"W-What?! Report me?!" Neptune questioned with a dazed look on her face.
"As much as a lot of things about you seem to click into place nicely with your explanation, I'm sure that you can understand that for us, it's not really all that believable." Theresa replied with a serious expression, with no trace of her prior "cute" personality being visible on her face.
"The only theoretical way for you to potentially cross into our world would be through the Sea of Quanta, and due to its nature, we would've detected a fluctuation as soon as you arrived."
There was a bit of a pause as Neptune was at a loss for words. Being extremely low on shares meant that she can't transform into HDD – so just simply proving herself to be a Goddess was already out of the question.
"This isn't even mentioning that the Sea of Quanta is incredibly vast, so the chances of you even ending up here to begin with is already pretty low.
Neptune doesn't say a single word, as both speakers continued to stare at one another closely, both carefully observing the other just in case one starts a fight.
"Your silence speaks volumes. I'll give you a chance to prove that you're a Goddess, though." Theresa stated slowly as she squinted at Neptune, slowly standing up from her chair.
Neptune then slowly staggered backwards with a shocked expression, already getting ready to summon her wooden sword.
"I don't have enough Shares to transform, though! This debate is extremely one-sided! And if I didn't know who sent me here, I would've called cheat!"
Theresa then pauses.
"Shares?"
"Yeah! Shares, the faith of my people!"
Now it was Theresa's turn to go silent.
"Principal. If I may share something." A monotone voice called out from the side.
"Yes?" Theresa acknowledges as she maintains eye contact with Neptune.
"The Bronya has been observing Subject Neptune since she arrived, and Project Bunny has not detected any trace of Honkai Energy residing within her body."
Theresa then finally breaks eye contact with Neptune as she relaxes herself a little bit, with it even being notable in her facial expression.
"Is that so…?" Theresa mutters to herself as she slowly sits back down in her chair.
Neptune then breathes out an audible sigh of relief as she looks over to Bronya with sparkles in her eyes.
"Woohoo! MVP Alloy_Bron to the rescue!"
Bronya simply glances toward her whilst giving her a short, small smile.
Theresa then rests her fist on her face as she thinks everything over from the top, with Bronya's information added in.
"You said that Shares are the faith of your people, can I assume by that info that you need a specific level of Shares to transform?"
Neptune nodded whilst giving a "Hmm, Hmm!" sound as a sign of acknowledgment.
"Then that's fine… But something still isn't adding up."
"Eh?" Neptune muttered, tilting her head to the side with a puzzled expression.
"If you claim to be from another world, how are you still feeling these 'Shares'? You aren't in the same world as your people anymore."
This immediately alerted Neptune as her puzzled expression immediately shifted to a face of realisation.
"Ah, you're right! Since I've only properly met Kiana, Mei and Bronya – maybe they've started believing in me, so the shares I'm feeling are from them!" Neptune stated whilst beaming a huge smile at the realisation.
"Properly met?" Theresa chuckled whilst also smiling. "You've only been with them for a few hours or so."
"Maybe because I'm just that approachable, and maybe because I actually am the World's #1 cutie, cutie #2." Neptune said as she smirked at Theresa.
The two then chuckled with each other as Bronya once again gave a soft smile at the conversation's positive twist.
"Alright, I'll be willing to put a bit of my trust in you." Theresa stated, now fully relaxed in her chair as she reached for something under her desk.
"Aww! I don't know if that's another little bit of Share Energy flowing through me or if my heart is feeling all warm and cosy!" Neptune smiled as Bronya slowly made her way next to Neptune, knowing that the conversation was about to come to an end.
Suddenly, an abrupt knock on the door behind the two was heard.
"Come in!" Theresa shouted from across the room as the door opened to reveal a girl that was quite a bit taller than all three of them. She wore what seemed to be a blue Chinese uniform and possessed red glasses. She had blue eyes, pale skin, and a serious expression on her face that could possibly rival Noire in her "work mode".
"Ah, Fu Hua – glad you're here." Theresa greeted with a smile.
"Nice to see that you're doing well, Principal Theresa." The now identified Fu Hua replied, briefly glancing towards Neptune as she said this. Neptune tilted her head to the side with a calm expression in response.
"I'd like to move you to Kiana's dorm, effective from tonight."
Neptune raised an eyebrow at this whilst Bronya didn't make any expression.
"Understood." Fu Hua replied with the exact same expression as before as she turned to Neptune.
"I've heard from Theresa about your… situation. It's nice to meet you, Neptune." Fu Hua stated as she held out a hand.
As Neptune shook it, she made slight noises indicating that she was deep in thought as she continued to stare at Fu Hua. Bronya didn't react to this, but Theresa had a nervous smile on her face as a comedic sweat drop rolled down her face.
"Is there something wrong?"
