Cold. That was my first thought as the doors opened. That it was cold. Despite my preparations, the icy chill of Lowee cut me to the bone. I'd expected that Lowee, being the northernmost nation compared to Leanbox's near-perpetual spring. Sure, I had prepared for the weather. But there was only so much I could do when I'd gotten acclimated to pleasant weather for several years.

  Yeah, safe to say, it was clear to anyone who paid half a bit of attention that I wasn't native to the region.

  "You're still cold under all that?" Nepgear gave me a look as I frowned.

  "I have forgotten what winter feels like," I grumbled into my scarf. My scarf! I was wearing a scarf! Say what you will about Kansas, but good lord! At least the weather had the common courtesy to try and keep you prepared for just about anything it decided to throw your way! But my stay in Leanbox had robbed me of such a valuable tool. Oh well, at least my chilblains were no longer an issue.

  x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

  I wasn't going to lie. I wasn't fully aware of what to expect going into Lowee. I knew the nation would be cold. But in reality? I hadn't expected the nation to be a full-blown winter wonderland. It was something I expected to see out of a child's fantasy.

  Which, given Rom and Ram, almost made sense. Though it was likely their older sister to credit for the ascetic. Who probably wasn't much older than the twins, if I had to make a guess. A thought that still sent a chill down my spine, but that was an issue for later. Still, the place looked fantastical. Very much a storybook world. The snow was falling, but it also glistened and sparkled, as if it were a rainbow. It was reflected off the rooftops too, further adding to the wondrous display.

  Frankly, it would be hard to tell that something was wrong. Lowee looked fantastical, and yet at the same time, natural. As if it just, existed like this. A fantasy land covered in ice and snow. My eyes flicked back and forth, absorbing as much information as I could. Lowee wasn't as built up as Leanbox was. The skyline wasn't filled with buildings and highways. It had a rural, almost rustic yet magical charm to it, instead of something almost science fiction in nature.

  It was almost a bit more, homie, in a way. A breeze caught me square in the chest, causing me to shutter. Homie, yes, but still more cold than I liked.

  The shops were small and quaint, too. Almost adorable, if a building could somehow manage to be such a thing. One in particular managed to catch my eye. A little game store. Closer inspection was swift to reveal that it had certainly seen better days. The wear and tear was clear. Chipped paint, dulled, damage to the door, small fractures in the glass, all signs of time without the funds to properly maintain things.

  Of course, there were still some games, though not as many as there otherwise should have been. A shame, but given the state of things, not unexpected. I did my best to take note of what was available. We couldn't stay long. As a group, we had important business with Rom and Ram to attend to.

  But that hardly meant that I didn't have things I'd like to do. It wouldn't amount to much, but purchasing a game or two would be a nice sentiment if nothing else. One of the games did catch my eye. It looked, strangely, endearing. And familiar. Like something I had not seen for a long time. Something I knew, possibly well, yet, at the same time, so inexplicably foreign.

  I couldn't tell if it was the title, the logo, the art, or any number of things that tickled something at the back of my brain. Something pushed aside for things of far greater importance. Or maybe it was simply the nature of Lowee itself, stirring up memories of a childhood that I had sadly long since left behind. Not abandoned by some want or need for maturity but by circumstance and distance.

  "Enjoying yourself?" Nepgear's voice made me jump out of my skin, heat rising in my face as I had been taken completely by surprise.

  "Sorry, it's just, that I've never been out of the country before," I took a deep breath, steadying my beating heart. "So this is all so new to me. And it's making me feel nostalgic for when I was a child, too."

  I didn't miss the slight frown that seemed to grow on Nepgear's face when I mentioned the word child.

  "Right, you did used to have that," I heard her mutter.

  "Ah, I'm guessing you just," I frowned, looking for the right words. She would have been like me when I first woke up, wouldn't she? Just, poof, into existence. Painless on behalf of whatever parent existed for these bodies. And yet. So, disconnected from what could be considered a universal human experience.

  "Just, started existing," Nepgear finished for me, clearly aware of my thoughts. "It's a bit weird. Do you, remember anything about that experience?"

  "No. I think every human on the planet would be traumatized if we remembered something like that. Long-term memory takes a few years to fully develop," I shuttered at the thought. I didn't know if Nepgear had any idea about how humans were made, but frankly, that was not a conversation I wanted to touch with a ten-foot pole in private, much less in public.

  Honestly, that was something I had no problem just throwing back to their older sisters to tell them that piece of information. You could not pay me enough to even begin to cover a topic like that if they didn't already know it. I had no problem hucking the older sisters under that particular bus to save my sanity.

