Love was tough.

It didn't always end up sparkles and rainbow( colored pudding)s. Even when it did, as Neptune and Noire could attest to from their various dramas that took place over the course of Part 2, that didn't mean it was still going to always be smooth sailing. If a couple wanted to stay together, they had to work together, and that could be a lot tougher than it sounded sometimes.

Others would argue that those who said that were just getting cocky in their having something that they didn't. These others were those, naturally, who were cursed with the unfortunate fate of their love being... unrequited.

And among these others cursed with the unfortunate fate of their love being unrequited were two girls who were all too familiar with Neptune and Noire's drama, at least in a manner of speaking. Though their relationship with that drama couldn't be more different, one thing remained: They were irreversibly attached to the ever unfolding story that was the tale of Neptune and Noire.

However, these were two lovely ladies who did not normally get to meet. In fact, if not for the circumstances of this anniversary chapter, it wouldn't be at all strange to say they might never interact with each other at all. Luckily for the viewers at home around Gamindustri (though perhaps unluckily for them), thanks to a previously established concept in one of the earlier scenes of this chapter, a concept has been introduced that has allowed the two of them to finally meet for the first time!

That's right...

Tonight, the story opens on a very special Rebooted and Unrequited Relationships Anonymous meeting. What's more, tonight's meeting was focusing specifically on the members who were "in" relationships of the Unrequited variety. "In" rather than simply in because, well, being unrequited, these people are obviously not actually in relationships with the objects of their affection, much as they may desire it.

"... which is why I blew up his house, so he would know he always has me there for him!"

The current speaker smiled brightly at the other members as she finished speaking, her eyes twinkling with manic delight and pride at the... the thing that she had just described doing. The rest of the members forced themselves to clap, and those who were wearing hats or jackets with hoods instinctively lowered them, as to better block their face's from the young schoolgirl's view. Some were even bold enough as to look away, but the chill they felt go down their spine made them regret it almost immediately.

"Y-Yes, well, thank you, Miss Yan, we all wish the best..." The NPC running the meeting smiled awkwardly as she tried to get everyone's attention off of the laundry list of felonies that they had just heard so that they could get back on topic — that topic being their own miserable relationships and the felonies resulting from them, of course! "Okay everyone, who wants to talk next? I believe we have a few new members with us today, why don't one of you take the stage? If you're comfortable speaking, that is!"

Spread around the room, a few more noticeable faces had been lurking in the shadows, trying not to be seen. Of course, considering some of those shadows were in fact the shadowy figures of the NPCs that were the other members of the meeting (luckily most of them had recieved upgrades to full bodied profiles), it was a bit hard to miss them.

There were some pretty big names among their ranks tonight, and word had spread! Someone who knew one of their top members was here!

"F-Fine, I guess I can..." Standing up from a spot in the back of the room was none other than the legendary Lady Black Sister! Even amongst NPCs, the raging storm of unrequited love that she felt for Lady Purple Sister was known far and wide! To the younger members of the group, she was like their idol. Luckily for her, not being transformed, she could pass off as a cosplayer in her human form, as her sister was occasionally prone to doing (unbeknownst to her, of course). As the CPU Candidate surveyed the group of people looking at her, she found her cheeks flushing. She couldn't believe she was doing this!

But now that Nepgear was awake, she had to start somewhere, didn't she? Maybe coming to a meeting like this was the first step in figuring out what she should do with herself. She had quickly begun to realize that approaching Nepgear now that she was up again would just... not work given everything that had happened... But maybe now she could work out her feelings this way?

Taking a deep breath as she made her way to the front of the room, stepping up behind the podium meant for speakers just below the banner that displayed the group's name proudly, Uni just hoped that this wouldn't be a huge mistake.

"H-Hi, everybody!" Waving nervously at the crowd, Uni felt as though she wanted to turn into a puddle. The only person in the entire world who even had an inkling of how she felt about Nepgear was Neptune, Neptune of all people, and she had just volunteered to talk about those feelings to a room full of strangers! What was she supposed to do?! "I-I'm... Well, I'm new here, and-"

Before Uni could continue, the room erupted in a chorus of "Hi, Newhere!" from the people seated in the room. At first, Uni was about to correct them and snap at them, but watching them, she realized that they hadn't done it out of slowness or to mock her — rather, they were welcoming her. They understood she was nervous and obviously dealing with some problems, otherwise she wouldn't be here, and were trying to make it easier on her.

Oddly enough, it actually kind of worked.

