We’re back!

  Five months of hiatus means that I'm going to be doing five chapters for No Longer Human and Stranger Tides. More than enough to get to see what Elen's personalized body looks like.

  That being said? I did have to make edits to chapter 18. Not big ones, mind you, but with the information revealed as part of the New Years event, I had to make changes to incorporate the new information we got about Rapi. Not to mention that the story of the 2.5 anniversary has run into the butterflies created by this fic full force, so I'm going to have to tweak a lot of things there.

  Problems of working with a franchise that is still ongoing, I guess.

  At least most of my plans didn't get launched out of an airlock, like Stranger Tides did. I can’t even be mad at Oda, but so many carefully laid plot points are in ruins now.

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  She wasn't beautiful.

  It was true. A simple truth. Once, she had been, but now? She could not go back to what she had once been. She couldn't be. All that she had done, all that she had been made to do. The blood she had spilt, the lives she ruined, the people she hurt.

  The Goddesses she betrayed. None of that mattered anymore. How many years had it been? The voice had started again, angry over something. It was punishing her.

  And she deserved it. She couldn't keep track of the days, hours, years it had gone on for.

  Then for the first time, it had stopped, something causing it to shatter like glass. Now, all that was left was silence.

  In a way, she missed the red voice's presence. When it was there, she could barely think, barely stew in her guilt and regrets as it screamed in her face. It was punishing her, yes, but it was something.

  She wouldn't be alone.

  She looked up, red eyes trying to pierce the inky darkness. There were no stars, just darkness, and the occasional flickers of light. She caught glimpses. Flashes. Of what, she didn’t know.

  It hadn’t been long, though. Since the strange woman had somehow managed to snatch away the voice, leaving her with her thoughts. That was what she saw the most. A woman with either short sandy blonde hair and bluish green eyes, or long flowing black hair, eyes seemingly cloaked in static. They were the same, despite their different appearances. Why their hair was different, and why their eyes could be cloaked in darkness, was yet another thing she did not understand.

  How she had been able to take the voices away after so long was another.

  When she caught a glimpse, they were less active, as if sleeping. No, not sleeping.

  She didn’t know. What she did know was that woman was not a Goddess. But she was trying to be beautiful all the same.

  Perhaps that was enough? No, it wasn’t. If it had been enough, if she had been beautiful? Then none of this would have happened.

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  Even in the distance, I could tell when Rapi put up the hand sign. Not that I needed her to tell me to stop, because I saw it too. She’d already dropped low to the ground, not that it would help much unless she could duck behind a rock. Her black and red outfit stood out against the snow. If it were Raptures, it may not have mattered much. But unless Raptures suddenly started wearing pink, we weren’t dealing with Raptures.

  Which left two options. We were dealing with Nikke’s, which was the far more likely option. Or we were dealing with people.

  “We may have company, sir,” I said, switching into serious mode. I slipped down to the ground, making sure to keep my finger away from the trigger and safety on as I looked down the scope. The first was easy to spot. The bright pink bodysuit stood out, even if her almost silver hair did not. Even stranger was the darker pink jacket that covered her arms and shoulders, with the headphones on her head looking as if they sported a pair of oval-shaped cat ears.

  I couldn’t quite tell her age, and the twin tails certainly made her look even younger. If I had to guess, she wasn’t older than sixteen, though if she was a Nikke, that made things a bit less clear.

  The next was older, likely in her twenties, and taller. Her white outfit made her difficult to pick out from the snow, and the glinting gold reflected light, creating a mirror that aligned with the snow. Her hair was about a shade darker than what I would consider a platinum blonde, which further helped her blend in with the snow. I tried to think to what I knew about the Pilgrim that had saved me.

  Other than she wore a lot of white, as much as I could recall? That wasn’t exactly much, but it was better than nothing.

  But was this the same person? I wasn’t that great with names and faces. And the range certainly wasn’t helping, but I don’t think the person in question was a blonde.

  ‘Two people. Unknown identity. Unlikely hostile,’ I signed to Rapi as I began to stand up. I didn’t know that there was a squad in the area. If that’s what they were, anyway. Did we just let them pass? On one hand, we had no idea who they were. On the other hand, Shifty hadn’t gotten back in touch with us, so we had no clue where we were going. Asking them for information wouldn’t be to bad idea, in my opinion. If they were willing to divulge the information.

  That, and they were making their way over anyway. Did they come to investigate the avalanche? Or did they see us scurrying about?

  “Well, let’s head down there and say hello,” Commander Johnson said, continuing to go down the slope. Well, I guess that decision was already made. And it wasn’t like the one in pink wasn’t waving at us anyway.

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

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  “Commander. It’s good to see you’re unharmed,” Rapi said, a sentiment I heard the others share. “Elen, you as well.”

