This is going to be a divise chapter. Haha, get it? Because it's divided and... Funny joke?
Don't kill me just yet please.
Episode 13: IF/C-sha
Late afternoon had reached Planeptune's sun soaked streets. People were returning from their workplace and crowded the streets and sidewalks in this monstrous rush hour. Even for a veteran city girl like IF this was hard to navigate sometimes. She found herself surrounded by impatient people that wanted to push in every direction at once.
She envied Compa a little whose shifts at the hospital usually ended or started at off times, sparing her this trouble. Next time she visited her she would definitely mention it.
With one rough push to the outer layer of the crowd she managed to slip out into an alleyway. From here she took a few stairs and jumped over a balcony (don't do this at home kids) to reach the level of her apartment building. She wiped off some sweat with her long sleeve and took a moment to recover.
As she pulled out her keys to open the door she realized that it was already unlocked.
"Again Nep?" She clicked her tongue. Ever since she had given Neptune spare keys to her apartment the careless girl kept forgetting to lock the door.
Under normal circumstances someone might have assumed that Neptune was just home right now, but IF knew better. For a while now Neptune had run off every day to goddess knows where. Every time she returned with some new weird accessory. Strangely enough most of them seemed vaguely familiar.
When she asked her goofy friend what the point was, Neptune said they were proof of her victories and when she collected all eight, the final boss would definitely appear. IF had just written it off as the usual Nep idiocy.
What she did find out through some sources (and by listening to the Hi Five radio show) was that Nep wasted her time trying to propose to Lady Noire in ridiculous ways. If IF had any say in the matter she would have made Nep become a responsible member of society first. She was burning through those mountains of credits she made on their first quest rather fast. Looking at her receipts… she had bought a freaking blimp! Why would Nep need a blimp?!
Nep had to find a stable job and calm down. Then she and Lady Noire could settle their score like grownups and live happily ever after. Preferably not inside IF's apartment.
The door opened with a creak and IF stepped inside swiftly. The door was already closed behind her before she even put away her shoes in the shoe rack.
She groaned a little while rubbing her stiff shoulders and sluggishly stumbled into the living room. Her tired gaze brushed past the window… which was open. Not even Nep was that careless.
Her body stiffened up as she heard the sound of her front door being locked from the inside.
With her hands at her Qatar she was prepared to fight the burglar off. But what kind of burglar locked the door? Did that mean this intruder was after her specifically?
Her ears perked up so much that she could hear even the slightest of sounds. The dripping in her sink. The sound of the rustling leaves outside the window. The sound of a long wooden object being swung-
Her legs were pulled away by a staff. She tried to cushion her fall with her arms, but before she could react she was already caught inside a rope. With a swift move she was pulled back up and her arms tied together with force. The mysterious attacker kicked her down on one of her chairs.
"Ungh… who are you?" IF squinted one eye when the hard chair hit her back.
"Someone with questions. You could call me a private detective of sorts." The figure moved out of the shadows and revealed… red eyes. Long green ponytail. A risky black outfit.
"Chika?" IF's eyes turned white. "Why?"
Had she just literally been ambushed by someone she knew and talked to on a regular basis?
"We have questions for you and it would be unfortunate if we got interrupted." She pulled the glove on her right hand tighter. She didn't leave any fingerprints behind… wait why was this looking like a real crime?!
"Who is 'we'?" IF raised a brow.
"I am the one asking the questions." Chika retorted in best super-villain fashion.
"Alright! I wouldn't have run away in the first place. We know each other…" This was silly. If she had just approached her normally they could have held a conversation between two reasonable acquaintances.
"It's about my darling Vert and Lady Blanc."
The Qatar in IF's sleeve slid out and cut the rope in an instant. With unexpected agility IF performed a backflip off the chair and kicked off the ground to hero jump out of the open window.
If the guild member hadn't been so panicked she would probably have realized that someone as meticulous as Chika wouldn't leave such an obvious escape route for her unless…
ZZZZZAP!
IF was electrocuted by the tiny wires that had been placed in front of the window. She could barely have seen them in time even if she wasn't trying to cannonball out of the the apartment.
After being thoroughly grilled and lying face down on her own floor, IF was dragged back to the chair by Chika.
"You wouldn't run, hm?" The green haired captor crossed her arms dismissively.
IF realized that she wouldn't be able to escape without a fight to the death. And despite her superior combat experience, she somehow doubted her chances against this scary girl in front of her. Especially while her body smelled like roasted beef.
"I give up." She sighed. "Lady Vert asked me to stay quiet about this until she resolved the problem."
Chika nodded.
"I know how considerate my darling can be."
"Unlike a certain someone…" IF coughed.
