(Original message: We interrupt this fanfic to bring you an author's note! Hold on, let me get my sheet. Ahem! Thank you to who have commented, reviewed, or generally followed this fanfic. I appreciate any feedback that comes my way. As for the choice of italics someone mentioned earlier, the use of italics for thoughts was just temporary, as I only had one person thinking to himself. Now, with other people joining in, I can just focus on the dialogue itself having the italics, which I did because I felt like it. And to make you talk. Yyyyes, that's the ticket!

Anyway, this chapter was originally split in two. However, because I realized how short one chapter was, and because I wanted to express my gratitude, I've combined both into a super chapter! Please enjoy and continue supporting this story while I still have the enthusiasm for it! Stupid laziness of mine. It will not stop me!

Ahem, that's done! Now back to your irregularly scheduled insanity!)

(New edit: Italics have been removed now. Other earlier chapters to soon follow. Eventually. *shrug*)

Narita Village. A small home to a few families, one guard, and a farmer who's probably still harvesting that wheat. In a short time, the village had to deal with a falling sky, monsters, and noisy neighbors. So far, things look fine, actually.

At the lodge, our protagonists set up camp for the time being, as Uzume took a look outside a window, staring at the electric sky. Thomas, meanwhile, had gone through his inventory, before pulling out a map to lay across a table. He then sat himself down and rested his head on his hands, thinking.

Uzume turned back and sat across the table, "So, what's with the map here?"

"Just trying to get my bearings," Thomas responded, still deep in thought. "First things first, though... I need to ask, but, will you help me?"

Uzume tilted her head, "I assume you mean taking down the firewall. But of course, you can put your faith in me."

Thomas closed his eyes, and muttered quietly, "Thank you." He then raised his voice a little, "You were not the first Planeptune goddess to help me here. I... I feel like I'll forever be in Planeptune's debt."

Uzume paused, then spoke softly, "Care to explain a little more?"

Thomas nodded, opening his eyes once more, "That tome. It was offered to me by the spirit of the former goddess, Uranus."

Uzume grimaced, it was a name she knew all too well, "The goddess that came after me..."

"Oh?" Thomas was not aware of Uzume's own history. Heck, he didn't even know about Orange Heart until just recently, "In any case, like you, she offered what she could, and saved my fate from certain demise. Now I have to make my way to the Planeptune Basilicom."

"What's the plan, then, Tomsy?" Uzume said as she tapped her fingers on her side of the table.

"Well, first we have to deal with what Gary talked about," Thomas put his finger towards a spot on the map, supposedly where they may be, "If it is what I think it is, we're heading to Otori Cave. Unless something else comes up, the next plan would be to make our way down to Haneda City, and deal with any monsters or problems that happen there. Then we head to Planeptune proper. I am hoping we can find the other CPUs on the way to make things easier. However, my main priority is to get to Planeptune and meet with Histoire."

"You're thinking she might know exactly what's going on?"

"I don't know," Thomas answered Uzume, "However, she can easily coordinate everything, maybe know how to reach the other goddesses. In any case, once I meet her, I'll pass the reigns over to her and consider my part done."

"Done?" Uzume asked as she stopped tapping her fingers, "You're not planning to help out the entire time?"

"You have seen me fight, have you not?" Thomas said with a shake of his head, "I'm just some bureaucrat. I am not cut out for this."

"Well, uh, I do admit you're not... erm, a high-level fighter, but I think with time you can improve," Uzume tried her best at diplomacy.

"I do not wish to fight," Thomas said as he closed his hands, "It is not what I signed up for then, and it's not something I wish to do now. Still... for now, I shall try. Once this is over, I will leave the rest to you."

"Um, alright, if that's what you really want," Uzume said, casting her gaze down on the map, "Then I guess that settles it for the plan."

Thomas smiled a little, then got up and wandered over to a nearby bed, slipping in, "I'm gonna take a nap. It has been a rather busy day."

"Alright, I think I'll stay up a bit longer, but I should probably rest sometime soon," Uzume glanced away from the bed, "Rest well."

There was little talking between the two afterwards, as they took some time to rest and heal any wounds they may have.

After their rest, the two made their way to Otori Cave. They stopped near the entrance and waited a moment to listen. After a few seconds of silence, they could hear a rather faint explosion, then another, then a louder one, followed by a long period of silence.

