Morning had yet to reach the capital city of Planeptune and yet the excitable goddess with the lilac hair and her brunette cyborg friend were silently sneaking out of the Basilicom. "Man, I'm so lucky I went to bed early. It's like 5AM." The girl whispered as the swiftly made their way to exit of the building undetected.
Casshern followed behind her, being very quiet. "Why are we sneaking out of your own home?" he asked, still not understanding the situation completely as they swiftly made their way out without any problems. Neptune scratched her cheek using her left index finger and sighed. "'cause if Histy knew I was leavin' without her permission, she would force me to stay and make me work." She explained, walking towards the sidewalk.
"I see…" the cybernetic male said as he followed behind her, looking around and seeing the number of people who were usually on the streets during the day had significantly decreased over the last few hours. "Where is everyone?" he said to himself which Neptune heard, turning around and walking backwards. "Mostly everyone is asleep or just waking up to get ready for work or school or whatever." She answered, smiling cheerfully as she turned back around.
"I suppose that makes sense…" He said. It wasn't long until they had reached the building where the scientists had worked on the transporter that had sent Neptune to Casshern's world in the first place. "Where are we?" the brunette asked, looking at the new building before him. "This is where the thingy is that sent me to your world." She explained, placing her eye near the retina scan which caused the door to open. "Tada!" she said before waltzing into the empty building,
The male followed behind her, looking around at facility as he became fascinated with the various amount of technology everywhere. He shook his head, staring straight ahead so he didn't run the risk of losing sight of Neptune a second time like at the concert.
Eventually, the two reached the exact room that Neptune had found the transporter in. The violet eyed girl tiptoed in and looked around to make sure it was safe before signaling Casshern to follow her. Casshern did exactly as he was told to do as Neptune made her way over to the transporter only to be taken off guard by a familiar voice. "Lady Purple Heart." the voice said, causing both Neptune and Casshern to look over at the source.
In the southern corner of the room stood a girl no older than six with short brown hair, a bunny hat, and large white gloves. "Lady Purple Heart, I come with gift for journey." She said, shuffling her way over to the two of them. "Woah! How'd you get in here, Gust?" exclaimed the lilac haired girl, large animated question marks forming over her head.
"No time for irrelevant things. Gust come to bring gift for journey." The child said again, reaching into the pockets on her apron and pulling out a small capsule and handing it to her. Neptune gladly accepted the unusual gift and stared at it. "What is it? Neptune?" Casshern asked her, also looking at the strange capsule. "I dunno. What didja juts give me?" Neptune asked her young friend.
"It Gust's latest invention. Portable Housing Capsule Unit or PHCU for short. I give you prototype." She explained, smiling brightly. "Daaawww that's so thoughtful of you!" said Neptune, smiling super happily as well. "So how does this thingy work?" She asked.
"Throw capsule onto ground to make house appear. Deactivation button is placed on upper right hand corner of house." Gust explained with her usual broken English that was still cute in a way. Neptune nodded her head, taking in the new information and committing it to memory as she placed the capsule in her N-Gear's inventory.
"I wish you best of luck on adventure, Lady Purple Heart and strange man." Gust said as Casshern stared at the girl. Strange man? Was she referring to him? He could only assume she was since he was the only male in the room. "Ah…thank you…" he said, nodding his head as well. "Bye-Bye, Gust! Thanks for the thingy! I'll be sure to tell you how it works for me!" the goddess told her friend happily, waving at her as she stepped inside the transporter with Casshern following in behind her. She still wondered how she got in there but decided not to question it further.
Neptune initiated the transportation sequence the same as she did the first and took a deep breath. "Here we go, Cashy…"she said. Casshern closed his eyes, waiting for them to return back to the ruin planet. "Yes…." Was all he said as Gust waved them off before they suddenly vanished in a bright light.
Moments later they found themselves back in the area they had been in when they first met. Neptune looked around and clapped her hands together. "It totally worked! We're back!" she cheered jumping up in the air. "…" Casshern was silent as his eyes scanned around the desolated area around him, the guilt which he had suppressed quickly coming back.
Neptune noticed his face growing more and more melancholic leading to her quickly grabbing his hands and rocking them back and forth. "No, no, no, no, noooo! Don't start gettin' sad on me now! THINK ABOUT UNICORNS AND RAINBOWS!" She urged him nonsensically, trying to cheer him up before his depression got worse. "…." Casshern remained silent, staring down at the sand with his bangs over his eyes.
Neptune couldn't help but feel like Casshern only understood her when she had HDD Activated. If it was necessary she would transform herself for the sake of being able to support him better. The girl sighed and threw her hands in the air, slightly frustrated as she activated HDD [Hard Drive Divinity], surrounding her body in a white pillar of light. The light quickly vanished, revealing her cool, mature, and developed goddess form.
