Ch 14: Legacy of the Tsun (Pt 3)
...take this coupon for a buy-one-get-one-free deal at that pudding parlor you like so much. Now can you please stop complaining about me and get back to the fight before- Oh, crap. The author's started the story already.
"Huh?" Big Neptune asked, looking up to the sky in confusion as she pocketed her pudding coupon. "I thought you were the author?"
No, I'm the narrator. There's a big difference. Look, just stop asking questions and get moving. If you don't hurry, I'm going to be forced to include a really long description of how I'm keeping the fans away from you and I don't want to deal with that. Not to mention, I'm seriously breaking continuity here by talking to you so get back to the main plot before I get into trouble.
"Hm... I don't know. You seem awfully fishy to me. Like mackerel fishy. Those things can really smell bad if-"
Hurry up and get going or I'll start this chapter myself!
"Now you sound even more suspicious. I think I'll need to-"
Noire and Sync were standing next to the side of the broadcast tower with Nepgear healing them when a large explosion caught their attention. Looking up in surprise, they saw Big Nep go sailing through the air with a comical scream... right before she proceeded to land directly on top of Noire.
"That was a cheap shot!" the older Neptune yelled, immediately leaping off her dazed landing cushion to start yelling at the sky like a lunatic. "Hey! That's not very nice! I know plenty of non-crazy people who also scream at the sky like this!"
"Um... big sis?" Nepgear asked worriedly. "Who are you talking to?"
"Huh? Oh, the mean old narrator, of course!" Big Nep answered, giving her dimensionally-adopted younger sister a smile. "She's been acting like a real jerk to me! At least, I think it's a she. It's kind of hard to tell when all of his or her responses come out as giant texts on the screen."
"Ahem," a flattened figure suddenly interrupted from the ground.
"Oh! Sorry about that Noire!" Big Nep apologized, helping up the disgruntled goddess with a smile still on her face. "Heh heh. Small me was right though. You really do make a great landing pad! I hardly felt a thing when I fell on you!"
Noire gave a low growl as she dusted off her clothes.
"It's official," she muttered. "I hate all Neptunes."
Big Nep did not seem to hear her as she instead turned to give a rather Ram-like pout in the direction she had just come flying from.
"This isn't over!" she yelled, shaking her fist in mock anger. "I'll figure out your secret identity sooner or later! And then I'm going to blow you up just like you did to me!"
There was no answer to her shout. The only thing Big Nep's outburst did was to make her look even crazier than before.
"I can still hear you, you know!"
Sync gave a small laugh before giving his mentor a calming pat on the shoulder.
"Let's focus on dealing with K-Sha and the fans first, Ms. Neptune," he consoled. "We can get back to this once we're not in danger of being killed by the fan-pocalypse."
Big Nep gave a final, childish glare at the sky before deflating.
"Fine, fine. I guess I did get a free pudding coupon out of this so I'll look the other way for now."
With that, she finally turned her attention to the battlefield only to stop in surprise.
"Wha-? You guys started the fight without me?! Awww, man! I had an epic speech prepared and everything!"
"Hmph. It's your fault for wasting all that time shouting at the sky," Noire grumbled from the sidelines.
Big Nep once again ignored the black-haired goddess as she continued to scan the battlefield while pretending to hold up a pair of imaginary binoculars with her hands. "Oh?" she eventually said, spotting the nearby Hunters swinging about their gigantic Great Swords. "Why's everyone using their normal weapons again? I thought we were trying to keep all of the fans alive." A look of shocked realization suddenly appeared on her face as she lowered her arms. "Oh no! Did our Tsun-Tsun goddess finally snap and order for all her citizens to be executed?! No, don't do it Noire! I know you're annoyed at your fans but its not worth starting the Genocide Route over!"
Noire looked very much split between wanting to facepalm and wanting to violently stab the older Neptune with her sword. Luckily, she eventually decided upon the former as she also let out a world-weary sigh.
"Keep it together, Noire," she whispered to herself. "You haven't killed Neptune after all these years. Don't cave in and break the record now."
"Um... she's had a bit of a hard day," Sync explained while Big Nep and Nepgear looked at the muttering Lastation CPU worriedly. Deciding to give the mentally unstable goddess some room to get her sanity back together, he redirected his tutor's attention to him by answering her earlier question.
"Anyways... The reason we're using our regular weapons is because K-Sha's new power gave all of the fans their very own energy field. None of our riot-suppression weapons were doing anything so we went back to our standard gear. Here, I'll show you what I mean with this incoming fan."
The aforementioned fangirl slipped past the perimeter that C-Sha and the Hunters had set up around them and barreled straight towards Noire with a deranged yell. Sync did not let her get very far as he immediately teleported behind the fan and swung his activated Share Blade at her body. Rather than being cut in two and moving the story's rating up to a 'M', a flash of gold ignited from the point of impact as an energy field made up of small glowing hexagons briefly became visible around the fan. The force of the blow still sent the golden-eyed minion tumbling forward though as she landed flat on her face. She continued skidding along the ground for a full meter before finally coming to a stop in front of the three onlookers.
"Oh, one more thing," Sync said, casually turning back around to his audience members. "K-Sha's power also gave the fans infinite HP so it's impossible to knock them unconscious like before."
As he said this, the prone fangirl suddenly leaped back up like some kind of zombie jump scare. Even though she had been expecting it, Noire could not help but let out a small scream at the sheer suddenness of having a crazed fan inches away from glomping her face.
Luckily for her, Sync quickly came to her rescue as he waved his hand in the direction of the jumping fangirl. With a flash of green and a comical-sounding 'pop!', the attacker was teleported back away into the fan crowd.
"The most we can do is send them flying as far away from us as possible," Sync continued from his previous point. "As for my powers, I can't teleport them right away due to their unique energy fields. We need to inflict at least one good hit against their shields before its weakened enough for my powers to get through."
Big Nep gave an exaggerated nod of understanding to her student as he made his way back to them. Not surprisingly, her next comment went completely off-tangent from what he had just been talking about.
"Heh heh. Looks like you finally decided to show everyone your main weapon huh," she said, pointing at Sync's laser blade with a smile. "Did you make its reveal as awesome as we planned?"
