Only Human (Goddess of Victory NIKKE SI)

[Feng Lengshun]

Dorothy never took it well when she perceived Joe not taking her side in something, and she probably felt like 'the new girl' was receiving preferential treatment. So, great. He was going to have to deal with that.

Click to shrink...

Well, that's not a great thing to know, when Joe reunites with her and inevitably refuses to go with her and disagrees with what she's doing.

 

[skulker558]

"...Look, I get it, okay?" Joe stepped closer to Marian, softening his voice as he tried to take on a comforting tone. "I was the same way the first time I met the first person that treated me decently. That's why I'm not going to let you act as over-zealously as I did - I'm not made of glass, and you don't need to treat anyone not approaching me like a priceless artifact like the enemy, okay?"

Marian was quiet for a few moments after that, expression growing visibly strained as she just stared at Joe, eventually speaking up with, "...Who, who treated you badly…?"

TFW you discover your soon-to-be superhuman lover is a yandere obsessed with your kind-ass-self.
...And you just admitted you both pined for somebody else in the past and that they treated you poorly.

 

[Your Target]

Why is nobody talking about the high quality artwork Stove made?!

This shit is golden!

 

[BakaSmurf]

Why is nobody talking about the high quality artwork Stove made?!

This shit is golden!

Click to shrink...

His art got a lot more of a reaction on the SB thread, back before real life happened at him and he was still able to commit time to actually producing fanart.

I swear, the man single-handedly hypebeasted the fic on SB when he started with that shit. Dude's a king. Miss him and his work terribly.

 

[Your Target]

That's a Damn shame.

 

[skulker558]

'the risk I took was calculated; but man, am I bad at math.'

Topkek, love it when some scheming is undone by sheer protagonist energy.

 

[Gawain]

His art got a lot more of a reaction on the SB thread, back before real life happened at him and he was still able to commit time to actually producing fanart.

I swear, the man single-handedly hypebeasted the fic on SB when he started with that shit. Dude's a king. Miss him and his work terribly.

Click to shrink...

Art is pretty kino

 

[BakaSmurf]

===
Chapter 57 - The First Heretic
===

Finally, after no small amount of effort and time, The United Forces of Humanity had managed to push their way through Central America, and into Ecuador. The Orbital Elevator stretched high into the heavens above, a tainted symbol of what was once a monument to mankind's capacity to reach for, and yet perhaps even touch the stars. What should have been the next launching point of humanity's next great adventure, reduced to a tyrant's throne.

It loomed terribly over the Earth, fading heavensward into the great blue. The effect only further emphasized by the nightmarish state the entire region surrounding the elevator had been left in. This is where the invasion had started, and that much was clear to see. No buildings were left standing, not a tree, not one blade of grass had gone unburnt. The entire area had been reduced to a desertified wasteland, one which may not even be capable of sustaining any meaningful amount of life for the foreseeable future.

If nothing else, that at least would make it easy for the UFH to go all-out on this attack. There was nothing left to preserve. Destruction would be all that would come of this operation.

"We're nearing the jump point, everybody, damn well be ready, it's going to be hot!" Joe called out from within the cockpit of his heavily stripped-down featherweight-frame Hoplon, the machine optimized by Snow White to maximize its speed and manoeuvrability above all else—it wasn't as though the armour that could be mounted on such a machine did anything to stop a Rapture's weapons anyways. Not getting hit in the first place was Joe's best chance to avoid being pasted in a battle.

Goddess was stuffed into a drop ship, rapidly ferrying the most powerful heroes to have ever lived to what would, hopefully, be their final battle.

Liliweiss was the next to speak up, as Snow White fumbled with her parachute, Rapunzel moving to help her put it on properly after a moment. "Remember our training, and the plan! We land, and as Cinderella carves out a path for us, we advance to the elevator as quickly as possible! Do not engage in unnecessary combat, do not divert your attention or focus to aid UFH forces on the way there! Every man and woman fighting today knows that they are putting their lives on the line to ensure that we reach the invasion point and put down the Queen! We are the tip of the spear, and the spear does not waver when thrown! Do not waste their sacrifices! Advance! Unceasingly, and without mercy!"

"Let's end this war!" Joe added onto the First Nikke's declaration, taking in the determined expressions of the girls he'd be fighting alongside. "We are Goddess! We are victory! Against all odds! We rise-!"

As a lock-on alarm blared out from the cockpit, even as the bay door started opening, the pilot leaning back and calling back desperately: "GO! GO! NOW!-"

With a ruinous crash, the shuttle was torn in half in an instant, sending everyone tumbling out helplessly into the open air.

Smoke, fire, explosions, lead, and energy particles filled the sky. From so high up, even as the Hoplon righted itself, the battlefield—or rather, the warzone—was clear to see. The battle was horrific, putting to shame the worst sights that had been produced by the battlefields of the first and second World Wars. The Raptures were defending the point from which their invasion had started, defending their Queen. Mankind was throwing every single thing they had into their first and only hope to end this war.

By all rights, this was a battle of extinction. The combined sum total of human history was on the line—every accomplishment, every story told, every great invention, every advancement… all would have been for naught if they couldn't win here.

Thus, every man and woman fought with everything they had. For they battled for the very future.

The results of those efforts were ruinous, to say the least.

Yet, Joe paid the sights little mind. His focus had to stay on Goddess, on making sure his girls would make it to the elevator, to ascend, and face down the Rapture Queen, destroying it once and for all. So, he scanned his surroundings, tracking the girls to determine they were all accounted for.

