Disclaimer: *looks at last chapter's update date and the mention of a possible week delay two months ago* "Well Fu-" (THIS is why it is such a good thing I don't own these series...)
AN- Hey guys, sorry about the huge as all hell delay. Hopefully I'll be back on track for real this time. Any how, let's get some stuff out of the way in regards to this chapter and some other plans I have coming in the future. I apologize if anything SEEMS OOC. It was not intentional and really more or less me being unsure about it. If it sticks out too much and I get enough comments about it, I might take the time to fix it. Sadly it was a small price to pay (Though I'm pretty sure can I fix it, just a matter of getting this thing up and going to get my steam really pumping again) to get this thing going again. Well, here's to some (hopefully) more fun times down the road to come!- Oh wait, almost forgot to mention the other part, my bad. I have plans to start actually updating the bio in the next chapter or two. Things to look forward on it will include these wonderful items:
-an actual next chapter status
-various plot bunnies for possible future stories (that anyone can feel free to use, just send me a link!)
-polls for which story to write next (not anytime soon as I still have a few arcs planned for this one... though IF I start doing multiple stories it could be sooner... and yes, I CAN be that indecisive at times)
and maybe more if I happen to think of it. I'll be sure to announce when this starts up in one of my upcoming chapters.
(TWO YEARS LATER: FU-!)-Let's hope this doesn't happen...
Edit: just fixed an accident that had Blanc insulting herself... DAMN MY IDIOCY!
Blanc was starting to settle down when Neptune came rushing into her office with a worried expression," Hey there Blanc, ya seen my sister yet!? Please tell me I haven't missed her!" Planeptune's goddess was flitting all about the room looking for any signs of her sister before Blanc could even reply," Woah! Blanc I never knew you were in-" and now the idiot was unconscious for having found Blanc's private book collection. It wasn't that they were inappropriate or anything, but the fact was that this particularly well known series of books were rather embarrassing to be seen with. Blanc was hoping dearly the purplette would forget about her collection of "Ichigo Panic 1000%". She would never hear the end of it otherwise. As such thoughts went through her mind she went about finding a new hiding place for her secret collection. Just as she finished and was beginning to move the idiot goddess, Mina walked in on them in a rather compromising position with Blanc's back to her and Neptune's face obscured by Blanc. Not a word was uttered and the only warning she got that someone had seen this awkward moment was the slamming of the office door. She then promptly dropped Neptune on the floor and went storming after the witness to find Mina. Anger was etched into her face.
"Ah, My Lady, good to see you," the scholarly oracle greeted her goddess nervously knowing that she was fooling no one.
"That was a misunderstanding and never happened. Clear?" Blanc ordered quietly while backing it up with the glare. Mina nodded timidly," Good, now come and help me get that purple haired nutcase off the floor before she regains consciousness."
About five minutes later, Neptune was sleeping on a couch in another room and Mina was standing next to Blanc now understanding that she had in fact been mistaken earlier since the rough manner she handled Neptune with, especially all of those accidents where she ended up hitting Neptune's head on something on the way, was rather violent for a lover. Neptune must have found her Lady's secret collection. She would never even admit she knew about that because she was sure it would be her on a couch with multiple head injuries instead of Neptune. In any case, it was past the time for them to get back to the emergency on hand and so she nervously addressed it," My Lady, we might have a small problem."
Blanc was already able to tell she wasn't going to like this," What would that be?"
"I can't find Ranma on the Basilicom's grounds," the oracle answered grimly.
"I should have known," Blanc reacted with a sigh," and Rom and Ram?"
"I left them in their room with guards to watch over them," Mina stated as she relaxed. Blanc nodded in satisfaction as she left the room.
"I want you and Neptune guarding the twins," She ordered as she left. If she knew that bitch, they or Uni will be her next target. Ranma shouldn't be in immediate danger unless thundertits finds… him alone. With that in mind, she made her way out of the Basilicom to track down the red haired goddess.
