Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.
Chapter 21
Ram looked at Rom, Rom nodded at her and the two turned to look at Filyn and Peashy. "You all know what we must do." Ram said while the four sat in the guest room.
"Yes." Filyn nodded, a determined look on her face while Peashy looked on in confusion.
"PILLOW FIGHT!" Rom, Ram and Filyn all yelled at the same time, making Peashy jump a bit while the three other girls ran to the beds at the corner and grabbed pillows off before turning and running back towards the center with a yell.
"BANZAI!" Filyn yelled as she took a wide swing, hitting Rom in the face and knocking her over. The next thing she knew, she was hit on the top of the head by Ram. "Oh, you'll get it!"
"Pea wants to play too!" Peashy yelled as she grabbed two pillows, one in each hand, and jumped off the bed at them, smacking Filyn and sending her flying into a far bed before rolling forward and performing an uppercut via pillow to Rom and sending her flying across the room where she landed on the bed, her butt bouncing on the mattress. "Hahahahahahahaha! This is fun!"
"Gang up on Peashy!" The other three yelled and jumped at Peashy, who let out a shriek and ran away while throwing the pillows at them.
"Get her! She's unarmed!"
"But I have arms!" Peashy waved her arms up and down as the other three girls descended on her and started smacking her with pillows.
The room was filled with giggles and shrieks of laughter as the four girls made an absolute mess of the room.
It was nearly fifteen minutes later when the door opened and Gust walked in. "Oh! This is where you, GACK!" Gust let out a cry as a flying body hit her and flattened her to the ground.
"Ooops!" Ram yelped and got off of Gust. "I'm sorry, are you okay? Peashy hits really hard even with pillows."
"...Gust is used to having flying butts hitting her in the face by now." The blue-haired girl muttered in annoyance. "At least you didn't fart in Gust's face." She grumbled and got up. "Gust should put warning bell on your neck so Gust knows when to duck."
"I'm sorry." Ram looked really sad and Gust sighed as she looked at the sad look.
"Stop, Gust is not angry at you, more annoyed by running gag."
Ram sniffled. "You mean it?" Gust nodded and Ram hugged her tightly. "Thank you!"
Gust wheezed before sighing as Ram let go of her. "You're stronger than you look." It made sense, after all, she was a CPU Candidate and CPUs were always really strong and tough.
"Um..." Peashy raised her hand. "Who are you?"
"Gust is Gust." Gust replied and looked at Peashy. "You're the CPU Candidate of Leanbox?" Peashy nodded at her and Gust gave her a small smile. "Welcome then."
"We were having a pillow fight." Filyn informed Gust. "I kept missing Rom."
"You swung too early," Rom stuck her tongue out, "plus you swing too hard to the right." When Filyn pointed to her nose, Rom blinked and giggled softly. "Okay, your eye is screwed up, huh?"
"I can only see in one eye." Filyn sighed and hung her head. "Chromey says that I have no depth percepoww!" She jumped up and down grabbing at her jaw. "I bith mah tongth..."
"Stop speaking so fast then." Gust shook her head, amused by the antics.
"Do you want to play too?" Ram asked as she looked at Gust. The bunny girl shrugged and nodded before letting out a yelp as several pillows hit her at the same time and buried her.
"...Gust asked for that one." Gust muttered as she got up and grabbed a pillow. "REVENGE FOR GUST!" She yelled and jumped at the Candidates, who all shrieked and giggled in delight.
(-)
One week later...
Chrome looked at Neptune as the two of them and Chika sat around a conference table and sighed. "We have a problem... It's the people down in the breeding rooms. From what you've told me, Chika," she looked at the green haired girl, who nodded at her, "those tentacles are used for food?" She couldn't believe it, well, it made sense, they were made of meat, but the thought of eating a tentacle monster, even if it was dead and drained of the fluids that would negatively affect a person, it made her want to burn the nation to the ground.
Chika sighed and nodded. "Yes. Even if the end result of the people is..." She grimaced at the thought. "Is..."
"Tentacles are a parasitic existence." Chrome answered her. "Even if you remove everything bad about them, they're still..." She sighed and rubbed her forehead. "You already know this, but you're basically asking us to allow people to be sacrificed to the tentacle wall in the breeding rooms, just to keep the food supply going."
"You think I like it?!" Chika shot back and slammed her hands on the table. "I don't know if you noticed, but the only monsters in the maze are tentacle monsters, spider monsters and dogoos! Other types of food have been out of our diet long before I was born."
