Chapter 4: The Soul of Fight
"I am so tired, Vert... Should we really be avoiding work everyday like this?" Nepgear asked, while traversing back to her room with Vert.
"There is no need to worry, we have been at war with ASIC so long, we do deserve a break once in awhile," Vert assured, even though it had been over a week of "a break" for the two of them now.
"I don't know, we've avoided work for quite awhile already..."
At first, Nepgear was fine with taking a small break, especially after a long fight with ASIC and what appeared to be a heroic sacrifice by the CPUs to seal off the Deity of Sin for good. Fortunately, the inauguration ceremony for the CPU candidates to take over was interrupted by the timely return of the CPUs before peace was restored in Gamindustri. However, having spent a little over a week with Vert, Nepgear had realised that even she could not get away from doing work for so long as Histoire would notice, and of course she also really began to worry about what Neptune was doing since the elder sister was always passed out and exhausted when she came home.
As Nepgear and Vert approached the room however, they heard voices from inside, and they both slowed down. There would usually not be anybody in Neptune and Nepgear's room, but with the lights on and the door not completely closed, the two were curious to see what was going on.
"Hey, it's all right. We just have to calm down and put this mistake behind us," Said Neptune's voice from inside the room, which really interested Nepgear and Vert now, knowing there was somebody else in that room. Of course, they also heard the "mistake" part too. What was it that was a mistake? Or maybe something scandalous was occurring!
"Yeah, I am sorry to cause you trouble, but thanks for being there," Chika's voice said.
"All right, so now all we gotta do is-ow, something got caught in my eye."
"Are you all right? Let me take a look."
When Nepgear and Vert was at the door and peeked in, they saw Chika holding Neptune's face close to her own, and they both tensed up. From the angle they were looking at, it was very suggestive. This was surely a scandal of some sort! Seeing such an unusual (or even vulgar) sight, Vert's mind went blank. How could something like this happen? She had only been gone for a little over a week with Nepgear, and now Chika was... No, Vert did not want to believe what she was seeing, it just did not make any sense whatsoever. It was true that because Vert never had a sister that she opted to spend some time with Nepgear, but to see this... it was simply unforgivable.
Vert still had her camera from when she was photo shooting with Nepgear and took a quick picture of the scene quietly, before backing away. Nepgear had backed away at the same time, not wanting to be caught eavesdropping after seeing that scene inside the room.
"Vert?" Nepgear asked, unsure of what to make of what they had seen.
"I don't know, this... cannot be!" Vert said out loud, still trying to take everything in. Before this, Vert had been rather calm and carefree, but seeing Chika like that aroused a sense of... jealousy? Or perhaps it was just disbelief, as Vert always knew that Chika does everything is for her. Yet, all Vert saw in that moment was something she had not expected, and not wanting to cause a huge scene immediately, she excused herself as she began to return to Leanbox.
Nepgear had tried to plead with Vert not to do anything rash, because it could be a misunderstanding. By that time though, Vert already had an unusual grim expression on her face set out to rectify the situation on her own, which worried Nepgear.
Thankfully Neptune and Chika did not hear the two outside with their shocked reaction. The evening had begun now, and so Chika decided to head back home early today since she had her brief moment of insanity that lead her to retrieving the dangerous artefact. Chika left the dangerous artefact with Neptune in the meantime, as she trusted the CPU not to carelessly use it like she had planned while they would properly dispose of it tomorrow.
For the rest of the day, there was an awkward silence in both Planeptune and Leanbox. The one time where the CPUs are finally with their close ones, there was silence due to the scene that occurred in Planeptune, even though half of the parties were unaware of what the other saw. Still, nobody wanted to speak up about what happened in that room, and so the day ended quietly.
Next morning, Neptune awoken a bit earlier than usual, and to her surprise, Nepgear was still sleeping in the room as well. Not that Neptune would wake up her sister for now, knowing that Vert would might be here soon or something. As Neptune got ready to face another day, she noticed a letter mail addressed to her nearby, and decided to check it out. The first thing Neptune saw when she opened it was a photo, and it was a photo of Chika holding her close, and from the angle of which the photo was taken, looked really suggestive.
"(Ummm, this is...!)" Neptune's thoughts trailed off, rather appalled that somebody had taken a picture of the scene, especially at that angle. Still, even for Neptune, it was pretty obvious what happened by now: Vert and Nepgear came back from whatever they were doing during the day, and had caught the slightly opened door and peeked in the room at a bad time. Therefore, she understood why Nepgear was sort of acting a little weird at times last night. Sighing, Neptune then looked behind at the written part of the letter, and even though it has no sender, it was way too obvious who wrote it, especially the green ink.
Neptune,
I demand to know what this picture is all about, meet me at the open fields of Leanbox
Included in the bottom half of the letter was a very poorly drawn map of Leanbox with a red circle in the space in between the capital city and Underverse.
Before heading out to Leanbox (Neptune had planned to go to Leanbox as usual anyway), she made a quick call to Chika first. Knowing that Vert was likely out of the Leanbox basilicom already, Neptune could freely speak to Chika and explained what was going on.