"Gary has said it's been like this for a couple of hours now," Thomas pointed to the entrance, "Any guesses what it could be?"

"No idea," Uzume said, "Oh, wait. Maybe it's someone doing some mining? Ooh, maybe testing demolitions? Yeah, like a group of rebels making sure their explosives are ready before the big mission to take down the baddies!"

"Uh, maybe?" Thomas blinked, "Let's just go in and find out."

"Oh! R-right," Uzume snapped out of it before stopping, "Wait. Tomsy? Before we go in, I have to ask about your friend there."

"Gary?" Thomas was looking into the entrance as he pulled out the pointy stick of destiny, "What about him?"

"I don't recognize that accent of his," Uzume said, pulling out her megaphone and moving a little ahead of him, "do you know anything about it?"

"Oh, I don't know exactly, myself," Thomas admitted, "I remembered him telling he lived up north for a while, so my guess is he picked up some local Lowene dialect." He shrugged, "Any reason you asked?"

"No, just curious," Uzume murmured, and the two slowly entered inside.

Otori Cave has been visited before by adventurers and goddesses. It has plenty of rocks, stalagmites, and of course, monsters. Although Thomas wanted to sneak around and not engage with the monsters, Uzume was more than eager to take on the bee-like Stingers, the turtle-like Shells, and the aptly-named Boxer Cats.

Initially, Thomas just sighed any time a battle began, and stayed back, occasionally only striking at opportune moments. Later on during the trek, however, Thomas became a little more confident, and more aggressive. He was still poking enemies with a stick, but Thomas was eyeing the patterns of each enemy, and interrupted some of their attacks by just being annoying. These made things a little easier for Uzume, who had no problem dealing with these enemies. This did offer up a question though... how does Uzume use a megaphone and not cause a cave-in? Well, I guess I won't find out here.

Uzume stopped Thomas for a moment, "Tomsy, you're under a hidden block."

Thomas looked up, wayyyyy up, to see the outline of a oddly-colored block. He frowned a bit, and stared at Uzume, "What do you want from me? I can't reach that."

"Silly, you're supposed to jump!" Uzume says, and started bouncing in place, as though she was trying to teach Thomas all about jumping.

"I can't jump that high," Thomas pointed out the height difference.

"Oh come on, it doesn't hurt to try!" Uzume insisted on Thomas jumping after the block.

Thomas tried to stare a hole into Uzume's red eyes, but it did not seem to face her one bit. She then laughed, "Haha, sorry. You're right in that it's a bit too high. Maybe we need some spring shoes?"

"You could just fly up there," Thomas noted.

Uzume had a long pause as she looked up, before saying, "Not worth it. Plus I think you just wanted to see me transform again, don't you?"

"Nooooooooo," Thomas said while rolling his eyes back, "That's not it at all."

Uzume, unsure whether that was sarcasm or not, smiled and put her hands on Thomas' shoulders, "Give me a boost, will ya? I can reach with a little extra jump."

Thomas' cheeks reddened a little, before he knelt down and clasped his hands together, looking away as Uzume stepped a foot into the hands, "J-just say when."

"On go," Uzume ordered, "1, 2, 3, Go!"

Thomas heaved and lifted up Uzume for a boost, who quickly punched the block, revealing a Life Fragment that Thomas catches.

Uzume landed on her feet gracefully, then gave a thumbs up, "Alright! A Life Fragment! That'll be useful in case -" Uzume coughed, "Well, let's hope we don't need to use it!"

Thomas could only nod, as he tried, and failed to hold back his blush. He quickly turned his back to Uzume and exclaimed, "Weshouldprobablykeepgoingnotimetowait!"

Uzume seemed puzzled, then shrugged, following Thomas through the cave.

While fighting on, the two kept an ear open to pinpoint the location of the explosions. Eventually, they reached a lower level, and Uzume looked around a rock to see if the coast was clear. However, her eyes widened, and she coiled back, pulling Thomas back.

"I found the source!" Uzume whispered, "But it might be too dangerous!"

"What are you talking about? Let me see," Thomas peeked around the corner to get a look, but coiled back as one of the Shell monsters zipped past him. The monster vanished in defeat soon after, and Thomas gulped, "What in Gamindustri was that?"

The two slowly peeked out again, and the sight of what they saw definitely shook them, for there stood a bunch of monsters surrounded a particular person. A woman, a CPU, clad mostly in black, wielding a sword (?) and grinning from ear to ear.

