Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.
Chapter 35
"So where are we?" Peashy asked as she, Rom, Ram and Neptune walked around a section of Lastation that looked kind of nice with all of the businesses with large, open windows and neon-colored "open" signs on the inside of the glass. The group had been walking for hours and Peashy was starting to get tired and hungry.
"The business part of Lastation, I guess." Neptune said as she looked around. "I wonder if there's a game store." She giggled at the looks that the other three gave her. "A CPU has to know what's popular with the people when it comes to gaming. Our power comes from people's faith in us and they express that faith by buying our consoles and playing games on them."
"Oh." The three of them nodded, understanding now.
"That's an interesting way of looking at it." A female voice spoke up and Neptune and the others looked to the side to see a woman with blue hair, gold eyes, on her left cheek was a bandage and on top of her head were a pair of goggles. She was wearing a rose colored jacket over a black tube top and black pants on her legs. "Though I don't exactly agree with you there."
"Um..." Neptune gave her a confused look. "Who are you and why were you listening in?"
"Sorry," the woman rubbed the back of her head. "Didn't mean to overhear, I was just standing here when I heard your conversation about a CPU needing to know what's popular. My name's Chian, I run a small parts store and a diner not too far from here, want to go grab a bite? My husband's getting off work and wants to meet there for dinner." They all gave her a blank look, "well, it's your comment about CPUs..."
"What makes you think you know anything about CPUs?" Rom interrupted, a frown on her face, "are you the CPU of Lastation?"
"Me?" She pointed to herself in confusion and shook her head. "No, I'm just a human, but judging from the way you're acting, you're all CPUs, huh?"
Neptune sighed and put her hands in a "T" formation. "Timeout. Tiiiiiiiime OUT!" She yelled, causing Chian and the Candidates to jerk in surprise. "One, it's VERY rude to interrupt people like that, Rom." The girl blushed and looked away, digging her toe into the ground. "Two, it's ALSO very rude to listen in on other people's conversations." She gave Chian a dirty look and the other woman, to her credit, at least looked sheepish as a result. "And finally..." She sighed as her stomach grumbled. "...Do you serve pudding?"
Chian laughed and nodded. "Yes, yes we do."
(-)
It didn't take them long to get to Chian's diner, which Neptune noted was almost empty. "Um... Not to pry, but how..?"
"Oh," Chian smiled at her, "it's a couple of hours from the dinner rush. We'll get really busy then." Neptune nodded, knowing that most places like this made their money when it was around lunch or dinner time. "Anyway, do you want just pudding or do you want some other food?"
"...Anything but eggplants." Neptune said, getting a laugh from Chian.
"Alright, daily dinner special it is with a heaping portion of pudding." She winked at them. "Just sit tight, it'll take some time to fully cook."
The group went up to the counter and sat on the rotating bar stools in front of the counter and waited for their food as patiently as they could.
"WHEE!" Which only lasted about three minutes as they all discovered that the bar stools could spin around unimpeded at which point they gave up being patient and quickly worked to make themselves as dizzy as possible.
Looking out of the kitchen as she heard a clonking noise, Chian fought the urge to laugh as she saw all four of the girls were either on the floor or had their heads on the counter to stop the spinning. "Not the first time I've seen this, but I think this is the first time I've seen four victims at once."
Neptune raised her head up and gave Chian a dirty look. "When you stop moving all over the place like a demented hedgehog after being fed one of Nowa's coffees I'll show you what I think."
"Owwie..." Peashy groaned from her spot on the floor. "I hit my head on the floor."
"Are you alive?" Chian asked, getting a groan from Peashy, "anything broken?"
"...No."
"Then you're fine." Chian smirked at them. "Don't spin in the chairs if you don't want to get hurt."
The four girls groaned as they climbed back onto the stools, but they didn't spin on them again after that. Chian chuckled while she made their food.
Fifteen minutes later she came out with several plates of various food and put them in front of the girls. She then went back into the kitchen and brought out some modest bowls of pudding for each of them. "Enjoy."
"Thanks for the food." The four girls said as they started to dig into the food.
After several minutes, Chian sat down across from Neptune and gave her a curious look. "So, what you said about CPUs earlier, I was wanting to talk to you about it."
"Hmm?" Neptune looked at her as she had a spoonful of pudding in her mouth.
"Well, for one, I never heard anyone, other than maybe my grandparents, talk about CPUs like that." Chian said to Neptune. "But they told me that was back before the Voids, I think it was... Sixty or so years ago now." Chian tapped her chin. "Maybe a little more. Anyway," she put her elbow on the counter and rested her chin on her upraised hand, "most of the people I hear talk about CPUs say how they're heartless or something like that."
Before Neptune could answer, Chian pulled out a remote and pointed it at a small television above her head, turning it on and turning up the volume.
"This is Abnes with Channel 6 News."
"Oh hey! It's the loli lover." Neptune pointed out, much to everyone's confusion. "Don't worry, inside joke."
