Well, this is surprising. Jacob is now being shipped with the Neptunia girls by my readers. I best not let this get back to the NISA forums. How about this: you keep quiet and I'll respond to your reviews:

Saturn56: ... Are you talking about the upcoming Neptunia anime or this fanfic?

Saturn56: Did you know there's this other person on deviantArt who ships JacobXIF? I was surprised, too.

Hydrocity3: Thanks a lot. I was actually a bit worried after posting the chapter, honestly, that the maiwaifu eagles would swoop in to kill me.

ChromaLuke: Thanks. I'll make sure to get more of those scenes in, then. I don't know when Red will come into the picture, sorry.

Wdog-999: Good that I can make mostly inconsequential chapters hilarious, eh? And thanks. Partly. I'll make sure to pull you out of a burning building if I feel in the mood, then.

godofmadness43: They're robots. They don't need feeding. And keep wondering.

Shadz: Ooh, a long review! Haven't had one of these in a while. :D Firstly, that's completely understandable. I've come across a few (unnoted) self-insert fics in my time and they had a tendency to suck.

Thank you. If there's one thing that annoys me with rewrites that have significant new elements added in, it's that nothing ever changes. I wanted to change that. Jacob's an active participant in the plot now and his knowledge has definitely shaped new paths.

They could try that if they ever knew that she liked tangerines.

Yes they will. Maybe. If the villains ever pose a genuine threat.

I know, right? So many cop outs are to be had in a self-insert fic- or any story in which the character goes into another world- where the character's previous world is never shown or the consequences of their world hopping are never deconstructed. Time slowing or whatever, the authors are never willing to reveal their families. Admittedly, I felt the same way and those are somewhat agitating moments for me to write but I know I have to try anyway.

Partly why I'm writing this fic is because I don't like the games (to put it mildly). Inconsistencies like that are partly the reason why.

Thanks. :D

Prinny Overlord: You have NO idea.

KaiserPhotos: Hey howdy hey! And thanks. The majority of male anime protagonists get to me for their stupidity as well.

And we have a winner! It's none of them indeed!

I don't even know how I'm doing it. I even made a thread on the NISA forums asking about Neptune's personality and we didn't really get anywhere. If you ask me, NISA pretty much chucked whatever they thought was "random" and "wacky" into Neptune's dialogue and I'm basically trying the same thing.

Thank you. Also, I think anyone could play this without feeling shady if the prepubescent girls didn't regularly show their panties. It's why IF is always my dungeon avatar.

I shall! This fic will not die!

raidouXVI: Thank you, Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner fan. I will continue to update.

yamacirnoyama: Thank you, whatever the hell your name is. And so do many other people.

Nicolas Crossworth: You know, maybe I'll just respond to your review via PM. I think these replies are taking up enough space already.

Let's get the next chapter going.

Chapter 21: The Steps We Take

The next morning, Jacob found himself being roused from his sleep by something prodding his hand which seemed to be hanging over the edge of the bed. A rather strange position for his hand to be in but this was a smaller bed than he was used to, not to mention he was still drowsy from waking up only seconds ago, so he ignored it. Using his forearm to rub the sleep out of his eyes, he finally discovered the hand-prodder to be none other than one of the toy dogs. It was sitting down and wagging its tail, apparently waiting for him to notice it.

"Hey, boy," Jacob responded. "What's up...?"

"Good morning..." Nisa yawned, "my diligent student..."

Jacob turned over to see his Sensei standing at the side of his bed. She was still clad in her crimson pyjamas looking rather drowsy and the other side of his bed's doona was turned over, as if someone got out of it. Which he didn't do. At least, not yet.

"Sensei, were you sleeping in my bed...?" inquired Jacob.

Being drowsy, Nisa couldn't look very apologetic but Jacob would be damned if he said she didn't try. "Oh Jacob, I am so sorry but Neptune would simply not wear the bed covers. I cannot stand such a thing in this weather and so I... snuck into your bed," she concluded while blushing with embarrassment. "I am terribly sorry."

Jacob rubbed his eyes. "She's not wearing the covers...?"

Upon hearing that, the hand-prodding dog walked around Jacob's bed and headed to Neptune's. Jacob forced himself out of his bed, feeling the biting cold of the morning as he did so, and followed the dog with Nisa to Neptune's bed. Unlike IF and Compa, who were sleeping peacefully, Neptune was shivering from underneath the doona which she held so tightly to her body. Beside the bed, ArfArf was whining in concern.

"Oh, she's wearing them now?" said Nisa.

"Oh goodness gracious..." Jacob groaned as he lifted ArfArf onto the bed. "Get Compa and IF awake."

While Nisa was waking up the nurse and the brunette, Jacob woke up Neptune. "Oi. Wake up."

