"You know, I could get used to this!"
Konata took another bite from her mutfruit and lounged back in the plush chair. They were seated in the Federalist Lounge on the Tower's ground floor, and were enjoying a veritable feast of freshly cooked food taken from the Cafe Beau Monde restaurant. Miyuki took a sip of her Nuka-Cola; it was long since flat, but it was cold, having been stored in a working refrigerator, and it's two hundred year vintage gave it an odd, though not unpleasant, taste.
"Konata-san," Miyuki started, swishing the dark Cola around in it's glass bottle, "Are you certain we can just take all this?" she asked, glancing at the pile of loot Konata had collected over the past hour.
"Of course. Near as I can tell, all the residents cleared out after our fight with security. They probably won't be coming back, so anything they left behind is fair game." Konata slurped up some of her noodles before continuing. "Besides, we're doing the world a favor by taking this stuff."
Miyuki tilted her head. "We are?"
Konata nodded. "Sure are. Only the corrupt and filthy rich could live here before. But now that we've got this stuff, it'll make it's way to all the honest, hard-working Wastelanders just scraping by. We found over a hundred boxes of food, Yuki-chan. Think about how many families won't have to starve once that food is made available through the caravans. Think about the lives that'll be saved by the medical equipment we found, and the raiders that'll be killed by all these guns. And we can use the profit to equip ourselves for more dangerous adventures, where we'll find even more loot to bring back and sell to those who need it." Konata leaned back in her seat. "Sounds like a good deal all around if you ask me."
"Well," Miyuki replied, "I guess it doesn't sound so bad when you put it like that. Isn't that a lot to carry all at once though?" She took another look at the pile. Konata was apparently quite the pack rat; she had managed to cram over six hundred pounds of loot into tree bags, Miyuki's backpack, and a trunk.
"Well, it'll be slow going, for sure. But I'd rather make one long trip back home than come back here multiple times."
Miyuki nodded in agreement; despite this nice meal, she'd had quite enough of Tenpenny Tower.
"Mirelurk cake?" Konata asked, holding out a chunk of baked Mirelurk meat, another of which was hanging out of her mouth. Miyuki took it gladly; she wanted as much energy as possible if they were going to haul Konata's loot all the way back to Megaton.
"I don't know. This doesn't seem right, Akira-sama." Minoru glanced around nervously. The hall was illuminated only by a single ray of moonlight streaming in through the boarded up living room windows.
"Would you relax? If the girl really is here, then these guys are harboring a fugitive from the Enclave, and that makes them criminals, unworthy of sympathy. And if we don't find anything, then we just leave and pretend nothing happened. Now hand it over."
Akira stuck out her hand, giving Minoru an impatient glare. Minoru retrieved the basement key from his pocket and hesitantly gave it to her. Akira turned toward the door and unlocked it.
"Stay close to the walls," Akira whispered as they descended into the darkness, "Try to find a light switch. There was a light in the kitchen, so these guys have electricity. I'll go left; you go right."
They reached the bottom of the stairs and split up, hugging the walls. It wasn't long until Akira kicked a counter while walking. Stifling a curse, she reached down to feel the counter-top's contents; she was shocked to feel something wet and squishy. She raised the item to her face, trying unsuccessfully to identify it in the darkness.
"Akira-sama, I think I've found the switch!" A single dangling light bulb flickered to life, revealing the item in Akira's hand to be a bloody chunk of raw meat.
"Ugh, gross!" Akira dropped the gore and wiped her hand on the wall, leaving streaks of blood.
"A-Akira-sama?" Minoru's voice was shaking. "I think you should look at this."
Akira turned around and gasped at the grisly scene. Two counters stood in the middle of the room; each held a mutilated corpse. Several streaks of blood ran in different directions along the floor. Akira approached the counter nearest to her, staring at the corpse with more morbid curiosity than fear. The body had been disemboweled. Akira peered into the corpse; she was no doctor, but she was fairly certain that several internal organs had been removed.
"Jeez," she muttered, "I'm all for randomly slaughtering Wastelanders, but this is a little much... These must be fresh corpses too, they haven't even started to stink."
"Akira-sama, I think we should get out of here!" Akira faced Minoru and saw him staring into a refrigerator against the wall.
