Yu Narukaze: I'm not making any promises yet about Iris Heart appearing in the story. That's all I'm going to say.

Ant & Draxinus: Thank you.

Compared to the frigid atmosphere of Lowee, the average temperature of Lastation is a refreshing change. Nepgear, IF, Marvy and even RED have ditched their winter clothing, in favor of much lighter attire.

Of course, Compa and I still are wearing sweaters, and a jacket… to varying acceptance.

"Aren't you hot?" asks IF, eyes rolling as we step into the city. "Seriously, I saw you put on three different sweaters before we left Lowee, and there's no way you could've gotten rid of them during our walk. That's like half a kilogram of clothing on you, right there."

Yes, it is indeed warm. It's the type of cozy that makes me sort of sleepy, truth be told.

"I like it." I reply, lifting an arm. Mmm. The feeling of clothing that actually weighs something… I doubt people think like me… But it almost seems reassuring. It's not going to stop even a single thing, but it makes it feel like my movements have some sort of weight...

"Derek. You're going to get heat stroke and pass out." states IF, who is still pushing for me to take off my sweater. "I'm not dragging you all of the way to the Embassy."

I shrug my shoulders. "Seriously! What's the big deal? Compa's still wearing her super poofy wool sweater! What's the problem with me being a bit warmer than usual? I walk around like this all of the time back home."

IF glances to Compa, who of course is still wearing her signature pink sweater. "Compa's different though. The wool sweater's kind of her thing, you know?"

"And the thick winter coat is mine." I reply, poking at the sleeve of my jacket. "Seriously, back me up here Nepgear: this thing's solid, right?"

Nepgear slurps the lemonade she picked up from one of the stands a while back. One of the kids in town is making a killing selling hand-squeezed drinks to thirsty strangers just outside the city… And poor Nepgear fell for the triple-priced convenience lemonade trap.

"I don't want to get involved." is her answer. Seriously?

Both IF and I turn towards the Candidate, eyebrows raised.

"Look, can you two just quiet down for a bit?" states Marvy, who is fidgeting to herself on our right. "You two arguing is giving me a headache."

Marvy's a little bit hesitant to meet another Candidate, if I were to guess. I don't blame her, but seriously, it's Uni. I don't think Uni'd ever be one to cause problems.

IF and I exchange glances, before we both sigh.

"Fine." we both state together. We continue onward for another dozen meters or so, before I finally cave under IF's unrelenting gaze.

In a single motion, I take off my jacket, throw it into the air, and while it's airborne, unzip and doff two sweaters. It's showy, pointless, and I barely make the catch as my jacket descends, but the spinning flourish I make as I stow the removed sweaters makes up for it all of the way.

As does the groan IF makes. Score one for the fighting clown.

RED's be suspiciously quiet the entire trip, but I'm taking my blessings where I can. At the rate she's going, she'll probably need to restock on ero manga while we're in town.

Soon enough, the top of the Lastation Embassy comes into view. As we move towards the front entrance, the guards, recognising our purple-haired leader, step aside and allow us passage.

A few of them are snickering quietly as they catch sight of me, but I'm just going to assume it's for a good thing, and not because of an outstanding bounty.

I mean, I hope it's not a bounty. I'd probably be able to pay it off even so, but it'd make things really difficult if I was a wanted man. Would make travel a lot harder, for example.

Nepgear throws the doors of the Basilicom open and steps inside, while the rest of us follow soon afterwards. I make an effort to wipe my shoes on the doormat before I continue any further in.

None of us actually know where Uni's office is, so we just wander around until we find a sufficiently large and important-looking room, and start from there.

So of course the first recognisable face we bump into is Kei.

Kei carefully places down her paperwork, takes one look towards us, and then another towards me. There's a near inaudible groan of frustration just barely able to be overheard over the shuffling of papers.

"What is your purpose for arriving here?" asks the Oracle. Her face is stony, as it always is, but I can almost vaguely hear the beginnings of emotion on her voice.

"We're just looking for Uni, that's all." states Nepgear. "We thought we'd come find her before we headed over to Leanbox. She did say she might be able to join us."

Kei seems to mull something over in her head, before she shrugs. "Uni is currently out of the office. She should be back..."

The distant sound of an opening door behind us draws all our attention. Speak of the devil.

"Hey, Kei? I'm back from the quest!" shouts a familiar voice. Very, very familiar. We barely even have to look towards each other to confirm it.

Nepgear quickly thanks Kei, and bolts from the room. I think it's pretty obvious what the rest of us do.

