Author's Note

Hey guys! I'm back with another chapter~

I'm literally in Finals week and I'm stressing like hell. I go to an art school by the way so I have giant projects that's all due on Monday and Tuesday. It's insane.

Boys and girls, don't procrastinate on your finals unless you want to be like me. You'll regret it, because I'm regretting it. Yet I still somehow found some time to write. It's mostly a way for me to de-stress and relax I guess. Anyways, have fun reading.

DISCLAIMER: Also I don't own Hyperdimension Neptunia and it's characters.


Planeptune, Gamindustri

Place: Panan Jungle

Date: August 23, 2019

Time: 4:18 P.M

"Hyaaaaa!" The white-haired goddess slashed her blade across the plaid dolphin's side, slicing it in half. "Phew! Man, they weren't kidding when they said they spotted some Plaid Dolphins in the Panan Forest, they usually wander around Lastation, not Planeptune…"

Black Heart was out on quest duty. While working on documents, some quests had built up and not enough adventurers were accepting the harder quests, so Black Heart took it upon herself to handle them. It wasn't hard to clear the monsters in any given area, it was mostly just tedious work, but what was the most troublesome to her was that the people of Planeptune were starting to mistake her as their new CPU. While she had tried to clear the misunderstanding, it wasn't working the way she had hoped. She knew that she was the hardest working one out of the four CPUs on Gamindustri, but she didn't think that her hardworking attitude would end up stealing her girlfriend's people.

Black Heart sighed and decided to let it be for now, since Neptune wasn't around, there wasn't too much of a point to try and get the people to believe otherwise. However, she couldn't deny that she was afraid that they might follow her back to Lastation after Neptune came back. Black Heart didn't know how to break the news to them or to Neptune. She sighed, feeling a slight headache forming, since the last thing she wanted to do was hurt her girlfriend by stealing her followers away while Neptune was in another reality.

"I'll have to deal with this properly once Neptune comes back." The Lastation CPU said softly, and Black Heart knew that Neptune would come back, even if it would take some time for her to return. But Black Heart had other things to do, like the quest she was currently on.

Walking deeper into the jungle, the white haired CPU noted that everything was pretty quiet, but she didn't let her guard down. She was alone and ambushes from powerful monsters, or even weaker ones, had high critical rates. It would spell a rather painful and messy game over if she wasn't careful. She ignored the harmless Spacevaders and Armor Shells as she searched for more powerful monsters that might end up causing trouble. Seeing that were nothing out of the ordinary but the Plaid Dolphins, Black Heart decided to head back. "I'm glad it's just Plaid Dolphins. It could be worse, like a Killachine running rampant or something," she mused to herself.

She was about to summon her wings when her heard voices. "There are people this deep in the forest?" Black Heart asked herself in confusion, wondering if maybe the people were lost. "I hope they're not hurt." The least she could do was check it out. If they were lost or hurt people, then she'd gladly lead them back to safety. If they were explorers, she'd pass on a warning about the Plaid Dolphins, if they hadn't seen them yet, and make sure they were fully stocked and alright before going. The goddess moved towards the voices and hid behind a tree, just in case it was an enemy.

"Oh, quit crying already! Your powers already increased to a good amount."

"I'm sorry… I'm so useless. I can't get anything right! The Citizens group grew too uncontrollable, I can't even run my own group anymore…"

Black Heart recognized the light-haired woman. That's Rei Ryghts! She's the leader of the Citizens group, what is she doing all the way out here? And who's that other person?

The other person with Rei was a small fairy sitting on top of a large book. She reminded Black Heart of Histoire, but her color scheme was a lot darker than that of Planeptune's Oracle. Not to mention the shorter hair and the rather... Rough voice.

"Come on! Are you seriously this pathetic? The other you is doing much more work than you." The fairy crossed her arms and muttered under her breath, "Despite being just as much of a pathetic crybaby as you are…"

"Y-You don't have to tell me that, Croire," Rei whimpered.

Croire? I'll have to ask Histoire about her… Black Heart thought.

"No wonder the CPUs were able to push you around. You're such a pushover."

Rei started bawling again. "Waaaaaah! I tried! I really really tried! But the CPUs are too scary!"

Croire rolled her eyes and groaned, "Ugh! Stop your crying already! How are you gonna destroy Gamindustri this way?!"

Destroy Gamindustri!?

"Destroy… Gamindustri?" Rei sniffled and she asked, "Who said anything about that?"

Croire only rubbed her head in frustration. "Wow, this Rei doesn't even think about world domination…"

"I-I don't want world domination. I-I just want us all to be free. I just want to show the people that we can live without CPUs. I-I don't think I can do it… I'm so weak and useless. I'll just mess up. I'm not the person for the job. I can't… I just can't do it…" Rei rambled.

