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


Chapter 44

"Just what are you planning on doing to me?" Histoire asked Kurome as the two were in Affimojas's ship, just hidden in the back of the ship.

"Oh Histoire..." Kurome looked at the closed book in her hands. "I merely wish to talk."

"So talk then."

Kurome sighed as she looked at the book and ran her fingers over it. "...Why?" When she got nothing in response, she sighed. "...Why didn't you protect me?" Kurome asked the tome as she gave Histoire a progressively darker look with each passing moment.

"...I'm sorry?"

Kurome growled and held the book in front of her. "You're supposed to help protect and guide CPUs, yet the first chance that the people had to get rid of me, you did nothing but watch as I was sealed away! Why? Why didn't you protect me?!"

"...I truly do not know what you mean."

"Of course you don't." Kurome sneered at the tome. "Just like everyone else, you discarded me, spat on me, hated me, all because I couldn't fully control my powers and the worst part is, you..." She trembled and looked down. "...You forgot me."

"...Forgot?" Histoire asked from inside the book.

Images of what she had seen in Neptune's memories flooded her. "I had no one. Everyone turned their backs on me." Her eyes snapped open and she glared at the tome. "Even you! Someone who helped me as a CPU, you didn't care."

"...This may not be conductive to my health, but you sound like a child crying out for her mother."

The next thing Histoire knew, her book was slammed to the floor and Kurome was stomping on it. "You know damn well why." Kurome hissed at the tome. "CPUs don't have parents, we're born whatever physical age we are at the time. But you... You were created to help grow and nurture the CPU of Planeptune."

"...You were a CPU?"

"I *AM* the CPU of Planeptune!" Kurome hissed as she stepped off of the book and pulled it up. "My name is Uzume Tennouboushi! CPU Orange Heart! I was the CPU of Planeptune eighty years ago! Does any of that ring a bell... Mother?"

"...I truly am sorry." Histoire's voice was soft and sad. "But the memories I have of that time are blurry and incomplete at best."

"...Of course." Kurome muttered as she dropped the tome to the ground in dejection. "No one bothered to care about me. My console, people didn't get very many of it, and now everyone just wants to see me gone."

"...I really wish I could remember you." Histoire's voice was heard. "If it helps, even a little bit, I truly wish to apologize for forgetting you."

"You lie!" Kurome hissed as she squatted down and grabbed the tome, tears filling her eyes. "You made no effort to rescue me from being sealed away! If not for Gearsy finding my console by accident, you would have been happy to live your life and have me be a forgotten memory."

She lowered her head. "That's why..."

"When this is over, I'll take you to look at this dimension that had this awesome field of sunflowers that Crostie and I ended up in once."

"What?" Kurome asked no one as tears sprinkled from her eyes. '...Why did I think of that promise?'

Memories of the bigger Neptune entered her head and she found herself smiling as she remembered the smiles and laughs from the long-haired Neptune. "But... I hate everyone, why am I thinking of Nepsy?"

"Because she made you feel something other than hate." Histoire supplied for Kurome. The blue-haired girl had a confused look on her face. "Because she offered you friendship, that's all you wanted, wasn't it?"

Kurome growled and slammed the wall with her free hand. "You're wrong! I just want to make everyone pay! I want this world to suffer! I..." She trailed off as images of Neptune crying at night, yet still being able to smile and laugh for the citizens of Ultra Dimension only made her pause. "...How can Nepsy smile and laugh when people made her cry so much?"

"Because Neptune has nothing but love in her heart. She can be hurt and cry, but she'll always smile and laugh once she recovers." Histoire said. "...My memory is fuzzy, but I feel like there was a CPU just like her, who was so full of happiness and love that all she wanted was to have everyone smile and be happy."

Kurome growled before disappearing with Histoire. 'You're wrong, Histoire. I have nothing but hate in my heart for everyone in this worthless world.'

(-)

Meanwhile in Heart Dimension...

Neptune looked at Uzume as the group made their way through various hallways and across the various platforms. "Hey, Uzume," Uzume gave her a look and Neptune just smiled. "I was wondering something," Neptune just scratched her cheek, "you were the CPU of Planeptune a long time ago, right?"

"Yeah, a few decades ago, why do you ask?"

"Well... I was wondering if you had any memories of Histy or the other CPUs of that time?" Neptune had an embarrassed look on her face while the others looked surprised by the question. "I know in Ultra Dimension that there were only three CPUs before I crashed in that world and I've met them all." She pointed at Plutia, "she's one of them."

Plutia just shrugged, "I wasn't that good of a CPU."

"Well..." Uzume trailed off as she thought about the past, "my memories of the other CPUs are a bit, well, I wouldn't really put much stock into it, but the CPU of Leanbox was a really eager girl from what I remember, she liked big things. The CPU of Lowee was a big, stuck up princess who didn't even like things like hand-holding in public and the CPU of Lastation was..." Uzume's face scrunched up in thought, "she wasn't a bad girl, but she liked to dress up in dark clothes that were tattered and she liked the guitar for some reason."