"I see all of you still want to go at it?" The woman spoke in a calm, sinister tone, "That's perfectly fine. I can go at this all day long. In fact, I have! So how about a little more punishment, to go? It'll be absolutely amazing, I promise! HAHAHAHAHA!"

A few more cracks of the whip-like sword and some explosions later, and the woman was still standing, cackling like mad. The two protagonists hid back behind the rock, scared by what they just saw.

"Holy crap, that lady is crazy scary!" Uzume said with her eyes almost as wide as some anime girls could make them, which is to say quite a lot.

"I almost feel bad for all the monsters!" Thomas exclaimed quietly, still trying to keep his voice low. His mind raced on the possibility of such a crazy CPU roaming around, reminding him of something way back when. He held a hand up to his head while trying to remember.

Uzume shivered, her tone shifting to a much higher pitch, "Uzume expected scary monsters. Uzume was ready for scary monsters. Uzume is not ready for crazy CPU lady! Uzume doesn't like at all! Totally bad medicine! Uzume wants to run back! Uzume should ask Tomsy to bail out!" Uzume looked back to Thomas, who was peeking back over the rock, "Huh? Tomsy? Wha-" Uzume caught herself, and whispered normally once more, "What is it now?"

Thomas continued to watch a moment, trying to jog some of his memory. As he did, he could see the woman breathing a bit more heavily, even as she seemed to enjoy herself destroying more of the monsters that kept pouring in.

Uzume started to look at Thomas oddly as he seemed to be just staring, "Err, Tomsy? Just what are you thinking? Should I know?"

Thomas finally had a realization, "We need to help her."

"What?" Uzume said, not believing what she just heard, "Are you freakin' insane?"

"Probably," Thomas grimaced, "But I think we can reason with her."

"Yeah, not happening," Uzume shook her head emphatically.

"Please, trust me on this," Thomas looked to Uzume, as he would need Uzume to come along to continue.

"Are you serious?" Uzume said as she met Thomas' pleading eyes. The silence took a while to get to her, "I... I really hope for both our sakes you are right here."

"Just watch and follow my lead," Thomas said as he turned his eyes back to the fighting. Raising his sharp stick of pointyness, he aimed for one of the Stingers aiming for the woman as she was fighting, and threw the stick at the insect. Before it could react to the throw, Thomas jumped in and gave it a relatively swift kick. It reeled back a little, but it wasn't until Uzume, who transformed before jumping in, rushed to punch it out of the way.

"Oh my!" The woman said as the monsters were panicking by the sudden attack, "Looks like we have more who wish to join in? Do you two wish to play? Because I won't be showing any mercy."

"Save it for the monsters, we came here to assist you, Lady Iris Heart," Thomas quickly spoke as he tried to cut in between the monsters and the CPU. Uzume, meanwhile, kept her focus on the monsters.

"Oh? Did I ask to be rescued? I don't recall needing your feeble help, young man," The CPU snapped, "Even if you seem to know who I am."

"We're friends of Neptune, Lady Iris Heart. Please, let us help you," Thomas retorted, hoping the name drop will help here.

"Neppy?" The girl's expression changed briefly, before she slowly turned his back towards the two, "Very well. Consider me intrigued. For now, you may assist me. Just don't try anything you will regret later."

Thomas took that as a sign to stop the conversation for now and focus on the fighting. Although he wasn't providing much in the way of firepower, he was able to help make the battle easier, pestering any potential flanking enemies from attacking. He did jump a few times on some of the sudden attacks from Iris Heart, but despite how close they were, they did connect with the nearby enemies. Despite the joy she was likely getting from spooking Thomas, the CPU was protecting him, and helping out to clear the enemies.

Uzume, however, just tried to keep a significant distance from the other woman. She wasn't as trusting as Thomas seemed to be, and the few times she saw him nearly hit by the CPU, she almost jumped in herself, even if a huge part of her dreaded that exchange. It was a very stressful fight for Orange Heart, to be certain.

The remaining monsters finally decided this was not was not worth pursuing, and retreated into the dark corners of the cave.

