It was a peaceful day in the land that was formerly known as Eden. Ever since the nation's one CPU had left the land and become Planeptune's fourth CPU at the time of Eden's collapse (now only the second), the "nation" wasn't really much to look at anymore, and most of the time, the name it had now tended to be forgotten by even those living there. So they chose to simply refer to it as home.

Among those few residents of this land was a rather infamous character who went by the name Anonydeath. Not many had seen this person, but the rumor went that this "Anonydeath" was the most beautiful maiden in all the land. Her beauty could send even the CPUs themselves into fits of envious rage, and one look at her would make a man happy for the rest of his life. That was how beautiful the fabled Anonydeath was.

Of course, little did these people know that that rumor had been started by Anonydeath himself — naturally, that meant they also had no idea that the person in question was a him as well. Though as far as the armored villain was concerned, his heart was that of princess'.

Brighter viewers of Gamindustri might be wondering: Why does any of this matter when Anonydeath is such a minor character in this tale?

Because the ever adorable Peashy is paying her "papa" a visit and sleeping over on this fine evening, that's why! Now stop asking questions!

It had been a peaceful visit thus far, at least as peaceful as visits with a pint-sized powerhouse like Peashy could be, but now that it was wrapping up for the night, the man in pink armor was tucking in the little girl — as he and the child's "mother" had done many times during their reign over Eden while the girl had been brainwashed. Despite the fact that the girl was under no such control now, she would still return to him for these little playdates all the same, as she had today, like he really had become a father figure to her. Of course, the poor thing was probably nearing having a half dozen substitute parents at this point, truth be told, so it really wasn't all that special.

Still... It was why he made the special exception to let her know where his "secret lair" was — and surprisingly, she had yet to tell anyone about it. Considering what a white van scenario that was, even he had to give her credit. She was probably just that confident in her ability to stop him if he should ever try anything, him being such a devious person and all. At least, that's what he would say were he ever asked.

In reality, he just might have been... touched by the girl's feelings and her good heart being willing to look past all of the things he had done to her and to many of the other people she cared about in order to spend time with her "papa." For someone like that, considering he could count the people he regularly interacted with outside of his fellow Seven Sages on one hand, that was... well, it was something is what it was.

Oh goodness! No wonder he hadn't gotten a callback for appearing in any of the new games! Listen to him! He was going soft!

Shaking his armored head, Anonydeath set those silly thoughts to the side as he finished pulling up the covers over the little girl's small torso. She seemed relatively appeased by this, so figuring his job done for the evening, the maiden-at-heart turned to leave after wishing the little girl a good night.

But how on a moment. If the scene were to end here, why, there wouldn't have been a scene at all, now would there?

"Papa! Tell me a story!" The little blonde's cry was enough to halt Anonydeath in his tracks almost instantly. Raising his eyebrow underneath his power suit, the man in pink slowly turned back to the bed in which little Peashy was supposed to be going to sleep. What he saw instead, however, was the face of a child that was very clearly wide awake. "I wanna hear a story!"

"A story, hmmmmm...?" Tapping his chin thoughtfully, the beautiful maiden wondered just what sort of a story he even could tell this little bundle of energy. Anything exciting would get her wanting to play, after all, and he didn't particularly fancy the idea of Peashy bouncing all over his laboratory for a few more hours. Even he had his limits. Though he did remember that Peashy had been very excited about the events of the other world, going so far as to tell him all about what she thought "Neptuna" must be up to. If that kind of thing interested her, then maybe... "I know! We're going to hear a love story tonight."

The little CPU opened her mouth wide, forming an "o" of surprise at the revelation of the genre her bedtime tale would be taking. A love story? Like Neptuna's?

"I see you're interested!" Good, good! This would be easier than Anonydeath thought. "I have to warn you, this is a very special story. It's the original version of this story, in fact! It's a story that only a very select, very special, very few people know... Are you sure you want to know it? Once I tell you, you can't unknow it."

Peashy's eyes were as wide as they possibly could be as she heard these mystical words. How could he even ask her that? Of course she wanted to hear this story! She had to! She had to she had to she had to!

"Tell me! Hurry! Hurry up! I wanna hear it now!" Kicking her arms and legs in excitement, the little CPU smiled happily at the armored man at the end of her bed, eagerly awaiting the story she was about to hear. She might know something no one else in her whole universe did! Besides Papa anyway.

