Hyperdimension Neptunia: Crisis Thirteen

by Chocoboeater1

[Reboot!] Full of anxiety and doubt, Nepgear works on fulfilling her promise to make Gamindustri a better place after taking the lives of her friends and her sister. However, darkness is beginning to loom over Gamindustri as a group of thirteen individuals stand between Nepgear and her goal of bringing peace. Does she have what it takes to protect what matters to her? Post-Conquest

Hello everyone! Man, I haven't been active here in a long time, huh? Well, I won't say it's because I've been busy, because I really haven't been. Instead I'm sure by this point it's just laziness and not wanting to actually get down to sitting down and writing things out. Kind of sad of me, huh? Oh well, here I am now. Hopefully!

So I'm gonna kick off 2020 by rebooting Hyperdimension Neptunia: Crisis Thirteen! Even though I haven't worked on writing in years, I would still say that I'm better now than I was back then. So, hopefully I manage to get off my butt and actually manage to work on this story! - This will be a reboot, basically. I've read my original before plenty of times and, while I liked where I was going with the idea, the execution was pretty poor, and I noticed that I kind of just threw everything that was happening into it instantly, without any build up whatsoever!

So what I'm going to be doing is writing out this chapter, and maybe another one, that will then move into where the story begins in my previous version. And hopefully something actually happens. :D

So with that out of the way, I apologize for my absence, let's see if I can't write an amazing story by the end of the year!

(While writing this chapter I've found that it's extremely filler. This chapter is mainly for anyone curious about what happens before the plot takes place, so expect filler for another chapter after this before things start to kick off for real. Sorry D:)

Please let me know if you guys would like the plot to kick off or if the next chapter of filler is to your interests!

Hyperdimension Neptunia: Crisis Thirteen

Chapter 0

[Farewell]

It had been two weeks since Nepgear defeated the Deity of Sin, Arfoire. Despite the sickening words that Arfoire had left Nepgear, she still kept on going through the pain of handling everything alone. And by this point, maybe she really was truly alone.

Kei had decided to take care of handling things related to the public appeal of Planeptune, and the idea of moving the Nation to the now fallen grounds of the Gamindustri Graveyard had come up multiple times. Nepgear wasn't opposed to it, but the idea brought forth enough sadness to her than she wanted to admit.

But they had to relocate somewhere, after all. Planeptune itself was not big enough to hold the massive amount of citizens that moved to the nation after the CPU's of Lowee, Lastation and Leanbox suddenly disappeared. There were rumors swimming around, talking about how the new CPU of Planeptune had done something to everybody else.

Of course, to them, it was just a speculation that they couldn't prove, with the Guild and the Basilicom staff keeping a tight seal on the real reason.

Nepgear sighed deeply as she sat at her desk, which was originally her sister's. Despite wishing for peace, there were still groups of people going around spreading whatever came to mind in order to make Nepgear's life harder than it already was. Today wasn't just a normal day, either. IF had recently approached her and said that they needed to talk about something important.

Nepgear still had things to do, but waiting for her best friend came above those things. So now she sat alone in her office, waiting. A hue of purplish-darkness caught her eye, and slowly she gazed towards the weapon that she had used to kill off all of the CPU's. "Was there...nothing else that I could have done?"

There was a slight feeling of regret that washed over her, but she couldn't tear her eyes away from the sword. She started to feel hot, nerves wracking deep to her very core as she forced herself to remember wielding that sword to take lives-

With those thoughts making themselves known again, she gasped as the sound of someone knocking on her door brought her out of her thoughts. Standing up, she turned to the door and spoke. "C-Come in!"

Slowly the door opened, revealing the person behind it, who was none other than IF. With a small smile, IF approached Nepgear and leaned against her desk. "So, how have you been? It's been a few days since you made that speech, and I'm glad that it seemed to have gone off without much trouble. Aside from those in the guild having to step up and try to calm people down amidst the crowd."