  That was provided that they knew. But they had to have at least that much information about things, right?

  "So, you just, do nothing for a while? That sounds kinda boring, to be honest," Nepgear looked up at me.

  "Probably part of why we don't," okay, that wasn't even close to correct. "Humans take time to grow up. Time to get the neurons in working order, all the connections. It takes a lot of, everything."

  I wasn't exactly an expert on children, or mental development, for that matter. But it was far from something that just happened in the blind of an eye. Which was weird, given how that seemed to be the case for Goddesses.

  "I don't remember anything like that," Nepgear shook her head. "It was just."

  I didn't want to say that was weird, but it was. I hadn't thought about that. I kinda figured that my experience with my, rebirth, as it was, had been unique. Just coming into reality hadn't been, normal. Expected. Par for the course. Frankly, it was probably even stranger for them. I had the context of a previous life. And sure, that stunk, as it made some things a lot more painful.

  But to just come into the world? No growth? No memory? Nothing but a sister, no context for anything?

  "Sorry, but I can't imagine that. Just, throwing a switch then you suddenly exist?" I frowned. "That doesn't just phrase for me."

  "No, it's weird that you think that's weird. Isn't that how it works?"

  "No, it's a process! It takes time, slowly building until it just simply is."

  x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

  "Are they spending time arguing about which is weirder?" IF gave Compa a confused look.

  "At least Nepgear is making new friends!" Compa beamed in response.

  x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

  "Hinum! Nepgear!" The welcome we got was loud. Well, Ram was loud, as can be expected from the energetic young girl. Rom was a bit more mousey, but she was still welcoming us. I beamed at the two as I noticed another. She was most likely Lowee's oracle. She was, short, something I was beginning to see as a pattern, with long, very long, light blue hair done up in a pair of twin tails.

  Her outfit was weird. Her red cap distinctly reminded me of one of those that could be seen at graduations, one I had worn myself on a few occasions. The rest of her outfit could pass off as an educator's uniform. If one squinted very, very hard. The inner layer was a short white dress, complimented stockings that nearly reached the hem of her dress. What brought the look together was the red overcoat. That's what gave me teacher vibes the most.

  Which was weird, given how it honestly looked a bit more like graduation robes. But that could have still been the hat messing with how I viewed her outfit.

  Her red heels gave her about an inch or so of height. Though that wasn't saying much. She wasn't the shortest person in the world. I think without the heels, she'd have an inch or two on IF.

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  "Rom! Ram! It's good to see you again!" I responded, still smiling. "And am I to presume that this is your Oracle?"

  Every nation had one. If she was here with them as we were arriving? She would be a likely candidate for such a title. And given the age of the twins, she probably had more than that on her plate as well. If I was concerned, the moment this crisis was done and dusted, we really should make sure the Oracles got some desperately needed vacation time in.

  Yes, I would make Chika use her accumulated vacation hours. Especially on something that went beyond staring at Vert for a few days. Because that was weird and something Chika would count as vacation time if I let her.

  "Yes, I am," the woman said sternly, even if her voice was a bit on the softer side of things. "I'm just surprised that you all arrived so soon."

  Based on her tone, that might not have been the case. More accurately would have been, at all. Further evidence was the shifting look on the twin's faces. At that age, you either had the poker face of a god, or an utter hack, and it was clear which of the two the twins ended up being. Well, if she didn't know, then I certainly wasn't going to tell.

  Of course, that was provided that she didn't know. Which, for reference, I very much doubted. Odds were, she was more than perfectly aware of what had transpired. And even if she wasn't currently, it shouldn't take her too long to figure out why we had shown up without her knowing we were even coming.

  Either way, I certainly wasn't going to tattle. Not on this one.

  "Really?" Nepgear seemed to be reaching a similar conclusion to what I had reached. Rom and Ram called us here for a reason. A reason they didn't feel they could or even should share with their Oracle. Either because they didn't think that doing so would be important. Or because for whatever reason they did not think their Oracle would want us to be there in the first place.

  It could be either or. Simply forgetting, or failing to mention it in a way excited children tended to do. Or they legitimately had concerns about her approval when it came to whatever it was they connected us about.

  "It's about Underling and Trick," Rom spoke up suddenly, cutting to the chase with unexpected swiftness. Underling was a known quality. But Trick? The name tickled at the back of my mind.

  "He's causing problems again?" IF frowned. So they'd run into him before. That was, good, I think.

  "He's one of the ASIC commanders, right?" I asked, hoping to get clarification on why the name sounded so familiar.

