"Alright. So we'll check out the guard's recommendation. If that doesn't go through, or it's just a scam, we'll pop into the iron mines, and make do."

That's the plan, as IF has just so eloquently surmised. I suppose the first thing we need to actually do is to make sure the guard is in fact still there.

I can't help but notice that Compa's walking a lot closer to me than she was before. Was opening up that little really enough to get her to trust me? I know I shouldn't be complaining, but still.

I wish I could explain everything, but I can't - my memory is not only foggy at times, but I don't know everything. I don't know where each plot-relevant place is, I don't know each character inside and out. My 'experience' is one of an outsider, of someone who sees numbers and stats rather than people.

And what may be good on paper, might not be so in practice.

Compa shoots me an awkward, but reassuring smile. Am I frowning? Ugh, I wish I was better at hiding my emotion-

She's right. I need to stop worrying. We have a job to do. I just need to suck up this melodramatic bullshit and-

"Oh hey, Gramps!~" chirps RED from up ahead. It seems she's found the guard - either that, or she's antagonising some poor middle-aged male. The rest of us quickly catch up to the redhead, to find a similarly-garbed guard resting against a building.

"I'm only in my early twenties…" murmurs the guard in mounting annoyance. "Besides, why are you calling me gramps, if that guy with you is at least as old as I am?"

RED turns to me, quickly scans me, and then shrugs. "He might be an old guy too, but at least he's funny.~ You're silly too, but I like him more than I do you.~"

I blink back at the short girl. "Is that supposed to be a compliment?"

In the corner of my eye, I can see the guard remove an aspirin container from a jacket pocket, before downing a dose. And then another. Pre-gaming it, huh?

"Of course, silly!~" smiles RED, who does a little twirl. "Even if you are old and stinky.~"

The guard clears his throat, likely having something to say. Of course, like the good protagonists that we are, we entirely ignore him.

"I'm only twenty!" I pout before I pause, a train of thought rapidly switching tracks. "Uh… Actually, I might be twenty one…"

Actually…

"What year is it again?" I ask, as I turn towards IF. IF usually knows things. That assumption hasn't been wrong yet.

IF stares back at me blankly. "You're kidding me, right? How exactly did you manage to forget your age? And how exactly do you not know what year it is?"

I roll my eyes at her. "Age is a number. Once you're old enough to drink, that number honestly doesn't matter. I swear, I've filled in forms with the wrong year more times than I could count."

"Mis-... Derek, drinking is bad for you." scolds Compa, taking a motherly tone. "Maybe that's why you can't remember your age?"

I can almost hear a low whistling as the guard slowly loses their patience. However, something more important is on my mind, so I ignore them for the time being.

Okay, so I was born then… and assuming that time maps 1:1 in this universe, I should definitely still be twenty. Unless some space magic time fuckery messed with how long I was alive for. Entirely possible, and I still look young - but everyone in anime-verses look young but are older than they look.

"Yeah. I'm twenty." I state, smile on my face, problem now solved. Even if it isn't solved, it's a nice, simple number to work from.

There's silence for a few moments. Again, I hear the guard begin to speak up, but my stomach audibly growls. Oops. Right, we were out all day…

"Anyone want to go check out one of the noodle places in a bit? Apparently, there's a place nearby with really good reviews." I helpfully mention.

"You!" screams the nearly-forgotten guard, prompting us all to turn towards them. They're glaring at us, finger vibrating angrily in our general direction. Their visor is fogged up, from warm, angry breath. "GO TO SEPTENT RESORT. KILL TAE-KWON CATS. I SWEAR TO LADY BLACK HEART, I AM NOT PAID TO DEAL WITH THIS SHIT!"

And then he storms away, pretty much screaming at the top of his lungs in frustration.

I think all of us blink at the guy's retreating form, before RED breaks the silence.

"Geez.~ What was his problem?~" she states, rolling her eyes.

"Well…" I trail off, as I watch the guy continue to move. He's beelining directly towards a bar, it seems. "He did swear to Lady Black Heart, so…"

IF shrugs, shaking her head. "For what it's worth, yeah, I guess that's true. It was sort of mean to string him along like that, but he sounded way too genuine to be faking that. We can probably trust him."

RED moves around in place for a moment, before looking up. "Maybe that Oracle lady you were talking about hired him?~"

Holy crap, RED made the connection. I could have sworn that IF would have been first to make it.

"What the goodness? Kei is the one who wanted us to get the Hematite in the first place! Why would she be telling us where to find it?" exclaims Nepgear. "That doesn't make any sense!"

IF lowers her face to her hands. "No… it makes perfect sense." she groans. In a much quieter voice, she continues, "Man… I'm rusty. That's two in a row now… What's next…?"

