Chapter 43: The Price of Neglect
Hyperdimension: 20XX; 4:11 PM; Planeptune; Basilicom
"Hey! I'm done with these reports!"
Uni walked over to the desk where the Planeptune CPU was surrounded on all sides by other desks and similar barriers courtesy of Histoire and her own little sister. Squeezing past the small gaps, Uni let out a breath and placed the papers in her arms onto Neptune's desk.
"As I expected! Noire's little sis takes after her really well! She can do work just as well!" Neptune complimented the twin-tailed CPU Candidate with a wide grin, raising her hands up with thumbs up on both. "At this rate, we can go back to developing Left for Dead 3!"
"Don't lie to the readers." Noire replied, spinning around on her officer chair and delivering a solid blow to the lilac-haired CPU's head with a clenched fist. "If we finish early, we do more work. We keep going and going until there's no work left. That's how a CPU should do things."
Neptune just planted her forehead into the desk and rolled around lazily with a groan of a response. "No, that's how a you would do things."
"No backtalk! Do your work!"
"What's with her?" Neptune groaned, clinging onto Nepgear who was sitting in the chair next to her. "Nep. Jr! Why is she so mean when she's in my house~?"
"You should be doing your work like this all the time, anyway." Nepgear replied. "And besides…I think what Raph said is bothering her, anyway."
"I can hear you." Noire cut in, her eyes still focused on the papers in front of her.
"I don't think he meant it that way, Noire. I mean-"
"How can you mean anything else when you talk to someone like that?!" Noire abruptly smashed her hands into her table, spun around on her chair for the second time and then standing up on her feet. "He didn't look at us, and he just spoke to us like he didn't care one bit at all! What kind of attitude is that?!"
"I can understand what she means." Vert said, walking into the room with a small glass of juice in her hands. She sat onto the couch that was a short distance from the working girls. "I mean, the other guys haven't been talking much to us, have they? When we try, they offer a few words and some small talk. They don't approach us as often, and we see them having fun with their own friends so often it's almost irritating."
"Kyle even said that he would be coming after school, but he doesn't even go on the weekends anymore…" Noire mumbled to herself, landing roughly into her chair and crossing her arms.
…did that dumbass just say that to be nice? That idiot, getting my hopes up…wait, why am I hoping for anything?!
"Your face is red, big sis. Maybe you should rest for a-"
"MY FACE IS NOT RED! DON'T MAKE UP LIES!"
"Oh, your forehead is warm! Maybe you should lie down and-"
"DON'T TOUCH ME!"
"They are our guides, I suppose." Blanc replied, moving away from the blast radius that was Noire's arms flailing as the Lastation CPU tried to get away from her little sister. Blanc stood up and squeezed through the gap in between tables, and she sat down onto the couch opposite Vert and took a sip from another glass of juice that she'd placed there earlier. "They were just doing their job."
But… Every single moment of the summer flashed through her head at that instant, making her heart leap and sink at the same time as her pulse quickened even though she wasn't sure why. …all this time…even though we'd done all of that…
"I think…you're wrong about that."
Noire and Blanc turned to stare at Nepgear, who'd turned around on her chair and said that. She gave the two CPUs a firm look straight in the eye.
"…I mean…we did obligate them somehow into becoming our Guides, but it's different from separating professional and personal lives." Nepgear placed her pen onto the table, her gaze downcast yet her voice still somehow convincing and hopeful. She didn't want to believe that there was any remote possibility in what Noire was thinking. The Candidate could tell what it was, and she didn't like it one bit. "The time we spent with them isn't like that. They're not just Guides anymore. They're…precious to us."
Nepgear glanced up, and then yelped in shock. "Vert, you're having a nosebleed. Are you okay?"
"I'm okay, keep going. Keep talking." The blonde waved her hand, telling them not to worry for her as she reached out for a box of tissues and began cleaning up her mess.
"I'm with Nep Jr. on this one!" Neptune suddenly cried out, standing onto her chair and pointing to the sky as if she were aiming at heaven. "We wouldn't nearly have had as much fun if we treated them like secretaries!"