Liliweiss, Red Hood, Scarlet and Dorothy were all unperturbed as they righted themselves and deployed their parachutes—all save for Liliweiss, who simply dove harder and faster, utterly fearless as she rocketed towards the blasted Earth below. Of course, she never wore a parachute. She simply didn't need to. Even a face-first collision with the planet itself at terminal velocity didn't slow her down, so why bother when she could slam into the landing zone ahead of everyone else and ensure it was clear?

Cinderella, being the sole Nikke among them capable of flight, had nigh-on effortlessly recovered from being blown into the sky, and even turned around that attempt to swat Goddess out of the sky into a mistake on the Rapture's part. Already, the Glass Slippers lanced out and incinerated any and all anti-air forces attempting to pepper them with flak. Even Liliweiss was being shown up, a stream of concentrated energy fire clearing much of the ground Raptures waiting for them below before the First Nikke could land.

Liliweiss compensated with a heel drop directly onto the core of the largest Rapture Cinderella had missed, producing an explosion of fire and steel with her impact. Without missing a beat, she launched herself from the smoke left in her wake and went about doing what she did best—effortlessly sundering and smiting Raptures many times larger than her with her bare fucking hands.

How Andersen managed to handle that woman, Joe had no idea.

Regardless, Joe made note of Red Hood diving to catch up to Snow White, grabbing and helping her reorient herself before bounding off to draw her own parachute—a bit early, to note, given how the plan was to try drawing their chutes as low as possible to minimize the chances of being hit by anti-air. Given that Cinderella had just cleared anything that would have had a reasonable chance to land a shot on any of them, he wouldn't hold it against her.

Deploying the heavy-duty parachutes for his Hoplon, Joe prepared to fire off the retrorockets and slow his descent even further before landing—naught but the thinnest of aluminum plating to shield him from the harsh wind buffeting the machine. Teeth grit, brows furrowed, he readied for the absolute shit. They needed him on the ground, fighting alongside Goddess to empower them, push them beyond their limits during mankind's greatest hour of need.

This fact didn't make him want to shit himself any less the moment he was directly participating in the fight against the Raptures, however. Joe was no Nikke, and the best Hoplons only made men capable of using weapons capable of harming Raptures without utterly fucking their capacity to avoid being hit in the first place. Reports of the nations that stubbornly refused to abandon their increasingly comically obsolete tanks and consequently losing everything came to mind.

G-forces sharply acting against his woefully human body, the Hoplon slammed into the ashen earth with a metallic cry and a plume of wasteland dust kicked up by the retrorockets which had slowed his descent. Even encased in his machine as he was, he could hear the hellfire erupted in all directions with his own ears. Once, Joe would have hoped that he would only ever experience a battlefield through entertainment and educational products. Now, he was simply used to being thrust feet-first into Hell.

"Goddess! Report your status!" Joe commanded the crew, given that Liliweiss was still preoccupied being a fucking Dynasty Warriors character as everyone else was landing and righting themselves.

Everybody replied quickly, the squad having landed about as smoothly as they could, gathered up as streams of neon-white light and unending thunderclaps exploded all around them. Dead Raptures surrounded them, shattered, caved in, torn asunder, all obliterated with the First Nikke's bare hands and no mercy.

Quickly enough, everyone was gathered up, and wasting no time, Goddess pushed onwards to the Orbital Elevator.

---

The squad made their way onward and pushed through. The sky was choked out with smoke, thunder and fire pounded the eardrums of all present. Cinderella's overwatch gave Goddess the fire support they needed, and if anything, it was excessive. Cinderella had become the torchbearer for humanity's hope for a reason. With every minute which passed, it became clearer and clearer: they were going to manage this. They were going to reach the elevator, they were punching through the Rapture's defensive line, and they were going to make it to the Rapture Queen, and with Cinderella's help, they were going to end this war.

Pressing on, doing what they had to do and focus entirely on their purpose, Goddess pushed through, Joe keeping pace with them thanks to the heavily modified mech he piloted, and even took out a few smaller Raptures himself using the machine cannon the Hoplon hefted along.

With each passing minute, the elevator's base grew closer. With each minute passed, they got closer to mankind's salvation. Rapidly, it was in sight. Then, it was nearly within reach. It was there—right there. They had done it, with Cinderella's help, they-

Leading the pack at a full-tilt, Liliweiss suddenly lifted her arm in a defensive motion, something screaming out and impaling itself through her limb in the moments before everyone, including Cinderella, were beset upon by a storm of-

Eyes going wide and pupils constricting into pinpricks, Joe was stunned into dead silence when a metallic shriek pierced his ears, and he realized that he was staring down the length of a sword's blade, a hole punched clean through the thin plating meant to do little beyond serve as a windbreak.

It couldn't be more than a few millimetres from his eye. If he blinked, he might risk cutting open his eyelid on the blade's tip.

Time seemed to have frozen, Joe staring forth in horror, and it took him a few moments to register that no, time had not frozen, Goddess had been scattered by a sudden onset assault, and standing before him… Scarlet was shielding him. Standing firm, yet at an awkward angle given the suddenness of the attack. Fleetly Fading had caught the assaulting blade, just barely having saved Joe's life.

Yet, beyond her, Joe's attention was drawn to the black-clad, red-eyed figure standing in opposition to the lone swordswoman of Goddess…

"...Thy hatred truly runs so deep," Scarlet started, grimacing heavily as her eyes blazed with fury, "that even death shall not stay thy blade? That Hell rejected one as wretched, corrupted, treasonous as thyself?"

Despite the withering words spat out by Scarlet, the woman, so similar in appearance to the swordswoman of Goddess—right down to sharing her crimson halo—looming over her simply… smiled. A genuine, adoring, loving smile, one bearing no malice, no hatred, no ill-intent at all.