"Uni!" chirps Nepgear, the moment the black-haired Candidate comes into view. She's dressed in her usual outfit, although Uni definitely looks a bit more tired than the last time we saw her.

Uni blinks upon suddenly becoming face-to-face with her Planeptune counterpart. "Huh…? Wait… Oh crap, it's Nepgear! You're back early! I'm not done my duties yet…"

In a quieter voice, she murmurs, "Damn… why couldn't you have shown up in like… a day or so? This is sort of embarrassing..."

"Duties?" asks Nepgear, head tilted to the side in a way that reminds me of an interested puppy. "Anything we can help you with?"

Uni begins to open her mouth, before she pauses and nods. "Well… most of what I've got left is just paperwork, but there's also reports of an infestation of a new type of Vaders over in the Endless Zone. You could go over there and do that for me… Only if you really want to though, otherwise I'll go do it myself tomorrow."

Nepgear beams back and replies, nearly entirely cutting off Uni's last sentence. "I'd be happy to! You mind doing a monster hunt, everyone?"

There's nods from the rest of the girls, although Marvy is slightly hesitant.

"I'll see you soon, okay?" asks Nepgear, and with that, she's off. Girl can definitely move fast when she wants to.

Compa and IF glance back towards me, but a quick "I think I'll sit this one out. Meet back here later?" is enough for them. Soon enough, there's no one else in the entrance besides me and Uni.

"Wow. She never slows down, does she?" asks Uni, as we watch the retreating form of the purple-haired Candidate. "She must feel invincible, to be dashing off like that without even a care in the world."

I snort. "Man, you wouldn't believe that if you were with us up in Lowee. Poor girl was absolutely terrified… And to tell you the truth, so was I. I don't think she's doing it because she feels invincible. I think she's doing it just because she honestly wants to help."

"Oh?" responds Uni as she turns towards me, "What exactly happened up in Lowee?"

I narrow my eyes back at her. "Don't you have paperwork to be doing?"

Uni shrugs. "Only a few things that need my signature, nothing big. But seriously, spill."

"Would you believe me if I said giant, killer robots?" I venture, to which I get back a flat look of disbelief. "Look, I even brought proof!"

The unrefined shard of Killachine is just as heavy as it was back in the maze, but Uni rolls her eyes as she sees me struggle with it. "Gimme that. There's no way that this thing weighs as much as you're pretending that it does."

Carefully, I hand her an end end, and let the weight drop.

Her expression changes from vague amusement to confusion but a moment later. "Goddesses… this thing is heavy! What is this even made of?"

"Indestructibilium." I state, after not even a second of pause.

"Indestructibilium." echoes Uni, eyes narrowed. "That's not even a thing."

"Explain what else could survive a Candidate in HDD whaling in it for an extended period of time without even a scratch, *after* I already dropped a solid stone roof on it?"

Uni lets out a small whistle as she holds up the shard to the light. "Wow, Indestructibilium indeed."

I smirk and carefully receive my prize back for storage. "So enough about our exploits: how have things been in this little corner of the world? Kei hasn't bored anyone to death while I was gone, has she? I can't bear to imagine her PowerPoint presentations… They must be lethal."

I fake a shudder of fear as I speak the last sentence, although my wide smile probably gives me away.

Uni lets out a small laugh as she rolls her eyes. "Kei is still mad at you, which is already impressive. I've never seen her with this emotion... well… pretty much ever."

I puff out my chest and brush my hand through my hair dramatically. "Who could ever be mad at me?"

Uni shrugs and rolls her eyes once more, though her smile doesn't abate.

"Seriously though, how have things been going around here for you?" I continue.

"Wait, me?" Uni's eyes widen as my question sinks in. "You're asking me?"

"Yes, you. I don't believe that you've done nothing but sit around here and sign stacks of paper. Or maybe you did, and I misjudged you something fierce." I smirk.

Uni blinks, pausing to mull over her thoughts. "Well, mostly I was focused on Shares gathering quests. Mostly monster hunts, but there were a few item retrievals mixed in there too. There was also a bit of trouble from ASIC about a day after you guys left for Lowee, but they got put down rather quickly. Besides that, I ended up mostly polishing my gun collection, playing video games, and… well... sleeping, I guess."

I pout and cross my arms. "Man, here you are, living the life, and I'm having to shuffle through a meter of snow at midnight just to sneak into a underground complex guarded with giant, Goddess-killing robots."