  I totally didn’t grin slightly at her remark. Not in the slightest. Obviously a lie, but I did notice Rapi seemed a bit, I don’t know? Softer towards me after the talk about my past. Maybe I was looking a bit too deeply into things on that front. But at the same time, revealing just how much I remembered and that I was a fish out of water felt right.

  Still, I was a bit focused on the newcomers. The one in pink was giving off child vibes in spades. Not like a young child, but probably a young teenager at her oldest. While the one in white?

  I hesitated to use words like Queen, but.

  Yeah, no, she was totally a queen. Even if not in reality, she certainly carried herself like one. She gave off Ice Queen vibes, a very much bow before me sort of energy. Her all white outfit and her heels didn’t help.

  “Thank you. You as well,” I nodded to Rapi, otherwise letting my mouth click shut. New people, new squad? I was keeping my mouth shut for the meantime. I wasn’t in the mood to play the game of opening my mouth and shoving in my foot.

  “My Queen, are they here to help us defeat the Queen of Hearts?” The sheer innocence that came out of the girl in pink’s voice nearly made me step back. And further reevaluate her age. As well as her sanity. Sure, I wouldn’t exactly disagree that the older woman gave off queen energy, but what was this Queen of Hearts nonsense?

  Was the older woman a Commander? No, there was no way in hell she could be, wearing something like that in weather like this. Sure, most of her body was covered, but the gap between her stockings and her skirt existed. In this weather, she’d be shivering otherwise.

  “I do believe so,” the woman’s lips twitched slightly. “My name is Ludmilla, the Queen of Unlimited.”

  There was a smoothness in her voice, if anything reinforcing her regal image. But at the same time, how she referred to herself as Queen. It, just didn’t sound as if she was taking it, seriously? Was she just, humoring her teammate? I couldn’t tell, and I wasn’t great at telling when it came to these sorts of things.

  “Commander Johnson of Counters. These are Rapi, Anis, Neon, and Elen,” Commander Johnson said, introducing us briefly in turn. Rapi stood at attention as Anis figited awkwardly, with Neon giving a friendly wave to the pair. I gave a brief one as well, but I still kept my hands near my weapon. We had no idea if any Raptures would show up. An avalanche was pretty hard to miss. “I must admit, it’s a bit of a surprise to meet a Queen all the way out here.”

  Oh god, was he, going along with it? Oh, this cinnamon roll of a man! Too pure for this sinful earth!

  “A Commander? We don’t see many Commanders out this way,” Ludmilla nodded in return, shaking his hand as the girl in pink seemed to bounce in the snow. The amount of child-like energy she was giving off was starting to make me uncomfortable. Sure, Neon was a bit odd as well, I wouldn’t deny that, but despite Neon looking younger, she still didn’t give off actual child energy. “It’s best that we start moving. If the Queen of Heart’s forces don’t already know where we are, they will locate us swiftly.”

  Okay, so this Queen of Hearts was, some type of Rapture leader? Was that what they called Chatterbox? No, that couldn’t be it. Chatterbox’s voice was at the very least masculine. Not very befitting of a queenly title. That and the name tickled at the back of my mind. The name was ringing a bell, but I couldn't quite place the name.

  Queen of Hearts? Where had I heard something like that before?

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  “So, how much of this is nonsense?” Anis whispered in my ear as we continued our march, as the girl in pink, Alice, explained how the place used to be full of greenery and wonder, before the Queen of Heart’s came and froze everything. Neon was hanging off the girls every word, as Johnson and Ludmilla humored her.

  As cute and fatherly as it was, it was also more than a bit creepy. I couldn't tell if Alice was delusional, coping, or just straight up mad.

  “Less than you'd think. It gets cold enough, even evergreens and grass starts to die,” I shrugged. “Whether or not this Queen of Hearts is truly responsible is up in the air, but if it is?”

  We were bent over? I'm sorry, that kinda stuff was straight up terraforming. Humans could terraform over time, but nothing like this. How do you fight something that could do stuff like that? It's like a fly trying to fight a tornado.

  I was feeling kinda bad for Rapi though. What came from Alice's mouth was weird, and Rapi didn't seem to have much of an idea when it came to that. We weren't even heading towards the lab right away, either. Ludmilla wanted to talk shop about something, and the best place to do that was out of the cold.

  Alice was also sending the occasional side eye toward the brace around Johnson's arm. Though it was less of a brace and more of a power arm, and was meant back when Nikke’s actually had to heal from injuries.

  Key work being had. I swear, our bodies made less and less sense the more I learned about them.

  “What's that?” Alice asked, pointing at the brace, wonder in her eyes.

  “Oh, this?” Johnson waved the exoskeleton arm around. “It's a powerful Legendary Weapon.”