"Hahaha!" Iris Heart boasted as she teased the remaining monsters, "Cowards should've thought about that before attacking!" She laughed a little more before taking a deep sigh, seeming relieved and pleased with the outcome, "Ah, that felt much better. I think I'll be satisfied for quite a time. Consider yourselves lucky -"

The girl soon transformed, her body shifting from the crazed CPU to a very tired, disheveled girl, dressed ready for bed.

"Sooooooo sleepy," the girl said with her eyes half-lidded, "I don't know if I could've done that forever. I'm happy you came by!"

Uzume blinked repeatedly as the CPU's drastic change, "Scary girl turn into not-scary girl?" She then changed back to her human persona, looking at the sleepy girl.

"There's a village nearby, if you want to sleep to rest your wounds," Thomas said as he gestured to himself, "My name's Thomas," he gestured to the other CPU, "She's Uzume. You must be Plutia, correct?"

"Uh-huh! It's nice to meet you!" Plutia said in her usual slow, sleepy tone, "You're friends with Neppy, right? Is Neppy with you?"

Thomas shook his head, grimacing, "No, unfortunately. We are on our way to go and find her, hoping she's alright."

Plutia looked rather sad at this, "Is Neppy in trouble?"

Thomas responded, "Our world is in trouble right now. We're trying to find her, and any CPU willing to help."

"Then I'll help too!" Plutia said bluntly, "Anything to help poor Neppy! But first..." She started to yawn, "I need my nap."

Thomas' eyes widen a little, "Wait, don't sleep here! There's still monsters around!"

Plutia grumbled, "I'm really tired. Carry me."

Thomas stammered, "W-wha?" He quickly scrambled, and looked to Uzume, "You're stronger, right?"

"Ohhhh no, I'm not carrying her," Uzume protested, "Besides, she clearly asked you!"

"Yep!" Plutia agreed, "I want Tho-... Tah-... I want Tommy to carry me! Piggyback!"

Thomas just eyed Plutia, but clearly he wasn't going to change Plutia's made-up mind. He was just incredulous by all this. Plutia just looked up and smiled sheepishly.

"Alright," Thomas finally relented, as he bent his knees down and turned his back, "Just this once."

"Yay!" Plutia said excitedly, and quickly jumped on Thomas' back, wrapping her arms around to hold on, "Let's go!"

Thomas was surprised by the sudden weight, but slowly got himself up, carrying the CPU. "Lead the way back, Uzume. Oof." His voice was clearly strained.

Uzume cracked a smile, trying not to laugh at the sight, "Leave it to me."

Thomas tried not to seethe too much as he struggled to move forward. Perhaps it was around this time that he started to regret getting involved.

Later, at Narita Village, Thomas leaned his back against the wall of the lodge he was staying at. Plutia had finally been put to a bed where she had been sleeping soundly. Thomas just winced as he felt rather sore after all that walking with the CPU on his back.

Uzume slid up beside him, crossing her arms and grinning at the man in pain. After a few moments, Thomas noticed the look, and asked, "Have something to add to the wound?"

"Oh, nothing. Nothing," Uzume said with a little laugh, "I didn't expect you to go through that whole thing, you know?"

"Just showing some courtesy," Thomas winced, "Though I think that may have not been the smartest move. Ow, my back certainly agreed."

"Here we are, anyway," Uzume said with a little shrug, "Though the way she acted, holding you close like that, it was something out of a little romantic comedy."

"Oh, and little boost to get a hidden block didn't fit that either?" Thomas retorted, to which Uzume glanced away, exaggerating her shrug.

Thomas sighed, and closed his eyes while trying to relax, "In any case, another CPU to help is always appreciated, even if my back doesn't agree right now."

"How do you know of Plutia, by the way?" Uzume asked, curious.

"I was still working at Planeptune for a time," Thomas recalled from memory, "But Gamindustri faced a tremendous crisis, no thanks to an ancient CPU from another dimension. Neptune and Nepgear went missing for weeks. Thankfully, they returned from the dimension they were trapped in, and with Plutia, helped defeat the villain and saved the day." Thomas cringed a little, "You know, saying all this now, I have to say... our world is kinda crazy."

"You know of any others?" Uzume asked as it was Thomas' turned to shrug, "But I think I remember hearing something about that from Nepgear."

Thomas hummed a little, "Wonder why she's here, though. I guess we can ask her once she wakes up."

