WARNING: Child abuse will be shown/discussed in this arc, though I'll try not to be too explicit. You have been warned.

Neptunia Guild Files: Fate/book one

A Hyperdimension Neptunia Fan Fiction

by Derald Snyder

Section 41: Euryale

(Evil Magus Arc- Begin)

Erethisan City was situated on a large island west of the mainland, and while not as visually impressive as the capital, the pure white high rises and architecture brought to mind other coastal cities like Orlando, Florida or Sydney, Australia. However, Rider was too preoccupied with her own thoughts to appreciate the eye candy, even as Nero gasped and marveled a few seat up, leading her to be shushed by the flight attendant. "Penny for your thoughts?" Archer asked from the seat next to her.

"Wha-? Oh, uh..." Rider shook her head to clear her mind. "Just wondering what would drive someone like Euryale to become a Guild agent, of all things..."

"Not all agents are combatants like us," Archer reminded her. "She could be strictly intelligence gathering or something like that."

"Even so, you would think a job like this would be (ahem) beneath proper ladies like her and Stheno," she said, her voice thick with sarcasm.

"How many years has it been since you saw or talked with each other?" Archer pointed out. "You don't know what's happened to them since... maybe Euryale had an experience that completely altered her world-view. Who can say?"

"...Maybe," Rider allowed. "I guess we'll find out when we get there..." She sighed and leaned back in her seat, barely registering the announcement of the plane's final approach to the airport...

*Erethsian City Airport, Dock 3*

As the party disembarked, Rider's gaze was drawn to a distinctive pair of lilac-colored twin tails... Sure enough, it was Euryale, a little taller than she remembered, but still short in comparison to most of the commuters here. She was dressed in a dark-colored women's business dress with a long skirt, an unreadable expression on her face... as Rider approached, however, the other woman made eye contact with her, eyes widening slightly as her mouth opened a little in a small gasp. "Euryale," was all Rider said as she stopped before her.

"Hello," Euryale responded, clearly uncomfortable. "It's good to see you again, even if you don't reciprocate."

"As long as you keep it civil, than so will I," Rider asserted.

"Greetings, Agent Euryale," Nero said as she took Rider's side. "It's good to meet you in person. I am Nero Claudius, codename Red Saber. The fox girl behind me is my partner and best friend Tamamo, codename Caster."

"You're a magic-user?" Euryale tilted her head to get a better look at the kitsune. "Oh, good, your talents will be of great use to us. I'm glad I called the main branch for backup!"

"I'll do the best I can, mikon," Tamamo bowed politely.

As the other two agents (and nurse) disembarked, Euryale gasped in disbelief. "N-no way! Aren't you THE Red Archer?!"

"My reputation precedes me," Archer chuckled. "Just Archer is fine. And you probably already know IF and Compa," he gestured to the two ladies behind him.

"N-not in person, but yes, I know them," the petite woman nodded, curtseying politely to her senior agent. "Anyway, let's head to the car and go to headquarters. The other agents will take care of your luggage."

"B-but I don't want to leave Fou behind, desu!" Compa protested, tears starting to form in her eyes.

"Why did you have to bring that mangy mutt along, anyway?" Rider sighed.

"He wanted to come, desu! He kept barking after me! I couldn't say no to him!" Compa insisted.

"I'll stay with Compa, so we can make sure her pet survived the flight unscathed," IF decided. "The rest of you go on ahead."

"As you wish," Nero agreed, the others concurring as well.

*Planeptune Guild Western Branch HQ*

"It seems a little better, ah, organized than the main branch," Nero observed as the group walked down a hallway.

"The main headquarters has had a few add-ons constructed over the years," Archer stated.

"Um, so how did you become a Guild agent, mikon?" Tamamo asked Euryale curiously.

"Filled out an application," Euryale shrugged. "Turns out I had some talents they were looking for, namely how to be polite to suspects and charm them so they lower their guard, and let slip incriminating information..."

"Huh, I could actually see you doing that," Rider comprehended.

"I bet you've done the same with that tall, sexy body of yours," Euryale smirked back at her stepsister.

"Bleh, no. I'm more in the ass-kicking department," she shook her head. "I'm not as good as Archer or his partner Saber, but I hold my own well enough."