Ranma was on her way to the guild to work out her frustrations on some monsters. True she may not be allowed to use any of the share energy for now, but that did not mean she couldn't beat down monsters the good old fashioned way. It really angered her to know she no longer could safely use any of her more advanced techniques because the ki for them had all been replaced by share energy. Which seemed to be unstable for her, the strange part was that it didn't feel all that unstable until the incident at the courtyard. Whatever the cause, she could not fault the goddess of Lowee for ordering her to not use her powers. They knew more about this kind of stuff, and if they said she could cripple herself, Ranma was going to listen. Being crippled was a serious matter for a martial artist after all.
As Ranma made her way down the road, a strange girl ran into her and fell down. The girl looked young with brown hair and a blue dress. She also seemed to have a thing for rabbits if the large Lowee styled hat with bunny ears and the general design of her clothes were anything to go by. In a way, the girl seemed to remind her of Broccoli only less scary. Ranma offered a hand to the girl to help her up," Hey, ya ok kid?"
"Gust ok, just in a hurry to the guild," the girl said cheerfully. Ranma looked at the girl curiously.
"Are you putting in a request? I can help with that if ya need," She offered to the girl.
"Really!? You'll help Gust for free?" The girl said enthusiastically as she put her hand out to shake Ranma's to which Ranma accepted," Then it is a deal. By the way, my name is Gust!"
"Ok Gust, well the name's Ranma and I'd be happy to help," the martial artist replied with an all too familiar confident smirk," So what do ya need done?"
"Gust will show you," the bunny girl said as she pulled Ranma away from the guild building and towards the front gate by Ranma's still clasped hand. Ranma followed along without fighting the grip.
"Ok, but are you sure you'll be fine out there on your own?" Ranma asked with a little worry.
"Oh, Gust will be fine, I just needed someone to help me fight," the girl answered with a nod," Gust can handle self."
With that, Ranma was dragged out of Lowee. Sadly, she never noticed the glint in Gust's eyes.
It had been a couple of hours since her last conquest. Vert knew that the next part of her strategy would require some time and planning on her end to pull off, but she also needed to get the next part of the set up done quickly. She had taken her sisters to a nearby village where she had awoken her newest sister. That had been two and a half hours ago. Sadly, Uni seemed a bit more resilient than Nepgear to converting. She was forced to use the shock treatment on the poor dear as the consoling method was proven ineffective. This treatment, however, had proven highly effective due to the girl having feelings for Nepgear. It had only taken six more hard resets like the one used to capture her before she finally fell into the fold. That had been about an hour and a half ago. After giving the girl her orders for the next phase, the group split off to each take part in preparing for the siege to come. That uncouth girl of the north won't know what hit her!
Linda was having a bad day. She was running low on funds since the fall of ASIC and was getting tired of the damn rat. To make things worse, she was having trouble selling the now worthless chips since it was spreading through out the net that they no longer worked. It was really stressing her out that things had gone so badly for her. She was especially pissed off with that bastard that sent her flying. Things such as they were, she decided that she would blow off some steam with her favorite pastime. After she cleared her head a little and let off some stress, she would sit down and figure out what to do next with her life. There was that one island a little ways off the coast. They usually had job openings. With that in mind, she set out to have some fun. She would never have suspected the fun that was to be had however.
Gust's plan to get to the cause of her recent failure had worked perfectly. She was worried when the notice was released the previous night that her target was in fact a goddess that would be staying at the Basilicom for the time being. She had hoped it had been something of a hoax since it was accompanied with a ban on cats within the Basilicom grounds and a request for all cats to be kept out of public sight as a pubic safety warning in the same article online. Those hopes had been dashed when she bore witness to the crazy goddess jumping about on the pylons that morning. She even considered giving up after realizing it was true. That is, for a total of five seconds. Then it struck her that this was a huge potential. This was a new and unknown goddess. There were a lot of advantages to be had with befriending her. She could practically taste the fresh carrots and count the credits already. However, she would need more info on her and the best way to do that was to befriend her. The problem was meeting Ranma. She still had not come up with a good way to do so since Ranma was locked up in the Basilicom. It was then that her target left the gates a little after a mysterious explosion. It was while she tailed the girl that Gust had formulated her little plan.
