This was supposed to originally be one, big chapter, but I ended up going way overboard, and needless to say there's still a little bit left of Leanbox. The other half should come out sometime next week.
Draxinus: I actually think that wishing for panties wouldn't be out of character for this story.
RedBurningDragon: Linda Used Evasion! It's super effective!
Ant: I disabled the thing. And then cut its AI packets down to save RAM.
phillip92dk: Derek has Terrifying Presence, of course. It was first shown quite early in the story. Chapter 7, I believe.
Admiral Crow: Oh it will. Believe me, it will.
Yu Narukaze:
Truncated - Derek is about the strength of an average person. Nepgear is about as strong as a professional athlete. Her HDD form is about as strong as a superhero.
Etokaiten:
"... Derek."
"Yeah?"
"What... How did your bullet do that? WHY did your bullet do that?"
"It does damage though."
"Derek. It just spiraled through the air, and then did a backflip. Bullets don't do backflips."
"It does damage though."
"But this is optimal!"
"This is stupid."
"That too."
nht desu: I actually plan on him developing a set of tactics like that. He'll need it, since he can't outstrength his foes.
"So uhh… Are we seriously all done?" asks Uni, as we step out of the Basilicom. "I was expecting… you know, fighting and stuff."
We spent the night in the guest quarters, as a final gift from Chika. Needless to say, that the Embassy, while cushy, has nothing on the Basilicom itself. Potentially one of the nicest beds I've ever been in, although the blanket was still a little bit too light for my tastes.
"Well, we were planning on checking out Leanbox while we're here." states Nepgear, retrieving her list. It's even longer than when were working on it yesterday.
Uni blinks, "Huh, that's a pretty big list. What's it for?"
"Well, it's me and Derek's first time in Leanbox, so we thought we'd check out as many places as we could!"
"Huh. It sounds like fun." Uni raises an eyebrow towards her counterpart.
"Yeah!" chirps Nepgear. "So do you think you'll be able to stick around, Uni? It'd be really cool if you could!"
Uni starts to say something, before she turns towards me, an unsure expression on her face.
I pause for a moment, before I give her a thumbs up. I don't know what to say.
It seems to do the trick, though.
"Well… I guess I could make some time out of my busy schedule. Things have been quiet in Lastation lately." smiles Uni, as she leans in closer to better see the list. "What's up first?"
Nepgear pauses, before she stares intently at IF. The agent is only able to hold her ground for a moment before she relents.
"Fiiine." IF murmurs. "We'll go there first."
"Yay!" chirps Nepgear, before she bolts off in a direction.
Well, looks like it's time to run.
The inside of the mechanist shop is just like I imagined it. Gizmos, wingdings, and thingamabobs hanging from the walls, ceiling and shelves, and an unidentifiable, constant ticking noise that can't quite be placed.
Nepgear looks like she's in heaven, darting from shelf to shelf with a manic look on her face. I, on the other hand am just shuffling slowly through the 'extra parts' and 'mods' sections, in hopes of finding something to help me spruce up my arsenal.
Actually, speaking of heaven... Does Celestia even exist in this dimension? I don't think it ever comes into play here… Never mind.
Uni's with me in the mods section looking at scopes, but the rest of the girls are just sitting on a nearby bench with their respective reading materials. It seems not everyone's quite as tech-happy as we are.
Oooh. Long range laser pointer. This could be nice as a replacement for my current one. Wait… This gives stat bonuses? Do they all give stat bonuses?
"Oh my goodness! Derek! You have to see this!" comes Nepgear's excited voice from somewhere over to my left.
Being the nice party member that I am, I wander over to see what the commotion is.
Nepgear's white-knuckle clenching a box nearly twice the width of her head and four times as long, and it seems to be some kind of do-it-yourself robotics kit. With sensors, gyroscopes, and even a jointed chassis.
It looks like a Lego Mindstorms kit, except infinitely more complicated.
"Isn't this just the coolest thing ever?" she smiles, as she flips it over to read the back. "Over a billion different configurations… Can you imagine?"
It's basically super Lego. Yes, I can believe it.
"What's the price tag on it?" I ask, as I pick up another identical box and flip it over. It's definitely heavy, I wouldn't be able to lift this thing with a single hand.
Okay… so it seems to use something object-oriented programming wise… Doesn't seem to be Java or C++ though, so it's either a custom, user-friendly language, or something I've never seen before.
"Uhhh… It's…" Nepgear's voice drops to a whisper. "It's two hundred forty thousand six hundred twenty five credits."
I blink. Uni blinks. I can hear the rest of the group blinking from over on the bench.