"Hm... I'd say it was a six point five out of ten," he replied with a shrug. "I got the timing down pretty well but I didn't really get the chance to set up much of an initial presentation."
"Aw, does that mean you didn't get to use the flame cannons and strobe lights that I prepared?"
Before Sync could respond, Nepgear suddenly zoomed in and latched onto the weapon on his arm.
"I was planning to ask you this after the battle but... is this really an actual Psi-Blade?!" the lilac-haired tinkerer asked, her eyes gleaming even more brightly than it usually did in her HDD form. "I've been wanting to create one these things for ages! You said you channel share energy to form the blade right? How exactly are you doing that? Is it similar to how the rest of us create energy blades? What kind of kinetic wavelength do you use? Is it refined through the use of a focusing crystal? What are the specs of the main power unit for this thing?"
"Um... Nepgear?" Sync said with a sudden pained expression. "Can you please stop pulling on my arm like that? I don't think Chika and K-Sha are gong to be very happy if they found out you ripped off one of my limbs before they did."
Nepgear immediately seemed to come to her senses as she stopped trying to yank his arm off. Her hands, however, still remained firmly over the high-tech armguard.
"Goodness!" she exclaimed with an apologetic look. "I... I'm sorry! I guess I got a little bit carried away there!" She paused before looking at Sync with a rather expectant look. "Um... I know this isn't the best time to ask but can you come over to my laboratory once this is all over so I can perform an in-depth analysis of your weapon?"
Sync answered with a rather wry grin. "I'm pretty sure we'll have to wait until Histoire's ban on your laboratory is lifted before we can do anything in there again. And I highly doubt she'll make an exception for me this time after our little... hedgehog incident."
Nepgear quickly deflated while looking very much like a sad panda.
"Muuu... I guess you're right... But I really wanted to research your Share Blade..."
"Aw, cheer up, Nepgear!" Big Nep suddenly interjected. "You can still do your research by seeing my little teddy bear use his Share Blade in battle, right?"
The mad scientist quickly perked up again as she seemed to regain the fire in her eyes.
"You're right! This is a perfect opportunity for me to collect some field data!"
"Um... Ms. Neptune?" Sync interrupted with a rather uneasy grin. "Can you please stop calling me your teddy bear in public? It's kind of embarrassing. Also, Nepgear? Stop tightening your grip over my Share Blade. You're going to end up crushing it at this rate."
Before either of the Nep sisters could answer him, a bright flash of light and the sound of an HDD being activated went off next to them.
"Okay, I've had enough stupidity for the day," Noire said irritably, her energy reserves apparently restored thanks to her brief rest and Nepgear's earlier healing. "Now if you three idiots don't mind, I'm gonna go do something productive with my life by helping Vert and Neptune fight off K-Sha."
Without another word, the Tsundere goddess took off into the sky leaving the trio to look up at her fading form in stunned silence.
After a few seconds, Sync turned to his two remaining associates with a mischievous grin slowly appearing on his face.
"Wanna see how far I can send the fans flying with my Share Blade?"
Big Nep mirrored his grin with a diabolical laugh while Nepgear eagerly pulled out her N-Gear to record the data.
"About time you showed up Noire," Neptune acknowledged in her (thankfully) more mature HDD form. "I was beginning to think you were going to be sitting on the bench this entire fight."
While the comment irked her, the Lastation CPU was simply glad to have some semblance of normality return to her life.
"Please," Noire scoffed, flying up to Neptune's side with her usual haughty look. "Like I'd let you steal all the glory after all the hard work I put in. Just ask Vert how much effort I put into carrying the team throughout the whole day."
"Please don't drag me into another one of your squabbles," the Leanbox CPU sighed. She quickly parried aside another sword swing from K-Sha before moving back to regroup with her allies.
"So what's the situation?" Noire asked, pulling out her own sword and pointing it at her processor-equipped stalker.
Neptune kept her eyes focused on their enemy as well as she answered. "I don't know what you and Vert did before I got here but it seems K-Sha's gone completely berserk. There's no point trying to reason with her now seeing as how she's only capable of raging and screaming."
"Great," the Lastation CPU muttered. "She's turned into an even crazier version of Blanc."
Neptune gave a small laugh to this before continuing on. "Asides from your appearance, she's also copied over all of your weapon skills. Thankfully, none of that is much of an issue. If she had copied -my- sword skills and good looks on the other hand, we might have been in some actual trouble."
"Oh, ha ha. Very funny," Noire responded dryly. "Try saying that after you successfully beat me in a one-on-one duel for once."
The standard back-and-forth between them was cut short when Vert suddenly threw her spear at K-Sha. Just like before, the weapon exploded upon contact as the Yandere Queen's entire form was instantly engulfed in a massive green gale.
"If you two ladies are done comparing your egos, I suggest we turn our attentions back to our current predicament" Vert stated, her spear magically materializing back into her hand.
Neptune just gave an unimpressed look at the attack before turning to Noire. "What's gotten her so serious?"
"She's probably still mad at K-Sha for hurting her precious baby brother," the Lastation CPU loudly said, making sure to put a metric ton of sarcasm into the last part.
Before Vert could protest, a hailstorm of bullets came firing out of the fading green explosion in front of them. Noire and Vert quickly flew out of the way while Neptune decided to show off by casually deflecting the projectiles with her sword.
"This has nothing to do with my br... Sync!" Vert cried out, barely paying any attention to K-Sha as she came back into view without a scratch on her.
Noire rolled her eyes at the comment as the Yandere Queen gave a feral yell and shot towards her.
"And people accuse me of being the Tsundere."
Muttering this, the Lastation CPU brought up her sword to counter K-Sha's attack. The two exchanged a flurry of blows for a couple of seconds with neither side managing to land a hit due to their identical sword styles. The stalemate only came to a close when Neptune flew in to try and get a sneak attack in from the side. As K-Sha was forced to back away from the surprise Victory Slash, Noire turned back to Vert with a sneer. "Face it Vert. You totally care about that stupid brat and you're just too proud to admit it."
"I am not!" Vert hotly denied. "I simply have my reasons for keeping him safe!"