"Why? What's in there?"
He spun around to face her as he replied, panic edging his voice, "Human flesh! There are organs and chunks of meat in there! Akira-sama, these people are cannibals!"
"Cannibals?"Akira repeated, somehow sounding disgusted and thoughtful at the same time. "Wait, that means..." Her eyes widened at her realization.
Minoru held his head as he finished her thought. "It means they fed us human flesh!" He doubled over, retching.
"Those bastards!" Akira shouted, shock turning to anger, "They were trying to fatten us up!"
Minoru looked up at her. "You're right! We need to get out of here before they try to eat us!" Minoru started to run for the stairs, but Akira grabbed his collar and yanked him down to her eye level.
"Just where do you think you're going?" she demanded.
"B-But, Akira-sama, shouldn't we leave while we have the chance?"
"Leave? We're not leaving until these people are dead!" She shoved Minoru away and marched past him. "No one tries to eat Akira Kogami and gets away with it!"
"Phew!" Konata said as she plopped down on top of the trunk. "Quite the workout, huh Yuki-chan?"
Miyuki sat down on the trunk as well, setting her backpack on the floor. They had set the trunk down in the main room of the saloon, after slowly carrying the loot all the way back to Megaton. They had left Tenpenny Tower at 10:30 AM. A glance at her Pip-Boy told Miyuki that it was now about eight-oh-clock in the evening. Fortunately, the chance to rest and eat before setting out and the slow pace of the trip made it much less taxing on the girls then their initial sprint had been. Still, after all that had happened that day, Miyuki was more than ready to get some sleep.
Konata stood up and dumped her three bags onto the floor before stretching. "So, what's our next adventure gonna be?"
"I would much rather go to bed than discuss that, if it's all the same," Miyuki said with yawn.
Konata seemed not to hear her. "Oh, I know! We could go search for your mom! Didn't you say she was missing before?"
Miyuki's eyes suddenly widened as she remembered. "Oh my! I still need to find my mother! I had completely forgotten!"
Konata giggled. "You're so moe when you get all flustered!"
That made Miyuki more flustered. "Please don't laugh! Oh, why am I so single-minded sometimes?"
"Calm down, Yuki-chan. Finding her will be our next big adventure!"
Miyuki shook her head. "No, I've been enough of a burden to you already. You don't have to feel obligated to help me."
"Miyuki, do you really think I'd let you go chasing your mom without me? Following in her footsteps sounds like a quest if I ever heard of one, and I'm not gonna miss out on the opportunity to go."
Suddenly, Sojiro burst out from his room on the second floor. "There you two are!"
"Oh, hi Dad!" Konata greeted as Sojiro stormed down the stairs.
"Don't 'Hi Dad!' me, young lady! Just where have you two been all day? I was worried sick!"
"We were questing at Tenpenny Tower. Check out all this loot we found!" Konata gestured toward the bags and the trunk.
"Really? You found that much loot?" Sojiro said before shaking his head. "Nice try, but your not going to distract me with parental pride this time! You can't just go running off on a quest without at least telling me first! What if you had gotten crippled limbs and no one knew were you had went?"
Konata waved her hand dismissively. "Come on, Dad. I'm old enough to take care of myself, especially with Miyuki for back up. She's a real crack shot, you know."
"I don't think you get how serious this is!" Sojiro fumed, "I thought you two had gone chasing after Yukari!" Sojiro suddenly widened his eyes and covered his mouth. Oh no! I wasn't supposed to let that slip!
Miyuki spoke up upon hearing her mother's name. "Izumi-san, how do you know my mother's name?"
"Yeah, Dad, how do you know her mom? And why don't you want us following her?" Konata questioned.
"D-Did I say Yukari? Who's Yukari? I don't know any Yukari," Sojiro lied, rubbing the back of his head.
"Come on, Dad," Konata said, crossing her arms. "I'd expect a better lie from a scoundrel like you."
"Well, I didn't really have much to work with," he said with a sigh. "Fine. I'll tell you." He glanced at Miyuki. "This might be a bit hard for you to accept, but please try to keep an open mind. I first met your mother almost twenty years ago, back when you were still a newborn. You both stayed here in the saloon before disappearing into Vault 101." Sojiro closed his eyes and nodded thoughtfully. "I never expected someone to want to or be able to get into a vault, but she must've had a way with words."
