Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Sega, Compile Heart and Idea Factory and everyone else who worked on it.

I dunno if any of you watch Boruto, but the English dub of the series has Boruto voiced by MAGES. (I thought he sounded like Uzume, TBH) and Himawari (his younger sister) voiced by Neptune (she even sounds like Nep Nep!). This has been your daily dose of useless trivia and knowledge.

Chapter 22

Darkness Sister Blue, or as she called herself these days, DS Blue, because as Financier and Compa had both pointed out, the name Darkness Sister made people think she was a bad person, flew towards White Heart, who was looking at a communication screen near the Basilicom. "Um, Blanc?"

White Heart looked back at her and turned back to the screen. "I'll talk to you later, Ram. Just get better, okay?" Ram nodded and the screen turned off. Turning to DS Blue, White Heart gave her a tired smile. "What is it, Rom?"

"Um, is Ram going to be okay?" DS Blue asked and White Heart nodded, getting a sigh of relief from DS Blue.

"Her stomach's queasy, but she'll be fine. Being a Goddess has some major advantages after all." White Heart smirked softly. "What about you? You look tired."

"A little bit." DS Blue yawned. "Um, are we needed here anymore?"

White Heart tilted her head. "Huh? Do you want to go take a nap or play some games?" It would make sense, the two had been working hard all day to direct people and make sure that no one was dropping dead and reassuring everyone that things would be okay, which was even easier to do after announcing that the medical professionals had figured out what the disease was and were working on fixing the problem.

DS Blue bit her lip softly. "Do you mind if I go and see about finding that tiger that I thought I saw?"

White Heart had a concerned look on her face, but sighed. "I guess it's okay, but be careful, okay? Both Noire and Peashy in Hyperdimension were attacked, and I don't want you to get hurt."

DS Blue nodded. "Sure. I'll only be gone for an hour, if I don't see the tiger, I'll come back, okay?" White Heart nodded and DS Blue turned and flew off.

"...Does she even know where the tiger supposedly went?" White Heart asked herself and sighed before flying back to the Basilicom. Upon landing just outside of her office, she transformed back into her human form, walked into her office and over to the couch before flopping, face-first, onto it and closing her eyes, drifting off to sleep. Extended use of her HDD and the combined stress of worrying about both Ram and her people just wore her out in ways that was hard to explain.

(-)

Meanwhile...

DS Blue flew through the area around Lowee City. "If I was a tiger, where would I be?" She asked herself rhetorically and giggled softly. "Well, I guess I'd be right here, because I'd only change what I was, not where I am, so..." She laughed some more at the her train of thought. "Eh, I'll just..." She paused and sighed while looking around at the forests. "Hmm, it would be easy to hide in there, wouldn't it?" Mentally shrugging, she flew off into the forests, just to see what she could see.

And if there was nothing in the forests, then she'd head home.

"Hmmm..." DS Blue closed her eyes as she landed in the forest and returned to normal. "No point in making myself more tired." It was something she didn't understand, why she got so tired in her HDD form that is. "Oh well." Rom shrugged and walked through the forest, looking for the tiger she had seen earlier in the day.

(-)

Fourty-five minutes later...

Rom sighed as she sat down by a large rock. "Well, this stinks." She supposed that she was looking in the wrong area or that she hadn't seen a tiger to begin with. "I guess I'll head home." Taking a deep breath, she transformed and was about to fly off when she heard a crunching sound. Turning, her pink eyes widened as she saw someone she had met earlier in the day. "Hey! It's you! The boy-girl!"

"Huh?" Said boy-girl blinked a few times and pouted. "My name's Matz. And boy-girl? Who calls someone that?"

DS Blue rubbed the back of her head nervously. "I'm sorry, I'm just tired." She giggled nervously and lowered her arm. "Plus my sister's sick and I thought I saw a tiger, so I kind of blurted that out."

Matz just shrugged. "It's okay, I haven't been called a boy-girl before." DS Blue smiled softly and Matz tilted their head. "But isn't your sister a Goddess? How did she get sick?"

"She drank some water that was poisoned or something." DS Blue told Matz and sighed softly. "I need to get back home. Would you like a lift back to town?"

"Well..." Matz looked to the side and pointed. "If you're looking for a tiger, you could try Tyger here."

"Huh?" DS Blue turned her head and gasped as she saw a giant tiger padding its way towards her, growling softly. "Wow... So beautiful." The tiger growled at her but otherwise didn't move.