"Sheesh, you need another dose of confidence," Croire grumbled in annoyance.

Rei refused, "N-No… I don't need anymore of that dark thing you've been giving me… it makes me nauseous. It made me do crazy things. I almost died to Lowee's candidate…"

Black Heart couldn't follow the conversation. Dark thing? What is that? What are they talking about?

"It's just some confidence boost. You were so confident when you made a CPU disappear," voiced Croire.

Made a CPU disappear…? Suddenly it clicked. Are they talking about Neptune!?

"B-But it… it didn't work on L-Lastation's CPU candidate or Leanbox's CPU…" Rei whimpered.

"You just don't have enough control over it, give it more time," Croire said.

I should probably leave… I need to tell Histoire about this. Black Heart turned around to leave, but she accidentally stepped on a twing. Crap!

Croire heard the twing snap over Rei's crying and turned her head to where Black Heart was hiding. "Who's there!?"

Black Heart stayed quiet as she pushed herself against the tree, hoping they didn't see her. She didn't dare look out from behind the tree.

"Shit, come on, Rei. We need to get going," said Croire.

"W-What…?"

Black Heart heard some weird sounds, like a low humming and then it disappeared leaving behind no sound. Taking a risk, Black Heart peered out from behind the tree to see that Rei and Croire had disappeared. She walked out to the area where they were and found no trace of them.

"Where did they go?" They couldn't have just disappeared into thin air, could they?

Black Heart walked around the area to examine the smallest of things. She looked around and found nothing out of the ordinary. She was really concerned about Rei and Croire, they didn't give off a good vibe to the Lastation goddess. She'd have to deal with them later, but for now she needed to return to the Basilicom and inform Histoire of this. She summoned her blue wings and took flight into the sky.

Planeptune, Gamindustri

Place: Basilicom

Date: August 23, 2019

Time: 4:49 P.M

"I've found it! A way to bring Neptune back!" Histoire announced.

"Really!?" Nepgear squealed as she turned away from the shelf to look at the oracle.

"Yes, this is the only way I found, so far," Histoire said. After searching through her tome for three days in the library, she finally found a way to open a portal to another dimension. "I must contact Neptune right away." Histoire was starting to worry since the people of Planeptune were starting to ask questions, some demanding to see that Neptune was okay and others wanting to confirm if it was true that they were abandoned by Neptune or not.

"Can you even send a call?" Nepgear asked. "I tried to talk to her again, but my signal couldn't reach her…"

"I should be able to contact them if I trace back the signal that the other Histoire sent me. Give me three minutes, it will take time."

"Of course!" Nepgear was so happy to see her sister again. Even if it was just over a screen, it was better than nothing.

Histoire pulled up her holographic screen and sent out the signal and waited until someone answered. When the call was picked up, Neptune's face showed up. Nepgear was the first to greet the goddess, "Hi, Neptune! Histoire's got some good news!"

The tome proudly nodded, "Yes, it took awhile to find, so I am sorry to have kept you waiting."

"And what a heck of a wait it was!" Neptune yelled. "How many years do you think it's been since you last contacted me!?"

Both Histoire and Nepgear didn't expect to see Neptune upset. They thought she'd be happy to hear from them, especially since Histoire found the answer pretty quick.

Histoire apologized, "I… I apologize, but three days is far less than a year. You should know that much by now."

"Yeah, sis. I know three days is long, but it's not that long. Traveling through dimensions is hard. I think Histoire did well in finding a solution within three days," Nepgear defended.

"Don't patronize me! I know that 3 days is 72 hours is 4,320 minutes is 259,200 seconds! Wait…" Neptune's expression turned to one of confusion. "Three days?"

Nepgear nodded, "It's only been three days, sis."

"Yes, I ran and intense index search and have just now discovered that—"

Neptune ignored Histoire and turned her head to the other girl with purple hair. "Hey, uh Plutie…? Did I get here three days ago?"

Plutia closed her eyes in thought and hummed, "Ummm… Three days...?" She opened her eyes and answered, "I think it's been waaaaaaaaaaaaaay longer than that…"

Nepgear gave a confused look. "That's... Not possible. I'm sure it's only been three days…"

"I apologize for interrupting." voiced the smaller Histoire. "Based on my data, Neptune first arrived here three years ago to date."

"Three years!?" Histoire and Nepgear screeched.

"What the goodness! What is going on?" Nepgear asked Histoire.

"I'm not sure…" answered the fairy. "Could the flow of time differ between our dimensions?"