"Huh," Blanc muttered softly, "that's interesting. Did you know their names?"

"Sorry," Uzume smiled nervously, "even if I knew their names in my time, I can barely remember them. I might not even be remembering the right people."

Blanc nodded, sighing in dismay. "And I had been hoping to learn a bit more of the past." There was nothing she could do, and if Uzume's memories were correct then maybe it was good thing that she didn't know.

After several more minutes of travel, the group finally got to the closest platform to the giant share crystal...

...Which, to Uzume's chagrin, was still quite a bit away from it. "Great, how do we get there?" Even with her megaphone, she doubted she could yell loud enough to get that far.

"I knew that waiting here was the right thing ta do." Croire said as she floated up, giving the group a smirk. "Sorry, but I ain't lettin' ya stop Uzume's plan."

"Crostie!" The bigger Neptune frowned as she saw the book fairy. "How could you betray me like that?"

"Idiot!" Croire scoffed at her. "I ain't on your side. I ain't even on Uzume's side, but she's going to trigger an apocalypse when this dimension fuses with Hyper Dimension. She'll kill herself off too." The dark-skinned tome laughed while everyone looked nervous. "She don't care, but it's funny to think that she's such an idiot that everyone's going to die and both dimensions will just go..." She held her hands up in front of her, her fingers curled into her palms, "poof," she let her fingers flip up.

"...Did you tell her that's what would happen?" Noire asked as she narrowed her eyes at the book fairy.

"What? And make her second guess herself?" Croire scoffed. "She thinks that the dimensions will fuse, and that might work if Heart and Zero Dimensions weren't created by Uzume herself." She laughed in amusement. "Whenever fallen CPUs decide they're going to destroy everything, things get so interestin'!"

"Is that aaaaalll you caaaare about?" Plutia asked.

"Damn right!" Croire snapped out at her. "I'm SO freakin' bored all the damn time!" She growled and pointed a finger at the bigger Neptune. "And because of this dipshit, I missed all the fun back in Ultra! The alien invasion! The Mole People, I hated them, so whatever, and the Dinosaurs coming back to life?!" She growled while kicking her legs and gripping her head. "Do you have ANY idea how much it sucks to find that you missed all the fun stuff?! Sure, you can watch the reruns, but it's never the same as seeing it live!"

"And why would you care?" Uzume asked Croire. "Nepsy and the other CPUs of her world were really hurt by that."

Croire chuckled at her. "Wouldn't you like to know?"

"Don't tell me you did something cliche like "I left an artifact behind that called the aliens" or "I left messages to manipulate time" or something." Neptune muttered in annoyace.

Croire's eyes went white and blank. "What? No! Of course not! Why would I do that?" She blinked and leaned back. "I mean, it's a great idea, but I didn't even know aliens other than the Mole People existed in that world."

"...What?" Neptune, Plutia and Peashy all said, their eyes white and blank.

"Huh?" Croire blinked a few times before realizing what she said. "Ah, well, it was thousands of years ago, the current Mole People are actually descendants of the original aliens that landed in the world and the natives they mated with." She shrugged at them. "Somehow the resulting kids had a weird mutation that left them vulnerable to natural sunlight."

"So that explains the under cities at least." Neptune muttered softly. "Always wondered about that."

Croire gave Neptune a flat stare. "You were a freaking Mole Queen for decades, how did you not stop to ask!?"

"...I was more concerned with my kids." Neptune muttered.

"Whatever, so there, the secrets of the Mole People's origins." Croire rolled her eyes. "And, trust me, if I had been the one to manipulate things there, I would have made it so that you'd stay brainwashed for the rest of time." She scoffed at Neptune's frown. "Whatever, I'm going to stop you here, so come out, Dark White!"

There was a rumbling as a giant appeared in front of them.

"So this is Dark White," Vert muttered, "well, we'll have to... Hold on." She tilted her head and started snickering. "I just realized something."

"...What?" IF asked in confusion.

"I just realized... Compared to the Dark CPU that was made up of my power, this one..." Vert continued to giggle softly, "she doesn't have boobs."

"...WHAT?!" Blanc screamed, her eyes going red.

"Well, there's some there." Noire said, unable to hide her giggling. "I guess Kurome felt bad for Blanc and gave her Dark CPU self something to compensate."

Neptune tilted her head and walked over to Blanc, who was trembling with anger and Neptune could see the beginnings of tears in her eyes. "You know, back in Ultra Dimension, nice butts are more popular right now than big boobs."

Everyone went silent as it sounded like a record scratch was heard in the distance.

"...Really?" Blanc asked as Neptune stood next to her and nodded. "...That's... Good?"

"Yep." Neptune nodded and smiled. "In fact, the Blanc of Ultra Dimension was voted to have the second best butt, behind only mine, among all the CPUs." She then grabbed Blanc, spun her around and bent her over before flipping up her skirt, revealing her panty-covered butt to everyone. "See?" She grabbed Blanc's butt, causing Blanc to scream in embarrassment. "This is a nice butt!"