"Eh? Oh, no no, it's just that you sorta remind me of a friend of mine when she's serious about working. I guess you're of the same species as her!" Neptune smiled as she tried joking around to lighten the somewhat serious atmosphere.
Fu Hua didn't respond to this, but Neptune could've sworn she spotted her eyebrow raise just a little.
"Wait, hold up a sec – why is she staying with us?" Neptune asked as she moved her attention towards Theresa, who by now has already shaken herself out of her previous comedic expression.
"Because of you, mainly. I do somewhat trust you now thanks to Bronya's readings, but I still need to take precautions. You start learning real quick that you can't take that many chances with the Honkai."
As soon as she finished saying this, her face notably tensed up a bit – especially around the latter part. Bronya and Fu Hua acknowledged this whilst Neptune didn't really know why.
"Rest assured though, once we've fully cleared you – I'll be off your back." Theresa concluded as she beamed another soft smile towards Neptune, which she returned upon hearing this.
"This also gives me the perfect excuse to have Fu Hua check in on Kiana…" Theresa said to herself mentally.
Valkyrie Dorms
As Kiana continued to extensively play HOMU VS. against a CPU player after hearing about the absurd results of Neptune and Bronya's bout, a loud knock was heard on the door. As Kiana was about to get up, Mei emerged out of her room as she smiled towards Kiana whilst she walked towards the door to open it.
Upon opening it, she laid eyes upon the returning Neptune and Bronya, but with two new figures moving in.
"Neptune has logged back in!" The aforementioned girl announced as she reflected a smile back towards Mei, with Bronya following closely behind her.
Mei then notices Theresa and Fu Hua moving in, to which she shows a slight surprised expression.
When Kiana paused the game to look at the newcomers, she also showed a slightly surprised expression when she laid eyes upon Theresa, but then transitioned into angry annoyance when she looked at Fu Hua – whom was looking at her back with squinted eyes towards her and the controller in her hand.
"A-Aunt Teri? And Fuka?!"
Theresa then notices what Kiana was doing, and joined Fu Hua in staring at her with a squint.
"Kiana, thanks for welcoming me, but…" Theresa stated slowly.
"Why aren't you preparing for the mock exams?" Fu Hua chimed in.
In Kiana's vision, she could've sworn they were getting larger in size, and that the environment around them was being consumed by darkness and flames as Kiana's eyes threatened to jump out of their sockets, whilst looking at them with a lot of guilt on her face.
"Well, uh… I was just taking a break from my classes?"
"That's absurd, Kiana. I'm aware of your timetable, and your classes ended hours ago." Fu Hua replied as she swatted away the half-assed excuse Kiana made.
The accused girl then grunted in frustration as she didn't have a way out of this, especially with Theresa effectively tag-teaming with Fu Hua against her.
"Ugh… Alright, fine! I'll study, but why are you so on top of me all the time?"
"As our form group's 'Class Monitor', it's my responsibility to ensure that all students are performing well in-class."
"But we're not in-class anymore!"
"That's no reason for me not to push you to study, especially with your current grades."
The two then glared at each other with high levels of intensity, as both of them furrowed their brows and squinted towards each other.
"Kiana, if you don't get in your room right now and start studying…" Theresa said with a tone that cut through Kiana's defences effortlessly.
"Y-Yes Auntie Teri! Running off to study right noooooooooow!" Kiana shouted as she thrusted herself towards her room and immediately closed the door, earning a sigh from Theresa when she finished doing so.
Neptune just stared at her with a massive sweat drop herself.
"Jeez… I don't think even I can defend myself against that."
Theresa then immediately returned to her normal expression as a "Huh?" came out.
"Oh, you won't have to worry about that."
"… Unless you've actually been lying all this time about yourself?" Theresa said as she immediately transitioned back into her creepy tone.
"N-N-No, No! My hands weren't in the cookie jar, I wasn't lying!" Neptune immediately replied, feeling cold all-over as Theresa once again sighed.
"I was just joking." Theresa concluded as she once again returned to her regular cheery self.
"Sheesh… I don't know why, but it was like I was always meant to feel a spine-chilling vibe from a loli character on this very day…" Neptune took note of mentally.
Everyone present in the Dorm's living room then took note of the sun nearly having fully descended in the horizon through the wide window, as Mei moved closer to it to cover it with a curtain – whilst Fu Hua switched on the main light.
"So, Neptune – since you're going to be staying with us for a while, why don't you tell us a bit more about yourself and your world?" Theresa requested, moving over to one of the massive bean bags in order to sit down, prompting the others to use either one of the others around the room, or the sofa.
"Ah, so you want Story Time with Mommy Neppy? Sure. Shame I can't transform into my mature form yet, it would've been perfect for this kinda thing."
Neptune then sits on the floor in front of all of them so they could all see her – all four recipients looking towards her with upmost interest.