Smiling a little at the crowd, Uni laughed weakly and felt herself relaxing.

"Right! So, um, about the person I like... I don't really know what to say about how we are now, but... I want it to be different in the future." Nodding to herself, Uni stood up just a little straighter. This much she could certainly say, couldn't she? "I-I mean, she probably doesn't even see me that way at all, b-but she's going through a hard time right now, a-and I... I want to help her somehow. I don't know how, o-or if I even can, because, well, she's actually kind of in a coma, and-"

"Too bad it's not your dumb sister that's the one in the coma..."

The room went silent as the words, suddenly spoken as they were, hung in the air, almost like a noose had inexplicably dropped down from the ceiling. The comment had come from a seat in the front. Those seats had been filled by all of the regular members when Uni had arrived, so whoever had said it had to be someone who came here pretty often — it was probably why no one was saying anything either. They must have had a lot of power...

Uni was sure she had recognized the voice, but having been taken off guard by the comment itself, she hadn't been able to place it. As she surveyed the front rows, hoping to find a familiar face, her eyes widened when her gaze finally settled on an a familiar scowl.

Sitting in the second row, arms crossed and her face aimed at the wall, expression set in a rather nasty scowl indeed, was none other than Blanc, the CPU of Lowee.

Clenching a fist, Uni stepped away from the podium and began approaching the CPU. The various group members, NPCs and even familiar faces (was that Pirachu scampering off...?) among them all getting out of her way. It was clear to them that this friendly little meeting was about to turn into something much, much different.

"Say that again." Uni was not exactly the type of person known to get angry, and she wasn't even known for her pride — unfortunately for her, the "best" things she was known for were for her "shrinking" bust and her self-image issues. Indeed, it being Uni of all people towering over Blanc meant that it was probably not the most threatening thing in the world to her.

That stuff didn't matter right now, though. Even this meeting didn't matter. When it came to Uni, people just didn't talk badly about her sister in front of her and get away with it — and they certainly didn't say they wished she was in a coma and get away with it!

"Say it again. Come on." As if she was warning Blanc, Uni repeated herself. She was positively furious right now, for her sister's sake, but also for Planeptune's as well. If her sister hadn't been there, where would they be right now? Did Blanc not care at all? Uni knew that the CPU could be harsh at times, but to think she could be so... cruel... It was unbelievable!

Just when it looked as though Blanc was going to sit there and do nothing, perfectly content with ignoring Uni, the CPU turned to the Candidate and looked at her.

She looked angry.

Really? Seriously? She had made such a horrible comment and she was angry?

Well, fine! That was just fine with Uni — if she was going to get mad that Uni dared to stand up for her sister, then Uni would just be even angrier too!

"Sorry about this. I'll see you guys next week." Then, just like that, Blanc had looked away from her and was leaving. She had stood up and was already almost out of the door. No cursing or yelling or smashing or breaking or anything. She just left, just like that! She hadn't even so much as acknowledged Uni!

That was what really stung. She had been making progress, but... She just hated when people treated her that way!

"I-I'm leaving too!" Without thinking about what she would do once she caught up to Blanc, only thinking that she would do it and get to the bottom of that horrible comment, Uni didn't even look at any of the other members of the meeting as she followed after the retreating CPU, simply hoping it wasn't too late to catch up with her.

Anger and confusion were the primary emotions she was feeling as she exited the gymnasium, storming outside of it and looking around frantically, fisted clenched as she realized she was all too ready to give that CPU a piece of her mind... However, in doing this, she realized too little too late that if Blanc had flown away, she would be stuck with no way to track her down in time to say what she wanted to say or do what she wanted to do.

"Tch... You followed me? What the hell is wrong with you? I could kill you, you know."

Uni's eyebrows shot up as high as they could go at the casual remark that the CPU made from behind her, spinning around to gape at the brown haired girl. K-K-K-Kill?! Where was this coming from?! Sure, it was kind of true given their drastically different levels of strength, but... Was she really that upset?

Crossing her arms angrily as the question floated through her mind, Uni tossed a hand through one of her twintails — in a manner that was not at all unlike Noire.

"Of course I followed you! You said something horrible about my sister for no reason at all! Why would you think I would let you do that without saying anything?" Was that really how little people thought of Uni? That they could say what they wanted in front of her and she would just let them? If that was the case, then White Heart or no White Heart, this goddess in front of her was about to learn herself a very harsh lesson indeed.

