Hey Uni, are you making a weapon to surpass Nepgear?

...

Well, run that sentence through your head again and you might get it in a bit. I'm going to go bug Nowa now!

-Neptune

June had begun and rolled past, seeing IF return to active duty while Compa entered nursing school. Nepgear remained home-schooled, though they now knew Histoire herself was the dreaded tutor they heard about.

Right now however, work was not really on the brunette's mind. Part of that was the divine aura pressing down on her from above, part the divine body on her back from not so far above. She kept up an even pace, moving to all but touch the ground before pushing herself back up. Neptune helpfully counted her push-ups while keeping perfectly balanced on top of her.

Further up, Nepgear hovered in her HDD, gently floating back and forth; the pink wings she displayed were not actually required, but they apparently gave her a modicum of control to start out with. The occasional squeak and muttering told IF that her friend was a far cry from soaring through the streets at speed, though. Flying high in the sky was one thing, but anywhere near things Nepgear could break required a lot of control over her flight.

She still wondered what had happened to her life, though the peoples' attention begun to fade a month after her fight with the dragon; now however, she spent quite a bit of her free time around Planeptower, such as at this very moment.

They were located deep below the monumental structure, in a vast chamber carved into the stone and coated in Sharicite. Neptune's personal training chamber, which even Nepgear was not allowed to enter without her older sister's permission. Not because it was forbidden, but because the younger CPU could not open or break through the doors by herself just yet.

This room was build to withstand the abuse of a CPU preparing for war, as it had remained for longer than three centuries; this place, where they now did their exercises, had been used to develop most any technique Purple Heart used during the Console War. The great conflict between the four, which had lasted a little short of three hundred years and had ended long before IF was born. No one even knew why it ended in the first place, as no clear decision had been reached.

She considered asking Neptune, who would know, but the CPUs had never spoken about the matter. It was rather clear she did not want to, so IF decided not to bring it up.

Instead she finished her sequence and pushed her lower back up to throw the purplette off. Neptune sailed through the air with a laugh before landing on her hands and cartwheeling into a normal stance. "Nice try, Iffy."

They smirked at each other for a moment, but then their attention was taken by an audible crash; Nepgear bounced back from the wall she hit, rubbing her shoulder with a sigh. As she turned, IF nudged Neptune's side. "How long until she's decent at it?"

Her question made the older CPU put a hand on her chin in thought. "Mhmhm, hard to tell. I'd say a month or two, maybe three? Chances are she will be done before Uni's apotheosis." Mentioning the raven-haired girl, who was also Lastation's Candidate, made her snicker. "She was all but foaming at the mouth when Nepgear told her. The rivalry is strong."

IF offered an amused smile in response before adding her own comment. "Not just the rivalry, right?" This brought her a pointed finger and a 'Bingo'-motion, but also made Nepgear blush. This was the first indication she gave of listening to their conversation.

Curiously, she did not deny it. Neither IF nor Neptune missed that fact, though they merely glanced at each other and kept quiet.

::

Hours later, Compa had joined them after her classes let out; now that Nepgear had recuperated, she decided to let the two humans see her workshop. Neptune had actually sealed it for the previous weeks to ensure her younger sister would not run off to tinker out of boredom.

As they strode out of the elevator, Nepgear quickly led the way. "It is not far away. Don't worry about people, almost nobody comes up here."

"Outside of the Makers, you mean?" Compa's question prompted a light nod from their guide, who cast a glance backward. "Pretty much. I don't think either of them would mind you, though." While she spoke, IF felt tempted to sneak a peek at those two if they were present; it was gone a moment later, though curiousity remained. She had never met either Steamax or RED before.

Compa appeared more openly conflicted than her, making the brunette realise she was not the only one curious about Planeptune's heroes.

However, neither of them asked and they did not meet anyone on their short trek. IF doubted that the Makers were even around, though she did not put much thought to the matter; her attention was soon taken up by the room they entered; the afternoon sun cast bright light onto it through a windowfront, illuminating a place four times the size of Compa's already spacious bedroom.

Two workbenches were pushed at the far wall, with a covered indentation to their right and several different kinds of protective gear to their left, though the pile was neatly ordered and had accumulated a lot of dust. Dozens of power tools were arrayed around those workbenches, ranging from drills to soldering irons.

The walls were taken up by large containers of miscellaneous electrical parts, sometimes interrupted by actual cabinets holding everything from scrap metal to shining chips. One large rack was completely filled with blueprints, all of which had been meticulously labeled and sorted alphabetically.

Everything was tidy and orderly, though Nepgear quickly checked nonetheless while the other girls looked around. IF was amazed by both the size of this room and its contents, as well as the girl it belonged to. She figured that the free space in the center had been created to test the various gadgets Nepgear obviously built here.