Miyuki furrowed her brow in confusion. "But, that can't be true. My mother told me we were both born in the Vault. She would never lie to me."
"Believe what you want," Sojiro replied, "Your mother said what she needed to to keep you safe. She didn't want you to follow her, you know. She wanted you to stay in the Vault."
"That's all well and good," Konata said, "But Yuki-chan's here now, and she's gone through a lot already. There's no reason for us not to go after her mom now."
"No, Konata. I won't let you two follow her; you'll only get yourselves killed." Sojiro said sternly.
"You're not the boss of me! I'm sure we can handle whatever gets in our way."
"I said no, Konata! Neither of you are strong enough to adventure in the Downtown Ruins!" Sojiro shouted.
Konata grinned wide. "That's two slip-ups, Dad. You've really lost your edge."
Sojiro's eyes widened. "You're right! Why did I just blurt that out?"
"Where is she, Dad?" Konata pressed, "Where in Downtown?"
"I won't tell you that!"
"Fine." Konata shrugged. "I guess we'll just have to check every inch of D.C. to find her."
"You can't do that! I'll... I'll put locks on all the doors! You won't leave the saloon!"
"Don't make me laugh, Dad. I picked a very hard lock just last night!" Konata said proudly. "It took me over an hour, but still."
Sojiro gritted his teeth. Come on, think! There has to be some way to stop them from going! "...Fine. I'll tell you where Yukari went. I'd rather send you someplace specific then have you go wandering the ruins aimlessly," he said, shoulders slumped in defeat.
Konata gave a victorious smirk. "Ha! I knew we'd get it out of you."
"But," Sojiro started, "What you're asking for is information, and information is a commodity. Before I tell you, you're going to have to do a little favor for me. This junkie by the name of Silver borrowed quite a few caps from me a while back; claimed she could set me up with a cheap supply of Jet and Psycho. Problem is she took the caps and set herself up in Springvale so she can inject herself into a stupor. Get the one hundred caps she owes me, and Yukari's location is your's."
Konata frowned. "A fetch quest? But Dad, those are so boring!"
Sojiro shrugged. "Oh well. If you don't want to do it, then I'll just keep the information to myself." He started to walk back up the stairs. "I'm going back to bed. Let me know if you get those caps, or if you just decide to drop this crazy scheme altogether."
"Fine!" Konata called after him. "We'll go and get those caps right now! Right, Yuki-chan?" Konata faced Miyuki expectantly with a determined grin. Miyuki, however, was not quite as excited.
"If you don't mind, Konata-san, I would much prefer to get some sleep."
"Come on," Konata whined, "Don't you want to find your mom faster? Springvale's right outside Megaton; it won't even take an hour!"
"But we've been up since three in the morning!" Miyuki groaned. "Sleepy-time now, Kona-chan!"
"Kona-chan?" Konata repeated. A grin slowly spread across her face. "Miyuki, when was the last time you had some candy?"
"Well, now that you mentioned it..." Miyuki held her hand up as if to count on her fingers. She stared intently at it and brought it closer to her face. "Um... Eleventy minutes ago."
Konata chuckled. "Well, you need some candy, so we'll go have sleepy-time at the candy store."
"Fine. Let's go now." Miyuki said as she grumpily shoved past Konata.
"You know, you're real easy to trick when you crash." Konata remarked.
"And don't you forget it!" Miyuki said before running into the wall. "Door is stupid!" she whined as she grasped for a nonexistent doorknob.
"Come on," Konata snickered, "Door is this way, I'll hold your hand."
"Okay, but no kissing until you buy me dinner!"
Konata burst into laughter as she dragged Miyuki through the door.
"Where the hell are they?" Akira practically shouted as they left the house. The only person in the house had been Junior Smith, whom Akira had left sleeping soundly.
"Akira-sama, shouldn't you keep your voice down?" Minoru cautioned as he quietly closed the door.
"Why? I want them to find us. There's no way I'm letting them live after what they pulled. Wait... there they are!"