Since then, they had left the city and were now currently hunting monsters for ingredients she could sell. While it galled her that she wouldn't be able to use them herself since her equipment went up in smoke and she'd need a license to get proper replacements, she would have to make do turning these commonly in demand supplies to the guild after she and Ranma split up. Now that they had been at this a while, it was time to get on with the next part of the plan.
"So Ranma, is it true you're a new goddess?" She asked as they took a break. Now it was time to collect info. After cringing at the reminder of that unfortunate affair, the goddess in question shrugged.
"I guess so, not that I wanted to be. Just one moment I'm fighting alongside the others against that deity of destruction chick and the next thing I know I'm in pain likely to die. Still not quite sure on what happened though," the red haired girl explained. Gust wasn't quite sure what to make of the story as it was. Apparently Ranma had fought alongside the goddesses in their last battle against ASIC and somehow ascended. This made no sense however as she had never heard of something like that happening in the records. You can't just be human and out of nowhere become a goddess. The world wasn't supposed to work like that.
At that moment, an older woman in Planeptune known as Rei Ryghts sneezed. She didn't know why she had sneezed, but it couldn't have been a good sign. She must have been careless with her health lately and getting a cold. She truly was worthless and pathetic. As it was, she decided that she was going to have to go straight home from work for now. She didn't want to become sick after all. With that in mind, her thoughts eventually went back to her useless goddess. The purple goddess was proof enough that they didn't need a goddess's leadership and protection anymore. Maybe she should start protesting. Oh well, that will have to wait.
Blanc was beginning to worry. She had spent the last couple of hours hunting down the errant goddess and what news she did have was not promising. Ranma had last been seen leaving the city in the company of a former alchemist who had recently been charged with criminal negligence. She still could not believe anyone could be dumb enough to perform experimental alchemy within city limits. Not only that, the fool girl had been attempting to replicate Nep Bull of all things. There was a reason none of the other goddesses had sought to undermine Neptune's saving grace after all. That numbskull had let slip, on occasion, some of the secrets of that highly valued drink. Put simply, Planeptune was the only nation in Gamindustri that would produce the stuff since that idiot Neptune was the only goddess irresponsible enough to allow factories that could take out over half a city if they suffered an accident. Seriously, the drink was several times more volatile than nitroglycerin until the stuff was complete. Ever since that discovery, the other nations had been putting in new safety features to protect against the imminent explosion. Histoire was relieved by everyone's efforts. Though it was still a mystery how Neptune got that stuff past her in the first place.
Blanc had to admit that the girl had actually come close to uncovering the secrets of Nep Bull. She even would have succeeded if not for whatever had caused the accident. Not that anything would come of it as Blanc would have brought down the ban hammer on any company that tried to make that stuff in her borders. Still, this was a highly dangerous situation. Ranma was outside the city, unprotected, and in the company of a dangerous individual with a reputation for her business practices. Put simply, this smelled like a set up. Did that bitch actually pull a fast one on me?
As she considered this while leaving the city, she heard a voice call out to her. It took a few seconds before Blanc realize it was coming from the sky. She looked up to find Uni in her HDD form flying towards her. Shit! What the hell Noire!? Was one of many thoughts running through Blanc's mind as the CPU candidate of Lastation neared. Now she had all of the potential targets in her country and no additional help. She was going to have to hope Noire was close behind.
"Hey Blanc, Have you seen Nepgear yet? Is she ok?" called out Uni as she landed in front of the Goddess of the North. There was no sight of the older sister anywhere. Blanc was not happy.
"Why are you here? Your sister declined to give aid earlier," She asked the candidate in annoyance. Something felt off.
"Why wouldn't I be here!? Nepgear is in trouble! This is a matter that concerns all of us!" Uni yelled back in defiance. Whatever seemed off about the girl, Blanc could not tell. In any case, it was time to put this idiocy to rest.