"Settle down, Peashy, and I will." Placing a hand on his hip, Anonydeath raised a brow beneath his armor — an action that went completely unnoticed by little Peashy, for obvious reasons — and waited for the little girl to calm herself. However, as that, well... didn't normally ever happen, Anonydeath cut his losses and pulled up a chair next to the bed before she decided to beat the story out of him. She probably could, after all. "Okay, are you ready?"

"Uh huh!" Nodding furiously, Peashy tugged her covers up all the way to her nose to show just how ready she was to hear the story, which earned her a light chuckle from Anonydeath.

"In that case..." Clearing his throat and crossing one pink armored leg over the other, Anonydeath began his wonderful tale.

"Once upon a time, there was a wonderful, magical land, a land where anyone could be anything they wanted to be, and everyone was beautiful. Everyone. This land was called Gamindustri, and it was divided into a handful of nations that liked to compete for dominance and... Well, you know all of this boring background stuff pretty well already, so I'm going to skip ahead, okay honey?"

"'Kay!" Peashy was quite thankful for the offer and more than eager to take Anonydeath up on it. If he had taken too long to get to the good part, she would've probably wanted to go home and have Plutia tell her a story instead!

"Good girl. Now, where was I? Oh, yes! One day, the most beautiful CPU in all of the land got a call from one of the Oracles of the other nations. Can you guess what happened, Peashy? Their nation was in trouble! The Oracle was a serious type, but she knew when she was beat and she wanted to cut a deal with the CPU she was calling..." Anonydeath laughed. "Can you guess what the difference was in this story, Peashy? It was Lastation calling for help instead of Planeptune! Isn't that an exciting twist?"

"I-It is!" Peashy clapped her hands over her mouth to hide her gasp. So it wasn't Neptuna who was in trouble originally? And it was actually her who went to help another CPU? That... made... so much sense! "Keep going, Papa, keep going! I wanna get to the good parts now!"

"We'll get there, we'll get there...!" Sighing in amusement, Anonydeath cleared his throat and straightened up in his seat, uncrossing and then recrossing his legs. How exciting this was! "As I was saying, the most beautiful CPU in all of the land was personally asked to assist the- Well, you know I'm talking about Noire now, don't you? Of course you do. So the beautiful, gorgeous, maidenly CPU was requested to save the day. Naturally, the only way that this could be done was through a wedding, and the CPU, pure and virgi- I mean, kind that she was, was only so, so willing to don her prettiest dress to go be with Noire."

Peashy's brows started to furrow as the armored man went on and on about the beauty of the CPU that Noire's Oracle had gone straight to for help.

Papa wasn't making this up... Was he? This story was almost starting to sound... No no, it couldn't be!

"The two nations got preparations ready right away. They knew they had no time at all to waste to get the wedding of the century going. Sadly, now that she knew the wedding was coming up, Noire's health began to worsen... She realized she simply couldn't live without the beautiful CPU of Eden!" Anonydeath clapped his arms together, sighing wistfully. Unfortunately, this just confused Peashy even more... though it did explain his earlier flattering of the character in the story, or so she thought.

"I don't wanna do that! I don't wanna marry her! Never ever!" Sitting up in bed, the former CPU of Eden cried out her rejection of this story with a swift denial of this horrible reality. She could never accept that! Across reality, not one, but two Noires found themselves feeling like they had just been punched in the gut for reasons they couldn't possibly explain. "Change it!"

Anonydeath simply tilted his head, as if he didn't understand what Peashy was so upset about.

"Don't be silly, Peashy. I'm the CPU of Eden in this story."

"... Papa..."

"Hmmm? Well, I told you it would be surpisi... Wait, hold on Peashy! I know a different story, I can tell you that instead! Let's not be-"

Whatever Anonydeath said next was drowned out by the following explosion caused by Yellow Heart's fists of fury. Ironically, that burst of energy was just enough to put the little CPU to sleep, and as the smoke cleared, Anonydeath found himself facing not the angry form of Yellow Heart denied the bedtime story she wanted, but little Peashy, fast asleep at his feet.

That evening, while Peashy was fast asleep in his bed, Anonydeath finally remembered why his lair was supposed to be a secret one.

And yet... He supposed a little excitement once in a while wouldn't kill him, would it?

... Would it?

Anonydeath sighed and cast a wistful look towards the ceiling. Despite the explosion, it had remained unbroken... The armored maiden wasn't sure if he was okay with that or not.

"If only we had gone through with the original plan for this scene... Shy little Noire could have been the one to interrupt my perfect story instead of this happening. I can't believe they didn't even include me in her game. You know, I think it's about time that I get myself a real lawyer..."