In the dim moonlight, four adult figures could be seen coming from behind the Wilson's house across the street. Minoru gulped and glanced at Akira, who was leaning back against the door with her arms crossed. He looked back at the Andale residents as they approached, and was dismayed to see them carrying weapons. Jack was wielding a sawed-off shotgun, and Mr. Wilson had a scoped magnum revolver. Their wives, Linda and Martha, were holding knives. They grouped around Minoru and Akira, cornering them against the house.
"Hey there, strangers," Jack said, hints of malice in his voice, "I've got something I want to talk to you about. I couldn't help but notice that you were poking around in my basement. So be honest now, you wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?"
Minoru started to sweat when Akira said nothing. "I really don't know what you're talking about, Jack..." Minoru lied.
"Look stranger, I'm not angry. I just want you to tell me the truth. If you can't do that, then I think you'd best head on out of town."
"That's a great idea! I'll just be going then!"
"Stop!" Akira commanded as Minoru tried to slip away. "Yeah, we were in the basement."
Jack raised an eyebrow. "And did you see anything... unexpected down there?"
"You know, now that you mention it, there were a bunch of bodies down there." Akira replied almost casually.
"And do you have any thoughts on that?"
"Yes. I think you're all a bunch of backwards savages who tried to put the wrong girl on your menu."
Jack shook his head. "I'm disappointed in you stranger, so quick to judge us. Did you ever stop to think that we have families to support here? 'Judge not, lest ye be judged,' as the good book says. Honestly, how many people have you killed?"
Akira smirked. "More than you think, pal."
"Well, the only difference between us is that I'm bringing home the bacon for my family."
Akira scowled. "Seriously, you're talking about eating people here. What's wrong with you?"
"I don't think I like your tone. There's nothing wrong with us, we've lived this way for decades. Family first, that's the way it's been in Andale ever since the day the first four families decided to stay here. I wouldn't expect a couple of wasteland wanders like you to understand."
"Sorry, Jack. You've crossed Akira Kogami, and you have to die. You and your sick little town."
"Well, I guess we know where our next meal is coming from then, don't we?"
Akira twisted and bent over backwards, simultaneously kicking Minoru away and dodging the first shell of buckshot. She used her momentum to cartwheel backwards, dodging the second shell, along with scattered shots from Wilson's magnum. As she landed on her feet, she thrust her arms forward and out of her sleeves, revealing her dual laser pistols. She delivered three precision shots to Wilson; one to his weapon hand, and two to his forehead. Jack fumbled to reload his shotgun, but he wasn't fast enough. By the time he closed the action, Akira had closed the distance and delivered a sharp vertical kick, sending his shotgun skyward. Five point-blank laser burns to the chest ended his life before he could even react. Akira then dropped straight down the ground, avoiding dual slashes from Linda and Martha. She performed a full leg sweep, knocking both women to the ground. Standing as they fell, Akira delivered a single headshot to each, ending the short fight.
Minoru, who had been cowering on the ground the whole time, slowly stood. "Akira-sama... I didn't realize you were such a good fighter!"
"That was nothing," Akira spat, still staring down at Jack's corpse. "These people were pathetic. A complete waste of time." She strapped the pistols to her thighs and began to walk down the road out of town. Minoru hurried to catch up.
"So what now?" he asked.
"You heard me before. No one crosses Akira Kogami and lives. We're going to Fairfax."
"How much farther?" Miyuki whined as Konata lead her down Springvale's main street.
"Just a little more Yuki-chan, it has to be close by. Aha! That's gotta be it!" Konata pointed at what appeared to be Springvale's only intact dwelling, a small one story ranch house. She opened the door and stepped inside. "Anyone home?" she called out.
A woman appeared from another room. "Who the hell are you? And why are you barging into my house?"
"I'll ask the questions here, ma'am," Konata replied, trying to play bad cop. "Are you Silver?"
The woman raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, who wants to know?"
"I've come on behalf of Sojiro Izumi. If you'd just hand over the caps you owe him, then we can leave without any trouble."
"Sojiro? What are you talking about? I don't owe him caps!"
"Miss, it's really in your best interest to hand over the money. You wouldn't want me and my associate to have to get rough with you, would you?"