"Yes, it is a matter that concerns all of us. Especially you candidates!" Blanc began trying to sound understanding but ended up halfway between the attempt and growling," Let me spell it out for you, you're all targets in this mess and I don't have the time or manpower to deal with protecting another target. Now if you want to help out, go to the Basilicom and help watch over the twins."
The girl seemed to settle down a little at this and nodded in agreement," Ok, but what will you be doing?"
"Ranma left the city a while ago, I have to go find him," Blanc yelled back as she started to head out to the nearest hunting grounds for the guild. Once Blanc was out of sight, Uni deactivated HDD and pulled out her cell phone and turned off the speaker function.
"Did you get that sis?"
As Ranma and Gust made their way back to Lowee with a good stock of materials to be taken to the guild, Gust could not help but wonder if this Ranma was really a goddess or not. During the entire day, they had avoided any of the usual large threats that goddesses were known to handle and stuck to fights that were c-rank at best. During which, Ranma never seemed to use any power whatsoever. Instead he (-Don't know why she insists on being a guy. She's got a body Gust would kill for!) had kept to using basic attacks. Though, Gust had to admit that those were still interesting to see. The way Ranma fought had seemed to be a highly technical fighting style compared the punches and kicks used by most martial artists. Gust may not know much about that stuff, but she had seen some of the on the fields and had watched the one get her butt kicked by Lady White Heart in that dreaded feed. Now that Gust thought about it, Ranma had used some powers in that feed and that was apparently before he became a goddess.
"Hey Ranma!" Gust called out curiously to which Ranma turned her head and nodded in response," Are you really a goddess? Not that Gust doesn't trust you, but you never seem to use any abilities. Do you have a skill seal affect or something? Gust has a remedy for that!"
Ranma took in the question and thought about how to best answer that as she tilted her head back in thought and began to scratch the base of her pigtail before answering," Well ya see, did ya hear about the explosion in the courtyard?" Gust nodded. She had actually seen it after all," Well, that's why. I lost my ki and gained this share energy. Seems something's wrong with it however. So I'm not supposed to use it for the time being."
Gust took that in for a moment and considered what it could possibly mean. Guess there are problems for a human becoming a goddess after all. After coming to that brilliant conclusion, she nodded to herself sagely and was about to say something when she was interrupted by a rather familiar voice and unhappy voice," Hey you! Step away from Ranma right now!"
Both of them stopped and focused on the flying figure of the goddess of Lowee. Gust quickly dashed several meters away from Ranma as Ranma yelled out," Hey Blanc! What's up?"
"What's up? We are in the midst of a damn war with that bitch from Leanbox and you, one of her targets, are prancing about in the open with a known deviant who caused a large amount of property damage recently and has a reputation for her greed!" Lady White Heart spat back venomously," Now get your ass over here so I can get you to safety before that maniacal bitch shows up to kidnap you like she did to Nepgear!"
Gust was stunned. The goddesses were at war again. This shortly after the last incident and already a new one had started. Already she was formulating a plan to cash in on this. But first, she needed to make sure she was in on this," Gust can help! Gust is friends wi-"
"No! I already know about your reputation. You're likely to sell us out to that cow. Now get out of here!" Blanc yelled back in anger. Truth was that she was already getting a serious migraine from all the lunacy. The past few days had already done a number on her psyche and Vert's madness was not helping. Nor was the fact that Ranma was not listening to her and was now standing between Blanc and Gust.
"Now hold up! I've been with her all day, and while I admit she does seem to share some traits with someone I know back at home, I'm confident she has more morals than that person," Ranma declared as she stood up for her new friend who was now staring in shock at Ranma to which Ranma turned her head to smirk at the bunny girl," What, you didn't think I wouldn't notice the fact that you guided me away from the guild, you never told me the specifics of your quest, or the fact that we gathered the resources for a number of different quests. After dealing with Nabiki for so long, this was an easy one to spot."