Nepgear blinked, but collected herself as fast as she could and offered IF a small smile of her own. "A-Ah, yes. So far mostly everything has been going fine. It's slow, but we're currently working on the small issues we're facing inside Planeptune itself. I also have to get ready for the trip around Gamindustri next week."

Scratching the back of her head, IF leaned backwards and stared at the ceiling. "Is that right…? I didn't know you guys were already working on handling that."

"Well, we thought that we should do it seeing how things were progressing more positively than we thought."

"I see."

There was an awkward silence after that. It made Nepgear feel uncomfortable, so she decided to clear her throat and look at IF. "So uhm...What did you want to talk about, IF?" The guild agent smiled weakly, looking towards the floor and kicked softly. "Well uh...You know how...Some stuff happened during our travels to save Gamindustri, and I felt sort of useless?"

With the question being brought up, Nepgear quickly stepped in front of IF and set her hands on the girl's shoulders. "W-What are you talking about? I couldn't have done nearly as much without your help! W-Why are you bringing this up now?"

Normally the action would cause anyone to look up at the other person, but IF remained looking at the floor. "Because I'm leaving Planeptune for a while. I want to get stronger. I just thought I'd let you know before I left."

Nepgear held a hand to her mouth as she slowly backed away from IF, then slightly hung her head. "I...can't do anything to stop you, huh?"

"No, I'm sorry. Don't worry though, I'll be back before you know it! I just...have to do this for myself." Nepgear nodded slowly. "I understand…"

Was she going to lose IF too?! Maybe her decisions regarding using the sword were indeed the wrong ones. She had to figure out a way to get IF to stay. Sensing what the young CPU was about to try, IF smiled and walked past Nepgear, softly grasping her shoulder. "Stay strong, Nepgear."

Steps were heard through the room, and Nepgear remained frozen until she heard the door open then shut softly. Once IF was gone, Nepgear collapsed slowly onto the floor, and started tearing up. "Why...Why does everyone have to leave me? I didn't ask for any of this…" She should have expected this, after all.

No one in the Basilicom heard her weep, aside from an Oracle that floated on top of a book. Histoire heard the entire thing, and left the CPU to pursue IF. It didn't take long for the oracle to reach the agent, and Histoire floated next to her.

"Do you really think that was the best course of action? You do realize she's lost enough so far as it is."

IF laughed weakly, squeezing her fists together. "No, I really don't think so. But, I just want to become someone who is strong enough to be the one protecting her in the future. And to do that, I need to go on my own training adventure.

Perhaps the worst part was that the laugh sounded so fake Histoire could have swore IF would rather run back up to the CPU and comfort her instead of doing this. "Once I come back, I promise I'll be capable of doing everything we couldn't before. I'm tired of failing when I'm needed most."

Histoire lowered her head. "I wish you safe travels, IF."

"Thank you, Histoire. Stay in touch, huh?" IF broke into a run, leaving the Basilicom. Perhaps she had begun to cry, and decided to leave faster out of embarrassment.

Histoire smiled softly. "Sometimes you're like a tsundere, aren't you?" With that, Histoire returned to her current duties.

Nepgear wasn't sure how long she had been crying, but she stood up and wiped her face with a new look of determination. "I'll make this nation greater than anyone ever could before you get back, IF." With newfound motivation, she sat at her desk and began looking over documents related to the new projects they had to take care of.

After a few hours of looking over documents and signing papers, her eyes caught onto one that stood out from the rest. "Hmm?" Peering over at it, the words "CPU Founding Project" were displayed as the title. Curious, she pulled it out from the spot it was in and looked it over.

"Kei?" Kei had put forth an idea to lessen the load on Nepgear. It involved bringing up substitute CPU's to handle parts of the work for herself, and it also introduced ideas related to having public figures watch over the fallen nations.

"Wow...This is nicely put together. Kei really can do anything involving business and such, huh?" Smiling, she punched a signature on it and set it off to the side, along with other papers. The stack was full of papers that Nepgear agreed with. Not that she just willy-nilly accepted every proposal, she just had super trustworthy staff that were smart and knew what they were doing.

