"Usually, it doesn't get that bad," I rubbed the back of my head. And it was true, too. Brave pissed me off, but I still didn't exactly do anything outside the ordinary besides fighting and using fifty words of insults when only five would be necessary. Even when I was pissed as hell at Vert, I still only used words. Never nasty and hard-hitting words, granted, but still, things never came to physical blows.

  The last time I'd used violence, it'd nearly been a decade ago. And by violence, I meant throwing a book at someone's head. It wasn't like they didn't deserve it, either, given how many times they'd been told to knock off their shit. It didn't hit them, either, though I also acknowledge I could have handled the situation better.

  But between the stress of, everything, me blowing my stop fully was only going to be a matter of time. This time, it was just, more than it usually was. Which was something of its damn can of worms. And it wasn't going to be one I exactly liked. I wasn't a stoic. Not really. Admittedly, I could play the part when I wanted to, but I usually wore my heart on my sleeve. Even if my heart was ambivalent disinterest.

  But I was going to need to keep an eye on this. Bottling things up was unhealthy, and with all the stress it was never going to help. Sure, the eruption had passed, for now. But I doubted my emotions were completely spent. I could easily still have enough temper built up for a follow-up. At least I aimed it at someone who deserved it.

  When I got to Leanbox, I was going to have to take some steps. Being a member of the ASIC was already illegal, but Trick? He was getting sent into, I don't know, some type of hyper-illegal state, or something. I didn't know, and I also didn't exactly care. I didn't want that slug anywhere near my country, or any of the people in it. Super Hell. I was going to find a way to send him to Super Hell. That would serve my purposes just fine.

  I took a deep breath in.

  "Are you sure? You still seem a bit," Nepgear looked unsure, though I doubt my clenched fists were doing much to convenience anyone that I had calmed down even the slightest amount. I mean, I had. I wasn't frothing at the mouth anymore. But I was still steaming. Calmer, but not calm. Yet.

  "Angry? Yeah, it's not every day you run into an avowed pedophile that needs to have their face vigorously kicked in," I said, trying to avoid putting too much inflection into my voice. Trick was sick. I doubted I was reading too hard into this. He'd been completely serious when he called me old. Which wasn't a big deal. I felt old, and I wasn't above joking about it, either. Sometimes, I'd just feel old. And that was something that went back to high school.

  I blame them for remaking many of the games I played during my childhood.

  But that was a simple fact of being confronted by decades of life. I knew I wasn't old, but I could damn well take it as a joke because it somewhat reflected how I felt on the inside.

  "What's a pedophile?" I was too close to my rage-breaking point to even go into full detail on how to answer that.

  "They're terrible people who do horrible things to young children and those who look like young children," I ground out. "And they deserve as much suffering as possible."

  That seemed enough of an answer to placate the twins, though it wasn't enough for everyone.

  "What exactly does it have to do with this Fi-Be-I?" IF asked, crossing her arms.

  "It's, just the FBI. It stands for Federal Bureau of Investigations. It was made by the Federal government needing a way to investigate interstate crimes," I got several confused looks. "Which as a word salad means nothing to you as you know nothing about how the government back home works.*

  Which was something I never intended to cover. Shares worked in a way close enough to the consent of the governed, as one had to keep the will of the people in mind to maintain Shares. I didn't want the chaos of talking about our system and somebody getting bit by the good idea fairy.

  "The short version is that they were founded as a way to deal with bootleggers," another word that would mean nothing to them. "Smuggling Alcohol during the Prohibition Era. Their powers have expanded considerably in the century since, as they're also used to deal with crimes like human trafficking."

  "I see," IF looked somewhat uncomfortable at that.

  I push myself up. I guess we arrest whoever was left, or something? I looked around the room, observing the ruin.

  I did a number on this place.

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  "We're fine, we're fine!" Ram protested in Nina's grip, trying to escape the young woman's grasp.

  "Technically, you weren't," I said, giving Mina a healthy distance, allowing her to cry it out, rather than deal with risking the consequences.

  "And wouldn't have been if it weren't for Ms. Temper Temper over there," IF jabbed her finger towards me.

  "Trick started it," I whined, a complaint that was a lot less imposing when coming from someone other than an Iowa class battleship.

