This won't end up like last time.
I cover the distance in no time. With a snap of my wrist, the tip of my right blade was aimed directly for the monster's head. All the fear and anxiety I had from witnessing Chika get struck down was gone now, only stone cold calm remained. Part of my mind told me I needed to worry more about getting her to safety, and that this couldn't take too long else she really gets in trouble. That part was quickly silenced by my heart wanting to enjoy this fight. My earlier words of wanting to make this quick and painless forgotten, I aimed to toy with this thing. There was a slight headache beginning to pound at my temples, but the pain was something I dismissed for the time being. As the tip of my sword flew towards my foe I felt an uneasy feeling, and the circuits on the Moulin Rouge sprung to life. It jumped back and to the side enough that I couldn't recover with my sword enough to hit, but even so a smile crept to my face. From its blind spot, 3 wire spears ripped into the plant. Using another 3, I puncture the stalk more, this time flinging it in the air. All 16 points aimed directly at this defenseless monster, and in sequence, all 16 hit their mark. I make sure not to throw any lethal blows, wanting to see how long it lasts before it tries to cry for help. I start laughing maniacally to the point even Chika would look at me in fear had she been conscious. That thought brought my reason back.
"Oh, Goddess… What am I doing?"
Refocusing on destroying this threat I send one point straight through the flower's bulb, sending it scattering into data. What was different was that this time, the data was red instead of blue, and the circuits seemed to crawl in the air after the body was destroyed. Seeing this occur made an uneasy feeling creep into my mind. If that's what those types of monster's look like when killed, why were the Fenrir still there after that time?
I shake my head to try and clear that thought, taking note how floating from the sky was not 1, but 3 item boxes. Seeing the abundance of petals now I gave a chuckle, one that was full of my true self, not that other side that took over in battle. I leap into the air to collect them quickly and set them in my inventory, while also storing my weapons to free up my hands. For protection heading back to the city, I left 4 wires still out, this way even while carrying Chika I can still fight. Walking back over to her I noticed that she hasn't moved from the spot she landed after taking the blast, but the smoking has subsided and I could tell she was at least still breathing. I thanked the True Goddess a thousand times over for that and bent over to hold her princess style. Had she woken up then she would have first thought I was Vert in a daze finally accepting her advances, and then grow super embarrassed as she most likely have tried to kiss me, only to see someone who vaguely resembles her "little sister" stifling laughter.
However, this sadly never happened. When she was secured in my arms, her own hung downwards limp. The only sound coming from her mouth was shallow breathing and pained moans. Seeing this made me think of how I must have looked while in my coma. For my own heart, but most importantly my sister's still fragile one, please don't follow in my footsteps Chika. I shift my arms to pull her close enough to give a kiss on the forehead, then reset her position to get ready to run. While still in this HDX form, my movement speed has increased exponentially at the cost of losing my wings. Within no time Leanbox came into view. Slowing from my dead sprint into a walk, I start to notice how weak my legs are becoming. My vision started to get blurry a while back, but would always clear back up in a few moments. I jogged through the side streets to avoid being spotted, if anyone saw the Oracle in such a sorry state with someone that only barely looks like their CPU Candidate our Shares would take a huge hit.
When I arrived at the Basilicom with my partner still out cold, I made sure to jump over the walls to avoid running into anyone at the entrance. I went to the back of the building before clearing the towering stone to land in the garden. Luckily, repairs on my damage haven't been started, so I used the hole I blasted through the wall to sneak back into our home without Vert knowing. I slink into our Oracle's room and set Chika down on her bed. I made a quick call to the nurse on staff to come check her out, saying that after getting back from our quest she passed out. Looking over her injured body it was no surprise that some pain began to grow in my chest. I broke my transformation then, but the simple act of doing that seemed to steal all my energy as I needed to hang onto her canopy bed's railings to keep myself up. I brush a flyaway hair that was covering her face and bent over to kiss her forehead once again.