Silver gave a skeptical look. A girl half her size with a tripped-out looking sidekick didn't seem like much of a threat. "Look, I don't know what you're trying to pull, but I don't owe anything to Sojiro! I haven't even seen the guy for almost twenty years!"
Konata looked confused. "Twenty years?"
"That's right. Now get out of my house before I shoot you out!"
Something's not right here, Konata thought, The only way we're gonna get anything from her is if we fight her. I could kill her easy, but it doesn't seem like she's lying. "Alright, alright, we're going. Come on, Miyuki," Konata said as she started to push Miyuki out of the house.
"Kona-chan! Where's the candy store?" Miyuki complained once they were outside.
Konata sighed before digging the Mentats out from Miyuki's pocket and giving her one. Miyuki blinked repeatedly as the Mentat kicked in and her senses sharpened.
"K-Konata-san!" she exclaimed once her head cleared. "Why are we in Springvale?"
"Well, you weren't agreeing to come out here, so I tricked you when you crashed," Konata replied shamelessly.
"Tricked me? Th-That wasn't nice!"
Konata shrugged. "It's your own fault for not taking a Mentat. Didn't you notice the symptoms popping up?"
"I had attributed the symptoms to sleep deprivation," Miyuki said, rubbing her eyes. "I presume that you found Silver while we were out here?"
"Yeah, except I don't think she actually took caps from my dad." Konata thought for a moment. "Yuki-chan, are you still tired?"
"Now that you mention it, I'm not, actually. It seems the Mentat rush woke me up. Why?"
"I think I may know of another way to get Dad's information."
"You want to find your mom, right Yuki-chan?"
"Yes, but is it really alright for us to break into your father's computer?" Konata had picked the lock to Sojiro's office, allowing them access to his personal computer terminal.
"Sure it is! Dad definitely would've kept a record of where Yukari went; all you have to do is hack his computer so we can find it. Besides, what's the worst he'll do if he finds out?"
Miyuki sighed as she pressed the power button. The green monochrome screen lit up.
WELCOME TO ROBCO INDUSTRIES (TM) TERMLINK
Miyuki typed in the string of commands to bring up the debug mode.
}SET TERMINAL/INQUIRE
RIT V-300
}SET FILE/PROTECTION=OWNER:RWED ACCOUNTS.F
}SET HALT RESTART/MAINT
Initializing Robco Industries (TM) MF Boot Agent v2.3.0
RETROS BIOS
RBIOS- 52EE5.E7.E8
Copyright 2201-2203 Robco Ind.
UPPERMEM: 64 KB
ROOT (5A8)
Maintenance Mode
}RUN DEBUG/ACCOUNTS.F
Konata sweatdropped. "Wow. You really know what you're doing, huh?"
"This part is actually fairly simple," Miyuki said modestly as she pressed ENTER. Konata's sweatdrops multiplied as dozens of code strings composed of seemingly random characters filled the screen.
"I used to perform maintenance on the lab computer back in Vault 101. I learned some tricks from Stanley, our maintenance technician," Miyuki said as she cheerfully tapped away on the keyboard, effortlessly manipulating the endless stream of code strings. "See these words mixed in with the code?" She paused to point at the screen. Konata nodded. "Those are actually decoy passwords generated by the system," she explained as she started typing again. "This feature was developed because the terminal password can appear in the debug code. When four decoy passwords are entered, the system locks down. However, one of the decoys actually serves as a command to reveal the password. You simply have to figure out which decoy leads to the password."
"Uh, I only understood half of that..." Konata admitted as Miyuki flipped through screen after screen of code strings.
"I'm sorry. I suppose I was speaking a bit technically. This kind of thing is really second nature to me."
She typed in the word CIRCUITRY.
"I must be honest, without the Mentats this would've taken me much longer."
She pressed ENTER.
"There, an exact match. I've found the password."
Konata's eyes widened. "Wait, really? You already cracked it?"
Miyuki eyesmiled. "Indeed. It seems your father's password is... 'lolicon'?"
Konata smacked her forehead. "Duh! I should have guessed that!"
Miyuki tilted her head. "Why? What is 'lolicon'?"
"Oh, nothing, nothing. So we can log on to Dad's computer now?"
"Indeed." Miyuki reset the terminal and typed in the log on command.
