Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.
Chapter 3
Stretching as she woke up at her usual time, Chrome sat up in bed and looked to the side where a lump was under the blankets and smiled as she moved the blankets to the side and saw Filyn in pajamas sleeping next to her. Gently running a hand through her hair, Chrome enjoyed the way that Filyn way Filyn reacted and sighed before rolling over onto her back, letting Chrome see the little girl's face without the eye-patch and she sighed heavily.
Where Filyn should have had two closed eyelids, there was nothing there. Sure, there was something in the socket, to prevent diseases and infection from getting in, but there was no eye or even eye-lid there.
"You seem to really care for her, huh? Sure, you can have her back."
"CHROMEY! AAAAAIIIEEEEE! IT HURTS!"
"DON'T!"
"Whoops! Sorry, I guess I pushed too hard with my thumb, now she's a one-eyed wonder."
Chrome growled at the memory of the bitch who took Filyn's eye. 'Though it seems like it was so traumatic for her that she forgot who she really was.' Really, Chrome was thankful that Filyn didn't remember the past, even if it was better back then, seeing what happened to Gamworld would probably cause her sister permanent mental anguish. Running a hand through her silver hair, Chrome got up and got dressed before she got too angry and did something stupid.
As she exited her apartment, she looked on in surprise as Neptune was sitting outside her door, lightly dozing. "...You wanted to see me, huh?"
Neptune looked up at her tiredly. "I couldn't sleep much." She yawned and stood up, stretching.
"You'll crash pretty hard later." Chrome advised her, speaking from experience. Neptune shrugged and Chrome shook her head. "So what's wrong?"
"...What happened to Compa's arms?" Neptune asked Chrome.
"That's not my place to say." Chrome answered her. "Compa doesn't like talking about it and that's all there is to it. If you're a CPU from another reality like you say you are, just stay out of our business. I'll drop you off in Lowee City in a few days and then we'll never need to speak to each other again."
"Fiiiine." Neptune sighed. "So what's on the agenda then?"
"Gathering up vegetables so we can sell them to the Northern City, meet up with Artisan to get parts and supplies we need and then leave." Chrome answered her. "I'd rather not stay there any longer than I have to."
"Okay..." Neptune nodded. "You know, it would be pretty boring to cover everything, can we just skip straight to the boat ride?"
(-)
Many hours later...
"Thanks, author!" Neptune yelled cheerfully while people looked at her like she was crazy.
"Why do I feel like we skipped hours all at once and have everything done already?" Chrome asked no one in particular as she looked around and couldn't see any reason why. Everyone who was going to Lowee City was on the boat, the supplies were stocked up and everyone had their clothes packed.
"Oh, don't worry about it." Neptune smiled cheerfully at her. "Just accept it as part of my awesome main character perks and roll with it."
"I guess." Chrome shrugged as the boat took off. "Well, we have a few days, hope you don't get seasick."
"Nah, I don't." Neptune smiled and moved around on the boat. "I'm just hoping that we don't have a bunch of random encounters like in all those RPGs when you have a boat.
"Don't most games of that type put enemies up on the screen so players can see them and avoid them if they want to these days?" Chrome asked, getting a nod from Neptune. "Oh well, have fun." She walked off, leaving Neptune by herself.
Neptune was grateful the boat wasn't a sailboat, but was rather a motorized boat and had no problem getting to a decent speed as it went around the continent. "...I think I need to see a map of this world." Neptune muttered and walked to the captain's cabin.
(-)
In the captain's cabin, Neptune stared in shock at the map that she had been given.
Not only was this world completely messed up in the normal sense, but the nations were way out of position!
Lowee to the South? Leanbox to the West? Planeptune to the North? The only nation that hadn't moved was Lastation as it was to the East. But each of the land masses were completely... WEIRD!
Lowee was almost as big as Gamindustri's Lowee and Lastation put together! What was worse was that most of it was mountains, forests or volcanoes that made up the majority of the continent with only the Northern and Southern ends being even remotely inhabitable.
"And there's the Gem Dragon area." Chrome pointed to the center of the map. "I've dealt with them before, they walk on all four legs and are pretty vicious. There never seems to be too many of them, but we should be thankful, they know all sorts of magic attacks, have breath attacks and have tons of HP to go along with it."