Off to the side, Neptune cleanly cut through the missile K-Sha launched at her as it exploded dramatically behind her. With a satisfied nod, she turned to face Vert as well.
"So you actually decided to accept the tiny harem lord as you brother? I have to say, I'm rather surprised by this sudden development."
"Not you too," the Leanbox CPU groaned. After unleashing her Inbetween Spear skill to force K-Sha off of Noire, she continued on in an exasperated voice. "Like I've already stated, I'm simply keeping him alive for the time being for reasons I shall not disclose here! And despite your ludicrous claims, I still haven't accepted him as my b... b... bro... gah! CPU Candidate!"
Luckily for her, K-Sha's next wave of missiles forced Neptune and Noire away from her and next to each other instead.
"Tiny harem lord?" Noire asked with a raised eyebrow.
Neptune gave a small laugh. "It's simply a little joke I use to tease the boy. Although I do suppose that I tend to take the matter a bit more seriously when I'm in my human form."
Noire just rolled her eyes at this before cutting down the missiles with Neptune doing the same next to her.
"Okay, enough messing around," Noire declared as the last of the missiles blew up behind her. "Vert! Neptune! Let's hit her with everything we've got!"
The other two gave a quick nod as they followed her lead and flew in to trap their opponent in a loose triangle formation. With K-Sha momentarily pausing to assess their abrupt change in tactics, the three of them were free to charge up their energy as their respective colored auras began to fully enshroud them. Before the Yandere Queen could choose to act, the three glowing goddesses flew forward to unleash their ultimate attacks.
"Infinite Slash!"
"Spiral Break!"
"Neptune Break!"
The night sky was lit up by a tri-colored flurry of moving lights as the CPUs seamlessly weaved together their EXE Drives in a stunning display of coordination and skill. K-Sha found herself being tossed about through the air like a rag doll as the goddesses flew in one after another to deliver a seemingly endless barrage of attacks against her. In no time at all, the combo count was up in the hundreds as a faint crack appeared in the Gold Third's energy shield. Not giving their enemy a chance to recover, the three goddesses flew up and activated their finishing blows.
"I'll slice you down!" Noire yelled, enlarging her sword with a mass of rainbow-colored energy before throwing it down towards K-Sha.
"Vanish into nothingness!"
Vert's spear blazed to life in a surge of green as she hurled it downwards as well.
The two projectiles slammed into the stunned Yandere as visible cracks appeared over her shield. Before the two attacks could detonate, Neptune dive-bombed towards their target at mach-speeds with her sword held out in front of her.
"This is the end for you!"
As soon as Neptune's strike connected, all three attacks exploded together in a massive influx of colors. The sheer force of the blast ended up shattering several of the broadcast tower's windows as the rest of the surrounding area was blinded by the bright flash of light. By the time everyone's vision returned, all that remained over K-Sha's location was a giant black cloud of smoke.
"Hm. Perhaps we overdid it a bit," Neptune said, casually flying out of the smoke cloud and up to her friends. Obviously, she had not been affected by the explosion as friendly fire was always set to 'off' by default in their world.
Noire gave a visible eye twitch at the fourth wall break but tried her best to ignore it.
"I highly doubt K-Sha's been defeated," Vert commented, looking down at the smoke cloud with a dubious look. "It's common anime knowledge that the villain is always still alive if the heroes' ultimate attack leaves behind an obscuring cloud of smoke rather than utterly vaporizing them."
"Okay, enough with the meta nonsense already!" Noire yelled. "Can we just confirm whether K-Sha's been incapacitated or not?"
Her question was answered when a golden blur shot out of the smoke cloud and flew towards them.
"Tornado Sword!"
A giant, rainbow-colored blade suddenly swept through the air as it hit all three of the surprised goddesses.
"Kyaaaa!"
Neptune took the most direct hit from K-Sha's copied SP Skill as she went sailing towards the direction of the tower. Luckily, Noire managed to recover quickly enough to fly forward and catch her friend before she could crash into the building.
"Th... Thank you, Noire," Neptune murmured, her head still in a daze from the sudden blow.
The Lastation CPU simply gave her a small smile before looking around for their third teammate. As it turned out, Vert was only a couple meters away to their right as she had managed to steady herself soon after Noire did. Sharing a short nod, the two CPUs turned their attention towards their attacker.
"Where's Noire? I need my lovely Noire," the Yandere Queen muttered with a deranged smile on her face. "Kill everything that isn't Noire. It'll just be us together. Nothing else matters. Just Noire. Just. Noire."
"What is wrong with her?" the Lastation CPU could not help but ask, feeling very much disturbed by what her former friend had become.
Neptune cleared her head with one final shake before she slid out of Noire's grasp and looked over at K-Sha with a serious look.
"I think she's being consumed by her own powers."
"What are you talking about?" Noire asked.
Vert took this opportunity to fly over and join their conversation.
"She's been connected to all of these fans for so long that she's starting to lose control," the Leanbox CPU explained, quickly catching onto Neptune's line of thought. "While the fans are giving her all this power, they're also driving her insane with their overwhelming obsession towards you. Even K-Sha's willpower can't handle that much of a mental overload without finally snapping."
As if to highlight her point, K-Sha let out a loud scream as she began to fire her Uzi wildly through the air.
"Tch. There's no other choice then," Neptune suddenly said. "I'll activate my Next-Form and try to destroy her power directly with my Dimensional Slice. I did it before to get rid of Kurome's control over Affimojas so it should work here now."
"I'd advise against that Neptune," Vert warned. "You were performing a scripted attack then and I highly doubt you have the necessary plot powers right now to pull it off again. If you mess this up, K-Sha might end up seriously hurt. And even with all the trouble she's caused, I'd rather avoid that if possible."
"Stop breaking the fourth wall already, dammit!" Noire yelled. The other two CPUs just gave her a flat look as she took several deep breaths to calm herself. After a couple of seconds, she turned back to address Neptune.
"I can't agree to this plan either. Putting aside all that meta nonsense, I doubt you have enough shares to activate your Next-Form."
