CHAPTER 5: LASTATION, HOME OF THE TSUNDERES
It is a bright and beautiful afternoon as our heroines and hero make it into the city of Lastation, after a tough treacherous journey that took at least a day or so. They are tired, grouchy, and not as excited as they first were as they reach the far outskirts of the huge, industrialized city.
"Wow, we finally made it. Can I sleep now," asks a tired Ayden slowly dragging himself behind the three girls who make it known that they as tired as he is.
"Would you pipe down back there, will ya? We still have at least a 4-5 hours' walk to get to Lastation," yells a slightly aggravated IF as she slowly walks next to Compa.
"Please calm down Iffy, Ayden is tired," says Compa in a not so cheerful tone.
"We are all tired. We all walked at least one day without stopping," responds IF as she calms down a bit.
As the two are talking, Ayden notices that Nepgear is still keeping a good distance ahead, and he decides to quickly walk past IF and Compa, so he can strike up a conversation with Nepgear.
"Now's my chance. What should I say," thinks Ayden as he walks right next to Nepgear.
Nepgear notices Ayden's presence, and turns her attention to him and smiles. The smile throws off Ayden's train of thought and causes him to say something very stupid.
"Your kiss with IF was pretty hot," outbursts Ayden, and after realizing what he said, he starts to blush and quickly walks to the back again.
Nepgear at this moment turns a very bright shade of red, but she lets out a nervous giggle, for she knows that Ayden is pretty nervous about the entire journey.
Or is he nervous about something else?
Anyways, Ayden makes his way to the back again, which makes IF and Compa wonder what happened.
"What the hell did I just say?! I'm so stupid," says Ayden to himself as he hangs his head down and face palms himself.
The rest of the small journey into Lastation is completely silent, and we the group finally gets into Lastation, evening breaks through.
"Wow, evening is already breaking through. I guess we should find a place to stay for the night," says Nepgear as the group walks through the large city. The buildings are tall and beautiful, and the people are so energetic.
"Yeah, we all need rest," responds IF as she looks at a very tired Compa, who yawns and nods in agreement.
They reach the Black Heart hotel; a hotel that is crowned in Lastation's CPU's image, and rent out two rooms. Ayden gets a room for himself, while the girls share a room together.
"Damn, and here I thought they would have been crammed together," says Ayden as he opens the door to the room, but as he looks in, he notices that the room has three beds, a small kitchen and a bathroom.
"Wow, very clean and business-like," thinks Ayden as he walks into the bathroom, so he can take a very long shower. Just as he is going to close the bathroom door, he hears a knock at the main door.
Ayden reopens the bathroom door completely, and walks to the main door and cracks it open. To his surprise, Nepgear is on the other side, smiling.
"O-oh, Hello Nepgear," answers Ayden with a nervous smile.
"Hi Ayden, I was wondering, if you want to go for a walk," questions Nepgear with a cheerful smile.
Ayden is completely taken away by what Nepgear asks him. Ayden starts to fidget nervously, and his palms start to sweat. Why is he acting so nervous to Nepgear? What was the meaning to all of that?
"U-uh, y-yeah…sure," responds Ayden as he feels his eye start to twitch. Quickly, Ayden walks out of his room and out of the building with Nepgear.
Hours have passed since the group's arrival into Lastation, and as the two walk out of the hotel, the flashes of street lights and signs almost blind them. Lastation is known to be a hotspot for the night-owls, and some its best features only happen at night.
"Wow, Lastation is so beautiful, isn't it Ayden," says Nepgear in awe as she takes in the gorgeous scenery.
The two walk a bit of a distance from the hotel before Ayden decides to speak, and apologize for his outburst.
"N-Nepgear, I'm sorry about the comment I said earlier. I-I wasn't thinking clearly and…"
But before he could finish his apology, Nepgear stops and turns to face Ayden. She gives him a very warm smile, and Ayden felt that this smile was much more tender than her other smiles.
"It's alright Ayden. I mean, being this far from home can really make a person nervous huh," answers Nepgear.
Ayden lets a huge sigh out and then nervously chuckles, "Yeah…that's what is up with me. I'm pretty far from home, and I never visited Lastation before."
He wasn't lying at all; in fact Ayden was far from his home (a different dimension…remember?) and he never has been to Lastation since…again a different dimension.
"Where are you from," asks Nepgear as they resume walking down the sidewalk.
Ayden never expected to be asked this question, and this throws off his way of thinking once more.
