-1: 54
Far in the skies, beyond where any Nikke, human, or observation device could see.
There floated a certain Heretic-Class Rapture dressed in white and lilac, reminiscent of a jellyfish.
Liberalio tilted her head, listening to the drifting conversations of the Commander far below and his subordinates.
'Strange.'
There was a complete lack of fear. Most of the Commanders and Nikke she had come across were in absolute terror or at least on edge while wandering the surface.
And yet, that commander and his Nikke were completely at ease. If anything, they were a bit too relaxed considering the dangers lurking around the corners.
But more than that...
'The children are not moving.'
...What was stranger was that the Husk and Servant-Class Raptures were completely refusing to draw near.
At first, Liberalio assumed that they had a Nikke with them similar to that Pilgrim with golden hair. The one who could create areas that repelled Raptures with strands of her hair.
But it wasn't that.
Instead, as Liberalio listened into the Children, the feelings she had, or rather the sentiment they had...
*Mother and Father.*
*Strange, strange, strange.*
*Not Mother, but Mother?*
*Father? But not Father. But Father?*
Liberalio was quiet. Then she nodded and said, "Let's confirm it."
===
It was quiet, the sun slowly starting to set.
Laplace and Drake had tired themselves out lumbering the entire forest and grabbing logs.
Suri was still paranoid about Raptures and insisted on setting down the decoys, so she'd gone out to secure the perimeter.
Meanwhile, Rapi and Marian were being responsible and actually preparing the foundation for the future outpost here, starting with a simple log cabin. Marian was doing the math while Rapi was preparing the lumber.
That left me free to do my own tasks. Chief among them was checking in on the rest of the team, following up with reports, and basically all the busy work that came with being a Commander.
So, sitting on a tree stump, I had my data pad out along with my phone, prepping a checklist of things to do.
And then I felt it. A gaze from up above.
But I didn't look up. Instead, I just spoke up softly. "You've been watching for a bit. Are you satisfied?"
I couldn't actually see them. I didn't know how far they were either. And I wasn't sure it would work.
But, just like in high school when people used to just enter a room and speak up like they knew someone was watching, I committed to the bit and spoke some canned lines.
Except...
"My." A dreamy and soft female voice. "You're quite perceptive."
A soft breeze that left no sound.
With it came a young woman in white and lilac, along with... a jellyfish floatation device?
Still, I didn't flinch. I wasn't even nervous. And the reason for that...
'She isn't an enemy.'
There wasn't hostility.
I could tell she was a Rapture though... No, likely a Heretic. A Nikke who had been corrupted and turned against humanity.
The crimson eyes and completely human features were a dead giveaway for that.
But...
"It's hard to get the drop on me, Miss."
The unknown Heretic floated around without a sound, eyeing me up and down. "Strange... You LOOK human. But you don't feel human. You feel... like Mother, but different."
I chuckled. But inwardly, I was processing what she said.
I felt like 'Mother...' which meant that, to her, I felt like her creator.
'The Rapture Queen? I feel like that?'
I was human. THAT much I was sure of. The tests at the Ark had confirmed it.
But... With everything that's been happening...
'...Maybe I'm not completely human.'
Like how some people had neanderthal DNA, there might be something mixed in with me since I was clearly a test-tube baby. Something that had an effect on Raptures... No. Not just Raptures.
Thinking back...
I overrode Marian's corruption. I had clearly superseded the inhibitors for the Nikke under my command. Enikk had become more human around me. Endless and Eternity both clearly developed a sense of self...
Then there was the fact that Raptilion mentioned Wolfie and the others called me 'King,' even going so far as to change their form closer towards mine.
"Hm..." The unknown Heretic drifted around me again and then glanced at Marian in the distance. "That one... feels like Mother. She probably has the Gene. But you..." She tilted her head and stared at me, clearly confused.
No, not just confused.
It was an expression that I recognized. The one that belonged to a child who grew up without her father and meeting him by chance.
Recognition, yearning, but also hesitation.
I paused to think, quickly wracking my mind.
If this was really a Heretic-Class Rapture... a Nikke turned by the Rapture Queen. And one who wasn't hostile towards me...
This was the opportunity of a lifetime.
I held out my hand. "I'm Hoopa. What's your name?"
The unknown Heretic-
No. The lilac-haired young woman stared at my hand, hesitating. Then she slowly held her hand out and said, "My name is Liberalio."
A spark.
The moment she held my hand, a small discharge of what looked like violet static electricity formed.
Nothing happened to me.
But to her...
The crimson in her eyes flickered. Then, although slight, her eyes shifted hues. Not a bloody red, but now a soft lilac. Just like her hair and clothes.
"...What's this?" Liberalio blinked and stared at her hand, confused. Then she placed her hand over her heart. "It's... warm?"