Chika was unaffected by her sharp tongue. The ropes were getting tighter though.
"I don't know the details either." IF began her story. "All I can tell you is what I saw at the festival…"
Around the same time in Leanbox.
The entertainment district was always hustling and bustling, no matter the time of day. C-sha was more used to the calmer regions of Lowee. She was the outdoors type, so this was a bit much. Neon signs everywhere, advertisements for the craziest new products and teenagers running rampant on the Arcades and electronics stores.
Somewhere around here she would find her target.
Honestly, it might have been easier to just waltz into the Basilicom and hope for the best. But according to her long observations, Vert was not hanging out inside her former workplace all that much recently. When she visited Chika in the Zero dimension she subtly pried that information out of her. Of course Vert's self-declared little sister was pretty open about her grief with the situation.
The question was where the blonde ex-CPU went off too every day. She was not visiting Nepgear and she wasn't seen in any attention grabbing contests either. For Vert it would have been easy to attract all eyes to her. In fact it might be unavoidable.
But nothing of the sort happened. C-sha went the extra mile and made an account in 4 Goddess Online 2, a MMO that Vert seemed to frequent more than any other game. And sure enough, the veteran player was online almost 24/7. How was this possible if she wasn't at home?
C-sha had found only one reasonable answer. An internet café.
Recluses as well as teenagers and the occasional husband thrown out of his home by his angry wife were gathering here to waste their time away. Cubicles were rented to whoever needed them for a semblance of privacy. If one wanted to vanish of the face of the earth, this was a good place to do it.
The problem: There were hundreds of these places all over the nation.
By logical deduction C-sha figured that Vert would not go too far from the Basilicom which was still her home after all. Still, even in a walking distance from the mansion, things were rather crowded with these shops.
She had spent most of the last week trying to find the correct place. It was like she had the worst luck ever. So many misses seemed almost impossible. The only explanation was that Vert was switching up her spots every now and then. When she asked the clerks if anybody had seen a busty blonde woman in their internet café, they were all too happy to share the wildest stories. The same happened if she directly asked whether the CPU herself had come to their shops.
As it turned out she had been overlooking one of them this entire time, because it wasn't advertised like the others. A private club. She had found out about it by accident when she heard a couple talking about it after exiting from the underground stairs.
It was all hidden in an average looking bar's basement.
Putting on her poker face she moved through the establishment as if it was just an every day visit. For these places it was important to act familiar. To make it seem like one belonged here. She passed by the bar without even giving the barkeep a nod. If she engaged in a conversation she might be interrogated. Barkeepers were a special blend of shrewd that even C-sha could not deal with.
As long as she went straight for the goal the regulars would assume that she had an invite from someone downstairs.
At least she hoped they would.
When her trained legs moved across the sharp curved stairwell she was slowly eneveloped in darkness. Yes, this was the feeling of a secret club.
Inside the basement she was greeted by dozens of cubicles and to her left a checkout desk. The clerk behind it appeared to be bored out of his mind as he played with his phone.
"How much for 2 hours?" C-sha leaned over the desk, slightly flaunting her body.
"1000 credits." The man said with a bored expression. He wasn't even looking up.
A steep price. This place must have been super-exclusive. Two hours wasn't even that much for this kind of establishment.
C-sha put the creds down and leaned her back against the desk while staring down the hall.
"Not very busy today, eh?" She casually remarked.
"Like it ever is." The guy shrugged.
"Only regulars, I guess?"
"Nobody else gets a permit. You're the first newcomer in weeks." The guy sniffed and put his phone down. He was looking at C-sha's straight brown hair. From this angle he couldn't see her face. "Do you want something from me Miss? Can we get this small talk over with?" He wasn't as dull as he looked.
"I'm just here on the invite of a friend." C-sha shrugged and put down an extra pile of credits. "Blonde, blue eyes. A real lady."
"Oh her." The guy huffed. "The one dressing up as Lady Green Heart. We got all types of weirdoes around."
"Yes, that's her. She happens to be a friend of mine that has become a little… distant."
"Should have figured you were the same brand. No real woman runs around in that get-up." He was staring at her pantyhose and skirtless lower body.
Did he… assume she was a guy in drag? Even C-sha felt her pride take a hit from that.
"Haha." She could only laugh it off.
"Runaways are the worst. Tell her off for me as well. My stupid son was the same during high-school. Can't be soft with brats." He was giving her life advice now(?).
"I will take it to heart."
"She's in the cubicle at the end of the second row. Don't pull any drama during my shift please." He waved her off and looked back at his phone like a nicotine addict grabbed his cigars.