"Where I'm from? I-I umm….a house," responds Ayden as he almost reaches a tipping point in his nervousness.
Nepgear starts to laugh, as if Ayden made a joke of some sort. Ayden uses this opportunity to think of a clever place to say he was from. Is he going to be honest to Nepgear, or is he going to blow it and say something stupid again?
"Well I'm from a small city a bit of a distance from Planeptune," says Ayden as he starts to think back to the overworld map from the game itself.
"Oh, I'm guessing that city you speak of is Haneda City. The city close to the ancient LAN Castle," responds Nepgear after she recovered from her laughing attack.
"Yeah, that's it," says Ayden with a bit of a nervous tone on his voice. He didn't like to lie to people at all about anything and was more of an honest kid than your average teenager.
"I only been there once, when I was on official CPU duties with my sister," replies Nepgear but her tone became a bit sadder when she brought up her sister.
The two decide it was best to turn around, and walk back to the hotel before IF and Compa notice them missing. The walk back was more silent, as Ayden notices the distress on Nepgear's face. Before they reach the hotel, Ayden stops in front of Nepgear and looks into her eyes.
"I promise you, we will save your sister and the other CPUs, even if that means I take on ASIC myself," says Ayden with a stern but happy tone and a big grin on his face.
Nepgear looks back into Ayden's eyes and returns a smile as well and agrees, "Alright then, promise."
The two make it back to their hotel rooms and says their goodnights to each other. Upon entering his room, Ayden makes it to the bathroom, takes a hot shower, redresses, and jumps into bed.
"Wow, what a night."
That is Ayden's last thought before he finally dozes off.
The next morning, Ayden wakes up to the sound of his door being knocked on. He quickly gets out of bed, puts on the remainder of his gear and opens the door.
"Good morning," says Compa upon seeing Ayden when he answers his door. "The others are waiting in the lobby. Let's not keep them waiting."
"Alright."
Compa and Ayden make their way down into the lobby where an impatient IF and a calm Nepgear wait.
"Finally, you're awake," snaps IF upon seeing Ayden.
"Well good morning to you too," responds Ayden with an annoyed tone in his voice.
"Let's make our way to Lastation's Basilicom. I got directions from the clerk at the front desk," says Nepgear to break the tension between the two.
Everyone agrees, and they head out on their way to the Basilicom. It wasn't hard for the team to find the Basilicom, for a big formal building was in the center of the city, which practically spelled out "Basilicom".
"Now everyone on be on their best behavior," says Compa as the group starts walking up the stairs to the main entrance of the Basilicom.
Ayden is last as usual, and just as he is about to enter the building with the girls, he hears a familiar voice calling to what he thinks is him.
"Hey kid, it's good to see you again."
Ayden turns around to see at the bottom of the staircase, Zero standing there with his hands resting at his sides. Ayden then runs down the stair to greet Zero, as if he was a great companion just returning home.
"Wow, Zero, it's you. What are you doing here in Lastation," asks Ayden with excitement, for it was Zero who was Ayden's first friend in the Hyperdimension.
"I could ask you the same thing, ki-I mean Ayden. Sorry, still getting use to calling you by your name," laughs Zero.
Ayden and Zero decide to take a walk a little way down the street to a café, so they can catch up.
"I have a client here in Lastation, and while waiting for him, I see you," says Zero in between sips of tea.
"Well, I'm helping Nepgear and her friends on some official business here," responds Ayden after taking a long sip of tea.
The two start to chat about other things they done since they parted in Planeptune, when suddenly a ringtone version of "Go Love and Peace" (look it up) starts to play.
"Uh, that must be my client," says Zero in a very hasty manner, and he excuses himself to take the phone call.
What struck Ayden as weird is the fact that Zero didn't mention he was expecting a call, or didn't look at the caller ID. Ayden push that thought out of his head and continues to sip on some tea.
Zero came back in a few minutes later looking frustrated. He went back to the table and quickly puts some credits down.
"This will cover the tea. Sorry Ayden, I got to run. My client is waiting on the other side of Lastation, and I don't want to be late."
"It's alright, I got to head back to the Basilicom. The girls are probably wondering where I am right now."
The two walk out of the café, and Zero says a quick goodbye, and the last Ayden saw of him he was heading south in a full-on sprint.
Ayden walks a bit up-street until he hits the staircase to the Basilicom once more and climbs up to the entrance. As he approaches the door, he can already hear voices talking on the other side.