Neptune gave a small smile. "I'm sure I can scrape together enough to maintain the transformation for a few minutes. I'll probably be out of commission afterwards but I think I can risk that with you looking after me."
Noire immediately turned a bright shade of red at this as she struggled to come up with a response.
The Planeptune CPU gave a small laugh before focusing her attention back on K-Sha with her serious look back in place.
"I don't like this either but it's the best chance we've got. I'll accept all responsibility for what happens next so leave the rest to me."
Without waiting for a response, she began to focus her energy before summoning her share crystal to her hand.
"Alright! Next-Form, acti-"
Her shout was interrupted when a fan suddenly sailed into the air before smacking directly into K-Sha like a human torpedo.
A stunned silence fell over the area as the fan ricocheted off his boss's energy shield with a silly-sounding 'clang!' before falling back down into the crowd below. There was a momentary pause before the Yandere Queen (as well as the three CPUs and all of the fans) turned their heads to look towards the source of the human projectile.
"Er... does that count as a home-run?"
Sync was currently frozen mid-swing as it became very clear to everyone watching that he had been the one to send the fan flying with his Share Blade. In front of him, Big Nep was holding onto another struggling fan by the back of his shirt and pants as she looked to be preparing to toss him towards her batter. And last but not least, Nepgear was standing off to the side recording the whole thing with her N-Gear.
A long, drawn-out second passed before Big Nep broke the silence.
"Well... this can't be good."
K-Sha affirmed this by flying directly towards the boy while screaming like a banshee.
"Yup! Definitely not good!"
Despite her words, Big Nep still managed to look as cheery as ever as she quickly tossed the fans she had been holding towards their attacker.
K-Sha simply swatted him away with her sword before unleashing a volley of missiles at them in retaliation.
"I got this!" Sync called out.
Using his powers on as many low-energy fans as he was capable of, he teleported the mass of bodies directly into the path of the explosive projectiles. Just as he expected, all of the missiles detonated against the fans without actually harming them due to their allied status with K-Sha.
The heroes did not get a chance to catch their breath, however, as the Yandere plowed through the falling rain of fans with her sword held at the ready.
"DIE!"
Big Nep quickly pulled out her own twin swords as she and Sync both leaped up to counter the strike. A bright flash of light erupted from their clash as the two of them managed to parry away the large energy sword with their own weapons. Pushing away from their opponent, Big Nep and Sync landed onto the ground in a crouch while K-Sha flailed through the air for a bit before managing to steady herself. With her previous madness replaced with a look of pure hatred, she floated down to the ground as she glared death at her opponents.
"Sync!"
Everyone in the vicinity briefly glanced up as they spotted Vert flying towards them with Neptune and Noire following close behind. Much to the CPUs surprise, however, Sync suddenly held up his hand to halt her.
"We've got this, sis," he casually said, standing back up with his mentor as they assumed their respective fighting stances. "Go help C-Sha and the Hunters hold back the fans instead."
"This isn't the time to be showing off!" Noire yelled. "K-Sha's currently strong enough to go toe-to-toe with all three of us!"
"Heh heh. Looks like we'll actually have a bit of a challenge then," Big Nep said, giving her student a smile that he quickly returned.
"We're being serious here! Don't-!"
Sync cut off Noire's words with a shake of his head. "Like I said before, Ms. Neptune and I can handle this. We only have to wait a few more minutes before the broadcast and the two of us can definitely hold out until then." He gave a pause as he turned his gaze towards Nepgear. "By the way, can I ask you to go heal up our sisters? They seem a bit worn out from their fight. You can skip over Noire though seeing as how she seems fit enough to waste energy yelling at us."
Ignoring the angry shout coming from the Lastation CPU, Nepgear gave him a small nod. "O... Of course. But are you sure the two of you can do this by yourselves? I can help too, you know."
"Nah, it's fine. Besides, I think Ms. Neptune and the twins are the only ones with a high enough Lily Rank with me at the moment for my skill to work."
Nepgear gave a confused quirk of her head to this before deciding to simply follow through with his request instead.
As the Planeptune CPU Candidate flew up towards the other CPUs, Big Nep glanced at Sync with a playful smile.
"So we're finally going to test out your special skill in a real battle, huh."
Sync gave a matching smile in return. "Couldn't ask for a more perfect opportunity than this one."
He turned to face his opponent who had been busy charging up her sword with the same rainbow-colored energy as before.
"Sorry about the wait," he called out. "I have to say though, you're rather considerate for holding back whenever we happen to go off-tangent around you. But then again, maybe that's just the Final Boss Syndrome kicking in and forcing you to wait around until we're ready to face you."
The only response he got was an increased flare in the golden aura surrounding her.
"Okay, let's do this!"
In a move that bewildered everyone, he turned off his Share Blade and lifted up his hand towards his tutor.
"Synchronize!"
Sync's entire form was suddenly covered by a blazing purple aura while the older Neptune became enshrouded in a similar green one. As the crowd watched in confusion and surprise, Big Nep stepped forward with a confident smirk as she pointed her glowing twin swords at her opponent.
"The first move's mine."
Without any further warning, she vanished from view in a flash of green. K-Sha's heightened battle senses immediately warned her of danger as she quickly turned around to find Big Nep materialize behind her. Pushing aside her surprise, the Yandere Queen swung about her Tornado Sword to slice through her enemy. Her attack ended up going through empty air, however, as Big Nep disappeared once again in a flash of green.
"Take this!"
K-Sha did not have a chance to defend herself as the older Neptune appeared in her left blind spot and slashed out with her swords. There was a loud sparking noise as the enhanced metal clashed against the Gold Third's energy shield before K-Sha forced her attacker away with a sweeping kick. Big Nep quickly back-flipped away before teleporting back next to a smiling Sync. Having been charging up his energy this whole time, he turned towards his opponent with both his arms raised.
"Emulate: Nepnical Combination!"
A pair of swords identical to the ones Big Nep was carrying appeared in his hands before he sent them spinning through the air towards K-Sha. The whirling blades caught her by surprise as they smashed against her shield in a flurry of sparks before they flew off to the sides. The spinning blades only turned out to be the beginning though as Sync ran forward while firing off a pistol that had suddenly materialized in his left hand. As the bullets kept the Yandere pinned in place, the dual swords came spinning back around to deliver another series of cross-slashes against his target. Dispersing the gun he was holding, he caught both swords as he neared them and began to personally unleash a barrage of sword-strikes against K-Sha.
