, she was hard-pressed to keep herself from blushing as she tried to muster up an annoyed tone to answer him with.
"Wh...What are you talking about? I... I simply wasn't expecting to see you looking so... so..."
"Breathtakingly handsome?" Sync supplied jokingly, lowering his hand with a mocking grin.
This finally managed to snap Vert out of her surprised reverie as she suppressed the urge to roll her eyes and answered the boy in a flat tone.
"I was going to say that you look a lot more... dignified in that outfit."
As it was, she could not help but feel that his current image helped solidify her theory about him being some sort of alternate-dimension prince. Okay, perhaps he did not exactly match the fairy-tale 'prince charming' archetype she had been imagining (his current wardrobe made him look much more like a heir to some militaristic imperial regime) but there was no denying that he was able to pull off the high-class nobility look fairly well. Of course, the image could have been a lot more perfect if he was not wearing a playful grin that seemed to be silently taunting her.
Realizing that her thoughts were starting to wander again, Vert quickly shook her head and tried to change the subject.
"Ahem. Anyways, did my tailor create that design or did you come up with it?"
Sync seemed to debate whether or not to continue teasing her before apparently deciding to cut her some slack.
"The cape was the only thing I personally requested," he explained. " I wanted to keep my regular coat as part of my outfit but your tailor seemed to take professional offense at that. After a bit of an argument, we eventually compromised by deciding to add a cape instead." He paused to shift his new outer garment with his shoulders a bit before continuing. "I'll admit, it is a bit heavy and far less comfortable than my coat but it does make me feel less exposed at least. Plus, it allows me to keep my Share Blade equipped and hidden from view."
Vert raised an eyebrow after peering around the folds of the cape and catching a glimpse of the boy's mechanized arm unit.
"Why are you bringing that to the ceremony?" she asked. "Or is it that you can't take it off?"
"Oh I can take it off just fine," he answered. "It's just that it takes a while to recalibrate back to my Share energy if I take it off and put it back on. It's rather annoying having to wait for it to become usable again in an emergency situation so I prefer to just keep it on me whenever possible." His smile took on a mischievous edge as he continued. "And judging from all the military personnel you put on alert today, I'd say the chances of an emergency situation arising are fairly high."
Vert immediately pinned him with a stern gaze as she crossed her arms.
"You better not be planning to pull any pranks today," she warned. "There's certain to be some serious public backlash at this news and I don't need you stirring up any additional trouble."
To her annoyance and dread, Sync passed this off with a light chuckle.
"You obviously haven't been checking the local news lately, sis. I highly doubt I'll need to do anything special today to subvert anyone's expectations."
Before Vert could ask what he meant, a knock came from outside her room's door.
"Lady Vert?" one of the female Basilicom workers called out. "Everyone has gathered and the camera crews are on standby. You can make your announcement whenever you are ready."
Vert bit back a groan as she realized the moment of reckoning had finally come at last.
"Tell everyone I'll be out in ten minutes," she replied curtly.
"Understood my lady." The staff member was heard taking a step back before she seemed to remember something and spoke up again. "Oh, and one other thing. No one's been able to find Miss Chika since this morning. Do you happen to know where she is?"
Sync spoke up before Vert could express her confusion about this.
"Don't worry about Chika. She's just a bit... preoccupied with some other business at the moment. She'll be back by tomorrow morning."
"Oh! Master Sync!" the worker said, her voice suddenly sounding rather flustered. "I... I didn't realize you were there. Um... I'll... uh... go inform everyone else about Miss Chika's situation then. Please excuse me."
Vert immediately turned to raise an eyebrow at Sync as the sound of the worker's rapidly retreating footsteps faded away.
"Master Sync?" she said, repeating back the way that the worker had addressed him in a confounded tone.
Sync simply gave a rather embarrassed laugh to this as he tried to pass it off with a shrug. As much as Vert wanted to continue pressing him for a proper answer, she realized she was short on time and that there were more important matters to address at the moment.