  "He is, one of the high-ranking one's like Judge," Nepgear answered. "He's just, gross and weird compared to Judge being, scary. I'm surprised you haven't run into him, given your luck."

  "I've mostly had to deal with Judge. I ran into Brave once," the memory came back to me as I rubbed the back of my head. "That wasn't my finest moment, I'll admit."

  "What did you do, insult his mom or something?" Ram asked, as if amused by the concept.

  "Several blows to the face, insulting his mother, insinuated several things about said mother and the family goat, and things only escalated from there," I huffed, crossing my arms. Like I had said, that had not been my finest or my most tactful moment.

  "Wait. You, the person who seems to have tried to use diplomacy to solve most of your problems, said something like that to someone?" Ram said, pointing out how weird it sounded to everyone else. Which it was. I really could have handled that situation better, and I damn well knew it.

  But it had not been a good time. I was still getting my feet underneath me with all the ongoing chaos. I was under a lot of stress, and then this dumbass popped his head out of the woodwork, claiming to be a high-ranking member of the ASIC, and said that he was doing what he was doing for the children.

  Safe to say, the mindset of working under a Goddess who wanted to end the world simply because he wanted kids to be able to afford to play games didn't exactly phrase. It was like, actually worshiping Cthulhu because it promised that all children in the world got to eat free candy. That was the level of stupidity I was talking about. With my temper already wearing thin, it was safe to say that I was fuming by that point.

  Having someone unironically say that they were severing an evil for the sake of children? I'll admit. I completely lost it. So many people in the world use children as an excuse for their awful behavior and terrible ideas. At the time, I had no doubts that this was yet another one of those dumbasses. Perfectly aware that they were doing monstrous things, hiding behind a smokescreen for the sake of having an excuse.

  As it turned out, that wasn't the case. Brave actually believed what he was doing was for the children. He legitimately believed that.

  That? That was the nail in the coffin. The straw that broke the camel's back. Frankly, it was one thing if he just thought he could use children as a convenient shield for his actions. But for him to actually believe the words that had come out of his mouth? For him to be that stupid? To think that some apocalypse Goddess was going to do a thing to help anyone, much less children?

  The fight didn't last long, but Brave did leave after that. Haven't seen him since. I wasn't sure why he'd run off, either. It wasn't like was particularly strong at that point, either.

  "That sounds, excessive," Nepgear put it gently, far more so than was needed. I knew I messed up on that front. But if he was that delusionally stupid, then I doubted he would listen to anything less than several hits to the face.

  "It was. I wasn't exactly in the greatest of moods when the confrontation happened. It shouldn't happen again," ideally, it wouldn't. But it wasn't like I could promise the world either. My temper always took time to build up, and being knocked back to puberty-based hardware wasn't helping matters.

  I gazed across the room, with Rom and Ram giving me curious looks. I couldn't place their expressions, but they seemed a bit surprised by my statement.

  Oh, it was probably nothing.

  x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

  "Is this going to be like the time with big sister?"

  "Come on, Hinum's too chill for something like that!"

  x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

  Nepgear had learned that Hinum wasn't always as calm or rational as she tried to make herself out to be. Usually, this was the case. Hinum could take a joke in stride and could handle being embarrassed. It was those she considered enemies that seemed to get the most of her anger. Even then there were those she considered a joke, like Underling. Not worth even that much effort.

  So she found herself seriously questioning how things reached this point. It wasn't just Trick's comment of Hinum being an old hag that set her off. No, she had laughed at first, brushing it off before her voice went flat. And now?

  "I'll castrate you and make you watch, you pedophilic bastard!"

  That. That was the only word she could use to describe the sudden, boiled-over rage as Hinum aimed her bow at Trick. She was beyond furious, steam almost coming out of her ears, green lightning flickering. Lightning seemed to grow more and more as Trick's mouth continued to move.

  Thankfully, everyone else in the room seemed to realize the danger of what was going on. Even Underling, who usually at least required fighting to get her to go away, looked as if she was looking for an exit. Even Rom and Ram, brainwashed by Trick, looked uneasy, about half ready to bolt and run as Hinum's anger continued to build up in explosive fury.

  "Would you shut up already!" IF shouted from somewhere behind the cover. "Can't you see that you're only pissing her off!" That managed to get Trick's attention, though not in a good way.

  "Why should I care about what the old hag thinks?"

  "Because I'm in a position where I have to take the FBI's job into my own hands, you pedophilic shit fuck!" Hinum bellowed in rage as the room descended into utter chaos.

  How? How did things escalate like this? Oh, right, Nepgear knew exactly how. Even beyond Trick shoving his foot into his mouth and refusing to stop swallowing.