"Aaah... I wish I could have another scene..."

Vert realized she was probably just pouting, but she couldn't help herself. Thanks to Leanbox's situation and Blanc being so un-cute with things as of late, she hadn't even in the mood to game as much in the main story, meaning she had a year's (or was it a month's? Noire and Neptune had confused her...) worth of games to catch up on all within this one single anniversary chapter! There was no way she would be able to pull something like that off...

If only it had been Nepgear that she was marrying. Even if Nepgear were avoiding her, at least she would be cute about doing it. Actually, thinking on it... Now that she was free of the story's restraints, while she would most definitely prefer Nepgear, she wouldn't mind the alternatives if she could have her pick... Maybe an older Peashy, maybe Rom and Ram could do a fusion dance and become someone twice as cute as their grumpy older sister... Why, she would even be willing to entertain Compa or some of the other friendlier characters she so rarely got to interact with for a little too! How exotic that would simply be!

What's more, even for a super gamer like her, spending this chapter playing games instead of doing something fun like everyone else was just wasn't fun! Maybe she could try to retcon herself in the spirit of the recently released remake and play with Iffy for a little while? Or see if she could get a Nepgear to appear in the same way the other Noire had Plutia?

"No, that wouldn't be very fun... I don't think Nepgear acting that way would be nearly as cute as her normal attitude either. My, that wouldn't be very original of me anyway, would it?" Realizing that important fact made Vert sigh. She supposed that option was off the table completely then — heaven forbid she make it look as though she was taking ideas from Noire of all people. That just wouldn't do at all. "I suppose I don't have a choice but to hope a scene meant for me comes along again..."

At that exact moment, just as Vert was about to dive back into her games, she heard a rapping noise — a knock at her door. Now who could that be? Now, of all times? ... Well, actually, she didn't really know what time it was, as such hadn't been established, but still! Was she about to get a scene after all? Simply marvelous!

You know, speaking of, she wouldn't mind Marvelous! or the other side characters either... There was nothing wrong with broadening one's horizons, after all... She was getting kind of excited!

Who would it be? Who would it be? There was only one way to know!

"Come in!"

In a delightful twist of fate, while she had just been concerned about copying Noire, the person at her door and now entering her room was none other than Noire's younger sister herself. What a treat!

"Hello, er, Vert...?" Looking rather unsure of herself (adorably so!) was none other than little Uni, entering Vert's room with a stack of papers held tightly in her arms. She seemed taken aback for a moment — perhaps such was expected, considering she hadn't been in Vert's room since the CPU had redecorated. There was so much new merchandise decorating it that Vert had just had to fill up another room or two! "I was supposed to give you this, but... Maybe I should go..."

"No no, Uni, please stay." Smiling brightly, Vert rose from her desk to welcome the CPU Candidate into her room. It was about time she got a scene that wasn't with her fellow CPUs! And if it couldn't be Nepgear, then sweet this little tsundere was a perfectly acceptable placeholder. "Why don't you have a seat? It's been much too long."

Uni tilted her head. She... hadn't expected this kind of reaction out of the CPU. At first, she felt wary about it, but as she considered Vert's position... while Uni had gotten to have scenes with Neptune, Kei, and her sister, plus Nepgear (sort of) that one time, Vert had been stuck with just Chika and Blanc for most of her big scenes. She hadn't even had much of a role in Part 1, whereas Uni had been around quite a bit in comparison. Uni had even gotten to see more people in the anniversary, hadn't she?

Maybe Vert was feeling lonely?

"Sure..." Figuring it couldn't hurt — after all, Vert was usually pretty nice to her and the other Candidates, even if she was a bit too nice to Nepgear for Uni's liking — Uni followed Vert over to a couch, keeping the stack of papers she had brought with her close. She couldn't forget to tell the CPU what she had come here to tell her! "I guess it has been a while, huh?"

Uni had just been trying to follow the conversation, but Vert seemed to brighten almost instantly at the remark.

"Hasn't it? Would you like anything to eat? Oh, while you decide what you'd like, let me put some tea on..." Just as Uni had sat down, Vert was already hopping up and heading over to the one "normal" looking part of her room to start making some drinks for them. It would have made her feel bad about how she'd thought about Vert during her encounter with Blanc earlier in the special had she remembered it right now — thank goodness for a conveniently timed lack of continuity saving her from that potential guilt!