"That's a lot of cash." I state, barely holding in the urge to emit a low whistle. I carefully place my own box back down, doing everything in my ability to avoid damaging the thing,which is probably more valuable than my net worth.
Nepgear seems to think for a moment, before she darts over towards the bench, carrying the massive box under her arm.
I can't hear what she's saying, at least until IF answers back rather loudly, "No. You are not selling Planeptune Tower to pay for your new toy."
"But IF…" I hear in response, but I just roll my eyes and head back towards the laser pointers.
Oh hey, I'm still holding onto the one I was looking at. I should probably put that back. Wouldn't want to shoplift it by accident.
It takes a bit of hemming and hawing, but I eventually settle on a nice-looking piece that boasts not only a near-infinite battery life, but also a ten-point bonus to both TEC and LUC. There were other ones with better stats, but this one is by far the best one, cost efficiency wise. Nodding one final time, I pick it up and head towards the cash register.
Uni's already done with her purchase, and is by the side waiting with the others. Nepgear, on the other hand, is still filling her basket with miscellaneous parts. It seems IF was successful in convincing her to not buy the super-expensive toy, if not in convincing her to not grab absolutely everything else.
"I'd like to purchase this mod." I state. The clerk here is male, and rather obviously so. He's got a build reminiscent of the standard RPG mechanic: bulging muscles on his arms, overburdened toolbelt, and even a set of welding goggles. I don't even need to look at his name tag to guess that his name is Cid.
It is, by the way. He's got a tag that says "Hello, my name is Cid."
The clerk scans the part, before he raises an eyebrow in my direction. "Huh. I didn't take you for a minigun user."
Wait, what?
"Huh?" I respond, looking towards the scope. I don't see any problem with it. No special markings, nor specific adaptors.
"This scope's only compatible with miniguns." explains the clerk.
That doesn't make any sense. It's a laser pointer, not a suppressor or a compensator. There's nothing that couldn't be solved with duct tape, or in the worst case scenario, a chisel followed by even more duct tape.
Actually, wait…
I quickly turn around and strip the laser pointer off of my old gun, and hand the now-vanilla gun to the clerk. "What mods are compatible with this?"
My gun is lifted towards the light, before he shakes his head. "This gun doesn't have any mod slots, sorry kid. Older models generally don't."
No mod slots. So are we talking mod slots like Fallout? Or like card slots from Ragnarok Online?
"And this laser sight?" I hand him my old sight.
"This… This is only compatible with pellet guns. And it gives a bonus of two to TEC." rumbles the mechanic. "Don't know why you're carrying around a useless thing like this, though. Pellet guns aren't real weapons, they tend to cap out at low levels. Either that, or they're joke weapons with deceptively high stats. Wouldn't bet on it though."
So mod slots are inherent to the weapon… But I've definitely been using this pointer, even without an available slot.
"Thank you." I answer, as I pay the man. I guess that's why no one can recognise the gun when I modified it… I changed it into a form it physically could not be.
Game logic is weird.
It seems I've got a little bit more control over my surroundings than I thought. I mean, I don't think I should try to break the rules too badly here, but every advantage I can get, I will abuse.
I'll need it, for what's coming up ahead.
As I meet up with the other girls, Nepgear's still nowhere to be found.
"Should I even ask?" I venture, to which I receive back a near unanimous sigh.
"I'll go pay for some of her purchases. The rest of you go grab her and get her out of here." groans IF, who rises slowly to her feet. "She's like this in every mechanic shop we go to. I swear, I should start bringing a leash."
Nepgear's in the back of the shop, each hand now occupied with a handful of parts. Three baskets, two filled and one still partially vacant, sit behind her as she darts between each display like a coked-up hummingbird.
"Nepgear. It's time to go!" we shout, as each and every one of us grabs onto the girl. I grab an arm, Compa grabs a leg, and RED grabs her midsection.
"BUT THERE'S STILL SO MUCH TO SEE!" shouts the restrained Candidate, flailing wildly as she does so. Her eyes dart to the side, spotting a sign. "GOODNESS THEY HAVE A HALF OFF ON SERVOS!"
"Nepgear… No." I state. It's probably an offensive tone, one that I've used for my dog several times. Hopefully she doesn't take it too seriously. "On three, everyone?"
"One… Two… Three!"
"Nooooo!" whines Nepgear, as we slowly drag her out of the shop. It's no easy feat either. It seems she's really not holding back on her strength here… So it's a good thing we've got Uni with us.
Twice I need to dodge a flailing limb travelling with a bit too much force, although despite her struggling, at least she's making sure not to hurt anyone.
