Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.
Stay tuned for the end of the chapter, there's a special "What-If" Omake written by one of my beta readers.
Chapter 22
"So what are we doing, Big Sis Neptune?" Ram asked as they walked through the maze.
"Clearing monsters out." Neptune smiled at her. "First of all, with the traps disabled we shouldn't be teleporting anywhere, secondly, we should get rid of these bad things."
Ram shivered and Neptune gave her a concerned look. "There were big red slimy monsters..." She teared up and looked away. "And they... They ate me and..." A hand was put on her shoulder and she looked to see Rom smiling at her. "Rom?"
"Don't worry," she winked at her younger twin sister, "if we see the bad monsters we'll beat them this time."
"Uh huh." Neptune nodded and smiled at Ram. "You three worked really good together against Green Nightmare when I was poisoned," she looked at Filyn, who was smiling. "So why not learn how to fight together against bad monsters?"
"Will you fight too?" Ram asked her curiously.
"Hmm... I think I'll sit in the back row." Neptune answered her. "You four should learn to fight, but if one of you gets hurt, tag out, okay?"
The younger four all nodded at that.
(-)
Back in the castle...
Chrome looked at the men and women who had approached her. "...What?" She wasn't sure if she had heard what they said right.
"So... What do we do?" One of the men asked her.
"Green Void always made us wait and would choose when we could have sex." A woman told her next. "We..."
Chrome held up a hand and sighed. "You were all raised from birth to please your CPU, huh?" There were plenty of nods to go around. "I was led to believe that it was okay for you to sleep with whomever you wanted." The group slowly shook their heads and Chrome wondered if maybe that rule only applied to certain people. "Neptune gave me the run-down, but why come to me?"
"Because Lady Purple Heart isn't here." One of the men answered her. "We don't know what to do."
"And my balls are starting to hurt." Someone in the back said and Chrome twitched upon hearing that.
"Look, you could..." Chrome looked at them. "I dunno, if you're all having so much problems, why not have sex with each other?" Seeing the utterly baffled looks they had, she stared. "...Wait, do NONE of you..?" They shook their heads. "I'm afraid to ask, but why?"
"Pleasuring anyone but the CPU outside of the breeding rooms is forbidden." Another man said.
Chrome was beginning to think she would need to learn these people's names, because it was starting to get confusing. "Alright, I get it. The rule Green Void made still applies. You can have sex with anyone, but don't pressure them and if they say no, you accept it and move on."
They all looked at each other in confusion.
Chrome sighed and rubbed her forehead. "I was told you could say no to anyone you wished."
"Not to Green Void," one of the women answered her, "anyone who did was put in the torture machine."
Chrome rubbed her forehead. "I don't want to know, do I?"
"It was a machine with dildos that would fuck your ass until you came, then it would put a larger dildo in your ass and fuck you until you came again, then it would continue on and on until your ass ripped apart." One of the men answered her, causing everyone to shudder in horror.
"And Green Void said anyone who tried anything without her permission with anyone would get fed her breast milk after being tied up."
Chrome let out a breath as she processed that. "Lovely. Okay, look, just... You can pleasure each other without needing to be in the breeding rooms." They nodded, eagerness on their faces, "but again, if you ask someone and they say no, just accept it and leave them alone."
"...Can we do anything we want then?"
"So long as no one gets hurt." Chrome admitted before something occurred to her. "Oh, and don't you ask anyone who's really young."
"What if they ask us?" One of the men asked her.
"...No sex with anyone who hasn't hit puberty yet." Chrome answered him instantly. "That means don't you dare have sex with the CPU Candidates of Leanbox or Lowee or my younger sister Filyn, do you understand?"
They nodded and started to disperse and Chrome just sighed heavily. "...Yes?" She asked the three men that were left. "Can I help you?"
"...Want to have a gangbang?"
Chrome blushed as she heard the question. "I'm... Flattered that you'd want someone as old as I am, but I don't really deserve that honor." Seeing the disappointed looks, she sighed. "Listen, I have... A lot of emotional baggage. Maybe when my trip is done, I'll return. If you still want one then, fine."
Hearing them cheer only made her blush more. 'Why would they want one with me? I'm pretty sure I'd be a lousy lover.' Still, it was kind of nice to have people wanting her like that.
(-)
An hour later...
Warechu was wandering around an open area in the castle, looking a bit lost. "This place is huge!" What made it worse, in his opinion, was how easy it was to go from the courtyard to the food storage area and then finding another door that led to a residential area in the castle.
It was a little weird seeing so many multi-room apartments that were actually reasonably furnished with dressers, beds, a private bathroom, sinks and more in one building. And while Warechu had seen those in Lowee, he was still used to the small apartment buildings at the outpost that had doors to the outside and not into a hallway.