  Nor did it do anything to help my case. My reputation. I was going to be known as the angry one rather than the mature one of the group, wasn't I?

  I mean I did already have a bit of a reputation due to my fights with Judge. But that was more badass fights. I didn't want to have the reputation of being a berserker. That wasn't chill at all.

  But it was friendlyish ribbing. I could live with that. Friendlyish because I was unsure where IF and I stood. She seemed to be the brains of Nepgear's group. At least, the most straight-laced member of the group. As much as people tended to be around here.

  "I think you came pretty close to killing him," Compa said, and I couldn't quite exactly fully place her tone. I did my best to keep my expression blank, as Trick being six feet under sounded like the opposite of a bad thing. Even without the whole ASIC thing, Trick was what would be considered a problem on a good day, and that was me being generous.

  "He's probably crawled back into some pit or another too," I paused, about to say lick but realizing that may just be not a particular word I want to use. "Recover." That was probably much better phrasing around the two kids other than saying lick his wounds. Sure, there was a chance he bled out, or whatever the ASIC commanders did that passed for bleeding out. If my bouts with Judge had taught me anything, it was that these things were far less human than I think even they realized.

  However, it was far more likely that they just didn't care what happened to their bodies. The only one who might was probably Brave.

  "So we probably won't have to worry about him for a while," I frown. Trying to take out an ASIC Commandment would be a goal to strive for. That was something they couldn't simply replace by hacking together some version of an already existing game in the woods. Trick and his compatriots were something that should be almost irreplaceable to the ASIC. After that display, Trick just put himself at the top of the list, mostly because he was the weakest of the four. Judge was a unit, not impossible to beat, but certainly a challenge. It would take most of us to beat him.

  Brave was likely stronger than Trick, but if we could take Judge, we could take him, too. It was Magic that was going to be the biggest problem for us in a straight fight. But she was a problem for future us.

  "That was still really cool! She hit him like Pow!" So they moved on to telling Nina what happened. All the more reason to stay away from the woman for the next little bit. "She was a bit like big sis."

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

  Thump.

  "Are you okay?" Nepgear looked down at me.

  "Please don't tell me one of them just said that I was a bit like big sis," I groaned, rubbing my palms against my face. I was not ready for that type of responsibility, even by proxy.

  "Okay, we won't," IF chuckled back, and I was so, so tempted to flip this woman off. But that would set a bad example for the kids. Nor if I was 'like their sister', having the conversation of 'how do my sweet darling angels know how to flip someone the bird now', was not in my interest. Even the slightest damned bit. I would never much not be enthused at best, to being outright pissed at worst.

  It probably didn't help that I didn't have an actual standing for them as a person. I highly doubt that Vert's relationship with me was anywhere near standard for the others. There were a lot of different elements thrown into those gears from the get-go that just didn't exist for them.

  I was going to have to address it at some point down the line. But at some point down the line was getting closer and closer with each passing day. We were going to rescue them. It was only a matter of time. I still had no clue what I wasn't even going to say to Vert. Not even the slightest idea of what to say. Sorry was at the top of the list, but that was also about as far as things went.

  I shook my head, focusing my thoughts elsewhere.

  "Hopefully the good ways," I grumbled. Again, I had no idea what their older sister was even like. At this point, I was going to take what I could get after going on what amounted to a violent bender. The back-and-forth motion of IF's hands and the somewhat wincing of Nepgear were not inspiring confidence on that front.

  "She's usually really cool until you make her mad. Then she swears a lot and hits things!" Ram shouted as Rom nodded her head. "Usually when people make her angry, or when somebody calls her flat."

  "I, see," I said, unsure of how to process that. I tucked that away as information that might be important later. Also under the hypothesis that the ages we Candidates possessed reflected the appearance in age of that of our older siblings. Of course, Rom and Ram's sister could easily be just, tall and flat at the same time. It wasn't like, oh who am I kidding? There was hardly anyone with responsible proportions here. And I included myself in that statement. If she was reacting to something that juvenile, then probably wasn't much older than her sisters.

  "She would like what you did to Trick though," Rom muttered, a slight smile on her face.