"I'm already up..." the CPU groaned before opening her eyes to look at Jacob. "I don't feel good..."

"I gathered."

"Nep-Nep, are you okay?" Compa asked as she walked to the side of Neptune's bed with IF beside her.

"Compaaaa..." Neptune began to whine. "My head feels sore and my nose feels really runny..."

Compa smiled. "Nep-Nep, you have a cold. Were you not wearing the covers when you slept?"

"No, she wasn't," answered Jacob.

"Oh dear. Nep-Nep, let me get dressed and make some medicine for it." The nurse then turned to Jacob. "Could you dress her up, please? The more layered she is, the better."

"Gotcha." Jacob fetched Neptune's jacket as Nisa, Compa and IF scattered. After Jacob got Neptune's jacket onto her, he put his own on much like IF did. Compa and Nisa went to the bathroom down the hallway to get dressed. Compa came out first, as she needed to prepare the medicine, followed shortly by Nisa.

With Jacob, IF and Nisa watching and Neptune confined to her bed, Compa sat down on the floor and pulled out of her disc a few bottles of liquid, a small box of powder, an empty round-bottom flask, a funnel and a small measuring cup. She lined everything out in front of her.

Jacob seemed the slightest bit worried. "Hey, uh, what are you doing?"

Compa looked back at him. "I'm going to prepare Nep-Nep's flu medicine."

"Shouldn't you prepare that in a lab? Or on a bench? Or somewhere other than the floor of a motel room? Or can't we just buy the remedy already made at a clinic or something?"

Compa looked at him with eyes that reflected both indignation and confidence. "Jake, I am a nurse in training. Trust me on this one. I know what I am doing."

Jacob tsked once. "Alrighty then."

With a content smile, Compa got to work. Jacob, IF and Nisa watched with intrigue as Compa poured one of the liquids into the measuring cup until the fluid reached the measurement she wanted. At that point, she poured the liquid into the funnel which directed the ingredient into the flask that the funnel rested on top of. She then repeated this process for the other liquids.

Nisa leaned to IF. "Is this really how medicine works?" she whispered.

"I have absolutely no idea," IF whispered back.

Compa then poured the powder into the flask and, after removing the funnel, stirred it around by gently moving it in circles. It was then that the fluid emitted a bright white light that forced Jacob, Nisa, IF and Compa to look away with their eyes closed for a second before it died down. When Compa looked back at her product, she was less than pleased.

"Is it ready yet?" Neptune asked.

"Huh? Why didn't it work?" Compa asked with dismay.

"You were saying?" Jacob said with a grin before hoping off his bed and walking towards the door. "Sensei, do you wanna..."

Jacob stopped where he was when he saw a young girl who couldn't have been more than four feet tall looking in from the corridor. She had chocolate brown hair with matching eyes and she wore a pair of brown, leather boots, a light blue dress with puffed sleeves and ruffled lining and white puffed shorts that ended a bit above her short knees. That was where the "normal" for this girl ended. The rest of her clothing was nothing short of bizarre, such as her huge white rabbit hat she wore on her head and came with two floppy ears that were equal to her arms if not greater in length. Speaking of the arms, she wore a massive white glove on each hand with a violet circle symbol on the back with a thin line going to the rolled-up cuffs. Around her neck was a loose-fitting brown leather belt with a golden buckle and the front of her dress had a pouch in it containing several plants or vegetables and a round-bottom flask half-filled with a strange orange liquid.

Jacob felt rather justified when he very bluntly asked her "Who are you?"

Surprised, the other girls of the party (except for Neptune, of course) looked towards the door and also saw the girl.

Even though she seemed a little bit surprised for getting caught, she politely stepped into the room to introduce herself. "I am Gust. I was watching her make medicine. She is failing."

"H-Hey!" Compa cried out. "Just give me a moment!"

"You know, I can always give it a try," IF offered. "Beginners luck and all."

"No!" Gust objected as she strode into the room. "Medicine should only be made by experts! Stand back!"

Compa found herself parting from her medical supplies as Gust walked towards them before sitting herself down. After familiarising herself with Compa's materials, she pulled out an empty round-bottom flask from somewhere that couldn't be seen, most likely from her disc, and put Compa's funnel into it. "Mix Potion A," she began before picking up one of Compa's liquid ingredients and pouring it in, "with Potion B," she added as she repeated the process and then mixed the two fluids in the container, "then add powder." She then poured the powder into the flask.

BANG!

Everyone (except for Neptune, of course) recoiled in shock at the loud noise that came from the surprisingly intact flask. Jacob covered his ears in addition. "What the hell was that?!" he cried.

"Is it ready yet?" Neptune asked again.

"Was that patient?" Gust inquired. "Wait a bit longer. Explosion caused by chemical reaction of old ingredients. Do not worry. Gust will use her own ingredients."