"I'm actually not that hungry, really." Uni knew it would be rude of her to refuse Vert's offer, and as much as she would have liked to sit down for tea and snacks with Vert (if she really thought about it, she didn't goof off too much like Neptune and she wasn't hard to read like her sister or Blanc — she could live with the... well, Vert-ness if it meant she could relax a little more), she didn't think it was right to take up that much more time when Vert was supposed to be...

"My, don't be silly, Uni. This is a special occasion! Who knows when, or even if, we'll get to share another scene together?" Vert's mood was better than it had been in ages. She wasn't even thinking "if it couldn't be Nepgear" anymore — the idea of pleasant, no-drama-attached (not to mention cute as a button, can't forget that!) company was simply too delightful to pass up. "At least have some cake. Oh, I have some cookies left from this morning, would you like some of those?"

Uni bit her lip. She really did have an important message to give Vert, but...

Hesitantly, she peeked at the narration. While she was a bit bothered by the part about Nepgear, apparently Vert wasn't even thinking about that anymore, which meant... She was just genuinely pleased to see Uni? N-Not that Uni really cared how Vert was lonely or how nice she could be o-or anything like that at all, she was just curious!

And... And...

W-W-Was she really... cute?

Uni swallowed.

That cinched it.

Curse her similarities to her sister kicking in at such a crucial time!

"I-If you really insist, I guess... I can have a couple of cookies..." In a tried and true tsundere fashion, Uni crossed her arms, cheeks tinged with the slightest bit of pink, and glanced pointedly away from Vert. Under normal circumstances, this would have been the end of it, but being in Vert's room, that meant she had turned to look directly at a shelf of figures and the... sparkling poster above it.

This left Uni no choice but to turn in the other direction, her cheeks now flushed a significantly darker shade of red than they had been a moment prior. Having watched this scene play out from across the room, Vert couldn't help but smile, though for a moment, it faltered as she considered the likelihood of this ever happening again.

They wouldn't remember any of this in a little while, would they? The special was finally almost over, and then it would be back to doom and gloom and worrying about Leanbox and regretting things for her. Uni, well, she wasn't sure what Uni was up to these days, but surely it had to be better than what was happening on her end.

Still... That didn't mean they still couldn't do this sort of thing again, did it...?

Looking rather somber as she brought over a plate of cookies (with a bit of cake having been added just in case Uni changed her mind once she started eating), Vert sat down on the couch across from the Candidate and offered her a smile, though it clearly wasn't as bright a one as the one she had been wearing only a few moments prior — even Uni noticed, but rather than comment, at first she chose to simply take a cookie.

"Thanks. Down the hatch then...!" It was certainly good — cookies did tend to be — so Uni set her remaining reservations aside and continued nibbling at the sweets she had been presented with, a bit surprised that Vert had stopped talking to her. She realized she was probably looking like a chipmunk, sitting there holding a cookie and munching on it like that, and that was just embarrassing... With that in mind, Uni swallowed what she was chewing and set her unfinished cookie down on a napkin. "Is everything okay? You got quiet all of a sudden. I can go if I'm a bother."

Vert gasped lightly. Oh, what a terrible host she was being! She was making Uni feel unwelcome, when she was anything but!

"Not at all, Uni. I was just... thinking about things. It's a bit complicated, but I don't want to spoil this talking about serious things like that." Vert offered Uni a sad sort of smile, followed by a shrug. Between the idea of not getting to do this again and needing to go back to being so down... She would not mind at all if this scene could last another ten chapters just as long as this whole one had been. "You, though, have done nothing to bother me at all, so don't you worry about that one bit. I dare say you coming here is one of the best things that's happened to me since this story started."

"I-Is that so..." So much for trying to make some smalltalk. Blushing once more, Uni found herself reaching for the cookie she had abandoned just moments ago to resume the muching squirrel position.

Watching Uni nibble at her snack, Vert couldn't help but wonder... What would it be like when it was her and Blanc? What would it be like if she could really have wooed Nepgear? Or someone else entirely? Would it be awkward? Would it be frustrating? Or would it be pleasant... like this was?

She hoped it would be that last option.

Even if it wasn't, though... Maybe it would be possible to spend some time with Lastation's CPU Candidate on occasion anyway?

"Say... Uni? Might I ask you a question?"

"Huh!?" Having gotten so used to the silence, Uni nearly jumped off of the couch in surprise. Luckily she had just finished the cookie, else she might have tossed that up in the air, which would have been absolutely awful. Blinking a few times, hoping that reaction hadn't been too obvious, she looked to the blonde CPU across from her — the earnest look on her face took Uni off guard.