"Perhaps," responded the other Histoire. "There is no concrete proof that we can offer, however."

"I see." Histoire understood, "Conventional rules do not apply across dimensions…"

"This may prove fortune for us," said the other Histoire. "If it were the other way around, that would be a problem."

"Indeed," Histoire agreed. "If time passed faster here, Neptune would be young, whereas we would all be ancient history."

Neptune was off to the side while the two Histoires and Nepgear were communicating, unable to follow the flow of conversation before finally getting fed up and demanding to know what was going on. "Hey, less Histy-on-Histy action! Explain it so I understand, too, please?"

"I think I get it!" Nepgear voiced. "What Histoire was saying is that every year that passes by over there, only a day passes over here, right?"

"Yes." Histoire was happy to know that Nepgear understood, while Neptune... She looked at Neptune's smiling blank face and sighed, I wonder what I did to deserve this. Neptune used to be way smarter than this back during the war era. It felt like the time of peace had not only allowed Neptune to take things easy, but it also seemed to turn her brain into mush. "So in other words, if you remain there for a hundred years, a mere hundred days would pass over here," she explained. "It's similar to when I forced you and the other CPUs to fight in Celestia, only that a year in Gamindustri would be a hundred years in Celestia."

"Huh? So what about leap years?" Neptune asked.

"Well…" Nepgear wasn't sure about that.

"And what happens with 24 hours?"

"Um…" The candidate also wasn't sure how to answer that.

Then suddenly, Neptune eyes lit up as if a light bulb went off. "Oh wait. I get it! Yep!"

Nepgear was shocked to see that Neptune got it even though she asked the questions. "Really? Even I didn't know. That's amazing, big sis!"

"I don't get the math at all…" Plutia voiced. "Neppy… you're sooooo smart…"

Histoire would say otherwise. She doubted that Neptune got it. "Do not try to make it sound as though you thought hard about it and were able to follow us when you were not."

Neptune chuckled as she rubbed the back of her head. "Hehe."

Histoire only sighed. "It's fine. For now, you need not worry about the passage of time."

"Uh, that sounds pretty darn convenient for the plot, but okay!"

"Let us return to the main issue. In order to have Neptune return, we…"

"Oh yeah, that's important! Plutia, grab a crayon, 'cuz we gotta cray some notes on some paper!"

"Ummm… I'll get a pencil…" Plutia left the screen to find the items.

Neptune stayed on the screen to listen. "Lay it on me, Histy."

"Work hard and increase Planeptune's shares."

Neptune nodded, "Okay, them's the basics. Anything else?"

"That's all," Histoire said.

"That's not a lot to do," Nepgear commented.

"It was the only thing I could find," Histoire voiced.

"What!? That's a pretty simple command to follow… Um, and… What else?"

"No, that is literally all," Histoire said.

"..."

Nepgear was a bit worried when her sister became quiet and still. It was also awkward how she stared at them. "Sis?"

Plutia finally came back. "It has a lot of bite marks, but here's my pencil, Neppy…"

Neptune's jaw dropped as she sounded, "Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…"

"D-Do not act so disappointed when that should be good news!" Histoire scolded.

She scratched the back of her head as she said, "Well, I figured we'd reveal the main story arc or talk about the story's epic twist…y'know…"

"Hey, Hey, Neppy…!" Plutia poked Neptune in the arm with the eraser part of the pencil. "My pencil, heeeeeere…! Take it, take it, take it…!"

Neptune subconsciously took the pencil while her attention was still on Histoire. "I just think there should be more context."

"I agree," said the tiny Histoire. "Is that really all she needs to do? Even I would prefer more details…"

"I understand. It seems that I… or technically, we… We as Histoires, possess a function that allows us to transcend dimensions."

"Really? I was never informed!" said the other Histoire.

"It was located in the user's manual on page 141,006 of our tome. I foolishly skimmed over it on my initial read-through."

"I had no idea… I will reread the manual later, too."

"But to use this function, we require the cooperation of our assigned partners. The CPUs," explained Histoire. "By consuming our CPUs' shares we can open a doorway of sorts that allows one to cross dimensions."

Neptune grinned, "Sure, why not? That's how it is, so that's how it's gonna be! I just gotta work hard, right?!"

Plutia smiled, "Wow, you got sooooo energetic all of a sudden…"

Histoire was so happy to see Neptune looking so motivated for once. It almost brought her to tears. "Ahh, I am so glad to hear you sound so motivated."

"I can't mope around here forever! Sometimes the best plot are simple and light-hearted! Yup! Just you watch, Twinstys! I'm a pro at share gathering, so this'll be a snap!" Neptune proudly stated.

