P(an#% 13: )a%i#nc#
A woman fell out of a portal and pushed herself off the ground. She flicked dust off her large black and purple sweater that looked almost identical to Neptune's. In fact, everything down to her black d-pad hair pins were identical except larger. She smiled as she looked around the metallic hallway lit up by dark blue lights. She looked behind her to see a door, and when she opened it to look outside, she saw a large amount of thick dead trees.
A purple book with a big purple N on it opened up and a small fairy was formed from pixels and particles above it. She had short blonde hair and a tiny black dress with slightly tanned skin. She had dark purple and black butterfly wings and she sat on a hexagram which also hovered over the book.
"Alright, here we are Big Nep." The fairy said. "Just as you asked, a completely random dimension to explore. Well, outside looks awfully familiar so I don't exactly know how well the RNG system works."
"Daw, I'm sure you did great, come on lets explore this huge big building we got teleported into! I bet we'll find treasure, or a boss monster, or a bunch of tentacles if this is that kind of fanfiction." Nep replied.
"You got all your stuff? Items? Weapons?"
"Nope!"
"Hah! Knew it!"
Nep smiled as the fairy went back into the book and into her pocket. She marched forward humming a song to herself, then walked into the first room in the hallway.
The room was dimly lit with an orange lamp that showed the walls covered in various detailed paintings. Some were of other people, some were of sceneries and landscapes. In the middle of the room sat Kurome on a chair taking a sip of tea in one hand and closing a book in the other. She smiled at Nep and took her boots off the table.
"Welcome." Kurome introduced. "I will admit, I wasn't expecting any new guests today but I enjoy the company. What's your name."
"Oh! Oh I remember you! Uhm… what was your name again?" Nep asked.
"Kurome."
"Neptune! Big Neptune! Adult Neptune! Onee-chan! Good ta see ya Kuro- waaaaaiiitt."
"Hmm, have a seat. Have some tea, it's a fresh pot. Do you like Earl Grey?"
"Oh sure! Dunno what that is but I'll take free drinks!"
Nep sat down in the chair in front of Kurome and watched as she poured tea into both of their cups. She placed the pot down as she shook the tea bag in her cup, then took a light sip. Nep stared at the steam coming from the cup and blew on it before taking a little sip of her own.
"Ah, hot." Nep whispered.
"How was your day?" Kurome asked. "I'll be completely honest with you, you seem like a very interesting person."
"Aw shucks, me? Well, today after gorging on 30 cups of pudding, I got yelled at by Histy for making a huge mess all over the place. Then Plutie came along and- oh have you met Plutie yet in this dimension? She's a total cutie but don't let her transform. So then to get some exercise without having to actually look like I'm travelling I decided to come here! So, how goes the villainy?"
Kurome's eyebrow was raised towards Nep, but she kept her smile and she sipped her drink.
"Different dimension, is that right? That's interesting, how do you know about me?"
"Oh, so I met you once in a huge ship by this rich pervert robot dude and you were nothing but a voice back then! Then we found you in the Heartdimension where Uzume, total sweetheart by the way, kicked your butt and we all lived happily ever after." Nep said. "So! Uh, don't try anything weird and you might live this time around!"
"Hmm, now that's interesting. Then we can skip a ton of small talk and get right down to business. Would you like to join my team?"
Kurome watched as Nep continued to drink the tea. She walked for a few seconds before Nep let out a refreshed sigh and smiled.
"Uhm, what was the question again?" Nep asked.
"Would you like to join my team?" Kurome offered.
"Would I? Well, I guess I gotta to make sure the plot stays the same right? Soooo yeah! If you aren't gonna join our side after last time we'll just beat you again! But you seem very nice for a girl who was just told that they were gonna get killed."
"That's true, maybe I should kill you right now and then I'd win since you take a huge part in the plot right? No, I'm kidding. But I'll be honest I much prefer asking people to join my team instead of killing them. I like having friends, it's a nice feeling being supported and having a good time."
"I know right?! Especially when you fight huge touch monsters together and one of you royally messed up and you all start screaming at each other trying to compensate for that person's loss, it's great! Totally not me all the time."
"Is that what the future is like? How many players can play at once against a boss?"
"Depends! We can have like hundreds of players all over the world joining together to take down a raid boss! All thanks to the internet, bless whoever made that wonderful magic box."
"Really? That's pretty amazing. I remember when two players in one console was the biggest thing, I feel really old. I want to see that future one day."