"Yeah, Tyger is." Matz nodded as Tyger stopped and sat down. "Um... Your name is Rom, right?" Matz asked and DS Blue looked at the androgynous person, nodding. "You are really pretty, you know that?" Matz smiled as DS Blue blushed. "I have something I need to tell you."

"Huh?" DS Blue blinked as Matz got close. "What?"

"I'm sorry." Matz said to her suddenly.

The next thing that DS Blue knew, she felt Matz's hands grabbing hers and something soft and wet touching her lips.

'...I...' DS Blue's eyes widened as she realized that one, she was being kissed. Two, she was feeling kind of funny. And three... She wasn't sure if she wanted to kiss this boy-girl back or hit him-her.

Tyger watched as Matz reached into their pocket and pulled out a black orb. He let out a snort as he put the orb up against DS Blue, right under her breasts, which caused the CPU Candidate to break the kiss with a shriek.

"WHAT ARE... You... do...ing?" DS Blue asked before letting out a scream as her body glowed black. "Aaaaaa...AAAAAAH!"

Both Matz and Tyger watched as the black glow the was engulfing her body was absorbed into the black orb. This whole process lasted only a few seconds, but to both Matz and DS Blue, it felt like an eternity.

When it was over, Rom was back in her human form and crumpled on the ground, a pained grimace on her face as she panted heavily. "W-why?" She groaned and screwed her eyes shut as she trembled on the ground.

"I'm really sorry." Matz whispered softly and looked at the orb in their hands in disgust. "I know the leader said that this was needed, but..." Matz trailed off as what the leader told everyone came back to them.

*Flash*

The leader looked at Acti, Matz, Beth, Ubi, GBox, Tyger, and Tence as the group stood in a large, mostly empty, room and spoke. "I have given each of you one of the orbs, except Tyger." The leader ignored the snort of disdain from the animal and continued on. "You know your targets. Don't fail me."

Ubi looked at her orb and shrugged before handing it to Matz. "No offense, boss, but I'll probably break mine."

"And you hand it to the one who's best known for having stuff that breaks?" The leader's voice was dubious as Ubi shrugged. "Well, whatever works for you, I guess."

"Besides, I might teleport it into a wall by accident or something." Ubi laughed and the others all nodded in understanding.

"Now, I should tell you..." The leader spoke up again, "unlike me, you will all need to be physically touching your targets for the orbs to work."

Acti raised an eyebrow. "You seriously expect us to be able to touch them? No offense, boss, but they are CPUs, even if they aren't leaders of their nations."

The leader's eyes glowed in amusement and the group could swear that he, though none of them could confirm if the leader was a man or a woman, they all just assumed that the leader was a man, was smirking at them. "I'm sure you'll figure a way..." There was a torrent of power that filled the room at that moment. "I must remind all of you not to kill any of the targets... Especially you, Ubi!"

Ubi scoffed, but nodded.

Matz raised a hand. "Um, boss, why do we have to do this?"

"There is a chance," the leader sighed softly, "that the darkness that birthed our targets could consume them and turn them into horrible creatures that delight in torment and suffering. We're simply removing the essence of evil from them."

Matz nodded and looked at the orb. "...That makes sense." But, for some reason that the androgynous being couldn't place, they had a very bad feeling. 'Why do I feel nothing but dread?'

*End Flashback*

Matz looked at Rom and put the orb away while bending down to pick her up. "Tyger, we need to get her back to Lowee." Tyger gave Matz an annoyed glare but lowered himself down so that Matz could put Rom on his back and climb on as well. "Let's go."

"Fine, but where are we dropping her off?"

"Um..." Matz thought about it for a moment. "...The big tree near the entrance of the city?"

"Sure." Tyger nodded and ran to Lowee City.

"Woah!" Matz quickly grabbed Rom before she fell off of Tyger's back and held her against him. "Don't want you..." Matz trailed off and blushed hard as they realized their hands were on Rom's breasts. "...Soft..." Making sure to readjust Rom so she wouldn't fall off while unable to move, the two rushed into Lowee City.

(-)

After getting into the city, Tyger walked behind the tree and seemingly faded into the shadows as Matz put Rom down on her back. Sighing softly, Matz brought up a communication screen and made a call.

"This is the Lowee Basilicom, how can I help you?"

"Hello?" Matz answered, their voice sounding surprised and scared. "I found the CPU Candidate of Lowee, she's laying down by the big tree near the entrance of the city and looking like she's in a lot of pain."

"Lady Rom's hurt?! Please, wait right there, we'll be there soon!"

"Of course." Matz nodded and hung up. 'I'll probably be asked to go with them so that I can answer questions...' Which would mean that Matz would have a chance to get to the other CPU Candidate, but also there was a risk that White Heart would be there and cause problems. "Tyger... We may need to use that thing to escape."