When they reached the purplette, she was busy going through a box that lay on her workbench; upon hearing their steps, Nepgear cast a quick glance their way and smiled apologeptically. "Ah, sorry. I was actually working on a few conductors the days before I got sick. They aren't actually complete yet..." She trailed off, leaving her human friends with a somewhat awkward silence to break.

After having looked around the room, IF took a deep breath and smiled. "Well, I guess you're more of a tinkering nut than we thought." Compa quickly nodded in agreement, looking around in interest as she did.

The following tour was nearly incomprehensible to IF; Nepgear operated on a level of expertise that she could not hope to even get close to. However, she appeared so happy to talk about her hobby that neither of them had the heart to interrupt her. In fact, Compa even appeared to get more of it than IF did.

They humoured Nepgear for a bit longer, letting her fawn over all the bits and pieces she had neatly laid out and prepared for various projects and ideas. Once the purplette had finished talking about her plan to create sensor-based, realistic animal ears, IF interrupted with a more curious note. "By the way, are you going to join us on patrols again?"

Nepgear blinked at her, but quickly nodded an affirmative. "Of course." Now that she was healthy again, it would soon be time; however, she was an adult CPU now and probably would get quite a bit more work than she used to have soon.

Yet, thinking about work reminded IF of her katars; the first pair, worn and trusted, had been irreparably destroyed during her fight with the dragon. She bought a new pair weeks earlier, but could not shake the feeling that those would not survive the next stronger monster. If she wanted something that lasted longer, she would actually need Lastation-made weapons; the artisans there were known for making things that lasted a lifetime and longer.

This thought in turn made her think of Uni. Despite all the joking they made on her and Nepgear's expense, Lastation's Candidate appeared to be someone who cared even if she did not say it. IF had only one encounter to go off of, but the younger girl had left an impression just like the other two CPUs she knew.

"Has Uni visited over the last month?" The question was out of her mouth before she realised, but IF did not mind it this time.

Nepgear simply nodded, though her expression turned a little thoughtful. "She did, twice." As there was nothing else forthcoming, the brunette raised an eyebrow and waited.

When Nepgear failed to continue even after some silent prompting, which already told them how far off her mind really was, she flicked the CPU's forehead. Nepgear recoiled with a surprised eep, then blinked at the expectant IF; Compa giggled over the confused look given to the brunette, who kept her eyebrow raised. "So, what else is on your mind?" She felt that as Nepgear's friend, she ought to ask.

The purplette fidgeted a little as she considered what to say, but ultimately shrugged. "It's... not really that important. Uni was acting a little weird and I still don't know why. That's a little infuriating, to be honest." IF could understand the sentiment; not knowing what her friends were thinking could be bothersome at times, though it appeared not to be normal for a deity.

"Actually," Compa chimed in with a curious expression now, eyes on Nepgear. "I mean, I can guess who Uni is now, but how long do you actually know each other?" That, IF realised, was a good question. She knew CPUs were born looking like young children and not infants; they held a human adult's intelligence since birth, too.

Nepgear scratched her forehead in response, pulling memories of the distant past back up. "Uh, that's a good question." She remained quiet for a moment, hands absently playing with a small cable. "I think it was fifteen... no, sixteen years ago. March, to be exact. Uni was four months old, I was a year and and a half at the time; that was when they both came visiting us." She did not elaborate who 'they both' were; it was rather obvious she meant the lastationite CPUs.

"We had a somewhat rocky start, though it all ended well." Nepgear grimaced while saying that, something unpleasant having returned to the forefront of her mind; IF considered asking, but the purplette continued already: "I never really disliked her, and she started warming up to me in time... I think we have been best friends for at least ten years now. Probably longer."

IF considered returning to the other topic for a moment, but decided to drop the matter; she had the feeling that Nepgear did not want to talk about it. She also considered throwing another jab about the lingering romantic tension at her friend; it was tempting, though probably not the right time.

Instead, her gaze wandered a little and came to rest at something that appeared slightly out of place on one of the various cabinets. "Is that a sword hilt?"

Nepgear did not even bat an eye at the new subject, following her gaze and opening the glass door after a moment. "Oh, that? I was actually working on a new beam saber." She pulled it out and held it out for inspection, though the hilt alone appeared no different from other types IF had seen so far. "In theory, this one should take less power to produce the same effect; it takes thrice as long before you need to reload or switch the power pack."

She took a step back from the two humans and activated the weapon, immediately being basked in a faint, pink glow. The blade hummed quietly, a metre long and formed like a standard short sword; IF knew it could easily cut through steel.