"Iffy, what do you mean?" chimes in the nurse, already in motion to begin comforting her disappointed friend.

"This is exactly what Kei would do." states the agent, unable to keep the annoyance out of her voice. "She's a total control freak: of course she knows exactly where to find the thing she's asking for. The only question is, why?"

There's shrugs all around. "We might never know, unless we find out for ourselves." I state. Staying here isn't going to solve anything. "We should get going, while there's still light."

It's a little past six by the time we arrive at…

Well, it's definitely not a pretty resort. While Rebeat was in pristine condition, Septent… isn't.

Jagged scraps of metal and twisted rivets ring the edges of the platforms, marking locations where what had once been guardrails have fallen into the water. The platforms themselves are spattered with rust, from the rain, from the waves. There's even a few places where the compromised metal has fallen through entirely, providing a quick, tetanus-laden route into the roiling waves below. If not for the solid concrete pylons still holding up the edges of the many interlinked platforms, this entire structure would have likely already been claimed by the ocean.

A few, slightly more solid structures ring the outer perimeter of the resort, but even those have fallen into disrepair. Dozens of holes, enough to not even keep out the rain, have all but ruined what structural integrity they had once possessed. The wind, when it does occasionally pick up, is whistling through the dozens of holes in the structures, producing an eerie, otherworldly noise.

Note to self. Watch my footwork. The absolute last thing I want to do is slice myself up on rusted, jagged metal. Or for Nepgear to need to drag me out of the ocean while in HDD. I can swim, yeah, but I don't want to take a risk with whatever monsters are in the ocean's depths.

I'm almost certain Compa is able to administer tetanus shots. Hopefully she'd use a regular syringe, and not the gigantic battle-syringe, though.

"Ew…~" murmurs RED, as she kicks a loose chunk of scrap into the water. "What a dump.~"

I can't help but agree. This place… definitely was abandoned for a good reason.

"Be careful where you step…" I mutter, as I glance at the dented ground below. "I'm not sure some of the rusty sections are able to support a human being…"

Our progress is rather slow as we make our way through the resort. Twice, I need to move my foot quickly, as the rotten metal groans and fails below me. Luckily for the girls, though, I'm much heavier than them, so they aren't running into that sort of problem. Either that, or I'm just really, really unlucky.

That might be because they aren't stepping in the still pools of water that have formed upon some of the more battered sections, but honestly, only an idiot would do that.

- Says the idiot who almost just did that. Good job, me. There's of course monsters here, and they're definitely stronger than the ones in Rebeat. It's enough that I need to watch where exactly I stand when I dodge out of their attacks. Honestly, the ghost things are the only real thing that survives multiple hits, and that's just because they refuse to go down to physical damage.

Still, like everything else, continual slashing, stabbing, and bludgeoning does the trick, and even the most stubborn monster goes down in a blink. I'd say we're quite a solid team, already.

We're practically silent as we march forward, save for the occasional swish of swinging weapons, or the click of a person reaching down to collect the fallen chips. Honestly, it's almost as if we had turned on Symbol Attack, and Skip Cutscenes.

Oh, and while the others are handing their credit chips to Nepgear, I'm… Well, I'm not. Sure, that might make me a bit of a dick, but again, I need all the money I can get. Still, these things are only dropping chump change. The real money will come when I turn in my hunt quest for the ghosts - which of course I picked up.

"Uhh… Iffy…" begins Compa suddenly, as she hops over a section of the floor that is flat out missing, "M… Derek said that Hematite was unrefined ore, right?"

IF follows her over, but nods towards the blonde. "Right, it's iron ore. I had a few of my contacts confirm it for me, but yeah, Derek was right about that."

"So… where would monsters that live here get iron ore from?"

There's blinks all around. I don't even need to go airborne: my long legs are more than enough to bridge the gap.

"That's… a good question." answers IF, as she scratches her head in confusion. She takes a step back, to allow her Candidate friend over next.

"Maybe the monsters eat iron, or something?" guesses Nepgear. "There's definitely enough metal around here to make a good chunk… And it'd explain why this resort is such a mess..."

"They're cats, Nepgear." I interject. "Not goats. I don't think they eat metal. And even if they did, that'd just be a chunk of iron, not a chunk of iron ore. Where would they get the rocky bits from?"

"Yeah!~" chirps in RED, closing the distance to the rest of us with a running leap. "That sounds like something a giant rock monster would do!~"

"I don't think we'd find any rock monsters out here, RED." answers IF, tone flat.

I restrain a snort.

"Something the matter, Derek?" asks Compa.

"But what if it wasn't a rock..." I begin.

"It wasn't a rock?~" echoes RED, tilting her head.