"If no words come to thine foul tongue to defend thyself…" Scarlet continued, winding up and pushing back, the blade that had come so terribly close to skewering Joe's eye retracting from the Hoplon's hull inch-by-inch. "Then shall I take as much as a clear and shameless admission of guilt…!"

With explosive force, the assailant was thrown back. Catching herself on the ashen, cracked earth smoothly, with absolute ease. She stood with pride, gracefully, serenely despite the fel glow of her ominous crimson eyes. Still, she wore that smile, gazing upon Scarlet with unfettered affection.

"Rise from the dead, claw thy way from the darkest pits of Hell again, and again," Scarlet continued, keeping herself firmly set between Joe and the hostile Nikke. "For as many times as thy shall return, so too, shall I cut thee down again in turn! For thy crimes against humanity! For thy treacherous nature! Never shall another human life be cut short by thy blade!" Despite the absolute, unshaking resoluteness in her voice, tears clearly streamed down Scarlet's face. Her pain was so terribly clear to see, as clear as her steadfast, unbreaking nature and devotion to those she'd sworn to protect. "Thy heretical betrayal shall not go unpunished! You shall not deprive mankind this promised victory! On this day, I shall defeat thee, Rose!"

With that same, vacant, yet genuinely affectionate smile, Rose readied her sword, and beckoned her sister to approach her.

Scarlet rushed forth, Fleetly Fading screaming as it cut through the air, almost as loud and keenly as Scarlet herself did. Joe could not keep up with the sight before him. Scarlet and Rose, unquestionably, the greatest sword wielders to have ever walked the Earth, duelling with a speed and unrelenting fury that a mere mortal could not possibly hope to comprehend. Anything too close to them was shredded as if thrown into a blender. Dead Raptures, ruined buildings, nothing could stand against their blades save for each other. The edges of their weapon clashed with such ferocious rapidity as to produce a single, seemingly continuous keening cry.

It took Joe far longer than it should have to recover, to gather himself, and refocus on the situation, attention snapping to-and-fro to make sense of what was happening.

Scarlet fought Rose alone out of grim necessity. The rest of Goddess—Cinderella included—were entirely embroiled in simply attempting to survive the literal storm of swords which had overtaken the lot leading to the entrance of the Orbital Elevator. Blades, swords, an impossible amount, too many to count soared about the battlefield as arrows might, yet once within range of a Nikke, they moved as if wielded by phantom hands with as much grace as Rose used her own weapon.

At once, Goddess had been beset by a storm of steel which overwhelmed them to a hopeless degree—even Liliweiss, for all of her personal, legendary, seemingly insurmountable might, and Red Hood with Exceed's throttle fully opened struggled to do more than be pushed back and take countless small, perhaps individually insignificant, but rapidly mounting cuts.

For every sword shot out of the air by the impossibly sharp senses of Goddess Squad, a dozen more seemed to take its place. Even the weapons held by the girls were not spared—nicks building up upon the surface of the hardened Goddessium-built firearms, chunks cloven, gouges smote. Their weapons would rapidly be rendered useless.

Tracking Cinderella taking evasive manoeuvres, dipping, bobbing and dodging with all the agility provided to her by her capacity for flight and her featherweight frame… Joe's heart dropped into his stomach. The Glass Slippers. The swords weren't targeting Cinderella, they were targeting the Glass Slippers, and the weapons which were mankind's greatest hope of pushing into and up the Orbital Elevator were taking severe damage, so much that if Cinderella did anything beyond attempting to protect them with their shared agility, they would be destroyed outright. She couldn't fire without firing wildly, risking hitting anyone on the ground…

Refocusing on Scarlet, Joe noticed something… Rose. Her feet weren't touching the ground. She was floating, hovering. Just like Cinderella. The swords, the swords all swarming them autonomously… They were working off of the same system that linked the Glass Slippers to Cinderella. The assault on the Grimms production facility… The Raptures had devised a hard counter to Cinderella specifically.

"Commander! What do we do!?" Dorothy cried out, earnest desperation clear in her voice.

Fuck. Fuck.

"Commander! Help!" Snow White pleaded, hopelessly overwhelmed by something they never could have prepared for.

Fuck! Fuck!

"I-I'll try to heal- Ah!" Rapunzel started, cut off by her own cry of pain as a sword's edge ran up along the entire length of one of her legs.

It was right there! The elevator's main gates were right there! They were so close!

"I'm trying- I can't!" Red Hood snarled, doing her level best to strike out and catch the swords to no avail. "Commander! What do we do!?"

With a heavy grimace and ruinous determination, Joe raised the Hoplon's machine cannon, levelling it upon Rose. Would it even do anything beyond stagger her? It didn't need to. The only thing he needed to do was distract her, divide her attention, force her to make the mistake of shifting her attention from Scarlet. Scarlet had defeated her once, she could do so again. Once Rose was downed, if he was right, the swords would—had to fall with her.

Lining up his shot, Joe focused, even as sweat poured down his forehead and got into his eyes, he kept them locked open and focused. He watched, waited and watched, and…

Fire!

A stream of high-calibre anti-materiel rounds were projected right at the hostile Nikke's back—only for her to deflect them in the same motion with which she parried a cleaving blow from Scarlet with a spin.

Fuck!

He would have to keep trying, he had to do everything he possibly could to give Scarlet the opening she needed! They had to win here! They had to!

"-Commander!" Liliweiss' voice broke his concentration as it called out over comms. "We can't overcome this! We're all taking severe mounting damage! We have to retreat! Now!"