With a sigh, she glanced at the clock on the wall, it read 6:24 PM. She then stretched and stood up from her chair. "Time to get some exercise." Leaving her office, she began walking around the Basilicom, looking for no one in particular. She had gotten a lot of work done in the past few hours, and others seem to be finishing up their own as well.

Then she bumped into Kei as she rounded a corner, making the oracle take a step back after being off balanced. "O-Oh goodness! Sorry Kei." The young CPU took a step forward to see if Kei was okay. The oracle shrugged, holding a hand to her hip. "I'm fine, Nepgear. Why the rush, though?"

Nepgear blushed slightly. "Ah, I finished most of my paperwork, so I decided that...since I was starting to get a little rusty, I'd go practice my combat skills a little bit. Are Falcom and Tekken around?"

Kei nodded. "Yes, actually. But you finished your paperwork…? Did you happen to see what I sent you?"

Nepgear nodded, smiling. "Yes! I think that it isn't a bad idea, so I sent my questions and responses to your office."

"I see, thank you. Well, I'll let you go off now, good day." And Kei retreated, leaving Nepgear there alone to smile weakly. "Ahhh...I'm not good at dealing with Kei yet. Well...anyway. Here I go!"

It didn't take her long to reach the training room. It was massive! Built with some of Planeptune's most advanced technology, the large room featured tons of different ways of training. It had a gym with dozens and dozens of different methods of exercise, multiple VR training rooms, complete with varying difficulty levels to test your strength against artificially created monsters. And a large platform where people can spar.

They would have used a smaller platform but everyone is so strong that it being too small, they wouldn't have enough room to move around.

There were some faces Nepgear had never seen before, but she approached Falcom and Tekken, who were busy looking at the VR machines.

Falcom spotted Nepgear, and waved the CPU over. "Hey! Nepgear! Are you here for training?" At her nod, Falcom smiled. "Great! Tekken and I will be sparing with you, then. Can't have you growing weak now, can we?"

Nepgear chuckled. "Thanks guys. I'll be in your care!"

Elsewhere…

"Thankfully the trains are still running." IF said to herself, sitting down in her seat, furthest away from all the regular citizens on the same train. Part of her heart hurt as she watched the Basilicom of Planeptune slowly disappear. Where was she headed? She didn't even know. All she knew was that she had a job to do.

"I guess my only mistake and regret was not saying goodbye to Compa…"

"You're right about that!"

"COMPA?!" IF practically jumped out of her seat when she heard Compa's voice. Apparently the nurse had managed to locate IF. "W-What are you doing here? How'd you find me?"

"Never question my nose for finding my friends! Especially finding you, IF. I'd find you anywhere." IF facepalmed, and sighed. "Dammit...Please don't say that, that's embarrassing in more ways than one." Compa pouted, then sat down in the seat next to IF, and gestured for the agent to sit down too.

Once IF sat down, Compa looked forward and lowered her head. "How long will you be gone?" IF closed her eyes, and leaned back in her seat. "I don't know. Maybe a year? Long enough for me to finally be strong enough to take care of everyone." Compa frowned at that answer.

"Did you tell Ge-Ge?"

IF said nothing, but nodded slowly. Compa looked up and started kicking her legs back and forth. "I see…"

IF turned to face the nurse, and slapped her on the back. "Come on, don't look so forlorn. I'll be back before you know it! I promise." Compa smiled softly. "Alright…"

The two sat in silence. They've been friends for many years, and went through so much together before and after rescuing Nepgear. The air felt depressing between the two of them, though. "Don't get hurt out there Iffy, I won't be able to patch you up!" Compa, trying to lift up the mood, stood and smiled at the agent.

IF smiled back softly. "Yeah, I promise. Don't injure too many patients while I'm gone, alright? I don't want to hear about any complaints filed towards the hospital and the guild while I'm gone." At the jab, the nurse pouted and turned away. "H-Hey! Iffyyyy! I've gotten better!"

