For a few moments, Neptune just sat there, staring dumbly at the woman in the doorway. It was, without a doubt, Arfoire. Not only did it being that dastardly bar-whore's room explain the totally drab colors of the room, but it had to explain why she was hurting so much too. Why else would she be in so much pain? And so cold too! Arfoire had obviously done something terrible to her!

To Neptune's surprise, it was the evil witch who broke the silence... by laughing? What was funny about this?!

"Look, kid, I'm sure you've got no idea why you woke up in the bed of Cruptindustri's number one eggplant farmer, but you look like you're going to drop dead if you're not careful. I don't think you should be moving around like that."

Cruptindustri? Number one eggplant farmer? Neptune was at a total loss for words. What was that evil witch going on about now? None of that made any sense...!

... At least not to Neptune. To Arfoire, though? How else should the woman react when someone she's never met before screams her name like that? Had to be yet another satisfied customer. Those flyers she had put up were paying off!

To Neptune though? Well... Actually... Now that she mentioned it, something was definitely off with Arfoire's appearance now that Neptune gave her a second look. Though her skin was still that weird gray color, it was a bit darker (tanner?) than Neptune remembered it being... From being in the sun, maybe? And her clothes... They were so plain! Colors aside, she actually DID look like a farmer!

What in Gamindustri was going on here?!

And more importantly...

"W-Why am I naked?!"

The woman that Neptune was sure was Arfoire scowled as Neptune made her best efforts to cover herself with the fluffy blankets and turn around at the same time. It should be criminal for Arfoire to have such a nice bed! Even Neptune didn't have a bed this nice! Neptune was totally going to have someone arrest her!

"You would that know better than I would, kid," the woman informed Neptune as-a-matter-of-factly, crossing her arms over her chest as she did so. She had looked a bit cocky a moment ago when she had thrown her sales pitch or whatever at Neptune, but now she just had attitude. And Neptune did not like that attitude, especially coming from Arfoire of all people!

"Yeah, right... I bet you're just saying that, when really, you brainwashed me so you could steal the innocence of a sweet maiden for your newest evil plot!" Neptune made her declaration like any good main character, though her dramatic pointing was hindered due to her using her other arm to keep her body wrapped in Arfoire's blankets. The pain that shot through her body from the quick movement didn't make things any easier. "Ow! Owowowow... Didn't anyone tell you you have to be gentle?"

Arfoire stared at Neptune for a moment, her eye twitching. There might have been a vein pulsing on her forehead as well. She seemed to be debating something internally. If Neptune had to guess, probably how to cook her! Well, no if Neptune had anything to say about it...

Once again surprising Neptune, Arfoire simply turned and left the room, saying something about ungrateful twerps under her breath as she left. The door was slammed behind her, with such force that it actually caused Neptune more pain from all the way across the room.

For a few moments, Neptune watched the door. She was waiting for Arfoire to burst back in wearing her normal clothes (not that that tacky outfit could be considered normal) to attack Neptune while she was down. Maybe she'd do some other terrible thing too, as Neptune knew she was clearly just not up to defending herself at the moment. Just how had Arfoire gotten the jump on her like this in the first place? And why hasn't she finished Neptune off yet? It didn't make any sense.

Shivering, Neptune decided that she would have to deal with Arfoire when she came. For now, she needed to lie down again. Her body was hurting and even though she had blankets wrapped around her, she felt noticeably colder than she had when she had been curled up in this strange bed. After casting one last glance (more like a glare) at the door, Neptune slowly lowered herself into the bed's fluffy niceness and closed her eyes.

Sleep just wouldn't come, however, which was probably for the best.

Her body hurt all over.

Her mind was racing, and the more laps she made, the more she realized she was driving blind.

How did she get here? Where was here in the first place? Why was she hurting so much? Why was she so cold? Why was she in Arfoire's bed? Why wasn't Arfoire trying to kill her? If Arfoire was here, didn't that mean Plutia and Peashy and the others from this world should be around too? But why would Arfoire call their world Cruptindustri?

Neptune swallowed, or at least tried to. On top of everything else, her throat was dry. Fantastic.

"Okay girl, first thing's first... How did I get here?" Neptune finally opened her eyes and looked up at the ceiling as she tried to recall what she had been doing before she woke up here.

She remembered a voice. Yeah... That's right. Something about a voice. Thinking on it though, that was probably just a dream, because the memories there were fuzzy and unclear and dark and super vague to boot. It made her head hurt to try to remember, which was quite a feat given how much pain she was already in, though it definitely made her point to it having just been a dream.

