Chapter 25

"Come on Turtle!" pleaded Neptune.

"No," I said sternly and pointed to the pile of pudding cups in her room. "You've already eaten so much. You've had enough today."

"But that's my normal!" Neptune lunged at me again and I dodged out of the way, holding the cup of pudding.

"You're gonna get chubby if you keep eating so much!" I pointed at her belly. "How do you like them apples?"

*Thwack!*

"Oof!" Neptune tackled me, making the pudding cup fall from grasp and allowing her to catch it.

She grinned happily as she got up and tore off the seal. "Hehehe! My apples are better than yours!"

I slowly pulled myself off the ground and sat on one of the dining room chairs. "Damnit."

IF sighed. "Geez, Nep, why do you have to be so childish? Tolise is right, you might actually get fat at this rate."

Neptune jumped into the air. "Nepu! Iffy, you're turning towards the dark side?! I thought we were friends, young padawan!"

IF sighed. "I'm not turning against you, I'm just trying to help you."

"No! Compa, Nep Jr., you guys are on my side, right?"

"Well Nep-Nep, your belly has seemed to have gotten a bit bigger."

"No, not you too Compa!"

Neptune turned to face Nepgear. "Um, you're going to make our room a mess and your body won't function right if you eat nothing but sweets, Neptune."

"Nep Jr., NOOOOO!" Neptune fell to her knees, still holding the pudding. "I know! Histy, you agr—"

"Absolutely not!" Histoire quickly responded in a firm tone.

"Aww~" Neptune fell onto the floor. "Man, you guys all suck!"

"Sorry, we're just trying to look out for you," I pulled her up off the ground and set her on the couch. "You can finish that cup, but after that, that's it for today, alright?"

"Really?! Okay!"

I walked back over to the dining table, watching Neptune savor her pudding. "That girl..."

"So, Tolise," IF addressed me. "You wanna go to Lowee with Gear, Compa, Neptune and me tomorrow?"

"Lowee?"

Compa nodded. "Yeah! There's a lot of pretty snow there and the CPU there lives in a giant castle!" Compa spread her hands as far as she could to show how big it was, making me laugh.

"Alright, I'll go."

"Great!" IF turned to face Histoire. "Histoire, would you also like to come with us?"

Histoire shook her head. "I would rather not. I need to watch over the basilicom."

"Alright, maybe next time."

"Maybe..."

While Nepgear, IF, Compa and I were cleaning off the table and dishes, Histoire hovered over to me. "Tolise, we need to talk." She looked at me with a serious face.

"Alright."

We walked to my room, I locked the door and turned back to face Histoire. "What is it?"

"Have you met that cloaked man yet?"

I nodded. "Twice actually, why?"

"Because, he's after something that you have."

"Do you think it's the Darkness?"

"Maybe, do you know if it has "that" in him like you?"

"Yeah, he does," I thought back to back then. "The only difference was that his 'tattoo' was a different color from the 'others' and so was his aura."

"I see...," Histoire closed her eyes to think. "Then just be careful if you run into him again, listen to the advice I gave you and make sure to contact me with this device if the Darkness starts to come out," Histoire materialized a touchpad with a single blue button in the center. "Just press the button to contact me."

I took the touchpad from her and stuffed it into my pocket. "Thanks."

"Not a problem and have fun tomorrow,"Histoire said with a smile.

I smiled back.

"It's so...um," I looked around me. "Snowy."

"Of course it is! It's Lowee and it's always snowing, which means we can play all day long!" Neptune threw some snow into the air.

"By the way," I turned to face IF. "Why are we here?"

"I just have to gather some information about something," IF pointed to Neptune. "And she's just here to play."

I sighed. "That sounds about right..."

I looked around at Lowee. It looked pretty simplistic. All the buildings range from many bright colors with a bit of white color thrown in, the buildings were covered with snow, there was a giant white castle with colorful tower tops, past the castle was a group of large mountains covered by snow and everyone that I saw looked really happy and peaceful. It did seem to be a pretty fun place to be.

