A knock resounded through Planeptune's base of operations. The knock was not really that loud, but compared to the total silence that usually filled the lobby, it was impossible to miss. The Planeptune Basilicom staffman cast a glance toward the main door of the building.
"Now, who could that be?" He placed his book face down on the table and dropped his feet from the counter. The front door was rarely used for two reasons: one being that it was rare for anybody to have business at the Basilicom on weekends—or at all, really—and two being that everybody who did have something to do there usually entered through unconventional means.
"At least this one is kind enough to not break the door down just because," the Basilicom worker sighed. The last time someone had entered through the main door had also been the second time the main door had needed to be replaced. It was probably a better thing that Planeptune's frequent visitors teleported or flew in through the window of the CPU's room. That way, they would save money on repairs.
Just as he stepped out from behind his desk, one of the huge double doors slowly opened inwards, letting sunlight into the lobby. At the very bottom—looking very well like Jack sneaking into the giant's dining room—was a visitor who, in themselves, was a rare sight.
"H-hello," the deity stared at him. "I, uh... Forget that I knocked. As a CPU, I have the right to go where I please. So, if you would excuse me."
It was not the friendliest greeting, but the CPU hardly sounded impertinent. On top of that, although he did not dare to say it aloud, the goddess of Lastation had a reputation for saying harsh words in a kind voice.
"Lady Black Heart, it is a pleasure," he bowed to her. Even though he was the receptionist, there were not many times when a formal reception was necessary. Nonetheless, his movements and speech flowed naturally. "What brings you here today?"
The CPU stalked down the center of the great hall, the sound of her shoes against the ground ringing out sharply in the still air. "What brings me here?" she repeated in an uninterested voice. She nodded at the Basilicom worker as she passed. "Nothing to be concerned about. You can go back to your book."
As the Lady stalked past him, he could not resist a small smile. While she was trying to seem strict and imperious, the cordial nod undid the effect. And alas, the voice was no less polite than before. "Certainly. I hope you find what you need," he said, and sat back down as she kept walking without even bothering to respond.
Once the sound of her foot steps had faded, he picked up his book and scanned the page to find where he had left off. Removing his bookmark, he started to read: "Without announcing her presence or even knocking, she turned the handle and threw the door wide open..."
Descent
Navigating the hallways was not a problem, since Noire had been to this Basilicom on numerous other occasions—not the mention, the four nations' keystone buildings were widely similar in layout and design. The only differences between the Basilicoms of Lastation and Planeptune were the appearance and location. In under a minute, she had found her destination. Without announcing her presence or even knocking, she turned the handle and threw the door wide open. She opened her mouth to call out, but someone beat her to it.
"Oh, Noire. Could you get the front door? I heard a knock earlier, and I'm not sure if the guy in the lobby got it. But you're here, so that works perfectly!" For whatever reason, she was welcomed as if her being in Planeptune was a given at any time. "It was probably just another side character or OC, but I want to make sure it's not somebody important," Neptune continued, like it was completely natural for Noire to burst into her room without any prior warning.
"That was me, you dolt." Noire shook her head and grumbled, striding into the room and heading straight for her purple counterpart. She grabbed Neptune by the wrist, slapping the controller out of her hand and yanking the girl to her feet. "Come on, let's go. I can't believe you!"
"Really? You actually use the door? Nobody ever uses that thing... Everybody just comes in through the balcony!" Neptune ignored both the interruption of her game and the arguably rude treatment.
"From what I hear, Blanc has broken down your front door a couple of times. It wouldn't kill you to pay more attention to what goes on inside your own house." If it had not been obvious that Noire was in no mood to deal with Neptune's infamous personality, her voice continued to rise. "Seriously, Neptune?! Do you have bad hearing or something? Or do you just ignore what comes in through your communications device?"
As if the situation was finally becoming apparent, the purple-haired girl's voice took on a note of concern. "Huh? What's wrong? Did something happen?" Noire just growled, getting even more frustrated as she dragged Neptune along behind her.
"Stupid, brainless idiot... You just realized?" Marching her objective back into the great hall, she looked at the receptionist, who was watching with wide eyes and an arched brow. Absently, she made a note to cut back on the verbal abuse. It would not do to start swearing like a certain other individual she could name. "Sorry, but your Lady Purple Heart has to take responsibility for cleaning up her own city. I'll bring her back tomorrow, so don't worry about it. If funeral invitations needed to be sent out, you'd have already gotten one."