So she'd probably just had a nightmare... That wasn't saying much considering her situation right now was straight out of a nightmare. What about before she went to sleep?

Neptune scrunched her eyes closed and tried her hardest to remember. It wasn't like she didn't know who she was or where she came from or anything, it was just... Anything that could explain her current situation at all just wasn't there, no matter how hard she tried to recall it. The last thing she clearly remembered for sure was getting a call from Blanc. Well, White Heart at the time, but Blanc would always be Blanc, right?

"Dammit Neptune! We just got over the friggin blizzard from hell, and now it's pouring! What kind of shithead is deciding the weather these days, huh?!"

Neptune couldn't remember much else, but nothing had been out of the ordinary at the time... It had been raining, but that didn't really say much of anything. Just that Blanc was being a drama queen. She had been nice and cozy in Planeptune when she'd gotten the call, hadn't she?

So how had she gone from there and ended up like this?

"Okay... So I don't know how I got here, but maybe I can at least figure out where here is..." Neptune bit her lip. It wasn't like she could do much of that stuck in bed like this, but her body told her that moving was out of the question right now. She didn't have much to go on, then, but she could at least try using what she had! "What did she say again? Cupcakindustri? No, that's not it..."

Neptune rolled onto her side as she tried to recall Arfoire's words, letting out a muffled noise of pain as she moved. This whole hurting thing was getting really old really fast.

Anyway... What was it again...?

Stuckindustri? Cryptindustri? No, wait... Cruptindustri, that was it! Definitely not Gamindustri.

If Arfoire wasn't lying, and for once Neptune didn't get that vibe from the gothic weirdo (who was looking a lot less gothic than normal), then she wasn't in any form of Gamindustri right now... So that meant that it was like when she crashed into the other Noire that time and met Plutia and everyone else in that world. She was in some kind of crazy alternate universe. Again.

"Talk about original," Neptune muttered under her breath.

Still... That didn't explain everything. It might explain why Peashy and Plutia hadn't come to her rescue straight away and why this Arfoire apparently had no idea who she was, but that didn't explain nearly enough. Arfoire was still Arfoire, and Arfoire would never ever in a million billion years take someone home with her to help them get better, which meant that she had definitely been the one to cause Neptune's injuries. Definitely had to be Arfoire.

And yet... Neptune couldn't help but doubt that reasoning. If Arfoire had done this, why was she here in the woman's bed... recovering? Why hadn't Arfoire been her nasty self earlier? As much as Neptune wanted to deny that possibility, she had watched enough anime to know exactly what kind of scenario this was. Maybe this world's Arfoire just liked picking up little girls off the street? Well, she's be in for a surprise once Neptune transformed and-

As if struck by lightning, Neptune sat up, quickly covering her mouth to muffle the cry of pain that came with the sudden movement (and the following one that came with moving her arms).

The last time she had wound up in another world, she had lost her connection to the Sharicite and become a normal human. She had needed to seek out the means to once again become a goddess, lest she start aging and all that other icky stuff. Plus, she had been so weak as a human!

As Neptune recalled this, she realized something. Being human would totally explain everything. The pain, for one thing, but it would also confirm for sure that she was in another world... Provided it was a world that didn't let her keep her goddesshood, and sure enough.

"It's still there..." Neptune murmured. It was faint, like she was having to reach for it through thick fog, but she was definitely still connected to the Sharicite. It was weak, but she felt it for sure, which was a drastically different from what it had been like in the other world.

What did that mean though?

There was a knock at the door. Inhaling sharply, Neptune set aside her concerns, closed her eyes, and tried to look natural, though that was considerably more difficult than it normally would have been given the soreness she felt all over. She grit her teeth and hoped against hope that whoever it was would just go away and leave her alone. Maybe if they just left her here long enough, she could recover on her own and make an epic escape!

"Comin' in..."

Darn!

Though... Yeah, hold on, that wasn't Arfoire's voice. It was vaguely familiar, a voice Neptune hadn't heard in years, but it was one she recognized all the same. She was tempted to risk being discovered and peek to see who it was, but not only was that too risky right now, the act of doing so would probably hurt too much anyway. She could wait. It wasn't like she was going anywhere right now, after all.

The person's footsteps weren't as precise as Arfoire's. While the witch woman walked with precision and purpose, there was a clumsiness to this newcomer's stride that told Neptune, if nothing else, she wasn't in danger like she might have been if Arfoire had come back.

