Neon/Story

Spoilers!*"Your greatest villain Drake shall warn you, SPOILERS AHEAD!"*The following article or section contain **spoilers!** Viewer discretion is advised.

Overview**Story**VoicelinesGallery

## Behind the Scenes

###

Jang Mi

###

Xanthe Huynh

###

Rina Hidaka

## Description

A member of the Counters Squad.

Neon openly preaches the strength of almighty firepower, believing that Firepower is the dream and solution to everything. She loves to appeal the true greatness of firepower whenever she gets the chance and pours all her time and effort in raising her own firepower. She has a strong egotistical personality, but not to the point where it becomes a nuisance to others. She's the type of Nikke who gets along with others fairly well, and at the same time, takes care of her own things.

### Nikke Backstory

A rabid gun nut who thinks about nothing else. She is from Counters, but her true identity as a spy is an open secret.

## Personality

Neon is the third member of the Counters to have been introduced to the Squad, being a fan of 'firepower'. She mostly displays a naive and airheaded attitude at most parts. Neon likes to play the role of a spy.

In contrast to her demanor, she still maintains a good relationship with her fellow squadmates.

## Story

### Character Story

#### Episode 1 - The Legendary Gun

The commander hears something in the middle of his sleep that sounds like Neon attempt to craft something. Upon waking up, he finds her in his room and notices it is littered with black powder, ammunition, and shell casings. She was working on her goal of creating extreme firepower and decided to do it in this room since she would disturb her squad mates if she worked in hers. Though he sort of understands what's going on, Neon shows him the finished ultimate ammo she's been working on for the past week. It's huge and well-made, but too large for any gun to use. Be that as it may, she's proud of her creation. After going on to explain the features of her new bullet, she worries that no existing weapon can fire it so she's on a quest to find one that can. While the protagonist isn't sure she will find what she's looking for, she's determined nonetheless and wants her Master's help. He agrees and Neon leaves in an eager mood but forgets to clean up her mess.

Two days later, the commander nearly finished cleaning his room and was about to visit Yan to get some air freshener to clear the stench of gunpowder from it only for the one who created the mess to literally run into him. No one was hurt and Neon rushed to him to reveal she found the gun she was looking for.

After the other Counters were assembled, Anis was surprised, but figured anything that could fire ammo that large wouldn't be considered a gun anyways. Neon showed everyone she was perusing "GunLovers", one of her favorite websites. She posted the question of if any gun could handle very large ammunition online and someone responded that the Legendary Gun could. Anis thought Neon was being mocked only to be proven right when the latter showed them more comments. That was until Rapi noticed one claiming the Legendary Gun does exist and the poster claims to own it. Anis is skeptical about their truthfulness, but since Neon knows this user is very active on the site and regularly posts useful tips and info, she's convinced they're telling the truth. Anis thinks Neon is being naïve, but she feels no one on this website is a bad person or a liar. More determined than before, she intends to meet this person and use the Legendary Gun. She asks Rapi and Anis to join her, but they both are busy. She warns them that they will be sorry for missing ultimate firepower in action and leaves in a huff ordering the commander to follow her, something he pretends to ignore. The two force him to follow Neon and refuse to join them due to their previous engagements. Realizing he was on his own, he caught up to Neon.

#### Episode 2 - Fair and Square

Neon's inquiry first leads them to seek the aid of Café Sweety. Frima informs her they don't have enough information to begin a search and Milk adds that using an anonymous online comment as intel is a bit far-fetched. She also had no idea what the Legendary Gun was and thought it was a kid's joke until Sugar seemingly hinted she went too far before clarifying it was an adult joke since kids can't shoot guns. Neon shared she was curious about it and three agreed to dig into it since they accept any commissions, especially from Nikkes. They also warn that there is no guarantee they will learn anything either but they will let her know if they do. Before the two leave, Milk suggests talking to Exia to learn more about the supposed owner of the Legendary Gun.

After speaking with the hacker about their query, she was aware the Legendary Gun could be obtained by ranking in the top 11 in the southern front and collecting materials in a spontaneous event after clearing a raid with 48 people. After seeing Neon's confusion, she realized that they were talking about two different things. She asked Exia to look into the identity of the owner of the Legendary Gun. The hacker informed the commander doing that would be illegal, but since he knew ~~it was~~ it wasn't, she agreed to help them to at the very least see how much she could legally do. In just a minute, Exia got the individual's address so the two went to pay them a visit.