"Another wave of people killed by CPU Black Void has been confirmed in the South District of Lastation City. We would say that these are graphic images, but that would be redundant at this point." Still images of people who had holes in their chest or missing limbs littered the streets, causing Neptune and the three girls to stare in mute horror at the carnage.
Chian turned off the television and nodded at the girls. "Yeah, that plays every night."
"She... Randomly kills her own people?" Neptune trembled. "Dang it, why? Just... Just why? Why do all these Voids have to be such monsters?!" She could feel a bunch of negative feelings bubbling up inside of her while Rom, Ram and Peashy all tried to calm her down.
"Truth is, I don't think the media's telling the full story." Chian said, causing Neptune to snap her head up in shock and a small bit of hope. "Yeah, those were dead bodies and yes it was CPU Black Void that did it, but," she pulled out a tablet and tapped on the screen a couple of times. "Look at this."
"Huh?" The four girls all looked at the photos.
"This was taken from four days ago." Chian said and Neptune noted that the bodies looked very similar.
"That could just be limited animation budget." Neptune pointed out. "Plenty of shows and games reuse assets to save a ton of money after all. With that you can churn out new forty to one hundred hour games every other year without using up much budget at all."
"But this isn't a game..." Rom pointed out and Neptune shook her head.
"I know that, but that could be in play here."
"You'd think that." Chian said as she swiped to the left, showing another scene with the same bodies. "This was from a week before that one." Another swipe, "a month before that," another swipe, "and a month before that."
"Is the media using one image to make everyone hate Black Void?" Neptune asked, "does this mean that she's just lying and using the same image to trick everyone to gather energy for the Fearicite?" She had to admit, that was a rather brilliant move. Not that Neptune really approved of such a thing, but if they were people who were already dead and the media was just using the same images, just slightly modified every time, to keep people fearful and resentful towards this world's Noire, and Neptune wasn't going to believe it was anyone but Noire until proven otherwise, without needing a massive body count.
"I don't know if CPU Black Void knows about this." Chian admitted, "she never makes any statements about thugs and gangs that she takes out." Neptune gave her a confused look and Chian sighed, "down here in the lower levels, the Southern part of Lastation is known as the slums district." Neptune nodded as she listened in, "well, there's obviously a lot of punks and gangs in that area." Chian frowned softly and turned her tablet to flip through a few screens before turning it back to Neptune. "And look at this."
"Huh?" Neptune looked at the screen with the pictures in confusion. "Okay, but I'm not..."
"Hey..." Rom's eyes widened as she noticed something. "The one on the left has metal parts in his body."
"Cybernetics," Chian told her, "the one on the right is, from what people who do the digging can figure out, the same person, sometime before he got cybernetics put into him." The girls nodded. "Well, here's the weirdest part," Chian turned the tablet back to her and swiped left a few more times before turning it back to them, "the guy that seems to be in those images was a notorious thug who robbed stores, banks, killed people and a bunch of other stuff."
"...What's going on?" Neptune asked, confusion in her voice and on her face. "Is Noire using these people to do... Heroic things?"
Peashy, Rom and Ram were all, likewise, confused. None of them had any experience with a Void acting like this.
"CPU Black Void desires order in this chaotic world above all else." A male voice spoke up from the door and Chian turned to see who spoke, her eyes sparkling happily.
"Honey!" Chian ran around the counter to him and gave him a hug and quick kiss on the lips, which he returned. "How was work?"
"Tiring." He smiled at her and the two broke their embrace, letting the others get a good look at him. He was a little taller than Chian was, with thin glasses on his face, short, brown hair, brown eyes and was wearing a light gray suit with a gray tie.
"Um, Chian?" Neptune had a confused look on her face. "Who's this?"
"My husband, Ganache." Chian smiled as Ganache nodded at the girls. "Honey, I overheard these girls talking about what a CPU was and it was quite different than what I'm used to hearing." Ganache gave her a confused look but walked over to sit next to Neptune and the others.
"You know," Neptune had a look of confusion on her face, "for some reason, this feels more wrong than the Voids do and I don't know why."
"So, mind filling me in on the details about what you were talking about?" Ganache asked as he was led over to the counter-tops and Chian filled him in. "I see..." He gave Neptune a curious look while she gave him a small smile and the three girls around Neptune gave him a bit of a dirty look. "So, um... What is your name?"
"I'm Neptune," Neptune introduced herself. "This is Rom, Ram and Peashy," she said pointing to each one.
"I see," he smiled at them, "I must ask, what do you think a CPU is supposed to be?" He waited as Neptune gave him a confused look, but answered him. "A protector of the land and its peoples, huh?" He nodded at her. "That's very admirable. But I must ask, do you think a CPU is happy being in such a role?"
"Huh?" Rom, Ram and Peashy all asked in confusion while Neptune remained silent, looking at him curiously.