"But why?" was all Gust could say as she continued to stare and feel a little guilty. Blanc actually started to cool down as she landed and approached the two. She didn't release her HDD however. It would be better to be ready for an ambush right now than not. She was however interested in seeing how this would play out. If this went well in the end, Blanc would like to know the extent of Ranma's insight. If Ranma really was to be her candidate, it would be good to know.
"Why go along with it? I didn't need the money from the quests and was only looking to help out some folks while I blew off some steam," Ranma began while maintaining her signature smirk as she looked to Gust. Then she looked back to Blanc as she dropped the smirk and cradled the back of her head with a shrug," As to why I think of you as a friend? Well, it wasn't bad hanging out with ya and you DID pull your own weight in helping get the job done. Ya see, that last part was a very important distinction for me. Nabiki would have never lifted a finger to help unless she had to and even then only to get someone else who could do the job while she went about scamming others. I just thought that having someone like you around could be helpful. You seem a lot more trustworthy."
Blanc sighed in exasperation at Ranma's naïveté," Ranma, that only means she is more likely to drive a dagger in your back herself."
"I don't think she will. She's been trying to be friends with me all day. I offered to do this alone, but she came along and actually helped in earnest. She even offered me some of her medicine when she thought I had an affliction. That's more effort than some would put into making friends and more than many have made in my life," Ranma replied while holding Blanc's gaze. Gust simply looked to her feet during all of this. Her face was hidden by her hair.
"That just means she wants to get close to you to use you," Blanc pointed out calmly. She was really interested in where this would go. She had been paying close attention to Gust through all of this. Ranma grunted in agreement before responding.
"True, but I get the feeling she'll never betray her friends. Having someone like that around on your side can be very useful," Ranma answered with her smirk back in full force and oozing confidence. Gust looked up and actually had tears in her eyes much to Blanc's surprise. Whether they were genuine or an act was yet to be seen however, but Blanc had to admit, Ranma seemed to be natural at finding and setting off flags. Unfortunately, Blanc had a feeling this ability was quite indiscriminate.
As for Ranma, she was being quite sincere. She didn't catch on immediately but had figured out her new friend's deceit a while ago. However, Ranma felt that this person was truly a much better person to have around than Nabiki. Though that wasn't saying much as Ranma was certain that it was Nabiki who had ruined her own sister's wedding for a profit. In spite of that bad habit of hers to betray others over money, Nabiki was clever and very helpful from time to time. Gust seemed to have that same clever trait and business like manner. However, Ranma was almost certain that while the girl may use her, she would never truly betray her. That difference was all Ranma could ever need to consider this girl a friend.
Blanc took what was said in and decided it was for the best to let Ranma have her way on this. So long as Ranma didn't trigger a damn death flag she was fine with it. With this resolve in mind Blanc relaxed and finally powered down believing there would be no ambush for the moment," Fine, but you had better be ready to accept responsibility for what comes of this."
At this, Gust cheered up a bit and actually tackle-hugged Ranma while enthusiastically thanking her.
Elsewhere Vert was preparing for the first true battle in her war. So far her first two conquests had taken little effort to pull off and she had gotten wind a little while ago that things had come along even better than she had hoped. The only real problem had been the lack of time. Too many pieces had fallen right into place too quickly. However, she had made it and the trap was set. Vert smiled as her awaited guest of honor showed up.
Mina had been watching over the twins and been hard pressed to keep them in their rooms. She had actually been relieved when Neptune had awoken and helped out by playing with the twins. It had been comical to see the CPU wake up in confusion and walk around in a daze. It would seem Blanc had succeeded in giving the purplette a slight case of amnesia as she didn't even remember leaving for Lowee. However, the real relief had been when Uni showed up to help out. Uni had been an unexpected surprise since her big sister had refused to give aid at this time. Though now that she thought about it, the candidates did seem to be closer than their older sisters. In any case, Uni had been a big help and had even offered to go get some drinks and snacks for everyone.
Sadly, things just weren't meant to remain peaceful. Uni came rushing back with a tray in her hands and a guard at her side.
