AN: ( •_•)⌐■-■
Location: Lastation Basilicom - Uni's room
Uni is laying on her bed
"I was being really pitiful to Nepgear, wasn't i…?" Uni says softly to herself, "she's been through a lot, heck, she's still going through a lot"
Uni rolls to her side, "I understand why sis told me to stay back then, if i had gone with them it would have only made things worse"
She sits up, "but, that's why I'm working hard to get stronger!" she says resolutely before her shoulders slump, "but… is that enough…?"
"How will I even interact with Nepgear after what I said?" Uni says as she looks out her window
Uni shakes her head and gets up, "i won't get anything done by wallowing in my self pity" she picks up her rifle, "i should go and get some quests done"
Location: Lastation Guild
When Uni arrived at the Guild, it was mostly vacant as it normally is these days
So the pair of girls in armor off to the side are more eye catching for her, especially since, like Nepgear, they aren't native to Lastation
The first girl is fair skinned with emerald green eyes and has short neck length black hair that fades to green. She's wearing a black suit of armor with emerald green trimmings, strapped to her back is a Battle axe with an emerald coloured energy edge
And her partner is a fair skinned girl with sapphire blue eyes who has long blue hair that's tied into a ponytail. She is wearing a mithril chestplate that has gear design on the left side of her chest with a midnight blue pleated skirt. On her arms are mithril gauntlets and she wears knee high mithril boots on her feet
"This is a stupid idea" the one is Black armour said, "why can't we just go finish it and be done with it"
"It's an order from our lady" came the Blue haired girl's immediate reply
"Still…" the ravenette trailed off
"Sorry, but I couldn't help but overhear your conversation…"
The pair of girls looks towards Uni
The Blue haired girl chuckles softly "it's quite alright, we weren't being particularly quiet about it"
"If you don't mind me asking, what are you two discussing?" Uni asks
The ravenette scoffs which caused Uni to look at her and the bluenette to roll her eyes
"Ignore her, she's upset that she doesn't get to have all the fun for the quest we've taken" the Blue haired girl says, "ah! Where are my manners, my name is Brin" she introduces herself, "and miss broody over there is Judy"
Uni nods, "im Uni, it's nice to meet you" shes says with a slight bow
"To answer your question Uni, not long ago the Basilicom posted a quest looking for a Treasure gem and a Hematite crystal" Brin explains
Uni's eyes widened at hearing the names of 2 of the most rare items in Gamindustri, 'what does Kei want with extremely rare items like that?' she thinks to herself
"While i personally know a general location of where we can get a treasure gem" Brin continues unaware of what's going through Uni's head, "our companions have have gone to check out some leads on where the hematite crystal may be"
Uni could only look at the other girl flabbergasted
"The issue that we're facing is that we'd normally have ranged support from our companion" Brin says, "but as you can see, she's off to check out the leads for the hematite crystal"
"Are you expecting to have a difficult fight?" Uni asks, that's the only reason that she could think of that required them to need to be this prepared
Brin nods, "every time i've ever run into a treasure gem, there was always a treasure seeker monster involved"
"If you don't mind, maybe i could join you…" Uni offered
"What could a kid like you possibly do to help us?" Judy cuts in rather rudely
"Judy!" Brin snaps at her partner
"I'll have you know that i'm the CPU Candidate of Lastation" Uni retaliates almost immediately
"You have some guts, I'll give you that kid" Judy says as she steps closer to Uni imposingly, "but if you think your little title will make me back down then you're sorely mistaken"
"That's enough!" Brin summoned her sword from her inventory and pressed it against her partners neck
Uni for her part was shaking, terrified but all in all she stood her ground
"This is why i prefer working with Magi or Trink over you when we need to pair up for whatever reason" Brin says with a growl in her voice
Judy for her part just stomps off with a glare on her face
It was only after the black knight left Uni was able to breathe properly again, "You didn't need to stand up for me…" Uni says softly
Brin sheaths her sword and sighs, "it's not your fault" she says with a shake of her head, "Judy always has been a pain to deal with, even on a good day"
She gives Uni a smile, "if your offer still stands, we can head out now" she offers her hand to the Candidate
"What about…?"