"Really?! Does that mean you'll quit being a big meanie and join the cool girl squad? It's hip to be a hero these days ya know."
"Why not spend more time here? We'll talk more and maybe you'll convince me. But I'll be real with you, I am considering it."
"Wahoo! Aw yeah! Niceume is so much cooler than the bad one back at home! Oh this is gonna be a good story for sure! Ya hear that Croire?"
The book fairy appeared out of the book again and shook her head in disappointment.
"Yo, what's gotten into you? What happened to being a huge interesting problem?" Croire asked.
"I'd rather not cause any problems." Kurome said. "If I can win without any issues, that would be spectacular. But of course if I'm going to lose, then what's the point of repeating past mistakes?"
"Well if you're thinking of using me to get information on what you did wrong then no can do!" Nep said. "Cause I completely forgot everything."
"That's probably a lie but I'll believe it." Kurome said. "Hmm, tired? I imagine dimension travelling without my help would be a bit of a hassle."
"Nope, Croire here can travel through dimensions whenever she wants! Not only that, but Histy is a little genius back at home so there won't be any problems!"
"Hmm. How interesting. Well, anyway, I have a meeting very soon. Do you want to join my team or not?"
"Oh, sure. I'll help convince the others that you changed your mind and became a good guy. Oh yeah, wait, aren't you like trapping Uzume in this dimension or something? Uh, wanna let her out real quick?"
"Uzume? I'm Uzume. Oh, you mean the other one. Well she's a bit tired right now, I don't think she'd be able to handle her whole reality being shattered so quickly. Maybe give her a bit of time, let her slowly adjust to it."
"Right right right, cause Uzume is like, she's a toughie but she's still really soft in the inside, like an apple or a watermelon."
"I was thinking of an egg." Croire mentioned.
"Consider joining, I'll be having my meeting. It's been nice talking to you Neptune." Kurome said.
"And you too Niceume!"
Kurome walked by Nep and went out the door. Nep poured herself another cup of tea and drank out of it.
"Yo, let's go snoop around this building! I wanna see what she's hiding around here." Croire said.
"Good idea, maybe we'll find a healing item or some OP equipment." Nep replied.
Nep placed her tea cup back on the table and walked out the door. She looked around the hallway to see Kurome nowhere in sight, then walked across and into another room. Inside was a faded red corpse of a phoenix and a large worm smacking against the walls of a large glass jar. The inside of the jar had white veins and roots growing on the walls pulsing occasionally. The worm's head looked at Nep, then smashed into the jar wall. Nep watched slime slide down from the jar wall and stepped backwards a little bit.
"Eugh! Gross! Reminds me of that time the girls and I went to the beach and we were attacked by octopuses for fanservice." Nep mentioned.
"Yo, would you quit it with the gross stuff? I already have enough of that documented." Croire said.
"Aw, but kids love fanservice! You gotta appeal to the audience, otherwise you'll make like what? Two bucks? Not even I bet."
"This ain't about money yo, it's about recording interesting stuff. And writing about you getting off to disgusting crap ain't gonna be interesting for the 80th time."
"I don't- whatever, let's just go."
Nep walked out of the room and closed the door behind her. She walked down the hallway towards a large two door room and entered inside. A sword with a purple broad blade was stabbed into the floor in the middle of the circular room. Tubs of purple light were attached to it from the floor and a chest was placed against the wall right beside her. She opened the chest to find a blue chestplate, blue gauntlets, blue leggings, and a blue medieval knight visor. Underneath the armor was a large blue metal shield and a heavy spear.
"Yo, what do ya know, good stuff!" Nep said happily.
"I'm more interested in that fancy sword!" Croire said. "Go touch it! See if you die cause you're not worthy or something! Hehehe."
"Oh please, I am worthy of a hundred legendary swords! There's like no way I won't be able to use that."
"The fact that you say that proves that you're not even worth half of one."
"Anyways, in ya go!"
Croire vanished into the book and Nep picked up the pieces of equipment one by one to place onto the book. The pieces of equipment each fade into light and pixels and are absorbed into the book. Croire then came back out of the book and Nep walked over to the sword.
"Should I say something dramatic about how I doubt I'll be worthy of wielding such a powerful weapon?" Nep asked.
"Why bother wasting your breath on saying something you don't actually mean?" Croire asked.
"Well all the cool protagonists do it, why can't I?!"
"Cause you ain't cool! Hehehe."
"So mean!"