The Yandere Queen finally managed to gather her wits at this point as she struck out with her own sword. However, Sync had been anticipating the move as he simply jumped back while dispersing his copied swords and reforming the pistol again. Landing onto the ground, he aimed his firearm with a wide smile.
"Bang."
An unexpectedly large explosion erupted from the bullet as it made contact with its target. As the surrounding area was blinded in a massive flash of white light, Leanbox's green emblem seemed to briefly flash across the sky before quickly disappearing.
"Whew," Sync breathed out, dispelling the gun in his hand and brushing away the beads of sweat on his forehead. "You're EXE Drive is exhausting to use Ms. Neptune. Maybe you can cut down on the sword stuff and just focus on the exploding bullet some more."
Big Nep gave a laugh as she stepped up next to him. "Heh heh. Where's the fun in that? Besides, style points are everything my dear Padawan."
Sync conceded the point with a small bow of his head before giving his mentor a smile.
"So, shall we end this with our finishing move?"
Big Nep put away her swords as a bright gleam appeared in her eyes.
"Yes! I've been looking forward to this!"
As the rest of the crowd began to slowly recover their vision from the EXE Drive's flashy end, they looked ahead to find Sync and Big Nep standing back-to-back carrying a pair of enormous spoons in their hands.
"WOOOHOOOO!" the older Neptune cheered. "Let's do this!"
A mass of green portals suddenly opened up above the entire courtyard as the crowd below looked up in surprise. Without wasting another moment, both Sync and Big Nep swung down their giant spoons with matching enthusiastic grins.
"PUDDING PARTY!"
It was safe to say that Gamindustri as a whole was not prepared for the sheer absurdity of the attack that was unleashed upon it that day.
As the crowd below looked up with horrified eyes, giant house-sized custard puddings began to appear out of the portals in the sky before dropping down towards them. K-Sha in particular got an extra-large pudding all to herself as she could only gape in shock at the gigantic dessert descending upon her. One of the fans managed to regain some of his senses in time to let out a shrill scream right before the gargantuan sweets flattened the entire landscape.
A literal sea of custard and caramel syrup drowned out the surrounding area as the fans struggled to free themselves from the pudding hell. Of course, for a certain purple-haired girl, it was more of a pudding heaven than a hell.
"PUDDING! PUDDING! PUDDING!"
With a smile bright enough to light up an entire star system, Big Nep tossed aside her spoons and willingly jumped into the mass of puddings that had somehow managed to avoid landing on her. In fact, all of the heroes – as well as the broadcast tower - were completely unscathed as some kind of invisible force kept the gelatinous yellow mass away from them. Thankfully for Big Nep though, it seemed she was still allowed to approach the pudding if she wanted to.
Meanwhile, the three goddesses plus Nepgear were busy floating in the air trying to process what exactly had just happened.
"Neptune," Noire eventually said, snapping out of her shocked state to look over at her friend with a flat look. "Close your mouth. You're starting to drool."
The Planeptune CPU quickly did as she was told as she tried her hardest to keep her dignified image and not go swimming in the Pudding Sea like her other-dimensional counterpart.
Vert, meanwhile, took this time to fly back down and land next to Sync.
"What... was that?" she asked.
Sync gave a small laugh as the purple aura around him vanished. At the same time, the green aura around Big Nep disappeared as well.
"You're going to have to be a bit more specific than that sis," he said, dispersing the giant spoons he had still been carrying. "There's kind of a lot things you're question could currently apply to."
Before Vert could say anything more, the Hunters and C-Sha walked into view as the mass of pudding magically moved aside for them.
"You think this stuff is edible?" one of the Hunters asked, scraping off a bit with his finger.
The Hunter next to him took a glance at Big Nep who was busy swimming freestyle in the stuff with her mouth wide open. "I'm gonna go out on a limb and say yes."
The first Hunter gave a shrug to this before scooping up a handful himself and eating it.
Noire, Neptune, and Nepgear soon flew down to join the group as well as they all gathered around Sync.
"Okay, explain." Noire said, looking both exasperated and shocked at the same time.
Sync gave a mischievous grin at her. "Explain what? Why the sky is blue? The grass is green? Maybe even explain how much of Neptune's love for pudding carries over into her HDD form? The answer to that last one is 'a lot' by the way."
Everyone followed Sync's gaze as they turned around to spot Purple Heart carrying two giant globs of pudding in her hands and her mouth currently full.
"Wha?" she responded, trying and utterly failing to keep her regal tone. "Camph I enfoy puthin doo?"
Everyone gave her a flat look that could have rivaled Blanc's chest before turning back around to Sync.
"That's not what I'm talking about!" Noire reiterated. "I want you to tell us exactly what that weird skill of yours in the beginning was, how the other Neptune used your teleporting abilities, how you used her EXE Drive, and how you managed to make it rain pudding from the sky!"
A loud scream suddenly interrupted them before Sync could answer.
"Bleh! I think I accidentally bit down on a fan's arm!" Big Nep loudly complained. "Sync! Can you teleport away all the fans inside the pudding I'm in?"
Her student obediently did as he was told as the area around her was briefly illuminated by a green light.
"Thanks!"
As Big Nep went back to her feast, Sync turned back to Noire with a wide grin.
"Really, that's what you want to ask? Even Ram and Rom could have figured all of that stuff out for themselves. But then again I suppose it makes sense seeing as how they both have a higher INT stat than you."
Noire began to growl dangerously again reminding him of his previous decision not to piss her off anymore for the night.
"Ahem. It's called Synchronization," he quickly explained. "It's my special ability that lets me share powers with an ally based on our Lily Rank."
"So... it's like a Social Link?" Nepgear asked, deciding to fill in for her preoccupied sisters.