"We can't!" Joe cried back, firing off another volley, just as easily deflected as the first. "We mustn't! This is it! This is our only chance! If we lose here, we lose the war! We can do this! We can win! Just-"

"Joe! Call off the attack!" Liliweiss demanded of him as she barely reached out in time to take a sword through the palm of her hand which would have embedded itself in a visibly terrified Snow White's core. "We cannot win this! Call for a retreat, now!"

"No!" Joe refused in desperation, still trying to support Scarlet, his efforts still producing nothing. They'd come so far, they'd fought so hard, they couldn't fail here, if they did, if they did… Mankind's future, all hope of victory would-

With a crash, the Hoplon was knocked back, landing on its ass, Joe's eyes went wide in shock as the cockpit hatch cried and screamed in protest as it was forced open. Liliweiss, having tackled the Hoplon, gazed down at Joe with grim determination set on her features.

"NO!" He shouted, "Lilith, don't-!"

Reaching in, Liliweiss grabbed the man by the strap on the back of his flak vest, effortlessly tearing him from the machine, his neural connection to it harshly breaking in a severe disorienting manner as the Hoplon plug was torn from the base of his spine suddenly and inelegantly. Thrown over her shoulder, Liliweiss called out over comms: "The Commander has been hit! I repeat: the Commander has been hit! Retreat! Full retreat, now!"

Too disoriented to counter her order, from the perspective of Goddess, Joe's lack of a response and the fact that he'd been so harshly grabbed and was being carried away by Liliweiss was all the evidence they needed. Immediately, Goddess broke off from the engagement, fleeing desperately.

Even Scarlet, though Joe could see that she hesitated, was not so determined as to let herself die pointlessly.

Rose let her go.

She hovered there, watching Goddess flee, run away. Smiling brightly, still focused entirely on Scarlet, Rose just let them go. The blade storm had ceased, and each and every sword shot right for Rose… to take up position at her back, the weapons rapidly slotting into what seemed to be a preset position. As though materializing behind her, suddenly, the Nikke who had betrayed mankind had wings. Great, terrible, metallic, angel-like wings which stretched out so frighteningly far, the feathers of which were each an individual sword.

Rising, Scarlet's sister gained in altitude, taking to the sky to reveal herself to the many; to any and all who may be turning to the elevator in hopes of seeing the ascent of Goddess. Instead, they saw something far worse, a terrible omen, a fel augur.

Mankind, on that day, saw their promised victory stolen.

On that day, mankind lost the war.

On that day, mankind lost the Earth.

All the while, a cruel angel smiled.

The Legendary Commander of Goddess, naught but a mere human, could do nothing to stop it.

 

[Detjan]

Ouch, poor Scarlet, any other nikke as heretic would have been better for her mind. She will be completely convinced that the first time it was because she was corrupted and she didn't put her to rest when she could.

 

[Your Target]

I know winning was impossible but fuck man.

 

[NJesus]

cheating heretics are cheating

 

[Dasneaky]

Rose harem get.... a man can dream right also got back into nikke cuz of you baka are you pround of your self now.

 

[Masayume]

Ayo it really is Rose. Time to spin some conspiracy theory

Spoiler: Nikke main story spoils

What if instead of Cindy grave has Rose instead? And she ended up there after either Goddess pulled some hail mary attack on her or when the mecha destructor herself beat her up after becoming the new queen?

 

[Gato]

That's a hell of a flashback to wake up to for the Commander. The kind where you stay in bed all day staring at wall. I never played the game and I get that this is an AU but how could you come back from this? How could anyone hope to? They can't even repair Goddess anymore, either.

Damn, this really do be looking bleak.

Can't believe the anime booty game had such peak story material. I'm really invested in the characters, too, and I can't wait for them to all get back together and give Dorothy an aneurysm cause they didn't tell her.

 

[Matttts]

Damn, and shit now gets real. Poor Joe man, they were so close. As always great chapter man.

 

[HellWan]

Damn. That really sucked.

 

[NJesus]

also got back into nikke cuz of you baka are you pround of your self now.

Click to shrink...

can you lend me some coredust? I'll pay you back kek

give Dorothy an aneurysm cause they didn't tell her.

Click to shrink...

only if they're very very lucky current Dorothy has absolutely no chill kek

 

[JamesAsmodeus]

Sssssttttt...oooofffff. That has got to hurt for Joe.

 

[Jekyll]

Yeah. This is probably one of the few memories that I bet that Joe wishes would have stayed forgotten, since this has probably got to seriously hurt for him. Getting that close to victory, just to fail and let the whole of the human race down? That'd probably demoralize even the most iron-willed.

 

[BakaSmurf]

===
Chapter 58 - The Reason Why
===

In his personal quarters aboard the Avenger, Joe lay listless amidst the United Forces of Humanity's desperate retreat from Ecuador. There was no reason for him to be involved in the discussions about plans going forward: Liliweiss had made it clear with her actions that his words and will held no weight.

Though that had previously gone without saying beforehand, she had hammered it in home when she superseded his directive, and threw away mankind's only hope of victory the moment they had encountered actual opposition they hadn't previously accounted for; rather than so much as allowing for the chance for someone else to improvise and adapt to the situation at hand.

So, he wouldn't respond to summons to attend strategic meetings from there on out. Why was he the Commander of Goddess? To preserve the integrity of Goddess and ensure that the squad would be capable of operating unfettered in the interest of working towards the defeat of the Raptures and save their civilization and planet. Liliweiss had just thrown that one and only opportunity away, so there was no point in even entertaining the facade anymore, and he wouldn't.

None of it mattered. Absolutely none of it had ultimately mattered. Every single battle, every victory, every loss, every inch gained, every life lost fighting for mankind's future… All of it, cast aside. All of this, despite the fact that if he'd just been given a few more moments to gather himself-

The door to the hallway opened, a distinctive click-clack sounding out as the dark room was suddenly flooded with light. With a pause, the heeled figure paused, warily moving for the bed on other side of the quarters-

Only to bump into Joe's leg where he'd slumped down and let himself fall right there against the wall next to the door.