Not bothering to assess the man's reaction to her grave joke, she kicked open the double doors and thrust the startled CPU outside. "Transform. Now!" she glared, hoping that intimidation would spur the girl into action. It would be much easier to work with the other version of Neptune. Either way, they would need flight to reach their goal in time. Wide eyed and looking a tad bit alarmed, Neptune nodded and began to initiate her Hard Drive Divinity. When the beam of light faded, Purple Heart wasted no time in hovering skywards.
"Where are we headed?"
Having just completed her own transformation, Black Heart grabbed the other CPU by the forearm and took off, the both of them shooting into the sky at a remarkable speed. Once they had cleared the ground and adjusted their direction, she let go and glared at the figure gliding alongside her. "I swear, you are the most insufferable..." She did not finish, as Purple Heart's eyes had already alighted on their destination; thankfully, the commute time had been nearly zero. A battle of relatively large proportions had erupted in the streets of Planeptune, so close to the Basilicom it could be considered in Neptune's front yard.
Drawing her two-handed sword, Purple Heart landed in the middle of a group of people, yelling a fierce cry as she swung the blade in a circle around her. Everything within a meter's radius was cut down, and she took off running almost immediately. "White Heart! IF!" she called out to her allies as she neared them. "What's going on? Why are you two here?"
"What the hell do you think we're doing here? We're fighting your war for you, dumbass!" White Heart turned to face Purple Heart, and she looked just about ready to swing at the nearing goddess. "What took you so long, you get lost on the way from your bed to the front door?"
"Their numbers are higher than usual!" She ignored the venomous words. "How long have you been in combat?"
"Oh, we just started. I wouldn't even be here if I hadn't gotten a call from your buddy over there, saying that these losers were running rampant through the streets of your stupid, convoluted urban city!"
Black Heart steamed from the sarcastic usage of the term "buddy", but she did not rise to the taunt. Drawing her sword from thin air, she turned and slammed it into the unprotected side of the closest enemy. Before he realized he was even dead, she had found a new target. She opened her mouth to retort, but someone beat her to the punch once again. That was probably a good thing, considering which cocky, overpowered goddess she had been about to yell at.
"Save it for later! Let's hurry up and finish this battle before you start attacking each other." Not to be forgotten, IF chipped in with her dialogue for the scene. "We've almost got them, so let's try not to hit each other in our confusion, yeah?"
"Little brat..." White Heart glared daggers at IF, who suddenly looked very small in the proximity of the hammer-wielding deity. "Fine! You better move to the other side of the battlefield before you get caught up in my AoE, because I won't pay for your hospital bill!"
Doing as told, IF sprinted away and to the side of the recent arrival. "Purple Heart, let's go!"
"Right!" Pivoting on her heel, Purple Heart span one hundred and eighty degrees to match the scout's charge. The duo struck with the force of a hurricane, sweeping away the enemy's ranks.
Black Heart's eyes narrowed as she held off an attacker wielding a dull iron greatsword. "What happened to the guards who were on duty?!" she shouted, using the opportunity to dash forwards and slam into her opponent to knock him off balance. Before she could drive the tip of her blade into his chest, a war cry sounded directly behind her followed by flash of white and blue in the corner of her eye sent her dropping to the ground. Directly overhead, the air whistled as her backup—but not necessarily her savior—pulled back from a gigantic swing of her hammer. The man she had been about to finish was sent crashing into his allies; should she herself have reacted too late...
"They're useless! All of them!" White Heart bellowed with no attempt to control her anger. To put it plainly, she was beyond the point of giving a fuck. "Whoever trains those morons really needs to do a better job! Can't depend on NPCs for anything!"
Biting back a reply, Black Heart resigned herself to the battle, defeating the enemy with lightning speed. She downed one after the other, finding another opponent only seconds after the last fell to their knees. As the fight went on, her grip on the sword tightened and she gritted her teeth. None of the enemies were dangerous in any way, even when she was outnumbered double or triple. Still, compensating for the sheer numbers was starting to take a toll on her endurance stat. While all the fighters of the opposing faction went down after taking a hit or two, they constantly tried to surround her and strike where she was not looking. Their levels were low as usual: a wave of weak enemies, whose purpose was not to do battle with goddesses but to cause trouble for civilians. Their weapons and skill were reflective of this fact.