Nep cautiously gripped her hands around the handle and slowly lifted it out of the ground. She looked down to see sparks come out of the slot the sword was in. Nep raised the sword upright and looked at the glowing dark purple edges and light purple core.
"Wooooowwww, it's my favorite color!" Nep said.
"And Small Neptune's, and Nepgear's, and Plutia's, seriously be more original."
"Are you gonna keep bullying me or are you gonna compliment me on how awesome my new sword is! Like wow, look at that!"
Nep joyfully admired her sword until they heard someone walking from the other side of the room. Nep and Croire looked at each other, then Nep grabbed the book and dived into the chest, closing the lid and curling up in a ball.
"Yo, let's peek out and see who it is." Croire whispered.
"I bet it's Arsnore, I remember teaming up with her and Kurome last time. Remember when you gave her the old goddess' powers?"
"Hey, I didn't give it to her, she stole them."
Nep slowly lifted the lid above her and looked outside the small slit. She saw Arfoire carrying both Nepgear and Uzume on her shoulders and she sighed while looking at the empty slot in the room.
"This better be a part of your damn plan." Arfoire muttered.
Nep carefully closed the lid and waited to hear Arfoire drop the bodies on the floor. She heard Arfoire walk, then the door opening and closing. Nep raised the lid carefully again and saw the door closed and Arfoire nowhere in sight. She stepped out of the chest and ran towards Nepgear and Uzume checking their pulses.
"They're alive, phew! Almost thought we were in trouble or something." Nep said.
"Yeah but didn't you win the fight against that witch lady last time?" Croire asked.
"Hmm, yeah I guess. I dunno, whatever let's go see what's going on until they wake up."
"Sounds fun, let's leave these girls to die and stab those guys in the back with-"
Nep heard the doors opening and turned around quickly with the sword pointing at the doors. Kurome stood at the doorway looking at Nep, Nepgear, Croire, and Uzume. Kurome smiled and winked at Nep.
"Uh, Hi! I wasn't about to steal this sword or anything, I was just… returning it!" Nep said. "I was really hungry so I was using this sword to cut up some bread and butter for myself. Crazy right? Using a legendary sword for something like that? Yeah I thought so too, but actually it's not bad! You see one time I used my katana to cut a sushi roll since I didn't have anything smaller on me. One thing led to another and little me, did ya meet her yet? She's adorable. Little me started throwing sushi rolls up in the air and I began chopping them up! We ended up doing the same with fruits and bombs, that was really fun."
"Cool." Kurome replied.
"Yeah, I know! My high score is like 200 or something, but little me kept hiding the fruits behind the bombs! Ugh, anyway so yeah I'm innocent."
"Alright. Well, don't cut yourself. Be careful."
Kurome turned around and walked back into the hallway. Nep let out a sigh of relief and plopped on the ground.
"Man that was scary, I thought I was busted for sure." Nep said. "Guess I rolled a 20 in deception!"
"I dunno, you kinda suck at this so I think she wants you to steal the sword." Croire said. "I hope so, that would be really interesting!"
"Well it doesn't make me want to be evil or something so I think it'll be fine. Anyway, let's try to wake these guys up!"
"Yo, didn't you want to eavesdrop on them?"
"Did I? Well that idea's in the past now."
Nep kneeled down and saw a circle with symbols on them hover over their faces. Croire tapped on some symbols, then waved her hands causing the circles to disappear. Eventually, Nepgear's eyes slowly opened up and she blinked while looking at Nep who smiled back at her.
"Nep- Neptune! You came back for us!" Nepgear exclaimed.
"Ugh… huh?" Uzume asked.
"Hey you two! Uh, so let's-"
Nepgear jumped up and hugged Nep.
"Augh… dizzy… you saved us again Neptune." Nepgear said.
"Uh Gearsy? I might just be seeing things but… did Nepsy grow up?" Uzume asked.
"Huh?"
Nepgear slowly stepped away from Nep as she posed showing herself.
"Tada! It's me, Big Neptune!" Nep exclaimed. "Not the Neptune you know, but I travel to different dimensions and have tons of fun exploring!"
"Oh but- uhm, so- so like the multiverse theory?" Nepgear asked.
"Something like that? I dunno, I don't really explore the science behind it, I just do my thing."
"Yo, wanna tell us what happened? Why were ya'll frozen in ice?" Croire asked.
"We were frozen in ice?" Uzume asked. "How long were we out?"