"That would be helpful. On our side, the Citizens group has suddenly grown far more active. The other CPUs are doing their utmost, but it seems as though they are losing ground. Blanc just report them being in Lowee yesterday causing an uproar with her people."

Neptune crossed her arms as she started acting all smug. "Oh yeah? They're such slackers… I guess the one with all the secret admirers, me, needs to get back!"

"Pardon? If you are referring to the one with the most followers, that would Noire," Histoire corrected.

"Uh-huh. I know that already. I mean, it's obvious that Noire—" Neptune's eyes suddenly widened once the words processed through her head. "What, she does?!"

"We ran a poll last night asking the world who they followed, and Noire won by a wide margin."

"Why? How? But, I'm the totally adorable main character, right? How could I lose to my own girlfriend?"

"I do not know what to tell you. Perhaps because you are a little hard to understand sometimes, the people were divided… Also, the people of Planeptune take it that you have retired and Noire is their new CPU now…"

"Say whaaaaa!?"

"There's a rumor going around Planeptune, saying that you have stepped down as their ruler, and since Noire was doing most of your duties, people have mistakenly assumed that she has taken over your role as their goddess," explained Histoire. "She is doing well in keeping your nation in good condition though, Nepgear is actually learning a lot from her, right Nepgear?"

"Eh?" Nepgear have been silent for a while and she didn't expect to be brought back into the conversation like this. "Um… Well…" Nepgear fidgeted her fingers as she hesitantly voiced, "Noire is great to have around… She has taken a lot of the load off my shoulders…"

"Blah! Stop!" Neptune covered her ears as she shook her head. "I don't wanna hear it, you traitors!"

Nepgear only chuckled, "Sorry, sis, but if it makes you feel better, I still think you're an awesome big sister, even if you can't compare to Noire."

"Gah!" Neptune clutched her chest as if it were in pain. "To think my own little sister wants Noire."

"I will admit, it makes me jealous of Uni a little," said Nepgear.

"Enough, Nep Jr., I can't take all this shame!" begged Neptune.

Histoire had enough of this scene and decided it was time to end the call. She was getting quite tired keeping this long distance call going. "Our time is almost up. When I have everything prepared, I will contact you again. Until then."

"Hey, wait! I'm number two, right? I have to be second, at least!"

"Bye, sis! I'll see you later," said Nepgear.

"Wait! At least let me see Noire! I haven't seen her in a year and she betrayed me by taking my people!? I must speak to her!"

"She is currently out doing quests for Planeptune," answered Histoire.

"She's taking more!?"

Nepgear couldn't help but giggle, "I'll tell Noire you said hello."

"I'm ending the call," announced the oracle.

"Byyyyyye!" Plutia waved her arms.

Neptune closed in on the screen before Histoire closed the connection. "Tell Noire I love her too and that I miss her as well!"

Histoire closed the call and the screen disappeared. "That girl… Even though this was a serious call, she somehow always manage to turn it into some kind of joke."

Nepgear chuckled, "But isn't that one of her good points. I'm sure that's also why Noire loves her so much."

Histoire sighed, "I suppose…"

A knock could be heard from the door and then a voice came with it. "Histoire? Are you there?"

"Oh! It's Noire." Nepgear walked opened the door and let Noire into the library. "Hey, you just missed Neptune!"

Noire gave the younger goddess a confused look. "Neptune?"

"Yes. We just finished a call with her. I finally found a way to bring Neptune back," explained Histoire.

Noire smiled, "That's great news! How is she doing?"

"Neptune is doing just fine. Though, she was a bit shocked when she found out that our people are putting their faith in you…"

"Ah…" Noire winced slightly. But at least Neptune found out early so there was no need to break it to her when she got back home. Though… "I'm not sure if I should be glad that you called her without me or not…"

"Oh! But she did say hello and that she loves you and misses you a lot. She wanted me to pass the message onto you," said Nepgear.

Noire cheeks turned slightly pink, but she was happy to get a message from her girlfriend. "I do miss that ditz as well, but enough about Neptune." Noire's expression turned cold. "We have something to discuss about."

Nepgear noticed the serious look in her red eyes and became a little concerned. "What is it, Noire?"

"It's about Rei Ryghts. I encountered her in the Panan Jungle, and she had an accomplice that's similar to you, Histoire."

The oracle narrowed her eyes worriedly. "Come in. Nepgear, I'd like you to go check on Lenna to see if there is any more paperwork. Lock the door as you go out, please."

"Umm… Sure." Nepgear nodded as Noire walked deeper into the library. The candidate locked the entrance as she left. She wanted to be part of the discussion, but maybe it was something she shouldn't be hearing for now.