Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Sega, Idea Factory and Compile Heart and whomever else worked on it.
Chapter 43
Uzume, or as she was known to others now, Kurome, smiled as she watched Dark Green fight in the distance. "Really? My other self really should give up."
"Why?" Ouya asked from inside the capsule she was in while Stadia pounded on the inside of her capsule. "Because it's what you would do?" Kurome gave her a sharp look. "We asked mom, so many times, to kill us, she never gave up on us. She never gave up on anyone. When the gingerbread men came to life..." Ouya trailed off as her stomach growled. "...I'm hungry, okay?!"
"...I'm kind of interested about the gingerbread men." Kurome said, an amused look on her face. "What was that about?"
"Oh you know, typical "I want to take over the world" plot, but the person made them out of gingerbread men and didn't realize how much mom or her kids could eat." Ouya said with a shrug as Kurome gawked at her. "It was something that only lasted an hour."
"...Nepsy really had a weird life." Kurome muttered, a befuddled look on her face. "...Gingerbread men, really?!"
"The guy who did it was so fat that I thought he was a whale." Stadia answered her.
"...Huh..." Kurome muttered before snapping her fingers and the two girls disappeared. "...Now I'm hungry." She shrugged and disappeared. "Time to get my body back."
(-)
Upon returning to the Basilicom in Planeptune, Rom sighed in relief. While Zero and Heart Dimensions had been really cool, they were just so off-putting to the small CPU Candidate. She didn't really understand what either dimension was and the fact that she couldn't feel much, if any, life in either dimension just made the feeling even worse.
"Come on, we need to hurry." Nepgear said as she walked through the portal. "We have no idea how long we have."
"Right." The others nodded and ran out of the portal room.
A minute later, they were running through the door to where Histoire was at.
"Oh, you're back." Histoire smiled, which faded as she realized that the CPUs weren't with them. "Did things not go as planned?"
"No, we rescued the CPUs," C-Sha explained before Nepgear could get a word in, "but there's another problem."
"Problem?" A voice that had everyone but Histoire stiffening in shock as Kurome materialized next to Histoire. "I don't see any problem." She grinned and grabbed Histoire before the tome could react.
"What the?!" Histoire gasped as her book was spun around and she had to look at the person in the eyes. "You're..?"
"Kurome?!" Ram and Nepgear both gasped at the same time.
"...Kurome?" Kurome asked in confusion. "...When did I get that name? Who gave it to me?"
"Neptune." Uni, C-Sha and Rom all answered at the same time.
"Ah." Kurome smiled, chuckling softly. "If that's the case, then I'll gladly accept that name. As for why I'm here..." She trailed off and looked at Histoire. "There's a white console with an orange swirl mark on it, you don't happen to have it, do you?"
"No, I don't." Histoire shook her head, causing Kurome to sigh.
"Alas, I was hoping for something more, but oh well." Kurome shrugged and slapped the book closed. She smiled at the others as she put the tome under her right arm. "I'll be taking Histoire with me while I go to find the console. I'm sure that someone knows where it is."
"Unlikely." A powerful, booming voice was heard. Kurome turned to see Affimojas walk into the room. "Thanks to Miss Histoire's quick thinking, the Console's already been moved."
"Ah, Affimojas." Kurome shook her head as he stood by the door. "Alas, I have no need for you, excuse me." She disappeared with Histoire, causing Steamax, who had been creeping up on them to try and retrieve the tome, to slam into Nepgear, who had been trying the same, causing both of them to collapse onto the floor with one of Steamax's hands on Nepgear's chest, causing her to blush and Steamax to sputter.
"A-are you okay, Lady Nepgear?" Steamax asked as he quickly recovered and helped Nepgear to her feet. Out of the corner of his eyes, he noticed Uni giving him a dirty look but he ignored it the best he could.
"I'm fine," Nepgear nodded as she fought down the blush, "but she took Histoire and if she's after the console..."
"Do not worry about the console." Steamax told her. "I moved it and there shouldn't be anyone who knows where it is." He tilted his head in thought. "But I did tell Histoire where it was..."
"And if she convinces Histoire to talk or finds someone who over-heard, then she'll find it." Uni finished and Steamax nodded. "Then where is the console? If we go there first, we can hold her off."
Steamax nodded. "Yes, of course, there's the possibility that she's still around waiting for us to move, so..." He looked at Affimojas, who nodded.
"We'll take the ship and fly you to the location." Affimojas told them. "It would be safer that we do not talk about where it is."