"Sounds difficult." states Uni, although her tone is definitely not serious.

"That's what I get for angering the DM." I state as I lean back against the wall. "Or whichever jerk's in charge of the plot for this dimension."

"Hey! Watch the fourth wall!" jolts Uni. "We just had that repaired!"

I shrug. Jokes aside, things really were more difficult than they should've been. I can only imagine that trend continuing.

"So, do you think you'll be able to come with us over to Leanbox?" I ask the girl beside me.

Uni nods back. "The whole Vaders thing was really the last thing I needed to do… I mean, do you think Nepgear would mind having me along? From your story with the robots… I'd say you've already got a pretty solid team going…"

I cut her off right there. "Look, solid team or not, we never turn down help. Besides, the others all like you, so what's the problem?"

"What about that ninja…"

"Oh. Her?" I respond, raising an eyebrow. "Marvy's just a little bit nervous about meeting someone as important as the high-and-mighty Uni, current ruler of Lastation."

That definitely gets some more rolled eyes back.

"Seriously though, it'll pass. Just give her some time, and she'll warm up to you no problem."

"If you say so." nods Uni, as she turns toward where I assume her office is. "I really do need to get that paperwork done now… I assume you're going to wander around the town now?"

I smile back. "You know me well."

"Just stay out of the places you're not supposed to be this time, alright? I don't want to have to to be the one to come drag you back here."

With one final exchange of smiles, we turn our separate ways. Hers, towards a pile of papers that desperately need to be signed.

Me? I think I'll follow her advice and hit the town. Let's see if I can't get something to help me make a knife.

Luckily for me, I actually know which direction the shops are this time.

I don't have a shopping list per say, although I do have a vague list of ideas.

One, I want something to help me cover my lack of real elemental coverage. That'd probably be elemental bullets, or something similar. I've been doing mostly fine with non-elemental attacks, but eventually I'm going to need to squeeze out every bit of damage that I can. Abusing elemental vulnerabilities is the easiest way I can think of to do that.

Two, I need something to help me refine this shard. The downside of an indestructible material that they never tell you about: it's almost impossible to work with. I've whacked the thing with a hammer, tried chipping off pieces… I've even had Nepgear try her hand at it while in HDD, and still the stubborn thing refuses to yield.

And the final thing on the list is probably lunch. I'm hungry.

Well, I know where to find weapons, so I guess that's the first thing I'll go looking for.

"Welcome! What can I get'cha… Oh hey! It's you again!" greets the cashier. Oh nice, she remembered me!

I nod. "I'm back. You got anything for elemental coverage?"

"You still using that pistol?" asks the vendor, as she leads me towards a shelf loaded with various kinds of ammunition.

"Yeah." I respond, retrieving the gun as I do so. "It's handy for what I'm using it for, although the clip size is a bit of an issue, just like you said."

The woman raises an eyebrow towards my gun. "Really? It seems different than the one I sold you."

Right. The modded laser pointer. Why don't people recognise it as the same gun?

"Don't worry. It's the same one." I reassure her. "So, what'cha got?"

With a shrug, the woman reaches into a nearby cupboard, before retrieving a handful of different bullets. They all seem to be the same size and shape of the ones I'm used to, although the color of the tips are different. Red, green, blue, yellow, brown… I'd assume fire, wind, ice, electricity and earth, although there's also a few that I can't recognise. Probably status effect shots. Not usually my cup of tea, but a paralysis bullet could potentially be fun for battlefield control.

"How are these made?" I ask, as I reach into her hand and retrieve what I assume is a fire shot. It'd be nice to know how to make my own, if that's a thing that's even possible to do here.

"Well…" begins the vendor, as she runs her hand through her hair, "I mean, do you plan on selling the bullets you make?"

I shake my head. "Nah, I just like to mix it up every once in a while."

I get a nod back, before I'm lead towards something that resembles a loading bench straight out of Fallout New Vegas.

Or a loading bench in real life, but I recognise it more due to FNV than anything.

"This your first time using one of these?" I'm asked, to which I nod.

"Just press your hands here and here…" I move my hands to the two positions, on both sides of the reloading bench, but flinch back as something flashes into existence right before my face.

Huh. An interface. A holo-interface, at that. I can see several slots…

"So generally, you can make bullets by providing a payload and a blank casing." states the vendor. "I sell blank casings here, but they're a bit more expensive than buying a pre-made bullet."

That really doesn't make much sense. How can the raw reagents to make a bullet cost more than the finished product? Still, in video-game logic terms, it makes sense. More cost, for more customizability.

