A/N: This is the end of the four part 'Lowee' update. If you wound up here first, please go back to Ch. 14 to start reading.
Chapter 17 - Coincidence
Day 28
Lowee - forest
Having received a request from the Basilicom, the party was waiting for the person to meet them for specifics. Neptune had transformed as they waited because, in her own words, "People will take me seriously if I went into Adult Mode."
However, it didn't seem to be necessary as the person who arrived was no other than Financier. She looked at everyone, though her eyes were on Neptune for a bit longer, before she greeted them.
"Hello. I'm here to represent the Basilicom and explain your bounty job." Again, Financier's eyes went to Neptune before she added, "…Not the usual four today, huh? Something's different…who's missing?"
Soren couldn't help but snort, making IF elbow him in the gut as Neptune assured, "…It's in your head. Compa, Iffy, Ren, and me. Everything's the same."
"…Are you the new one?" Financier then clapped her fist into her hand. "That's right! Little Neptune is missing. Did she sleep in?"
Soren gave another snort, prompting IF to elbow him harder as Financier went on, "Is she okay? Or did she get sick? Did she get knocked out of the party rotation? I get it. Monster fighting is serious. You shouldn't keep the weak links on your front line."
An amused look appeared on Soren's face, but he kept his mouth shut, seeing as IF was watching him. Meanwhile, Compa tried to clear the misunderstanding. "N-No! This is Nep-Nep. It's kind of a long story, but she's transformed into her more, developed self, so to speak."
"We call it Adult Mode these days." Soren added.
"Uh…okay?" Financier looked boggled at the information as she stared at Neptune.
"Don't worry about it." Neptune told her, "Can you hurry and explain the job? People are getting closer to facing danger as we speak."
"Ah, yes! Ahem, the forest is infested with monsters. We'd like you to go clear them out. Some raid the nearby residential districts in search of food. It's starting to trouble the civilians."
"Sounds like a bunch of ill-mannered monkeys. I bet their hunger doesn't even compare to the damage they caused…" IF mused.
"Yes, it's more convenient to say, 'What haven't they destroyed?' lately. I'll be at the local Basilicom so you can report your success. Oh, and be careful. There's supposed to be a Troll living in the forest too, and it's pretty aggressive."
When Financier left, Neptune turned to the others and said, "Well, shall we?"
The four fought through the forest, using Compa's bell to lure monsters to them when they couldn't find any. Eventually, they combed through the entire forest, but they didn't run into the Troll that Financier talked about.
"Weird, you think the Troll got scared and ran from our awesomeness?" Neptune asked.
Suddenly, there was a crash and the rumoured Troll showed up, swinging it's club and smashing a few trees.
"From the looks of it, no." Soren deployed Yukihira seeing how large the Troll was. "And it doesn't look happy to see us!"
One beat down later, the Troll fell over dead. Everyone couldn't believe how aggressive it was. Soren took one look at his shield energy meter and was shocked that it was down to 224 from 600. Sure he was the one that was thrashed around the most out of all of them, but that was just shocking.
"Hey Ren, you alright? You took most of the hits for us, and some of them looked like they really hurt." IF looked at Soren in concern.
"I-I'm fine. The IS has an energy shield, so I wasn't hurt too much."
"Hmm, that IS thingy really is useful. I wonder where I can get one." Neptune mused before she looked up suddenly. "…She's coming. I feel it. This aura is similar to my own…!"
"What are you talking about Nep-Nep?"
At that moment, Blanc appeared in front of them, dropping down from the top of a tree. "…What a coincidence. We meet again. You'll not escape from me this time."
"How rude! It's not a coincidence. You've been stalking Nep-Nep this whole time!"
"…So? It's a figure of speech. Does it really matter?"
"It sounded more like sarcasm to me though." Soren said.
Blanc stared at Soren with a frown due to Yukihira, but she turned back to Neptune while drawing her axe and Processor Units. "I wasn't fully prepared last time…but it'll be different now. I'm not letting you go, Neptune."
"Great, first an angry Troll, now a vengeful loli."
Neptune was about to say something, but Blanc already charged at her, axe swinging. The others got into the fray as Blanc shouted, "Bring it on bitches!"
"Oh, you did not just call me that!" Soren shouted, swinging Yukihira.
The battle went off for a while, due to the party being a bit exhausted from the Troll. Soren took a number of direct hits to the chest, the first shocking Blanc, before realizing that the IS protected him. The others got away with minor scrapes and bruises, while Blanc looked really roughed up in defeat when Neptune slammed her against a tree.