"Casshern…" she said soothingly, placing both oh her hands on his cheeks and lifting his head so that he would make eye contact with her. "I understand that you are in pain… but please listen to what I have to say…You mustn't allow these negative emotions to eat away at you. If you continue on this way, you'll never find what you're looking for. I'm not asking you to change overnight, but I at least want you to try to be a bit more optimistic about things. You were alone before… carrying these burdens alone. Now I'm here and I will willingly take some of the load off of your shoulders. We're officially a party now and that means that you and I share the same fate and same problems. No matter what happens from here on out, you are NOT alone. I will do everything in my power to help you through this, but you also need to help yourself….Casshern…" her tone was warm and sincere as she stared deeply into his eyes, her expression serious yet caring.
Casshern closed stared back into her eyes in silence for a moment before responding. "I…understand…" he said quietly, placing his hand over one of hers and closing his eyes with a softening expression appearing on his face. Neptune gently caressed his cheek, smiling in an almost loving way before she slowly pulled her hand away, highly pleased with her work. "Let's go now~" she said, turning her back to him and walking off towards the north, pulling her N-Gear out.
She opened the map up on the screen and began to watch the area around her be mapped out as she walked. "Where were you headed before we met?" she asked, looking over her shoulder at him. "No where in particular… I normally just walk around until I find somewhere or someone." He answered, walking up beside her and taking the lead. "Then I suppose we…" before she could finish her sentence she found herself being knocked to the side like a ragdoll and flying 30 feet away from her first position.
"Neptune?!" the cybernetic man called out to her as he noticed a black robot coming right at him after hitting Neptune. "CAAAAAASSSSHEEEEERN!" The robot screamed as he swung his metal claw at him. Casshern's mask and helmet appeared as he jumped up into the air and flipped forward, bringing his foot down towards the metal being with phenomenal force, tearing through it effortlessly before landing on his feet and punching it repeatedly until it was nothing but scrap..
Neptune slowly lifted up from the ground, rubbing the back of her head before looking ahead and seeing Casshern destroying the enemy who had hit her. "That was unexpected…" she said as Casshern rushed over to her and kneeled down. "Neptune! Are you okay?!" he said, looking her over to make sure she wasn't injured.
"Casshern, I'm fine." She assured the brunette as she stood up and dusted herself off and smiled. "Thank goodness…" said the brunette as he stood as well, feeling relieved that she was okay. He would never be able to forgive himself if anything happened to her. The purple haired CPU [Console Patron Unit] turned her attention to the annihilated machine and blinked. "You handled that within a matter of seconds...you're really powerful…" she complimented, placing her finger on her cheek.
"My power caused the ruin…" he said, his face now serious as he walked passed her. Neptune watched him walk ahead and sighed softly; following behind him as she made sure her no damage was done to her N-Gear. "I don't see why you brought that with you… it'll just fall victim to the ruin anyway…" Casshern said, looking back at her slightly before turning his head back forward. His demeanor had changed completely. At first he was sad but now he was serious all of a sudden. Neptune started to question which version of him she preferred the most at the moment.
"Stop being so negative. Nothing is going to happen to my N-Gear. If anything does then I'll be in huge trouble." She responded, going back to looking at the map. It wasn't long until the cyborg and the CPU had reached a path through the mountains. "A mountain path, huh…" she whispered to herself, looking around for any enemies.
"Stay close to close to me." The cyborg said to the CPU, maintaining the same level of seriousness. Neptune nodded her head and walked closely beside him as they proceeded further ahead. Silence filled the path as a gust of cold wind blew, making her shiver a bit. "You okay?" he asked, looking over at her for confirmation. "Yes, just a bit chilly. It's nothing serious." She assured him along with a nod.
Casshern nodded his head and they continued to make their way through. It seemed as though the path they were taking was fairly safe for they had yet to come into contact with any hostile forces. They walked for what seemed to be hours and Neptune couldn't help but to feel slightly fatigued due to the constant and uneventful walking. "Casshern, how much longer do you think we have until we make it off this path?" she asked, now walking behind him due to slowing down.
"I'm not sure…" he answered before stopping and looking back at her, noticing her exhausted condition. "Should we stop?" he asked, concerned for her wellbeing. Unlike her, he did not have to worry about things such as fatigue but he understood that while she was a goddess, she also had human traits. Casshern wouldn't force her to keep moving forward if he knew she wouldn't be able to handle it.
"No.. I can keep moving. Please, don't mind me." She said, smiling at him to add to the assurance of her being just fine. Reluctant at first, Casshern nodded his head and resumed walking forward. The tiresome walking continued for several more minutes until they both heard something break nearby.