}LOGON ADMIN
ENTER PASSWORD NOW
}LOLICON
The screen displayed a list of folders, one of which was titled "Visitors." Miyuki highlighted it and pressed ENTER, bringing them to a list of names.
"There she is!" Konata exclaimed, pointing at an entry labeled "Yukari (Vault 101)."
Miyuki activated it and was brought to a journal entry. She read it out loud. "So, out of nowhere, Yukari came back to Megaton. Since she stayed here before she asked me where to go to figure out what's going on in the world. I told her about Galaxy News Radio in the ruins of D.C., and that guy Three Dog. Then like that, she was gone again.
"I remember the first time she showed up almost twenty years ago. She and Kanata got along well, and she had a baby girl with her the same age as Konata. She stayed at the saloon for a couple nights, and then she disappears into Vault 101 for almost twenty years. Really nice lady, but she's so clumsy and absent-minded it's almost moe."
"That's it!" Konata exclaimed, pumping her fist in the air. "That's where we're going, Yuki-chan! To Galaxy News Radio!"
"K-Konata? Miyuki? What are you doing in here?" The girls turned to see a shocked looking Sojiro standing in the door.
"S-Sojiro-san!" Miyuki looked down at her feet guiltily, her face red with shame. "I apologize!"
"Don't be sorry, Miyuki," Konata said, "We beat him fair and square. There's nothing you can do to stop us now, Dad! Yuki-chan hacked your computer and found out that Yukari went to Galaxy News Radio!"
Miyuki turned redder at the mention of her name. "I'm sorry Sojiro-san, but I have to see my mother again!"
"B-But, you two can't leave! It's far too dangerous in D.C.! The entire place is filled with Super Mutants! Your levels aren't high enough to fight them! Besides, you can't just leave me all alone! I like having you two around, just look how adorable you are!" Sojiro thrust forward a photograph depicting Miyuki and Konata sleeping together.
Miyuki's eyes bulged as a dark blush spread across her face. "Y-You actually took a photo of us that night?"
Konata scrutinized the photo. "You're right, Dad. We are adorable," she said with a nod of approval. "But that still doesn't change anything. We're going to Galaxy News, tomorrow!"
Sojiro let out a deep sigh. "I suppose there's really no stopping you is there? And here I thought you would just give up after finding out that Silver didn't owe me any money. I should have known you would find another way to get the information."
Konata smirked. "Sorry, Dad. Looks like you taught me too well!"
"I suppose. I can only hope that your strong wills and commitment will keep you two safe. Now, you two should get to bed. You'll need your strength for tomorrow."
"You're right," Miyuki said with a yawn. "I think my Mentats are wearing off anyway." She stood and walked to the door, pausing before leaving. "I'd like to say that I'm sorry about hacking your computer, once again."
Sojiro smiled. "It's alright. Good luck tomorrow, Miyuki."
Miyuki smiled back. "Thank you, Sojiro-san." She left the room, leaving Konata and her father alone.
"So," Sojiro said after several seconds, "Miyuki didn't happen to find the pictures on my computer, right?"
"Don't worry," Konata chuckled as she started toward the door. "Your secret stash is safe."
"This isn't over yet," Akira declared as she marched down into the valley separating Andale from Fairfax. Minoru looked worried.
"But Akira-sama, they must have heavy weapons in Fairfax if they shot down our Vertibird."
"Doesn't matter," Akira replied, not even bothering to glance at him. "I'm still going to kill them all. Just stay out of my way." Minoru decided to stay silent; there was no changing her mind.
They continued on past an overturned trailer and ruined overpass before reaching the Fairfax. The sky was slowly lighting up as the sun poked over the eastern horizon. Akira surveyed the ruined buildings before pressing on down the main street, with Minoru following nervously. They came to an intersection. Hanging from the streetlight was a mutilated corpse.
"Raiders," Akira snarled, "They think they're so badass." She looked back down at the street and stopped, holding her arm out and stopping Minoru suddenly.
"What is it?" Minoru asked fearfully.
Akira pointed at the ground. "Landmines. Watch your step."
They walked around the scattered mines and turned right up a small incline, heading for some makeshift plywood barriers that formed a gate. Leaving Minoru by the gate, Akira marched down the street until she spotted a group of raiders standing in the courtyard of a theater.