"Oracle! We have an emergency! We just received word at the south gate-"
Ranma, Gust, and Blanc were making their way back on foot and were just coming into view of the southern gate when it happened. An explosion erupted from beneath the group and scattered them. Ranma and Blanc had been the first to recover. Unfortunately, Gust had not been as tough as the two goddesses and now lies unconscious. Ranma quickly rushed to her aid as Blanc transformed into an utterly pissed off Lady White Heart. A laugh filled the air at first but was cut off as a certain green goddess took note of the harm caused by her partner.
"Now that was not how this was supposed to go. You were supposed to have set it off sooner. Look what you've done now," She calmly scolded Nepgear who was holding a detonator. Nepgear merely shrugged as she tossed the detonator away as she silently mouthed an "oops" to her partner.
"You BITCH!" White Heart screamed furiously with her dark expression and glowing red eye. She was unbelievably pissed off as her axe materialized in her hands.
"Oh my, I am truly sorry for that. However let's get down to business," Vert responded as she went HDD and brought her spear to bear," Give me my little sister and I can be on my way."
Blanc quivered in rage as she hefted her axe," Oh, I'll give you something all right you damned utter brained piece of shit!"
As White heart began her charge toward Green Heart, Nepgear took a few timid steps back from the fight and Vert readied her weapon," Oh well, so much for diplomacy."
With that the battle between the two goddesses began. Vert used her spearhead to redirect Blanc's axe chop to the side and followed through with a twist of her waist to bring the blunt end crashing down against Blanc's exposed backside. It connected with a crunch as the axe head buried itself in the ground. Vert grinned in satisfaction for landing the first blow of this battle only to be caught off guard in her hubris by a counter attack of Blanc's own. She had used the force of Vert's attack coupled with that of her charge to swing about the grounded axe to deliver a kick to the other goddess's ribs. Vert was sent flying a few meters before she regained control in midair. At the same time Blanc ripped her own weapon out of the Earth. Both women stared at one another determinedly as they gathered share energy into their respective weapons.
During this, Ranma checked on Gust while trying to keep an eye on the traitorous candidate in case she tried to interfere in the fight.
The goddesses charged at one another. Their weapons were glowing with the power of faith. Vert shot forth far faster than Blanc and struck a direct blow on the small goddess that redirected Blancs Momentum back towards the ground. The white goddess came crashing down and skid across the ground. She had dug a rent in it. Vert continued to press her advantage by using her speed to chase after her downed foe with a mighty thrust of her still glowing spear. An explosion rocked the surrounding area as the ground gave way to the force of the blow. Light filled everyone's vision. On the heels of the first thunderous roar not even a split second later came another. Finally as the light died down, Blanc was found kneeling and panting while leaning on her giant axe for support at the bottom of a massive crater. Vert, unexpectedly was a bit further away at the end of a newly formed ravine in much the same state. Blanc actually took the full force of Vert's blow just so she could do much the same in turn when dodging and blocking would no longer be possible. They breathed heavily as they looked at one another.
"My oh my… that was quite unexpected, but… I should have known better," Vert commented between deep breaths. She had not meant to go all out like this, but she had become a bit vindictive when the little upstart got her in the ribs. Not only that, but her plan had been put to risk by this one mistake. Oh well, this should be good enough. Taking a moment she pulled out a cell phone and sent a quick text.
"The hell ya doing!?" demanded an exhausted but still furious Blanc. Vert just ignored her as she got a text back for a moment before sighing.
"Well, this is bad. It would seem I made a mistake," Vert admitted tiredly.
"Ya damn right! Now stand still while I come over there to lob your fucking head off!" Blanc growled out as she stood fully up and hefted her axe once more.
"Oh no, I would suggest you get to your sisters now. It would seem the plan to capture them already started," Vert said a touch bashfully as she put her weapon away," Oh and thanks again for the help Nepgeo!" She called to her partner who now began run like hell as Vert fled the scene with all the strength she could muster. Ranma and Blanc just stayed where they were stunned for a few seconds before they began to panic and rush towards the city. Just as they were heading to the new problem, Purple Heart arrived on the scene.
"Is my sister still here?" She asked.