To her surprise, despite the CPU's rather violent reputation, Blanc simply chose to shift in place and look up towards the night sky.

"I didn't think you would hear me. I come here to vent, just like you were doing, so I vented." Blanc shrugged. "Only thing I did wrong was speak out of turn. If you hadn't made a scene, you would've gotten to listen to me bitch and moan when it got to be my turn up there anyway, so it doesn't matter one way or the other when you heard it, now does it?"

Uni hadn't expected a reaction like this from Blanc. It was almost like the CPU was... confiding in her? No... That couldn't be it. That definitely, under no circumstances, could possibly be what was happening. Blanc wasn't the kind of person to confide in people — that was probably why she was an anonymous meeting! Because she couldn't talk to people she kn...

... Oh. She didn't exactly know Blanc that well, even though they were both technically main characters, did she? That would explain that then...

... which means... maybe she was being confided in...?

Still... As... As interesting a fact as that was... That didn't explain why she said what said!

"So you would have said something like that about my sister when you got a turn anyway? Then I still would have said something, even if I would have been out of turn." Uni finally responded, making sure she came off as firm as she felt on the subject. Her sister had barely even spoken to Blanc over the course of the story, at least as far as she knew, so there was absolutely no reason for them to be angry at Noire.

As she looked at Uni, Lowee's CPU didn't seem to be in a particularly good mood, but at the same time, she didn't seem too invested in the idea of leaving either. Uni realized that if Blanc had been at the meeting, as she had been, that meant she probably had wanted to talk to someone.

... Oh no... Don't tell her... That didn't mean... Her, did it...?

"Let me put it into words you can understand, squirt." Uni narrowed her eyes at the comment from Blanc — who was she to talk like that? They were practically the same size! Despite Uni's clear dislike of the comment, however, Blanc continued on, looking like she felt increasingly more awkward about the conversation with every word she spoke. "The reason you were in there is... Shit... Do I have to say it...? Okay, I know, your reason is related to the reason I was in there."

Uni tilted her head. That had sounded like a big hint, but she couldn't figure it out. What was the CPU saying? Was this some kind of cryptic goddess code? A riddle maybe?

Seeing this as a chance to impress a CPU, Uni furrowed her brows and put all of her energy into figuring out just what Blanc could have been getting out, completely missing the flabbergasted look on Blanc's face when she hadn't answered immediately.

"Let's see..." Uni had gone to the meeting because of her lack of self-confidence. She... wasn't sure how she could approach Nepgear, especially now that Nepgear was awake. She had been really excited at the prospect of making games with Nepgear, but she couldn't just... go up to her and... and get it on with her! Nepgear was probably super confused, and... What was Uni supposed to do? Obviously, Uni was also there because Nepgear didn't return her feelings as far as she knew, but Uni figured that was probably redundant.

Putting that all together... And making it related instead of the same as her reasons...

"I've got it!" Placing her hands on her hips, Uni turned to the CPU before her and beamed. "You have some self-confidence, but not enough to go for the person you like, so you're coming here to work up more. You also aren't sure how you can approach the person, because they sleep a lot. They want to make games with you, but you don't... want... Um... Why are you looking at me like that? This is related, isn't it? It's Plutia, right?"

Slapping her forehead, Blanc grabbed her hat off of the top of her head and tossed in on the ground.

"Is it really that hard? It's not any of that crap, it's related because the person that has me here is related to the person that has you here. How hard is that to figure out?!" Blanc shook her head and bent down to retrieve her hat, truly surprised that the CPU Candidate hadn't figured it out the instant she had used the word "related." How much more obvious could she have gotten than that? "Freaking kids... It's because your consoles don't have any games that make you think like Lowee's do, that's what this is... It's all about blowing stuff up or stripping people with you guys..."

Uni wasn't paying attention to Blanc's further comments — not now, when the hint she had been given had been spelled out so clearly to her.

Where was Uni? At a meeting about unrequited feelings.

Who was the person that Uni had unrequited feelings for? Nepgear.

And who was related to Nepgear...?

Patting her hat, Blanc watched in morbid amusement as the gears turned in Uni's head. Her mouth began opening more and more, slowly but surely, and her eyes were getting wider and wider as she slowly raised a hand, a shaking hand at that, to point at Blanc. Despite herself, Blanc couldn't help but smirk at the shocked CPU Candidate. Took her long enough.

"Ho... Ho..."

Blanc rolled her eyes. Really? "Ho"? That was the best this kid could do? Even her sisters were more creative with their insul-

"HOME WRECKER!"