Ganache sighed softly. "You said it yourself, CPUs protect the land and their people, but did they choose that role? Wasn't it thrust upon them? And that's just how you describe it." A dark look came over his face. "It sounds like you think CPUs should be slaves to humanity or something."
"Um..." Neptune blinked a few times, her mind flashing back to what Iris Void had said to Chrome Heart during their battle.
"Unlike you Hearts, we Voids aren't slaves to the whims of the people!"
"That's not true!" Rom protested. "CPUs protect people because they love them and in return the people love them back."
Ganache sighed softly and shook his head. "Do not CPU Candidates coming forth disprove that? Even before the Fearicite, the CPUs of this world had to do all they could to keep the selfish, greedy and loathsome people happy."
"Uh..." The four girls looked at him in both confusion and nervousness, before he sighed.
"Forgive me, please. I'm a banker and I deal with some of the most despicable people imaginable." Ganache closed his eyes and took a deep breath before slowly letting it out. "This is something that's been passed down in my family for ages, but CPUs being forced to do what people want to keep them happy? What if those people want to harm others?"
"It's the job of the CPU to make sure to guide her people so they don't want that." Neptune countered, remembering how people in Planeptune had been shortly after the Console Wars had ended. It had taken quite a bit to get them to calm down, but things were good in her dimension now.
"And yet, no matter how much work you put in," Ganache sighed softly, "eventually the people decide to move on and demand change, casting aside their great protectors who sacrifice everything for their people. And all because they're bored of them. As if Goddesses are nothing more than toys that have lost their luster and they want something new and shiny."
Neptune gulped and shivered, remembering Kurome mentioning something similar when her predecessor had put her in that pod while brainwashing her. '...Was Kurome right?'
"And then there's the Voids..." Ganache sighed softly, a soft look on his face as he looked at his hands. "I pity them. They have to make humans suffer so they can gather power, but in order to do that, they have to suffer horribly first."
Rom, Ram and Peashy all stared at Ganache, their pupils shrinking as they listened to him.
"I find that people are worse than the Voids are." Ganache whispered softly.
"No way!" Rom suddenly yelled and stood up on her stool. "I'm a CPU Candidate of Lowee and I can tell you that no one hurt me at all like that monster did!"
"Uh huh," Ram nodded and shivered, "the people didn't like us at first, but they're starting to like us now that White Void is dead."
Both Ganache and Chian stared at them in shock.
Neptune sighed and looked at them. "...Well, I guess there's no use hiding it..." She started to explain things to the two of them.
"I see," Ganache nodded as Neptune finished her story. While she hadn't gone into complete details, having skimmed over the events in each nation, there were parts that stuck out to him, "you're being asked by a Histoire to save the people and the CPU Candidates from their fates?" Neptune nodded and Ganache shook his head. "You're a CPU, but you're being used, huh?" Neptune jerked in shock at that answer. "Even if you agreed to it, because I have no doubt that you want to help the people in need, the fact is that this Histoire is asking you to deal with the problems in this world when you should be trying to find a way home."
"...I would do it anyway." Neptune shot back. "Even if I wasn't a CPU, I'd still want to help the people who need it." Her eyes were sharp, determined and full of conviction. "Because it's the right thing to do."
Ganache stared in surprise as he looked at her and sighed, smiling softly. "You're like the CPU Candidate of this nation." Neptune jerked in surprise, her eyes widening as she gasped. "She's going on about righteousness and what-not." He sighed as a somber look came across his face. "I hope that she doesn't get consumed by despair when she realizes that what she wants won't work."
"Do you know where she is?" Neptune asked and Ganache shook his head. "Nerts."
"She tends to hang out on the lower levels though." Ganache told her. "Just wait a few days, she'll pop up sooner or later."
Neptune nodded and hoped that Uni, and like with Noire, she would believe that it was Uni until proven otherwise, was okay.
(-)
At an unknown location...
"Wakey, wakey..." A female voice spoke up and Uni groaned as she felt her face lightly slapped a few times.
"Huh?" Uni blinked several times as she tried to move only to find a few things were off.
First of all, she was wearing just her white panties and a bra and nothing else, which was making her blush. Secondly, her arms and legs were shackled to the corners of a table in a room. Thirdly, there was a lot of various pointy equipment around her that didn't look pleasant. Fourthly, she felt something around her neck that wasn't there before, and finally, there was a woman in the room with her.
The woman smiled at her. "Hello! I'm Gernia G. and I'll be your dissector today."
Uni stared in shock and horror at the way the woman pleasantly smiled at her.
To be continued...
YEEP!
If you remember in Hyperdevotion Noire: Goddess Black Heart, there was an event where Noire was stripped naked, tied to a table and Gernia G. tried to turn her into a giant mecha. Obviously Noire resisted and got out of there before being turned into a giant mecha.
Why yes, there WILL be more characters from that game. Because why not? The characters have a connection to Noire and Lastation after all.
And Ganache and Chian? ...Again, why not? They ARE from Lastation in the Super Dimension after all.