Hello there, this is the new chapter. I've started writing this almost immediately after Death and Revival.

Alternate title: It's the Noire-teasing Chapter!

Episode Five: Noire's (Not-So) Bizarre Secret

Lastation Basilicom: Noire's Office

It was nighttime in Lastation as Noire entered her working space. She would be her usual self if she didn't skip and twirl to her specially placed mirror which is beside her desk. If Neptune saw her like this, she'd tease her to no end. If Yaguruma saw her, she wouldn't show her face to anyone for at least three days.

Good thing she was doing it at night, when everyone was asleep.

"Finally, I can begin!" she said to herself.

She then began to undress. Unbeknownst to her someone was watching, and it was not Neptune.

Planeptune Basilicom

"Whoa, close shave!"

Neptune was playing her games again, this time a fighting game. Her opponent was Kagami, who wasn't a pushover when it comes to fighting games. The round ended with Neptune as the victor.

"Barely made it!"

"Almost got her!" the loser exclaimed.

"I'm bored!" said the young resident in the bee suit, "Play with me, Neptuna, Kagamin!"

"How many times do I have to tell you, P-ko? My name's not 'Neptuna'. It's Neptune!"

"It's not 'Kagamin', but Kagami. Ka-ga-mi!"

"Neptuna, Kagamin!" she still called them that.

In an attempt to calm her down, Kagami said, "Okay okay, we'll play with you!"

"Kagami, we still have–"

"Neptune, if you refuse that console's the price!" he whispered rather loudly.

She thought about that. When it hit her, she internally screamed 'Oh no!' with her hands on her face. "Y-yeah, we'll play!"

"Yay!"

P-ko then tackled Neptune, that actually hurt, really bad. With that strength, she might become an American football player in the future... or a professional wrestler. She ran around the room with Kagami chasing her since the CPU was knocked out.

Meanwhile, IF, Compa, Histoire, and Tendou were sitting nearby.

"Those three get along like a house on fire," Compa said.

"She's just running rings around Kagami," IF stated. "Lady Histoire, have you still not found her guardians?"

"No," Histoire answered, "She's been here for three weeks now. Don't we have any leads at all?"

"No idea."

"Why did she recognize the three of us?" Tendou wondered.

"Maybe we should consider ourselves lucky that we even find out what her name was."

"Yes. It's a good thing her underwear had the name 'Peashy' on it."

Kagami finally caught Peashy and lifted her off the floor. However, the act backfired on him.

"P-Punch!"

He was hit by a powerful uppercut by the little girl which knocked him out cold.

Later that day, the Planeptune crew had a guest: the Leanbox CPU, Vert. The CPU decided to spend some quality time with Nepgear on the balcony.

"How's this, Nepgear-chan? Nice and soft, right?"

She was hugging the younger CPU on her breasts.

"Yes, Vert-san."

"You can call me Onee-chan if you like."

"But my sister is–" she hugged tighter, "Oh, forget it. I think I could get used to you being my sister!"

"Of course."

"I... see things have gotten crazy out here too," IF sweat-dropped.

"The Lily Rank's gone through the roof!" Compa followed.

"You can say that again," Kagami added.

The balcony elevator opened, and the supposed Planeptune power couple stepped out.

"Hey, Vert!" Neptune started, "What're you doing to my little sister!?"

"Onee-chan!" Nepgear responded, only to be embraced again on Vert's chest.

"What's the problem with getting a little closer to each other every now and then?" Vert rhetorically asked.

"More like every day! Nepgear's my little sister, you hear me?"

Her partner grabbed her hoodie, stopping any kind of sudden moves. "Not quite. She's also my little sister and I don't see a problem with this." 'If she was with Kazama, that would be a very different story.'

"See? Even Tendou-kun is on my side," she let go of the Planeptune CPU Candidate and looked at Neptune, "I actually came here to offer you an invitation."

"What, you want me too? Are you going for the sisters route, *gasp* or maybe the harem route with Tendou-kun? Nepu~!"

"That's not it. Blanc contacted you, didn't she?"

"She did?"

Lastation Basilicom

"Well, what do you want to talk about?"

The Lowee crew visited Lastation to discuss something important. The Candidates were playing with a long-eared bandicoot called Clatter. It had blue shorts, for some reason.