There we go.

Her smirk fading as the CPU Candidate quickly closed the distance between them, Blanc closed her eyes as Uni grabbed her by the collar, almost foaming at the mouth like a rabid little animal. Blanc paid no mind to Uni's words and instead raised a hand to knock the two at her collar away.

"If I'm such a home wrecker, then why am I whining about poor little Blanc's feelings at a place like this instead of, oh... I don't know, actually wrecking somebody's home?" Despite the fact that she knew damn well she was in the right here, Blanc still couldn't bring herself to look at Uni. She felt shitty enough about this whole situation, she didn't want to see what the Candidate thought about it — and she sure as hell didn't want the pity. "I made one comment in one stupid scene that isn't even part of the story because I'm a selfish bitch full of selfish regrets. Show me anywhere where I've tried to screw with the two of them. Go on. Open up the story on your phone and look through the whole thing if you want, I'll wait."

Stepping away from the CPU, who was clearly beating up herself more than Uni ever could, all for simply caring about someone else, Uni knew that she didn't have to look at even a single paragraph to know that she'd been wrong.

"S-Sorry." Still... This was a shock. Blanc... had feelings for Neptune? She... actually could relate to that. Really well, even... Uni pictured those certain, closer times that she'd seen Nepgear with Vert, with the twins, with those people from the other dimension... even with Neptune too! It wasn't a fun feeling at all, even when she knew there wasn't anything to it... But what Blanc must be feeling, knowing the person she liked was out of her reach forever... What she felt couldn't even be comparable to that. "I didn't..."

"Damn right you didn't. No one else knows about it after all." Arms hanging at her side, Blanc shot Uni a look that told her if she told anyone else about this, even in the context of this special anniversary chapter, it'd be the last thing she ever told anyone. "Well... Vert might. Blonde bimbo. Way too nosy for her own good. That doesn't mean you can go gossip about me to her."

"Huh?" Uni blinked. Her and... Vert? Sure, the CPU had always been especially nice to her, affectionate even, but... Uni just wasn't the gossiping type — and Vert wouldn't be the person she went to anyway! Vert was her competition! Sort of! If... If she was even in the race, anyway... Thinking like that, Uni couldn't help but sigh. Maybe she'd be in Blanc's position soon enough herself. "Um... Don't worry. I won't tell anyone."

Blanc eyed the girl for a moment, before she shook her head and took a step forward.

"Good." Taking another step forward, getting dangerously close to Uni's personal bubble, the CPU did something she hadn't thought she would after Uni had chased her. Maybe she felt like she could make a difference, maybe she felt a stupid sense of camaraderie, maybe... something, it didn't matter. Regardless, she took a step forward, stepping behind Uni, and spoke. "Listen... I'm going to talk to myself for a second, okay? I'm about to pretend I have a chance to talk to myself from before the story started. This has nothing to do with you. I'm just talking to myself.So don't go interrupting."

Turning around to look at the CPU, who was now looking away from her, Uni tilted her head to the side, confused. Had all of that confiding broken the CPU? Should she call someone? Should she...

"Hey, you. Yeah, you, the dumbass tilting her head like she doesn't know who's talking to her." Uni's eyes widened. W-Wait, was... Was Blanc...? No, she couldn't be... But she had to be... "Good work, 'me,' you're catching on. Stop thinking and listen up. You're only going to get one shot with her. I screwed mine up and I'm still not over it, but it doesn't have to be the same for you. You still have a chance, so make it count. Don't sit on your ass, don't bitch about what ifs, just get out there and take the risk. You're just going to end up bitter and confused like me if you don't, and right now, being me sucks."

For a moment, the two were quiet. Blanc considered... No, that was it. Having said what she wanted to say, Blanc began walking. Despite this, Uni found herself smiling at the retreating CPU.

"Y-You know... Don't take this the wrong way, but... I think you're a lot nicer than my sister says you are."

Uni fought back a giggle as Blanc stumbled in her steps, clearly having not expected the sudden complement, tsun as it may have been.

"S-Shut it. And you should listen to your sister! Or... Actually, what do I know? I don't care what you do. I was just talking to myself. I forgot you were here. Do what you want." Shaking her head, the brunette CPU continued on her way, muttering something about stupid candidates and lolicon blondes to herself. Uni couldn't catch it, but she figured she probably had a good idea.

Now she just had to hope that someone could give her a similar pep talk for real when it came time for her to need it.