Again, the two went back to being silent, and Compa went back to her seat. Unfortunately, the nurse would have to take the train back to Planeptune, because they couldn't just stop it to let her off here in the middle of nowhere.

"I'll be strong enough to protect you soon, Compa." IF finally said, turning towards the nurse. The response was one that IF didn't exactly complain about internally, but outwardly she panicked as Compa jumped onto the guild agent and hugged her tightly. Regardless of her reaction, IF still hugged the nurse back.

Back at Planeptune…

An hour had passed since Nepgear began her training with Falcom and Tekken. It was going rather smoothly, at least she thought it was. This was the special training that she had to do a few times every week for however long it takes. Wiping the sweat from her brow, she glanced at Falcom, who appeared to not even be breaking a sweat even after the hour of intense training.

"How come you aren't exhausted yet?" She asked. Falcom just flashed her a powerful smile, and rested a hand at the pummel of her sword. "Years of being an adventurer, Nepgear. You haven't been active enough yet since coming back from the Gamindustri Graveyard, so it's understandable you're not used to fighting for a long period of time."

Nepgear frowned. "I see. I hope I can grow to be as strong as you, Falcom." The adventurer smiled warmly. "You're plenty strong already, Nepgear. Just keep training your body until eventually you can do all of this off of muscle memory alone. But that's why Tekken and I are here!" Tekken nodded, and smiled back at Nepgear. "Mhm!"

Nepgear nodded and smiled. "Thanks again, both of you." Seeing as her training was now over for the day, she waved at the two of them and left the training facilities. It was now about 7:30 PM, meaning all of the staff had headed home to rest, leaving just Nepgear, the two oracles, and whoever else from the human squad were still left around. It really made the Basilicom appear to be a ghost building. It was rather large, so it really looked empty.

Even during the day, it was rather empty. That would be changing though, since they'd be the sole nation in Gamindustri. Soon enough the place would be booming with hundreds and hundreds of staff members, and peace would come.

At least, Nepgear really hoped that peace would come to the world. As it was, there was still chaos that she had to deal with, and that would require her to venture out to the fallen nations. Taking the charge over them would more than likely upset Chika and Mina, but what could Nepgear do? They couldn't handle the nations by themselves, no matter what they did.

And while Nepgear visits Lowee and Leanbox, Kei and Histoire are going to move forward on the construction of the new city for Planeptune. There was much to be done, but they had the rest of their lives to do it. But Nepgear still wanted things to be resolved sooner rather than later. And having a new city to work with would make things easier.

But currently, her thoughts go back to IF and how she left. She still felt sad over the departure of her best friend, but was there not something she could do for IF? Continuing to think about those things, she didn't pay attention as she again bumped into someone by accident, this time it was Histoire.

Well, it was less her bumping into Histoire seeing how the oracle floated above Nepgear to just narrowly avoid the collision.

"Ah! Nepgear, I wanted to see you before you went back to your room for the evening. Are you free right now?"

Nepgear tilted her head to the side a bit, but then nodded slowly. "Oh, sure, Histoire. What do you need?"

"We must talk about something in private. Follow me to the meeting room." Without saying anything else, Histoire began floating away, making Nepgear jog after the oracle. "Uhm, it's nothing problematic, is it?"

"Just a little bit."

Nepgear stayed quiet at that response, and just continued following Histoire. Once the two of them had made it to the small meeting room, Nepgear noticed that Kei was also there, waiting for the two of them. "Ah, I see that you made it. On time, too." Histoire nodded, and gestured for Nepgear to take a seat.

Once she had done so, silence entered the room. Nepgear shakely cleared her throat, blinking slowly. "U-Uhm, what did you two need from me?"

"We need to talk about that cursed sword." Kei said, not beating around the bush. "Now that it's been used for it's evil purpose, Histoire and I were trying to figure out exactly what we should do about it now."