"Neptune, I swear I'll kill you if you don't let go right now!" Blanc screamed, her face red. "Stop groping my ass!"

"Hmm, I have to agree, that is a nice butt." Noire nodded. "Not that I look to compare, myself."

Vert huffed in annoyance and crossed her arms under her chest. "Well, whatever, I guess I was in third place then?"

"Pea was in third place." Peashy smiled, causing everyone to gawk, except Neptune, who was still squeezing Blanc's butt, until she got so mad that she forced herself up and slammed her hammer on Neptune's head so hard that Neptune left an indent in the ground. "Beru Beru was last."

"...B...But..." Vert suddenly teared up. "My boobs... Are you saying that I... I'm not liked among the butt enthusiasts?" Peashy nodded. "But you have huge boobs in HDD! They're bigger than mine!"

"Pea's butt is also big and wide!" Peashy held her hands out.

"...Seeing a five year old talk about her big butt is weird." Uzume muttered before yelping as Blanc turned on her. "B...Blancsy?"

"SHARING FIELD! NOW!" Blanc growled.

"R...Right!" Uzume nodded as she transformed into Orange Heart. "B-Blancsy's scary!" When Blanc growled again, she held up her left arm. "S-shaving field! Activate!"

"Shaving field?" IF muttered in amusement.

"If you're not used to her, Blanc's temper is really scary." Compa admitted, smiling at Blanc. "But Nep Nep is right, Blanc has a nice butt."

IF gawked at Compa. "...What?"

"What?" Compa asked IF. "It's just true." IF just gave her a bewildered look as the CPUs transformed to deal with Dark White.

(-)

Back in Hyper Dimension...

After running through one of Lowee's larger theme parks, Nepgear sighed in relief as she moved the teddy bears that were hiding the console. "Smart idea to move it here." She smiled as she pulled it out. "With this we can..."

"Yoink!"

Nepgear and the others blinked as the console suddenly disappeared from her hands. "What the goodness?!"

"Look!" Ram pointed to the side where Kurome was sitting on a hill.

"Thanks for leading me to my body." Kurome smiled at the others. "Now I have myself and Histoire..."

"Where's Histoire?!" Nepgear yelled as she ran forward.

"Right here." Kurome said as she held up her left hand to reveal Histoire's closed tome. "We still have more to talk about."

"I truly am sorry." Histoire said from inside the book. "You shouldn't..."

"Shut up." Kurome growled at the tome. "You never cared about anything other than protecting Planeptune."

"...That's not true. My primary function is to ensure the nation survives, but I always cared about the CPUs under my care."

Kurome growled as she stood up. "LIES! If you cared so much you would have stopped that crowd! I know you have a lot of power in that body of yours!"

Nepgear frowned in confusion. '...What's going on?' Something didn't feel right in her mind. 'It's almost like Kurome is more sad than angry.'

"Dammit..." Uni muttered as she tried to take a shot but every time she thought she had a good shot, Kurome seemed to move out of the way.

"So why..." Kurome trailed off as she felt the anger leave her. "Why didn't you..."

"NOW!" A voice from behind her caught Kurome by surprise. Turning, she only had a moment to react before Steamax rushed out and grabbed the console from her hand. The next thing she knew, K-Sha was drop-kicking her in the face and grabbing Histoire before jumping away.

"Good plan, Lady K-Sha." Steamax said as they jumped away from Kurome.

"She was too easily distracted." K-Sha said as C-Sha jumped up and caught her. "Thank you."

"Hey, no problem." C-Sha chuckled.

Kurome groaned and gripped her forehead. "Don't think you'll get away with..." Her eyes suddenly bugged out as she felt a throb of power surge through her. '...No...' Her face went pale as she realized what was going on. "THOSE BITCHES!" Screaming, she threw her left hand up into the air and a huge sphere of black energy formed above her. "Dark Black, shatter these fools!"

Kurome disappeared as the sphere exploded outwards, revealing Dark Black, who let out a yell.

"So this is a Dark CPU." Histoire muttered as her book was opened up and she could see again. "...Terrifying." The creature was thirty meters tall and sounded just like Noire, just... Louder.

"Histoire, stay back, we'll deal with this." Nepgear said and Histoire nodded, floating back. As she watched the others try to get a Sharing Field active, Histoire frowned to herself. "...Uzume Tennouboshi?" She had no idea why that name sounded so familiar to her. "...Why does my heart hurt when I think about her?"

And what was the worst, to Histoire, was the pain she could feel in that blue-haired girl's voice whenever she spoke about the past. "...Did I truly hurt you, Uzume?" Histoire asked herself softly. "...If I did, I can't apologize enough, I would never want to hurt or fail any of my charges."

After all, she had lost Neptune not once but twice. And while Neptune had come back both times, it hurt her to realize that she could do nothing to help her charge when she needed it the most. "I never want to fail any of my charges again."


...I got nothing to say, I'll let you guys tell me what you think.