Was Vert sure that she wasn't being a bother...?

"Did I surprise you? That must have been good. You should try the cake too!" Apparently amused by Uni's reaction, but not having realized just why she had reacted that way, Vert leaned forward to push the plate of sweet delights towards the already flustered Candidate, unintentionally giving Uni the best seat in the house, so to speak.

The CPU Candidate tugged at her collar nervously, unsure of how to proceed. Looking away would make it obvious, but... was it okay to look...? Seriously...? What would Noire do right now?

"I-It's not like I like looking or anything!"

Aaah! That didn't help at all! Why had she stayed up late watching her sister and Neptune's scenes last night?!

"Uni...?"

At least Vert was sitting up now... No wonder she was considered such a dangerous opponent... With how Neptune used to be, it was no wonder Nepgear liked to spend time with Vert...

Uni swallowed nervously. Since they had established the anime as a minor source for things, did that mean... If this kept up... Instead of Nepgear... Was she going to be the one snuggled up to Vert's chest on her balcony...?!

"Ah, was it too dry? Do you need something to drink?"

This time, as Uni was finally pulled back to reality, the CPU Candidate did jump a little off of the couch. She had been so wrapped up in her thoughts (were they starting to turn into fantasies now?) that she had gotten fairly distracted. Flushing, this time out of embarrassment, Uni shook her head.

"N-No, no it's fine." Coughing into her hand, Uni decided her best option right now would be to try to return the subject to wherever Vert had been trying to take it while she figured out her best means of escape. "Sorry, I wasn't... W-Well, forget about that. What was it you wanted to ask me?"

"Well..." Vert pursed her lips. She wondered if this was a bad time... Certainly, it might be the only time she could ask such a question, but if they were going to be done with each other when the scene ended anyway, what did it matter what she did? Whether she asked or didn't asked... This whole anniversary affair... Now that she thought about it, much as she wanted to ask, it wasn't like either of them would be able to do anything about it, was it?

Was it all pointless? Had they been wasting everyone's time with this? Should she really have been feeling so happy to see Uni when it was in a context such as this?

"You should!" To the surprise of both CPU and even CPU Candidate, Uni stood from the couch, arms at her side, and cried out. She may have revealed that she had peeked into the narration again to see what Vert had been thinking, but she didn't particularly care at that moment. Why was Vert thinking such depressing things? "So what if it's pointless? W-We've been at this for a whole year! I'm really happy we're still here after a whole year! Nepgear is finally up too! T-That's all worth celebrating, isn't it? So maybe we took a little longer on this special than we meant to, so what? T-That's not so bad! It was nice, wasn't it?! And maybe we will get to hang out some more in the main story...! M-M-Maybe you and I will both get so sick of the d-drama part that we'll decide to go e-e-e-elo-elop...hant shopping together! F-For an elephant! For fun!"

Vert seemed taken aback by Uni's outburst, which might have been something if not for the fact that Uni herself, face as red as the reddest part of CFW Brave's armor, was even more stunned that she had managed to get all of that out. Perhaps that had been the straw that had broken the figurative camel's back — or, in this case, the figurative elephant's back?

"A-Anyway, I came here to let you know that you have a scene coming up. S-So... Bye!"

And just like that, Uni dashed out of the room like a black blur, the papers she had left behind now the only remaining evidence that she had been there at all.

Blinking a few times, still thoroughly surprised over what she had just witnessed from the CPU Candidate... But looking back on it, such behavior wasn't that unheard of for her. Building up stress, letting it all out in one burst... That was certainly a rather "Uni" thing to do. A very cute thing too. The poor thing was probably curled up somewhere and berating herself for being so embarrassing, when, most of all, she had been quite right.

This was a celebration! This was for fun! This was a happy occasion! Neptune and Noire's story — their story, all of their story, had been going strong for such an amazing length of time! It might have seemed small to some, but it was still such grand news that it most definitely was worth celebrating!

"I suppose I should count my blessings that the one who came to deliver that message was so sweet. I do hope our next encounter can be as... tasty as this one was. Is that a little unrealistic of me...? Well, one can certainly hope, at least, now can't they, Vert?" Feeling especially cheerful now, Vert rose from her seat and headed over to her computer to see if she could get in a quick game before the scene ended.

She wasn't quite sure how she felt about all of this, whether she wanted to eat Uni up or squish her and try to adopt her from under Noire's nose, but either way...

"I will most certainly be seeing her again. Of that much, fourth wall or not, I can promise."