Sync gave an amused chuckle to this. "I guess it does have its similarities. Though, I can't summon any mythical demons and angels that get more powerful depending on my relationships. My ability's a bit more direct in that it boosts the stats of both myself and my partner while I have it on. It also allows us to share weapon proficiency, SP skills, EXE Drives, and specialized Formation Skills as our Lily Rank increases."
"I guess that explains pretty much all of Noire's questions," C-Sha said, bringing up a hand to her chin thoughtfully. "Though I have to ask: If you had an ability like that, why didn't you use it in any of our earlier battles?"
Sync gave a casual shrug. "There's a minimum requirement of having a Lily Rank of 5 with me in order for the skill to work." He paused as he suddenly gave a contemplative look of his own. "Now that I think about it, the term Lily Rank doesn't exactly fit anymore seeing as how it's not really a Yuri relationship if I'm involved. Hm... maybe I should just call it Love-Love Ranks from now on?"
He shook his head of the thought before anyone could comment on it and continued on with his previous explanation.
"Anyways, Ram and Rom were the only ones who met the requirement at the time. Even if I had bonded with either of them, the only useful thing we would've gotten was the stat boost seeing as how we wouldn't have known how to fully utilize our new powers. I mean, Ms. Neptune and I had to spend an entire day practicing with our shared abilities before we could pull off anything battle-worthy."
"Heh heh. Your teleporting abilities were super tricky to get the hang of even for me," Big Nep commented from the sidelines, happily doing the backstroke across her pudding. "I'm pretty sure I teleported into the park lake at least a dozen times while we were practicing."
"Weren't you doing that on purpose just to ignore the 'no swimming' sign?" Sync chimed in with a smile.
Big Nep gave a sheepish laugh while everyone else simply sweatdropped.
A brief silence followed afterwards as the group tried to wrap their heads around everything they had just learned. The only sound that could be heard for a while were the two Neptunes stuffing their faces with pudding as well as the faint groans coming from the fans buried somewhere underneath the stuff. Of course, Purple Heart tried her best to keep her actions discrete to maintain her image but was not doing a very good job of it. Luckily for her, everyone else was too preoccupied to pay much mind to the gluttonous goddess.
After a while, one of the Hunters finally spoke back up.
"By the way... how exactly is all this pudding keeping away from us?"
Sync gave a carefree wave. "The narrator said it before. Allies don't get affected by each others' offensive skills in this world."
"Huh," the Hunter said. "Is that also why the older Neptune doesn't have any pudding or syrup covering her clothes despite swimming in the stuff?"
Before the meta discussion could go any further, the ground suddenly began to shake violently.
"Looks like our Yandere Queen's finally back up," Sync casually stated.
Right on cue, a nearby mass of pudding exploded outwards as a familiar glowing form became visible once more.
"RAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHH!"
With an inhuman screech, K-Sha lifted up her left hand and clenched it into a fist. The courtyard was filled with a golden light as a mass of energy radiated out of all the buried fans in the area. The blast instantly vaporized all of the pudding as the mind-controlled fans slowly rose up once more.
"NOOOO! MY PUDDING!"
Even Big Nep's isolated pudding mountain had been caught in the blast as all traces of the delicious confection disappeared from the entire area.
"K-Sha! You'll pay for what you've just done!" Purple Heart declared, her sword back in her hand as she pointed it dangerously at the vile pudding destroyer.
The Yandere Queen paid her no mind as she instead turned her feral eyes towards the one who had caused her so much torment. With her Black Heart processors still equipped, K-Sha rose up into the sky as a glowing ball of golden energy gathered in her hands.
"DAMN YOU ALL!"
With her first coherent sentence in a while, she raised her hands into the air and began to increase the size of her energy ball. Soon, the entire city was lit up by the gargantuan orb of destructive energy as K-Sha looked down at her nemesis with a twisted smile.
"DIE!"
Right before she could unleash her death blast, however, a large holographic screen suddenly appeared over all four sides of the broadcast tower as Ram and Rom's faces appeared on it.
"...finally on now?" Ram's voice echoed out throughout the city's emergency broadcast speakers. "Sheesh, how long is it- Oh! Hey! We're finally on! Sorry about the wait everyone! I accidentally froze one of the important thingy-ma-bobs but it looks like they finally got it fixed!"
As K-Sha and the fans stared at the screen in confusion, Sync gave a triumphant smile from below.
"Checkmate."
Vert stared with wide-eyes herself as their ultimate plan finally came into fruition. As she watched, rows and rows of holographic screens identical to the ones over the tower came online as they hung in the air all throughout the city. No, not just the city. If the boy's plan was working, then the entirety of Lastation was now watching the emergency broadcast as well.
"Um... everyone!" Rom spoke up, sounding as shy as ever. "W... We've got something very important to tell you s...so... please look very closely at us!"
"Get your eyes off the screens!" Noire urgently said, keeping her voice low so that only her teammates could hear.
Vert looked at her in confusion for a moment before remembering what exactly their plan was. Obviously, the Lastation CPU had been the first to remember due to her traumatic magical girl incident.
Vert gave a small smile at the memory before focusing on keeping her eyes firmly on the ground. A few seconds later, a massive intake of breath was heard coming from the fans as the twins apparently unleashed their puppy-dog eyes on them.
"Everyone who is a fan of Ms. Noire, please stop causing trouble," Rom's amplified voice said.
"Understood," the fans immediately chorused back in a daze.
Vert was highly tempted to take a peek at the overwhelming cuteness that the twins were clearly presenting but just barely managed to hold herself in check. Luckily for her, her logical side had the foresight of tying up the Per-Vert in a straight-jacket and locking her up inside a closet before the whole thing started. Ironically, the loud hammering noise of her second dominant personality trying to escape actually helped distract her from the temptation of looking up.
"We also need you to stop trying to kill Sync," Ram said.
"Who?" the crowd chorused back.
The twins apparently had a camera and microphone transmitting what was happening outside the tower as they quickly corrected themselves.
"She's talking about the... Waifu Thief."
Vert felt a sudden chill go up her spine at the quiet venom in Rom's last two words. Unlike the burning fury that her sisters liked to use, Rom's anger seemed to manifest as something much colder and merciless.
Apparently the fans seemed to catch onto the dangerous tone as well as their unified voice took on a shaky edge.