Silence reigned for several long moments. Joe not acknowledging the interloper, simply allowing himself to continue to limply lay where he had awkwardly fell against the wall. Shortly, though, the figure shifted to settle herself on her knees before him, and Dorothy encircled her arms around Joe. She drew him up with all the ease expected of a super soldier, holding him with a forlorn expression on her soft features. "Joe…" she breathed, visibly and audibly heartbroken to see him in such a state.

"...She was distracting everyone," Joe started in a low voice that borderlined on a whisper, causing Dorothy to blink in some measure of confusion. "She only had a sword… She was able to hold Scarlet at bay because her gambit to confuse and overwhelm us worked… I realized it as Liliweiss carried me off. If I'd been allowed to recover, to focus before she forced a retreat… If all of you had just attacked Rose at once, ignored her storm of swords, tanked the damage they'd inflicted and descended on her, shredded her from all directions at once while Cinderella targeted her remote blades from a distance…"

Dorothy had gone completely still, her lips parting ever-so-slightly, a frown rapidly finding purchase on her face as realization struck her.

"...We could have done it," Joe continued, his voice weak, bereft of any of the boisterous life Goddess was so used to hearing from him. "You girls… you could have done it. We could have beat her. We could have ascended the elevator… We could have ended this war. I know it. I know it. My girls, you could have done it…"

After a pause, Dorothy drew him in tightly, frowning heavily. "...You never lost faith in us. You had a plan, like every other time it had ever mattered, you had a plan: if only… If only you'd been allowed to… Joe… I believe in you, I still believe in you, just like you believe in me. One day, one day, we'll make it right. I promise, I swear. I'll be right there, I'll be right by your side when we do. I'll always, I'll never stop believing in you, Joe… Commander…"

With no more words spoken between the pair, Dorothy continued to cradle Joe in his state of utter resigned defeat and despair. Gradually, as the weight of their failure pressed down upon him despite Dorothy's earnest attempts to comfort and reaffirm their cause and ability to save the world to him, as his body gave in to the overwhelming fatigue of how terribly everything had gone, Joe started to fade into unconsciousness.

In the wake of his utter failure as a Commander, as Dorothy continued to believe in him, he didn't understand why.

---

Eyes fluttering, Joe shifted where he lay, his bed groaning slightly under his weight.

"Ah," a voice altogether different from Dorothy's caught his attention. "Joe?" A gentle inquisition came. "Are you awake?"

Looking over, a familiar little gremlin woman was seated on the edge of his bed, her expression somewhat placid.

"...Not today, Red Hood," Joe slurred out with a grumble, given everything that had just happened. "I'm really not in the mood for 'a morning quickie' now, of all times…"

Any time Red Hood had sneaked into Joe's bedroom in the morning, she wanted sex. And Joe was really not feeling up to that, given the-

Wait, what happened to Dorothy-?

Mind spooling up, Joe was suddenly keenly aware of the sharp, lingering pain in his hands. He was aware of the fact that his bed was far nicer than the one in the Avenger, and since when did Red Hood lounge about without Exceed on? To say nothing of her suddenly having an indoor voice-

Eyes going wide, the Commander's attention whipped around to refocus on Red Hood… To find Rapi, eyes as wide as saucers and face rapidly burning as bright a red as her strawberry blonde hair would when Exceed was active.

He was back in the Outpost. Everything that had just happened was memories flooding back into him: the operation to assault the Orbital Elevator…

Oh. Shit. He- he just revealed to Rapi that back during the days of Goddess that they'd…

Oh shit.

Launching himself from the bed, still fully dressed as he'd passed out without disrobing first, Joe sharply declared: "S-so you're back from special maintenance, then?" Awkwardly standing as he lightly swayed from lightheadedness.

"Y-yes," Rapi replied as she sat on the edge of Joe's bed, eyes now locked firmly on the floor as she blushed a neon red he'd have never expected to see on the militaristic little woman. "I-I'm fine, Commander. As fine as I can be."

"G-good-" Joe started, flinching with a heavy grimace as he went to run his hand over his scalp—an unpleasant reminder of the fact that he'd just torn up his own palms the night previous…

At the reminder of the Commander's injury, Rapi, despite herself, immediately rose to her feet and sharply reached out to grab at his wrist, going about to check his palm by removing the bloodied gauze that had been wrapped around it. "We need to change your bandages. I'll do that, then book an appointment in the nearest hospital in the Ark," she declared as she about-faced and moved for the washroom to grab the room's medkit.

"Y-yeah," Joe let out a shuddering sigh, his hands pulsing with pain as he looked at the unpleasant wound. Refocusing on Rapi… it registered to him that this was easily the most dressed-down he'd seen her. No beret, no jacket, no combat webbing… just her long, sleeveless split-legged shirt, thigh-highs, and heels. Even in what seemed to be her casual wear, Rapi wore her necktie, which was wildly in-character for her.

…She really was a stunning little beauty, wasn't she?

Attentively, Rapi went about cleaning Joe's palm wounds and re-wrapping them with fresh gauze. She was notably far gentler than she'd been with Marian when checking her for injuries on their first deployment together… As precise as ever, but with a kinder touch than she seemed willing to bother with initially. Once she was done, rather than backing off immediately, the little blonde held onto Joe's hands, staring at them with a distant expression.