"Never mind," she said with a shake of her head. "Just tell me what you did to Chika."
Sync's cheerful demeanor quickly returned as he gave an amused grin. "Oh, nothing much. I just duct-tapped her to the ceiling of her room."
"You did what?!"
Again, Sync gave a shrug. "Hey, you said I'm allowed to prank her up to once a day. I just decided to use today's prank to keep her from causing any additional trouble. After all, I highly doubt you'd want her to come after me with a harpoon-gun in the middle of the ceremony or something like that."
As much as Vert hated to admit it, she had to agree that the boy had a point. Deciding not to comment about this matter any further, she instead just buried her head in her hands and wished the day to be over already .
"By the way, sis," Sync piped up after a moment. "Aren't you going to dress up for the event as well? Or are you just going to go in that usual dress of yours?"
Vert let out a groan as she realized she did not even have the luxury of lamenting her situation. Lowering her hands, she briefly concentrated to activate her HDD. Rather than putting on her normal processors however, she instead focused on equipping her formal dress as the transformation kicked in. The light around her soon faded away as she reappeared in her HDD form wearing a simple yet elegant white dress decorated with green ribbons.
"Huh," Sync let out, looking more intrigued than anything else. "So you can actually put on different clothes instead of your processors when you transform?"
Vert's increased vanity in her transformed state made her feel a slight tinge of annoyance at the boy's complete lack of mention at how beautiful she no doubt looked in her formal dress. Thankfully, her Green Heart personality was also more mature and composed than her usual self was so she was able to simply ignore this feeling rather than childishly pout about it like she normally would have.
"As long as you have the desired clothes in your inventory, it is a simple matter to equip it as you transform," she explained to him instead. As Sync gave her an understanding nod, she stopped to look over him with a newfound critical gaze. "Hm... it's a pity you can't properly transform. It would have been far more appropriate to make your first appearance before the citizens in your HDD form."
Sync gave a sheepish grin as he rubbed the back of his head. "Heh heh. Well, we could always call in Ram or Rom if you really need me to transform. Of course, I highly doubt Blanc would be too happy about lending me her Shares again for something like that."
Vert shook her head to this as she gave a soft sigh. "I was simply being rhetorical. I'd rather avoid having Lowee involved in a matter such as this." She paused as a thought occurred to her. "Though now that you mention it, I am surprised that Blanc hasn't barged in here already after finding out about what happened in Lastation."
Sync gave a shrug. "C-Sha's probably been holding her back so that I could get a chance to fully recover. She's thoughtful like that."
Vert inclined her head slightly as she agreed this was the most likely scenario as well. Unfortunately, this also meant that Blanc was very likely to come storming in once the public broadcast of Sync's appearance went live and showed him in perfect health. Hopefully though, the wrathful goddess would at least have enough tact to wait for the national announcement to end before invading the country.
With a tired groan, Vert pushed aside the thought of this inevitable confrontation and decided to deal with the main issue in front of her first.
"Well then, shall we?" Vert said, motioning towards the door as she mentally braced herself for the absolute worst.
"After you, milady," Sync replied jokingly.
Even in her Green Heart form, Vert could not help but roll her eyes to this as she opened the door and headed out.
The stage for the announcement had been set on the large pavilion underneath the arch of the Leanbox Basilicom. While Vert would have normally just given out her speeches from the top of the Basilicom's outer announcement platform, she had decided to choose a more visible location this time so that the crowd could get a direct view of Sync rather than having to rely on the cameras. Aside from that, the closer proximity between Vert and the crowd would also allow her to more easily intervene once the rioting started. If she was lucky, there was the minute chance that she could knock out the first few instigators herself and maybe even stop the chaos before it truly began to spread. Of course, considering her luck so far, this was about as likely to occur as her favorite 18+ BL visual novel getting a big anime studio adaptation.