Eventually, the enemy began to fall back. They hesitated upon seeing their comrades fall easily to the triforce of goddesses and the fierce guild member. Only three results would come out of staying longer: a swift death, a crushing defeat, or an impossible fight against a whirlwind of three blades. The quartet let out a synchronized battlecry, and two bodies flew above the heads of the soldiers to hit the ground far past the back lines. Panic for the rebel army reached the breaking point. Those who had not already fallen started to back up, before losing all nerve and running with all possible speed in the opposite direction. Any who fell behind in the retreat or tried to make a heroic stand did not escape with their lives.
With their enemy's tails between their legs, Purple Heart straightened from her fighting stance and watched the last of the enemy disappear down the city's branching streets and alleyways. It would be preferable to send out a clean-up crew to hunt the rest down, but that was not currently an option. Sensing that the retreat did not mean the danger had passed, she tightened her grip on her sword as someone stomped toward her, brandishing an uncomfortably large weapon.
"Alright you bitch. You have a minute, no, half a minute to explain before I kill you too," threatened White Heart. Her approach stopped only once she was standing face to face with the other goddess.
Normally, the end of the battle also meant the deactivation of the CPUs' powered-up forms, but that was not a logical option when the goddess of Lowee, quaking in rage, still had her finger on the trigger. Well, on the handle—her hammer was, at that moment, far more threatening than any firearm could ever be. Lowee's divine protector looked as if she was going to start another war.
"I didn't know this was happening. My comms link is under maintenance," Purple Heart defended herself, subtly taking a defensive stance. "I apologize, but I—"
"Apologize to my ass. You owe me, big time," the rival CPU spat and turned away. With that, her hammer fragmented into a hundred shards of light, and the owner shot into the sky, leaving behind only a streak of color and that seething farewell.
"She doesn't have to be so rude about it," Neptune sighed as the light enveloping her body dissipated. "Maybe it's her one-in-thirty day," she muttered, regardless of the fact that she knew otherwise. Goddesses could shelve their human inconveniences, and both she and Noire were aware of that.
"Maybe you've forgotten whose fault this is in the first place?" Noire had also returned to her human form. While her HDD personality was no longer telling her to literally pick a fight with Neptune, she was still irritated. "You're the reason that these people are rebelling in the first place!"
"W-wait, why is this all my fault?" the smaller girl complained, backing up two steps as Noire poked a finger at her.
IF cut in, saving Neptune from the list of accusations that was about to come. "Hey, come on! Let's just go back to the Basilicom," she pleaded. Two pairs of eyes, one narrowed and one widened, found her.
"Fine."
"Okay."
The brunette sighed through clenched teeth. Leading the way, she walked ahead of the two, unwittingly leaving her friend up to Noire's mercy.
Descent
Neptune made no effort to keep quiet; the noise from the Basilicom's kitchen traveled all throughout the building. She dropped a tray onto the counter before pulling open the cupboard and searching through them with no particular objective. Bags of chips, cookies, candies, and other sweets and junk food were tossed indiscriminately over her shoulder, some landing on the counter and the others hitting the ground. When she was done raiding the pantry, the doors closed and she turned around again, fixing the pile of snacks with an undeserved glare.
"Really! I don't mind being sent to get food, but she was so rude about it," she complained to the box of biscuits on the table. The box did not respond, something she was thankful for. If the biscuits had indeed responded, then it would mean one of two things: She was crazy, or Nepgear had brought the wrong brand again. "It's not like this is my house or anything... It's not like they're my guests or anything. The host should get some respect, don't you think so?"
Muttering angrily to herself, she walked to the refrigerator and yanked it open. Her hand automatically moved toward the third shelf from the bottom, which contained literally nothing but a multi-colored selection of pudding. Call it an unhealthy obsession, but dessert had been part of her diet ever since she had met Compa. Being immortal did have its perks, and automatically perfect health was one of them. She picked a yellow cup from the shelf, then grabbed three more and placed them in the crook of her arm. After a moment's consideration, she grabbed one more before nudging the fridge closed with her foot.
In an April Fool's entry written by Adell Christine, several requirements for life were listed: one, the pudding shelf was stocked; two, the reserve pudding supply in the back of the fridge was stocked; and three, it was accessible within twenty-four hours of the last visit. To Ms. Christine's surprise, she hit the Nep on the head with her satirical guide to happiness.