"…I'm with Neptune on this one!" Ram burst out of the kitchen doorway, pudding cup in hand and pudding bits on her face. "They've been cool guys all summer!"
"…mhm." Rom nodded in agreement, appearing behind her sister with five more pudding cups in her arms. "Well, I don't think the secretary metaphor works well for this case."
"Ram has a point." Uni agreed, sitting down onto her own office chair. "I don't know why they're so cold right now, but they don't think of us that way."
"Five on three!" Neptune declared loudly, grinning from ear to ear. "According to the standard rules of WWE, you will lose easily! Hell in a Cell, baby!"
"I know they don't hate us or anything close!" Nepgear insisted in stubborn, well meaning agreement, clenching her fists as she did.
"…I know you're right." Noire replied, and she turned her eyes to the floor. "I know you're right…I know you're right…I know you're right! But…but if you're right…then…" She smashed her fist into the table, silencing everyone. The mood went cold, the air slowly whistling past their necks and sending a chill down their spines.
"Even though I know you're right, why is this happening?!" Noire didn't like any of it either. Everyone could tell.
"…like I know." Blanc muttered, averting her gaze. "I can't read minds."
Earth; August 6, 2014; 3:02 PM; Melinville, Main Street SE
"…school's gotten duller for some reason, ever since the girls left." Grape muttered idly, spinning one of his earphones. "And now that 2D has become 3D, they just go on back? Damn."
"They'll be back in a few days." Javy shot back, sighing. "More importantly, I want to get to Raph's house already. I wanna lie down and take a nap."
"You're the one who wanted to come over, so stop complaining." Raph replied, sighing. He placed a finger to his chin, his thoughts still in whirlwind as the memory of the note came back to him. "I can't help but feel like something's wrong, though…"
"Did something happen?" Matt asked, peering more closely at his friend, since he was walking right beside Raph.
Raph shook his head, and they continued their walk in silence.
…that note gives me a bad feeling.
"Hey, you dropped something." Matt suddenly blurted out, his gaze falling onto a small scrap of paper that had slipped out of Raph's back pocket and landed on the street. He bent down to pick it up, and he began to unfold it. "What's this?"
With absolutely no warning at all, Raph swiped the paper back before Matt could finish unfolding it. "That's…!"
"…is this an unprecedented love letter flag?" Grape abruptly neared Raph, his gaze locked onto the scrap of paper. "You're gonna have a hell of a time managing your flags and events if anyone else besides us sees this."
"Shut it." Raph replied, his gaze turning wistful as he looked at the paper again. "…this is…"
Earth; August 6, 2014; 3:26 PM; Raph's House
"In other words, they left this note behind and went to Gamindustri without telling anyone?" Kyle summarized, waving the note in between his fingers.
"…is that really a problem?" Matt peered at the contents of the note, unsure of the reason for anxiety. "At least they left a note."
"No, no, no." Grape cut in, taking the note and rereading the contents for the umpteenth time. He then placed the piece of paper back onto the table in the midst of living room and then sat back on the couch, reaching for a PS3 controller. "This behavior is erratic, according to the tendencies set forth by the games that I've played in addition to the information I've procured over summer break."
"…what on earth are you going on about?" Raph muttered, sighing as he crashed into the main couch alongside Matt and Kyle.
"Maybe they were in a hurry?" Matt offered weakly. He didn't know what else to say.
"Well, that's also a possibility." Grape shrugged, turning on the PS3. "Aside from not ruling out all the possibilities, at least one of them is bound to say something. They're all really good girls whose personalities meld with that of the Japanese anime industry's best, so at least one of them would have said goodbye or something."
"Well, they haven't been talking to us very often." Javy said, shrugging. "Maybe they thought it would be quick, so they didn't bother."
"I'm not buying it." Kyle shot back, raising a hand as he objected. "It's not something like that. There's something up, and we don't know what it is."
Hyperdimension: Year 20XX; 3:26 PM; Planeptune; Basilicom
"Oh, good. You're all here."
"Histoire?" Noire called out her name as she saw the Oracle float into the room through the doorway. "Is there something you need to speak to us for?"
