Now, I know you all may be thinking: 'Why are you doing a new Neptunia story when you already have another?!' The answer being that when I wrote "Victory!" I was still pretty new to Hyperdimension Neptunia, so I didn't really have that big of a grasp on all the characters. But after seeing some more of the franchise (Thank you, Noble!) and reading a few of the fan fics this archive had to offer, I decided to try it again.

Another thing; after rereading "Victory!" I realized that I've made a few mistakes that I'd rather not go into detail about. Also, I meant to give a bit of backstory on how and why Kuro was actually living with Blanc and the twins. As such, that's the purpose of this introductory chapter.

Disclaimer: I do not own Hyperdimension Neptunia. It belongs to Idea Factory and Compile Heart. OCs and any game references belong to their respective owners.


CPU White Heart, also known as Blanc, was not someone who was easily stunned or left in surprise. She was a strong, independent, well trained, and intelligent individual that had the ability to accept and adapt to nearly any situation in and out of battle. However, no amount of mental training, or kind of preparation or calculation, could have allowed her to act in any way but pure shock at the thing she found.

It was a fairly large town. Far away from any of the four major settlements of Gamindustri. However, what had White Heart in this state of shock was the town's current condition. Flames burned the various destroyed buildings, the very earth was scorched black and cracked, and blood… oh, the blood…

'Shit…' was the only thing running through the blue-nette's mind as she slowly strikes through the broken remains of this once bolstering cityscape. While she may be apathetic towards most things and had a vicious temperament, that did nothing to dim the feeling of sadness and regret bubbling in her chest. The regret of not being here sooner to help these people. White Heart knew that the usual silly-looking monsters couldn't have done any of this. That just left the possibility of a boss monster, probably a high level Ancient Dragon, rushing in and attacking the poorly prepared innocents. That thought alone pissed her off more than anything.

But then, something caught her eyes and ears; a small cabin, almost completely untouched by the raging flames. On her way towards it, she effortlessly swatted away and destroyed any straggling monsters that came near her. She entered the front door, flinching slightly at the crashing sounds of said door breaking.

The place was ransacked; piles upon piles of rubble littering the living room, every bit of furniture in the entirety of the house flipped, torn, crushed, you name it. White Heart spotted a Dogoo sniffing around the room for a bit before running—er, whatever it does to move around—out of there. For the first time in her life, she sympathized with the creature and, against her better judgement, scoped the place out some more. Upon finding nothing of particular interest, White Heart turned to leave had it not have been for the wailing that reached her ears. Even an idiot would be about to figure out what that could signify.

A life…

An infant was in the area…

With haste, White Heart shot towards where the sound came from, not sparing a moment before smashing the door open (not that the door had any chance if she had opened it normally). The wailing was louder than before, meaning that she had guessed the correct room. The room itself was in better condition than the rest of the house. This seemed to be said infant's bedroom; the variety of toys and stuffed animals being the key factors. The lone crib looked fairly new as White Heart levitated closer and peered inside.

Inside was a little baby boy, most likely one or two years of age, wrapped snuggly in a dark blue blanket. He had a bit of soot on his clothing and face, but looked completely unharmed. The little guy continued crying his eyes out as White Heart's mouth continued to open and close as small sounds of incomprehension continued to escape from the blue-haired goddess's mouth.

Finally after what seemed to be an eternity of stunned silence, White Heart sprung to her full height and pointed at the thing in the crib before shouting out in a very characteristic manner; "Who the HELL leaves a child in a burning building?!"

It was then that she had remembered that the boy was still crying and she realized that her shouting probably scared him. As such, White Heart, ever quick to react, immediately dematerialized her weapon, then dipped down and lifted the child out of the crib that he was in. She was unsure of exactly what to do in such a situation and decided to fall back on what she had read had been done to calm babies down in the numerous books that she read in her downtime.

"Shh. Shh. It's okay, it's okay, you don't need to cry," she tried to whisper calmly into the baby's ear as she gently bounced the child in her arms.