Turns out, the poster in question was Drake and she will only show Neon the Legendary Gun if she can beat her in a contest fair and square. She agrees to the duel and Drake reveals that the challenge will be to destroy a heavy block, one so heavy the protagonist can easily see Drake is struggling to hold it. After the five minutes it took the villain to calm down, the two were going to test their firepower to see who can blast their block to smithereens first. Neon notices that her block is bigger than Drake's and the latter tries to deny it by saying it depends on how one looks at it through "forced perspectives". She also noticed the bottoms weren't lined up and the cheater attributed that to "temporal relativity". Seeing as how Drake wasn't going to compete honorably in favor of a home-field advantage, she was going to refuse the challenge, even if she was given a three second head start. Neon realized Drake had no intention of handing over the gun, but decided to partake in the challenge anyways. Before the latter could take a shot, Neon's block was turned into dust. The victor wanted her prize and after the loser hesitated, she revealed that since she is a legendary Nikke, any gun she uses would be legendary so she gave her the gun she lost with. Neon knew this wasn't what she was looking for and after knocking the gun away and prodding Drake some more, she admitted to not having it at all. Neon and Master were ready to head back after dealing with such a weak, mean person, though the former only said this as a last ploy to get the Legendary Gun.

Anis and Rapi learned Neon's quest ended in failure with the former not surprised. Rapi asked if she had any clues to follow, but since all previous ones were bunk, she was left in a dead end. Suddenly, Maxwell arrived having learned about what happened with Drake and revealed she had some info about the Legendary Gun. While Anis was still doubtful, Neon was intrigued.

#### Episode 3 - Clues to the Legendary Gun

Maxwell revealed that there is an urban myth that the Legendary Gun exists. A weapon that can fire any ammo, never malfunction, repair itself, and even fly. The Senatus was worried this powerful rifle would fall into the wrong hands so it was divided into three pieces and sealed in different places around the world. To obtain the Legendary Gun, the three pieces must be reunited. Anis thought this sounded like some kind of trading card game. Neon asked where the pieces were and the scientist shared their locations were inscribed on ancient texts and after they were deciphered, their coordinates were revealed. She gave Neon the coordinates and the latter was ready to start the search. Anis thought Maxwell was just teasing her and after asking why she hasn't obtained the pieces herself, she stutters before stating she's been too busy. Neon doesn't care if what Maxwell is saying is truthful or not since she feels like she's going to have fun. Since it's getting late, Neon and the commander begin their search.

The first set of coordinates takes the pair to Elysion headquarters, the place Neon was created. As for their plan, Neon will just ask Ingrid directly about it and hope she knows something. While the commander is worried this would enrage her boss, Neon is sure that there is no harm in questioning her. Only upon finding Ingrid however, the two discover her in an angry mood after ending a heated call with a staff member. Neon asks her boss if she possesses a piece of the Legendary Gun and after some awkward silence, she admits she did. After Neon explains how she became aware of it, the two are taken to her office and after she rummages through some of her belongings, she finds the grip of the Legendary Gun and she gives it to Master. Unfortunately, it's in poor condition since it wasn't maintained and she wishes the two luck on finding the remaining pieces. The commander is curious as to why she possesses the grip and she explains that as a fan of ancient relics, she's been aware of the urban legend for a while now. Just like Maxwell, she hasn't investigated the matter herself since she lacked time, however she has attempted to locate the other pieces in the past. The Legendary Gun has a place within the consciousness of those aware of it somewhere between a plausible reality and complete fiction with Ingrid choosing to believe it is real. Seeing the potential in Neon and the fact she has plenty of free time, Ingrid entrusts her to finish what she couldn't. With some new found confidence, the two head for the surface to find the next piece only for the commander to immediately start to worry.

#### Episode 4 - Pieces of the Legendary Gun

Content Warning*"All **salacious** and **impure** thoughts have been swirling in my mind!"*The following article or section depicts a **disturbing** or **suggestive** content! Viewer discretion is advised.
The second piece of the Legendary Gun is located at the Junk Heap on the surface. Neon figures that clearing through enough trash would result in the two finding what they're looking for. Master asked if she had a more precise location as to where it is since there was a lot of junk to clear, but other than the general location, the records weren't specific. So long as they work hard, Neon was confident they could find it within a week. Before they started digging, they were discovered by Café Sweety. Milk explains that they're here because of Neon's commission and Sugar reveals they found the next piece after three days of searching with Frima just wanting to go to sleep. Neon was happy to entrust such nice people, but Milk informed her that since they wasted so much time searching and paid a lot to hire a guy to analyze the ancient documents, they agreed to increase the amount Neon has to pay for her commission to a total of 5,000,000 credits and in exchange for the part they found. Neon felt the three knew how to turn a profit, but Milk figured that was more than fair for all the work they've done. Unfortunately, neither had the funds to compensate Café Sweety, but Milk has another way they can pay them back.