C-sha put her beret in her vest pocket and walked through the sparsely lit hall. When she reached the one he had pointed to she felt a little hesitant. Was Lady Vert really in there? Was it fine to just barge in and confront her?
All she needed to push her hand ahead was to remember Blanny's sad eyes.
"Good day Lady Vert. I hope I'm not bothering you during something important." Her gray eyes focused on the silhouette of the blonde girl in front of the computer screen.
"I don't believe you would leave even if I said that you did." Vert replied calmly. Almost too calmly. Had she predicted that someone would sniff her out?
"That's true." C-sha admitted. Like she could back down now.
"I just wanted to take my mind off things for a while…" Vert was still moving her mouse and typing away on her keyboard.
She was playing her MMO on one screen, while also engaging in a puzzle game on another and typing inside a chat room on a third screen. It was… fascinating to watch her multitasking. Now that she was engaging in a conversation she put the puzzle game to pause. So her limit was three separate things at once, huh?
"…but now that Blanc's closest comrade has arrived that won't be possible." She didn't turn around, but she was clearly paying attention to C-sha now.
C-sha didn't react to the jab. Vert's circumstances were certainly sympathetic to her, but if the former goddess knew something about Blanny's troubles then she needed to find out.
"Just what happened between you and Blanny?" She asked straigh up.
The room turned silent for a few seconds, only interrupted by the constant tapping of keys and the clicking of the mouse. The character on the screen was performing crazy feats and skills to take down a boss all by herself. In a matter of seconds the overleveled hero beat the boss and took away great amounts of experience points and loot.
At the end of the character's victory animation Vert's shoulders loosened up. Her profile was hard to see against the light of the screen, but C-sha noticed that she looked uncertain.
The little time that they had known each other she had always gotten the impression that Vert was the deeply tenacious type. Unlike Blanny who was tough on the outside, but soft on the inside, she felt that Vert had a hard core. Something truly impenetrable. Whatever had happened during the play at the Peace Festival had shown off a side of her that nobody had expected.
Now was the time to put that tenacity to the test.
"She won't leave her room anymore. I have never seen her this depressed. Sometimes I wonder if she just gave up on happiness altogether."
"…" Vert seemed affected by those words.
"This started already before the Share drain." Suddenly C-sha let go of her inhibitions and just shared what she thought openly. "She has been acting introverted and unapproachable and every time you come up she has been especially cold. Nepgear told me that you don't get along during meetings and other events." She counted down her evidence. "As far as I know you two have had a history of drawn out arguments, but isn't this unnatural? Blanny blows up fast, but she never gets depressed over it."
"I wasn't aware how much it troubled her." Vert said with a quiet voice.
"If I had to estimate a time when this started…" C-sha closed her eyes and tapped her finger against her temple. "…I would say it was around the Summer Festival in Planeptune."
Vert's shoulders twitched.
Bullseye.
"I could have tried to ask the others what they saw back then." She sat down on a reversed chair that was placed in the corner of the cubicle. "But I wanted to go straight to you. Blanny is an important friend. She deserves my best efforts. So please tell me Lady Vert: What happened?"
"During the fireworks show." Vert finally caved in. Her blue eyes were distant as she recalled that suppressed memory.
C-sha nodded. During that time she had also been with them, looking up at the stars and fire flowers. Actually she had been sitting next to the twins and Uzume at the time. Where was Blanny during it? The pavilion? The whole evening was just one big blur to her.
"To my surprise when everything was illuminated by the fireworks and I let my guard down…" She could barely put it into words as she relived the moment. Her delicate fingers softly touched her lips. "…Blanc approached me without warning and…. Kissed me."
C-sha was frankly surprised. Maybe more than that. But somehow she was keeping it all hidden below a professional mask. If she let it get to her now she would probably misunderstand.
"Did you… see it coming?" She asked with a dry throat.
Vert didn't respond immediately as she leaned forward on her chair. The computer was humming in the background, completely ignored by now.
"Not at all." She confessed. "I did not expect Blanc to ever go that far."
Didn't that mean she suspected that Blanc had thought about it? Or was that just C-sha trying to interpret too much into it? This whole situation was bizarre and gave her a headache.
"I do not know what she meant by it either." Vert continued without being urged on by the blue-clad huntress. "Whether it was something… genuine." She sounded slightly bitter. "When I confronted her she told me it was just for material."
"…material?" What kind of cruel game was that supposed to be? C-sha was shocked to hear those words out of Vert's mouth.
"For her novels." Vert explained.
"Blanny wouldn't…" She wouldn't believe something like that so easily. Everything about this whole situation seemed wrong!
Vert held her head in her hands and sighed.
"This might very well have been my fault." She whispered mysteriously.
(To be continued)