"Sorry, kid, didn't mean to frighten ya…" quickly realizing that she knew nothing about this child she dipped down again towards the basket, making sure that the baby was firmly in her arms as she searched its contents for any information.

"Huh? What the hell is this?" she asked as she found a piece of paper hidden under the pillow. She quickly read it as she continued to whisper soothing words at the baby. It was addressed to her—

Lady White Heart,

Please keep my precious angel safe, from one crying and heartbroken mother to a new mother. I wish you well.

-Anonymous

Next to the note was what White Heart has to guess was the baby's birth certificate. However, the section with the mother and father's names was torn out, leaving only the info on the infant himself. It read—

"This is to certify that Kuro 'Icarus' Seishin, weighing in at 7.5 lbs, was born on the day of July 18th…"

'Stupid bastards could've just taken him with them…' Apparently, the sender meant to leave the baby in her care due to unfortunate circumstances. But in her mind, that didn't excuse the fact that they just straight-out abandoned a poor, defenseless baby—a fucking BABY—and left him to probably die, if not by the monster, then by starvation had the goddess not come along.

"Doesn't matter. I'm here, you're here, and now we're leaving. And I think the next step would be to leave you at an orphanage, at least…"

She says that, but the thought of it left a bitter feeling inside. The only response she got was an unintelligible babble from baby Kuro as he rested his head on her chest. She unconsciously gripped him tighter, but then felt two strange bumps on his back. Curious as to what it was, White Heart set him down on a nearby stool and removed the blanket and his red onesie to reveal two tiny white wings, fully covered in down feathers as they fluttered rather adorably due to the cold air.

She also saw that, without the onesie's hood (which contained floppy dog ears) there a golden laurel crown reading in his black hair. When White Heart tried removing it, instead of it coming off, it morphed into a shining golden ring that floated atop his head—a halo.

This reminded her of one of the creatures in the storybook she had recently read to her little sisters: this child is an angel. After a few minutes, White Heart had realized that her hand was subconsciously caressing Kuro's hair and that doing so had resulted in the small boy falling asleep. Very carefully, she had replaced his footie pajamas and wrapped the blanket back around him before picking him up. She looked down at the sleeping baby in her arms once again, looking absolutely innocent and helpless in this quite literally broken home.

No matter how ya slice it, the kindest thing that the goddess could do would be to leave the boy in an orphanage. Perhaps someone else would come along and find the baby, someone with the means to provide for him, to love him, to protect him. Perhaps there might be some kind individual that would find raising an angel as an adventurous task. Perhaps—

No.

No. Nope. Hell to the no! It was a moronic and absolutely horrible idea, but she would NOT let this child go. She knew what things were like out there in the world. She knew she could protect and provide for this boy, give him someone that would LOVE him out of her own heart rather than a sense of obligation.

It was a stretch—understatement of the millennium there—but maybe she could be Kuro's… mother.

This innocent child, this baby boy… HER baby boy would NOT grow up all alone. She would make sure of it. She sighed at herself, annoyed with her decision but knowing that it was the right one to make. She opened her eyes and stared at Kuro, the smallest of smiles forming on her face.

"Guess what, Icarus," she said to the sleeping baby as she began to walk fully out of the house. She then took off to the skies, careful not to fly too fast as to disturb the baby from his slumber. "You're coming with me. Back to your new home in Lowee~!"

Walking down the street and up to her treasured library, Blanc opened the door, now intent to read up on anything about babies that she might need. As she walked in however a very important thought struck her; 'Wait! How am I gonna explain this little move to the twins and Mina?'


"…and apparently, the parents had the intention of leaving the kid with us. Why they did, well, you read the note…"

"As such, this little boy will be under our care?" Mina, the Oracle of Lowee, tried to confirm. She appears as a tall, light skinned girl who has very long milk-blue hair worn in low pigtails held with big orange-yellow circled pieces with short bangs. Her eyes are dark blue with a red square pair of glasses in front of them. She is usually seen wearing a short white dress under a red, long jacket like robe worn open with gold lining and buttons. The sleeves puff below her elbow and have long cuffs, while at her neck is a collar and red bow with a golden badge. A matching graduate hat is on her head with two long white tassels on opposite ends, while she also has a pair of see-through, frilled stockings and red heels. She had the appearance of a student graduate. "Forgive me, Lady Blanc, but I'm unsure if this building in particular has the qualifications of an appropriate place to care for an infant."

