The brown haired male and the lilac haired girl stepped out of the portal and found themselves directly in Neptune's room. "Wow! So this thingy literally takes me back home! I know who's getting a pay raise later~~~" Neptune said to herself happily, clapping her hands together as she giggled with excitement. The portal closed behind them as Casshern looked around the girl's room in awe. He had never seen anything like it before. The room was so bright and filled with life even though they were the only ones in it. Having been only surrounded by a world constantly in decay, a place like this was truly amazing to him. Is this what a world without ruin looked like?
Neptune released Casshern's hand and turned around to face him, nodding her head. "Okay, Cashy. You wait here and I'm gonna ask Histy if she can help you. Be right back!" the girl took off running out the door, leaving the man in white alone in her room as he continued to examine every nook and cranny of it with his eyes. He wandered over to the bunny plush toy placed on the side of her bed and picked it up, looking it over a few times before placing it back down where he had found it.
His gaze then shifted over to the large window on the other side of the room and he walked over and peered outside, his eyes widening in even more awe at the sight of seeing a beautiful futuristic city. The people, the nature, and just the simple existence of life had him stricken with more awe than he could put into words. A world without ruin; It was most certainly a paradise of sorts in his eyes.
Neptune wandered around her Basilicom in search of her fairy-like oracle, yelling her name every now and again in the hopes of getting her attention. "HIIIIIIIIIIIIISTYYYYYYY! WHERE ARE YA?!" she eventually found the person of her search doing paperwork in her office. The blonde haired fairy quickly took notice of the young girl and proceeded to speak. "Neptune, have you finished your wo-" Neptune immediately cut the oracle off mid-sentence and started speaking over her as if what she had to say was of much more importance. "Hey, Histy. I got a friend who's an amnesiac and I was wonderin' if you knew how to get his memory back!"
The blonde haired fairy narrowed her eyes a bit at Neptune's rudeness and proceeded to speak once more. "It is rude to interrupt someone while they're speaking. Honestly, as Patron Goddess a certain level of etiquette and re-" Neptune cut off the fairy for second time, stomping her feet impatiently. "Yeah, yeah, yeah! Pinky fingers and tippy princess toes! GOT IT! Now, answer my question! It's really, really, REAAAALLY important!" She whined, shaking from side to side like a wet dog.
Histoire remained silent for a moment before sighing and shaking her head. Neptune had always and eternally would be the most difficult person for her to deal with. Since she wished to return back to her own duties, the fairy simple ignored Neptune's rude behavior and proceeded in answering her question. "There is no way to restore the memory of amnesiac. The only remedy is time and patience. Eventually your friend will begin to remember things on his own." Histoire finally explained which of course led to the purple haired goddess sighing. "That is so LAME. There isn't medication or nothin'? Ugh, fine. Thank you." Neptune marched away with disappointment clearly visible in her statement.
Histoire was the big book of everything and if she said there wasn't another way then there probably wasn't another way. She didn't want to go back into her room and tell her new friend that she couldn't help him. In fact, she utterly refused to say that she couldn't help him. She may have been a mediocre Patron Goddess but she certainly was no mediocre friend. She had set her mind. She was going to help Casshern find out who he was one way or the other. It's not like she had anything better to do. Gamindustri was at a time of peace, and going out on adventure again would be fun.
The only difference this time would be that she would be traversing an entirely new land unknown to her. New discoveries, new people, new places, everything! The very thought excited the adventurous spirit inside of her. Maybe she was getting a bit ahead of herself. Perhaps traveling around in her own universe before heading out into a land she knew nothing about would be safer. If she felt like they were at loose ends here, they would go to his world. Yes, that was the plan and she was sticking to it.
Neptune finally arrived back in her room and noticed the man in white staring out the window as if he had saw the most wonderful thing ever in his entire existence. "Cashy! I'm back!" She called out to him, waving her right hand in the air with a big smile on her face. Casshern's eyes moved away from the window and over to the young girl at the doorway. "Neptune…" he said in his usual soft voice as the girl walked over to him, placing her hands on her hips, keeping the same exact smile on her face. "Well, Histy said she can't help you!" she blurted out, still maintaining her happy demeanor in the hopes that the bad news wouldn't upset him.
Casshern fell into a state of pure disappointment as he looked down at the floor, closing his eyes and trying he digested what she had just told him. So not even Neptune could help him get his memory back. The excitement he had initially felt began to melt away into a sea of depression. "And here I thought I was one step closer to finding out more about myself…" he said, opening his eyes and looking down at his hands.