One of Neptune's quirks was her behavior when no one else was around. This also applied when she thought she was alone, but every now and then someone would spy on her from the shadows, sometimes for shocking results. Of course, when she was happy she was not unlike a ball of fluff. Her every action would be imbued with cheer—or, to quote the words of a certain CPU, she was "almost sickening and oh-so disturbing". On the other hand, it was difficult to recognize the CPU of Planeptune when she was in a bad mood. During her rare moments of anger, which were rarer than getting a glass shoe from a flaming boar, any unfortunate inanimate objects in her vicinity were completely at her disposal. In those times, she resembled Blanc more than anyone else.
Neptune placed her own share next to everything else she had retrieved from the kitchen. Oddly enough, the items that had been strewn across the counter and the floor were now stacked atop the tray in a neat mound.
"Huh... That's weird." She shifted her jaw and frowned. A smile lit up her face and she scanned the room. "Hello? Is anyone out of the ordinary there?" she called, but nobody came forth. With a shrug, she picked up the tray and walked to the door. "Maybe Nep Jr. brought some sort of cat or spirit thing back with her from that one quest she did in Lowee."
Once the CPU had left the room, the mysterious snack-moving force made a reappearance. An out-of-the-ordinary book slid off of the shelf and fell to the ground, landing on its spine with a thud. It opened right down the middle, revealing a miniature person sitting between the book's pages.
"Ouch!" Histoire winced as she picked herself up off the ground—well, her tome picked her up, but details, details. The fall had not hurt her as much as the last time, but she rubbed her head as she floated into the kitchen to look for any left-behind items. "At least she did not drop anything on her way out... Having to clean up after her is rather tedious. (* T T) "
She sighed as she hovered lower, eventually coming to a rest on the surface of the counter. "I wonder what is on her mind this time. That makes the second time this week..." Histoire sighed again, resting her face in her hands. Taking care of the nation in the CPU's stead had been her job from the very beginning, and her workload had only increased with the recent uprising. Between managing political affairs and Neptune, however, it was the latter that she had started to devote more of her attention to. It took a great deal to push Neptune to her breaking point, yet this amount seemed to be getting smaller and smaller over the last couple of days.
Shaking her head, Histoire and her book rose steadily off the counter and in the direction of the door. Closing her eyes, she made a quick prayer for the safety of the nation and the CPU before disappearing down the hall to return to her office.
Descent
The door to the room was not closed, so Neptune walked right on in. She set the tray down on the center table, where her two guests conversed in low tones. Without words, she grabbed her share—all five pudding cups—and sat down on her bed. Noticing her arrival, IF looked at her and smiled.
"Thanks," she said, and Neptune nodded and opened the first of her five snacks. She did not offer to share, nor did she bother to respond before she started to eat.
"What's up with you?" Noire was, as usual, blunt in her questioning. "You're awfully quiet." IF almost winced at the total lack of subtlety, but she would be lying if she claimed not to have taken notice to her friend's odd lack of commentary.
"Oh, am I? Sorry, I must be hungry. You know me: food first, friends later!" The purple-haired girl answered, folding her legs with a wry grin. Her expression did not last long under the withering gaze of the visiting CPU.
"Right now, your nation is in civil war." The words were accompanied by a glare. "You're a goddess; the last things that should be on your mind are eating and socializing. On that note, don't expect me to treat you like a friend if all you plan to do is let me handle all the work. You're lucky I didn't just storm off like Blanc did, and heck! Vert didn't even show up!"
Neptune frowned, a spoon of caramelized sugar stopping just before her lips. IF could practically see the gears turning above her head. Considering the fact that the others had nothing to gain by coming to her aid, she was lucky to have even one out of three taking her side. Still, even after facing ASIC together, it was rather distressing that Noire was the only one to grace Planeptune with her presence—and grudgingly, at that. Unfortunately, that was just the way it was: Unless all of Gamindustri was at risk, it would be unlikely for the goddesses to form a team just to stomp out some riots.
"I guess you're right," Neptune shrugged after gulping down a spoonful of pudding.
Noire watched her for a moment longer before letting up. She looked away and sighed, "Of course. You're still Neptune, and I'm still Noire. That won't change, even if you end up losing your whole nation."
The black-haired goddess turned back to the person sitting across from her. IF met her eyes, and they came to a wordless agreement: Neptune was acting no differently than she always did.