Back to topic, Noire asked what Blanc was up to. The Riders were on the sidelines listening.

"Simply put, we need to talk about network security," Blanc addressed.

"Oh, so you want to base yours off Lastation's unbreakable digital defenses?" she indirectly bragged.

"Uh..."

"But of course! I did spare no expense in hiring the best staff possible to create an impregnable firewall."

"Does it also protect the satellite system you put into operation recently?"

"Indeed. I could let you copy it, but it'll cost you."

Tsurugi then butted in, "There are traces of the satellite being hacked from a server in Lastation."

Pause, and then, "Excuse me!?"

"Your satellite's being hacked, Noire," Yaguruma repeated.

"Impossible! A security breach is about as likely as being randomly hit by someone falling from the sky."

"Not even diamonds are unbreakable."

As if on cue, someone was falling from the sky and crashed onto Noire. That someone was Neptune.

"Phew, that was lucky."

Yaguruma then followed with an amused grin, "You were saying?"

Inside the office, Noire–who had a few bruises–said, "How could you be careless enough to plummet from the sky and hit someone?"

"Sorry. P-ko started making a fuss when I was flying over here, and I ended up reverting by mistake."

"We have bikes that can fly," Kagami reminded, "But you let your sister carry her by herself."

"Sorry, Kagami-kun. Never thought of that," Nepgear apologized.

"Tendou gave you the plans and they were built by your hand. How did you forget about that?"

"Oh, yeah. I almost forgot," Neptune said, "Introduce yourself, P-ko."

Nepgear put Peashy down to introduce herself. "I'm P!"

"I never knew you had a child this old, Neptune," Blanc said nonchalantly.

"Yeah. She's the first one I gave birth to, so she's extra-specially-precious to me!" Neptune replied with her hands gesturing in front of her stomach, emphasizing the statement. Before she could continue, someone–whose mind already went south–interrupted.

"Y-you gave birth to a child!?" Noire loudly asked, her voice cracking, her face blushing.

'That escalated quickly,' Blanc thought.

"We CPUs can't have children! O-or can we...that's beside the point! Who's the father?"

"Noire, it's–"

"Don't tell me. It's Tendou-kun, isn't it?" she pointed an accusatory finger.

Now Neptune's face went red, "N-no, you got it all wrong! She's a lost child who we're taking care of at our Basilicom!"

"I figured as much," Blanc said.

"Then why didn't you tell me!?" Noire almost shouted. She then took a deep breath and went back to the problem at hand. "Let's go somewhere else."

The CPUs went down with the elevator, along with Tendou, Yaguruma, Tsurugi, and Daisuke. Despite the appearance, it could fit eight people. After they left Uni asked Nepgear for advice. So they went out to the balcony.

"Noire-san has been acting weird?"

"She's been locking herself in her office every night, doing something."

"Are you sure she's not just working?"

"She wouldn't lock the door if she was. Sometimes I even hear this weird laughter from inside. I'm kinda worried."

"So basically, you want to what Noire-san is doing there on her own?"

"That's what it boils down to, I guess."

"I've got just the thing for you. I just happened to bring this with me."

Nepgear pulled out a small camera.

"What is it?"

"It's an inconspicuous gadget that wirelessly transmits images!"

"A hidden camera, you mean."

"This tiny little thing can compress and transmit HD video in real time! Isn't it awesome? I've been wanting to set it up some time and see how it works!"

Data Room

"Bwahaha!"

Neptune was laughing her butt off. A little disturbed, Noire wondered why she was laughing so hard.

"What's so funny?"

"It's just, you were bragging about it every chance you got! You were like, 'Lastation's security is Sekai Ichi!' and now you've got a security breach?" she went on with her laughter.

"No use crying over spilt milk," Tsurugi said on Blanc's behalf, "What's important is to make sure it doesn't happen again. That and..."

"Catching the person responsible," Daisuke finished.

"I figured something like this might happen, so I brought in a specialist to help us out," Vert said, "Come in."

A woman in a business suit entered.

"A super-duper programmer who's the pride and joy of Leanbox: Ms. Setag."

"Whoa, an original character!" Neptune exclaimed.