Finally, we cross the threshold, and it's like a switch is thrown. Nepgear ceases to struggle at all, and instead tilts her head towards us. "So… What's next?" she asks, face a perfect image of innocence.
We all groan.
There's three seconds of quiet thought, before we all speak up at the same time. I can barely make out what each person is saying individually.
"Shooting range." says Uni.
"Manga shop." chirps RED.
"Pharmacy." states Compa. "I'm running low on medicine."
I don't manage to hear what Nepgear or Marvy say. It seems they were drowned out entirely.
"Restroom." I say a few moments later, just to say something. "Joking… joking."
Sadly, that doesn't even get a reaction. It seems the group has gotten used to me.
And so it goes. Not a one of us says the same thing. Even IF, hands entirely full with only a single basket of the purchased parts, declares that she feel like hitting a bookstore.
She either left the other two baskets of parts behind, or she's already put them away. If she left them behind, I feel sorry for whichever poor person's going to have to put them all back onto the shelves.
"Meet back up in a half hour or so?" asks Nepgear, moments after her new toys are stored away. I don't see IF give her anything else, so it seems that one basket's all that she's going to get.
We all nod, and turn our separate ways. Now what do I want to do?
I don't really need anything, and I don't think I'll be able to afford a cell phone with my current budget.
Actually, the shooting gallery seemed like a good idea.
I quickly sprint to catch up to Uni.
"Huh?" is Uni's response as I draw nearer. "Oh hey, Derek. What's up?"
"Well…" I state, gradually slowing my pace until we're walking side by side, "I've never been to a shooting gallery before, that's all."
She completely halts and gives me a blank look, before she reaches forward and grasps my hand in a nearly bone-crushing grip. "You're joking." she utters.
"Nope." I respond.
There's a single moment of silence, before I get a hasty "C'MON!" and am practically dragged forward towards our next destination.
The shooting range reminds me of a bowling alley. Lots of narrow parallel lanes, people with beverages, and even an overpriced refreshment stand. Oh, and the building's absolutely massive, and the constant sound of loud objects hitting each other almost never stops.
But that's where the similarities end. Each of the lanes seems to be stocked with several targets, including over a dozen dozen flip-up targets, and even a few on a moving track. Each lane has several markings at various intervals, probably in case someone was trying to get better at a specific range.
The range itself seems to be relatively vacant today though. Only half of the lanes are filled, and even then, it seems that it's only one or two parties of people.
I mean, it might be like this in my world too, but I've never been to a shooting range… so…
In a speed that probably belies having done this hundreds of times, Uni rents us two lanes with some sort of membership card, grabs a rifle from a nearby rack, and hands me it.
And then she steps back slightly, even as I receive the weapon with both hands. "Wait, crap. Are you even able to use rifles? I mean, I've seen you use your knives, but I don't think those are the same thing..."
She lets loose a nervous laugh. "Wow. I kinda… well… I guess I was so caught up in it I forgot…"
"It's fine." I respond, carefully look over my temporary weapon. From what I can tell, it resembles a hunting rifle, much more so than either a shotgun or an automatic. "This is your hobby, right? I don't think you're usually able to do this with others. Don't worry though, I should figure this thing out right… about… now."
Finally, I identify the loading mechanism of the gun. It's clip-based, unlike the pistol I was using before, and it turns out that the hidden switch I was looking for to dislodge the ammunition was in front of the clip, rather than behind it.
My cartridge falls to the ground with a click. The gun's weight practically drops to nothing, like I'm suddenly holding a cardboard tube.
"You… sure?" I get a raised, partially concerned eyebrow back. "I thought you used only knives?"
"Positive." I respond, as I reach down to pick back up my dropped cartridge. Now that I have a better look at it, I can see that the individual bullets are absolutely tiny, but the clip still definitely weighs something. There must be hundreds of bullets per clip, although I doubt these things would be able to stop anything larger than a grape. "How do you work the targets?"
Uni shakes her head with a smile, before she begins her explanation. "There's two… well, three settings on these ranges. First one is speed shooting, which just sets up all of the targets at once. It times the difference between the first target hit, and the last target hit. The second option is the circuit, which puts different targets up at different times, and is way harder. It's random too, so you can't just memorize where the targets are."
I blink back. "And the third mode?"
"That's just a manual mode that lets you put up the individual targets so you can practice with your gun."
"Ah." I reply, as I lift the gun to my shoulder, and then back down. "Can you set up a few of the targets? I need to get a feel for this thing before I do anything fancy with it."
I get a nod back, before Uni taps some keys on a nearby interface, and three targets pop up on the left lane. I guess that one's mine.
"Any recommended range for me to start with?"