  I don't know how any of us reacted to that. Could have, or even seen it coming. Rapi straight up blinked, which was about as close to surprised as she got. Anis just froze up behind me, before covering her mouth to hide her snickering.

  “Wow! Really?” That was Neon, who despite knowing what it really was, had decided to go along with it anyway.

  “My Queen, does that make him the Rabbity?” Alice asked, turning to Ludmilla. Ludmilla, to her credit, was able to keep a straight face. I never wanted to play her in poker, because she had to be damn good at it. What even was a Rabbity, anyway?

  Wait a minute. Alice? Queen of Hearts? Rabbity? Oh god, this was a runaway production of Alice in Wonderland, wasn't it?

  Oh well, at least this was a sign that he was good with kids.

  “What are you doing?” Anis gave me a look as I dug out a piece of paper, writing a few things on it.

  “Adding to the list,” I scowl. Even now, I was still being reminded of how much Syuen took from me.

  “Of course I am!” Johnson said proudly, snapping me out of my thoughts. God, this man. Once again, just a pure cinnamon roll.

  “Yeeeee!” Alice clapped her hands excitedly, clearly pleased with the declaration, Neon mirroring her new friend's motions. Again, the amount of happiness was just. Strange.

  Still, I wasn't going to interrupt that. The bunch of goobers.

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  The bunker was far nicer than I expected it to be. Solid, sturdy, out of sight, and yet, far more accommodating. Johnson and Rapi were talking with Ludmilla, which I had no clue how it was going. But given Alice was sent to keep an eye out for Raptures, I imagined the conversation was far more serious than Ludmilla wanted the younger girl to hear.

  I still didn't quite have a great read on either of them. Alice was throwing me off, and Ludmilla being as accommodating to Alice's eccentricity was throwing me off even more. But it was clear Ludmilla cared for Alice.

  “What's it like working with Rabbity?” Alice asked, once again making me wonder if she was younger than she initially appeared.

  “He's a good person. A good man. I haven't worked with him much, but,” I paused, wanting to find the words, but coming up with nothing. He was the second person to ask if I was okay, and mean it. He was the second person who asked me what I wanted and needed.

  He was the first person to let me cry. Why was that so hard to admit? He was the first damn person to sit me down and let me cry!

  “But?” Alice looked up at me, eyes sparkling innocently. Damn, she really did look like a kid.

  “It's nothing major. It's just that I haven't worked with him for too long is all,” I said, trying to refocus my thoughts. That was an understatement.

  “So you haven't gotten to see him use his Legendary Weapon?” Alice swayed side to side, humming softly under her breath. Okay, how did I want to play this?

  “Not exactly,” I say, listening to the faint humming become interrupted by a gasp. “But, if more people know what it is, it ruins the surprise.”

  “Oh! And you want people to be surprised, right?” Alice beamed at me, a wide grin growing on her face.

  “Exactly!” I grinned back at her, as she nodded.

  “Okay, I won't tell anyone about Rabbity’s Legendary Weapon,” Alice nodded her head, looking out over the snow for a moment. “It's good he helped you get away from your wicked stepmother though. And your stepsisters.”

  “What?” Okay, what was that? I thought she was focused on Alice in Wonderland?

  “Rabbity is your Prince Charming, isn't he?”

  The question hung in the air, and I had no clue how to process it. Because was she really wrong? With what I knew about Cinderella, she kinda wasn't? I'd been forced to serve someone who treated me like crap, and could be argued to by my mother. Yuni and Mihara could be argued to be siblings, by that logic.

  That made, what? Anderson my fairy godmother? Fairy godfather?

  I, fuck me, I guess, I was basically living a Cyberpunk version of Cinderella. Better than a Cyberpunk version of Romeo and Juliet. Well, that depends, was this the where Disney cleaned this up and gave one of the step sisters a redemption ark, or the Brothers Grimm version?

  “I guess he is,” I sigh, mostly to myself. I wasn't in the mood to process anything like that right now. Not helped by the sudden pounding headache at the back of my skull.

  Just because what happened may have rhymed with Cinderella's story, didn't mean much beyond that. Weirder things had happened to me thus far.

  What about the name Cinderella was making my head act up?

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  I'm mostly just trying to get my footing after five months of hiatus. I really need to get back into the swing of things when it comes to No Longer Human, though I think the April Fools snippet helped keep things a bit fresher in my mind.

  I also don't know if this is entirely the right place to put this, but someone put up No Longer Human as a recommendation over on the Nikke fanfic recs TV Tropes page. It only provides links to the FF version of the story though, and I have no idea on how to fix that. But I'm, yeah, a bit stocked and a bit humbled about that, given how I've always wanted a story I wrote recommended on TV Tropes since I found out about the site's existence.

  Still, thank you for that, and I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Also, I didn't want to use the title of Prince Charming, but it was the only version of a title I could find for him.