"Uhm, I didn't feel no ice Croire." Nep said.
"Long story short, the witch used a special ice spell that keeps people unconscious." Croire said. "Completely useless in combat, I dunno why she wasted any skill points into learning that one."
"Oh, and you are?" Nepgear asked.
"Hehe, I'm Croire. I'm the girl who saved your butt. This dumbass beside me did nothing but flaunt her new sword she just stole."
"Hey it's not stealing! You don't steal items when you find them in a dungeon, they're just yours!" Nep said.
Nep raised the sword up and Nepgear and Uzume looked at it.
"Pretty cool huh? I dunno what it's doing here but I bet it's got some good stats."
Nepgear stared at the sword, then looked at Nep with a worried expression.
"Uhm… does it make anyone else feel… strange?" Nepgear asked.
"Huh? Whatcha mean? Looks like a normal sword to me Gearsy." Uzume said.
"Hmm. Well, uhm… an- anyways, we should- we should get going shouldn't we?"
"Hmm, I dunno, maybe we should stick around for a little bit, find some more stuff." Nep said.
"Nah Umio's probably worried about us." Uzume said. "Speaking of."
Uzume flicked her watch up and tapped on a button.
"Hey Umio, you alright? Can ya hear me?" Uzume asked.
"I'm here Uzume. I'm glad to hear that you're safe." Umio replied. "Where are you right now?"
"Uhm… I dunno, where are we Big Nepsy?"
"In some building in the middle of a forest, I dunno I just got here."
"How did you get here anyway?" Nepgear asked. "The machine was broken, do you have one?"
"Nope, but Croire here can transport people through dimensions."
"Oh perfect! Uhm, I'm sorry to ask, but can you transport us back to our own dimension?" Nepgear asked.
"Sure, what's it called?" Croire asked.
"Uhm… uh…"
Nepgear looked at Uzume.
"Don't look at me Gearsy, I'm new to this whole other dimension thing too."
"Haha! Wow, you two are a couple of losers!" Croire said. "But yeah, I can't really take you guys anywhere if I don't know where to go."
"How'd you get here then?"
"Random luck!" Nep said.
"Well that's way too coincidental to be luck." Uzume said.
"Whatever the case is, please return to base as soon as possible. You may be close to danger." Umio said.
"Oh right, alright girls, let's get going."
"Gotcha!" Nep said.
Croire went back into her book and the three of them walked out the hallway. Uzume heard Kurome's voice, then stopped. Nepgear and Nep stopped behind her as Uzume shushed at them and tiptoed towards the room where Nep met Kurome.
"So when they move out," Kurome started. "The boss will be defeated and… well…"
Uzume peeked her head through the door and Kurome winked at Uzume. Her heart nearly stopped as she moved back in place.
"*Sigh* why can't it be a simple bait and punish?" Arfoire asked.
"Why go through hard work by yourself when you can work with someone else and get the same results? We both benefit from this."
"The amount of monsters that are spawning and organizing is suspicious. You have ulterior motives, what else is it that you want?"
"It's a fail safe, in case our plan doesn't work out we have a backup. The future isn't set in stone, is it?"
"Hmph. Don't think for a second that I trust you."
"I'm glad you don't trust me, it means you're careful. And carefulness is always favoured over recklessness. But you don't need me to tell you that."
Arfoire clenches her teeth and leaves the room. She walked forward into the room across from her and closed the door behind her.
"We need to leave, now." Uzume whispered.
"Yeah- yeah, let's go." Nepgear whispered back.
Uzume, Nepgear, and Nep ran forward and out the door. They looked around in the dead forest, then Uzume whipped up her watch again.
"Umio, can you see us?" Uzume asked.
"Yes, I have found your watch on the radar. Run around the building, then straight forward." Umio replied.
"Got it."
"Well this is very different from the first time this happened to me." Nep stated.
"What happened the first time?" Nepgear asked while following Uzume.
"Well, I came into a dimension exactly like this and ran to catch a bug, then I fell down and found you and Uzume cornered by Arfoire! So I swooped in and saved the day and we went on to beat up Dark Purple!"
"I dunno, sounds pretty similar to what happened here." Uzume said.
"Well but I didn't fight Arfoire this time! She just threw you two down on the floor and left! Oh, also I worked a bit with Arfoire in my dimension and we made a pretty good team! Aside from me sabotaging everything she tried to do of course."
"She just… left us?" Nepgear asked.