Tyger let out a huff of annoyance from the shadows. "Whatever, if it means we can complete our mission and get out of here alive, then we'll do it."

Matz nodded and waited for the Basilicom staff members to show up, which didn't take too long. And, just like Matz predicted, the staff members asked them to go with for some questioning.

Tyger snorted and followed as quietly and with as much stealth as a half ton orange and black striped cat could muster.

Which, considering that Lowee had lots of red leaves all around, was actually pretty easy to do, all things considered.

(-)

Several minutes later...

Matz sat in a room that was mostly empty, save for a table and a nice couch. "Hmm, they should have..." Matz trailed off as Financier walked into the room. "Oh, hello."

"Were you the one who called the Basilicom about Lady Rom?" Matz nodded and Financier sighed in relief. "Thank goodness. Lady Blanc would be completely devastated if something happened to Lady Rom or Lady Ram."

Seeing Matz's confusion, the maid clarified. "Lady Blanc wanted younger sisters for a long time and now that she has them, she's been incredibly overjoyed, however difficult it is for them to get along at times."

"Ah." Matz nodded at the maid's explanation. "Is there anything you wanted to know?"

"Mostly if you saw who or what hurt Lady Rom." Financer asked, looking troubled. "Lady Blanc is so distressed that she's been swearing up a storm." It didn't help that she had been woken up from a nap to find out such news, but there wasn't much that could be done about that.

"I only know that she was on the ground and in pain."

Suddenly the door to the room burst open and both Nepgear and MAGES., both of whom had red eyes and tear tracks down their faces, stormed in. "Financier!" Nepgear looked at her in worry. "What's wrong? I heard... Huh? Who are you?"

"I'm Matz," the androgynous person told her with a wave, "I was walking near the big tree near the entrance of the city and found Lady Rom on the ground in pain and clutching at her chest."

"Is she okay?" Nepgear asked.

"More to the point, where is she?" MAGES. asked and everyone winced as they heard a loud shout from a short distance away. Three of the four of them recognized the voice as Blanc's and all four of them sweat-dropped heavily as they heard her saying entire sentences in swearing. "Never mind, I'll go check on her."

"I'll come with you." Nepgear said and followed MAGES. out of the room.

"Um," Matz looked at Financier, "if you don't mind, I need to use the bathroom."

"Sure, do you need someone to show you?" Financier asked as Matz walked to the door.

"Sure, thanks." Matz smiled and Financier nodded, walking after Matz.

(-)

In the medical bay...

Blanc looked up as MAGES. and Nepgear walked in. "What kept you so long?!" She snapped at MAGES., who sighed.

"Lady Blanc!" Compa, who was standing next to Rom's bed, frowned at the CPU. "You know that MAGES. wouldn't be late if she could have helped it." She smiled at MAGES. and Nepgear and waved one of her metal hands. "Ge Ge, MAGES., poor Rom's in a lot of pain and not responding to treatments, but she's otherwise okay, can you help?"

"Sure." MAGES. nodded and walked over to Rom, some of the rings on her hands started glowing. "Let's see..."

"Huh, this is like what Peashy went through..." Nepgear said, catching Blanc and Compa's attention. "When Neptune and I went to Leanbox to check on Peashy, she looked a lot like Rom. If it's the same thing, then she'll be fine, but she's in a lot of pain right now because the Fearicite that created her was pulled out of her."

"Hmm..." MAGES.'s eyes started glowing as her hair levitated slightly. "Yes, there's... Something, I can't tell what, but if I had to describe it, there's a hole in her being."

Blanc balled her hands into fists. "Who did this to you, Rom? Who?"

"Ngh..." Rom cracked an eye open and looked around. "B...Blanc?" Her voice was hoarse and Blanc was next to her in an instant and grabbing her hand.

"I'm right here." Blanc smiled at Rom. "Are you okay?"

Rom panted while looking at her with a pained expression. "I... I'm sorry." Blanc had a confused look on her face. "I shouldn't... Have went... To find that tiger... Sorry."

"You..." Blanc gasped as Rom closed her eyes again. "Rom? Rom!"

"It's okay." Compa grabbed Blanc's shoulders and gave them a squeeze. "Her vitals aren't dropping. She's likely just really tired." Blanc nodded, trembling softly. "Lady Blanc, please, it's okay, she'll recover."

"First Ram gets sick because of someone poisoning the water and now Rom's laying like this and hurting..." Blanc growled as she ground her teeth together. "Whoever fucking did this is going to die. No, I'll give them to Plutia and tell her to not hold back until they can't move, then I'll heal them up and let her do it all over again."