"Hey!" she shouted. The raiders turned to face her. "You jackasses have a lot of nerve, taking shots at an Enclave Vertibird. You should have made sure we were dead; now you're going to pay for your mistake!"
The raiders started laughing. "Check it out!" one of them shouted. "This kid is seriously trying to threaten us!"
Akira scowled and drew her laser pistols. She fired off a quick volley of shots, burning straight through the closest raider. The others stopped, surprised for a moment, but they quickly retaliated. Akira jumped sideways away from a shotgun blast, firing her pistols in rapid succession. The beams struck the raider's torso several times before the final beam burned through his head.
The closest raider lunged forward, swinging an L-shaped tire iron at Akira. She ducked to the side, holstering her pistol as she dodged. She grabbed the tire iron and spun sharply, tearing it from the raider's grip. She leaped straight up as she spun, swinging the tire iron around a full circle before slamming it into the back of the raider's neck, snapping it.
As the corpse fell, a frag grenade landed at her feet. She dove behind the corpse, propping it up and allowing it to take the shrapnel. Akira sprung up and dashed trough the cloud of dust from the explosion. The raider primed another grenade as she closed on him, but she kicked it aside before he could even throw it. Using the momentum from the kick, Akira spun her back to the raider, delivering an elbow strike to his gut. She sent a punch straight up, pulling the trigger as her pistol connected with the raider's chin.
Akira threw her pistols to the ground as the corpse fell over behind her. "Come on!" she shouted at the buildings around her. "Come out, you cowards! Come and fight me!" After a moment, she spotted several raiders emerging from different buildings. "Well? Come and get me!"
The raiders fired, spewing 5.56mm and .32 rounds from their assault rifles and hunting rifles. Akira quickly backed into a nearby bus stop to avoid the spray of bullets. After several seconds, the majority of the guns died down, and a group of raiders armed with melee weapons closed on her as the gunners reloaded. Akira grinned viciously. "My turn."
A Ripper emerged from Akira's sleeve. She squeezed the trigger mechanism as she ran out from cover, revving the chainsaw knife. The small Enclave officer literally carved through the charging raiders, her Ripper spraying blood with each slash and stab. Sparks flew as she clashed with the raider's knives, and she even cut through a sledgehammer handle straight into its owner. She turned to faced the gunners, who stood awestruck at the carnage this young girl could cause. Akira thrust her other arm out towards them, revealing an Enclave plasma pistol. The powerful sidearm sent green blasts of concentrated plasma into the raider's ranks, quickly burning through two before they returned fire.
Akira charged headlong into the stream of bullets, taking only a few grazing hits from the panicked raiders. By the time she reached the group, four more raiders had fallen to her plasma pistol. The rest met their end in a swirling storm of Ripper teeth and plasma and blood.
As the last gunner fell, a loud WHOOSH! brought Akira's attention behind her. She barely had time to move out of the missile's way as it rushed towards her. She raised her pistol to take a shot at the attacker, only to find that her energy cell had run out of power. The raider launched a second missile, forcing Akira to duck out of the way. The projectile struck the ground close behind her however, and the explosive force sent her flying forward to the ground. She glared at the raider as she stood, revving her Ripper. She spun sideways to dodge the next missile and charged at the raider. Another missile came flying halfway through her charge, sending her into a dive to dodge it. Barely avoiding the projectile, she rolled to her feet and finished her dash to the raider as he was loading another missile. Akira lunged forward, burying her Ripper in the raider's gut and dragging it up his torso in a spray of blood and gore. The heavy missile launcher slammed to the ground as it's owner's mangled carcass fell. Akira loomed over the corpse, grinning at her handiwork.
"Akira-sama," Minoru murmured. "That... That was amazing!" He surveyed the bloody street. "So brutal... I'd heard tales of your skill in combat, but to see it first hand..."
Akira turned to face him, smiling sweetly. "I told you that I'm the best!" she stated matter-of-factly.
Minoru frowned; it was unsettling to see her using her cute persona while she was covered in blood. "So, where did you get those weapons, Akira-sama? I didn't even know you were carrying them."
