Story Reader / Extra Story / EX01 Grand Blue / Story
Pain. Pain. Pain...
For Vera, pain is what makes life, life.
—But there is no pain to be found here. To the uninitiated, the quietude of this place might even hint at inner peace.
——Which, to Vera, is purgatory—is limbo.
In purgatory, the past revives, echoes, replays...
—And so, Vera lives through the pain and joy of battle.
This is why Vera seeks the battlefield—
Dancing on the tightrope between life and death, capering in the euphoria of adrena-sim shots flowing in her vital fluids.
Here, Vera finds her peace. Here, Vera lives until her demise.
——As such, the imminent quietude drives Vera distraught.
To the point where it even reminds her of the conversation with Commander Nikola before she landed in this place.
Cerberus reporting.
Come in.
Vera waltzed into Nikola's office and slapped a copy of the mission directive on Nicola's desk.
The scattered stack of papers and holo-tapes caused Nikola's old-world mementos to flop off the desk and tumble onto the floor.
Care for a kind explanation, Commander Nikola?
Cerberus—known for assault and decap strikes—on some silly recon mission in this "water park" thing?
I have no obligations to explain why I assigned you this mission.
No, you do.
If you don't tell me what you're looking for, I can't guarantee that you'll get what you want.
And, please don't forget—I'm only obeying your commands because of your little promise of "giving me pain and suffering enough to drown it all out."
So, I need an explanation.
You'll thank me for going on this mission.
That's not an explanation.
...There is something you'd want in this mission, which is why I assigned it to you.
And of all the hounds I can deploy, only you are capable of perfectly accomplishing my orders.
...You're trying something?
Track down a person called Shome. I'll tell you when it's time to act.
That's still hardly an explanation.
You can expect an explanation all you want, but I am not obligated to answer.
All I can say is that if you're looking for battle, you'll find it there.
Tch...
...
Very well. Then I guess I'll have a gander at what you've packed in your mystery box.
With that, Vera turned and left.
...
...
Heyas! We finished getting the boom-booms in place!
Give a call and we'll blow this place to pieces.
Noctis, you suck at shutting up.
I'm just do-ing mah job here.
...Just shut up if you don't want to become a slab of wetware.
...Noctis, how are the little birdies doing?
That stinky Roland messed their pace up a lil', then Kamui fell, but now they seem to have found themselves some new helpers.
Anyway, now they've split up. One new guy went underground and the others went inside the park.
Underground? You mean that...
Yep. Deader than dead kinda dead zone. My eyeballs still be workin' fine. He just strutted in there, man.
...
So, whaddya say? Should I go give him a sniff? Guy does feel a lil' familiar...
No, that won't be necessary. He'll regroup with the others sooner or later.
Let's begin.
...
After Vera left, Nikola silently gathered up the things Vera slapped onto the floor, placing them back onto the table.
Then, he linked to Babylonia's internal channel.
She agreed.
No, this is also part of the plan.
I don't care about what you think. This is part of the plan.
...
I remember what we did, very clearly.
You can skip the part of saying we made the right choices.
...This is all to retake Earth.