Warechu had to admit, the fact that this place had electrical lights on the walls and large screen televisions that played information, entertainment and more across the walls was pretty neat, plus it was more advanced than Lowee by a wide margin.
"How big is this place?"
"It depends on your definition of big." A female voice spoke up and Warechu turned to see a woman with long blue hair, pink eyes, who was wearing a tight t-shirt that showed off her modest bust and hot pants on her waist. "Then again, I grew up my whole life here, I'm sure that the others who are helping us with food haven't seen places this big before either."
"Yeah," Warechu nodded at her, "so who are you?"
"Me?" She smiled at him. "My name is 5pb." Warechu nodded at her. "So you came with the CPU that stopped Green Void?" Warechu nodded and she sighed softly, looking a little sad.
"What's wrong, chu?" Warechu asked her. "Are you sad the CPU is gone?" The citizens of Lowee had practically thrown a party after White Void was dead and it was only because Purple Heart had been the reason that White Void was dead that people had been willing to give Rom and Ram a chance to prove that they weren't monsters.
Personally Warechu had come to like the twin girls. They were really cute, like Compa and IF were, and the fact that they weren't anything like a Void was a big plus in his book. Plus after everything that those two had gone through with White Void as their elder sister made it impossible for him to hate them. They had been just as victimized by White Void as any of them had been after all.
"A little." 5pb. answered him. "Don't get me wrong, I'm sure that it's a good thing she's gone, but..." She sighed heavily. "Green Void was cruel with her punishments and other things, but she did keep us safe from the monsters in the maze."
"But she was sacrificing people by making them give birth to tentacle monsters and then becoming part of them." Warechu pointed out, getting a nod from 5pb., who was trembling. "So why are..?"
"...It's all I know." She admitted to him. "I knew from the day I was born that my life was to please Green Void. When I would get older, I was to have children until I couldn't and then I was to basically become part of the tentacles so that my children and could have food."
Warechu grimaced as he heard that. "Really? That sounds really bad, chu." 5pb. looked down and he sighed. "You know, if you were raised to please your CPU, you should talk to Lady Purple Heart, chu." The girl looked at him in confusion. "She's way different than what you think a CPU is like. I was scared of all CPUs and hated them until I met her, chu. Maybe she can help you and the others."
5pb. smiled at that. "Do you think... If I do a good job she'll reward me?" Warechu nodded and she squealed in delight and hugged him tightly. "Thank you, Mister Mouse!"
"Eh heh heh..." Warechu's face turned red, but he wasn't complaining. "I have to admit, all the people in Leanbox look really nice."
5pb. nodded and let go of the hug. "Green Void wanted all of us to look really good and apparently eating tentacle monster parts helps us grow to look really pretty."
"And now I'm back to being disturbed." Warechu muttered softly. He actually wanted to help the people of Leanbox, this was just... Disgusting, but at the same time, he couldn't blame them. "Um, I hope it's not too much to ask, but about your life... It sound really kind of crummy."
5pb. sighed and slumped. "Maybe, but it's all I know. I'm kind of lucky that Lady Purple Heart stopped Green Void..." She giggled nervously and rubbed the back of her head. "In five years I would have had to go down to the breeding rooms myself."
Warechu sighed. "This is really sad, Chu."
"Well, um..." 5pb. looked at Warechu. "Oh! Right! You were really close to that one girl who has those hooks, and that one girl with the weird skin right?"
"Compa?" Warechu's eyes started to sparkle. "Yeah, I'm close to Compa. And that other girl with the weird skin is IF, chu..."
"So are you and Compa lovers or something?" 5pb. asked, a curious expression on her face. Warechu blushed but shook his head. "You're not? But you're so close!"
"I wish I was, but we're not the same species, chu..." Tears welled up in his eyes. "Plus Compa lost her arms taking care of some hurt people. And I love her, but I know that she's suffered a lot and I don't want to bother her with that."
"...What about the other girl?"
Warechu shook his head. "Nah uh, IF's close to Linda. I don't think they're anything more than really close friends, but IF gets naked rubdowns from Linda all the time because of her skin."
"How nice." 5pb. smiled at that. "To have a friend so close that you'll let them touch you when you're naked." She held her hand out, "mister mouse, will you walk with me? I'm getting a bit hungry and it's close to supper time."
"More tentacles?" Warechu asked, getting a nod from 5pb., "I hope you don't mind if I don't eat them."
"It's okay, I know that it's a bit weird. I didn't like them when I was a little girl either, but it was either eat them or starve to death." She smiled at him as he took her hand and the two walked off together.
(-)
Sometime later...
Linda was sitting in the courtyard with Gust, the two of them waiting to see if Neptune and the others would return. "...What do you think about this place, Gust?"