"Knowing her, she's going to go to a dungeon, massacre its population then head back to our lady" Brin says, "she's not going to join up with me for the rest of the week unless our lady orders it"
Uni nods and takes Brin's hand, "where is the monster we're hunting?"
"In the dungeon known as 'Darkness 60'"
'Isn't that in Planeptune?' Uni thinks before asking, "So we're going to Planeptune?"
"That is the plan, yes" the blue haired girl says, "will you be able to join me?"
Location: Train (on route to Planeptune)
Uni was lost in thought, she seems to be doing that a lot today, especially after she lashed out at Nepgear
"Credit for your thoughts?" she was brought out of her musings by the voice of the blue haired knight seated beside her
Uni didn't understand why, but she found the Blue haired girls presence comforting in a weird way
Almost like Nepgear was sitting next to her rather than Brin, and it was confusing
"I don't know" Uni starts, "it's just… i… i guess i just feel pathetic" she could feel tears prickling her eyes again but she blinks them away before the tears have a chance to form
"May I ask why?" Brin's voice was gentle, coaxing her out of her shell ever so slightly
Not that Uni crying would have mattered much since the train car is empty except for them, so the only one who could know that Uni cried would be the blue haired girl beside her
And she didn't seem like the person who would hold it against her or anything like that, unlike her black knight partner
"3 years ago, sis left me behind because i wasn't strong enough, heck, i couldn't even access HDD back then" Uni says with a slight quiver to her voice, "and i've been training to get stronger since"
"But recently I met the candidate of Planeptune and she's on a whole other league" Uni says with her head down, "she, Nepgear's De-synced and she's moving around like nothings wrong, and, and, and…"
Her ramblings was stopped when she felt an arm wrap around her shoulders, "Uni, breath"
She didn't realise that her breathing had gotten ragged and she started hyperventilating until the other girl wrapped her arm around her and told her to breath
But she couldn't get her breathing under control
A short moment of getting Uni to calm down later
How embarrassing, she lost her cool completely
And what's worse, she's now seated on the other girls lap with her arms wrapped around her firmly
But Uni didn't pull away, it helped ground her
Something, something, Nepgear
She couldn't understand, but she could understand that she is a mess
"Better?" Brin asks her
Uni nods her head, not trusting her voice
"So may I ask you some questions?" Brin asks, "it might help you in the long run…"
she once again nods, intrigued
"Are you the CPU of Lastation, Noire?"
Uni shakes her head 'no', confused at the odd question
"Then are you the CPU Candidate of Planeptune, Nepgear?"
Again, that was a 'no'
"Then who are you?" Brin then asks that with an emphasis on the word 'you', "please use your words for this one" she said with a soft smile
Uni gulps before speaking, "I, I'm Uni, the CPU candidate of Lastation"
"Very good" Brin says approvingly, "and you said that you wanted to get stronger?"
Uni nods
"You also said that when your sister went to the Graveyard 3 years ago, you couldn't go into your HDD?"
nod
"Can you go into HDD now?"
nod
"Then you have gotten stronger" Brin says, "the mistake isn't that you can't break through and push past your limits, it's that you're trying to break through and push past limits that aren't yours to break through and push past"
"The only one that you should compare yourself to is the you of the past" Brin continues, "everyone grows and gets stronger and better at their own pace"
"But I'm still not strong enough" Uni says
"I think that you're overlooking something important, something that your sister chose to do"
"huh?"
"You're not the only one fighting to bring back your sisters, so why not team up with the other Candidates?" Brin says, "what's stopping the 5 of you from teaming up and saving your sisters together?"
"I..."
Flashback
"You're a CPU?" Black sister's eyes narrow dangerously
"Yeap~" the lilac haired girl says without losing her smile, "wanna come with? To save our sisters and all that jazz?" she asked as she approached the other CPU candidate
Uni's mind goes back to what Nepgear had said the moment that she learnt that the Lilac Haired girl was a CPU Candidate
"We'll arrive at Planeptune soon" Brin says as she puts the Ravenette down next to her, "we'll spend the night at a hotel before we head out tomorrow morning"
"Huh? Why?" Uni asks
"Reason one is that it's getting very late and it will be significantly more dangerous to hunt the monster at night" the Blue haired girl says, "reason two being that you now have a lot to think about and will need some time to process what we talked about"
AN: Ill be honest, i dont know how well i did miss tsun sister