"We... We understand. We promise not to harm him... ma'am."
Rom gave an extremely cute-sounding giggle to this which quickly reasserted her complete control over her audience.
"Oh, right," Ram said. "That stupid news about him being married to Noire was just a prank and all of you are going to treat it that way. The only person he's going to marry is me and Rom!"
Surprisingly, Vert was not the only one to let out a choking noise to this while the fans acknowledged their order.
"Okay, now they're taking things a bit too far," Sync muttered, his smile actually faltering a bit. "Oh, man. Blanc is not going to be happy about this."
Unable to figure out whether to laugh at his predicament or seethe with jealousy, Vert instead focused her attention back to hearing the rest of the twins' decrees.
"Um... all of you should also lower your obsession with Ms. Noire a bit," Rom said. "It's okay to look up to her but acting all crazy over her is wrong."
Noire let out an approving huff to this.
"Hmph. Maybe this wasn't such a bad idea after all."
"Oh, oh, oh!" Ram suddenly piped up. "All of you are also going to buy us as much candy as we want whenever we ask you to!"
"What?!"
Before Noire could shout any further, Rom spoke up again.
"Um... Ram? Didn't Ms. Noire tell us not to make the fans do anything like that?"
"Bah! You gave her a bonus with that last order. It's only fair we get something in return!"
Rom gave a sigh before addressing the fans again.
"Okay, I think we're done. Everyone, please go back to your homes and go to sleep. Oh, and if your home was destroyed in the battle, please head to the emergency shelters for now."
"See ya later, losers!" Ram concluded.
Vert waited until the sounds of the holographic screens turning off was heard before finally raising her head. Ignoring the frenzied Per-Vert in her head, she looked around to see if things had gone according to plan.
As it turned out, there was no cause for any worry as all of the fans began to shuffle back towards the city with similar dazed smiles on their faces. Giving a small sigh of relief, Vert looked up to see how the mastermind behind the fans was reacting.
As it was, the broadcast had clearly managed to stop K-Sha as well. The giant ball of destruction that she had previously created was nowhere to be seen as she slowly floated back down. As soon as she touched the ground, both her processors and her Gold Third form disappeared as she fell down to her knees. Surprisingly, she did not have a blissful expression like the rest of the fans as she simply looked to be in a state of utter shock. Muttering incomprehensibly to herself, she clutched her head and began to rock back and forth like a broken doll.
"Is she-?"
Vert found a hand blocking her approach as she looked over to see Sync shaking his head at her.
"Don't. She's probably facing a major mental breakdown from the broadcast. We should give her some room for now and hope that Ram and Rom's brainwashing manages to overwrite her Yandere personality."
After glancing at the sad figure one final time, Vert gave a nod and turned away.
"So... did we finally win?" the lead Hunter asked.
The other Hunters immediately smacked their leader over the head before looking around worriedly in case another flag had been triggered. Luckily, nothing terrible occurred causing everyone to let out a large breath of relief.
"It's finally over," Vert said, turning off her transformation as everyone else did the same.
"Heh heh. Of course we won!" Neptune shouted out, her usual childish personality quickly asserting itself. "There's no way we could have lost with the main character here!"
"By main character, you mean my little teddy bear, right?" Big Nep asked, moving over to grab Sync and squeezing him just like the toy she referred to him as.
"Hey! I told you to stop being so attached to him! He's going to infect you with his Harem virus!" The smaller purple-haired girl quickly ran over to try and separate the two. "Quick Nepgear! Help me keep him away from her before he turns big me into his personal cat-maid!"
Nepgear just gave an uneasy laugh while Noire face-palmed at the shenanigans. Meanwhile, C-Sha walked up to Vert while stifling a laugh of her own.
"There never seems to be a dull moment with your little brother around," she pointed out with a smile.
"He's not-"
Vert gave a brief glance at the boy's laughing face before changing her response with a sigh.
"...I suppose you're right. Trouble seems to appear wherever he goes."
C-Sha let out a full-blown laugh to this while giving her an encouraging pat on the shoulder.
The group continued on with its lighthearted victory celebrations as the last of the fans emptied out of the courtyard. Eventually, the remaining Lastation soldiers from the other entrances made their way over to them before joining in on the cheering as well. Being the strict boss that she was though, Noire cut their celebrations short as she ordered a large group of them to carry their unconscious comrades over to the tower's lobby to be treated. As for the rest, they were assigned to follow after the fan mob to make sure they were properly heading back to their homes.
"Sync!"
Soon enough, the twins came running up to the smiling boy as they looked up with expectant eyes.
"So?" Ram asked enthusiastically. "Were we awesome or were we awesome awesome?"
Sync gave them both a pat on the head with his brightest smile yet.
"You were Super Mega Ultra Awesome!" he answered.
Rom gave an adorable blushing smile to this while her sister ran around in circles cheering loudly.
"Oh no! He's going after the kids!" Neptune shouted out. "Someone stop-"
Her idiocy was cut short when Noire whacked her over the head.
"Nepu! What was that for Noire? Don't tell me you're also-"
"Shut it," the Lastation CPU growled, smacking her friend(?) over the head again. "I just can't stand to listen to you yelling anymore."
After waiting for the twins (and Neptune) to calm down a bit, Noire approached the boy with her arms crossed.
"Well, I guess your plan worked but how long is it going to last for?" she asked.
Ram perked up excitedly as she answered in his place. "It's permanent! Those fans will obey our orders forever!"
Seeing Noire raise an eyebrow, Rom elaborated for her. "W...We used nearly forty percent of our cuteness on them. Even big sis has trouble resisting us at that level and she's basically immune to us."
"Why'd you stop at forty percent?" Big Nep asked.
"Mina told us to never go over that level no matter what," Ram answered with a shrug. "Something about the world exploding from cuteness overload."
Everyone except for Sync took an unconscious step backwards from the twins.
"Heh. I'm sure you've dealt with the fans just fine," he said, bringing the conversation back around to its main point. "We won't have to worry about anymore fan uprisings at all."
"Speaking of which," Noire said, "what about the people who watched the broadcast that weren't fans? How are they going to be affected?"