Neptune pouted and walked over to him, placing her hands over his and smiling once more. "Don't be so gloom and doom, Cashy! You gotta look over the rainbow, way up high! Just because Histy can't help you doesn't mean it's game over!" She said in an attempt to boost his spirits in the best way she could. "I guess…" he mumbled more to himself than to her causing Neptune to shake her head in defiance at his doubt. "No! No guessing! This is the title screen and we're clicking New Game! This is only the beginning! I'm not givin' up on my buddy! I'll help you get your memory back! I totally promise, Cashy!"
Casshern looked over at her in slight shock at her declaration. Why was she so willing to help a complete stranger, and even call them her friend? She was unlike any person he had ever encountered before. He couldn't bring himself to believe her words were any less than true. She honestly seemed like she genuinely wanted to help him. Thinking about this, a small smile appeared on his face. "Thank you….Neptune…." Neptune's eyes sparkled in awe the moment she saw his smile. "awwww! You're so adorable, Cashy!" she squealed and randomly started to hug him.
"Ah…Neptune?" he said, looking down at the girl who had now had her arms firmly wrapped around him as she jumped up and down slightly. "You've been all emo and depressed looking ever since we first met and now you're smiling 'n stuff!" She exclaimed cheerfully, nuzzling up against his chest as he continued to look down at her with a very bewildered expression.
Neptune pulled away after a few seconds and then threw her right first into the air with her opposite hand on her corresponding hip. "I have an idea. You need to chillax and stop thinkin' about all the negative stuff! Today we're gonna have fun!" the adolescent youngster declared exultantly. "…Fun?" he replied with a very questioning tone in his voice. Neptune nodded her head quickly and grabbed his hand, her lilac locks bouncing around as she ran straight out of the door. Like last time, Casshern simply allowed himself to be dragged along by the young girl as she proceeded on to wherever she had intended for them to go.
"We're here!" Neptune bellowed as she released the male's hand and twirled around on the tiptoes of left foot. Her dress of course, rose up only slightly as she spun, before she quickly stopped and faced him with a wide grin on her face. The man in the white suit looked around, examining their new location. There were people and smiling faces as far as the eye could see, along with strange contraptions set up everywhere. "There are so many people here… where are we?"
Neptune placed her arms behind her back, balancing on one foot as she turned around. "This is an amuuuuusement park!" she answered, placing her foot back on the ground and walking forward. The male followed behind, trying his best to keep up and not lose sight of her as his eyes continue to glide around the scenery in absolute wonderment. "An amusement park…"he said to himself. Neptune had eventually made her way to a nearby roller-coaster and pointed at the huge metallic structure that ascended high into the sky. "We're getting on this!"
Casshern looked up at the ride, noticing the people who were already currently occupying it were screaming as if they were afraid for there lives. This made him worry as his attention averted back to the child in front of him. "Do you think this is safe? These people don't look like they're having very much… fun." He spoke with concern clearly visible in his tone.
"Yup! It's totally safe! They're screaming because they feel the ADRENALINE PUMPING THROUGH THEIR VEINS " She shouted, pumping her fists in the air repeatedly as the ride came to a stop to allow the passengers off and more on. "Come on, Cashy!" she immediately took hold of his hand and began to skip ahead of the line, completely ignoring all their complaints as she took a seat in one of the carts. Casshern hesitantly sat next to her, trying to erase all concerns from his conscious as the safety belts wrapped themselves around the pair automatically. This startled him and caused him to jump slightly.
"Haha~ don't worry, Cashy! Those are just the seat-belts that make sure you don't fall off mid-air and DIE~" She explained to him, her face still bright and cheerful as if she wasn't at all afraid of what was about to come next. Casshern nodded his head and resumed trying to relax himself as the ride began its slow, steady, take off up to the top.
All he could hear around was whispering and on the side of him he could hear Neptune singing the Jaws theme to add suspense as they traveled up higher and higher. In due time, they had finally reached the top, sitting there in complete silence. "One….two…." Neptune had begun the count down as the cart began to tip forward before finally ascending downwards at an alarming speed. "THREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! AHHHHHHHHHHH!" She screamed as if she terrified for her very life while her expression was the exact opposite, Casshern didn't react at all, he simply looked around at all the screaming people, bewildered by what he saw. They sounded as if they were afraid but their faces were so joyful. He could not fathom what was going on at the current moment and simply sat there, confused during the entire ride. Was this what she meant by 'Adrenaline?' Humans were so difficult to understand.