"Alright. Let's get down to business," the guild member said, reaching out to grab her favorite cookies from the tray. She did not know if Neptune had intentionally picked them out for her, or if it was simply a coincidence, but she mentally thanked the girl again. "These guys won't defeat themselves. And judging from the way the guards were overwhelmed so easily today, we can't just leave this on auto battle and wait for it to go away on its own."
So began a heated talk about tactics and strategy. As IF and Noire forged ahead, Neptune found that she was nearing the end of her fourth serving of pudding. She set the empty container down next to the others, already reaching for the last—
"Oh, for crying out loud!" Noire's exclamation caused her to jump. "Just stop eating already! Why do you even have so many of those things?" she let out an unintelligible groan. "Can you at least participate? It's not like we're trying to save you from meeting with a terrible fate, you know?"
Neptune smiled, but hastily flipped her expression when she received the disapproving gazes of the two other girls in the room. She sighed, "Okay, I get it. Time to get serious." After clearing her throat, she made her first contribution—if it could really be called one—to the discussion. "First of all, what guards were you talking about earlier? I didn't think we had any on duty or anything. Doesn't it take, like, time and resources to train troops?"
Seeing Noire get ready to respond with a deragotory remark, IF jumped in and answered the question. "There isn't actually an armed guard here in Planeptune, so Histoire hired them from somewhere. She dispatched them to patrol the cities, but they were overnumbered so quickly by the group we fought earlier that I think it's safe to say they won't be of much use."
"Okay, then... What do we know about the rebels? I mean, I know that they want to get rid of me and all," she added after being pinned with an angry look from Lastation's representative. "But, do we know anything about their leader or what?"
"We just covered that, but you weren't listening, so allow me to enlighten you," Noire muttered. "As far as originality goes, these guys don't score too high. They're pretty much just calling themselves the Anti-Neptune Group, and they're led by someone who is sick and tired of a certain CPU who doesn't care about her nation. We don't know whether they're important or just some random hater, and we don't even know if they do have a leader. It could just be a mob of people who want to replace you with someone who understands the concept of responsibility."
Under the onslaught of jabs at her usage of authority, Neptune averted her eyes. It was a little unfair to judge her so harshly, but at the same time rumors and lies can grow from a single truth. Compared to the other CPUs, and even the Candidates, she was in first place for laziness and utter avoidance of anything political. On numerous occasions, she had been compared to the other two Planeptune officials, Histoire or Nepgear; on all of those occasions, it had been agreed upon that either would be a better choice as CPU. However, fierce debates still raged about who would fill the vacancies left by promoting one of the two. Almost everybody seemed to agree that Neptune should not be the one to fill the positions.
Neptune put a hand on the back of her head and smoothed her hair. "But how did they get so many shares? Even if I'm lazy and I don't do much, nobody has tried to actually get rid of me before. A lot of people still appreciate me, right?"
Now, it was IF's turn to speak up. Information was floating on the forefront of her mind, ready to be freed. She did so eagerly, wiping away the crumbs on her lips before leaping into her explanation. "The Anti-Nep Force is a group of radicals. Do you remember the Mazens, who were responsible for the Jellycause?" Neptune nodded. The Jellycause, which had happened several centuries ago, was a tragic event remembered by Dogoos and their relatives everywhere; it had been led by the Mazens, who had received almost 30% of the global shares before they had been eliminated by Lastation's special operatives team. "Basically, radicals take advantage of political crises to usurp the current leaders. Planeptune's shares have been decreasing over time, even before this whole issue with the ANF. People who are starting to lose faith in the official government—that's you—turn to them because they offer salvation and hope. No matter how outrageous their cause may be from an objective view, citizens who have everything to lose place their faith in the group that promises good times and a better future. Then, it feels like they have nothing to lose, so they can trick themselves into believing that they're fighting for a good cause."
Neptune looked hard pressed to absorb all of the information within the wall of text, but she shook her head and listened, narrowing her eyes in determination. Politics and strategy were her two worst fields, but that did not stop her from doing her best to understand the situation. Most of it was probably lost on her, but she did get the gist of it: grade A for effort.
IF continued talking at a fast pace. She did not notice the high mental strain she was inflicting on the girl, which was quite inconsiderate, but to be fair there were many other matters that required tending to. While getting the CPU of Planeptune caught up with the current affairs was one of the more important things to do, she wanted to get as much done as fast as possible. "Histoire is doing her best to keep shares from dropping any further, but she and Nepgear can only do so much. At some point, things begin to fall apart; we might reach that point soon. So right now, we need to figure out what the best plan of action is. These are the only things I've thought of so far, but I figure there are three things we can focus on right now. Our choices are to get rid of the rebels completely, discourage people from joining them, or try and win back some of your shares."