"…The hell?-! This is the second… How could I lose?" Blanc looked at everyone as she fell back. "…There'll always be next time."
At that moment, Neptune turned back to normal as IF said, "She's persistent. Despite looking fragile, she's pretty tough. She is leaving, right Soren?"
"Pretty much, radar's saying that she's retreating very fast." He then took another look at the energy shield meter. "Wow, 23? I guess those axe strikes to the chest didn't do me any favors."
"That was pretty dangerous though Soren! You shouldn't do such things, even if you have fancy tech armor!" Compa scolded.
"Ugh, sorry about that Compa. The loli caught me off guard more times than I could like, even with Yukihira's help." Soren dematerialized Yukihira as he rubbed his chest with a bit of a wince.
"Still, we sent her packing and got the job done. C'mon, let's head back to Financier and tell her the good news." IF said, and the party followed her out of the forest, leaving behind a battered battlefield.
Day 29
Lowee - Bruagga Tower
"So, the target this time is a Gold Dragon holed up in this tower?"
"Yeah. Apparently it's taken a liking to the second floor of this place, but we might have to climb higher."
The party was in the tower looking for another bounty target that a townsperson requested. From what they heard, a Gold Dragon that resided in the tower was causing havoc on a nearby town and the people had enough of it.
"Is it just me…or are there even more monsters than last time?" Neptune asked suddenly as she slashed a lizard-looking monster in half.
"There's something going on here. Maybe we'll find something else if we keep going." Soren replied, putting down another monster.
"…You think someone's sprayin' monster pheromones all over the place?"
"There's no such thing that exists. It's probably something else."
On the second floor, the party fought through more monsters when they came across a chamber and a voice suddenly cried out, "Wh-Who's there?-! Coming all this way… Are you the Overlord's messenger? You've finally come to kill me!"
"What the-?-! Who's there?-!" IF shouted, and a heretic-looking perosn came out from behind a pillar, looking hysterical.
"No, no, no, no! We're just here to beat up some monsters." Neptune took a closer look at the person and guessed, "Are you…um…a…heretic?"
"Get away! I've done everything I was told to!" That was when the heretic took one look at the party and realized it wasn't who he was expecting. "…Huh? Oh, you're not? Nevermind."
The heretic took one look at Neptune and looked a bit indignant. "You're just a chubby little kid. How'd you find out about this place? How'd you even get here?-!"
"Uh, this tower's on a map, and we walked here from town?" Soren replied with a hint of sarcasm.
"Soren, behave." Compa told him before turning to the heretic. "We got here by defeating monsters, of course! How about you? Are you trapped?"
"Defeating monsters…? How dare you! You've wasted all my efforts! I better prepare myself…" The heretic started to become hysterical again as he looked at them with narrowed eyes. "You killed the beasts. The Overlord's messenger will arrive in no time to deliver punishment to us all!"
"Because we fought monsters? Is it bad to do that sort of thing here?"
"Ain't no way, man! Monsters are baddies. They attack people and break stuff for no reason!" Neptune replied in an instant.
"Well, it's more like they attack and break things on instinct. They're not that different from animals, just more violent." Soren added.
"So what? That's a great alternative to destroying the world." The heretic snapped, "No time to waste. I gotta get outta here… Everything's going to be over once the messenger learns about this…!"
As the heretic started to gather things from around the chamber, Neptune tried shouting to get his attention. "Stooooop! Let us take care of that messenger!"
"…Pass. Don't involve me in your sins, or I'll get killed too. Please, do not follow me."
"Figures we'd run into another lunatic. C'mon everyone, we still have that bounty to look for." Soren said.
Everyone seemed to agree on that when Neptune noticed something by her feet and picked it up. "…Whatcha think this is? A disc? We get this sorta thing from treasure chests, but this one's kinda different."
Compa, IF, and Soren looked at the disc in Neptune's hand. It did look like any other disc, but it had a black sheen to it, and it seemed to give off a bad feeling. Soren stared at it and muttered, "That thing looks familiar…"
The heretic's eyes widened and he shouted, "There are more…? Give that to me! P-Put it down!"
When the heretic tried to take the disc from Neptune, she dropped it on the ground, and stepped on it when she stumbled. "Whoopsie-daisy. I stepped on it. I'm sorry, but it's totally your fault for pushing me."
All of a sudden, the disc started emitting black smoke and something started to form from it, as IF pointed out, "Oh, look, something's coming out of it. You broke the disc and it malfunctioned. But…wait, isn't…that…?"
"The same monsters we fight all the time!" Compa finished.