"Hey, shouldn't you prepare that in a clean environment?" Jacob decided to ask again.

Gust looked at him just as Compa did before but, unlike the nurse, Gust didn't look at all offended. "Gust is skilled alchemist. Trust me. Gust knows what she is doing."

Jacob smirked. "Alright but, if this goes bad again, we're just going to the nearest pharmacist."

Gust ignored him so that she could instead focus on her work. She pulled out another flask as well as two bottles of different fluids and another box of powder. After mixing them all together like she did with Compa's, the end result did not explode. "... There," she said, pleased with herself as she poured the contents of her glass container into a small cup.

"Is it ready yet?" Neptune asked once more.

"Yes," the alchemist answered before handing the cup to Compa. "Have patient drink all of it. Cure cold in no time."

"Oh, thank you so much." Compa took the medicine from Gust and was about to give it to Neptune but she noticed Gust's expectant outstretched hand. "Oh, what's... this? Do you want a hand shake?"

"For ingredients and labour," Gust replied simply.

"What? You charge?!"

Gust was completely indifferent to Compa's shock. "Oh yes. Valuable ingredients. But, just for you, don't worry about labour this time."

Jacob was rather peeved at this girl who just barged right into their hotel room and forced their fees on them for something no one asked for but he kept his tongue.

Nisa did not. "What? You grace us with a kind act, completely unprompted, and then you force us to pay you even though we never requested your services to begin with? This is an outrage!"

Despite Nisa's outburst, Gust still maintained a professional demeanour. "Gust used her own ingredients to make medicine. It is only fair that I get paid back."

"That is fair enough," agreed IF as she stepped towards the short girl, "although you could've asked first. Now, here's the money..."

While IF was paying Gust, Compa was attempting to administer the medicine to Neptune. "Nep-Nep, open wide."

Neptune was reluctant. "I dunno. Can ya give me a spoonful of sugar first, please?"

"Nep-Nep, please don't be so difficult. I'll give you all the sugar you want when you're better."

"Really? I'm holding you to that, you know!" Neptune responded with enthusiasm.

Compa smiled. "That's the spirit. Now, open up."

Neptune complied by opening her mouth wide and lifting her own head up, allowing Compa to pour the remedy into her mouth. After Neptune pulled a face of absolute disgust, she reluctantly swallowed. "That... needed a spoonfuuuuu..." Neptune didn't finish as she fell asleep faster than if she'd been hit with the Sleep status ailment.

Jacob was surprised. "That was fast."

"That's typical of medicine," Compa responded before walking towards IF and Gust. "Thank you again."

"No problem," Gust responded.

"So what, exactly, do you do?" IF asked. "You show up at our room... I still don't know what you were doing there but I really don't care, and you conveniently make a cure for our sick party member for what I might call a reasonable price if I was Neptune on a very good day."

"Gust is travelling alchemist. I synthesize items from materials I find around Gamindustri and sell them."

"So young and yet so dedicated..." Compa smiled, impressed. "I'm amazed to find someone of your work ethic, Ms Gust."

Gust returned with a warm smile. "Heh. You flatter. Tell Gust if any items needed. Gust offer discount price."

"Really? That's very kind of you!" Compa responded with surprise at Gust's sudden generosity. "Well, if you ever need materials, you can always ask us to gather them for you."

Gust was now the one taken aback by another person's charity. "You will? It is sometimes hard to gather ingredients. This helps a lot!"

"Well, I do suppose it is worth the discount..." added Nisa.

"Hey, 'scuse me," Jacob spoke up to get the alchemist's attention. "Do you wanna join our party?"

"Jacob!" IF shouted, being as shocked as the other girls. "We can't just ask random civilians to join our party! We go through at least one monster infested dungeon a day!"

"Hey, I'm not asking her to fight. She's an alchemist so she can prepare us items that we can use for dungeons. I'm hardly expecting her to fight."

A look of pride once again appeared on Gust's face. "Despite appearances, Gust is capable of combat. Regardless, I decline. Gust is making comfortable living with selling synthesized goods."

Nisa stepped in. "We are not simply dungeon raiders, alchemist. We are on a quest to save the world!"

Gust was caught by surprise. "Save the world?"

"Oh, yes." Nisa squatted so that she was nearly eye level with the shorter girl. "Gamindustri lives in dire times. Not only are monsters plaguing the entire world, an evil overlord by the name of Momus has taken over Celestia after driving out the four goddesses. But all is not lost! In a dark location, hidden in the shadows of Gamindustri, lies a captive Histoire. To rescue her, we must procure a single Key Fragment from each of the four landmasses. Once rescued, Histoire will help us defeat Overlord Momus and rid the world of monsters!"