After a few moments of that, it registered just how soft Rapi's skin was. For someone that did the sorts of things she did with such tiny little digits, one would logically imagine that they'd be ruinously calloused. But Nikkes were by their very nature operating on an unfair playing field as far as ordinary humans were concerned. Little wonder, that the most battle-hardened women to have ever lived, were able to retain the softer aspects associated with traditional femininity, despite their purpose.

…Rapi continued to just absentmindedly handle Joe's own hands, running her fingers over his digits with an almost longing attention to detail. She… didn't have the carnal proclivities she once did as Red Hood, right-?

Joe hissed when the little Nikke's thumb drifted over his bandaged palms with a little too much pressure, Rapi jumped, eyes going wide, and she backed off rather sharply. "Ah- I-" she stammered out, once again beginning to blush rather heavily before she grabbed the medkit and rushed to return it to its designated place, returning with a pair of pills Joe recognized as the same painkillers she'd offered him the night previous. "-Here," she went to raise them to his mouth herself.

When Joe opened his mouth to protest, because he could take pills himself, Rapi just took the chance to cup her hand over his mouth, smoothly depositing the pills as she did so. At the very least, she backed off immediately rather than make it weird by staying in his personal space.

Not that Joe particularly minded the idea of Rapi invading his personal space, but it was the principle of the thing that mattered.

Though, taking in the sight of Rapi more dressed down, behaving more… gently, in a more considerate manner than usual, the importance of principles perhaps waved a bit in Joe's mind.

"...Do you like it?" Rapi suddenly inquired.

"E-bwah?" Joe bawked not entirely unlike a donkey as he realized he'd just started staring at Rapi's body, and it registered what she'd asked. "Hwat?" in his befuddlement, he overemphasized the 'h' in 'what' to a comical degree.

"...My outfit," Rapi elaborated, eyes shyly averted, an uncertain expression worn on her features as her blush had become far more subdued. Standing with her hips cocked as she usually did in that way which called attention to her curvaceous figure. "Do you like it?"

"Holy shit yes," Joe immediately affirmed by way of reply without an instant of hesitation or shame.

Rapi's eyes went wide as she looked up at him in no small amount of shock, which quickly shifted to a small, smug, satisfied little grin which complimented her blush entirely too well. "...Good," she said happily.

Joe hadn't offered Rapi many compliments because he didn't get the impression that she would particularly care, given her personality. But if she asked, then by golly did he have no compunctions about being open about how appreciative he was of her looks and fashion sense. Rapi had an aesthetic, and rocked it, to say the least.

So pleased was he by Rapi's smile and the balming effect it had on what would have otherwise been a shitty morning—after remembering how badly the assault on the Orbital Elevator had gone a century prior—that he didn't even register how deeply unusual it was for him to wake up with Rapi in his room, seeming to have been waiting for him to awaken.

Pretty girls had a way of shorting out Joe's intellect, needless to say.

---

Rapi had called the Ark's primary hospital to book an appointment to get Joe's hands checked out. Upon his name being mentioned, she had been informed that they could come in whenever they pleased and they'd make time and room for 'The Tyrant Breaker,' no appointment necessary. Given that it was otherwise hospital policy that there were no walk-ins, that immediately demonstrated that word of the accomplishments of Counters was spreading and not going unacknowledged.

Even regular Commanders simply didn't get that sort of preferential treatment from Government services. That made Joe more than a little uncomfortable, but he supposed it was what it was.

So, Rapi, worriedly wanting Joe to get his hands checked out as soon as possible, pressed to immediately go down to the Ark and do just that.

Then, partway down the elevator to the Ark, Joe's stomach very loudly growled. A firm reminder that the last time he'd eaten was back in that abandoned house in the Yukon.

The distress on Rapi's face once she'd processed that was almost- No, it was adorable, given how usually stoic she was. Upon being assured that they could just eat in the Ark, she chilled out, mercifully.

Rather than beelining for the hospital as seemed to be the original plan, they diverted to find food. Upon spotting a food stand of some kind, Rapi insisted that Joe find a nearby bench to wait at while she waited in line for them. Though he wanted to protest… The pleading look she gave him successfully guilt-tripped him into agreeing, and so Joe moved for a nearby bench set before one of the Ark's parks.

Joe didn't pay the park itself any real mind, simply settling into the seat and letting his eyes glaze over.

As the minutes passed while Rapi waited to order, it didn't take long for his thoughts to, without a distraction, drift back to the Orbital Elevator, the failure of Goddess Squad to overcome the most important challenge mankind would have ever faced, the day the war against the Raptures was lost. The feelings started to bubble up again, the guilt, the shame, the knowledge that they'd let the entirety of humanity down, that they'd damned them all to this underground Hell in their failure.

If only Liliweiss hadn't forced a retreat. If only he'd been quicker to think. If only he'd remembered to rely upon the girls instead of trying to be the guy that solved issues with a gun he damn well knew was of minimal worth in his hands. What the fuck was even the point of it all? Why had they kept fighting after that? Why had they bothered, when this suffocating hole in the ground was all they'd have to show for it? What was the reason why-?

Joe's thought process was broken as the opposite end of the bench was claimed. Not by Rapi, but by an older man with a cane. A very old man, in fact. A stark white head of hair, deep wrinkles that spoke to a long-lived life, eyes containing that deeply-entrenched wisdom that seemed so common among the truly elderly. He was contentedly gazing out into the park, to which Joe didn't pay him much mind. Just another Ark dweller, another pedestrian going about his life, after-

"That's my family over there, you know," the old figure, dressed as any common man would be, declared out of the blue with a notable Scottish accent. This caught Joe's attention again, to which he glanced at the man, then followed his gaze to see a pair of adults with children beneath a tree. Playing, enjoying what seemed to be a simple family outing. "My children, and grandchildren. Getting to enjoy a gentle day. Getting to live as though the Raptures might as well not even exist, even in just this one little underground bubble…"

Joe turned to gaze at the man out of the corner of his eye. He'd have been more weirded out, had it been a younger man, but the elderly did tend to have a tendency to ramble, so he simply allowed it. Even if it was… Poking at the semi-open wound that was his feelings on the war with the Raptures-

"You might be a bit too young to remember this," the geezer continued, clearly speaking directly to Joe. "But, there was a time when everyone thought it was all over. When there would be no future for anyone, anywhere. I was one of them. Just a little boy, when the Raptures invaded."