"Hold on!" Noire interrupted the explanation. IF had been about to launch into an in-depth explanation, but she decided to allow the goddess to speak first. Plus, she had already given Neptune a lot of things to process; it might be better to give her time instead of more info. "Even if we raise shares back up, we still haven't solved the biggest part of the problem. After all, the problem isn't just that Planeptune is losing shares, it's that Neptune is losing popularity. Nobody likes her."
The last three words were unnecessary, and Neptune seemed to agree. A cry of protest sprang to her lips, "Hey, that isn't true! These guys are just trending right now! Eventually, people will see that whatever they're saying is just a buncha BS!"
"And that's exactly the kind of thinking that landed you into this mess in the first place," countered Noire. Neptune fell silent. "Just face it: you're worthless. At least, that's what your people think of you. You need to step up your game before they make you step down." Noire let her words sink in for a second. Just when she appeared to be done, she locked eyes with the other CPU. "And to be totally honest with you, I'm with them on this one. I'll even use force if I have to; if you aren't going to use your power responsibly, then you should just give up your standing as a Console Patron Unit."
A chill ran down IF's spine and she reacted instantly, spluttering on her snack until she was able to force it down without choking. She leaned across the table and shouted at a whisper volume, "Lady Noire! That was a bit much, don't you think?"
"Whatever. It's all true," came the response in a normal, very much audible tone. It appeared that Noire was making no attempt to soft-pedal her thoughts of Neptune; the challenge had been issued. IF's shoulders were shaking, and though she forced herself to sit back in her seat, she could not relax. She peeked at the person sitting only a short distance away from her, whose presence should not have borne witness to such harsh words.
They both waited for Neptune to say something, albeit with different expectations. IF looked over at the CPU sitting across from her, who did not look apologetic in the slightest—rather, she looked cold and calculating, with a glint in her eye as if this had been her intent from the very beginning. She looked away and turned her attention back to the girl on the bed. While she was not beaming at this particular moment, IF could not tell if she was even affected by the criticism: Her face was the same unreadable slate as always.
Silence reigned for an eternity.
After an indeterminable period of time had passed, Neptune unfroze. An empty cup fell to the floor as she shifted on top of the bedsheets, pulling her feet up and hugging her knees to her chest. She dropped her chin in her arms and pushed out her bottom lip ever so slightly. "Yeah, yeah, I know. There's no need to tell me again."
"N-Neptune..." Galvanized by some feeling she could not describe, IF stumbled to her feet, knocking against the table in the process. Neither CPU paid her any mind, so she sat back down after a few awkward seconds.
Noire spoke up again, and her voice still held an edge. "Then go outside. Accept some quests, help some people, do some work for once! Show them that you at least have the decency to try and shape up, and maybe you'll regain some of your followers." Noire pointed at the door, directing Neptune on where she needed to go next. Her words were harsh, and her eyes unforgiving, but some of the animosity left her body as the girl walked slowly past her. "Hey... Neptune."
There was a brief pause before Neptune turned around. "Yeah? What's up?" she asked casually. If someone were to walk into the room at that very instant, they would not have noticed anything to be unusual. Noire looked her in the eye, holding eye contact until she had finished what she needed to say.
"When you're done... come over to Lastation. You and I have some things to discuss, and I... I think you need to take a break," she said. Turning away as if suddenly disinterested, she closed her eyes and tapped her foot as she waited for Neptune to leave.
When Noire opened her eyes again, she was met with the eyes of the brown-haired girl still sitting at the table. IF stared at her, and she stared back, but the contest had been decided as soon as it had started. The goddess gave up, cursed at nobody in particular, then turned her back on the brunette. "What!" she fumed before storming out of the room.
IF watched her go. She knew that it was highly unlikely that the twin-tailed goddess would follow Neptune, but after that... highly interesting... display, her curiosity had been piqued.
"Hm." She was the only one left in the otherwise empty room. On the table, the mountain of snacks remained, barely touched. There was a single uneaten cup of pudding on the bed. She thought about it for a moment, then she walked over and picked it up. The lid was decorated with the logo of a well-known confectionery. "I... may as well eat this. I mean, Neptune left it behind, so there's no point in letting it go to waste."