"Aw man, it doesn't look very happy to see us!" Soren shouted as he drew Yukihira. The monster, a Light Dragon, started growling before it spat a ball of light towards IF, who quickly dodged it before drawing her Qatars.
Compa and Neptune drew their weapons too as the latter transformed. "Time to take out the trash!"
After the Light Dragon was taken care of, the party looked around for the heretic, but he was nowhere in sight. Compa huffed and said, "We were occupied with fighting the monster and the heretic ran away."
"He wanted nothing to do with us. It's pointless to after him. We're only here to fight monsters anyway." IF reminded her.
"Let's just hope that didn't make our target fly off." Soren looked around at the trashed chamber due to the dragon's breath attacks. "That Light Dragon made quite the racket…"
"I seriously doubt it, but it looks like we'll have to go up another floor."
"Then let's get moving! If we find that heretic again, we'll just whack him a new one!" Neptune cried out.
The others just looked at each other before shrugging as they followed Neptune towards the stairs leading to the next floor.
Lowee - café
"Ahh, a nice cup of hot cocoa on a cold day like this. How relaxing." Neptune sighed as she took a sip of her hot chocolate.
The party was relaxing at a café after their bounty job was completed. Everyone was sitting at a table while drinking their hot drinks. Neptune and Compa had hot chocolate, IF had coffee, and Soren had a café latte.
"You're absolutely right Nep-Nep. Nice and warm, so comfortable."
"Jeez, you two are so easygoing. It's hard to believe you two can fight monsters." IF commented as she took a sip.
"Even after being with them for the past few weeks If? Then again, they don't look like they can fight, but that can be quite the weapon."
"What do you mean by that, Soren?"
"Well Compa, if someone were to approach you, they probably wouldn't expect you to stab them with a syringe from hell."
"Hey, I wouldn't do that! It's against the nurse's code to strike a civilian unless it's self-defense."
"Still, that syringe will make a lot of kiddies scared of 'Schary Nurse Compa'. Hahaha…"
"Ugh, Soren you meanie!"
Neptune and IF laughed too when one of the townspeople came in, and the party recognized him as the guy who gave them the bounty job. From the panting he was doing, he looked like he ran a marathon, or from terror from a monster. When he spotted the party, he quickly made their way to them.
"Whew, thank goodness I found you! Please, help!"
"What happened?" IF asked.
"There's a giant slime monster at the edge of town! The mages managed to keep the slime out, but it's so aggressive against their barriers that it won't be long before they're exhausted. Please, lure the monster out of town!"
"We'll do whatever we can, right everyone?" Neptune stood up as looked at the others.
Compa, IF, and Soren stood up too as they nodded, when Soren said, "One more thing."
Soren then picked up his café latte and chugged the whole thing, despite it being a bit hot. The girls looked at each other before they too chugged their drinks, though Neptune and Compa winced at the hotness.
"Alright, let's get moving." IF led the party out of the café, leaving the townsperson praying that they'll get the job done.
Lowee - frozen field
The four eventually found the slime on a frozen field, where a bunch of mages were keeping it boxed in with barriers, though the slime kept on thrashing against them. Neptune in her HDD form went up to one of them and said, "We're here to deal with the monster."
"Whew, thank the goddess you're here. We're running low on energy keeping the barriers up, and we need to head back to town to protect it."
"Don't worry, we'll take care of the monster." Neptune said with confidence, something that made the mage feel better.
"Alright then. Okay boys, on my mark, drop the barriers and teleport out back to town. Okay…mark!"
The barriers vanished, and the mages followed a second later. Soren took the time to look at it and recognized that familiar shade of red. "That color looks familiar…"
That's when the Rabid Slime turned to face them and instantly went on the attack. The four ran out of the way of it's charge as IF noted, "Looks like it already absorbed a few things from what I can tell."
Sure enough, there were a number of objects inside the slime. Thankfully, there wasn't anything resembling human body parts in it as the Rabid Slime went for another attack. When everyone got out of the way, Neptune flew over and tried to attack it, but her blade just bounced off the slime. "What the-?-!"
"Great, a slime that's impervious to physical attacks. At least you can kick Dogoos around like there's no tomorrow." Soren muttered.
"Then how do we attack it?" Compa asked as she kept firing shot after shot at the Rabid Slime, which didn't do much damage.
Soren took out his pistol and fired off a few shots, which only got absorbed into the slime's skin. "I don't know. We'll just have to keep attacking until it breaks, or something."
Both Soren and IF went for melee strikes, but they got bounced off and hit the snow in a heap. Neptune also went for it and got bounced off too. She managed to reorient herself quickly as she got angry. "Why you, go down already!"
