Neptunia: Merc's Involvement

Chapter 23: Lastation - Avoidance

After hearing the thoughts of her young sister and oracle, Noire tought about it for a second before agreeing as well.

"I can't really say I'm 100% okay with this plan, but I've got no time to think of anything else to make." She said with certain reluctance before turning her head and looking at the CPU Candidate. "Uni, could you do me a favor?"

"Sure, whatever you need!"

"Could you go look for Alex and tell him he doesn't need to worry about the lessons anymore?" Asked the CPU before making a seemingly irritated expression again. "I'd call him myself, but he seems to ignore me everytime I call his number."

"He does?" Asked Uni while sweat dropping.

Since Noire had caught hold of his number, Alex got into the custom of ignoring Noire's calls to avoid the constant yapping from her about where he was.

This was certainly something that the CPU found annoying as well, as it just reinforced the idea that he wished to avoid her in particular.

"Can I trust on you with this one?" Asked Noire while looking at her with a smile.

"Of course! Leave it to me!" Said the CPU Candidate cheerfully before turning around and leaving the room with a smile and a perky attitude.

"She certainly seemed happy to be of help." Said the Oracle with a smile.

"Definitely. Now then, maybe we should go back to our earlier subject." Said Noire.

Noire looked at Kei again and made a serious expression as well.

"About the recent ASIC activity around the nation, right?" Asked Noire

"Precisely. I believe my sources have found a lead to something big." Said Kei.

"I'm listening" Said the CPU while focusing all of her attention on the Oracle's words.

[Meanwhile]

Uni was walking down through the streets of Lastation in search of Alex as she was confident at first that she could find him, but soon came to realize how difficult it would be considering Lastation's size and that she had absolutely no idea where he to look around in the first place.

This didn't discourage her in the least, though.

Instead, she kept her mind set on making her elder sister proud while searching high and low, but the feeling of discouragement came to her again after a few hours of searching high and low in vain.

'This is impossible…how am I supposed to find him?' She thought with her eyes closed and her head lowered while sweat dropping.

"Help! Someone Help me!"

The cry for help quickly made the CPU candidate raise her face and look around her as she heard the cies of help once again.

By following the voice, she reached the park where she saw a couple of kids around a large Sakura Tree atop a hill.

"You kids, what's going on!?" She said while approaching them.

"It's Hibiki..." Said one girl while pointing at the tree.

Uni turned her head to look at the direction she was pointed at and noticed someone hanging by a branch with his arms and legs wrapped around it tightly.

A small child with black hair and blue eyes.

"Help! Please get me down!" Yelled the kid with teary eyes.

"Ho-How did he get all the way up there!?" Asked Uni with widened eyes, seeing the branch was actually quite high.

"We were playing a dare game, and one of us dared him to climb the tree...He didn't want to at first, but after the other boys called him a chicken, he climbed to the highest branch…"