"What, these?" Akira held up the deadly machines. "Well, I found this Ripper laying around in Jack's basement." The weapon resembled a knife, except it had a lever running perpendicular to the handle and small metal teeth running up the back of the blade and down the front. The teeth sped up and slowed back down as Akira squeezed and released the lever. "I figured he wouldn't need it anymore, so I took it!"
She retracted the Ripper into her sleeve and held up the plasma pistol. "I swiped this from the armory before we left the base." As she replaced the energy cell in the weapon's housing, green arcs of energy sprung from the five secondary cathodes to the long central one. Cables ran down the length of the barrel, connecting the various components. "I know the Colonel said not to bring plasma weapons," Akira flipped on the safety, disabling the energy arcs before retracting the pistol into her sleeve. "But I like to keep a few tricks up my sleeves!"
Akira started to skip down the street, and Minoru followed. "Akira-sama, why are you acting cheerful? I'm the only one here."
"Jeez, Shiraishi-san! What a mean thing to say!"Akira pouted, "A girl can't be happy unless she's trying to trick someone, is that it? You should enjoy my good mood while it lasts!"
"I'm sorry," Minoru replied, "So where are we going now?"
"Take a guess."
"Megaton?"
"Yes! And why are we going to Megaton?"
Minoru thought for a moment. "Because it's still our only lead on Miyuki Takara, and you want to get back at the sheriff?"
Akira turned and gave him an eyesmile. "Yeah! Now you're catching on!"
Greetings, my few but faithful readers! I hope you enjoyed this new chapter. As always, any criticism is welcome, though it seems I've been doing alright thus far, since no one's really complained about anything.
So, what'd you think of Akira this time around? It occurs to me that her fights might seem over the top to some, but I was trying to establish her as a badass; you know, someone for the other characters to fear. Plus, besides the snark, excessive violence seems to be the best way to carry her mean side over into Fallout. But that's just my opinion.
InsertRandomUsernameHere mentioned the possibility of otaku stuff being in Tenpenny Tower. Well, I'm sorry to disappoint, but Konata and Miyuki didn't find any such stuff, and here's why. While keeping the Lucky Star characters true to the originals (within the context of a post-nuclear wasteland, of course) is paramount, I also have an obligation to keep the Fallout world "in character" as well. The best way to describe the (pre-war) Fallout world is as a "retro-futuristic world of tomorrow." Much of the world is based on what people of the 50's thought the future would be like, from the designs of robots, cars, and buildings, to the widespread use of nuclear power. So think about it. Where does anime and manga, which didn't leave Japan until the 80's, fit into a world based on the American 50's? The answer I've come up with: it doesn't. In my version of the Fallout world, otaku stuff was rare even before the war. Like, really rare. As such, any kind of anime or manga stuff is only going to be around to help with characterization, such as Konata's collection. Don't despair too much though. Konata's not the only otaku in the wastes; I can say at the very least there are two others. You can probably guess their names.
I would like to let everyone know that I'll be taking a quick break from writing this. Don't freak out, I've just got to finish a bunch of schoolwork that I've been letting pile up. The good news is that after that, nothing should get in the way of my writing until September, so that's good.
It might seem odd to ask this, considering I can barely keep up with this fic, but it's been on my mind for a while. If I wrote other crossovers like this one, you know, mundane characters in a fantastic setting, do you think anyone would read them? Would you guys read them? Because I've got some ideas for more fics in this style, like Haruhi Suzumiya/Borderlands, or even Azumanga Daioh/Gears of War. Granted, it'll be a long time before anything like that makes it to paper, but do you think it could work? I'm a little iffy on the idea myself; it's much harder to fit the characters into games like those because they're more linear. But I figured I'd see what you guys think.
Well, that's about it for now. The next chapter will focus more on Miyuki and, if all goes to plan, a new Lucky Star character! I bet you guys can't wait to see who it is.
Fun fact! It actually does take nine and a half in-game hours to walk from Tenpenny Tower to Megaton while overencumbered. I know. It was the most boring thirty minutes I've ever spent in Fallout 3. And with that, I bid you farewell. See you all next time.
Last minute comment! FFN messed up the formating for the computer hacking part. I apologize if it's confusing to read.