Nepgear wasn't entirely following the conversation so far, so Histoire sighed softly. "We were thinking that maybe we should lock it up somewhere, so that no one else could use it for evil. But then again, it is your sword, so we thought we should bring this up with you first."

Nepgear clenched her fists. It was a very un-nepgear like thing to do, considering her normal personality. "I...don't like being near the sword, really. I won't be opposed to locking it up. But where?"

"We were thinking about LAN Castle," Kei continued, answering the question. "Seeing as though that was where it originated, after all. Unless you have any other suggestions, which are open to be debated on."

Nepgear placed a hand to her head. It was late and she had to admit that she was tired after everything that had happened so far just today, so she would have rather not talk about this kind of thing right now. But she continued to think about something they could do. "Well, you don't have to answer right away. Give it some thought, Nepgear." Kei spoke up, twirling a pencil in her hand and then writing down something on a piece of paper.

"After all, you got a lot to think about with the upcoming trip to the other nations. It's not easy explaining to other nations that their leaders are gone and that you will be filling their shoes."

"That is correct. Sorry about this, Nepgear. I just thought that we should get this out of the way sooner rather than later, considering the gravity of the subject matter."

Nepgear nodded slowly, then stared at the paper next to Kei. "Is that related to the CPU project?"

Kei nodded slowly. "Yes, it is in fact related to that project. During the construction of Central Planeptune, I will be conducting a search into individuals around the areas and see if we can't find you some assistance. Seeing as though most of all of your friends had left you to take care of their own lives."

"Kei! That last bit wasn't necessary!" Histoire spoke up in an angry voice, to which Kei just shrugged. "What? I'm only speaking about the truth."

"Do not forget, that we are just oracles, and she is the leader of Gamindustri. Learn to hold your tongue sometimes, even though you want to gripe at her because of your own distaste."

Kei clicked her tongue, and continued to write on the paper in front of her. "Hmm."

"It's...fine, Histoire. Don't worry about it too much." The CPU tried offering a smile to Histoire, but the Planeptune oracle wasn't having any of it. "Nepgear, do not just let her run her mouth. Try to show how much you've grown since you first met her."

Nepgear frowned, but said nothing in return. Kei shrugged again. "We're getting off topic. In any case, that was all we needed to talk about this evening. As far as I can guess, you need some rest do you not?" At Nepgear's nod, Kei gestured to the door. "Well don't let us stop you now, you're free to go."

Nepgear stood up, somewhat downtrodden at what just happened. Histoire did have a point, though. She shouldn't let people just roll over her because of her decisions. "I've done that enough to myself." She added to herself, then she left the two oracles alone.

Once she had left, Histoire immediately went into blowing up towards Kei. "You should learn to show restraint, Kei. Even though you're helping us out now, that doesn't mean you should say whatever you want because you are mad at Nepgear for what she did."

"And you're not?"

The shot Kei took at Histoire caused the small oracle to stop with her mouth left open. She slowly closed her mouth and sighed deeply. "I...have nothing to say to that. I don't hate Nepgear, but I think about how we should have figured out something else. There surely had to have been another course of action...B-But still! Try showing her some more respect."

Kei sighed, and clipped her paperwork together. "Hmm, well she certainly has done things that deserve respect. You're right. I'll make sure I apologize to her next time I see her. For now, me and you need to talk about how to handle the construction of the new city."

Seemingly happy with Kei's response, Histoire cleared her throat and nodded. "Yes, that is what we should talk about now."

And as they continued to have their discussion, Nepgear had made her way back to her room by that point. Not even bothering to undress or shower or even turn a light on, she collapsed onto her bed, shoving her face into her comfy pillow.

She was absolutely drained after today, and she's had too many emotional moments. So for now, all she really wanted to do was sleep.

But sleep wouldn't come. Instead, in place of sleep, were tears. And then Nepgear started choking, and couldn't breathe right.

"Why…! Why am I crying so much?! What would...what would Neptune think about me now? Would she comfort me? Tell me to "suck it up buttercup?" Just what would she want from me now…"

She couldn't help but continue letting the tears fall from her eyes and onto her pillow, and she clutched it tightly as she rolled herself into a ball.