Neptune wasn't even looking at that. She looked at what was supposed to be Planeptune and tilted her head as the map seemed to paint it as a giant skull. "Is this thing accurate?" She asked and looked at where Leanbox was and saw that it was a bit smaller than the Leanbox that she knew and it looked like there were a bunch of segments that surrounded what looked like a giant castle in the center. She looked over to Lastation and saw that it looked to be about the same size as the Lastation she knew, but the map only listed cities and there was no information about the topography of the area.
"As accurate as can be, I suppose." Chrome muttered as she looked at the different nations. "Thing is, other than Lowee, no one's ever gotten away from their nation's CPU."
"...I'm almost afraid to ask why." Neptune wondered if the CPU of Lowee was Blanc and if Blanc was the CPU...
'Just why do you make everyone fear you?' Neptune thought to herself.
(-)
"Mind if I sit here?"
Looking up from where she was sitting, Compa, who was wearing a bikini bottom and a loose shirt, smiled as she saw IF, who was wearing unbuckled short shorts that showed off hints of her blue bikini bottoms, a blue bikini top over her small chest and sandals and nodded. "Sure thing, Iffy." She knew IF was sensitive about the burns and scars on her body, but since everyone on the boat knew better than to make a big deal about it, IF decided to wear clothing that exposed a lot of her skin, which was a mess of burns and scars.
"Where's your boyfriend?" IF asked as she sat on the deck chair next to Compa, who blushed softly at the statement.
"Iffy!" Compa pouted at her. "Just because he really likes me doesn't mean that he's my boyfriend. We're not even the same species." Not that it stopped the rumors around the settlement about her and Warechu at night. Compa didn't pay them much attention. Warechu helped her out a lot and she helped him out as well, so as far as she was concerned they were super close because of it.
"You're the only one that he's really friendly with." IF pointed out. True, Warechu wasn't MEAN or anything, but it really felt like he didn't care much about anyone other than Compa and only tolerated everyone else.
"What about you, Iffy?" Compa asked her friend. "Aren't you and Linda close?"
"She's my roommate." IF answered, almost automatically. "She rubs me down with my healing lotions so I can sleep at night and help around the place during the day, but we're not really that close."
"Oh." Compa nodded and leaned back in her chair. "So where are the others anyway?"
"Filyn's..." IF trailed off as Filyn ran past with Gust trying to keep her from falling overboard. "Right there, so is Gust. Linda and Warechu are working in the hot areas of the ship and I can't be in there."
Compa looked at IF as she trembled. "Iffy, no one blames you, you can't do anything after you got caught in that fire." She sighed as IF twitched in anger. "Iffy, you don't know that it was the CPU that caused the guild to get caught on fire."
"But why me? Why did I survive?" IF's green eyes started to water up as her mind drifted back to that fateful day.
*Flash*
It was so sudden, one moment IF was laughing with her friends at the guild and the next the whole place was on fire and all the windows and doors got covered, preventing any escape.
"Iffy!" A busty girl with red hair smiled at her sadly, she was sweating as the fires raged around them. "If only one of us can survive..."
"Marvy?" IF coughed as smoke started to enter her lungs before she found herself doused in a bucket of hot water and pushed out of the ring of fire that consumed her friend. "MAR-GLUB-VY!"
(-)
Hours later...
"Such a tragedy..." The CPU of Lowee shook her head as she looked over the wreckage of the guild. "Hmm?" She walked over to where there was a hand that was horribly burned but still moving. "Someone's alive?" Grabbing the hand, she pulled up and saw a person who's skin was burned to the point that it almost looked black, the hair was missing, the clothes were burned off, but there was some breathing. "Impressive, but if you were part of the guild, it's your own fault for being in there." She said and let go of the burned body's hand before turning and walking off. Looking at the firefighters, she scoffed. "Why did I bring you with again? Oh right, to make sure that the fire didn't spread." Putting a hand over her mouth, she started to giggled like a maniac. "Ah! That's so funny."
"My Lady?" One of the firefighters who was looking at the ground spoke up. "What shall we do now?"
"Clean up this mess, dispose of the bodies, whatever, I don't care." The CPU scoffed and walked off. "Just have it gone by next week."