Chrome sighed, she knew that was true, but still... "I just can't condone people being sacrificed just so that everyone can be fed." She looked at Neptune. "It's your call." Neptune jerked in surprise. "You're the only active CPU in Leanbox. Are you going to sacrifice people to the tentacle monsters or try to find some other way to feed the people here?"
Neptune grimaced at that thought. "...I... Sacrificing people, just so others can survive?" That wasn't something she could imagine doing. "Is there any other way?"
Chika sighed and shook her head. "There's enough food for the people... But only for about a month, maybe two if we stretch it. That's not enough time to stockpile any other food."
Chrome frowned as an idea came to her. "Well..." The other two looked at her in confusion. "It's not going to be popular, but you said you have a month of supplies?" Chika nodded and Chrome stood up. "Okay, make them last, I've got a call to make." She left the room, leaving Neptune and Chika looking at her in confusion.
(-)
"You want to do what?!" Linda yelled in surprise. "Boss, I don't know if you know this, but there's no way that we can feed enough people with the supplies on the ship."
"I know," Chrome said, "that's why I need you to contact Artisan. I need to see about getting food up here. I'm sure that they've got a few airships fixed by now."
"There's no way there's enough food in Lowee for this many people." Linda said to her. "I can get a hold of her, but what can you do?"
"We're stuck here for a month anyway while Neptune recovers from her fight with Green Void," Chrome told her, "so stop mouthing off and get to making that call before I have IF force you to do it."
Linda gave her an annoyed look and turned to leave. "Fine, I'll call Artisan up and see what she says. How many months?"
"We're going to need about three to five months of food." Chrome knew it wouldn't be enough, but it would be a start. "There's more, but I'll tell Artisan directly."
"Fine." Linda sighed as she and Chrome walked back to the ship. "Why couldn't you do it?"
Chrome's expression didn't change, but her cheeks did redden somewhat. "...I'm no good with communication equipment." She thought back to when she was a CPU Candidate and how she had accidentally destroyed her nation's television broadcast system.
*Flash*
Chrome, her hair in a loose ponytail and a fancy gray-colored dress, stared and her eyes watered as she looked at the results of what she did.
"Well..." Her elder sister was fighting to keep from laughing as she looked at the results. "That was unexpected. All you did was try to make an announcement."
"I blew it all up!" Chrome whimpered and sank to her knees, sobbing. "I only pushed one button!"
"These things happen." Her elder had to turn and cough to try and avoid laughing.
*End Flash*
'Good times...' Chrome thought to herself as she thought about her elder sister. Sadly her sister had perished a few years after stepping down from being an active CPU in an event that involved an Ancient Dragon, a stick of butter and one million Lemmings.
(-)
In Lowee...
"You want me to do what?" Artisan asked Chrome via the communication device.
"There should be several airships ready for travel by now, right?"
"Well, yes, but..." Artisan looked uncomfortable even though she knew that Chrome couldn't see it as these devices were nothing more than fancy two-way radios. "You need HOW much food?!"
There was a sigh that was heard on the radio. "Several tons, I know that there's a surplus right now. The people of Leanbox have had to eat... Let's just say, less than savory food. You'll also need to bring some people that can prepare food and teach them how to grow and harvest the food."
"...What were they eating before if they need this much help?"
"Tentacle monsters."
Artisan stared in utter shock. "...Could you repeat that?"
"You know how tentacle monsters breed, right? Apparently Green Void was creating a bunch of tentacle monsters for the purpose of feeding the citizens of Leanbox."
"...She was sacrificing her own people for food?!" Artisan hissed in disgust. "That's just... URGH! That's even worse than White Void!" The dead Lowee CPU may have been a bitch and a brat when it came to most things, but at least she never forced her people to become FOOD for the rest of the populous.
"Yes. Anyway, there's enough food for a month with how many people are here."
"...How many people are there?" Artisan asked, trying to figure out how much they'd need.
"...From what I can tell... Easily five to ten times as many people as Lowee."
Artisan sighed and hung her head. "Alright, I'll see what we can do. It'll take me a few days and I'll call you back when I get it done. But you're going to owe me."
"Put it on my tab." Chrome told her, getting a laugh from Artisan.
"I'll have to collect before the year is out." Artisan smirked at her. "Alright, I'll figure it out."
"Thanks."