Needless to say, she cried herself to sleep that night.

1:05 AM.

"You didn't need to stay up with me the entire night, Compa." IF said to her friend, who was sitting next to IF with her head on her shoulder.

"I don't want to wake up to see you suddenly gone, Iffy." Compa choked out. Earlier during the silence, Compa couldn't handle it anymore and suddenly had a crying fit. IF of course was used to dealing with the nurse, so it wasn't difficult for her to calm Compa down. But in the end Compa decided to lean against IF and fought to stay awake the entire night.

"Well...Ughh, okay fine. You can get some sleep, and I promise that I'll wake you up when our stop comes. Deal?"

Compa shook her head quickly. "No! You'll probably find a way to wake me up and sneak off before we can say our goodbyes!"

"But we've already said goodbye!"

"I want to be here when you leave!"

"Auughh!" She flicked Compa on the forehead, making the nurse lean up quickly and hold the spot IF flicked with her hands. "Ouchies, Iffy! That was mean!"

IF sighed, but smiled and rubbed Compa on the head. "Whatever. You'll be fine, you've dealt with worse. It's not like I'm disappearing forever, ya know? I still have all of my cellphones, so if you ever get lonely just call and I'll pick up."

"W-Whenever I call?"

"Okay, maybe not whenever you want. I do want time to myself to train."

"F-Fine." Compa wiped her eyes and smiled her usual smile. "I'll tell Gee-Gee she can call you too!"

IF remained silent for a moment, and sighed. "No, keep this between us. I don't want her to have to deal with more than what she already has on her plate." Compa blinked, but slowly nodded. "You're right...she's the CPU of Gamindustri now after all."

IF nodded. "Yeah."

The rest of the trip was silent as the two best friends sat next to each other, uncertain what the other was thinking.

Compa awoke to the sound of the train horn, signalling that the train had come to a complete stop. Frantically sitting up, she looked around the train cab for IF, who didn't appear to be there any longer.

Compa frowned, and sniffled. "Iffy...good luck out there."

Outside of the train, about half a mile away was IF, making her way towards whatever destination she ended up in. She glanced behind her for a moment before continuing on her way. "Farewell Compa, and everyone else."

WIth determination in her step, her feet took her in the direction of a shipyard off the coast the western side of Planeptune, where she would then travel by ship to whatever island looked more appealing to train on. Maybe a bit of Falcom rubbed off on her? Who knows.

Whatever the case may be, IF went the rest of the way on foot.

Back at Planeptune…

Nepgear woke up, her nose felt stuffy and upon an inspection of the mirror on the other end of the room, her eyes looked red. Apparently she had cried all night again. This wasn't the first time that this happened, In fact, it happened quite often since after defeating the Deity of Sin. She still hasn't come to terms with her actions yet.

Regardless, she swung her legs from the bed and placed her feet onto the ground slowly, and yawned. It was just another day of work and then she had to get ready to leave tomorrow. She stood up and went to the bathroom to take care of her appearance.

After a while, she exited the bathroom and left her room and headed for her office. Luckily it was only two doors down, so she didn't have to worry about anyone seeing her and saying something about her unsightly appearance. No matter how hard she tried, she just couldn't get the bloodshot look out of her eyes.

Today she'd just rather not have to deal with anyone, but it wasn't like she had that much of a choice in the matter. Walking into her office, she headed for the desk and sat down in the chair on the other end, and spun her chair slowly and stared at the cursed sword Gehaburn, before blinking slightly.

"Hmm?" It was barely there, but it was noticeable enough for Nepgear to notice. She rolled her chair over to the sword, and took a closer at it. Sure enough, what she thought appeared to be the case.

"Doesn't it seem dimmer than it did yesterday?" She wondered aloud, unsure what to make of this strange development. Surely it wasn't losing it's power or anything...right? Deciding not to do anything about it, she rolled her chair back over to her desk and looked over the paperwork. There wasn't much to really look at actually, surprising enough.