"I'll be honest here, one of us might seriously get hurt..." Neptune said, holding onto her phone tightly.
"I am sorry for being careless, I didn't know Lady Vert would just happen to be there and cause so much trouble for you," Chika responded, clearly in a panic at what she possibly could have caused.
"No worries. It was not something we had control over, but I may as well try to talk to Vert while she's after me anyway, so wish me luck!"
"Wait, Neptune!" Chika pleaded, knowing she could probably defuse the situation before it got out of hand, now that she knows why Vert was being a bit reserved last night.
It was too late though, the call had already ended. Chika slowly put down her phone and wondered what she should do. It was a poor misunderstanding and an unfortunate one at that. On one hand, it looks like her Vert had not completely forgotten about her and was in fact completely jealous for her to the point of ready to headhunt Neptune. However, on the other hand, Chika had formed a solid friendship with Neptune and would rather not have a slight misunderstanding to leave Vert and/or Neptune seriously hurt. Neptune left out the details on where she was meeting Vert, so Chika had no way to directly intervene. Without much time to track either CPU, her thoughts raced while she tried to think of a solution, and finally she picked up the phone to make another call, seeing as how Vert is busy right this moment, it was her only chance.
Neptune arrived at Leanbox, and with the wooden box strapped behind her back. After all, she and Chika agreed not to do anything unnecessary, so after whatever confrontation with Vert, she would at least meet with Chika to ensure this dangerous object's destruction. The sun was out in full force, and Leanbox's open fields glowed bright green with a slight breeze, a perfectly calm day that can soothe even the most disturbed souls... except if the souls in question happened to be Neptune or Vert that is.
Going through a small bit of trees, Neptune arrived at an open field that was surrounded by trees, this is definitely the place that the letter or Vert spoke of. Loosening the ropes to the box, Neptune set it down on the side and walked forward, knowing that Vert was definitely here.
"Hellooooo Vert!" Neptune called out, standing still while waiting for the Leanbox CPU to show herself.
Surely enough, Green Heart appeared from above and just a short distance in front of Neptune. Seeing as how Vert was already transformed into Green Heart, Neptune knew that this was not going to be easy, but even so, she still had to try.
"Hello Neptune, I suppose you figured out who sent the letter..." Green Heart said, smiling her false smile.
"Yeah, well... I think the green ink was pretty obvious you know. But that's not the point, please listen to me, you are definitely misunderstanding things," Neptune pleaded, hoping Vert would at least listen.
"I am quite aware of what has been going on, while I had Nepgear with me, you decided to sneak into my basilicom, take my shares, take my oracle, and even played my video games!"
"No no no no, that's all wrong, I never took any shares, and I had something in my eye last night, I was not taking Chika away! But... your video games were quite fun, which is why Leanbox has been doing fine."
"Do you expect me to believe that? I saw the shares decrease for Leanbox and increase for Planeptune... Nepgear was with me, so only you could have done that."
"(Ugh! It's true that I completed those quests, but doesn't Verty know that I helped Chika stabilise Leanbox with shares when it was actually falling apart!?)" Neptune thought, seeing as how Green Heart is pretty much set in hunting her down.
"I would not take these matters lightly Neptune, besides... you even planned to take Chika away," Green Heart taunted.
"Guess you really won't listen huh... I figured as much, prepare yourself..." Neptune responded, unusually serious before a white pillar of light engulfed her and transforming into Purple Heart.
The sword and drill arm of the Goddesses clashed, then both of them retreating a step, both of them intending to win this fight. Words were of no use here, but Purple Heart intends to prove her point to Green Heart, while the Leanbox CPU wants to straight out beat the other to submission.
Rushing forward, Purple Heart swung her sword, only that Green Heart jumped out of the way and kicked down. Raising her arm, Purple Heart blocked the kick and also parried the drill arm flying downwards at her with her sword. Quickly reacting with a counter-attack of her own, Purple Heart rushed forward with Cross Combo, sending Green Heart into the air with her hits.
Green Heart rebounded right away and shot her Sylhet Spear, knocking Purple Heart down. Without missing a moment, Purple Heart had gotten right back up to defend again, but noticed Green Heart had already snuck behind her and unleashed her Rainy Ratnapura strikes directly on her, causing pain from the back. Purple Heart did not falter and immediately turned around and performed her Critical Edge at Green Heart, who also took the direct hit after just recovering from the last skill.
With the distance between the two of them again, they stared down one another, ready to make the next move. Both of them moved at the same time forward, and clashing their weapons created a small space in between them, where then Purple Heart striked with her sword that barely grazed Green Heart, immediately, Green Heart followed up with her quick strikes of Phosphoressence, knocking back Purple Heart a distance. Knowing that the situation was critical, Purple Heart began to summon her 32-bit Mega Blade, but Green Heart already anticipated this and followed up with a quick strike, forcing Purple Heart to retreat instead.
Green Heart was not done though, as she immediately readied herself again and charged forward at full speed, striking Purple Heart with a spear thrust, and then following it up with multiple thrusts from all directions multiple times. Purple Heart was completely defenceless as she watched Green Heart charge up the final strike of Spiral Break blast her down right into the ground. The attack shattered Purple Heart's sword as she landed painfully on the ground, and while the fall had not caused too much damage, Purple Heart could no longer maintain her HDD form and reverted back.