Still doesn't stop the logical part of me from wondering whether I can disassemble bullets to salvage casings and materials to make a profit.

"I'll take… four casings?" I venture, to which I'm handed four disc-shaped pieces of metal. They definitely aren't cheap: each one's about a hundred credits a pop. They look more like the backs of the bullets, rather than a complete bullet. Where does the rest of it come from?

Carefully, I slot a casing into the interface, and a series of bullet recipes pop up on the left side of the screen. Slowly, I slide my finger across the menu and look at my choices. Standard fire bullets, armor piercing… It seems that it auto-fills the slots on the right with your selection… Too bad there only seem to be twenty or so different recipes.

"Just pick a recipe, and you'll see what materials are needed."

I could do a pre-gen bullet, but I wonder what happens if I feed the slots on the right something else from my inventory.

I nod to myself, before I retrieve a bottle of Dogoo Jelly from my inventory. With only a bit of hesitation, I shove it into one of the empty slots, watch as all of the compatible recipes disappear from the menu, and then tap the ungreyed 'Accept' button.

The interface seems to hum for a second, before it releases a bullet with a cyan tip. Dogoo shot? I don't even know if my result even has a name, so Dogoo shot sounds like a decent name for it.

The vendor glances towards my bullet, before staring at me in confusion. "Huh. I don't think I've seen that type of bullet before… what does the menu call it?"

"Dogoo shot." I answer, lifting up the bullet and raising it to the light. It seems identical in size to the bullets I was using before, but there's no way I'm going to be able to fund firing these individually… not at over a hundred credits a pop. "So how do I synch up my pouch to it? Is there something special I need to do?"

The vendor blinks, before she nods back at me. "You need a special bullet storage device…"

I groan. More money down the drain, just for a bit more versatility. Still, anything that helps me in the long run…

For another thousand credits, I get myself a small device designed to clip onto the holster of the gun. No wonder the gun and pouch were cheap… all of the money's in the peripherals!

"That device there comes pre-loaded with standard bullets, but you can scan new bullets to allow you to swap to them later with the dial on the right." states the vendor, as she takes my new munition and holds it in front of my purchase. With a tap of a button, a light emanates from within it, washing over the bullet, before my toy vanishes into data.

"Does that thing have a maximum number of stored bullet types?" I ask, as I take the loaded device back. Carefully, I open my bullet pouch with one hand, and flip through my two possible selections with the other. I can see the tips of the bullets change with each flick. This is pretty cool!

"Yeah." answers the merchant. "The standard bullet, and up to four specialised types. You can push the red button to eject a stored bullet at a later time, if you need to make more space for a new type of shot."

I purchase myself a pre-gen fire bullet, and a pre-gen paralysis bullet, before I turn back to the loading bench. "Let me guess. The standard bullet can't be removed?"

"Of course not. The other bullets are directly patterned off of it."

That… doesn't answer my question. Wouldn't that just mean that if I replaced the standard, I'd have overall better bullets?

I mean, I'd need to find a good non-elemental bullet to replace it with first, otherwise I could run into compatibility issues.

I have three of my four slots filled now, and it makes sense to fully arm myself before I leave, right?

I could technically try and craft myself a bullet with an explosive payload, but that could potentially be a disaster in the making… I don't think going without a recipe when working with things that could blow up in the chamber would be the best idea.

So that leaves… what exactly?

Carefully, I rifle through my inventory, before retrieving a smaller shard of the Killachine metal. I knew I picked up more than one of them...

Perfect.

I hold my breath as I insert the heavy metal shard into the payload slot, and carefully tap the 'accept' button.

My new bullet is nearly identical to the standard one, but the much higher weight of it is definitely enough to set it apart. No clue what it'll do to what I hit, but it'll be interesting to find out.

Fully loaded. I'm ready to go. I thank the merchant one last time, before I do a quick one-eighty and exit the shop.

It's time to check out the rest of my list.

Buying the rest of the stuff was a lot more boring than experimenting with the new bullet system.

To be fair though, I don't think there's really much variation one can do when purchasing a small whetstone, Eject Buttons, rope, cheap healing items…

I couldn't find any energy fragments though, which leads me to question whether they just don't exist here, or if Nepgear simply never used the plan to unlock them. It'd be nice to be able to revive people mid-combat, but we'll have to work around it, instead.

Honestly, I spent a lot more today than I probably should have. At least half of my total credits overall.