"Did I take care of more yesterday than I thought?" Again, speaking to nobody in particular she leaned back in her chair and sighed deeply. "Well, I'm glad there isn't too much to do related to all this paperwork…"

But that just meant that she didn't have much to do in her office. Meaning she didn't have an excuse to not go around the Basilicom. She took a quick glance at the clock, checking the time. It read 6:42 AM. The normal basilicom staff didn't get into work until around 7 AM, meaning she had about 18 minutes left of time to herself around the basilicom.

WIth that in mind, she stood up and took a quick look into the mirror next to her desk. Apparently they had a lot of mirrors around. Her eyes didn't look so bloodshot anymore, which was a good thing. Straightening up her hair just a bit more with a nearby comb, she nodded to herself and left her office.

Only to come face to face with Kei, the oracle she least wanted to see this morning. With a nervous wave, Nepgear choked on her words. "G-Good morning, Kei." Inwarding berating herself for that, Nepgear feared what Kei had to say. But surprising enough, Kei gave a small bow and closed her eyes. "Good morning, Nepgear."

Nepgear blinked. "What does she want? She's being weird." She thought to herself. Kei certainly was acting weird, but apparently Nepgear's question was about to be answered.

"I'm sorry for acting out of turn in our previous engagement. Please don't let what I say affect you negatively." Kei stood up straight, and resumed her normal posture of holding her hip with her hand.

"Needless to say, I acted irrational and that was wrong of me. I ask for your forgiveness in the matter."

Stunned and too surprised to respond, Nepgear lost balance slightly, but straightened herself and scratched the back of her head nervously. "U-Uh, I forgive you." Kei gave a small smile, and nodded. "Thank you. Now that that is out of the way, once you have time today me and Histoire would like to continue talking about what we were talking about last night, if that is fine with you?"

Nepgear nodded slowly without thinking much about it, but her earlier thoughts came rushing back to her. Why did the sword appear to be dimmer than usual? Like it lost some of its luster from yesterday.

Though for some odd reason she refused to bring it up to Kei. "Yes, we can talk about it later." Kei nodded, pleased with the answer. "Well, now I must be off. I got some things to take care of. See you later."

What just happened? Kei was acting very odd. What happened after Nepgear left the room? She'd have to get the answer out of Histoire later. For now though, she had to figure out what to do until she got together with Histoire and Kei.

There was always the option of training, but right now she didn't feel like doing that. So instead she sat down on a small bench inside one of the hallways of the Basilicom and pulled out her n-gear. It had been ages since she used it, but despite that it was starting to show its age.

She softly giggled at herself as she powered it on, and immediately regretted it. The wallpaper was a picture of her, Uni, Rom and Ram. The four of them are taking a cheesy pose for the camera. When did they take this picture? Closer inspection showed that this was shortly before they went on to fight Judge, just the night before. She could tell, just a gut feeling anyway.

She slowly dragged her figure across the screen, feeling her eyes watering up. Why did this have to come up? She felt like throwing her N-gear, but decided against it. Instead she powered it down since she no longer felt like playing a casual game.

Now she really did have nothing to do currently. "Let's just...visit the library." With that in mind, she headed for the library. It was rather large, and they had a huge collection of books. Tons of which she had never even seen before.

She eventually found Histoire, hovering by a bookshelf. It was located near the History section, one of which Histoire was amazingly fond of. Then again, as the oracle who was designed to hold the history of Gamindustri, it made perfect sense for her to be looking through that section of books.

Nepgear approached Histoire, and with a smile she spoke. "Good morning, Histoire."

A little surprised at Nepgear appearing in the library, Histoire sharply turned towards the CPU and smiled warmly. "Good morning to you too, Nepgear. How did you sleep?" Nepgear continued smiling, not letting it falter like it almost did at her question.

"I slept just fine, no issues at all."