"Probably thought you two were gonna stay in place because of the ice spell thing."
Uzume looked down as they ran through the forest.
"Uhm…hey, something's not right." Uzume said.
"What's wrong Uzume?" Nepgear asked.
"I just… uhm… like, what do they want? I mean, I knew there had to be something more to the giant like, it can't just be an alien attack like in the movies right? Didn't Histy say something about the giants happening before?"
"Apparently when you had nightmares in our dimension… we'll call them dimensions now right? In our dimension, it created rifts that spawned tons of monsters and those giants." Nepgear said.
"Right right, I haven't been having any nightmares lately though."
"Hmm. Well, Histoire said that in order to prevent the rifts from happening again, Orange Heart needed to be uhm… she didn't tell me the entire process or the details, but she told me Orange Heart had to… host someone? Become someone's host? No, sorry that's not right uhm…"
"Well that's weird cause I had Orange Heart ever since I was born." Uzume said.
"Hey hey! I can't understand the exposition when we're busy running!" Nep exclaimed. "Can we talk at the camp?"
"No no, keep going!" Croire said from inside Nep's book. "I wanna hear this!"
"No, Neptune's right." Nepgear said. "We should talk at camp, that way Umio can listen too."
"Right, yeah, alright let's go." Uzume said.
As they ran through the forest, the ground rumbled from behind them. They quickly dashed forward and looked behind to see a tall purely black humanoid figure with a bright white outline around it's body emerge from the ground. It's body was covered in eyes except for it's head which only bore one in the center. All over its body were figures of what looked like demons and angels chained to it's torso and they all cried as the figure marched forward. It was about double the height of Uzume and Uzume saw what looked like white rainbows come out from it's back to appear like wings.
The figure lunged forward and punched at Nep who dodged and slashed the sword at the same time, but the figure ducked under it and stared directly at Nep with all of it's eyes.
"What a freak!" Nep exclaimed. "Alright, my turn!"
Nepgear pulled her broom from her back and Uzume reached for her mic, but grabbed nothing. She looked down and sighed.
"Sorry Nepsy, don't have my mic on me." Uzume said.
"Nah it'll be fine! Let's go little sister!"
"Feels weird being called little sister…" Nepgear whispered.
The figure thrusted it's left arm at Nep and it ejected from it's arm and launched towards her. In the blink of an eye, the hand grabbed Nep's neck and pulled it back to the figure causing her to drop the sword.
"GAH!" Nep exclaimed.
The hand reattached itself to the figure. Nepgear quickly ran over and picked up the sword and Uzume ran towards the figure. Nep attempted to break free, but the figure grabbed onto Nep's arm and snapped it the wrong direction.
"OWW! Augh! Sh- I needed that!" Nep screamed.
The figure was about to punch Nep in the face, but Uzume threw herself at the figure and wrestled it's arm down. The figure swung around and tried to grab Uzume's face, but then it looked up and saw the sword brought down on it cutting it in half. The figure instantly dropped to its knees and faded into experience.
"Whoa! I- I was not expecting that much damage, uhm… where did you get this?" Nepgear asked.
"Ow ow… I got it in the middle of the room I- ow, found you."
"Oh, your arm! Right, one second!"
Nepgear grabbed her broom and green light came out from it and onto Nep's arm. Nep began to relax as she released her grip on her arm, then Nepgear slowly started to grab Nep's wrist.
"This won't hurt. At least not afterwards." Nepgear said.
"Wait what are you-"
Nepgear pulled the arm back into a normal position and Nep screamed and fell onto her back while rolling to the side and holding onto her elbow again.
"DEAR RNGOD SINCE WHEN WERE YOU CAPABLE OF EGGPLANT WORTHY TORTURE?!" Nep asked.
"Hold- hold still Neptune! I'm not done healing!"
"Nuh uh! I'll let my hp naturally regenerate thank you very much!"
Uzume saw Nepgear chase after Nep around the forest, then Uzume looked at where the figure fell and the sword on the ground. She picked it up and noticed it's lightweight, then spun it around and looked at Nepgear.
"Hey Gearsy, you use light swords right?" Uzume asked.
Nepgear locked Nep's neck with her arm and pulled her close to her chest as she healed Nep's arm.
"Huh? Oh, uhm, yes I use beam swords. I'm surprised by its weight as well, I thought it wasn't going to do much damage honestly." Nepgear said.