"So, as I've already said before, I'm the Goddess of my nation – Planeptune. There's three others, one's called Lastation, owned by my lonely friend Noire. She's pretty much your classic tsundere, just imagine Kiana's tsundere-ness on a… slightly calmer scale."
"I HEARD THAT, NEP!" Kiana shouted behind the door, garnering a few chuckles from Theresa and Mei.
"But yeah, Noire's a pretty good & fun friend and she's probably the hardest worker amongst us – but she has a pretty hard time admitting her feelings to others. I always love to tease her about that, the reactions are priceless." Neptune added, chuckling after saying the last sentence.
Fu Hua seemed to take notice of Noire's description. Was she what Neptune was referring to earlier when talking about herself?
"The third nation on our list is Blanc's – which is called Lowee. She's a very reserved and calm girl, sorta like Bronya, and is very nice most of the time. But, she has a massive temper if you make her angry – almost to Super Saiyan levels. She also loves reading books, and also writing some of her own, but don't tell her that I told you that."
All four nodded, with Bronya in particular taking interest with her being used as a comparison to Blanc.
"… Come to think of it, you two sorta sound the same. Maybe you two share the same VA?" Neptune joked as Theresa giggled a little bit, with Bronya giving a "I see" as a response.
"Our final pit-stop on our tour of Gamindustri is Leanbox – Vert's nation. If there's anybody that can rival my interest in video games, it would have to be her – perhaps even more so. She's obsessed with gaming, is usually friendly and adult-like, and I think she might have a big sister complex… She also has a massive rack, and is often relentless to Blanc about it, who suffers from a certain anxiety – if you know what I mean."
"Hmm… If she's the Goddess of Leanbox, and is obsessed with gaming, how is she able to take care of her nation properly?" Fu Hua asked, her inner sense of duty bubbling to the surface as it clashed with her current understanding of Vert's character.
"Honestly, I think she leaves all of the important things last minute. I'm pretty sure if someone asked her if she'd rather play games than do important CPU stuff, then 10 times out of 10 she'd choose gaming."
Fu Hua felt an inner sense of confusion and discontent towards Vert's lifestyle, which was slowly starting to remind her of Kiana's fate if left untampered with.
"But I can sorta see why she does it, so eh." Neptune waved it off as she started searching in her head where to take the story next.
She then goes on to explain what happened to her and the other CPUs during the Deity of Sin incident, introducing Histoire as Planeptune's Oracle (which Fu Hua breathed a hidden sigh of relief after hearing how on-top of Neptune she is), and also introducing their sisters – the CPU candidates, naturally starting with Nepgear's description.
Neptune continued to explain everything as she continued working her way up to the present.
"- And then she sneezed on me with this weird blue energy, and then bam - a crossover with you guys!"
Everyone took a few seconds to digest all this information in, but now it was clear from how she was describing everything that she was not lying. This especially put Theresa and Fu Hua at immense ease.
"Wow, Neptune. It really seems like you went through a lot." Mei commented with a mildly surprised expression.
"Yeah, I've got to be honest – almost the whole world choosing to believe in your immensely powerful enemy and having your powers drain in the process seems really grim. Not to mention being tied up for three years and having to have your sisters rescue you lot with little assistance…" Theresa added, showing a face of concern and care.
"It's been a doozy but we're still alive and kickin'! And I can take whatever this world has got for moi as well." Neptune smirked as everyone smiled at her attitude.
Behind Kiana's closed door, she sat right behind it, listening to every word whilst also contemplating the life ahead of her. Hearing all of this actually struck a cord with her Kaslana instincts of self-sacrifice and heroism.
She would be shaken out of all of this when she heard knocking on her door, with that making her skin crawl for obvious reasons.
"Who is it?" Kiana shouted as she put a bit of distance between herself and the door as she slowly moved back to her desk with the empty answer sheets.
"It's me. How are you getting on?" Fu Hua mumbled from behind the door as Kiana's senses entered high alert.
"Ah, I'm… Uh… Getting along fine! These questions aren't really all that much of a challenge for me!" Kiana shouted with confidence, before her eyes became a solid white with a black outline – realising her mistake.
"Is that so…?" Fu Hua asked, opening the door insanely quickly as she looked towards Kiana. All that the latter could see was Fu Hua with a Red Lens Flare effect on her eyes, expressing immense rage as she could already guess what was going on.
"Mind if I take a look at your progress, then?" Fu Hua asked as she stumbled towards Kiana like a zombie – with everyone else (except Bronya) looking with wide-open eyes at the now-shut door.
"Yet again, the Bronya predicted this situation correctly." Bronya said to herself out loud, with Neptune and Mei in particular acknowledging this.
All that they could hear now were mumbles that barely sounded like speech.