I try to walk out proudly for fighting my fear and completing a quest mainly on my own after being out for a while, but that quickly turned into a stumble and nearly falling on my face in the hall because of my lack of strength. Leaning on the wall, I let out a long sigh. My eyes dropped to the floor and I almost fell asleep right there, had it not been for a certain sister clearing her throat at the end of the hallway and giving me a dry look. Her eyes seemed to drill deep into me, and her posture was that of a stern disciplinarian. I bite my lip knowing that this lecture wasn't going to be an easy one.
"Now what do you think you are doing young lady? Imagine my surprise when I hear reports of a suspicious person running around town with my Oracle of all people and sneaking her way into my home. And on top of that, a certain sister of mine somehow gets into the building without my knowing while I've been in the office working my butt off while monitoring the screens waiting for you 2 to come home. I don't know what happened on this quest of yours, but you are going to be giving me answers Cros, and I won't let you go until you fully explain what the situation is."
I winced at her scolding, but was not surprised. She had spies all over the place, but even I didn't think they would be able to find me the way I was sneaking around. I braced myself to spill everything but as soon as I open my mouth to start speaking to save my butt, a blast of exhaustion hits me, nearly causing me to fall forward, had it not been for the wall and Vert. Looking up at my sister with a darling smile I make light of the situation before taking a nap.
"Well, it's been awhile since you've held me like this sis. Kinda missed it to be honest. While I want to tell you all about what happened, I kinda over did it being a badass main character protecting my party from the evil dungeon boss. I'm super tired so I'm just gonna nap for a bit, or forever."
In true main character fashion, I fall asleep after saying that line, causing overprotective big sis to start shaking me to try and wake me up. The snoring that followed proved to her that I was, in fact, just asleep and not in another coma, so the feeling of being picked up by my big sister sent my consciousness into dream land. I missed this feeling…
My lovely sleep was interrupted by a raking nightmare that forced me to sit up in bed. I must have been experiencing it for a while before waking up since my sheets were strewn about and my body was covered in sweat. Somehow undisturbed, Vert was sitting next to the bed on a chair, laying her head on her arms and was out cold. A bit of drool was coming out of her mouth as she slept, so I grabbed a tissue from the nightstand to clean it up. Apparently she wasn't very asleep because touching her face caused her to jump and let out a large yawn. Letting myself laugh like a girl for once, I put my hand to my mouth to hide some of my beaming smile of seeing her in a way I know no one else besides Chika can see. I place that hand on top of her head to help smooth out her wild bed head and just continue to enjoy a time that I haven't had in forever, just spending time with my big sister.
"Good morning sleepy head. Ya know, you didn't have to sleep next to me the whole night Vert, I wasn't gonna not wake up this time. And sheesh you get bad bed head in the morning."
After a few moments of me patting my older sister's head, another role reversal for us, she grabs my hand and pulls me in for a hug. Normally I would squirm and try to break free of the squishy prison that is her arms pulling me towards her chest, but since I've longed for this for so long I let it slide. I return the hug and what seems like forever goes by as we just held each other in the sunlight, all the words unsaid that we wanted to tell each other after so long expressed in this simple action. A cough at the door causes us to look up but not letting go of our embrace.
"My, my Cros, trying to steal a march on my darling Vert are we?"
"I don't know Chika, seems like I'm winning this battle. Vert clearly wants me more right now."
Her sarcastic remark was met with one of my own, and her composure breaks as she starts laughing up a fit. She walks over to the bed and ruffles my hair, summoning displeasure and glares from me. Pulling away from Vert, I put my hands on my hips while trying to look as huffy as possible without laughing. Her own laughter made me peeved leading me to glare at her once again.
"Hard to take you seriously there sis when you aren't wearing anything!"
Looking down, I confirm that I indeed am not wearing a shirt. While my face is bathed in fire I glare over at my still sleepy eyed sister who is just sitting there watching this happen. She looks over me completely blankly as she struggles to remain conscious during the scene that is unfolding.
"Well Cros, your clothes were filthy when I took you to bed. I just" *yawn* "didn't want you to sleep in those. Then I just forgot to put something else on you before falling asleep myself."