"Nepgear, you used to be so kind and sweet and innocent." Nep said through tears coming from her eyes. "I remember I got sick once and you brought me tea and kissed my forehead even though I technically wasn't your sister, why are you so different in this dimension?"
"I'm sure the other Nepgear would have done the same thing if you broke your arm." Nepgear said with a sigh. "I learned it from Compa. She also taught me how to lock patients like this."
"What the heck?! You gotta stop hanging out with that girl!"
"It's for your own good, you won't believe how many times I had to chase Neptune around to get her to take a flu shot…"
"Well go figure! I'm surprised she didn't just ditch you yet!"
Uzume looked around, then looked up and pointed at a direction.
"Yeah, I think we were heading that way." Uzume said.
"Hmm? How do you know Uzume? I can't see the sun." Nepgear said.
"I memorized the cloud patterns. They only change once a week, so I learned how to use them for directions instead of the sun."
"See, why can't you learn useful skills like that instead of how to pin down a girl and have your way with her?!" Nep asked.
"Don't- don't make it sound so weird!"
After a minute, Nepgear stopped her green light and Nep twisted and moved her arm around.
"Okay, lead the way Uzume." Nepgear said.
"Hey Gearsy, can ya check how much damage your sword did?"
"Uhm, well I need wifi for battle records so I can't tell you how much exactly, but I can scan the sword and check it's stats."
As they walked through the forest, Nepgear scanned the sword using her watch and looked at the screen. She blinked once, then stared as Uzume and Nep peaked over.
"Well uhm, it looks like we just picked up the cursed sword Gehaburn." Nepgear said.
"What? So I picked up a cursed sword and not a legendary sword? Man that stinks." Nep said.
"Wasn't that like, one of the few emergency plans Histoire talked about?" Uzume asked.
"Aye, the sword you use to uhm, kill other goddesses and gain high concentrated power. That explains it's high damage despite it's light weight."
"Does… does that mean all the other goddesses are dead?" Uzume asked.
Nepgear and Nep looked at each other, then back at Uzume.
"Well uhm, it doesn't necessarily mean that. Uhm, it- it could just be it's base stats!" Nepgear said.
"Let's not think about depressing stuff, it's happy time! Just you, me, and my new demon sister going back to camp after I saved ya!"
"Demon sister?" Nepgear whispered. "Anyway uhm, yes thanks again. And thank you Croire."
"No problem, just make sure you don't start making things boring or I'm leaving to do something else." Croire said.
The three of them continued to walk, then they stepped onto the dirt path. Uzume saw the old base and the piles of burnt ash in the distance, then pointed down a direction and gestured for everyone to follow.
"I hope Neptune is safe… I mean uhm, you know, the other one. I- I'm glad you're safe too just… I think she got hit by the fireball." Nepgear said.
"I'm sure she's fine Gearsy, she took multiple direct hits before." Uzume said.
"And everyone's gone and… oh goodness, I don't know where Histoire's book went. Uhm we- well looks like just uhm, just a bit more work for us right?" Nepgear asked.
"Bah Croire and I'll figure something out!" Nep said. "Besides, if things don't look good I can just run over and talk to Niceume, I think she'll show me where whatever we need is."
"Niceume?" Uzume asked.
"Ah that's what I call Kurome but she's nice in this dimension. She was a villain in mine and I'm sure she's still a villain here, but maybe she changed who knows."
"Kurome… the- the dark version of me right? So- so you saw her! Wait, do you think she summoned you here? Intentionally? And intentionally let us leave?"
"Well yeah, that's why I call her Niceume!"
"Why would she do that though if she's the villain?" Nepgear asked. "And if she had access to Gehaburn, why didn't she… hmm…"
"What are you planning…" Uzume whispered.
"Nothing." Kurome's voice whispered into Uzume's ear.
"AH! HEY!"
Uzume spun around and looked around her to see nothing. Nep and Nepgear stared at Uzume as she raised her fists close to her face and looked around frantically.
"Did- did anyone else hear that?" Uzume asked.
"You uhm… whispering?" Nep asked.
"No I- ah forget it. There's no point right now, let's hurry up and get to camp."
Uzume marched forward while Nep and Nepgear looked at each other. They followed Uzume through the forest constantly looking around them until they reached their camp where Umio swam over to them.
"Welcome back, are you alright?" Umio asked.
"Yeah we're fine. Umio, this is big Nepsy. She saved us, but I don't think she's the same one as normal Nepsy. Still sounds the same though."