Forcibly pushing aside her trepidation, Vert took a deep breath and walked up the steps to the raised podium. As she reached the top and scanned the massive crowd before her, she quickly realized that something was already off about the situation. Rather than the usual buzz of confusion and light excitement that accompanied most of her surprise announcements, there was a resolute sort of tension in the atmosphere that would not have felt out of place at a military rally. In fact, the solemn looks on most of the citizens almost made it seem as if they were waiting for her to give out an official declaration of war.
Please don't tell me the boy's done something already, Vert mentally groaned.
Unfortunately, she was already in plain view of her audience at that point and could not glance back down to check on Sync's reaction. Praying to RNGesus that she was not walking blindly into some massive prank, she cleared her throat and began her speech.
"Citizens of Leanbox," she spoke out, her tone confident and steady despite her inner worry. She noted that the crowd immediately straightened up at the sound of her voice but she tried not to think too hard about it. Instead she focused on getting through the basic formalities. "I thank you all for taking time off from your busy schedules to gather here today on such short notice. It is this such dedication that allows our nation to prosper as the greatest in all of Gamindustri."
The rest of her speech continued on in the same vein as Vert waxed poetic about the glory of Leanbox and greatness of its citizens; pretty much the standard fare when it came to any public announcement made by the CPUs. However, the reaction from her audience was anything but standard.
Rather than the usual lull in attention she got during these portions, the crowd seemed to become more... well, motivated was probably the best way to put it. Like an army listening to their commander giving a rousing speech before a big battle, the citizens seemed to hang onto her every word. In fact, she even spotted an elderly man place his hand solemnly over his chest and shed a tear when she talked about Leanbox's past triumphs. As weirded out by all this as she was though, she kept up her calm facade all the way through to the end of her speech where she finally got around to the main point of the announcement.
"Everyone, what I am about to tell you now will mark a momentous point in Leanbox's history." The entire audience somehow managed to snap even further to attention at this; so much so that Vert would have had a hard time distinguishing between her soldiers and the civilians if not for their uniforms. Feeling ever more anxious, she stalled a bit further to try and soften the blow as much as possible (even if this task was about as feasible as trying to stop an oncoming avalanche with a barricade made of toothpicks).
"I am warning you now that the news I am about to tell you will be rather... shocking. However, I ask that you please control yourselves and not let your emotions get the better of you."
The tension in the air was so dense that it was on the verge of turning into a black hole. Luckily, there was no repeat performance of Nepgear's failed gravitational experiments as someone in crowd suddenly spoke up.
"We can take whatever news you have, Lady Green Heart! Believe in us!"
It was impossible to tell who said this but the declaration seemed to help diffuse some of the tension as everyone in crowd nodded their heads and mumbled their own agreements to this sentiment.
"No matter what happens, we'll always support you Lady Green Heart!" a young man shouted, a loud cheer from the crowd accompanying his words.
Though she was still a bit confused at the reaction she was getting, Vert could not help but feel deeply moved by her citizens' display of heartfelt devotion.
"Everyone..." she breathed out, emotion leaking into her voice.
"Hell yeah!" another voice in the crowd yelled. "It doesn't matter who we're going to war with! Leanbox will take them all down in a flash!"
"Wait, what?"
Vert froze in complete befuddlement as she slowly tried to comprehend this revelation. Unfortunately, she opened her mouth before her mind had a chance to properly recover and sort everything out.
"War? What war? The reason I called everyone here today was to introduce Leanbox's new CPU Candidate."
It took a second before Vert realized she had just dropped her bombshell of a news in possibly the most careless manner possible. As she looked out at the crowd with a horrified look, she could practically hear, no feel, the massive screeching noise as her citizens' minds all came to a sudden and violent halt.
Vert had little time to berate herself as things quickly took a turn for the worse. Before anyone could say anything - or just recover their senses in general - a bright flash of green suddenly erupted next to Vert. With a sound resembling a massive thunderclap, a large green portal flared into existence with copious amounts of sparks and lightning dancing across its borders. As everyone watched with wide eyes, an imposing figure in a dark cape slowly stepped out of this ominous tear in space.