That's when Neptune's sword started emitting a purple aura before she flew forward, faster than the others have seen her move. Slash after slash, Neptune kept attacking until she slammed the slime into the air with her sword.
"You think that's it? There's more!"
Neptune herself started glowing purple before she launched after the slime, slamming her blade into it before plummeting the slime back into the ground. A large purple cross erupted on impact, causing everyone to cover their eyes from the flash. When it disappeared, all that was left was a cross shaped trench with a red splatter in the middle of it. Neptune herself looked pleased as she gave her sword a swipe, bits of red jelly flying off her blade. However, that pleased look was short lived when the Rabid Slime started reforming.
"Aw, come on! Just stay dead already!"
"Uuuh, waaarrrghh!"
That battle scream came from the last person anyone was expecting. Compa charged forward, completely out of character and stabbed the still forming slime with her syringe, then injected whatever fluid was in it into the slime.
The Rabid Slime started turning a shade of purple before it died and deformed, leaving behind what it absorbed as it dissolved.
"…Wow Compa, I didn't think you'd do that." Neptune commented.
"I don't think any of us was expecting that. But good job Compa." IF patted her on the shoulder.
Compa looked a bit out of it before she looked at her syringe. "Wh-What did I just do?"
"You went berserk from the looks of it." Soren said as he went through the things the slime absorbed. "Not much, a few credit cards with credits in them, a bottle, a 5pb t-shirt…hello, what do we have here?"
Soren picked up what looked like part of a white crystal, and Neptune's eyes zoomed in on it. "Isn't that…?"
"Ah, it's a Jewel Core Fragment! Is that what made the slime go crazy?" Compa shouted.
"From past experience, most likely. Still, it looks like this little gathering quest just got one step closer to completion." Soren said as he pocketed the Fragment.
"Let's gather this stuff up. Spoils of war and all that." IF told them, and as they went through what was left behind, the others didn't notice IF stash away the 5pb t-shirt.
Lowee - inn
"Today was exhausting. I don't wanna move anymore." Neptune sighed as she laid down on her bed.
"…So, what do you want to do?" Compa asked.
"Go see if there's anything on Lady White Heart's blog. Maybe she wrote something interesting."
Compa went over to the computer and turned it on. When she accessed the net, she went straight for Blanc's blog, and sure enough, there was a new entry labelled, 'Planet PR [Culture]' on it. A blink from Compa was all she did before clicking on the entry, clicking the play button.
"Hi. Let's discuss Lowee again."
"Oooh, I wonder what we'll learn today?"
"Nep-Nep?"
"Like I said, there's a lot of snow. I'm sick of it."
"I'm sick of it too. It's too cold."
"But I guess some good stuff comes with having snow."
"That's true. Iffy was so mad when Ren put some snow down her back as a joke."
"First, snow festivals. We make ice statues and put them everywhere. It sounds childish, but it's fun."
"That would be something I'd like to see."
"Second, cuddling with cats in a warm room all day. So cute."
"Cute…makes me want to do that now, but I'm too tired."
"Third…is a secret. Come visit if you're curious. That's it."
"Aw, really? We've been here for a while and…"
Compa waited for Neptune to finish, and about after a minute of silence, Compa asked, "Nep-Nep?"
When she turned to look, she saw that Neptune had fallen asleep on top of the bed. Compa gave a sigh as she went over and tucked her in, whispering, "Oh, Nep-Nep can be such a kid at times…"
Note: And this is then end of the so-called Lowee update. For those who played Hyperdimension Neptunia, you probably noticed I glossed over most of the boss fights. I admit that fight scenes aren't my strong suit, and I'd rather not bore everyone about boss fights that you can experience for yourself by playing the game. Also, about saying that I'll have this fic finished by the end of Feburary (when HNMk2 comes out), I might be over my head with that one. But I won't let that stop me from pushing forward, and I'd like to thank everyone who has read/reviewed/favored/alerted this story so far.
Oh, and it might be a bit early, but this story will definitely have a sequel, titled Hyperdimensional Infinite Neptunia Mk2, which won't be an AU like Hyperdimension Neptunia Mk2 seems to be (from what I heard, it's not a direct sequel). That won't come out until a video walkthrough comes out on you tube or something, or I manage to get a copy of the game. There will also be an in between fic called Neptunia Stratos: Hyperdimension Transfer, but that's all I'll say for now, to prevent spoilers.
P.S. Jun Watarase can totally pass as Nepgear's twin. Wonder what Compa's nickname for Nepgear would be in Mk2? Gear-Gear, perhaps?