"(Yep, she's playin for keeps...)" Neptune thought, seeing from the corner of her eye that Green Heart was approaching, and she was all out of options. There was simply no way to get out of this, except for one option that Neptune had, since she did not want to die like this. As Green Heart came near, Neptune readied herself.
"Hmhmhm, did you believe you could actually win?" Green Heart said, thinking victory was all but assured.
"Maybe I can," Neptune replied, half getting up with spin kick to Green Heart, temporarily making the Leanbox Goddess lose balance. With Green Heart's height lowered by just a bit, Neptune charged forward with a knuckle and hit the CPU right in the eye, mainly for causing a distraction. While the CPU was in pain, Neptune quickly retreated backwards.
Neptune was bruised and cut all over, as she could not really run, but instead hobbled to the side of the battlefield where she left her wooden box. Using a small key she had with her, she quickly unlocked the box. Reaching in, she also untied a red string and pushed away the cloth, and then she hesitated. This was not supposed to happen at all, Chika had retrieved this thing out of desperation to get her Vert back, but now... Neptune was in a desperate situation of her own and this was unfortunately her last resort.
Green Heart stopped her advance towards Neptune when she noticed the Planeptune CPU brandishing an eerie rusty old sword, there was something not quite right here. Even Green Heart knew that Neptune would not be stupid enough to use such a fragile looking sword for fighting, but...
"What... is that?"
"The rumoured sword that can take a CPU's life..." Neptune explained, uncharacteristically serious now.
Chika had originally learned of the sword's location by research and scouting, and in a huge fit of jealousy retrieved it with yesterday's Planeptune visit so she can finally get rid of Nepgear... Naturally, with the growing friendship that Chika had with Neptune, she realised that this was a bad idea no matter what and eventually Neptune calmed her down. Ironically, Neptune was hypocritically using this sword now.
"(I am so sorry...)" Neptune directed her thoughts to Chika in her mind, it appeared she was no different than Chika in this way.
Neither Green Heart nor Neptune moved, it was now about whoever hit the other first that would win the battle. Neptune was injured enough that almost any technique from Green Heart would knock her out. On the other hand, just one well precise hit from the cursed sword and it will not matter how fast or strong Vert is, she will die. Slowly side stepping, Neptune and Green Heart stared each other down, neither wanting to mask a rash move with their life on the line.
Finally, Green Heart charged in to try and disarm or at least knock Neptune off her feet, but Neptune simply point the sword straight ahead at Vert, causing enough of a pause from the Leanbox CPU that she retreated in full force instead of moving forward. Naturally, Neptune had no intention of killing Vert, but the threat of the sword was her only deterrence for her own life, yet she feared that if this battle took any longer, she would still lose due to her succumbing to injuries.
"Com'on Verty, what's wrong, why're you afraid all of a sudden?"
"Don't underestimate me, just because you managed to get the bad ending item, that does not mean victory belongs to you."
"Yeah I know, give it your best shot!" Neptune taunted, while charging forward herself and striking the sword downwards, causing Green Heart to retreat again.
"(Well, this sure isn't good at all... I am really hurtin and about to fall, also... I will probably cause a big misunderstanding if somebody walked into this place and saw me using this sword...)" Neptune thought, having started to think of a solution for this fight, as she could very faintly hear voices from somewhere. However, she was not sure if her injuries were making her imagine things or something else, but either way, this fight had to end.
After a brief pause, Green Heart charged forward with high speed, enough that Neptune could not dodge and had to block the attack or counterattack, which were both equally as risky. Though this was exactly what Neptune wanted, and as Green Heart neared, Neptune readied herself, held the sword outwards and... let go. With the sword falling on the ground, Neptune opened her arms wide to welcome the charging Green Heart.
It was at this point that two other people ran into the scene, both Nepgear and Chika had finally arrived. Upon noticing Nepgear, Green Heart then realised that this was not good at all. What would Nepgear say as she appears to be murdering Neptune? It turns out that, just like what she saw yesterday in the room, a misunderstanding...
"Lady Vert!"
"Neptune!"
"(Oh baaaaaaaaad timing...!)" Neptune thought, having confirmed now that she did hear voices and it was not just her imagining things. Yet, she could do nothing to prevent Nepgear and Chika from seeing this one.
The next moment, the eyes of both Nepgear and Chka widened as they saw Green Heart's drill arm pierce and right through Neptune in the stomach. With what strength she had left, Neptune held onto the drill arm and looked Green Heart directly in the eyes. "Hey Vert, I'm sorry if I offended you, but... just listen, Chika was only really concerned for you and Leanbox and that's why I helped out. So... please don't misunderstand... " Neptune finished, and using her diminishing strength, forced Green Heart's drill arm out from her as she fell backwards.
In the next seconds in what seemed to be in slow motion for Neptune, she peered to the left and saw Nepgear and Chika, who were full out screaming or something, but Neptune could not really hear anything as she continued to fall and looked that direction with a smile as she crashed onto the grassy field before everything went all black.