Then, without either of them doing anything, the blade contorted and spilled right into Nepgear's chest. IF flinched and Compa's distressed noise was quite audible, but their friend calmly turned her weapon off with a sigh, patting out the fire on her clothes. There was a hole offering a glimpse at rosy skin, though it already fixed itself as they watched, leaving Nepgear as pristine as if she had not just assaulted herself with a tide of condensed plasma. "It still has a few bugs and needs fine tuning, I guess."

She looked down at the weapon with a thoughtful expression before putting it aside. "Actually, would you mind testing it once I took care of those? You would be right in the target audience," she told Compa. It was an easy confirmation that this weapon had been meant for civilian use without actually saying so.

Compa just looked overjoyed.

. .

. .

Weeks passed without much trouble, quickly turning to a month and continuing. Neptune observed her sister and her two friends with joy, happy for the younger CPU to have found friends. Her smile was brighter than ever these days.

The weird feeling in her heart still plagued the older purplette nonetheless; Neptune intellectually knew it was called envy, but never really felt it herself. She rarely cared what others had over her, both because few had more and because she was happy.

Yet, seeing her own sister grow up and become independent made her feel both joy and a hint of bitterness. Neptune knew this meant they had less time to spend together.

She also knew not to speak of it; such emotion was not acceptable for her to feel. Thus this hint of envy went ignored as the ruler of Planeptune worked and played; she knew not to follow her feelings, as there was nary anyone in this whole world who would spend as much time with Nepgear as she could. They were eternal.

One day, while the three were up in Nepgear's workshop once again, Neptune had decided to return to her own refuge. A long ride in the elevator saw her alone with her thoughts as they inevitably went to the young woman with her sister. IF was without doubt outstanding in many regards. "Great girl, ten out of ten, would befriend again." Neptune giggled at her own comment; yet the smile soon faded away again.

Surprisingly, this was another part of the envy she felt these days; seeing that Nepgear had to make friends of her own to leave the nest, Neptune held back on Compa and IF on purpose. They were both the kind of people she loved to befriend herself, though; IF in particular she would have liked to spend more time with.

Then again, she reasoned, there was no problem with doing so in the near future.

As the elevator released Neptune to the underground layers of Planeptower, she quickly skipped away from it; the large bag by her side swung with every movement, though she made sure not to spill any of its contents. Seeing that these areas were restricted and rarely visited, she did not have to worry about being seen. Once out of sight from the elevator however, she simply went through a revolving wall lightly marked on the corridor; the best hiding places were those never known, after all.

Down a staircase, Neptune stood before a simple wooden door that was Sharicite nonetheless. The walls inside were coated with it just like the training room a few hundred metres away. Only Nepgear had ever known about this particular room.

Neptune slowly approached the door and pushed it open, the added weight making the same feat impossible for any human. The Keep Out sign she herself put on went ignored, obviously, though it would tell her fellow CPUs not to enter if they ever found this place. Personally, the purplette doubted this would happen; they rarely went off to explore far-off parts of each others' homes.

This was where she always went when she felt lonely; with her friends present, she would naturally never come near this place.

There was no light inside, only an ethereal pink glow from Neptune herself lighting up the dark. She quickly created a few orbs of light to orbit her, revealing a truly vast chamber to her eyes. The ground was covered in soft pillows, with rows and groups of plush toys arrayed around them; many had turned grey with age, losing their colours as centuries passed.

Toward the walls were cabinets, reaching ten metres up to the ceiling and filled with all kinds of drawings, letters, and papers; she had already filled them until the middle of the room, a hundred metres in the distance. They were all hidden here, every letter and present she had ever gotten. Every picture ever taken.

At the far end, however, stood a shrine. A shrine that held a clear crystal of Sharicite in its center, but was otherwise plastered with images. Were she to go there, all of Planeptune's heroes would be smiling back at her; a simple reminder of all the Makers she had appointed throughout her life.

More pictures hung everywhere around the cabinets, though; friends she made in the past, most long gone to rest with their ancestors. Children, adults, elders, men, women, more.

Despite the myriad of things she knew to be in here, Neptune remembered almost everything. She knew one of the cabinets further down held letters from Nepgear's friends; Compa had written two, one for the Day of Creation, one for the new year's celebration of another year. IF had sent one as well, though she was seven at the time and likely long since forgot about it.

All three were cheesy and childish in a way, but so were most of the letters in here. Each word written here was Neptune's motivation, the knowledge that there were so many who depended on her work.

Today, she just dropped down onto the pillows and pulled a cup of pudding from the bag. It quickly cooled down under her touch as the purplette applied a bit of magic.

This was where the greatest of her generation would go if a break was truly needed; to sit amidst the proof of her hard work, and eat her favourite food until she felt better.

She had a lot of pudding with her that day.