"Hiya fishy boy!" Nep exclaimed.
"Good afternoon Neptune."
"I'm… I'm a bit tired. Anything dangerous on the radar?" Nepgear asked.
"Nothing closeby. Although the giant will be very close to us by tomorrow. That is, if it follows the same pattern it always does around this day of the week." Umio said.
"Hmm… Hey, Gearsy?" Uzume asked.
"Yes Uzume?"
"How powerful is that sword?"
"Uhm… well uh, it's stats are… higher than any sword I've had before and it costs no energy so it's pretty strong."
"Uh huh, uh huh. Would you say it's strong enough to kill Dark Purple?"
Nep and Nepgear looked at each other.
"I uh… maybe? I've- I don't know Dark Purple enough to say." Nepgear said.
"Cause dark me, Kurome, whatever her name is, winked at me while we left. I- at least I think she was winking at me. Bah, I dunno I always see her in my nightmares and I don't know what she wants! I thought she was just a nightmare at first but she's obviously real, I saw her in a mirror, I heard her whisper to me, she's messing with me, I don't know what to do."
"Let's- let's uhm, how- how about we take a bath? That- that usually clears my mind." Nepgear said.
"I want to confront her directly but… that witch, Arfoire was her name right? She beat us really badly."
"We weren't transformed, we can beat her if we do, I just know it!"
"I hope so. But maybe we should kill Dark Purple first? Maybe?"
"Bath time it is! Planning comes after Uzume!" Nep announced.
Nep pushed the two of them towards the hot spring. Umio watched as they left, then looked on the radar to see a circle disappear on the location where Kurome's base was described to be.
Meanwhile, Rei was tapping on the table with her pen while looking down on sheets of paper. She had a worried expression as she pressed some buttons on a calculator and sighed.
"Oh… when's Arfoire coming back?" Rei asked herself.
"Right now actually little Rei." Anonydeath's voice said from a screen that just popped up.
"GAH! Don't- don't scare me like that- that again, please." Rei said.
A blue halo hovered over and light came out of it. Arfoire stormed into the throne room and slammed her hands on the table.
"Aah! May- may I help you?" Rei asked nervously.
"If you're going to keep making deals with that spawn of satan I am going to leave the Seven Sages!" Arfoire stated.
"No, no please no we already lost too many members! Uhm, what- what happened? Maybe- maybe we can neg- negotiate?"
"Gah! She let them go! We had two, TWO goddesses right in our hands and she just let them run free! We could have executed them or used them as bait but she released them!"
"Did- Does she have a plan? Maybe- maybe she-"
"Do I look like I care what her plan is?! Do what you want, I'm leaving. I'll kill the goddesses my way."
"Arfy, be reasonable. Your little magic tricks won't be enough to kill the remaining goddess. Not only that, but Neppy is back." Anonydeath said.
"Yes and uhm, she uh, we- we can trust her she-"
"No, I see through her lies. I know people like her better than you could possibly imagine. Leave her to rot." Arfoire said.
Anonydeath sighed, then faced Arfoire directly.
"Linda." Anonydeath started. "You are not going to win. Magic's plan was good, but you showed morals and compassion for humans, something Magic didn't accommodate for. You're not going to win unless you're willing to give up everything."
Arfoire glared at Anonydeath, then looked at Rei.
"I want to rule in the place of the goddesses. I believe that their methods are flawed and I witnessed first hand the damages it causes. What kind of hypocritical scum would I be if I rule in their place, yet commit even worse crimes than they do? I will expose the truth behind their disgustingly pretty faces, and crush their skulls under my heel!"
Rei gulped and Anonydeath placed fingers on the chin area of the robot suit.
"I will be better than them." Arfoire said. "I will kill them, I will take revenge for what they did to me and all those who felt the same pain I did. But I'll kill them painlessly. I won't make them feel the same torments of losing the only thing that ever mattered to them. It would make things more difficult if they got stronger because of it."
"Uhm- uh, if- if I may Arfoire?" Rei asked. "Uhm, great- great speech by the way uhm, but- you're… you're asking for a lot, I- I don't think it's… possible?"
"Tch, I've been the villain before. It didn't work. Feel free to join me. Bot! Send me back."
Anonydeath looked at Rei who sighed and looked down at the table.
"Thank- thank you for everything Arfoire. Good… uhm, good luck." Rei said. "Anny- Anonydeath, you can uhm… send her back now."