At that, Joe's curiosity was genuinely piqued. He supposed it shouldn't be all that surprising, given that all the food in the Ark was laced with additives that actually significantly extended the natural lifespans of humans. Someone that was very young when the Raptures first showed up could well still be alive a century later. Joe would imagine they'd be rare, though. All things considered… There probably weren't many common people left that were actually there. Not many people that would remember living beneath the real sky…

The old man kept talking. "Back then, everyone was so scared. So terrified. Rightfully so, I suppose. Nobody wanted to have kids, to bring new life into a world about to die. There was no hope, after all. Hope had been extinguished, and there was nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide." Closing his eyes, he leaned back about as far as he could, with his back seemingly somewhat permanently bent. "But, I remembered. I remembered the heroes that gave us hope, even in those darkest days. That defended us, gave us an Ark in which to take shelter, upon which to ride out the coming storm, the flood that would overrun the whole world."

Opening his eyes again, the old man looked about somewhat conspiratorially, as though checking to see if they were being watched. Once he seemed satisfied that their talk was as private as could be in a public park, he leaned over to Joe, and whispered in a quiet voice.

"We aren't supposed to talk about those old days anymore. They never made it a proper rule, but it was one we all learned all the same… But, I've met the Goddess Squad and the Legendary Commander, you know."

Eyes widening in some measure of surprise, Joe blinked, then relaxed. An old man just spinning a yarn for its own sake. Nothing to worry about.

With a chuckle, the old man waggled his finger at Joe as he continued. "I can see that you don't believe me, but it's true!" He continued to speak quietly, though with no small amount of lively vigour upon bringing up Goddess and… well, surely unbeknownst to the elderly figure, Joe himself. "Even back then, everyone would tell you that the Legendary Commander, why, he was twelve feet tall!" The man motioned outwards and upwards with his hands for emphasis, getting into telling a tall tale as though speaking to an excitable child. "Larger than life, with a lion's mane of hair, arms as wide around as trees, skin like steel, and a stare that could melt metal! But! Let me tell you something truly extraordinary about the Legendary Commander! He was no giant. No shining, angelic figure or hero from the old Greek myths."

Shaking his head in amusement, the old man tapped his cane on the concrete path the bench was set alongside.

"He was just a man. Of about average, maybe a little above average height. His skin wasn't made of steel. And he wasn't built like Hercules. But, he had what it took regardless. He didn't need to be a God. He didn't need to be larger than life. The way those girls, the Goddess squad looked at him… Just a man was all he needed to be. And he never presumed to be more than that. He even told me that himself, in Edinburgh. When he stopped in the middle of the parade celebrating the reclamation of London, and took a knee to acknowledge a starstruck little boy."

…Ah- Oh.

"He said to me, 'I'm just a soldier, doing his duty. No more, no less. You should be thanking them. The real heroes are the girls that fight to protect everyone,' right as he turned and pointed to the closest Nikke to him. None other than Red Hood. The most beautiful woman I ever did lay eyes on, I swear." With a start, the old figure creakily turned about in his seat, as though worried he was about to be struck by something. "But don't ever let my wife hear that I said that! She'll whoop me good with her slipper, she will! Jealous old fiend she is!" He chortled in amusement at his own joke.

Joe, meanwhile, had just gone stock still. There was no way… Right?

"Then," the ancient figure kept on talking. "Miss Red Hood noticed she was being pointed to, and she barrelled on over like a rhino, and asked if I wanted an autograph with a big, giant smile that stretched from ear-to-ear. Instead, smitten even then, I asked her to marry me instead!" he laughed as much as he could with lungs as aged as his. "She actually fell over laughing right there in the street, and I felt like I'd burst into flames from embarrassment!"

Not particularly acknowledging how Joe seemed frozen in time, the old man just kept going.

"The Legendary Commander was right, of course. Nikkes, they don't get treated right, for all they do for our sake. One day, I hope that everyone will see that, and finally, the Ark will-"

"-Joe?" Rapi's voice cut the old man off, the blonde approaching with a pair of foil-wrapped somethings in each hand, looking over the small tableau with some measure of confusion. "Who's this?"

At her appearance, the old man's eyes almost began to glimmer. And he simply stared at her for a few long moments, a smile wide, and deeply relieved finding purchase on his wizened features. While Rapi just looked between Joe and the elderly man, awaiting a response, the old man rose to his feet somewhat shakily, stooped over upon his cane, letting out a wheezing sigh as he did so. "I suppose I ought to let you kids enjoy your date, huh?" He rhetorically asked as Rapi lightly sputtered in reply. "I appreciate you entertaining a doddering old fool, young man. Not many will listen so respectfully to a coot half as grey as me these days. And I should go and spend more of what time I have left with my grandkids."

He started off at that, initially, with a purpose. But, he halted not long after, taking a deep breath, seemingly to steel himself.

"You know," the elderly figure said. "I always wished I could have told the Legendary Commander and Goddess how grateful I am. For the life they gave me. For the life they gave my children, and their children in turn. For the Ark they gave us. For the chance to live even a facsimile of an ordinary life, when by all rights, there shouldn't be any of us left."