"Ah, I just received the report from Grape." She replied, and everyone immediately slammed the brakes and turned to face her. The Oracle thought nothing of it, and just continued. "The content was quite long, actually, but well detailed. Oh, and he also left a message for you at the end of the report."
"D-did he?" Nepgear asked, unsure of whether or not she should even be responding to the statement. "What was it?"
"He told me to tell you that while you were away, they are all doing well."
Histoire felt a sudden shift in atmosphere change the air, and she immediately felt a spike of regret in her soul even though she was unbeknownst to why. Why do I…feel like I said something I shouldn't have?
"Is that so?" Noire replied, smiling. "That's good for them, isn't it, Blanc?"
"Yes, as it seems. They seem to be doing stellar without us." The Lowee CPU agreed, smiling.
But both of those smiles felt colder than the dark side of the moon.
…oh dear, this isn't good. Nepgear thought to herself. My own feelings aside…I get the feeling that something bad is going to happen.
Earth; August 7, 2014; 7:41 PM; Raph's House
Raph widened his eyes when he saw the PS3 suddenly boot up on its own, making a noise as it did. He approached the screen, and it immediately turned into a massive Skype-like close up of Histoire's face.
"Hello?" She called out, as if she were looking for someone. She cast her gaze about the room she could see worriedly for a moment, a look of relief spreading on her face when she saw Raph. "Oh, Raph. There you are, thank goodness."
"Something wrong? We sent the report already, so…" He trailed off, standing in front of the screen dutifully.
"No, it's not about that." Histoire replied, her expression becoming concerned. "It's something else."
"I see…"
"Um…you see, this concerns you Guides and the girls…"
Earth; August 8, 2014; 4:21 PM; Raph's House
"They're coming home today, aren't they?" Grape asked, looking up from his laptop. "The girls, I mean."
"That's what I heard from Histy last night." Raph replied, nodding.
"Good." Kyle grinned eagerly. "It's about damn time."
And in the room, an especially large collection of light suddenly emerged. A few instants more, and the light disappeared. In its place, the girls stood.
"Yo." Grape raised a hand up in greeting as he saw them.
"H-hi."
Grape's eyebrows knit at the strangely nervous tone decorating Himawari's greeting. …I figured as much. There's still something wrong.
"I'm back!" Kyle greeted with a grin, waving at them.
"I can see that." Ayase replied, closing one eye and quickly looking somewhere else.
…what's with the attitude? Kyle wondered, clueless to the coldness he was sensing.
"I'm sorry, we're all quite exhausted from work." Sakuya let out a tired sigh. "We won't be cooking tonight."
"Alright." Raph, completely nonchalant, shrugged and nodded. "What do you guys want to eat, then?"
The girls stared at them wide-eyed, none of them able to formulate a reply.
Is this going to work, Grape? Raph shot a glance at his friend, who was sitting inches away from him. He nudged the man with his foot, subtly catching his attention. Raph spoke with his eyes and his thoughts, his wordless conversation with Grape beginning on a very worried note.
Grape said nothing, but he adjusted the position of his laptop. With his signature incredibly quick typing speed, the glasses-wearing boy typed out a message.
Don't worry, this plan has a 50-50 chance of backfiring on us. If things work out, we'll find out what's been going on for the past few days. If the worst case scenario comes to pass, there are still a number of ways of easily resolving the situation within a short period of time.
…that doesn't reassure me. Especially that 50-50 part. Raph thought to himself.
"…it would seem as if you don't remember…" Kureha grumbled, her finger pressed to her temple. "Actually, it pisses me off how clueless you seem right now."
…what exactly did we do wrong? Raph looked to Kyle for the answer, but he just shrugged.
Kyle's silent response was a glance that said I guess.
He nudged Grape again and asked the question again with his eyes. Grape typed out his reply: The explanation will come in a bit.
"…what happened?" Javy asked, and the three boys having a wordless conversation immediately wanted to collapse in response.
"I told you it was a misunderstanding." Sakura replied, giggling. She then poked Ayase and Yuki in their sides, making them jump forward.
"What happened?" Matt asked them, completely lost.