"It was a rock… lobster!" I grin.

Worst joke ever, although the guitar riff playing in my head is just as awesome as it always is.

"You're weird.~" states RED, arms crossed.

I smile back at the redhead. "I know. That's why you girls bother to keep me around."

Again, we fade into silence, as we continue our march over the rusted metal. Honestly, there's enough rusty metal here to fill its own personal scrap yard.

"Okay… So the cats should be somewhere near here?" asks Compa.

We all halt, and quickly begin searching the immediate area.

Even though all of us have stopped… So why can I still hear footsteps?

Tamp… Tamp… They're distant, but I can definitely hear them over the whistling. The acoustics of this place are a mess, and I can't quite pin down the direction just yet.

"Oh, there they are!" states Nepgear, finger pointed forwards. I can vaguely see the outlines of something, or rather several somethings: it seems her eyes are much better than mine. Or because I'm not entirely focused on where she's pointing.

My attention is on the area around us.

Tamp… Tamp… Tamp… The noises... They're closer… and coming from… left… a bit back… behind?

"Ambush!" I shout, already in motion, knife in hand. With the momentum of the pivot, I hurl my left knife into the noise.

It really says something about how much my credibility has risen; all four of the girls immediately draw their weapons and turn. Either that, or they had already drawn their weapons to face the cats, and I was just lucky.

Unfortunately for us, I… might've jumped the gun a bit.

"Drop the -!"

A lot. I jumped the gun a lot.

"Ack!" cries Uni, as she barely dodges my thrown knife. The dodge is sloppy, and she nearly falls into the ocean.

The knife, on the other hand, continues past the black-haired Candidate, and falls into the ocean with a splash.

Crud.

This… probably wasn't a good idea. How could I forget that Uni was supposed to show up here?

"What… What the hell, Nepgear?" Uni sputters, in an angry, slightly confused voice. "Are you trying to kill me?"

"Oh… uhh… Hi Uni!" stutters Nepgear, as she banishes her saber, completely forgetting about the cats behind us. "Derek, this is Uni, or as you probably know her, Lady Black Sister, the CPU Candidate of Lastation!"

And that single line redirects the entire fiasco onto me. Greaaaat.

"Yes… I might've jumped the gun a bit there. Sorry." I admit, eyes to the ground, as I banish my remaining knife. "I'm… so sorry. This place creeps me out. I have no idea why they haven't torn it down yet."

They of course haven't torn it down, because it's storing the Mascot. After all, no one would ever consider looking for something so important in a scrap heap like this.

Uni raises an eyebrow in my general direction. "Lady… When did you recruit someone from Lastation?"

"Oh…~ Is this the one of the other CPU Wifeys?~" chimes in RED, suddenly extremely interested in the conversation.

"Wifeys?" murmurs Uni, eyebrow now practically buried in her hairline. She closes her eyes for several moments, perhaps counting up to some value in her head, before turning back to Nepgear. "Okay, I know you three were desperate, but seriously, why did you decide to recruit…"

Her trailing off there is almost offensive.

"We mostly recruited them because they bailed us out of a tight situation back in Planeptune." states IF, flatly and without emotion.

I shoot the agent a betrayed look, but if she sees me, she continues on without breaking her stride. "But they can fight, and having back up is never a bad thing, right?"

Ouch. Yeah, that's probably not the best thing to say to Uni.

"Pffft." spits Uni, as she glances over at us. It's… well, I'd say its closest approximate is a glance of scorn. "Or, you could become so strong, you don't need backup."

Nepgear blinks back at the black Candidate. "But why would you want to?"

"Bah, what do you know? Besides, what are you doing here, anyway?"

I want to say something, but…

"We're looking for Hematite for Miss Kei. Apparently, the cat monsters over there…" Nepgear gestures over her shoulder, where our feline foes await, "Are carrying a chunk of it. But IF and …"

"Ixnay on the eorythey!" I rather loudly whisper to Nepgear. She blinks twice, before shrugging.

Uni is giving me a look of utter confusion, but manages to get the conversation back on track quite handily. "Wait, you're looking for Hematite, too?"

"Wow! Hey Uni, if we're both looking for Hematite, then we should work together again!" cheers Nepgear.

Uni responds, but her tone is bitter, rather than angry. "No! I can do this on my own! And no, you can't take that Hematite!"

I don't know if anyone else hears the quiet voice following, "Not like you'd need my help… with the big group you've got there…"

Nepgear pouts back. "What? Are you still mad at me? Is that why you're so against helping us?"