Once the ride had finally reached its stop, the passengers had all gotten off, cheerfully talking about there ride as Neptune swayed from side to side like a drunken sailor as she walked away from the attraction. "That was aweeeesome! Wasn't it, Cashy?" she asked him, looking over at the brunette walking beside her. "I…didn't quite understand what happened." He said as Neptune made her way in front of him and tilted her head to the side. "Whaddya mean? You didn't have fun?" she asked, slightly disappointed. "Just…never take me back on something like that ever again." He requested.
Neptune shrugged her shoulders and sighed softly at his request. "Alrighty~! I guess roller-coaster's aren't for everybody. Oh well! Let's go get some food!" she shouted and began making her way towards the concession stands. "But…I don't eat." Casshern suddenly said which made her stop dead in her tracks and walk backwards over to him. "What?" she asked, trying to see if she heard that right the first time around "I'm robotic, I don't need food." He explained to her which made her mouth drop in shock. "YOU'RE SOME KINDA ROBOT?! I would have NEVER guessed! You're so human like You don't go around doing all that beep boop-boop bop beep beep processing processing does not compute STUFF!" said the girl as she preformed some outrageous robot dance with her last sentence.
"…" Casshern had no idea how to reply to her comment and so decided to respond with a simple nod of the head. As usual, he failed to understand anything she had just said and merely stared down at her with his usual blank expression. "Wowzers! My friend is some kinda Robot, Android, Cyborg thing!" Neptune seemed really happy about the news, jumping around as if she had just won the lottery. "Forget the food then! I wasn't all that hungry anyway! Let's go ride the looooooove boat, Cashy!" abruptly changing the topic of the conversation to something else in a matter of seconds.
"Love…boat?" Casshern said with a questioning tone, tilting his head slightly as he awaited further explanation from her. "It's the boat you go on when you're in looooove with someone. You take your sweetheart by the hand and get on the boat, get all nice 'n snuggly wuggly, then you mooooove in for the kiss. "She explained, hugging herself with her eyes closed as she spun around one good time and removed her arms from around her body with a small giggle.
"A boat you go on when you're in love? Hm… so…do you feel that way about me? Is that why you're taking me on it?" he asked her. His knowledge of human emotions was limited and he found them rather difficult to understand. He didn't quite fathom the meaning of the complex emotion known as 'love'. "Nope! We're goin' on to make fun of people! I wanna see some rejections ugly people or whatever."
Casshern nodded his head, believing to understand what she meant….somewhat. "So you don't love me, I understand. So should we really be getting on a boat that requires you to have a certain emotion for another person to ride?" Neptune shook her head wildly. "No, no, no, no, no! I do love you, Cashy!"
The man in white who had thought he had reached an understanding had quickly become confused yet again. "But…you just said you didn't…." Neptune rubbed the back of her head and released a soft sigh. "Oh yeah. You're a robot, android, cyborg, thingy. Let me explain! There are like different levels of love 'n stuff. You got the family love that you feel for relatives or whatever. Then you got the friend love. That's what we have! But the kinda love I'm talkin' about for the boat is the lovey dovey wovey guchi guchi goo kinda love! Understand?" She gave him a bright smile after her ridiculous, uninformative, explanation on the various types of love you can feel for a person.
"I have no idea what she just said…." Casshern thought as he nodded his head as if he had actually understood what she had just said in contrast to his thoughts. "I think… I understand." He lied. "Good! Now, onto the Boat of wuuuuuvvv!" she exclaimed, still exerting rays of happiness as she skipped her way to the guy running the attraction. "Hiya! We wanna get on the loooooove boat!"
The man looked at her, a girl no older than thirteen and then at Casshern, a male possibly in his early twenties. "I apologize, but no." he refused which of course made Neptune angry. "Whaddya mean NO?! I order you to let me on!" she demanded, stomping her foot down and looking at him with an annoyed face. "I…just can't. I'm sorry."
Casshern decided to also try to assist Neptune in her endeavors. "Please, let us on." He said in his gentle, nonthreatening voice, but the man continued to refuse even him. "It just…wouldn't look right. I'm sorry. I really am." He continued to repeat over and over again. Neptune had finally given up trying to reason with him and sighed loudly. "So you're saying you don't want Cashy to look like pedophilistic sexual predator because I look like a kid. I totally get'cha~" she finally said, placing her both of her hands on her hips and looking over to the side.
"I'm glad you finally under-"before the man could even finish his sentence he was interrupted by the lilac haired girl saying "Then it looks like I'll just have to make a change!" A cylindrical pillar of white light surrounded Neptune suddenly which of course made Casshern's eyes widen in shock. "N-Neptune…?" he said in an almost whisper right before the pillar of light vanished revealing an entirely new figure in Neptune's place.