"Well…"
One Explanation Later…
"…so, in other words, you thought that we were ignoring you guys because we weren't talking like the way we used to for the past few days." Grape looked up from his laptop, grinning slightly. "The final nails in the coffin was the incident a few nights ago, when Raph was talking to us on Skype and you assumed that he was talking to you instead, as well as the report that I sent to Histoire."
"Yeah." Sakuya chuckled. "I'm quite relieved about this particular misunderstanding."
"…mm…" Shino nodded, shaking quite a bit. "…I was actually kind of worried. I'm so glad that nothing bad happened."
"It was obviously just a coincidence." Kyle said, shrugging. "I knew this all along."
"You liar." Matt shot back. "You didn't know what was going on, either."
The two started another fight with swear words in their native language that no one else cared to bother listening to, and the guys and girls made way for their bout while they continued to converse amongst each other instead.
"It's a good thing everything's back to the way it was." Sakuya smiled warmly.
"Nope. Not yet."
Sakuya glanced back at Grape, who closed the lid of his laptop momentarily to look at everyone with a serious expression. He stood up, and then sat down onto the couch, next to Raph. "Things aren't over yet without an apology."
He bowed his head. "Whoever's right or wrong is irrelevant here. I apologize for neglecting you guys, and I'm sorry I didn't talk to you guys more."
"Wait, wait, that's not it!" Himawari immediately rose to her feet, shaking her head. "We were the ones who started the misunderstandings! We should be saying sorry!"
"Yeah, what she says is true." Yuki nodded in agreement, bowing her own head. "We must also apologize for being presumptuous."
"…however, several actions of my own are to blame for those presumptions." Grape gave that simple response, and then raised his head to reveal his wide grin. "Sorry."
"I'm sorry, too." Raph replied, scratching his earlobe and averting his gaze. "For…you know, everything."
"Hey, you two idiots!" Grape stood up and dashed over to Kyle and Matt, and steered them back in the direction of the girls. "Apologize!"
"I'm sorry!" "My bad!" Matt and Kyle bowed deeply after Grape pushed their heads down, and then quickly got back to their argument and sped past Grape and back to the dining room.
"…we owe you an apology as well." Sakura bowed. "For everything."
"Me, especially." Ayase bowed as well, her head sinking lower than everyone else. "I was mostly responsible for planting the idea in everyone's heads. Sorry."
"There's no need for that anymore." Grape bellowed, laughing heartily and walking towards the kitchen doorway. "Dinner's on us, so we'll serve you some of our specialties!" He gestured to Raph and the rest of the guys. "Come on, let's go!"
"You're too loud." Javy complained, groaning as he walked towards him and disappeared into the kitchen. "And you can't cook! Set the table or something!"
"Rude, aren't you?! Fine, then! I shall serve the creamiest scrambled egg ever to grace your tongue!"
"Fine, fine." Raph shrugged, dragging Kyle and Matt who were still going at it by their collars into the kitchen.
The girls laughed, and then sat down in the living room together as the guys went into the kitchen and left them to themselves.
"…I'm really glad it was a misunderstanding." Yuki let out an immense sigh of relief, melting into the couch pillow like it was a beanbag.
Sakuya got an idea on a whim, and her lips curled into a wicked grin as she took that idea and gave it form through her words. "Aren't you glad Raph doesn't hate you, Yuki~?"
The brown-haired CPU's cheeks flushed instantly, giving the brunette the perfect look forever immortalized in Shounen Jump as an embarrassed maiden. She immediately got to her feet, picked up the closest object, which just so happened to be a surprisingly lengthy piece of wood, and rushed at the blonde with the makeshift weapon.
Sakuya just chuckled as she dodged, and the two engaged in their usual dance of death and destruction while everyone decided to ignore them and continue.
"It's like all of our worries were for nothing." Sakura smiled in a mixture of relief and knowingness. "Well, I always believed that they never did."
Himawari pointed her finger at Sakura. "Don't make it sound like you knew what was going to happen at the end, little sister! That makes you sound more like a main character than me!"
"You never doubted anyone from the start, Himawari." Ayase replied, giving the purple-haired girl a grumpy look. "You don't have any room to talk like that."
"Hehehe~"
"Don't look happy about it!"