The old man's voice became shaky as he continued to speak.

"I wish I could have expressed to them how much it mattered. How in the end, they never stopped being our heroes. How, despite the Central Government's best efforts, we never forgot them, and always trusted that somehow, some way… Their will would carry on to the future, and carry humanity on to that victory we were promised, and then, to the stars beyond. Where one day, the Rapture invasion would be nothing but another dark page in humanity's history. A future where those who follow in our footsteps, will look back upon, and remember as an age of the truest heroes to have ever walked the Earth's surface."

There was a long pause in which nobody spoke. The old man's back was still facing both Rapi and Joe. Eventually, he did turn around, however. His eyes were glistening with moisture, a smile, equal parts contented and grateful stretched across his ancient features.

"I'd thank them, from the deepest depths of my soul. For all they'd done. For all they'd sacrificed for our sakes. I'd thank them for never having stopped fighting. I'd thank them, because I know, if they could, they'd still be fighting for us to this very day, even if so many of us don't deserve it. I'd thank them for being true heroes."

Another stretch of silence in which Rapi stood stunned, and Joe just stared, utterly dumbstruck.

With a shaky hand, the old man lifted his arm, and standing as straight as his worn-down body would allow, he saluted both Joe and Rapi, and declared with a warbly voice: "Ma'am, Commander. Thank you for your service."

With that, having finally directly thanked at least two of the legendary figures everyone owed everything to, without openly declaring it for all of the Ark and Central Government to hear, the old man let his arm settle at this side again, and simply turned off to continue to make his way to his family. Joe and Rapi watched as his grandchildren cheered at his presence and had to be told off for trying to excitedly jump on him.

Eventually, Rapi, with no small amount of hesitation, stepped before Joe, an uncertain look on her face as she stared down at him. "...How did he know you're a Commander?" she inquired, given that Joe wasn't wearing his uniform, and had his dog tags tucked away under his shirt. "How did he know I'm a Nikke?"

In turn, Joe just patted the spot next to him, not quite trusting himself to speak after being spiked through by that old man's words. Seeming to understand, the former member of Goddess simply took a seat next to the Commander, handing him his half of a sandwich, absolutely loaded with deli meats, lettuce, pickles, and what was clearly honey mustard on toasted garlic bread. Exactly the way Joe liked it.

…Exactly. As though Rapi somehow knew…

"...You've started remembering the past too, huh?" he inquired with a hoarse voice, given that otherwise, Rapi shouldn't have had reason to know exactly what he would have liked out of a sandwich; she'd never seen him eat one in their time together as Counters, after all.

It took her a few moments, but, still clearly overwhelmed, she just shallowly nodded once in affirmation.

With a small smile, Joe quietly declared, so that just the two of them would hear: "It seems like we aren't the only ones that remember, then," his gaze drifting up to the old man and his family, clearly happy, clearly living good lives, despite everything, despite Goddess' failure to destroy the Rapture Queen a century earlier. Despite how seemingly total, how hopelessly ruinous their defeat had been…

…Maybe continuing the fight was all worth it, after all.

 

[NJesus]

was an interesting bit of backstory there the last few chapters but I'm kinda happy we move forward now

it made me incredibly more interested in meeting dorothy and finding out for what reason joe and redhood had a falling out tho

 

[TheMoistLad]

was an interesting bit of backstory there the last few chapters but I'm kinda happy we move forward now

it made me incredibly more interested in meeting dorothy and finding out for what reason joe and redhood had a falling out tho

Click to shrink...

Iirc the reason they fell out was because Red Hood realised she was dying/corrupted and pushed Joe away as much as she could so he wouldn't feel bad about her death

 

[NJesus]

Iirc the reason they fell out was because Red Hood realised she was dying/corrupted and pushed Joe away as much as she could so he wouldn't feel bad about her death

Click to shrink...

ah dont remember that bit thanks

 

[TempestZeta]

Damn, that last bit with the old man, shit hit all types of different. Got me all up in my feels. Satellites piano ver did not help either. Amazing chapter as always Author, thanks for your hard work

 

[Nehef]

"...Not today, Red Hood," Joe slurred out with a grumble, given everything that had just happened. "I'm really not in the mood for 'a morning quickie' now, of all times…"

Click to shrink...

Rapi's eyes went wide as she looked up at him in no small amount of shock, which quickly shifted to a small, smug, satisfied little grin which complimented her blush entirely too well. "...Good," she said happily.

Click to shrink...

She is raring for that ENCOUNTER.

Pretty girls had a way of shorting out Joe's intellect, needless to say.

Click to shrink...

My man is free eats on the Nikkeverse then.

 

[HellWan]

Hit them right in the kokoro.

 

[BakaSmurf]

Iirc the reason they fell out was because Red Hood realised she was dying/corrupted and pushed Joe away as much as she could so he wouldn't feel bad about her death

Click to shrink...

This arc literally directly highlighted on no uncertain terms that Red Hood was not Corrupted and was not dying in any way, shape, or form.

 

[Matttts]

amazing chapter as always. Last bit with the old man was great. The more past interactions with Dorothy really get me interested in how she's even gonna come to grips that Joe is alive.

 

[Deckerspawn]

amazing chapter as always. Last bit with the old man was great. The more past interactions with Dorothy really get me interested in how she's even gonna come to grips that Joe is alive.

Click to shrink...

Would be mad angsty if she somehow successfully kills Joe in her attempt to get rid of the imposter… only to get slapped with the realization that the imposter was actuallly the real Joe all along.

 

[Matttts]

A true tragedy indeed, fits well with Nikke. Her utter unwavering belief in him slipping in the one time it is needed most.