Alert and ready to fight, Casshern's face mask and helmet appeared immediately. Neptune stood there quietly, waiting for anything to happen at any given moment. Without any form of warning, several large robots jumped down from above and landed on both sides of the path to close them in. "CAAAAASHE-" Neptune's samurai sword appear and in one swing she sliced the machine in two. Her processors appeared immediately after as she dashed after the others on her side, disappearing as she slashed in an X-formation and then reappearing behind them. The robots instantly fell apart after this attack and Neptune assumed a normal standing position. She placed her sword over her shoulder and looked at Casshern, seeing the other few of the group coming after him.
"Casshern, behind you." She said in a calm collected voice. Casshern jumped into the air over the robots with a back flip and quickly descended back down with a powerful punch which of course destroyed one of the robots completely upon impact. One of the machines attempted to land a blow on the cyborg from the side only to be greeted with a violent roundhouse kick to the face, completely ripping its head off which was followed by several relentless punches to the body to make sure it was destroyed.
The single robot that was left began to cower in fear and then began to run for its life, knowing good and well what would happen if he stayed. Casshern, of course, did not allow him to flee. The cyborg jumped in front of the machine and gave him a simple punch while standing normally. The robot was still for but a moment as if nothing had happened. Suddenly, the robot exploded all at once.
Neptune smirked, her sword and processors vanishing as she made her way over to the brunette. "I suppose powerful was an understatement…." She said almost playfully, folding her arms and looking at the new scrap heap they had formed. "I had no idea you could fight so well…" he stated, retracting his mask and helmet.
The purple haired woman placed her hands on her hips and looked away nonchalantly. "That was child's play. Wait until we get into a serious fight so I can show you my true fighting ability." Her more boastful side was showing now. In goddess form, Neptune could be considered rather overconfident and perhaps even arrogant. However, it was a fact that she always emerged victorious the most of the time so why wouldn't she think that way?
"I actually hope we don't get into any serious fights… I don't want anything happening to you even with your fighting ability." He said, turning his back to her and looking straight ahead. Neptune blinked and walked up closer behind him, holding her hands behind her back. "You worry too much, I'll be fine." She said, smiling as she took her place beside him and grabbed his hand. "Let's keep going, shall we?"
Casshern stared at the woman next to him and smiled softly, nodding and walking forward. Seeing his smile instantly made her happy on the inside, feeling as though she had accomplished something. Whenever he smiled she couldn't help but smile too. Maybe it was because it was rare to see him actually happy.
By mid-afternoon, the two of them had finally made it to another desolated wasteland filled with sand. Neptune was fast asleep on Casshern's back, her arms somewhat swinging from side to side over his shoulders. Her eyes slowly opened up, unbeknownst to Casshern as she slowly lifted up and looked down at him.
The cybernetic male looked back at her upon feeling her movement on his back. "So you're finally awake." he said, still walking forward. "How long was I asleep?" she asked, rubbing her eyes with a soft yawn. "Just a few hours." He answered. Neptune blinked her eyes a few times and tilted her head. "I'm sorry for having you carry me for so long. Please place me down." She requested, placing both of her hands on his shoulders as she supporter her by the thighs. "Are you sure?" he asked, not wanting to place her down if she wasn't completely capable of walking just yet.
"I'm sure." She assured the brunette with a small smile. Casshern placed her down as she had requested, being as careful as possible as her feet made contact with the ground once more. Neptune swayed slightly, nearly toppling over. The man in white quickly caught her, wrapping his arms around her waist to keep her supported.
"Neptune, are you sure you're okay? We've been traveling for a long time. Perhaps we should take a break." The cyborg suggested to the blue-eyed CPU. Neptune was silent for a moment before nodding her head in agreement and removing the PHCU from her N-Gear's inventory.
She remembered the exact process told to her by Gust and simply tossed it to the ground a few feet away from them. A huge cloud of smoke shot up from the capsule and completely enshrouded the area around them. Once it had faded away a medium-sized house was all that could be seen in front of them.
"Wow…it really works." She said to herself, amazed at how a six-year-old alchemist could invent something so impressive and practically impossible. It was moments like these that made her happy that she lived in such a diverse world of people. "Let's go~" she said to the green-eyed male, looking up at him and smiling.
"Yes, of course." Said the man in the white suit, picking up the woman in black bridal style before walking into the house. Upon walking inside he immediately found his way to the living room and placed her down on the couch. "Is this an acceptable place for you to rest?" he asked, not wanting her somewhere that she deemed uncomfortable.
"Yes, thank you." She responded, turning on her side so that she could still face him. "You should get some rest... I'll wait for you to wake up." He spoke in calm and somewhat nurturing voice as he looked down at her with a faint smile.
"Right….see you when I wake up…" she spoke in soft voice and slowly closed her eyes, curling up a bit and falling asleep almost instantly. "Neptune…" Casshern said to himself, still smiling as he spent the rest of the time watching the purple haired beauty sleep ever so peacefully.