Vert barely held back from facepalming in front of her citizens as Sync stepped into the open and dramatically walked up next to her on the podium. To his credit, the boy was hamming up his performance very effectively as he exuded an imposing aura that actually managed to be rather convincing thanks to his new outfit. With an overemphasized wave of his left hand, he closed off the flashy portal behind him as he finally came to a halt and imperiously stared down at the assembled crowd before him. All of the citizens were in a state of near catatonic shock at this point as they simply looked up with open mouths. Vert, on the other hand, felt only a massive amount of exasperation as she noticed the faint smirk tugging at the edges of Sync's impassive mask.
For several long seconds, Sync continued to silently stare down at the crowd causing them to sweat nervously underneath his piercing gaze. Then, without any warning, he completely dropped the imperious facade as he gave them a wide and cheerful grin.
"Hey everyone! My name's Sync and I'm your new CPU Candidate!" he called out happily. To further throw everyone for a loop, he raised his left hand and gave a peace sign while giving a playful laugh. "It's nice to meet all of you!"
Vert really did facepalm at this as she tried to avoid looking at the crowd. Thankfully, no one seemed to take notice of their goddess's uncharacteristic behavior as they were too busy gaping at the smiling boy instead.
The silence seemed to stretch on for an eternity and a half before the muttering began. Vert cautiously lowered her hand as she looked over at the crowd with a nervous look. While the general tone seemed to be one of simple confusion, she knew this would not last for very long. With bated breath, she waited for one of her hardcore fanboys to angrily speak out and-
"Well, it's about damn time!"
Vert blinked at the completely unexpected feminine voice that suddenly silenced the entire crowd. As she and everyone else looked over towards the source of the shout, they found to their surprise that the speaker was actually a tough-looking middle-aged woman.
"We finally have a male CPU! Well, CPU Candidate, but no matter! Now I finally have a way to get back at my idiot husband whenever he goes on and on about how great Lady Green Heart is!"
"Dear, please..." the timid-looking man who was most likely her husband said, sweating nervously at all the attention they were getting.
"Oh don't you 'dear' me! Every time you come home from work drunk, you prattle on for hours about how beautiful and gorgeous Lady Green Heart is! Honestly, if you love her so much, why didn't you just marry her instead?!" The housewife briefly paused to turn her head towards the podium. "No offense to you, Lady Green Heart."
"None taken," Vert answered in a deadpan.
Funnily enough, this outburst seemed to trigger something in the rest of the numerous housewives as they all began to nod their heads as well and rose up in agreement.
"Yeah! Let's see how our husbands like it when we start gushing about how handsome and good-looking Lord Sync looks compared to them!"
"C...Come on. I never compared you to Lady Green Heart... much..."
"Quiet you!"
While this was going on, the younger girls in the crowd looked back over at Sync with contemplating gazes.
"You know... he is rather cute-looking," one of the schoolgirls commented, her nearby friends nodding their heads in agreement as well.
Sync seemed to hear this as he looked over at the girl with a smile.
"I'm definitely not as cute-looking as you," he called out with a wink.
This caused the girl to blush heavily as her friends began squeeing in excitement at the attention.
Further away in the crowd, an enthusiastic male voice spoke up.
"Yes! We can finally have an official straight pairing between the CPUs! I can't wait to post some fanfics about this!"
"Heresy!" an outraged male voice suddenly cried out. "There's no such thing as a straight ship in Gamindustri! Yuri for life!"
No one seemed to hear this - or the various other complaints being shouted out - as the vast majority of the crowd began to cheer wildly in support of their new male CPU Candidate. The cheering became even louder when Sync began blowing out kisses towards some of the girls in the crowd causing them to go completely wild.
"Kyaa! He actually noticed me!"
"I love you Sync!"
"Marry me senpai!"
All of these declarations, mixed in with the sheer absurdity of the day's events, caused Vert's eyes to blank out into a blue screen as a large message box popped up inside her head.
Vert. exe has stopped working
Without any further prompts, the CPU's transformation fizzled out as she collapsed onto the stage in a dead faint.