"Gust has had three women ask her if Gust wanted to do lewd things." Gust grumbled in some annoyance. "Gust isn't interested in girls like that, but the boys here would break Gust in half if Gust tried to do lewd things with them."
"Huh," Linda looked at the bunny girl, "would have thought you weren't into boys."
Gust snorted at Linda and pointed at her ears. "Gust has these bunny ears, remember? Bunny girls like boys, Gust is forever short though and can't have children because of it."
Linda winced, remembering that Gust was older than she was but was forever trapped in the body of a girl who was like seven or eight years old because of some hormone imbalance or something. "Sorry, didn't mean to make you remember it."
Gust sighed and shook her head. "Gust knows it's not your fault that Gust can't have a family. Most Gust can do is help raise other girls so they grow up right."
"You mean like the CPU Candidates?" Linda asked, getting a nod from Gust. "...What's your thoughts on them?"
"...Gust was wrong about them." She admitted to Linda. "Neptune was right. They need love and guidance, not fear and distrust. Gust wants to help Rom, Ram and Peashy too."
Linda smiled at her. "You and me both."
Gust nodded at that. "Gust wonders... If Neptune beats all the Voids, what will happen to the world?" She looked around and saw the people mulling about, some getting help from the support people from Lowee, others just having fun playing games involving throwing a ball around or something and there were little kids running around, playing and laughing. "Gust thinks things are a bit better here than Lowee."
"I dunno," Linda muttered, remembering what she had heard from some of the natives of Leanbox. "They were raised to do lewd things to Green Void, not get any scars or anything, breed the next generation of children and then become food."
"...Now Gust feels ill."
"You and..." Linda trailed off as she saw some people coming out of the maze. "Looks like they're back." She and Gust both got up and walked over to where Neptune and the others were as they came out of the maze. "Hey what... happened?" Linda gawked as she saw them covered in green and red goop while their hair was standing on end and crackling.
"We chased some big, fat red dogoos through the maze and ran into tentacle walls." Neptune had a tight smile on her face. "Apparently Rom and Filyn had a combo attack they didn't tell me about that involves an exploding electrical tornado. On the plus side, those tentacle monsters are dead now."
The two guilty members of the party just giggled nervously.
Linda snorted in amusement. "Well, how about you go get cleaned up then?"
"Great!" Neptune smiled at her. "When I'm done here I think I'll go to bed." The others looked at her and she blushed pretty heavily. "Um... I... Didn't really get much sleep when Chika was helping me out."
Linda shook her head as the group walked off to get cleaned up.
To be continued...
Oh hey, it's 5pb., good to see you... And now I'm disturbed as well. WILL YOU GUYS STOP DISTURBING ME?! I'M THE ONE WRITING THIS!
Anyway, we're out of Leanbox next chapter (finally!)
And here's the What-If Omake my beta reader wrote.
What if the Fearicite had never formed?
Speeding up toward Sharicite chamber, CPU of Lowee Red Heart tried her best to calm herself down and finally try to gather up her thoughts. She know full well that this day would come eventually. No matter how much effort she poured into governing over Lowee all of these years, the appearance of a CPU candidate was as unavoidable as the rain, wind or voyage to toilet after another good party at the bar.
Thinking about the bar had Red Heart wondering if maybe she could take a small detour and drink in a few liters of Lowee prized root beer?
Oh heck, what she thinking?! She definitely couldn't appear before her newborn sister drunk out of her wits!
When the white haired CPU entered the sacred room, her sister was already born and carefully looking around, trying to get as much information about her birthplace as she could. The small, brown haired girl in a sundress quickly turned around to see the person who entered the room and quickly flashed an adorably small smile, somehow realizing, without the need for words, that this woman in front of her was someone who would be the closest to her in entire world.
Red Heart, on other hand, was trying her best not to smile… Not because she disliked this girl, but because she knew full well that she would break out into the biggest and goofiest smile she could muster. But what else she could do? The small little angel in front of her was THE most adorable thing she had ever seen in her entire life.
'Um, hello. I'm Blanc." The newly born future Goddess introduced herself, looking at Red Heart with curiosity and joy, and unintentionally making it almost impossible for Red Heart to not get weak in the knees and pull the girl into the biggest, tightest hug imaginable.
"Hi there, Blanc." Answered the overjoyed Goddess, who quickly regained her senses and lowered herself to her knees while outstretching both of her arms. "I'm Red Heart, CPU of Lowee and your older sister."
Blanc obviously had the same idea as Red and moved forward to give her older sister a hug. Returning the embrace and feeling the warmth of her sister's body, Red could feel herself whatever willpower she had left as she felt a huge goofy smile cover her face.
At least she didn't have to worry about being embarrassed...
Blanc had the same goofy grin on her face.
...That damn Fearicite.