Uni seems to think for a moment, before nodding her head. "Try seventy-five meters. That should be a good place to get used to the gun."
Carefully, I step up to the marked line, before I lift the rifle. I don't really know how to hold the thing, so here's to hoping Uni doesn't laugh at my technique.
To the best of my knowledge, rifle users take a forward stance, and wrap an arm around the butt… And the other hand goes under the underside of the gun for stability…
"What are you waiting for?" shouts Uni from behind me. "Take your shot!"
I shake my head, before I raise the iron sights to my eye level, line it up with a target, and squeeze the trigger. I brace for potential impact.
I am greeted with a near silent PFFFT, and then moments later a loud PTING as the bullet strikes the target, flipping it downward. The screen above the targets lights up with the word "HIT!".
There's almost no recoil on this thing - it honestly reminds me of firing a light gun in a game of laser tag. Even my pistol has more recoil than this. I could probably fire it one handed and not break my wrist.
My aim would be crap, but that's an entirely different story.
"There ya go!"
I nod my head, before I line up with the next target, and squeeze the trigger again.
PFFFT PTING! That one reads "BULLSEYE!".
The third one goes wide and hits the backboard… or whatever they've got to prevent stray shots from bouncing back.
Fourth definitely hits though.
I begin my walk back to the interface, where Uni is waiting. She doesn't seem to have started her own lane yet.
"Not bad. Not bad at all." she says, hefting her own gun. I don't know if her safety is on or not, but either way, I flinch out of the way of the upswinging barrel. Pathetically weak weapons or not, gun safety is still a thing which has been drilled into my mind.
Uni seems to run something through her head, before she carefully lowers the barrel once more. "Oh. Oops! Yeah. The safety's on, don't worry. Anyway… I've never heard of someone using completely different weapon types before… Isn't that hard to do?"
I tilt my head side to side as I set my own rifle down. "I haven't seen anyone doing it, no. But I'm not exactly a master at any weapon I use. I'd say… I'm overall worse with pretty much any type of weapon compared to a specialist, but I can make do with anything. If that makes any sense. Like… This is my first time with this kind of rifle, but not the first time firing something like it, so I'm not a complete mess, accuracy wise."
The fact that the gun is practically hitscan definitely helps.
"Huh. Cool." is the response. Uni seems to consider something for a second, before she prompts, "Say… Do you want to try the circuit? It could be fun to have a bit of competition, if you're up for it."
I've never picked up a kinetic rifle before in my life, I'm up against someone who specializes in this kind of weapon, and I missed a target that wasn't actually moving.
But what's life if you don't live it?
"You're on." I say, surging forward to shake Uni's hand. She nearly flinches at my sudden movement, before she nearly immediately regains her composure and returns my smile and shakes heartily.
Twenty or so seconds of button-pressing later, and we're both at the seventy-five mark, watching the timer tick down to zero.
"Don't go easy on me!" I say, to which Uni's response is, "That was never even an option!"
And then the timer hits zero, I lower my eye to the gun's sight, and my mind goes blank as I focus.
My arm is actually somehow slightly sore by the time the circuit ends. I don't know if I did good or not, but I definitely hit more than half of the targets.
Carefully, I lower my gun and flip on the safety, before I step over towards the interfaces. Mine proudly declares a sixty one percent accuracy rate, which means that there was either over a hundred targets, or I hit a few targets after missing them. Either way, not bad for my first time.
Actually, I have no idea how they score points in here. It might take into account bullseyes.
"What'cha get?" asks Uni, who's soon right behind me. Did she already check her own score?
"Sixty one…" I begin to say, but stop as Uni cracks a massive smile.
"Seventy eight! In your face!" gloats Uni, but it's definitely lighthearted.
"Aw. You beat the guy who's never touched a real rifle before in his life." I smirk back. "You up for another round?"
"You know it!"
We end up going for a total of three whole runs of the circuit.
Mostly because I somehow managed to beat her in the second round, which means that we needed a 'tie-breaker' match. I lost the third match, but honestly, when the score in the second round was only seventy four to seventy one, it wasn't really that much a surprise.
Of course, that didn't stop me from doing my own share of the gloating after my narrow win, but that only made us compete even harder on the third round.
Needless to say, quite some time has passed by the time we step out of the gallery. At least forty five minutes, according to my watch. We managed to completely lose track of time.
"That was fun." I say, as I shake out my arms. "Do they have places like this back in Lastation?"
"Yeah, they do." smiles Uni. There's a bit of silence as we continue to walk back towards the Basilicom.
She speaks once more, this time in a near whisper, so quiet that I'm not sure if she even spoke. "Maybe you could join me again some time when we get back to Lastation?"