She's willing to hand over the piece if Neon can beat her in unarmed combat with the last one standing being the winner and she agrees to it. The commander questions if brawling now is necessary, but since Milk indulged Neon's hobby, she had to partake in hers too. With Sugar acting as the referee, the two Nikkes were ready to battle. Milk attempts to immediately grapple Neon, but as she sees her opponent approaching her head on, she decides to do the same. The two are at a stalemate until Neon hits Milk with the butt of her gun knocking her down. Milk considers that cheating but Neon says it's still attached to her body, a statement Sugar agrees with only for the loser to pass out afterwards. Now with two-thirds of the Legendary Gun in their possession, the two head home to find the third.

Coincidentally, the remaining piece was stored within the Commander's room, much to his shock. Neon is ready to scour the entire room to look for it, but Master is confused as to why the final piece would be here. She figures this room's previous occupant stored it here which he could understand. For the next hour, the two search separate halves of the room until Neon discovers a magazine called "Man's Gun" whose cover depicts a man in very... bold clothes. The commander could tell this magazine has a male demographic. Since it has "gun" in the title, Neon figures the piece is somewhere in the magazine. He tries to stop her from reading on but after discovering the phrase "Every commander has a dashing gun of their own", she deduces the final piece is in Master's possession. He confesses to having a "gun" on him and after answering her questions about it, she is left confused as to how the piece could be a part of his gun if it was separated from the other pieces a long time ago. Neon figures the remaining piece is inside the commander's "gun" and wants to take it apart to find it, a request he refuses to ever do. The two then have a brief conversation where he clears up her confusion that he used "gun" as a euphemism for something else. Neon blushes at this realization and the two continue their search.

After ten minutes, the commander finds the final piece stored in a box. The discovery was entirely undramatic.

#### Episode 5 - Road of Firepower

Neon displays the three pieces of the Legendary Gun to the other Counters. Anis is in disbelief that it actually exists, but noticed that this still wouldn't be able to use the ultimate ammo even if assembled. The firearms enthusiast believes it can transcend physical limitation due to its status, something Anis doesn't buy. At the moment of truth, Neon tries to combine the pieces together only for everyone to discover they don't fit together at all and the joints between them don't match. Even if that was the case, to Neon, the Legendary Gun was the journey she and Master went on together. Anis could tell Neon was going to do what Drake did and call her own weapon the Legendary Gun, but before she said it out loud, the two who found the pieces left to see Ingrid to help fix this mess.

Upon her own inspection, Ingrid deduces that the joints don't match due to being rusty. If they can be washed and reinforced, the Legendary Gun could still be reassembled. While Ingrid left to clean up the pieces, the commander can tell Neon is nervous. He knows she likes guns, but she views them as more of a means to an end; that end being firepower. As for why she loves firepower so much, to put it simply, it's good, it's cool, and it's very useful on the surface. She's enamored that firepower looks cool and is useful, something Master can understand which she appreciates. She then asks if he has any interests, but he admits he lacks the time to pursue any. While she feels bad for him because of that, she confesses that interests are what make life worth living and returning to them after a while grants a wonderful feeling. She also heard people question why a Nikke would have a hobby to begin with, but to Neon, it's a natural state for both humans and Nikkes to have hobbies because the common denominator among them is that everyone wants something that makes them happy. With her spirits lifted, the two wait a short moment before Ingrid returns with the restored parts.

Now that the pieces could be attached to one another, Neon could finally create the Legendary Gun. Whole once again, the firearm of myth appears to have come from a time long ago since it was made with both wood and steel and bullets are loaded into it from the front of the barrel instead of the back. Neon realized this was just an antique and Ingrid knew this was the first of its kind. Though not what she initially wanted, Neon and Master discovered a living legend nonetheless. Ingrid figured it would be very valuable as an antique, so Neon allowed her to keep it. She was surprised by this, but she was fine with it so long as it was cared for. The boss agreed to keep it and planned on displaying it in the hall for everyone to see as they entered Elysion.

After the two returned home, Neon was overjoyed to see the Legendary gun with her own eyes. The commander thought she would be mad it wasn't what she wanted nor was it in her possession and while she was a little disappointed, she thinks it's legendary in its own right. Since she still lacks a firearm that can shoot her special ammo, she wants Master to help her look for one that can.

## References

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