"Umm… Derek, while Ge-Ge and Miss Uni are talking, we should probably do something about these monsters… It looks like they don't want to sit around any longer…"

A quick glance behind me reveals a trio of bipedal cats wearing masks, each about the size of a rottweiler. The cats, I mean. The masks are regular sized for such a creature. The hackles on the things are fully extended, which honestly makes them resemble giant puff balls slightly more so than that of a lean cat. Still, a monster is a monster, no matter what they look like.

Compa, IF and RED have already taken up aggressive positions, even while Uni and Nepgear were talking. I really need to pay more attention to my surroundings.

"Oh!" cuts in Nepgear, as she finally takes in the situation. "Wait, Uni, can you wait a second? I need to help out the rest of my team for a bit…"

And then she charges directly into the fight, leaving behind a gobsmacked Uni. "Is… Is she serious?" asks the raven-haired girl, to no one in particular.

I can't help but stare at the Planeptune Candidate too. "I'm afraid she is…"

What do I call Uni? I mean, Lady Black Sister is probably what someone from Lastation would call her, but absolutely no one in the game ever gives her the title.

That might be because no one in the party at the moment is from Lastation, but still, I'm going to avoid calling her that, at all costs.

"Oh… and um…" I begin. I'm gesturing with my hands. Why am I gesturing with my hands?

"Yes?" answers Uni, "What is it?"

"I'm... really sorry for throwing a knife at you." I answer. Blunt answers are probably the way to go. "But yeah! I'd feel bad for not earning my keep here, so I guess I better join them too!"

With a final nod in the Lastation Candidate's direction, I charge into combat. I don't linger long enough to see her reaction. Honestly, with an introduction as bad as I just had, I… really don't want to.

I close the distance in seconds. I briefly exchange glances with Compa as I pass her, before lunging in for my assault.

My first jab into one of the cats was probably slightly more frustrated than it should have been, but honestly, I feel justified in doing so. The fact that I follow up the stab with a scooping soccer kick, (which elicits a rather satisfying 'MROOOOWWWWW' from my furred victim as it gets launched) is probably just me being petty.

Compa's on the ball, by the way: she spears the now-airborne cat with the point of her syringe. And by spears, I mean the needle goes straight through the cat's midsection, causing the creature to thrash immobilized for a few moments, before it fades into binary.

RED and IF clean up the second cat in a nearly identical amount of time. It turns out, cats dislike being lit on fire, followed by being bludgeoned by toys. On the plus side, that action definitely put out the fire. On the minus, the cat was on fire for the rest of its life. It was also on fire for a remarkably short amount of time.

I don't even get to see what Nepgear does to her target: probably just straight up bisected the thing. From the lack of light shows, I'd say she didn't even need to go HDD to deal with it. All I know is that it was gone before I even reached mine.

All in all, the entire fight's over in about thirty seconds tops: barely even enough to work up a sweat. We quickly collect our spoils, hand the consumable items and materials to Nepgear for storage, and then do a quick scan to make sure we got all of the monsters.

"Well, that was easy." I say, as I roll my shoulders overdramatically. My knives are banished, as I begin to slowly walk back towards the Lastation Candidate.

Compa does a routine check-in, mostly to ensure none of us were injured (we aren't, poor monsters were barely even able to react before we butchered them). Potential injuries checked, the rest of the group turn back to face Uni.

Uni, of course, is staring back at us, although I can see a brief glimpse of her mouth hanging slightly open. Still, she catches herself quickly, and recovers before any of the others turn around fully.

Nepgear is the slowest to turn back around, but when she does, she is clutching something shiny in her left hand.

"All right! We got the Hematite!" she cheers, but she follows her proclamation with a slight whine. "And wow, it's heavier than I thought it'd be."

"He… Hey!" sputters Uni, slowly coming back to the present. "Nepgear, that was pretty rude, just leaving me when I was in the middle of talking!"

"Oh… Umm... I'm sorry." answers Nepgear. Her sword's gone in a blink, and once again the capable warrior is gone, replaced with the awkward teenager.

Uni pauses to take in a breath, before she raises a finger towards Nepgear. "Nepgear… I'm not leaving without that Hematite."

There's a moment of silence, as everyone (besides Nepgear) glance between each other, unsure of what Uni really intends to do. I can see IF mouth the word 'Flank?' at me, but I shake my head.

This is their fight. I'm not going to rob them of it. Besides, what sort of lunatic would sneak attack their own 'goddess'?

"Nepgear… I need…" begins Uni, before she abandons her thought mid-sentence. There's a flash of light, as Uni's form is replaced with that of Black Sister, complete with her gigantic rifle. "Nepgear. I need to see which of the two of us are stronger. Duel me, and the winner will get the Hematite."

"I… I accept!" answers Nepgear. The flash of light as she summons her weapon is all but drowned out by the glare of her activating her HDD.