"I'd love to." I respond, gazing about at the people walking by. They seem to all be heading in a single direction… I wonder what for?
"Huh? You'd love to what?"
"I said sure. I'd love to go with you to the shooting range again." I speak again.
A strange, choking noise to my side draws my attention back towards Uni. Her eyes are wide as she faces me, beginnings of a panicked expression dawning on her face. "Wait, huh? Did I really say that out loud?"
"I hate to tell you this, but yeah, you did. You said you enjoyed something. Oh whatever shall you do?" I reply with a shrug. I don't know why she's freaking out, it's not like she said anything embarrassing. "But seriously, I had fun. You had fun too, right?"
"Yeah… I had fun too." Uni murmurs, gazing off into the distance.
There's a bit more silence, before Uni clears her throat. I gaze over my shoulder towards her, and she seems to be mulling something over in her head.
Finally, seems to come to a decision, and speaks, smile once more returning, "Thank you. I mean it."
I let out a little sigh of relief, before I nod back. The grin on my own face nearly matches hers. "No problem. That's what friends are for."
I turn away for a moment, as we begin our walk back towards the Basilicom. I don't know what exact time we were supposed to meet up, but I get a feeling that we might've overstayed our grace period.
Actually, it's less of a walk and more of a brisk trot.
"I just have one thing to say though." Uni's voice seems to drop in volume slightly.
"Huh?" I raise an eyebrow as I turn back towards back at the girl. Her grin is nearly ear to ear.
"That one win you got was complete luck. You better be ready for next time!"
And then she makes a finger guns gesture.
"And you better be ready to put your money where your mouth is, because next time, it won't be because of luck!" I retort, miming firing, and then spinning a handgun and holstering it. It's cheesy, but it's the only possible response that I can fathom.
As we walk together to go find the others, smirking and laughing like idiots, I can barely hear Uni whisper to herself, "So this is what friends are like?"
And in the depths of my heart, I can't help but agree.
The rest of the group are loitering around the outside of the Basilicom by the time we arrive back. It seems we might have overdone it a bit, and the group has gotten slightly impatient.
Still, it doesn't stop us from taking a seat beside them on the steps of the Basilicom. The rest of the group nods towards us, one by one.
"Where were you guys?" asks Nepgear, who is the first to speak back to us. The others are all still trying to make themselves busy. "We were beginning to get worried."
RED, on the other hand, gazes towards me and then towards Uni, raising a single eyebrow. I frown back at her accusation.
To be honest, I'm actually pretty amazed they waited around for us, rather than just leaving a note behind.
"We were at the shooting gallery." I say. "Uni's suggestion seemed like fun, so I tagged along. Oh, and thanks for waiting - I managed to lose track of time."
"Was it any good?" asks Nepgear, tilting her head to the side. "I mean, I've never been to one before, what with equipment restrictions and everything…"
"Yeah, I think so. What do you say, Uni?" I turn towards the black-haired Candidate, who has taken a seat beside me.
"Yeah. It was good." nods Uni. Her smile has faded slightly, but it's definitely still there. "Where to next?"
"Well… I was thinking of checking out this concert." states Nepgear, as she hands Uni a pamphlet.
"No way! 5pb. is performing?" gasps Uni.
Oh, is she a fan?
"Not just that." smirks IF, who is holding a handful of tickets printed on green paper. "We have front row seats!"
"It was really nice of Miss Chika to provide them." smiles Compa. "They're really expensive."
Marvy lets out a low whistle. "No kidding. Over two thousand credits a pop at the very least for these seats."
The ninja has been silent up until now, reading. Interestingly enough, it's not a scroll this time, but rather a beauty magazine.
"Wait. You checked?" asks IF, gazing towards the ninja in confusion. "Why were you looking up ticket prices?"
"Well… I was considering selling mine. I'm not really a fan of loud noises. Or crowds." admits Marvy, as she reclines further back onto the steps. "But I eventually decided against it. After all, it's not every day you get to see an idol like her perform live, right?"
IF shakes her head. "I doubt scalping a gift like this for a quick buck would make the Oracle want to help us again."
"That too." smirks Marvy. "But there's no problem with finding things out that don't hurt anyone, yeah?"
"So, when's the concert?" I interject, retrieving my ticket from the hands of IF.
"Ten minutes from now." answers IF. "It's being held in the National Park."
RED screws up her face for a moment, before she says. "That's the big park we passed earlier, right?~"
She gets nods back.
"Wasn't that like… a fifteen minute walk from here?~"
We all exchange glances for a moment. "Crap." says IF.
And with that, begins the mad scramble to our next destination.