  "I approve of what I did to Trick," I crossed my arms, though I did appreciate the sentiment. More people really should approve of that. Trick more than deserved it by any metric possible. He was a damned monster, plain and simple. Sure, it'd cost me my reputation, and as much as I moaned and complained about it, I'd also do the same thing in a heartbeat.

  "Yeah, yeah, keep it calm there," IF teased, as I rolled my eyes.

  "But thanks anyway. Someone like that shouldn't be around kids, period," I grinned slightly. I did need that, at the end of the day. Something that at least kept my reputation afloat a little bit, even if it was only with Rom and Ram.

  "Yeah, it was cool how you hit him with your bow, like Bam!" Ram swung her arms like she was holding a golf club. "Then you hit him with your elbow, like smash!"

  No, my reputation.

  x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

  "That could have gone better."

  "Better! That scarcely could have gone worse!"

  "At least we got footage out of it, right?"

  "Well."

  "Are you shitting me!"

  "It wouldn't have played well even if the cameras survived. If anything, it would have bolstered her reputation."

  "You have to be shitting me. All that effort, for nothing!"

  "I wouldn't say nothing. We now know that aggressively beating up lolicons, how would they say it, plays well in the polls."

  "That's a piece of shit! You're saying we can't beat her?"

  "Are you surprised that this wouldn't be easy? She's likely been playing this game longer than any of us had figured out it existed. Before we even considered it as an option. Of course, she will make use of a stacked deck when she knows all the cards."

  "If we could try and get her that angry again at something far less trivial, then it could have more of an impact."

  "But we're running out of time!"

  "We've been running out of time before things come to a head, yes. But by my calculations, we ran out of time a while ago."

  "We have. The major players are taking their places on the board. This will be coming to a head. I doubt it's the beginning of the end, and more of, the end of the beginning."

  "Fine, it's not as if the ASIC is infinitely worse than the Goddesses and their kid sisters anyway."

  "Mostly because it allows us to live long enough to enact our aims."

  "This is true."

  "Good. Now that we have that agreed upon, who's been keeping an eye on what's happening in Lastation?"

  "What's been happening in Lastation?"

  "The two of you, I swear."

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  "I suppose you have shown that you're capable enough to keep them safe," I heard Mina say, as Rom and Ram dragged me around. I could have stopped them at any time if I wanted to. I was strong enough that grabbing the sisters and putting them on my shoulders would have been trivial. But they were having fun, and keeping their minds off things was the most important. And it wasn't like the Lowee Basilicom was pretty damn cool in its own right. While Leanbox's felt more like a modern information center, Lowee's had a fantastical feel to it. Almost as if it were Disney World or something similar.

  "Really!" Ram let go of my hand, hurrying over to where Nepgear and Mina had been talking. Part of the reason I had taken up child wrangling duties. Give them time to talk things out, without, well, mostly Ram pestering them. Ram was a menace. Rom was a darling on her best behavior. I knew twins could be opposites, frankly, it was such a trope that I tended to expect it, even in real life. But Rom and Ram weren't just contrasted by one another, but by their very hairstyles and colored outfits they wore. I calmly walked over with Rom, almost tempted to put her on my shoulders, maybe so Ram could understand that running off first wasn't always the smart idea, but I decided against it.

  "Yes, really," Mina sighed, rubbing her forehead. "They have shown capable of keeping the two of you safe." I smile, despite myself. That was good news, and I wasn't going to pretend it wasn't. It put us one, two steps, really to freeing our sisters. We just needed one more person, and then we were good to go.

  We were down to just Uni, weren't we? Still, that shouldn't be too difficult. Yeah, she was stubborn, but by this point, we had the numbers. She wanted the same thing we wanted. So it was going to be a matter of just knocking on her door, maybe helping her with some stuff, then boom, time to raid the graveyard.

  "Well, we just need Uni, right?" I said with a smile. She could be a bit of a brat, but I'd started to warm up to her. "That should be" I slapped my hands over my mouth to stop me from finishing what I was about to say. For the love of all that is good in the world, do not tell me I just threw out a red flag in front of Murphy like that.

  Everyone stared at me, almost afraid to make a sound. The air was so still one could hear the drop of a pin.

  Then came a ringing, followed by a voice, slightly panicked.

  "Uni's missing!"

  FUUU-

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  "She's still mad, isn't she?"

  "Yep."