"Saber...? So why isn't she here?" Euryale asked.

"She's... under the weather," Archer said. "Long story."

"Well, hope she gets better soon," the petite girl nodded. "Okay, into this conference room here." The group filed into said room, sitting around a big table which had an NPC agent at the front. "Sir, I've brought them." She then made introductions.

"Thank you for coming to help us out," the agent nodded. "Where's Agent IF?"

"With Compa, getting her pet poodle," Rider answered. "I'm sure they'll be here soon enough."

"Ah, I see. I'm glad Miss Compa was able to make the trip as well, seeing as our medical department is a bit overworked at the moment."

"Oh my, what happened?" Nero gasped.

"Tried to bring in a person of interest, but things went horribly wrong," the NPC agent replied. "I'll explain more once Agent IF gets here..."

Fortunately they didn't have to wait too long, IF and Compa appearing at the door a few minutes later, the former making sure the latter knew where the medical department was located, Compa nodding and going on her way with Fou trotting behind her. With that, IF entered the room, shutting the door behind her. "Sorry I'm late. What do we got?"

"A possible child-trafficking case," came the reply.

"Child trafficking? Y-you mean someone is abusing poor, helpless children somewhere?!" Nero cried in distress.

"Watch your volume..." IF cautioned. "I warned you when you first joined us that this was some of scum we had to deal with..."

"R... right," Nero looked down.

"...Maybe you should step out for now, Nero," Tamamo suggested. "If this is going in the direction I think it is, you'll probably get one of your migraines, mikon."

"I can take her to the cafeteria," Euryale offered.

"Very well then," the NPC agent agreed, Nero and Euryale promptly standing, the latter escorting the former out. "Now, to business. Several young girls have been vanishing recently- being literally kidnapped off the street in some cases- but the police were unable to find any leads, so they turned to us for help. Using some... unsavory tools, we managed to deduce that a mage is possibly involved, as we detected trace amounts of magical energy- mana- where some of the victims were last seen, indicating they were teleported away instead of grabbed physically."

"That would explain why the police couldn't find any leads," Tamamo nodded grimly.

"Right. Unfortunately, we couldn't trace where the children were being teleported to, so instead we used our tools to try and locate any mages who were working in secret, while the regular police questioned the more open magic practitioners. Again, they came up empty. However, we did find a potential lead... and that's where things went wrong."

He turned to the projector and activated it, showing a stoic clean-shaven male with jet-black hair, apparently in his mid-30s. "This is Souchirou Kuzuki. He's currently an ethics teacher for Northwestern High School, in the suburbs north of Erethsian proper. However, looking into his background suggests that he's a retired assassin who was a suspect in the death of a local alderman sometime ago, though the case went cold. He's kind that fights and kills with his bare hands, with an unpredictable and unknown martial arts discipline. As it turns out, he seems to be giving a female mage shelter at his home. But when we tried to question them..."

"He kicked your asses," Rider finished.

"Well, yes," the agent nodded. "Normally, we could have subdued him with sheer numbers, but this magus knows quickening and reinforcement magic, which turned Mr. Kuzuki into an unstoppable machine of destruction that tore though our fellow agents like tissue paper. Even worse, we have next to no info on this woman that's rooming with him. All we have is this photo one of our men managed to snap..." The projector then showed a slightly fuzzy image of a woman in dark purple robes, a wrinkled hood hiding her eyes, though her small nose and toothy smirk were visible. "Also, we've searched the surrounding area, but found no sign of any children anywhere..."

"Maybe this isn't the magus you're looking for, then," Archer suggested.

"While that is a possibility, we have to run down every lead we can," the agent countered. "Not to mention, we can't just let Kuzuki off for assaulting and nearly killing several government agents..."

"But why would a mage kidnap children to begin with, mikon?" Tamamo asked.

"...We did our research and discovered a forbidden process where a mage would sacrifice young girls to create mana crystals to enhance their own power," the agent said grimly. Tamamo and Rider both gasped at this, while Archer and IF just shook their heads in disgust. "So, that's why we need to apprehend these two and see if we can at least get them to point us in the right direction, if they aren't the ones responsible. As quickly as possible, if we can."

"So that's where I come in," Tamamo concluded.