I leapt off the bed and stomped over to my dresser to clothe myself, still slightly miffed that this happened and ruined the beautiful moment us sisters were having. Giving them one last baleful look, I storm out of my room and head into town. In my hurry home I never stopped by the guild and turned in my quest. Throwing up and catching my bag of Red Petals for the quest I stroll easily through the crisp morning air. It was early enough that the streets were mostly empty, and some shops were only just waking up and opening their doors. What few people smile and give me cheerful greetings, something that can only make me smile and return it with just as much enthusiasm. Feeling annoyed leaving the Basilicom, I much prefer this happiness over anything in the world. I wasn't paying attention to where I was walking when I ended up bumping into someone on the street, sending both us sprawled out on the ground.
"Hey there, watch where you ar-"
Rubbing my head, I begin to start chastising this person for running into me. I'm the CPU Candidate after all, I should get some respect! But my voice catches in my throat when I see who it is. I never met this woman before, but for whatever reason my heart starts going crazy, and my cheeks seem to heat up a bit. What makes matters worse is she starts apologizing to me!
"Oh I'm so sorry. I was just at the Guild turning in a quest, and they wanted me to head to the Basilicom to check with the CPU Candidate on the status of her quest. I was smelling this delicious smell from the bakery over there and lost track of where I was going."
Bowing at me she gets up and starts running the way I was just coming from. Stunned, I didn't have the ability to even tell her she was looking for me. I cursed myself for not getting her name, for reasons I'm not even sure of. At least I got a good look at her before she sprinted off. She had tanned skin with multiple white markings down her arms, on her waist and on her cheeks. Speaking of her waist, she wore a cut off white vest with lime markings and gold buttons over a black undershirt. Her shorts only came down about a third of her thighs matching the colors of her vest. Strangely she had 2 black detached sleeves on her arms, with red bands around the elbows and her boots had an accentuated ankle but followed the same color scheme as the rest of her clothes. She wore oversized white gloves that went up to the middle of her forearm and had a gold hexagonal band around the wrist. It looked like the bright green on the ends on her arms had a paw print or similar design in a more muted green tone.
The most striking features however, where her hat and something else. She had a large black hat on that had flaps covering her ears, with messy blonde hair about the same length mine was when I was born poking out from underneath. Strapped to it were a pair of orange framed goggles, and the lenses were an emerald color that matched her eyes. The flaps were lined with white fur, with white accent lines right above them to match the white bill. The unusual part about it was that it was shaped to have 2 wolf ears on the top, white fur adding to the illusion that they were real. To go with this, she had a black and white tail, where the former was on top of the latter, strapped to the belt behind her. As she ran off I couldn't help but just watch still on the ground. I start hearing the women around me making strange comments and start laughing all innocently at me, making me blush even more.
"That's it, after turning in this quest I'm giving that girl a piece of my mind."
These were my words, but my heart just couldn't wait to see her again for some reason.
Hey everyone! I figured that since a few "concerns" for lack of a better word at the moment have been raised about the pacing and what has been happening in the story up until now, I thought I'd take the time to clear the air a bit.
For starters, the whole "spoiling" that there was a "new challenger approaching" was something I felt like I needed to do. Saying someone was watching the battle in the forest that not even Cros could see would've forced me to break my 1st person point of view, something I want to try to avoid if possible as that's how this tale is being told. I know it could've been seen as a misstep on my part, but I personally feel like it would've looked strange having a random 3rd person line in the middle of the scene.
Second, the pacing, and more specifically Cros's acquisition of HDX. This form will become a major part of the story later on, so its something we need to see Cros grow with for a bit before its ready to have the truth revealed. She only just gained it and is no where near good enough utilizing its power just yet. I promise there is some method to my madness when it comes to getting this and the Fenrir incident out so fast.
And probably my last one for today, lack of characters. I wanted Cros to prove herself as capable of fighting on her own before I felt comfortable with getting more outside influences on her. As you see here, that time has come to start branching out. I won't say much more but this is a Neptunia fan fiction, it would be impossible to not have a ton of characters by the end. Cros is the main character after all.
Hopefully this helped ease some worries or give you a look into how my crazy mind works. It may be my first work, but I don't plan to make it sloppy without reason at points. Again thank you for all your continued support and if you have any other questions, drop a review or send me a PM. I would be more than happy to clear something up without revealing too much of the story. Hope to see you all again next time!