As he opens the door, he sees on the other side two Lastation patrol guards and a shorter person, a female at that. She has short grey hair, and a black suit top on with matching black shorts. She seems to speak in a very intuitive manner.
"Well, where else could she have gone," asks the female to the patrolmen.
"We don't know, but we will find her, Oracle…Ma'am," replies the first patrol man. The other shook his head, and the Oracle dismisses them.
Just as Ayden takes one step forward, the Oracle turns to Ayden and greets him, "Hello, I am sorry about that right now. I am Kei Jinguji, the Oracle of Lastation. How can I help you?"
"Well I am looking for three girls. You see we were all coming over to speak to you on behalf of Planeptune," Responds Ayden.
"Ah yes, Histoire sent a message earlier saying that a group of four was coming over to speak to me about the Mascot Disc."
"Yes that would be us, but I can't find the others."
Kei shakes her head and lets out a playful giggle, "You seem to be one who loses things too often am I right?"
Ayden is appalled at the comment that the Oracle of Lastation said to him. He starts to get a bit angry, when Kei says something that catches his attention.
"I told them, I was very busy at the moment and if they can come back later," says Kei as she walks over to a table where some folders rested.
"Do you know where I may find them," asks Ayden in an anxious manner, for he is getting fed up with Kei's presence. This whole conversation helps him remember why Kei was his least favorite Oracle in the game.
"I sent them to the guild, so they occupy themselves while I finished my work around here. Then I would summon them back, so we can have that audience," says Kei as she grabs the folders and heads to the door on the opposite side of the chamber.
"Thank you," says Ayden and in a flash he was out of the Basilicom, and on his way to the guild…that is if he knows where it is at.
Ayden is wandering around the central part of the city for 20 minutes before asking some locals, who point out the guild, which was conveniently two buildings away from the café that he and Zero were chatting at.
Ayden stops right in front of the guild building to catch his breath, and enters the building in a swift manner. He looks around and instantly he finds Nepgear, IF, and Compa talking to another young lady.
Ayden walks up to the group, and Nepgear turns to Ayden with relieved expression on her face, "There you are. We were worried about you."
"Sorry, I got caught up in a small reunion with an old friend," says Ayden with a smile that showed his stupidity.
Nepgear then introduces Ayden to the young lady that she was conversing with.
"Ayden this is Uni. We are going to help each other out on a quest," says Nepgear with a smile.
"It's nice to meet you," responds Ayden as he puts his hand out for Uni to shake it.
"Likewise," returns Uni with a bit of a cold tone in her voice but she grabs Ayden's hand and shakes it.
"So what are we up against," asks Ayden after he and Uni finished shaking hands.
"There are reports of some disturbances by ASIC at the Repeat Resort. We are to go and stop it," replies Uni
The group gathers any needed Intel for the quest, and they head off to the resort which was south from the center of Lastation.
As the group walks nearly in sync with one another, Ayden starts to think about what is going to occur once they arrive at the resort.
"Well, we meet Uni and go to the resort. Who was the ASIC grunt we face off against," thinks Ayden as he walks behind everyone else. "I know, something distressing happens after we finish the battle if I am not mistaken."
It takes the group at least an hour and a half to reach the resort by foot, and upon getting there, they can automatically see what damage ASIC has caused.
Some of the buildings are on fire and a lot of the chairs have been reduced to junk, as if someone was searching vigorously for something.
Nepgear, IF, Compa, and Ayden automatically knew what ASIC was looking for; the Mascot disc of Lastation.
Ayden steals a quick glance at Uni who looks a bit distressed herself, well this is her home (the city in general, not the resort).
Uni declares that everyone should split into groups of two to find the ASIC supporter and bring them to justice. Of course, Ayden has to search by himself because Uni paired with Nepgear and Compa paired with IF, leaving him alone to search.
As Ayden walks around the resort, watching where to place his foot as he walks, sees a figure off in the distance. He supposes that this figure was the ASIC supporter and starts to head to it. To his surprise, he notices the girls all heading that direction as well.
"What the hell was the point of splitting up," thinks Ayden as he dashes towards the figure.
Everyone meets back up before deciding to ambush the figure, so it cannot escape, and once together they walk straight up to the figure to see who it is.
"Damn it, she said it was hidden in a resort, and I practically tore this whole place apart," yells the familiar figure as she looks around the area ferociously.
"Well look who it is. It's the Underling," says IF loud enough for Underling to hear her.