Blanc's mouth was a thin line of contemplation and worry. Could you blame her? She decides to essentially adopt a baby, knowing full well that it was probably a bad idea, and when she tried explaining the situation, her Oracle made her realize something important that she forgot to take account of:

Blanc is CPU. And with that came duties. Duties that would take up time away from caring and loving a baby.

Just as Blanc was about to retort, two other girls had decided to pipe in. They both had brown hair and dark blue eyes, just like Blanc herself. The one on the right had on a pastel pink winter coat over a plain gray and white overall dress. The coat has puffed sleeves and a frilled white center part with many golden buttons, with a big light blue bow on the collar and six puffballs strategically placed. At the ends of the cuff is white fur lining and a big golden button. She wears a big cap with light blue ruffles and a brown and gold under and center piece and has boots with a similar color scheme with her coat. She has a light blue purse on her right shoulder while heralding a playful smirk. The shorter haired one on the left had on clothes nearly exactly the same as the other girl, the main differences being a pastel pink purse and light blue where the pink would be on the other girl's.

Together, the CPU Candidates of Lowee, Ram and Rom, are currently seen keeping the baby boy entertained by giving him stuffed animals. The pink-themed Ram did the talking; "I don't know what all those big words meant, but I say we keep him! It's kinda like Rom and I are the big sisters for a change~!"

The blue-themed Rom readily agreed without straying from watching Kuro start teething on the stuffed bear's arm. She then started clapping, catching the baby's attention; "Come on, Icarus. Come here~"

Kuro apparently liked the new game they were playing as he slowly crawled towards Rom, giggling all the while. When he reached her, he tried to climb on top of her, but Ram stopped him by lifting him up. She then started tickling his belly, making him laugh.

Meanwhile, Blanc and Mina couldn't stop the small smiles at the cute little scene playing in front of them. The latter then turned towards the former, having thought of something important in regards to looking after Kuro; "If you truly wish to… adopt Kuro, then who an I to stop you. However, from the admittedly limited knowledge that I have about raising a child, I will offer you this bit of advice: please make sure either you and/or the twins learn how to properly change a diaper. Also, you might want to adopt a regular feeding schedule, preferably so that he won't wake anyone up in the middle of the night."

'Especially knowing how irritable you are when you lack sleep…' she hadn't dared to say that part out loud.

"True. I do get pretty irritable when I don't get enough sleep. And I'm not trying to lose my temper at a baby…"

'I'd say give it a couple years and she'll probably be telling at him just as much she does at anyone else who makes her angry…' Mina thought, already feeling sorry for the boy.

"Wait! So, is he staying with us?" Ram asked excitedly.

Blanc gave her sister a smile; "Yes, he's staying. He's now your new little brother."

The twins couldn't be happier as they crowded around said little brother, cooing at him just like doting big sisters. The eldest of the three sisters then turned to leave, remembering the lack of baby supplies (diapers, formula, etc.).

When she finally left the Bascilicom, one thought came to mind; 'Oh, shit. I've gotta change him. Yep, definitely having Rom and Ram learn how to do it, too…'


That's a wrap! How'd I do?

I don't know why, but when I was about three-quarters of the way done, I kept thinking; isn't this a little too serious for the Neptunia series? But then I remembered in one of the games, there's the whole "kidnapping orphans and turning them into monsters" thing… That shit was Dark and yes, the capital "D" was intentional. Sue me…

Thank you, everybody, for reading this first chapter! Please make sure to follow, favorite, and drop in a nice, little review for me and I hope to see you guys again with a brand new chapter.

~ Peace!