"Greetings. I'm the one billed as Setag," she introduced, "Billeased to make your acquaintance."

"Bill?" Tsurugi said, confused.

"A character that makes such terrible puns in this day and age!? This one's gonna flop worse than Windows Me!"

"No need to worry. After this scene is over, I bill never show up again."

'That's a relief.'

"Would you be able to identify the culprit?" Noire wanted to ease her doubts.

"Billeave it to me."

She began to type on her laptop computer and the rest observed.

Noire's Office

Nepgear was putting her camera in one of the bookshelves. Rom, Ram, and Peashy were playing tag with Clatter and Gatack Zecter. Kagami and Kageyama were minding their own business until the former took notice of the suspicious act.

"All done!"

"Nepgear?"

She froze. Turning around, she saw Kagami and Kageyama staring at her.

"Kagami-kun!"

"What the heck are you doing up there?"

"Uni wants to know what Noire-san is doing here at night, so I set up a hidden camera."

"Don't say it like that!" Uni said, flustered.

"Well?" Kageyama crossed his arms.

"I'm just...worried."

He sighed. "You know, I heard it too and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't curious."

"So let's try it out!"

Outside, the four of them watched the feed from Nepgear's N-Gear. The high definition image was staggering for a small camera. The owner of said device explained that the NPEG-4 codec it used made it possible. Suddenly a static was heard and the footage on the N-Gear changed. They noticed it was the feed of the exact same room, only in different points of view.

"A cross-connection. Wait, that means there are other hidden cameras in that room!"

"What!?"

Downtown

Nepgear, Uni, Kagami, and Kageyama went to look for the source of the preexisting video feed. The children tagged along with Clatter.

"Tell us which building we're looking for, Nepgear!" Uni demanded. She was mad that someone spied on her sister.

"Unfortunately, this reverse tracking device only shows the approximate location."

"Is that so? Time to kick every door in sight then!"

"That is not a good idea, Uni," Kageyama refused her suggestion.

"I'm surprised you have that thing," Kagami pointed out, "Did you just happen to bring that too?"

"Actually, I never leave home without it. Portable chargers and tracing equipment are must-haves for any girl."

"In what world?"

"Not ours obviously," Kageyama stated.

Peashy latched onto Nepgear, saying she was hungry. None of them had any food. The Lowee Candidate twins handled the situation by telling her they were big girls. She let go and pouted, not wanting to be treated like a little girl.

"So they suddenly act all grown-up when there's a younger kid around," the Hell Brother mused.

Then they saw the CPUs in the sky. After that, they felt the turbulence of speeding motorcycles nearby, courtesy of Tendou and company. Their destination: an abandoned factory.

Factory

"All righty! Let's find the culprit!" Neptune shouted excitedly.

"Keep it down! They'll run away if they found out we're here!" Noire loudly told her.

"Is this where the 'look who's talking' goes today?"

The Riders then arrived in their respective vehicles.

"And you four! Your machines are too loud!"

"They're bikes, what do you expect?" Tendou retorted.

On the other hand, Nepgear's team were in front of the gate. Clatter suddenly ran off, along with Peashy who gave chase. Immediately they rushed in to try and find them.

Back with the main crew, they entered the main building. Noire peeked on a door and saw somebody. Wasting no more time, she busted open the door. All of them had their weapons ready.

"Freeze! Put your hands up and turn slowly!"

The figure complied. They had a robotic body in a light shade of red, along with neon green sections.

"You're the hacker, I take it?"

They looked up, not saying a word.

"Answer me. Now!"

The robot stood up and said, "Oh, don't be such a stranger, sweetie," in a disturbingly effeminate voice. One can conclude this was a man.

"Call me Anonydeath!" he gave his name.

Of course, Neptune had the appropriate response: falling on her face in blatant surprise.

"A-a drag queen? With that appearance?"

"Goodness, how rude. My heart is more ladylike than any other!"

The Riders had their own opinions on this...man, with twitching eyes.

"Gah, this guy's weird," Tsurugi commented.

"I think bizarre is the appropriate word," Tendou corrected.

"Like the comic?" Daisuke questioned.

"Worse. Like Neptune said, he's a straight-up drag queen. I just hope he doesn't make poses."