"W-Wait, Fu Hua! I'm not done yet!"
"Oh, I'd bet. Let me see."
"C-CLASS MONITOR, PLEASE!"
"If you're that confident with your answers and progress, then you've got nothing to hide – right?"
"B-But I didn't finish yet-"
…
"Kiana! What do you even mean by that?! You've written nothing down!"
"S-Sorry Fuka! I was sorta struggling and I was sorta listening to Nep's story and-"
"I just hope you weren't planning on sleeping tonight. Because we're going to be here for quite a while."
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
"And after this, 5 more question sheets."
"OH COME ON!"
Theresa gave a loud, audible sigh as Mei nervously smiled.
"This situation happens often, don't worry about it, Neptune." Mei said, as she tried rationalising the situation.
"… I just hope she isn't going to be a vegetable in the head tomorrow… And look at Fu Hua go – Histy on steroids!"
Theresa then turns her attention towards Neptune once again.
"Speaking of which, I'd like to test your combat capabilities tomorrow."
Neptune then looked up towards her, as she, admittingly, was getting a bit excited.
"Sweeteroni! So, what am I gonna be fighting? Some Honk-Eye fodder? A Big Boss? The strongest Valkyrie with a plot twist coming up? Oooooh, I'm so excited to know what it is that I peed a little."
Theresa winced at that comment, whilst Bronya showed no expression and Mei just nervously smiled at her.
Out of all the things that you can choose to reference from your older games, and you pick that line?
"Isn't it technically you picking that? And c'mon, that line was a good one!"
Well… I… Er… That doesn't matter right now.
And yeah, that line is a good one – if you're aiming for dramatically reducing your social points down by 100.
"Ah, they'll get past it in a few minutes, don't worry."
"Riiiiiiight. As I was saying, I'd like to invite you over to Himeko's class tomorrow for you to demonstrate your fighting prowess. If you can end up helping us fight against the Honkai, then I'm confident that we can push it back a lot more with your help. I'll even see if we can reward you for it." Theresa announced, being happy that a chance like this fell into their lap.
Suddenly, mumbling re-emerged from behind the door.
"Did I just hear Auntie Himeko's name? What's going on with her?"
"Did I say that you could take a break now? You've had more than enough already today."
"S-Sorry Class Monitor! Back to it!"
"Ooh, rewards? Now we're talking!" Neptune replied as her eyes sparkled with 100% interest.
"That's right, and who knows? Maybe we can develop a battlesuit that's more adjusted to your powers and fighting style?"
"Woah, really?! That is super cool!" Neptune exclaimed with excitedness as she brainstorms some of the possible cool battle outfits that she could end up wearing.
"So, how is this gonna work?!" Neptune questioned with the same level of excitement, eagerly awaiting Theresa's answers.
"Slow down there, cowgirl. I'll reveal a bit more on the day, okay?" Theresa responded, smiling at Neptune as the latter's face became a bit down.
"Aww! You're such a tease, Teri!"
"We've ended up having a very long conversation, and it's getting pretty late."
"Not to mention that I still have quite a bit of work to do myself… Jeez, I ended up spending way more time than I thought I was going to." Theresa says to herself in her head.
"I'll meet up with you again in the morning to discuss how the day will work, so until then – all of you rest up and enjoy the rest of your evening."
Immediately after, more mumbling occurs.
"What about me-"
"It really looks to me that you're serious about not sleeping."
"Argh- S-Sorry!"
"Well, expect for maybe one person – she's had too much rest already. Have a good evening girls, I'm off!"
As all three in the living room said goodbye to Theresa, Neptune finally gets off the floor and stretches her whole stiff body, with a few "Oh Man"(s) being heard a few times as she did so.
After this, she threw herself at the sofa and started browsing the game console's digital library as Bronya sat down next to her, with Mei going into the kitchen to think up of something that she could make for everyone.
"Alright, now this story is finally getting moving! Let's see what's in store for me!" Neptune states to herself.
She then lands upon a game recommended by Bronya, one that was advertised to Neptune as having "incredible combat systems and social functions", as well as having "hyper realistic graphics and game economics" that "help build a living and breathing world".
The game's name? "Honkai Gods".
Author's Note
Hey everyone! Like with my previous fanfics, I'll also be responding to reviews from both Wattpad and over here at the beginning of future parts!
So, if you've got a question that you'd like answered, if it won't spoil any big ideas that I'm thinking of for the story, I'll be sure to answer it!
Suggestions and criticism, of course, is also welcome. And just to get this out of the way for anybody who may ask, no – I do not plan on inserting any OC into this story. There will only ever be established Honkai characters and Neptunia characters, with a few characters outside of both series potentially being referenced or having cameo appearances. That's it.
In the meantime, I hope you've enjoyed this part. Don't miss the next one! 😊