"Right. Being at least part-kitsune, you should know a thing or two about how to dispel enchantments, correct?" the NPC asked, a mixture a hope and concern in his voice.

"...Well, Father did teach me the basics of dispelling curses," Tamamo said after a moment. "Reinforcement magic isn't quite the same, but I think I can make it work, mikon."

"Alright, so let's plan how we're going to do this..." IF spoke up, the group starting to discuss strategy...

*In the cafeteria...*

"Do you want anything to drink, Miss... Nero?" Euryale asked her companion as they entered.

"Some water will be fine," the blonde replied, Euryale going off to the soda machine while she sat down at an unoccupied table. Soon Euryale returned, carrying a cup of water and a cup of iced tea for herself. After she sat down, Nero asked her, "So, you're Rider's- er, Sharon's stepsister."

"Yeah, I am," Euryale nodded, looking somewhat uncomfortable. "Has Medusa- (ahem) I mean, Sharon told you about me?"

"We learned about her life's story just before you called us over here," Nero confirmed. "She said that you and... Stheno, was it? ...used to bully her all the time. Though you at least seemed to show a little remorse."

"Yeah..." Euryale stared into her tea. "I admit, we didn't treat her very well after she started getting too tall... honestly, I think Stheno was jealous of her a little, though she never came out and said it. She always kept her feelings close to the vest..."

"And you just went along with it?" Nero's tone turned accusatory.

"Well, she was the older one, if only by a few minutes, and we were twins, so... I felt like I had to follow her example," Euryale sighed. "I did kinda feel bad for Medusa, though..."

"And you never confronted your sister about this?"

"I... I think I tried to tell her once to take it easy, but she just blew me off," Euryale grunted. "She said something like, 'Come on, we're not hitting her or anything. If she can't handle a little teasing, she needs to grow thicker skin!'"

"That's what Sharon said her stepmother said when her Uncle Clyde confronted her," Nero recalled. "Like mother, like daughter..."

"Yeah," Euryale nodded. "We heard Uncle Clyde and Stepfather yelling, but we knew better than to interrupt adults arguing..."

"In your defense, Sharon said you lost it when Clyde was awarded custody," Nero softened her tone.

"Y-yeah..." a tear went down Euryale's cheek. "I didn't really understand what was happening when it first started, and Mother kept saying it was a waste of time... and then I heard Medu- Sharon start talking, and my heart just twisted, hearing how it felt from her perspective... Stheno insisted she was exaggerating, but I think it affected her too..." She took a moment to wipe her face with the back of her hand. "But yeah, when I realized Medu- ugh, Sharon was going away forever, I lost it... I ended up getting spanked by Mother for that. Long story short, after we graduated from school, I told Stheno that I didn't want to be in her shadow anymore, though I tried to be polite... I mean, we still keep in contact, and we always send a card from both of us on our sister's birthday, even if she never responds..."

"...So, do you desire to reconcile with her, now that's she's here?" Nero queried.

"I'd like to, but... I don't know if she'll want to..." Euryale wiped her face again.

Nero was uncharacteristically quiet for a moment as she watched the younger twin try not to cry. "...Well, speaking from my own experience, whenever I was moved to a new foster home, if there were other kids my age, I attempted to greet them with enthusiasm... but that seemed to keep them away from me, perhaps even frighten them. In hindsight, I clearly came on too strong... so I would say, try not to force it with Sharon. Try to keep it professional for now. Perhaps after this case is resolved, then you could ask her to dinner or something..."

"...Okay. Maybe I could try that," Euryale sniffled. Nero grabbed a napkin from nearby and handed it to her, Euryale nodding gratefully as she took it and blew her nose. "Maybe you could say something to her too...?"

"I can try, but as you said, no guarantee she'll listen," Nero said cautiously. She then looked up to see Tamamo enter the cafeteria. "Tamamo! Over here!" she waved, the kitsune promptly walking over to join them. "So, what's going on?"

"Well..." Tamamo bit her lip. "You might wanna stay sitting for this... and Euryale, you should get some distance, mikon."

A few minutes later, a loud cry of "They're doing WHAT to those poor girls?!" echoed through the facility, ironically inducing headaches for everyone in the immediate vicinity...

*To be continued...*

Next, the confrontation with Souchirou and his Caster companion...