Noire didn't have the time for this. "Who cares about your gender? Are you gonna own up to your crimes or not?"

"Eheheheheh," he chuckled, "You're so cute in person. So much cuter than I imagined."

"Huh?" she blushed, "You can't distract me by saying things like that!"

"Oh no, sweetie. I'm serious, se-ri-ous."

He snapped his fingers and screens showing pictures of Noire materialized. The subject of the images became extremely embarrassed.

"I'm a huge fan of yours, Noire-chan. I wanted to learn more about you so badly that I just couldn't help myself."

"I don't care about these pictures. What I do care is the hacking!"

"You don't care? So you don't care about these either?"

Some of the pictures changed to Noire sewing a certain costume. This made her even more embarrassed.

"I never know you were that kind of person," Blanc said.

"I am! I'm rather family-oriented, you see!" she said with a nervous laugh.

"These clothes look familiar," Vert pointed out.

"It's just your imagination! I'm absolutely positive it's just your imagination!" she turned to Anonydeath, "Hey! I told you these weren't the problem here!"

"Oh? Is this what you meant then?"

The pictures changed again, now showing her cosplaying as an idol, a high school guitarist, a professor's assistant, and a policewoman. The last costume had the badges of the 'Special Investigations Unit'. Nonetheless, it had the same effect of making Noire flustered even more. Her companions looking at them just made it worse.

"Don't look!"

"The way you panic is cute too!" He took a picture of her panicking, calling it an exclusive.

"That's it! I'm gonna throw you in the slammer for peeping!"

"Oh, my. If I should ever leave this place, all these pictures will be automatically sent around the world. Are you okay with that?"

"Huh?"

"I originally wanted to keep them all for myself, but covering the world in Noire sounds delight–"

His face was met with a boot before he could finish, making him fall from his chair. Looking up, he saw his assailant: the man who Noire knew well.

"Are you done, you drag freak?" the older Hell Brother asked, dropping his boot on Anonydeath's face.

"Watch the face! it's as fragile as–"

He stomped again. Glaring at the drag queen, he said, "To be honest, you're quite lucky." Stomp. "Watching Noire doing her work in the comfort of an isolated room." Stomp. "However." Stomp. "You only view her." Stomp. "As an object of interest." Stomp. "An object of your satisfaction!" Stomp, stomp, stomp. "I see her more than just that.

"She's a workaholic, I give you that. When she's working she always forgot about anything else, let it be her sister or herself. I had to feed her my mapo tofu at times so she can do her job and refill her stomach at the same time."

The other CPUs stared at her, only to give out a nervous chuckle.

"On the other hand, she always gets it done. Whether it's paperwork or on the field, Noire never lets up. She reminds me of my old self: a leader. The only difference is that she leads a larger number of people, a nation. Seeing her like this," he looked at the pictures, "Makes me glad for some reason."

"Yaguruma-kun..." Noire stared at him, her face blushing in admiration.

He stomped again to make sure the effeminate man was awake, "Now that I've got that off my chest, I realized," he kicked the poor man towards the wall, "You have no worth to be envied on."

Getting up, Anonydeath shouted, "You...you hurt my face and my fragile heart! You're not human!" and ran away.

"Hey wait!" Noire went to give chase. The rest followed suit.

Outside, the drag queen stopped to have a breather. The blue shorts bandicoot, Clatter, came out of nowhere and leaped around his body.

"Huh? Get away from me!"

From the same direction Peashy pounced onto him and knocked him down and the briefcase, scattering the contents. Nepgear's group finally caught up to the little girl.

"Peashy! Clatter!"

When he heard that name, his ears perked up.

"Peashy?"

He sat up and asked her, "Is your name Peashy?"

"Yep!" she answered cheerfully.

The door behind him was busted open, startling everyone. From behind it, Yaguruma showed up, followed by Noire and the other CPUs and Riders. Anonydeath visibly flinched, not wanting to get beaten up again. Yaguruma turned his head to the other people present.

"Kageyama?" he said, slightly surprised.

"Aniki?" his brother had the same expression.

Seeing that he was outnumbered, Anonydeath surrendered. Despite that, he still got kicked in the face.

"What was that for!?"