"Commander!"
I froze and glanced over to see Rapi waving at me.
I quickly looked back at Liberalio. But she was gone.
The only trace that she had been here was a few light strands of lilac hair.
I watched them for a bit as they drifted away, floating on the wind.
Then I sighed.
Rapi walked over and said, "Marian and I finished assembling the log cabin. It's rudimentary, but it should be serviceable with our sleeping bags- Hm? Why do you look so glum?"
"...It's nothing." I got up and brushed off my hands.
What was done was done.
Whether anything would come of that meeting, I would find out later.
For now though, it was time to continue being a Commander.
===
The Simulation Room in the Ark. Einkk's territory.
"Yuusha..." Einkk giggled and said, "You're taking quite a few sidequests, aren't you?"
It was unexpected.
Einkk knew that her 'hero' was a bit different from Sweetie in numerous ways.
There were the obvious differences, like how Hoopa could fight, knew quite a great deal about MANY disparate topics that even surprised Einkk, and how he was (mostly) suave and mature with women and dealing with them.
But this...
Einkk kicked her feet while sitting out on her usual tree branch, gazing up at the artificial sky and observing Hoopa and the others.
"...You've really thrown events out of order, you know?"
Was he always like this? Or was it because he originally saw this world as a 'game?'
One way or another, Hoopa was doing the equivalent of taking on side quests while ignoring the main mission.
"Then again, I never DID tell him what the objective is..."
There hadn't been much time.
Making a copy of her Yuusha's mind and then making a new body for her Yuusha...
Even pulling all her resources together, Einkk barely managed to pull it off before his meeting with Marian.
But...
"Mm... I think it's better this way. After all, Yuusha isn't Sweetie."
Einkk's Sweetie... the Commander of the Counters still waiting in the other world. Still waiting for salvation upon meeting an impossible end...
That man had taken a much different path from Hoopa.
Being powerless in the beginning, losing Marian, being forced to run errands until slowly building up enough sway to affect the course of the Ark itself. Gaining allies, making enemies... Losing allies.
It was a checkered path of barely breaking even in terms of victories and losses.
But as for Hoopa...
"...You know, Yuusha." Einkk watched Hoopa interact with Rapi and Marian. Then she murmured, "This isn't a game. If you run around too much doing side quests, the world will pass you by."
The forces in the Ark that Sweetie met while being forced to run errands. Vapaus, and the fact that it could erase nanomachines. Marian becoming Modernia and then Burningum's actions afterwards. Heading to Eden to find the research facility where Vapaus was manufactured in the past, meeting Johan, Inherit, Dorothy...
All of that wouldn't happen.
Hoopa lacked that information. And with the way he was moving, he would likely never come across that information.
But at the same time...
The sky flickered, revealing a recovering Andersen, Red Hood moving about in a reploid body, citizens who were actively debating about whether Nikke were humans or machines, and Einkk's own sister, Enikk, slowly becoming human instead of the impartial arbiter of the Ark.
"...But you also have more than Sweetie did."
Sweetie... the commander of the Counters. If it was a 'game,' then that man had the trump card. He had the plot device that allowed the Queen to die for good. Vapaus, and his own blood... it was the true counter. And that was WHY they were called 'Counters.'
But Yuusha... Hoopa, the man she chose as her hero. He didn't have that because his blood could not create Vapaus. Even if it could... he didn't know it existed and wouldn't come across that knowledge with the way he was moving.
If Sweetie was in Hoopa's shoes right now, the Commander of the Counters would have dropped dead by the power plant mission.
Einkk would know. She'd simulated it.
And that was only assuming that he had somehow prevented Marian from being corrupted.
Einkk pursed her lips, watching her Sweetie as time crawled agonizingly towards a dead end. Then she watched her Yuusha slowly accumulating advantages that were impossible for Sweetie to get...
Einkk sighed. "...I'll just have to see. Don't disappoint me, Yuusha."
The divergence was too much. The timeline was accelerated.
Hoopa was bound for a collision with the Queen much earlier than Sweetie was. And he was going to avoid meeting many of who had become Sweetie's diehard allies. Nikkes who were charmed and joined Sweetie's side would never cross paths with him.
But at the same time, Hoopa was also running into allies that Sweetie never met and never could have had. Even the allies that Sweetie DID have, for Hoopa, they served different roles.
And the starkest contrast there was Burningum, who had assessed Hoopa's competence, found him up to par, and then positioned the board to maintain a mutually beneficial relationship.
Where it would all go, Einkk didn't know.
But...
Einkk sighed and closed her eyes, pressing her hands to her chest in a soft prayer. "This is all that your Goddess can do now. For you and for Sweetie. All I can do for now is watch... Watch, and wait until you're strong enough go through Gatekeeper to save Sweetie..."