Mon Mon Nepu Nepu 15

"Underling!"  I watched helplessly as she floated away on what used be her pants, laughing and insulting us all the way down.

"Loooooooserrrrrrs!"  Her voice faded away as she descended into the forest.  If she's here that could mean Magic was here as well...what if all the CFW were back as well!?  No...wait a minute.  There's no point in getting worked up over seeing her, she's probably the same as everyone else and I have to find Uni.  She's fine I'm sure and I hope she catches whoever she was chasing after.

"...why?"

"Falcom?"

I was headed back down the path until I noticed Falcom looking at her own reflection in her sword.  "What more..."  She crumpled down on all fours before breaking down completely.  "...do I have to do!?"

I wanted to approach and comfort her but what could I say?  I can't say things will get better when I don't have the slightest idea what's what in this world or how to help her out.  I don't want to think of how things could possibly get worse.  If the Histoire here is anything like the Histoire I know she should have just the information we need to fix Falcom up.  Oh!  I should probably call IF right now and tell her we've been a little sidetracked, hopefully she won't be too mad about us calling late.  We did manage to-"Falcom what the goodness are you doing!?"

She propped herself on her knees and started scratching and clawing at the runes in her neck!  "I-I have to get rid of this!  I-If I do then I can go back to my!  Ehehe..."

"Falcom stop!"  There's no need to think this through!  I broke into a sprint to pin her down as soon as possible before she could do something even more drastic.  "What in the world do you think you'll accomplish by doing...THIS!?"  She's fighting back with all her strength and is slowly winning our struggle.  "Stop and think about this for a moment!"

She was facing me but it felt as if she was looking right through me.  The normal shine and livliness she had in her eyes had faded away as she started cackling nonsensically.  "Ehehe...I win...I lose...ahaha...I lose...I lose..."  The shock of no change to her body must've taken its toll and driven her mad.  "Sisters...I...I..."  Her neck!  I have to check the damage she had done to her neck but...there isn't any.  She was physically fine as far as I could tell but she's under the impression that she has to go to such measures because she lost a fight.  I just don't understand it at all!

"Falcom!  Please listen to me!  You..."  Her body shot straight up, knocking me on my back and went straight for her own throat again.  I grabbed her hand and pulled her down to me, I don't have time to get myself up to stop her.  The only thing I can do is hold her tightly to me and pray that she snaps out of her madness before...no, I told myself I wouldn't let anything bad happen to anyone else and I won't!  "Please Falcom...I'm here for you.  Please...please stop."  I was about to start crying myself when she finally started slowing down.

"Sis...sisters..."

"Shhh...everything will be ok.  Just rest now..."  I whisper in her ear and stroke her head doing my best to keep what little control over the situation I have in check.  Her hands fall to my side as her head droops down and gently bumps into mine as she passes out into a deep sleep, although I wait a few moments until I'm totally positive she's knocked out.  Now would be the perfect chance to calmly roll her over...and while doing so I'm reminded that her body is still deathly cold.  "Mph...don't mind me Falcom, I'm just gonna lay you down right here."

"Gear!"  I looked back towards the trap path to see Uni struggling to stay in the air as she hauls a man by his belt towards me.  I signal for her to be quiet and head closer to the cave for Falcom's sake, I can't have her waking up and getting hysterical again.  "I...got to get rid of..."  She threw the bandit in my direction and glided the rest of the way down here panting.  "One...second...hah..."  Uni caught her breath a little and kicked him over onto his stomach and then violently woke him up by stomping on his rear.

"Gwaaaaah!  You blasted har-argh!"

Uni dug her talons even deeper and twisted her foot a little.  "Speak when you're spoken to!"  She applied even more pressure for a few seconds and then pulled back to give him a chance to breathe.  "The sooner you tell us what you know the sooner this 'scrawny buzzard' will be off your case."  The ferocity in her eyes was like nothing I've ever seen before...it feels as if no matter what I say Uni won't have any of it.

"Alright alright, I'll tell you what little I know!  Just sto-"

"Out with it!"

"Toughman came out of nowhere a while ago saying he had big plans for the lot of us.  Said if we did a good job with Haneda we'd be able to move up in the world but...

"...but?"  She was ready to dig into him again but he kept on going for the sake of being able to sit down again.

"...we're not really in it to go big.  We're all just bums who want it easy in life!"  He covered his head and buried his face in the dirt confessing everything.  "Everything was fine when I was the boss but..."  He looked up and finally noticed that all his comrades were down, but not out fortunately, along with the remains of Toughman...or rather the Golem Underling was piloting.  "Is he...?"

"He's just an empty shell now."  I spoke up to spare him any more pain from Uni and her interrogation methods.  It'd be best if he didn't know someone was actually inside, he sounded pretty happy he saw the rubble.  "Now tell us, um..."

"...Butterbean..."

I held in my smirk and continued reasoning with him.  "Now that he's out of the way Butterbean, what do you plan on doing now?"  I hope he's thinking real hard on what they'll do from now on because Uni looks like she's getting impatient.

"I have another foot!  I swear I'll start digging into the other cheek!"