"Right." Uni and looked at Nepgear, who had a concerned look on her face. "Come on, we can't help Histoire if we stay here."
"...You're right." Nepgear nodded and the group quickly left to the rooftops.
A few moments later, Kurome reappeared in the room with Histoire in her hands. "Heh, how predictable, they can lead me right to it." She looked at Histoire. "It's been awhile Histoire."
"I'm sorry, I do not know who you are." The book answered back.
"Of course you don't." Kurome said flatly. "But that's fine. I'll keep you with me until I bring Gamindustri to ruin for what they did to me."
"We asked mom to kill us so many times! She never gave up on us! She never gave up on anyone!"
Kurome frowned as those words from Ouya bounced around in her head. '...Why am I thinking about that brat now? It won't matter soon.' She smiled at the book. "So, Histoire, are you ready to remember what the world forgot? How they hurt me?"
"How the world hurt you? I'm sorry, I have no idea what you mean."
Kurome narrowed her eyes and opened her mouth to speak when something flashed through her mind. Images of Neptune's memories, of how she had been betrayed, of how the world had spit on her, kicked her when she was done, how a one-time ally turned out to be worse than any enemy they ever had. All of them flashed through her head in a few moments and Kurome was silent. She lowered her head and disappeared, leaving nothing behind but a few tears that silently fell from her eyes.
(-)
Back in Heart Dimension, Iris Heart and Compa were still working on healing Peashy while the others dealt with Dark Green. "Come on, don't you dare die on me, you brat." Iris Heart muttered as she looked at Peashy.
"Miss Iris Heart..?" Compa looked at the CPU, who looked at her. "You seem really..."
Iris Heart sighed, "desperate?" Compa nodded and Iris Heart shook her head. "This brat is one of the first kids Neppy and I ever adopted. We had others over the years, but she was one of the first. You and Iffy were the other two we adopted at the same time."
"Ah!" Compa gasped in surprise. "That's right, Nep Nep was really emotional when she saw Iffy and me."
"...I can imagine." Iris Heart whispered softly as she watched Peashy slowly start to recover.
"...What really happened with you and your Iffy?" Compa asked, a gentle look on her face. "It had to be more than just walking in on her when she was doing lewd things with her boyfriend, right?"
Iris Heart sighed and her shoulders slumped. "...When she was five or six years old, I forget, she was kidnapped by a witch. Neppy and I went to save her and that was the first time she saw me in HDD." Her vermilion eyes glimmered with tears. "Do you remember how you felt when I first transformed?" Compa nodded.
"Uh huh, it was really... Um.. Scary." Compa smiled nervously.
Iris Heart just snorted upon hearing that. "Well, not only did I feel scary, I went out of my way to torment anyone who angered me. I'm..." She mentally sighed and decided to just be blunt, since her memories of Compa told her that the girl was rather ditzy at times. "Well, I'm a sadistic bitch. And Iffy, being a little girl, wasn't used to me and I terrified her. She was always afraid of me after that for years." Compa nodded as she followed along. "...She also saw me take my anger and frustrations out on my friends as she grew up. When she tried to make friends and any of them found out that I was her mother..."
"They abandoned her?" Compa asked and Iris Heart nodded. "So she stopped bringing her friends over?"
"She stopped having friends." Iris Heart said softly. "Not until after she disowned me and walked out, claiming she was tired of being afraid of me, tired of living in fear of my anger, tired of not having any friends..."
Compa saw the sad look on Iris Heart's face and looked at Peashy and nodded when she realized that Peashy would be fine. She stood up and stepped over Peashy, causing Iris Heart, who was on her knees, to look at her before she smiled and pulled Iris Heart's head against her chest as she hugged her. "I can't speak for Iffy, but I know that you seem sorry for what you did to her." She patted Iris Heart's head as the CPU trembled. "I'm sure that if your Iffy were still alive and saw you now, she'd forgive you."
"...She never did." Iris Heart whispered as she buried her head against Compa's chest. "Even as her memory failed her, she never forgave me."
"...Did you ever try to ask her?" Compa asked as she rubbed Iris Heart's head. When she felt Iris Heart tensing up, she smiled softly. "Maybe that's why? Maybe she wanted you to say you were sorry first?"
"...I'm such an idiot!" Iris Heart cried out as tears fell from her eyes and she buried her face into Compa's chest.
"Uh huh..." A new voice spoke up and both Compa and Iris Heart looked at Peashy, who was smiling at them. "Pea's a big dummy too. Ploot... Pea's sorry for that fight."