Artisan sighed as the radio turned off. "You're damn lucky you're my friend." She turned and walked out of the communication room and nodded to Fiancier. "You heard that, right?"
"Of course. Getting enough food, supplies and even people over there shouldn't be too much of a problem." The maid smiled at her. "After all, I'm sure that those who lived with Chrome at the outpost wouldn't mind helping her out again."
"That's fine, but I'm more worried about the cost of getting these ships in the air and getting people over there." Artisan rubbed her forehead. "Well, whatever, let's just help out for now and worry about the price later."
"Right."
(-)
Back in Leanbox...
"Well, that's that." Linda muttered. "So now what?"
Chrome sighed softly and shook her head. "Wait for Neptune to fully recover from her fight against Green Void and for the supplies to get here before moving out, I guess."
"You know..." Linda trailed off and gave Chrome a look as they left the communication room of the ship. "You're being kind of coy about it, what happened? From what I can see she doesn't look injured."
Chrome didn't even bother looking at Linda. "She was poisoned by Green Void and the stuff needs a month to go through her system fully." She smirked and turned to Linda, who was grimacing visibly. "Well?"
"Fair enough." Linda sighed and put her hands behind her head. "So what should we do in the meantime?"
"Get to know our newest friend, Peashy." Chrome answered and grinned at the confused look on Linda's face. "She's the CPU Candidate of Leanbox."
"Huh..." Linda sighed softly. "Well, why not?" Rom and Ram weren't too bad. In fact, she could see that Rom had become more friendly and Ram was losing some of her shyness since the death of White Void. "I wonder what she's like..."
As they got to the courtyard, there was a loud yelling sound as Rom, Ram, Filyn, Gust and a little blonde girl ran past them all giggling and laughing while Gust ran after them.
"Get back here! Gust will teach you to bury her with pillows and blankets!" The blue-haired bunny girl yelled, causing Chrome to snort in laughter.
Filyn tripped over a rock and hit the floor with a loud splat, causing everyone looking on to wince and stop to see if she was okay. "Oww..." Filyn groaned and shook her head, her eye-patch falling out and revealing a black socket where her eye was.
"What the heck!?" Rom and Ram both yelped at the same time.
"Huh?" Filyn looked at them in confusion and wondered why they were looking at her in horror.
"Your eye-patch fell off." Chrome said as she walked over to her sister and knelt down to get it and wiped it off. "They aren't used to seeing the socket filler that was placed in there."
"Oh." Filyn had an understanding look on her face as Chrome helped her get her eye-patch back on. She knew exactly why they were looking at her like that. After all, she had several small scars around where her eye should have been and without any sort of eyelid around it, it was pretty disturbing.
"Wow!" Peashy ran up to Filyn. "Do you have an eye laser? Do you have x-ray vision so you can see everyone's panties? Can it open portals to the great abyss?"
Filyn looked at Peashy weirdly. "No, it's just a cover for my eye..." Peashy pouted and Filyn wasn't sure what to do about it.
"Well that's because there was that demon we had to deal in there." Chrome answered, causing Peashy and Filyn to look at her with wonder on their faces while Rom and Ram came close, also listening in rapture. "It was a powerful demon that threatened to kill all of us to power up White Void, so, taking a risk, we sealed it into Filyn's eye and that's why she went into a coma for a long time."
"Really?!" All four girls asked at the same time, getting a nod and a small smile from Chrome as she knelt down to look them all in the eye.
"Yes. I'm told that there's still a part of the Demon that lives in Gamworld." The four were looking on in awe and nodded. "If the Demon ever comes into contact with Filyn again, it could release its full power and the world will be doomed."
"EEEK!" The girls screeched and jumped at each other, hugging themselves tightly.
"I...Is it a scary Demon?" Ram asked, getting a nod from Chrome.
"Very scary..." Chrome said softly. "It looks like a beautiful young woman with long, luxurious hair, an adult, curvy body and eyes that could make anyone weak in the knees. But the Demon is vicious and cruel, even worse than White and Green Void were."
"EEEK!" The four screamed in fear as Chrome smiled and stood up.
"So for all of our sakes, we must keep that eye safe and sealed away." Chrome said and turned to walk way, smiling as the girls talked among themselves.
"Uh, boss..?" Linda asked quietly as she followed after Chrome. "Was all of that true? There's no Demon that's worse than White Void, is there?" She turned pale at the look Chrome gave her. The utter seriousness of her facial features made Linda realize Chrome was serious.