Casshern's eyes remained the same as he now saw a WOMAN in front of him, any trace of a little girl now gone. She wore a skintight black and purple bodysuit that hugged every crevice her body, accentuating her curves perfectly. Her hair was similar to Neptune's but was much longer and a light purple instead of lilac, placed in two twintails. Casshern searched desperately for the little girl he once knew as Neptune but could not find her anywhere within this new figure before him. "I believe I am now physically acceptable to be seen with him on this ride, am I not?" she said, smirking almost at her own statement. "Humana-Humana-Humana…." The man operating the attraction seemed to be at a loss for words at Neptune's transformation and started to nosebleed.
The woman turned over to Casshern and smiled endearingly at him as if nothing had happened at all. "Casshern, I believe it is….." she saw his expression and blinked " ….Casshern?" Neptune couldn't help but notice the man in white backing away from her in what seemed to be fear. She inched her way closer and closer to him as he moved further and further away. "Casshern, there is no need to be afraid. It's me, Neptune." She tried to assure him as he shook his head in disbelief of her words.
"Should? I refer to you by nickname? Um…Caaaashy?" she said, trying to mimic the same childish tone she normally had in her human form, gently taking his hand and staring deeply into his green irises with her now electric blue eyes. "I probably should have told you this initially. Erm…how can I explain? I'm the goddess who rules over this nation. I have two forms, human and goddess. This… is my goddess form. Please, I assure you, I am the same person."
Casshern stared back into her eyes, somehow seeing that she was in fact the same little girl as before only older in body and actually capable of making literal sense. He slowly nodded his head in acceptance of her truly being Neptune, albeit still somewhat shaken up at her sudden change in appearance. "Good, now let's board the boat shall we?" she continued to hold his hand, guiding him over to the boat and sitting down with him.
The boat took off a few seconds after, leading them into a dimly lit tunnel. Casshern simply stared down at his hands which of course caught the newly transformed Neptune's attention. "Is something the matter? You know you can tell me anything. I'll listen~" said the purple haired woman in a failed attempt to lighten up the highly awkward atmosphere. Casshern shook his head and turned his head in the opposite direction. "Your appearance is just…a bit…unsettling…" he managed to say.
Neptune blinked in the same innocence as her human form and tilted her head, somewhat confused by what he meant. "What do you mean by 'unsettling', Casshern?" she asked curiously in the hopes of receiving a more elaborated answer. "Just…forget it…" he said in a slight whisper. Neptune, not wanting to press the matter further, decided to drop the topic entirely and move onto something else. Her attention turned to the boat in front of her where she saw two people cuddling up to each other.
Normally this would have been cute if it wasn't for one thing that just made it all fall apart. "Is her head triangular or that just her hair?" she questioned out loud. Casshern remained quiet which made her sigh. "We came on this attraction to make fun of people and your not doing anything at all… are you sure you're okay?" she asked him once more only to get a mere head nod back. "Okay…" she said, not believing him but accepting his response as the boat finally reached the end.
Neptune got out first, then Casshern who continued to look away from her. The awkwardness was starting to affect her mood greatly. "Shall we head home? I think we've had enough fun for the day." She suggested, giving a warm smile to him. She knew the sudden change in his behavior was due to her transformation, she decided to stay in her goddess form for an extended time so that he could grow to be comfortable with her both ways.
In the meantime, she was going to treat him exactly the same as always so that he would soon come to the realization that she wasn't that much different from her humans self. The blue eyed goddess, gently grabbed his hand and started make her way towards the amusement park's exit so that they could return back to Basilicom.
By the time they had arrived back to her room in the Basilicom, nightfall had already reached the capital city. Neptune released a small yawn, looking over at her male friend with a smile. "Let's go to bed, it's rather late. Luckily, Nepgear is spending the week at her friends place so she won't question why you're here." She said, switching her Chest processor to something more suitable for sleeping. She made her way over to the bottom bunk and rested on the wall side.
Casshern stared at her, uncertain of what to do. "You don't know how to sleep?" she asked him, sensing that he was absolutely clueless on the matter. "Not…really…" he responded, looking down at the floor beneath his feet. "Hehe… okay. I'll teach you. Just copy what I'm doing right now and lay next to me." She patted the empty space large enough for one extra person that was next to her. Casshern nodded his head in understanding and walked over to the bed, resting his body down in the same manner as her in the spot she had indicated. "Good…now close your eyes…and…enter…hm…standby mode~" she said.
The cybernetic man slowly closed his eyes and became entirely motionless afterwards. He had mimicked a sleeping person perfectly. The deity turned off the lights in the bedroom and turned over in the opposite direction. "Goodnight….Casshern….." were her final words before she drifted off into a deep, peaceful sleep.