But when the time comes when I actually need these things, I will be prepared.

At least I hope. There's always the chance that I'll forget I have them, and then remember later and feel stupid.

"Derek! There you are!" comes Compa's voice from behind me.

Slowly, I turn around.

The gang's all here, it seems.

"Oh hey!" I answer. "How'd you guys find me? I was just about to head back to the Basilicom."

"Just chance." answers Nepgear, who wipes a bead of sweat from her forehead. "IF did some looking into the boat schedules, and we're thinking of grabbing the last boat of the day over to Leanbox. We were just buying some upgrades for our weapons before we went to get you."

Ah, so I'm not the only one doing self-improvement. This bodes well for our effectiveness in the future.

"So how'd the mission go?" I venture, as we begin our walk back.

"Oh, not that bad. They were a bit tougher than the usual Vader, but nothing we couldn't handle." responds Marvy.

The rest of our walk is pretty much in silence. It's not like it's that long of a walk, but we simply don't have much to talk about.

Uni's all ready to go and waiting for us outside of the Basilicom, so it's beyond easy to just pick her up, march our way down to the shipyards, and get on a boat for the new land.

The moon's in plain sight by the time we finally hit Leanbox.

A glance at my watch confirms it. It's nine at night. And none of us have eaten dinner yet.

The audible rumbling from Compa's stomach definitely seals the deal.

"Ugh… I'm hungry~" moans RED. "And it's late.~ Too bad none of the restaurants are open…~"

Compa shakes her head. "It's too late for me to cook anything, too."

IF sighs. "Well, I guess there's no way around it then. Everyone happy with McDonalds?"

What. What?

I'm lead to a building that's identical to the ones in my world.

Same golden arches. Same bored-looking cashiers.

The toys on display for the happy meals are different, but I guess that's a regional thing.

"What do you guys want?" asks IF, as we get into a line.

I'm in a McDonalds. In Gamindustri. Not a NepDonalds or whatever, an actual McDonalds. There's even one of the random creepy plastic clown sculptures in a corner.

What the actual hell?

Around me, the girls are chirping their own demands of salads, nuggets, burgers, or fries.

Wait, what sort of person orders a salad at McDonalds?

"Derek?" asks Compa. "IF is asking what you want."

I shake my head clear. "Just a large fries. I'm not that hungry."

Soon enough, we've got our food, and we sit our little party of seven down in one of the booths.

I've got a container of fries in front of me, but I haven't touched them yet, even though the girls are already eating. Compa seems to have ordered a salad, but from the rate that she's eating IF's fries, I don't think she'll finish it any time soon. The rest have mostly gone with the standard fare… fries and burgers.

Out of the corner of my eye, I can see Uni staring at me with a raised eyebrow. I should probably start eating.

Carefully, I lift a single fry to my mouth, and eat it.

Yeah, it's a McDonalds fry. Oversalted and crunchy, but edible.

I shake my head in confusion.

Unfortunately, IF notices. "What's up, Derek? You not like McDonalds or something? I mean, the grease is sorta gross, but we didn't really have much choice."

I could say 'I didn't know that there even was McDonalds in this dimension', but that's crazy person talk.

"It's just been a while since I've been to a McDonalds." I state, as I grab myself another handful of fries. Strangeness or not, I'm hungry.

Uni raises an eyebrow. "Seriously? There's like one on every street corner over in Lastation."

"I've never really felt the urge to go to one of them."

Long story short we finish our meal, dispose of our trash, and we're on our way.

It's McDonalds. They don't do 'bad', or 'good'. They just sort of exist.

Our fast food meal consumed, the girls lead us to the Leanbox Embassy.

It's a little bit of a mess when both Nepgear and Uni pull out their Aegis at the same time, leading the receptionist to question why they were travelling together…

Good thing that they more or less were chill about the whole thing, so we managed to at least get ourselves beds without causing an real incident.

Shower, brush my teeth, and change into my bedclothes.

I bid the girls goodnight, and step into my bed. I make sure to leave my gloves and coat in a position where I can don them quickly if need be. Probably won't need to, but I don't want a repeat of the Lowee incident.

I chuckle to myself as I close my eyes.

"This dimension… is weird..." I murmur to myself, as I drift off to sleep.

Disclaimer: I do not own McDonalds. In fact, I don't know if anyone owns McDonalds. It's sort of a universal constant: a thing that exists regardless of dimension. I swear, the first thing we should look for when trying to find life on other planets is the existence of a McDonalds.