"I see, well that's good then Nepgear. Do you need anything in the library?" Nepgear shook her head. "No, I'm just at a loss for what to do this early in the morning. I was hoping to find something to do, and found myself here."

Histoire tilted her head to the side. "I see. Well there are plenty of books to read here if they ever catch your eye."

Histoire went back to what she was doing, leaving Nepgear alone to her thoughts. With that, she left the oracle and began looking around the library for any books that looked interesting. Normally when she visted the library all she looked for was books related to technology.

Though right now she wasn't sure what she was interested in reading, but by this point she apparently gravitated towards things more related to 'how to lead a country'. Sure, she could always ask Histoire for anything, but maybe there were things that even the oracle who holds history in the palms of her hands didn't know.

She found the history section, which held so many books that Nepgear never would be able to count them all. Nonetheless, she started looking at the titles of the books and their authors, looking for anything that seemed interesting enough to learn from.

One caught her eye almost immediantly. She glanced at the title for a moment. "History of Planeptune's CPU's." It was interesting enough to Nepgear, seeing as she was Planeptune's CPU candidate. She took the book out from the shelf, and began looking at the front cover. It held the title, but for some reason the author was scratched out.

She had to frown at that. Who could have scratched that out? Well, she'd never be able to find that out ever, so it didn't matter. Satisfied with her choice, she took it back with her to one of the many tables around.

"Let's see what this is about…" She said to herself, and opened the book. It was nicely sized, too. Probably around five-hundred pages or so. The fact that it was apparently only volume 1 out of 3 spelled that it was probably a very detailed account on the history of Planeptune.

"Oh, you found that?" Histoire said, having floated over towards the table Nepgear was sitting at. She nodded. Looking up at Histoire. "Yeah, it looked interesting. Actually...would you happen to know who wrote this? The author's name is scratched out."

Histoire floated closer, taking the book and analyzing the cover. "Hmm...If you give me three days, I might be able to figure this out."

Nepgear nervously scratched the back of her head. "A-Ah, it's okay. I was just curious, you don't need to put much thought into it."

"Is that so? Well, in case you were hoping for tips on leading, you won't find them in this book." Histoire said, setting the book back on the table. "That book is more learning about the CPU's who came before you, what they were like, and things like that."

"Oh...Well it could still come in handy, maybe…"

"That depends on what you take from it, really. Just stay yourself Nepgear, you'll be fine. Are you perhaps nervous about your trip to Leanbox tomorrow?" Nepgear nodded slowly. "What if they don't want to welcome me?"

"Them rejecting you would be an issue, mostly for themselves. How could they live in a fallen nation? There is no abundance of anything in Lowee or Leanbox anymore, it would be in everyone's best interests to move to Planeptune now."

"I see…" That stung, in more ways than one. Nepgear looked back at the book, and sighed. She no longer felt like reading it now. "Sorry Histoire, I'm going back to my room now, I still need to prepare for tomorrow…"

Histoire frowned slightly, but nodded. "Alright, I'll take the book back to it's spot, so you go ahead."

Nepgear nodded, picked herself up from the chair and left the library. What even was the point of going there again? She couldn't remember.

"Oh, I didn't mention the sword losing it's glow…"

[Chapter 0 End]

[Next Chapter: 0.5 - Terror on the Horizon!]

I mentioned this at the beginning, these first two chapters will mostly be filler and things related to what happened before anything serious takes place. I wouldn't be upset if people skipped these and moved straight on, but it would make me very happy if you guys read them!

We see in this chapter that Nepgear is still dealing with her doubts and fears, IF left on a journey to train, the CPU project Kei will be leading, and the idea of creating a new city in the center of Gamindustri, namely where the Gamindustri Graveyard was. Those who have read the original knows this city as Central Planeptune.

While I would really love to get reviews and lots of views, I'm mainly writing this for my own pleasure. I was upset with the fact that I couldn't bring myself out of my slump to finish the original, that is why I hope this reboot will work out in the end. Again, thanks for reading!