Underling looks up at the group and jumps back after seeing the group.
"Shit! Just as if I didn't have enough problems to deal with. The perky princess, her loud mouth friend, the dumbass, and the total tool," replies Underling in her already pissed off tone.
While Ayden tries to figure out if he is the one deemed "dumbass or total tool", Uni steps up and snaps back at Underling.
"So you're the one who did this to the resort? Wow, what a low status job for a low status person such as yourself," yells Uni who is obviously pissed off herself.
"And who is this? Another lesbian lover for the perky princess," asks Underling with a very snarky attitude.
Uni looks at Underling with disgust, and then she decides to pull out her rifle, to which she points it directly at Underling.
"Everyone, let me handle this," says Uni as she continues to point the rifle at Underling.
Underling did look a bit frightened but she laughs the rifle off and pulls out her iron pipe. This wasn't going to be a pretty battle.
"Stay out of my way, and I won't hurt that pretty little face of yours that much as I intend to," says Underling.
Uni looks down for a bit but everyone can see a smile developing on her face, a cold smile.
"Well then you just messed with the wrong CPU Candidate," replies Uni and just after she made that remark, she starts to transform into Black Sister.
"T-The CPU Candidate of Lastation?! Crap," responds Underling, but she knows she cannot run from this battle. She needs to keep ASIC's image up, or else…
Nepgear decides that she needs to transform as well to aid Uni in battle, to which IF, Compa, and Ayden stand back to let the two CPU Candidates, do their thing.
Without speaking once in battle, Purple Sister and Black Sister finish the fight within a split second, it must have been faster than the battle that occurred in the inner depths of Virtua Forest.
Like she did before when she fought Purple Sister, Underling crumples into a heap once the battle was over.
Everyone was in complete awe in how powerful the two CPU Candidates, and how much in sync they were.
Underling struggles on the group for a few seconds, but final manages to get up. She stays on the ground leaning on one of her knees and breathing heavily.
"D-Damn…damn…damn," curses Underling as she finally pulls herself up off the ground. The group can see that she truly hates them. Without saying a word, Underling turns and goes off into a full-on sprint, not looking back once.
Purple Sister and Black Sister revert back into their human forms, and the group goes up to congratulate them on a successful victory.
Uni looks at Nepgear with distress, anger, and a bit of disappointment on her face, "Nepgear…you…"
But before Uni can finish her sentence, Nepgear smiles and says, "We were looking for the CPU Candidate. This is great, now we can go off and…"
Uni cuts off Nepgear just as Nepgear did to Uni, "You Traitor!"
Everyone gasps and looks bewildered at the comment Uni has said.
"You Traitor! You have the nerve to come to me while my sister is held hostage! I should have gone, but she said I wasn't ready," responds Uni in complete fury.
Nepgear's expression became dark and sad, "I-I'm sorry. I wish I could have saved them, but I wasn't strong enough. But if we work together, then..."
Uni cuts Nepgear off once more, "No! Just leave. I'll save my sister, even if it means facing off against ASIC by myself…"
After that, Uni turns around and runs away from the group with tears streaming down her cheeks, leaving everyone gloomy and a bit puzzled.
Suddenly, someone's phone goes off, which killed whatever sad and silent atmosphere that was left. Compa and Ayden look at IF but surprisingly Nepgear reaches into her pocket and pulls out her cell phone.
She answers the phone to what was a 10 second conversation. After the conversation finishes, Nepgear turns back to the group with her best fake smile, "Kei says she's ready for our audience with her."
Everyone knows that Nepgear wasn't happy at the moment, but they decide to smile back to lift her spirit. After a few minutes, the group then decides to go back to the Basilicom, so Kei isn't kept waiting.
As they walk back, Ayden keeps a steady pace with Nepgear, who keeps looking down as she walks. Ayden knows that Nepgear is not only depressed but is hurt. Right then, Ayden reminds her of their promise they made the night before.
"Hey Nepgear."
"Hmm?"
"My promise to you from last night; we will save your sister and the other CPUs, even if that means I take on ASIC myself. Remember that, because it is a promise I made sure is set in stone."
Nepgear looks up at Ayden and gives a genuine smile, "Thank you Ayden."
With that, Nepgear, Ayden, Compa, and IF leave the resort, and start their small trek in getting back to the Basilicom. Though having gone through so much in one day, their real struggle, has barely begun.
CHAPTER 5 END.