"Ok we'll stop being so...bandity!"

"What else!?"

"Uni, I-"

"Butt out Gear."

Goodness!  What did Butterbean do to her to make her so angry?  I...I think it would be best for everyone if I just let her finish and hopefully settle down.  If I upset her anymore she might take it out on him, and he doesn't entirely deserve it.

"I'm sorry for all those bird jokes from earlier and we'll seriously stop being so bad!  I'll return what little we stole from this week even, just let me have my ass back!"  As soon as he apologized Uni let him go and gave him a swift kick towards the cave.  "You have one minute before we go in there after you!"

Butterbean held his behind as he ran into the cave and sure enough a minute later he came running back out with bags and boxes stacked so high they covered his face.  "I got everything see?"  He quickly dropped everything to our feet and held out a separate bag that bore the old IF's belt logo.  "Stealing all of this stuff was a bad idea anyway, this thing gives me the creeps."  He second guessed himself when he took a step toward Uni and instead handed me the bag.  "Can I go help the others now?"

Uni was already heading back toward Falcom but she nodded and waved him away.  I feel a slight urge to check what's in IF's bag but...that wouldn't be in my best interest especially without her permission, she might still be mad at me for touching Compa.  "Hm, wonder what would happen if I point my N-Gear at all of this..."  To my surprise a wide beam shot out from the top of the my handheld and scanned the supplies up and down, making them more and more transparent until they were gone completely.  "'Haneda Supplies have been added to inventory'.  Wow, that's...pretty nice actually.  I've always wondered how this worked."  After discovering these were capable of easy storage I walked back to Uni, kneeling as I put a hand on her shoulder.  "Uni..."  Is she...crying?

"Wh-what is it Gear?"  She asked as she pulled out her N-Gear and started fooling around with the on-screen buttons.  She was doing her best to hold back her sniffling but she looked as if she could lose it at any second.  "I'm...I'm not skin and bones am I?"

"Is that what he said?"

"That wasn't even the worst of it...but what does he know!  Why should I care what some smelly jerk thinks anyway..."  Tears had started dripping down from her face onto the N-Gear as it sat in her lap, blinking and ringing a little trying to contact IF.

"You shouldn't care what he or anyone else thinks."  I nod, rubbing her shoulders a little and nudging her a bit, making her rest her head on my shoulders.

She let out a few more sobs, hit what I assume was the redial button, and wiped her tears away as she gazed up at me.  "B-but...I kind of care how you think about me...a little...maybe..."  Her cheeks started getting a little red as she inched closer to my face.  "Could you...could you tell me..."  She shifted her entire body and put the N-Gear on the opposite side of her away from Falcom.

I changed direction as well and placed both hands on her shoulders.  "Come on Uni, you shouldn't need me to tell you anything.  I happen to like your body just the way it is."  That may have come out wrong but she needed to hear this right now, no point in being subtle.  "Just don't let what people say get to you again, ok?"

"...mhm..."  Seeing her close her eyes like that made my heart want to burst out of my chest as she drew even closer...this is the Uni I want to see more of...I leaned forward and whispered to reassure her of my feelings.  "You should know by now that I'll always l-"

"It's about time you two called, it's nearly dusk!"

Uni had gone sprawling backwards, but not before we bumped our heads together as IF interrupted our...moment.  She sounded a little panicked and out of breath as she called out to us for some reason though.

"What's going on over there?"

I picked up Uni's N-Gear and crawled over to check on if she was ok...and her face had went beat red as she lied there with her chest heaving in panic.  She could only muster up the will to stare at me until I sat back down to chat with IF.  "N-nothing happened, we just got finished um..."  What do I say?  I was so caught up in the moment that I-wait, I think hear someone other than IF breathing on the call.  "Um...what's going on over THERE?"  Goodness me, why did I just say that?!

"N-nothing."  The sounds of shuffling could be heard in the distance until she spoke up again.  "We were beginning to get worried.  What happened in Haneda?"

As Uni recovered I explained to her how we met Falcom, put Butterbean's bandits in check, and how Underling was the mastermind behind Toughman and ruining Haneda.

"Sounds like something crazy is going on up there.  If those bandits are true to their word maybe I can arrange for a way for them to redeem themselves though.  Shame about that woman Neptune hired, but we can check up on her when you get back.  Oh yeah, about what I wanted you to pick up, did you get that back?"

"You mean this bag?"  I had laid it off to the side instead of storing it away, I was very curious as to why it creeped out Butterbean.

"Yes, reach inside and you should find something small and feathery.  Pull it out and think about returning home.  That should be enough for now.  See you when you all get here."  She didn't explain why I was doing any of this and hung up before I had a chance to ask what would happen...but it's not like she's steered me wrong before so here goes.

I pulled out a tiny wing the size of my hand and clasped it as I thought about going back to Planeptune.  My hand suddenly started to glow as the feather escaped my hold and hovered in the middle of the three us.  Falcom was still asleep and Uni's breathing had returned to normal as all three of us slowly floated up...and suddenly sky rocketed toward the sky in a beam of white light.