Besides IF and Compa, who wanted to go with IF, we were walking through the streets, heading towards the basilicom. "Hey, Nepgear."

"Yeah?"

I pointed to the castle. "Is the basilicom in Lowee really that giant castle?"

"Yes, it's very nice."

Neptune let out a laugh. "The only thing I wish Lowee had though, is a crepe shop."

"Why?"

She looked over at me with a look saying 'Are you stupid?' "Are you stupid? Crepes taste good!"

"Yeah, but not everything revolves around eating and playing video games."

"Sure it does! If I can play video games, eat and not get lectured by Histy, then that means everything is peaceful!"

"…" This girl. "By the way, what's the CPU of Lowee like? How about her sisters?"

"Slow down with all the questions!" Neptune pushed Nepgear in front of me. "Nep Jr. will explain that all to you!"

"Goodness, why me, sis?"

"Because you're better with your words!"

"O-okay," Nepgear gave her attention to me. "Well, her name's Blanc and she has two little sisters, Rom and Ram. Blanc...is, um, she—"

Neptune spoke up. "She has anger management problems!"

I nodded. "Sure..."

"Also, Rom and Ram are pretty nice and they're always together."

Neptune chimed in. "Just meet them IRL, it'll be much easier that way!"

I was starting to worry a bit. "Okay..."

"Wow, this really is a big castle." It looked like it could touch the Heavens.

"Well, that's Blanc for ya'," Neptune smiled. "I bet you she's just waiting to get kidnapped by some turtle king so her sisters can save her!"

"Or maybe she just wants to live in this big castle, ya' know, normally."

"Pffft! Yeah, right!" Neptune kicked the grand double doors open.

*BANG!*

Neptune shouted at the top of her lungs. "Hey Blanc! We've come to play!"

The inside so far looked, of course, like a chapel. Past the walkway and workers, there were another pair of doors that led to two long, spacious white hallways with wooden doors against the walls and blue marble flooring. "Is all this room really necessary?"

"You can never have too much room!"

"Yeah, but if you don't use all of this space, then it's a waste."

Nepgear gave me a look of curiosity. "Does that mean you prefer small houses?"

"No, I'm just saying there's such a thing as too much room."

*Tmp!* *Tmp!*

We turned to the left to the sound of echoing footsteps. "Hm?"

"Why are you guys here? I just want to read in peace." said a girl's voice.

When the girl rounded the corner, Neptune smiled. "Hey Blanc!"

There stood a girl about an inch shorter than Neptune with short sandy-brown hair, pale skin and dark blue eyes. She wears a white cap with blue ruffles and a brown and gold center. Her clothes consist of an open white coat with brown lining and a white dress underneath with brown and blue lining. In addition, she wears a blue, crossed ribbon around her neck with a gold and blue badge in the center, wears blue sandals and a bandage-like white ribbon around her right calf.

She looked over at me. "Who is this? Another one that wants to disturb me?"

I shook my head. "No, I'm just some guy."

She gave me a blank stare. "What's your name?"

"Tolise, and you?"

"I'm Blanc." She pulled out a book from God-knows-where and flashed it in my face. "If you don't disturb my reading, I won't have to punish you people." She gave us a deathly glare. "Got it?"

"Yeah, yeah Blanc!" Neptune waved her off. "Hey, can we play on your consoles?"

"…" She returned to her blank stare. "Don't disturb my reading."

She walked away from us and entered the first door on her right, leaving us standing there. I guess that's a yes. "Well, why don't we go find her consoles?" Neptune suggested.

She ran across the hallway and turned the corner. "Hurry up or I'm going to find all a hundred coins!"

I turned over to look over at Nepgear. "Want to follow her?"

She wore a worried look. "I'd be more worried if we didn't..."

And like that, we were following Neptune once again...

A/N:

I'm thinking I might be able to get all three chapters out this week, with the exception of Friday. Anyway, after a few more chapters, I'll start on completing the first arc. Yes, there are arcs to this series and there are four, technically five in total, each revealing more about Tolise, his past, and the people he knew. But that's for another day. Anyway, thanks for reading once again and I hope to see you in the next chapter!