"Well," hours later, a woken up Plutia answered that question, "I was taking the portal to come to this dimension. I was going to go see how Neppy was and go play for a while. But then, I was distracted by all the amazing things in Planeptune, so I had a walk! It was a nice and lovely day, so later, I decided to take a nap. And then -"

"Yes?" Thomas was following Plutia's story intently up to that point.

Plutia smiled, tapping herself on the head with a hand, "I think I got lost."

Uzume and Thomas reeled back at the response. Unfazed by the reaction, Plutia continued, "Later, I went into the cave, because it was getting really warm, and I wanted to look inside for anything shiny to bring back home. That's when the monsters appeared, and later you two showed up!"

Thomas got up from his reaction, sighing, "So, I take it you don't know about the firewall that came down?"

Plutia blinked, and glanced out the windows, "Is that what you call that weird sky thing? Is that why Neppy may be in trouble?"

Thomas nodded, then continued, "We're on our way to Planeptune. Hopefully we can find her on the way. You are free to join us, of course."

Plutia tittered, "Of course I will! I wanna help Neppy! Neppy helped me soooo much back home! It's the least I can do!"

Thomas smiled happily, "I'm glad to hear that, Plutia. Welcome aboard. Let's all go help Neptune together."

Chirper event detected!

Uzume's model appears on screen, with the following text: "Plutia... I think I recognize her now."

Inside the lodge, the three are getting themselves ready to move on. Uzume, though, was busy just staring at Plutia. After a while, Plutia smiled to her, "Oh! Right, I guess we haven't really talked much. You're Uzume, right?"

"Mmm?" Uzume was caught off-guard, "Oh, sorry. Uh, yeah, the name's Uzume Tennouboshi!"

"Hehehe, the name sounds cute," Plutia said, causing Uzume to blush, before she asks, "Sooo, why are you staring? Is there something on my face?"

"O-o-oh!" Uzume leaned back, "Sorry about that. I was just remembering. Do you play on 4GO by any chance?"

"4GO?" Plutia pondered this for a second, then ohs, "Oh! You mean Four Goddesses Online? Uh huh! I sure do!"

"Aha!" Uzume proudly proclaimed, "Now I remember you! You held an accessory shop in Alsgard, right?"

Plutia beamed happily, "Yep! I was a tailor!"

Thomas raised his eyebrows in surprise, hearing the conversation, "That's quite impressive. I didn't know that it was possible to connect to the servers from Ultradimension!"

Plutia nodded, "Uh-huh! I was given beta keys by the people who made it. They wanted to see if you could play online from other dimensions. From what I remembered, they tried a few times to get their game to run back home."

Uzume cleared her throat, "Uh, yeah, I too was able to play from Zero Dimension!"

Thomas arched an eyebrow at Uzume, "Zero dimension?"

Uzume, realizing that neither probably heard of it, explained, "That's the dimension that's kinda my home now. It's a long story."

Plutia ahs, "Ah, I remember now! Uzume, you were that solo player trying to level up all on her own, right? Same red hair?"

Uzume ohs, "Yeah! That was me! I was trying to up my stats and be the best solo player in 4GO! Pretty cool, right?"

Plutia giggled, remembering something else, "I remember you from when you came to the store too. You wanted to have some really cute clothes for your character!"

Uzume laughed, "Did I say that? I'm sure I just wanted some new clothes. Nothing really cute at all, haha-"

Plutia shook her head to interrupt, "Uh-uh, I remember it really well! You then said you changed your mind and you were hanging out near the fountain in the square."

Uzume was visibly starting to sweat, "I was hanging out, that's all! It's an MMO, people do that a lot!"

Plutia's smile widened as she continued, "It was when there was this big rumor, that the fountain had a magic spirit, and it would one day appear and grant a person's deepest wish."

Uzume started turning red, "Just hanging out!"

Plutia kept her train going at her usual, painfully slow pace, "You were looking at the fountain so intently, like you realllllllly wanted something! So I got to thinking -"

Uzume panicked, quickly speaking through the next few lines "Just hanging out! That's all it was! Uzume wasn't wishing for cute clothes or anything like that! Anyway, it was nice talking, but I think I heard Gary call for me. Will meet you two outside, bye!"

As soon as Uzume bailed out on the conversation and shut the door, Plutia giggled, "Aww, she's so cute. Don't you think so, Tommy?"

Thomas just seemed confused by what he saw, "Uh, yeah." He said as a sort of automatic response.