Iris Heart looked at Peashy with tears falling out of her eyes. "...Peashy?"
"Ploot wasn't wrong, Pea was just scared." Peashy told her and rolled over. "Pea... Pea never thought back..." She frowned before being engulfed in light as she transformed. "...I couldn't think about what happened clearly, Ploot." Yellow Heart said, a sad look on her face. "I was scared of losing you. Neptuna was messed up from having to seal my sisters away. Beru Beru, Blanny and Nowa were all screwed up too." Her orange eyes shimmered with tears. "I'm really sorry, I should have let you go."
"...Peashy." Iris Heart said softly as Compa let go of her and she pulled Yellow Heart into a hug. "We spent centuries angry at each other for no reason, huh?" Yellow Heart nodded as she hugged Iris Heart back. "...I shouldn't have said those things either. Forgive me?"
"Yeah." Yellow Heart nodded.
Compa clapped her hands and smiled as she looked at them. "See? I'm sure that if you had just said you were sorry to her that your Iffy would have forgiven you too."
Iris Heart let go of the hug and chuckled. "...I thought you got smarter as you got older, I'm living proof that isn't the case."
Yellow Heart lightly punched Iris Heart in the shoulder. "Hey, at least you don't need a freaking cerebral cortex chip in your brain to make you smarter like I did."
Iris Heart chuckled and nodded and looked up as Dark Green was defeated. "Well, I'm glad that they dealt with it."
"Yeah, me too." Neptune's voice caused all of them to jump. They turned to see the bigger Neptune smiling at them. "Hey..."
"Didn't Big Nep Nep leave with Ge Ge and the others?" Compa asked in confusion.
"Well, I need Crostie still." Neptune smiled at her and rubbed the back of her head. She looked at Iris Heart and tilted her head. "Huh, it's been a long time since I was home, but you look a LOT like the CPU that was in charge of my home country." She tapped her chin while Iris Heart gave her a confused look. "Lesse, there was a big problem going around about young girls disappearing or something, mom didn't like it when I went out by myself."
Yellow Heart gawked as she looked at Neptune. "...You're the Neptuna of our world?!"
"Uh..." Neptune scratched the back of her head. "Maybe? I've been traveling so long that I don't think I have a home anymore."
Iris Heart suddenly burst out laughing. "Noire, Vert and Blanc owe Neppy a month's supply of pudding." Everyone looked confused while she laughed. "They... ha ha ha... At one point, they said that if Neppy were human, she would have died in a ditch due to hunger."
Neptune laughed and rubbed the back of her head. "Well, that's how I met Nepgear and Uzume... I crash landed on a fight of theirs and I was hungry, so... They weren't completely wrong."
The four of them shared a laugh and looked up as the CPUs and IF, who was being carried by Purple Heart, came into the room.
After setting IF down and transforming back into her human form, Neptune ran over and hugged both Plutia and Peashy after they transformed back into their human forms. "I'm glad you two are still okay."
Plutia had a sad look on her face, but she hugged Neptune back. "Me too, Neppy. Me too."
"Neptuna..." Peashy smiled and hugged her mother back. "Ploot and me made up."
Neptune's smile only increased.
The bigger Neptune walked over to Black Heart, who, along with the other CPUs, transformed back into her human form. "How did things go out there?"
"Pretty well, that Dark CPU was tough, but not too hard." Noire said as she looked at Neptune and sighed. "We need to figure out what to do."
"I... Might have an idea." Uzume said as she looked a little troubled while everyone looked at her. "The other me... She and I are both alive because of one reason." She turned to one of the broken walls and pointed in the distance. "See that large, broken Share Crystal?"
"That's your core?" Blanc asked and Uzume nodded. "...You want us to smash it?"
"Uzume?!" Both Neptunes gasped at the same time.
"I..." She sighed and hung her head. "I've been thinking. The other me has a lot of power and is dangerous." She turned to the others and smiled sadly at them. "So if we smash it, then she'll have to return and won't be able to hurt anyone."
"...If that's what you want." Neptune said as she saw the look on Uzume's face. Uzume nodded and she sighed. "...Okay, we'll go and smash it."
"Thanks, Nepsy." Uzume said, giving her a small smile.
Neptune nodded, though she knew better. She knew what that smile meant.
After all, it was the smile she gave everyone when she didn't want them to worry about her.
What a heavy way to end the chapter.