"The boss made me make this for you. Dunno why, but if you're gonna eat it, you should do it while it's warm."

W... Was this person... Was this person talking about food...?

She hadn't realized it before, but with the scent of something delectable filling her nostrils, Neptune slowly began to realize that she was starving beneath all those aches and pains.

And it was warm! Warm the person said!

Neptune's stomach cried out angrily as Neptune herself continued waiting. No matter how badly she wanted to eat, she couldn't give in with a stranger in here like that! She couldn't!

"Anyways, you look about my size, so I'm leaving some clothes for ya here too. Boss lady's orders." The person paused, finally letting out a sigh. "I can tell you're awake, you know. Just 'cause I'm the bottom of the farmhands here doesn't mean shit, so don't go judging me like I'm some kinda underling!"

As soon as the person spoke that final word, Neptune was able to figure out who was talking to her, and now she was trying to stay silent for an entirely different reason than before. She was trying not to burst out laughing.

The girl, who Neptune was trying in vain to remember the name of, waited for a moment before letting out some kind of annoyed noise.

"Whatever. Your loss if you wanna eat it cold."

With that, if her footsteps were anything to go off of, she turned and left, finally allowing Neptune the sweet release of letting her giggles escape her. Seriously, that Underling chick working on a farm? Wait until Nepgear got a load of that!

Her giggles quickly faded at that particular thought. It had been one thing to be stuck in a super fun world with a bunch of new friends without her sister, but to be stuck with Arfoire and Underling and who knows who else of all people? While she was feeling so bad too? That didn't make for a good time at all.

Not only that... She kinda missed the squirt already.

Plus... She didn't want Nep Jr. to get so upset again. Truth be told, after getting so close to Peashy throughout that particular ordeal, it had made her appreciate her sister (her real one) more as well. In her own way, anyway. She had worked on making it up to the Candidate, and in fact was still doing so, but she doubted going on yet another other worldly adventure was going to help matters much.

"I guess I've really accepted I'm somewhere I shouldn't be..." the CPU mused, pushing thoughts of Nepgear aside for the moment. Nepgear was mature, more mature than Neptune even was most of the time. She could handle being without Neptune for a bit. Probably. On the other hand, Neptune had other things to deal with right now: a hungry tummy and a naked body among them. Then she could figure out where to go from there.

Hopefully home.

That in mind, Neptune finally, and oh so slowly, sat up, taking care not to push her aching body too much, so she could check out what had been brought to her.

A tray of food had been placed on the nightstand next to the bed, and Neptune was already drooling at the sight of it. She had been worried there would be eggplant, eggplant, and more eggplant given what Arfoire had said earlier, but instead what she saw was piping hot soup, warm bread that looked like it had been buttered only moments ago, and some tasty looking meat to top it all off.

Licking her lips, the CPU resisted the urge to dive right in and looked for where that Underling girl had put the clothes she could wear. She didn't want anyone to walk in on her naked body again, especially not her naked body in the midst of chowing down. Gorgeous girls like her couldn't just be giving free shows like that, after all, and who knew what would happen if a picture was taken and put on the internet of Planeptune's CPU in such a state...

Imagine if the other CPUs got hold of it!

The girl, in her distracted state, completely missed the various injuries and bandages littering her normally spotless body, for the idea of Noire using Nepposhop on pictures of her was much more concerning to her.

Shuddering at the mere thought if what Noire might do to her innocent form (if she only knew), the aching girl looked and looked and looked until her eyes finally settled on a bundle at the end of the bed. What she saw there made her eyes widen in terror, and she let out a strangled cry as she realized she would have no choice but to wear that thing that had been placed there, at least until she could escape this horrible place that wanted her to wear such a truly horrific item.

She should have realized as soon as that stupid Underling mentioned "her clothes," but Neptune hasn't been paying attention. Not that knowing what horrors awaited her would make any difference.

For there, sitting innocently at the end of the bed, was a very familiar gray and red hoodie, complete with an all too familiar mouse design on the hood. Neptune knew it was very likely that her options were to either wear this or go naked, and she really didn't fancy strutting her stuff for Arfoire and her "farmhands," especially since, if her hunch was right, a certain perverted mouse would be among them.

And so Neptune could only whimper pitifully as she slowly, painstakingly, crawled over to the tacky thing and resigned herself to her fate as she began to get dressed.

At least she take solace in the fact that she could eat as soon as she was done putting this horrible thing on.

"Why me...?"

Little did Neptune know...

She hadn't seen anything yet.