Nepgear shivered, remembering what Plutia could do to someone when she was properly motivated. And if there was one thing that could motivate Plutia to fully embrace her sadism, it was harming children.

There was a sudden scream that caused all of them to stiffen.

"That was..." Blanc's face was pale. "RAM!" She spun and rushed out of the room, followed by Compa, Nepgear and MAGES.

It didn't take them long to get to Ram's room and Blanc, having transformed into White Heart, smashed the door down, leaving them to stare in utter shock at what they were seeing.

Ram was on her bed, a pained expression on her face as a black glow was emanating from her while an orb rested on her chest absorbing the black glow into it.

But that wasn't what caused everyone to stare in shock.

It was the fact that a giant tiger was in the room next to Ram's bed.

"There really was a tiger?" Compa asked, her eyes wide.

"Blasted annoyances!" The tiger growled, causing them to jerk in surprise again.

"A talking tiger?!" Compa gasped in surprise. "Maybe he's like Warechu then?" For some reason the thought of a tiger being able to talk was so unusual that her normal thought patterns were completely short-circuited.

"RAM!" White Heart recovered the quickest and lunged at the bed, only to find herself being body tackled by the tiger, pinning her to the ground. "Damn you!" White Heart growled and found that she was in an awkward position and unable to use her arms. "Get off of me!" She yelled and moved her feet to kick the tiger off of her. The tiger jumped off of her as a bolt of lightning crackled through the air where it had been a moment ago, destroying the wall behind it.

"Blasted interference." The tiger growled as Nepgear pulled out a sword and the blade ignited. He looked from side to side and saw that with the size of the room and the fact that White Heart was back up meant that he was about to die if he didn't get out of there. Off to the side, he saw that the glow around Ram was gone and realized he had to make his move now. "DIE!" He pounced at White Heart, only to somehow defy the laws of physics and land on her axe as she swung it at him and used it as a spring board to jump to the far wall. He ran across the wall before lunging at the bed and Ram.

"No you don't." MAGES. said, her rings glowing green as wind suddenly picked up and launched the tiger, loose furniture, blankets and other stuff off of the ground and out of the wall.

"Good job." White Heart said from her crouching position and stumbled forward while trying to run and swore as she couldn't see the tiger anymore. "What the hell was that about?"

"Ram!" Nepgear was by Ram's side as the girl was not only pale but very much in pain. "Ram!" She put her hands on Ram's chest and used a healing skill to try and ease Ram's pain. "Hang on, Ram, we're here for you."

As MAGES., Nepgear and Compa worked on healing Ram and making her comfortable, White Heart could only stare on in dismay, frustration and worry.

'...We were just starting to connect thanks to Compa and Financier...' The blue-haired CPU thought to herself. 'Why? Why would anyone hurt you two?'

All she knew was that she was going to declare tiger season open as soon as she knew that her sisters were safe and would recover.

(-)

Meanwhile...

"You look like hell." Matz said while standing over Tyger, who was laying on his side, surrounded by garbage cans.

"Nice to see you too." Tyger growled and got up. "I thought you'd still be in the Basilicom."

"When someone suddenly screamed, the maid ran off to check it out and I slipped out when no one was looking." Matz shrugged, it wasn't important. "Did you..." Matz trailed off and saw the orb, pulsating with darkness, not too far away. "Ah!" Matz ran over to it and picked it up and examined it. "Good, no damage."

"Yeah, sure, don't worry about me." Tyger growled at Matz.

Matz gave Tyger a flat stare. "You once got stomped on by an Ancient Dragon and only had bruises, I'm sure you're fine."

"IT STILL HURTS!" Tyger roared and Matz waved their arms to try and get him to calm down. "Whatever, we need to go."

"Yeah, we're done here." Matz sighed and put the orb away. "We need to get to the other world now." Tyger nodded and walked over to Matz, who climbed onto Tyger's back and the large animal quickly rushed off. "You know that White Heart will kill both of us if she catches us, right?" Matz said and Tyger grunted in acknowledgement. "I really wish that we didn't have to hurt them."

"Yeah, but again, it's for the best." Tyger told Matz. "Otherwise there's a chance they might turn into monsters in the future."

Matz nodded. If causing the CPUs some pain and making the CPUs hate them was the cost for not allowing them to become Voids, then it was worth it. "Rom... I'm sorry." Matz whispered softly.

Tyger said nothing as the two made their way out of Lowee.

To be continued...

...Uh oh.