Plutia sighed happily, "Aaah, I love it when they're so shy like that. I'll make her a cute plushie when we're all done!"

Thomas could only scratch his head, as in the distance, he heard Uzume outside yelling about something, then going "Auuuuugh!"

Gary could then be heard, "What seems to be the problem, my Lady? Eh? Where are you going?"

Some time later, Thomas was talking with the lone guard, "We'll be heading off to Haneda City. Again, thanks for the help, there."

Gary smiled, "Eh, no problem, Tommy-boy! Thanks for taking care of whatever it was up north. When you get to Haneda, make sure Melissa's okay, eh?"

"I'll make sure," Thomas assured him, "I'll try to re-establish communications once we're there too, just to let you know."

"Sounds good," the guard responded, "Good luck, eh! Oh, and uh, be careful around the goddesses, I hear they can be a real handful sometimes, yanno?"

Thomas winced, "A little late to be telling me that, Gary."

Gary laughed, "Just messing with ya, Tommy-boy. Go on now, I think those girls are getting impatient."

"Uh, yeah," Thomas smirked, "Be seeing you."

Gary waved a simple good-bye, as Thomas and the two CPUs began moving southwest, down the road.

"I'm on the road to Ha-ne-da Ci-ty. Chu chu chu~" Uzume hummed a little ditty to herself as the trio continued their trek. She seemed to be in her own little world.

Thomas, not wanting to interrupt her, decided instead to ask the other goddess, "Uh, Plutia? Mind if I ask you something?"

"Hmmm?" Plutia said as she paused from her usual spaced out expression to look over at Thomas, "Sure! Ask me anything!"

Thomas cleared his throat a bit just to ask, "Um, alright. When we found you, you were still, um, transformed, correct?"

Plutia nodded, "Yep! That's what I am like whenever I transform. Everyone gets a little scared whenever I do it, though."

Thomas ohs, "Well, that wasn't what I meant. Uh, what I meant was, um," Thomas tried to formulate his question, "When the firewall came down, Uzume wasn't able to transform at first. Only when she was given faith, er, share energy, was she able to change."

Pluta paused, trying to understand, but she wasn't really pushing herself to think hard on the subject, "Well, uhhhhh... maybe it's just that I'm different?"

"Different?" Thomas thought for a moment, and tried to figure it out on his own, "You mean, because you were CPU of the Ultradimension? If I remember, the rules are a little different over there?"

"Maybe!" Plutia was just willing to accept any theory, "I don't really get it either, but it shouldn't matter now, riiiight?"

"I suppose not. I was just overthinking it, I guess," Thomas said, as he glanced back, seeing Plutia drag a fluffy plushy on the ground behind her, "Do you...fight with that?"

"Uh-huh," Plutia said with a bright smile, "I made it all by myself! It is very good against squishy enemies! Sometimes, when I need to, I give it a good thrashing, and the enemies get damaged instead. Sometimes, I throw it up in the air! And it goes CRASH! onto the enemy's head! Hehe, it's a really cute sight! I'll show you some time when we do some battles!"

Thomas just had to take all that into his mind. He remembered how Neptune and Nepgear used much more conventional weapons, but here he's with two other Planeptune goddesses. One, humming to herself and using her voice as a weapon, and the other, when not a transformed maniac, using a plushy.

"Does anyone else in Gamindustri use conventional weapons?" Thomas murmured to himself, trying, and failing. to understand how this world even functioned sometimes. Meanwhile, he pulled out the wooden stick of sturdiness from his seemingly infinite inventory to once again equip in case of a fight.

Perfectly normal world, Gamindustri is!

Sure enough, the road had its share of monsters to fight. Thomas this time really had no choice but to fight them, as the two seem eager to fight. He wasn't really sure if this was because the two goddesses were used to fighting, or if it was just habit for them, or they were looking to show off their fighting styles to each other, or to him... or all of the above.

Thomas knew Plutia wanted to show off her moves since he did ask about the plushy. Heck, every time she did one of those special moves she was referring to, she would have one of her really happy expressions as she looked over at Thomas, as if to ask if he did see that. Even a small reaction from Thomas was enough for Plutia to cheer afterwards, hugging her plushy for doing a good job. It would be extremely cute to Thomas if he didn't already know about Plutia's rather sadistic side.