"That was for Noire."

Later, he was arrested. He never owned up to the hacking, though. Nepgear and the Candidates were curious about the whole ordeal, so to spite the Lastation CPU the older Hell Brother showed one of the pictures he managed to steal.

"Oh, so that's what Noire-san does every night," Nepgear said.

"Cosplay huh? I didn't expect you're into that," Kagami had the same expression.

"What's 'cosplay'?" Rom innocently asked.

"I'm done with this!" Noire shouted, "You are all to forget everything you saw here. Got it?"

Not too far away, Tendou and Tsurugi had a little chat.

"Something's still bugging me," the former began.

"It's not every day you have something in mind," the latter joked, "What is it?"

"You know that little girl there?" he pointed at Peashy who just sat in a quiet spot.

"Peashy-chan? What about it?"

"She recognizes me."

"She also knows IF and Compa. Is that a problem?"

"No, but it just doesn't feel right."

"Tendou," he put his hand on his companion's shoulder, "Take it easy. You'll find it eventually."

"Not like you to take it easy," he joked back. Then he saw Neptune giving the little girl a cup of pudding, which made him smile a little. "But I guess you're right."

Prison

Anonydeath sat in his cell his head rested on his hands. He contacted someone, telling them that he found 'you-know-who'. It turned out that he hacked the satellite for this exact purpose.

Lastation Basilicom

In the end of the day, the Black Sisters and the Hell Brothers talked about Noire's 'activities of the night'. She didn't feel too comfortable with the subject, but it was pointless to hide it.

"You don't like me cosplaying, right?" she started, "I don't mind quitting if you want me to."

"Don't quit," Uni said, to her surprise, "You can only do that because you're not too tied down with work, right?"

"I guess. I've had some more free time lately."

"That made me feel like I'd become a little bit more useful."

Kageyama ruffled the CPU Candidate's head, saying, "What are you saying? You've been a great help to her!"

"If you want to, I can join your cosplay charade," Yaguruma spoke. "Besides," he leaned his face closer to Noire, making her face heat up. "I always wanted to see you in a wedding dress."

"E-Eh!?"

"Aniki, be a little patient. She will be wearing it when the time comes. Right, Nee-san?" Kageyama joined in.

"Stop it you two!" she shouted.

The other three laughed at the flustered mess that was Noire. Then they heard a voice telling them to move away. Although it was one person who said that, they could see two people falling towards them.

For the second time that day, Noire became a landing cushion. This time, though, she wasn't alone as Yaguruma became one for the other person.

The impact was quite loud, so the others went up to the balcony to see what had happened. As they arrived, they saw the two newcomers. The first one was a girl, with the appearance age similar to Neptune. She had purple hair which was done in a large braid, dark magenta eyes, and was wearing an outfit akin to a pajama. As for the other one, which was a man, let's just say he had very similar features of someone familiar. Tendou and Kagami only stood in shock, since they knew who this man was.

"Oops," the former said.

"I told you it'd be easier to use a tachyon gate," the latter scolded.

"Who...are you?" Neptune was the first person to ask.

"Oh, me?" the girl slowly said, standing up, "I'm Plutia. Planeptune's CPU."

"Souji," the man introduced, "Kusakabe Souji."

First, there was silence, and then, "Whaaat!?" That included the beetle duo.

Extra: It's Tendou All Along, Noire!

"Don't tell me. It's Tendou-kun, isn't it?"

Before Neptune could open her mouth, the accused answered. "Yes, Noire. It's me."

He went behind the Planeptune CPU and gently placed his hand on her abdomen. "In fact, we're having another one right here."

Noire already thought about that scenario and couldn't take it. Whether it was the cuteness or the possibility, we'll never know. The result: she fainted.

"Tendou-kun, what are you saying?" Neptune questioned, her face reddening.

"What, you don't want to?"

"N-no...it's just..."

"Well," he leaned into her ear and whispered, "We can try later tonight."

Then, Neptune joined Noire to the land of the unconscious. He chuckled to himself and left to get some fresh air.

'Since when Tendou became such a tease?' everyone else wondered.

That's it for now. I'm going to take a break for a while, so don't expect updates soon.

P.S. Subplots, subplots everywhere.