A blue halo hovered over Arfoire. Light covered her and when the light faded, she found herself at the border of Planeptune. She looked up, scoffed, and walked through the gates and into the city streets.
Arfoire walked into a nearby store and passed by a customer arguing with the cashier. As the customer stormed off, Arfoire picked up some packaged bread and started to head out of the store as well.
"Hey, are you going to pay for that or what?" The cashier asked.
Arfoire looked back at the cash register and a purple lightning bolt came out of her wrist. The lightning hit the cash register and the cashier looked down to see numbers pop up. The cashier raised his eyebrow at Arfoire as he pressed some buttons on the cash register. Arfoire walked out the door and opened the package.
She walked down the street for a moment, then looked beside her to see a young boy with a sign that said "Magic Trick 1 credit." He held a deck of cards in his hands but was sitting down with his head close to his knees.
Arfoire stared for a bit, then tore the bread in her hands in half and handed one to the boy.
"If you're really poor, you'll take this with gratitude." Arfoire whispered to herself.
The boy stared at the bread, then took it and took a bite. He smiled at Arfoire and stood up to bow to her.
"Thank you!" The boy said.
The boy ran down the street. Arfoire stared with her eyebrow raised and she followed the boy into an alleyway where an old lady was. She was huddled in a blanket and she relaxed on the wall. The boy looked up at Arfoire and smiled, then turned to the old lady.
"Grandma, she was the one!" The boy exclaimed.
"Yes, I see." The old lady said. "Thank you very much."
Arfoire sighed. She walked over and kneeled down, handing the other half of the bread to the lady.
"Alright, eat you old- *ahem* eat." Arfoire said.
The old lady smiled at Arfoire, then took the bread. The boy smiled at Arfoire, and continued to eat the bread he was given. Arfoire stood up and started to leave.
"Sit with me for a while." The old lady said. "I would like to talk, maybe I can return the favor?"
Arfoire turned her head and looked at the old lady. She looked around for a bit, then walked over and sat down next to her.
"What do you want?" Arfoire asked. "I'm busy."
"Hmm." The old lady said while making a smile. "Tom, won't you leave us for a little bit? I want to chat with the nice lady."
"Huh? Uhm, okay."
The little boy left the alleyway and Arfoire watched him leave.
"It's been a long long time since I felt the presence of the Deity of Sin." The old lady said.
Arfoire turned her head and stared at the old lady, then looked down at her hands.
"Long enough that nobody else remembers the feeling anymore?" Arfoire asked.
"Many try to avoid the feeling of hatred." The old lady said. "Who are you? You are not the Deity I remember."
"I am Arfoire. The New Deity of Sin."
"Were you a human once before? The Deity wasn't so peaceful last time."
"The Deity of Sin was nothing more than power for me to absorb."
"So strong, are you related to Nera perhaps?"
Arfoire squinted her eyes at the lady then sighed.
"I'm her daughter, but she was never around to raise me. She would have raised me properly if my father didn't fake my death. But that doesn't matter, that past doesn't matter, because I found Magic, someone who was willing to parent me while my real parents didn't."
"Ah, but where did that lead you?"
"Do not for a second believe she is anything less than a saint, old hag! She fed me, taught me how to fight, educated me better than anyone else would. All while I was in my most emotional years of my life. No one else would have taken care of some bratty disgusting annoying teenager."
The old lady smiled as Arfoire groaned.
"Magic always planned on betraying the Deity of Sin. She wrote documents on how the plan would work. I never listened, only followed her commands. I wish I listened more, it might have worked if I won more times."
Arfoire sighed and looked down. She made purple sparks at her fingertips and stared at them.
"I will carry on where she left off. I will take revenge on the goddesses for her death and I will make sure everyone lives in Gamindustri with joy. The children, the mentally disabled, the poor, the unskilled. No one will suffer under the greed of the goddesses anymore."
The old lady smiled and stared at Arfoire.
"You have such good intentions, I would hate to see it all go to waste from bad actions. I'm curious, I know now where you came from but where did Magic come from?" The old lady asked.
"Tch, her business. She never bothered telling me, I never bothered asking."
"Hmm I see, have you heard of the story of the first Lastation CPU?"
"She disappeared in Gamindustri Graveyard and she was never… heard from… again…"
Arfoire placed her fingers on her chin. Arfoire looked out the alleyway and saw Ambience who made eye contact with her for a second before continuing to walk down the street. IF, Iffy, Comp, and Compa followed right behind Ambience.