Meanwhile, Uzume was not one to let Plutia be the only one with the spotlight, treating the fights as an exhibition to show how cool she really was. She would strike a fancy, heroic pose after defeating a lone Horsebird, or even a random Dogoo. She would change up her punching combos just to see which would have the most flash, and when she would use her megaphone, she would yell out at the top of her lungs anything that came to mind, then blow at the megaphone like she just finished firing a gun.

"Say, Plutsy!" Uzume got around to finally talking to the other goddess after that earlier conversation.

"Plu?" Plutia looked puzzled at the nickname, "Is that what you are calling me now?"

"Sure, I mean, if it's alright with you!" Uzume tried to ask permission, just to be polite, "We're gonna be working together, after all! What do you think, cool right?"

"I don't mind at all!" Plutia said happily.

"Anyway, Plutsy," Uzume continued, "I got to thinking, since I yell at the top of my lungs at an enemy, how about you give me a message to send to the next enemy? Send 'em something that'll ring in their ears long after they're gone?"

Plutia's eyes sparkled, "Really? You would do that? That sounds amazing! Yeah, yeah! Let's do that!"

"Alright!" Uzume said with a thumbs up to her new ally, "Say, Tomsy? You want in on this too?"

"I think I'll pass," Thomas said bluntly, letting the two talk for a bit as they come up with the next 'message' for Uzume to yell with. Treating the life and death situation of fighting along like some strange sort of game. "These goddesses are crazy..." Thomas murmured very quietly to himself, as the two giggled about yelling words about endless suffering at an enemy.

On the plus side, at the very least to Thomas, the two were getting along. It reminded him of the camaraderie that he saw out there the few times he did see one of the goddesses fight.

Thomas closed his eyes a moment to remember, and sighed. He was missing the others already.

On the way to Haneda City, they came across a large group of pesky little pixelvaders, who tried to make up for their small size with sheer numbers. A bit of "Eternal Suffering!" later, the remaining pixelvaders scurried away, with the CPUs doing their victory poses. Thomas just bit his lower lip and looked ahead.

"We're close to the city now," Thomas remarked, as they came across another part of the firewall, and stopped. He looked up at the electricity sizzling along the 'sky' and grimaced. It was just like the last time near Narita Village.

"The firewall's in the way, aw, what a jerk," Plutia pouted, referring to the wall as an actual person.

Uzume grinned, and stretched her arms, cracking her knuckles, "Alright! This is where I come in! Stand back and let the veteran CPU show you how it's done!"

Thomas sighed a little, as he once again went to grab the tome from his inventory, looking again to the page with the instructions on it. He glared at the weird instructions in the strange 'language' that he could not read the last time to see if it was just his eyes playing tricks. Unfortunately for him, it was still in the wacky symbols and scribbles he could not figure out.

Uzume transformed into Orange Heart once more, and Plutia ooed as she waited for the dramatic moment, as though she was watching a fancy ritual or play. Orange Heart held out her arm and called out the strange glowing energy from the last time they broke down the wall, and waited. The energy soon shot at the wall and then, well, nothing happened. There was a few seconds to make sure it wasn't a delayed reaction but sure enough, there was no hole.

"Uhhh, open sesame?" Uzume exclaimed, trying to urge the wall to open at some point now. Any time. The wall still crackled with electricity, ignoring her phrase.

"Abracadabra!" Uzume continued, thrusting her open palm out. No response. "Hocus locus! Pesto chango! Izzy wheezy! Shazammo! Mecca lecca hi, hi diddily ho! Bibbidi-bobbidi-"

"Stop. Please stop. It's not working," Thomas interrupted Uzume before she kept going, checking through the page.

"Why won't Uzume break the wall this time?" Orange Heart pouted, looking disappointed in herself.

"Hold on," Thomas looked some more, as Plutia peeked over his shoulder, "It says that in some cases, the wall becomes more resistant over time, or when pieces of it have been broken. In such a case, more energy is needed to break it."

"So, how do we get more energy?" Uzume asked.

"Well, uh, I think we might need more faith, but there isn't a lot of people here, so..." He turned to see Plutia still looking over his shoulder, and said, "Or we can get someone else to help?"

Plutia tilted her head at Thomas, wondering what he was thinking. "Um, Plutia?" Thomas asked, as Uzume's own thoughts started to churn. She was starting to look a little concerned.

"Yes Tommy? Another question?" Plutia asked sweetly.