C-Sha was the one to answer her.
"Most of what the twins said was directed at the fans and their behavior so I doubt there would be much of an issue. Well, asides from the candy part but I'm sure that won't cause too much of a problem."
Noire gave an angry glare at the sheepishly smiling Ram but thankfully decided to let the matter go in light of their victory.
"Actually..." Sync suddenly chimed in, an uneasy smile appearing on his face. "There is also the tiny fact that most of Lastation will be forced to never harm me again thanks to the second order. Not to mention they probably think of Me x Ram & Rom as their OTP now." He turned towards the twins as his smile became a lot more forced-looking. "We're going to need to have a talk about that later, by the way."
"What?" Ram shrugged off. "I just made it clear that you belong to us."
Not surprisingly, Neptune jumped at the chance like a lion pouncing on its prey. "Aha! I knew it! He's forming a harem! He's starting with the lolis and working his way up!"
Vert got the feeling that if Sync had been a more serious person, he would have face-palmed. Instead, he simply turned his strained smile over to the pointing Planeptune goddess.
"Working up from lolis, you say? Guess that makes you my next target, Neptune."
"AHHHH! NO! You can't take me! Go after Blanc first! She's shorter and flatter than me!"
Lowee, CPU's office
Blanc crushed the computer mouse in her hand into a tiny ball as she felt a sudden and inexplicable wave of rage for some reason.
"Nepu! I just felt a major disturbance in the Nep-force!"
Once again, Noire was the one to shut the loud-mouthed CPU up as she whacked her over the head.
"How would a regular citizen watching the broadcast know that you were the ones the twins were referring to?" the twin-tailed CPU asked, completely ignoring Neptune's complaints. "I doubt anyone knows your name and only the fans referred to you as the... Waifu Thief."
Sync passed up his chance to make fun of her for saying his alias as he instead gave a small sigh.
"Sis is probably going to need to publicly announce me as Leanbox's CPU Candidate once we get back. Once everyone links my real name to my appearance, Ram and Rom's commands will take over and force them to comply." He gave a small shrug as his carefree smile returned. "Still, it's not like their commands regarding me were too bad. I really don't mind not being killed and I'm sure I can deal with them believing I'm engaged to the twins."
He gave a sudden cough before continuing on in a quieter tone. "Note to self: Continue work on the brain bleach formula."
"Brain bleach?!" Nepgear cried out, somehow managing to hear his whispered comment. "I want to help work on it too!"
Sync's right eye gave a slight twitch as the mad scientist continued to yell about his secret plan.
Before anyone could respond, a loud groan suddenly interrupted them.
Turning around, the group saw K-Sha shakily getting back up to her feet as she kept her left hand over her head.
Taking charge of the situation, Noire walked forward with her arms crossed.
"Have you finally come back to your senses?" she asked sharply.
K-Sha looked over at the CPU with a dazed look.
"Noire... I..."
The former Yandere Queen stumbled forward before Noire reached out to catch her.
"Geez. I can't believe you did all of that crazy stuff," the twin-tailed goddess said, her voice becoming noticeably gentler as she helped steady her friend. "Look, I can't fully forgive you for what you've done but I'm still glad you're alright."
K-Sha's eyes began to tear up as she looked up at Noire's smiling face.
"Noire..." she whispered out. "Thank you..."
"Thank you for getting rid of all those annoying voices."
Without warning, K-Sha pulled out a black hexagonal object and slammed it into Noire's chest. A mass of energy-laced wires immediately sprouted from the device before wrapping itself tightly around the stunned goddess.
"Noire!" Neptune and Vert cried out.
"What?!" Ram exclaimed, her eyes widening in shock. "No one should have been able to resist our cuteness!"
K-Sha gave a loud laugh as Noire fell before her with her entire body tied up in wires.
"Did you really think something like that would work on me?" the Yandere asked, her voice taking on its falsely sweet tone from before. "The only thing you've done is make me love my darling Noire even more than I already have!"
"K-Sha!" Noire yelled. "Stop this right-!"
A massive jolt of electricity suddenly ran through the wires causing her words to be cut off by her own screams.
"KYAAAAAAAAAH!"
"Now, now, dear," K-Sha chided as the shock ended. "No need to get so worked up. Just stay right there while I take care of these pests, okay?"
Noire barely managed to hold onto her consciousness as she glared up hatefully at her captor.
K-Sha did not seem to care as she stepped forward while flexing her own hand.
"Ah, it feels so nice to finely be back in control again. All those idiots shouting about in my head about wanting my dear Noire for themselves... It really was driving me insane. I really-"
Her eyes momentarily widened as a green laser blade and a pair of metal swords clashed against her still-active energy shield and stopped mere inches away from her neck.
"Hm... Didn't anyone ever tell you it's rude to interrupt others when they're speaking?" K-Sha asked.
Sync gave a snort as he and his synchronized mentor teleported a few meters back.
"And didn't anyone ever tell you its rude to kidnap goddesses and torture them?" he shot back.
K-Sha gave him a smile as she snapped her fingers. A circle of proximity mines suddenly appeared around Noire as she quickly froze in fear. To make matters worse, Big Nep and Sync soon realized that they could not teleport either the CPU or the explosives away due to K-Sha's Gold Third energy interfering with their powers.
"Hmhm... Noire is mine and I can do what I want with her," the Yandere said happily. Her creepy-looking smile widened as she looked directly into the boy's eyes. "As for you, you've been a thorn in my side for long enough. I think it's about time I removed you from play."
"You'll have to get through us first."
K-Sha merely watched in amusement as Vert and Neptune appeared next to the boy in their HDD forms. Behind them, Nepgear, Ram, Rom, and C-Sha rallied forth as well in their transformed states. Even the Hunters came forward to oppose her even though they looked absolutely terrified underneath their goggles.
K-Sha gave another loud laugh at the assembled heroes.
"Such a lively crowd. However, I believe the little green pest and I already have an appointment together."
A glowing purple-framed card suddenly appeared in her right hand as she looked back at her captive with a wide smile.
"Watch me closely Noire. Let me show you the full extent of my love!"
And with a final maniacal laugh, she activated her trap card.