"Who do you think took Filyn's eye?" Chrome asked as she turned and left Linda alone, staring at her in stunned silence.
(-)
One week later in the Leanbox courtyard...
"Neptuna!" Peashy smiled as she saw Neptune and ran towards her. In a move that shocked Neptune, the girl didn't headbutt her, but instead jumped at her in an open hug. "I missed you!" She yelled, hugging Neptune tightly.
"Aww! I missed you too, P-Ko." Neptune smiled, glad that Peashy remembered who she was. "I was worried you wouldn't remember me since I've been busy the past few days."
In more ways than one. Chika had been a great help whenever the after-effects of Green Nightmare's breast milk kicked in. 'I can safely say that I'll never have any trouble pleasing a bed partner.' Neptune mentally giggled even as she blushed softly.
"Nah uh!" Peashy shook her head as she cuddled against Neptune. "You saved Pea, you stopped the big meanie and you brought friends for Pea to play with!"
Neptune smiled and looked at Rom, Ram and Filyn as they walked towards Neptune. "Hey girls, I hope it wasn't too much trouble."
They shook their heads.
"Nah uh, Peashy's super fun to play with, big sis Neptune." Rom smiled at her.
"Are you okay now?" Ram asked, a worried look on her face.
Neptune smiled at her. "Mostly okay. The icky stuff is mostly gone now. I need another couple of weeks before I'm really good." They nodded at her. "So, what have I..?" She trailed off as shadows filled the sky and everyone looked up to see several air ships flying into Leanbox. "Well, that's a thing. What's going on?"
"Ah, good." Chrome smiled as she walked out into the courtyard. "I'm glad you're okay, Neptune."
"Well, yeah, but what's going on?"
"We're getting food and stuff for Leanbox." Chrome said as the ships lowered close to the ground. As the doors of one of the airships opened up, Chrome nodded to Artisan as she walked out. Walking over to her, she waved. "That took you awhile."
"Give me a break!" Artisan yelled over the sounds of the whirling blades. "Gathering up all the food and supplies to make a five day trip on short notice isn't easy!" She ignored the look Chrome gave her. "Anyway, there's enough food here to feed everyone for at least three months." She sighed at the look Chrome gave her. "It's the best I could do, okay?"
"That's still long enough for new crops to grow and get harvested." Chrome pointed out. Thankfully most of the temperatures in Gamworld allowed for crop growing all year. Artisan nodded and turned back to the other ships and waved them on in.
"So, Chrome..." Neptune began as she and the other girls walked up to her. "What's going on?"
"Just making sure that Leanbox survives without needing to sacrifice more people." Chrome told her. "Are you okay?"
"For a few hours at least." Neptune said, looking somewhat embarrassed. "I really didn't like what I had to..."
"Do what you do need to do to keep sane." Chrome told her. "If Chika's willing to help you, that's less I have to worry about."
Neptune nodded. "...I wonder where Iffy and the others are."
"They're around, just exploring the place since there's no reason for us to do anything else while you're recovering." Chrome answered, getting a nod from Neptune.
Neptune privately wondered how much longer she would have to stay in Leanbox. She personally wanted to get out of the nation, take Peashy, Rom and Ram and never return if she could help it.
Memories of those tentacles trying to lewd her flooded her mind. 'That reminds me, I need to thank Chika for finding me comfy underwear that fits.' It was frilly in places and plain in color, but at least it was better than going commando and having the air blow across her sensitive private parts.
"So!" Neptune turned and smiled at the girls. "Want to kill monsters?" The girls looked at her in confusion and Neptune winked at them. "A proper CPU kills monsters that bother her citizens after all."
"Are you heading into the maze?" Chrome asked, getting a nod from Neptune. "Alright. The traps should be deactivated by now, so you won't be randomly teleporting around or hitting a death trap by accident. Just be careful, okay?"
"You're not coming with, Chromey?" Filyn asked, causing Chrome to shake her head.
"No. Someone has to make sure everything gets put away in its proper place." She turned to see some people that were at the outpost for years and nodded at them. "Besides, I have to make sure that people know not to wander into dangerous spots."
"Okay." Filyn nodded and waved at Chrome as she followed after Neptune and the other girls.
"...Be careful." Chrome whispered to herself. She knew that Neptune could handle most everything there by herself, but that didn't mean she didn't worry.
To be continued...
I think we need a break from this place, so there's a couple of interludes incoming, including Vert's backstory.