"Actually, yes, can you -" Thomas held up the tome over towards Plutia, and pointed out the weird symbols, "Can you read this, by any chance?"

"Hmmm? Well, those are weird pictures but... oh! That's how it is done, huh? That looks like fun! You want me to help out Uzume?" Plutia was glad to get what Thomas was getting at. Orange Heart, however, was sweating bullets. Figuratively, of course.

"Yes. Wait! Before you do that, excuse me," Thomas stopped Plutia for a while, putting the tome away in his inventory, and walking rather quickly several steps away from both Plutia and Uzume. When he finally thought he had enough distance, he turned around, and gave two thumbs up, "Alright Plutia! Whenever you're ready!"

Uzume's eyes widened at Thomas' rather blatant cowardice, "What? Tomsy! What do you think you're do-" But no sooner could she finish her sentence then the sound of a transforming Plutia confirmed her suspicions.

Iris Heart was quick to go right up to a trembling Orange Heart, "You know, I didn't quite get a good look at you when you were like this, Uzume. I must say, I like what I see."

"P-P-P-P-Plutsy..." Orange Heart was already looking rather pale as Iris Heart stroke a finger across Uzume's chin.

"Ooh, don't be like that," Iris Heart said with a smile that would belie any intentions she had, "I'm not going to do anything harsh. Besides, we have a job to do, do we not?"

Uzume could only nod, as Plutia continued, "Good girl. Now, follow my lead, and we'll teach wall a good lesson not to mess with us CPUs. You'd like that, right?" The purple-haired goddess outstretched her other hand, as she slowly grabbed one of Uzume's hands, "Here. We'll do this together, as CPUs of Planeptune. Don't worry," She leaned in closer, teasing with a whisper, "I won't let go."

Uzume followed, meekly, the two holding out their free hands, and produced the same energy from before. This time, the strength of both CPUs seemed to be enough, as a hole emerged in the part of the wall, and eventually spread to break yet another barrier, leaving the path to Haneda City open.

"As expected, nothing can match with our strength," Iris Heart said with a sneer, before she turned to Uzume, "Well, that was fun. I'll be seeing you later, Lady Orange Heart." With one last, but still worrisome, smile, Iris Heart reverted back to her sleepy human form, and she yawned.

Thomas walked back in, glancing at the sky before looking to the two, "It worked. Nicely done, Uzume, Plutia! Now we can get into the city." He smiled to Plutia, putting on a nice front, "We'll find a nice spot to take a nap and then continue our way to Planeptune."

"Hmm, I'd like that," Plutia smiled happily, "Hehe, I did a good job, right?"

"Sure did, Plutia," Thomas nodded, "I thank you for helping us through this!"

"Hehe," Plutia giggled, letting go of a still-stunned Orange Heart, before turning and heading down the road again, glancing a little at Uzume and Thomas, "I'll look on ahead!"

"Good idea," Thomas admitted, thinking Plutia wanted to leave for a bit so Uzume can 'recover', "Don't go too far off. We'll be with you shortly."

"O-kayyyyyy!" Plutia said sleepily before continuing on.

Orange Heart, eventually coming to her senses, transformed back; however, she was still a little off, "Uhhhh..."

Thomas, looking at Uzume with sympathy, bowed himself deeply, "For you to do all of this, Uzume... you are clearly one of the strongest and bravest CPUs I have ever met. For that, I salute you." He gave a quick salute, before turning himself to follow Plutia.

Uzume blinked, her cheeks flaring at the mix of emotions she has, "Th-thanks! ... Wait! Tomsy! You freakin' coward! I have a sense to bop you on the head for that! You hear me? ... Jackass."

Uzume resigned herself, drooping her shoulders, and slowly followed the others. She wasn't sure what to make of all of this. All she knew was this was just a, rather odd, series of events for her.

"For Gamindustri. This is for Gamindustri," Uzume repeated to herself.

What awaits Uzume next chapter? Who knows? Well, I know what happens, but I'm trying to tease the next chapter for all of you. Hmmm, oh hey, you know what a Neptunia fan-fiction actually needs? More Nep. So yeah, stay tuned, and maybe we'll get some Nep! Hopefully! No, really, Neptune, you'll be in somehow. I'll find a means! Please, stop poking me with that wooden sword! Wait, is that a giant popcicle? Gah!