On the pile of debris, IF managed to open an eyelid as it cracked apart. While she had heard everything the CPU had said, the first things she saw was several bodies that were charred remains of the people in the guild.
If her eyes could have produced tears, IF would have been crying at that moment.
*End Flashback*
"Marvy... Cyberconnect2... Falcom..." IF trembled as she whispered the names of her friends that were all confirmed to have perished in that fire. "Why? How? Why them? What did we do to the CPU to make her do that to us?"
Compa had no answer for her. She knew that there was no proof that the CPU of Lowee had done that to IF, but it was the only thing that made sense to anyone who heard the story.
(-)
Meanwhile in Lowee City...
Walking through her Basilicom, the CPU of Lowee had a mild expression on her face as she walked past the staff, all of whom were kneeling and looking down as she passed through. They all knew the penalty for not kneeling and looking down without the CPU's permission.
A breeze drifted through the Basilicom, causing her white, short dress to flutter upwards, revealing her blue frilly panties while the blue bow that was attached to the hair on the back of her head fluttered in the wind. "Nice day," she commented softly, as she moved some of her blue hair out of her face, her blue eyes revealing nothing but a calm and cool demeanor. "I wonder where those two are at." She muttered to herself as she turned a corner and narrowed her eyes as she saw a familiar looking maid who had her back turned to her and wasn't kneeling and looking down. "You, maid," she said as the brown-haired maid turned to look at her, only to get a strong kick to the back of her knees, causing the poor maid to cry out in pain as she fell to her hands and knees. "Did I tell you that you could stand in my presence?" She asked, her eyes becoming cold as she lifted her leg up and stomped on the maid's head, pushing down on it and forcing the older-looking woman to the floor completely.
"Lady Blanc!" The maid yelled out in pain, "please forgive this worthless maid for not realizing that you were in the room. I was so concerned with cleaning that I did not notice you!" She sobbed out, groaning as she felt the pressure on her skull increase.
"You helped those two little brats escape again, didn't you?" Blanc asked, her voice still as soft as ever.
"Lady Blanc, please!" The maid sobbed more, "I do not mean to presume anything, but for the sake of those children, please let them enjoy being children a little longer, please!? I beg of you."
Blanc sighed and lifted her foot off of the maid's head. "I suppose allowing them to run around for a few days isn't the worst thing I could do." A small smirk came to her face as she started to chuckle. "After all, the best way to induce anger and despair is to let them feel hope before ripping it all away from them."
As Blanc walked off, laughing softly, yet sinisterly, the maid known as Financier could only curl into a ball and cry softly. "Rom... Ram... I'm so sorry you two, if only there was something more I could do for you."
Even if they managed to get out of the city, which wasn't hard, they would have to survive the severe jungles and mountains of Lowee, which was incredibly hard. And even if they found the path to safely cross Lowee and actually got to the refugee encampment in the South, Financier knew that they would be rejected and kicked out.
'Such cruel fates for CPU Candidates, why is this world like this?' She sobbed to herself, unable to stop her tears from flowing.
(-)
In her room, Blanc yawned and walked over to her bed before flopping onto it and rolling over onto her back. "Hmm... Ram is too passive, no matter what I try, she doesn't seem to feel anything but fear, that's no good." A grin slowly came to her face. "Rom, on the other hand..." She chuckled darkly. The elder of her twin younger sisters would make for a great CPU...
...If she survived after obtaining her power that is.
Blanc chuckled softly as she twirled a finger through her blue hair. "That might be what's needed to push little Ram over the edge. I wonder which one will be more... Impressive." She scoffed to herself. "Hopefully they'll be better than my elder sister was."
"The fate of a CPU Candidate is cruel indeed," Blanc muttered, remembering when she was a CPU Candidate and screaming and crying like a pathetic cowardly crybaby when she had found out the truth. "Oh well, Rom and Ram will learn like I did that it's just the way things are here."
Blanc chuckled before throwing a hand over her eyes and laughing like a crazy person. Every single person who heard it suddenly shivered in absolute terror. Whenever Blanc laughed like that, bad things followed not long afterwords.
To be continued...
No, Blanc isn't in perma-HDD mode. Her early concept artwork has her with blue hair, a bow on the back of her head and a dark coat. Since Lowee isn't winter-based but summer based in Gamworld, she wouldn't wear a coat.