It took a few moments for Gust to snap out of her stunned silence. "... How do you know about Celestia?"

Nisa smirked. "Because..." She then pointed dramatically at the sleeping Neptune, "... our dearest Neptune is none other than Purple Heart, Planeptune's CPU!"

"What?!" Gust shouted.

IF was hitting her face on the nearest wall.

Gust composed herself. "Well, if that is case, Gust will join you."

IF stopped hitting her face on the wall and looked back at Gust. "Huh? Did I hear that right or am I hallucinating?"

"I heard it too," Jacob answered her with a raised hand, "but I would like to know why you want to help us out."

With her hands behind her back, Gust span to Jacob and gave him a very innocent smile. "Well... Unique ingredients all over Gamindustri, ripe for Gust's picking. If I travel with party around world, I get ingredients." Then, all of a sudden, Gust's face turned serious. "With ingredients, I can make items to help world. Gamindustri is in trouble and only you want to help it. Gust will help however needed."

Compa clapped her hands together in delight. "That's wonderful! I would love to have you in our party."

Nisa smiled. "It appears you have a heart of justice. I have no objections to you joining us."

IF shrugged. "Sure, why not? At least we'll have a steady supply of funds and items."

"Then it's decided," said Jacob. "Gust is now a member of our party. Just so you know, I'm Jacob, the brunette's IF, Nisa's the blue-haired one and Compa's the nurse."

"A pleasure to meet you all." Gust gave a polite bow.

"It's a pleasure to have you in our party," Nisa returned.

Jacob continued. "Now, I think we should go buy some new clothes."

"What?" said IF. "Why would we need new clothes?"

"Well, I'd honestly vote for going dungeon crawling first but Neptune's fast asleep and the last thing I want is for Blanc or Arfoire to pop up out of nowhere and take us out. Buying clothes will help pass the time and Neptune and I can finally get some good pyjamas. I'm sick of sleeping in my clothes all the time."

"Why didn't you buy pyjamas earlier back in Lastation?" Compa asked.

Jacob rubbed the back of his head. "Kept slipping my mind. So, what do you all think?"

"Gust will go with you," the alchemist declared. "I can help point out good bargains."

"I'll come, too. There's nothing better to do," said IF.

"So shall I," said Nisa.

"I'll stay with Nep-Nep to keep an eye on her," said Compa. "If you'd like, I can write down her measurements so that you can get appropriate clothes for her."

"That'll help," responded IF.

"Okay, give me a moment." Compa pulled a sheet of paper and a pen out of her disc and began writing.

After having some breakfast, Jacob, IF, Gust and Nisa made their way to a shopping mall. Like most shopping malls that Jacob knew of, it was very big and mostly white which made a lot of sense as this was Lowee. To the relief of everyone, it was surprisingly warm once they got inside and away from the doors. It was warm enough, in fact, that Jacob decided to take off his jacket and tie the sleeves around his waist. While the mall was predominantly white, there was some colour here and there. The stores didn't count because they were all expected to have their own individual aesthetic styles but the mall itself stuck to a more fantastic aesthetic. The escalators, for instance, had stairs that looked like blocks and there were large pulleys with crystals in the middle of them on the ends of the escalator that pulled the stairs in a perpetual cycle. The decorations from Dis Snow Forest, like the Christmas lights and the old-fashioned lamps, also made a reappearance here even if they weren't currently powered. Also, everything had a wooden aesthetic to it, much like the white wood of Dis Snow Forest. The pillars that supported the upper floors actually looked like intricately carved table legs.

"Hey, how do the escalators work?" Jacob questioned.

"I dunno," answered IF.

"Me neither," added Gust.

"Oh, okay then," responded Jacob.

IF looked back at Jacob. "By the way, how are you doing? This is the first time you've been in a place like this."

"Not really. I've been in shopping centres before and this is only really different with the whole magic thing it's got going on. It's still unfamiliar large territory, mind you."

"Well, stay close to us and don't drift off. I know a good clothing store nearby."

The four-person party then traversed the ground floor, ignoring the other shops no matter how appealing they looked or when Jacob once very casually brought up that he'd never had Lowee chocolate before, and finally found themselves at a clothing store. Like with the main mall, items made of metal were few and far between. The poles and bars of the clothing racks were painted with red and white spiralling stripes and they were typically topped with a green ball, making them look a lot like candy. The entrance to the dressing rooms resembled a door for a rich person's wooden cupboard.

"Alright Jacob, you go find the pyjamas," IF instructed.

"Gotcha," acknowledged Jacob before he went off on his own.

The store was bigger than normal but Jacob still found where they kept the pyjamas nonetheless. Unlike in his world where they were sealed in pairs into bags, they were just folded together and stacked into pigeon-holes that were on a wall at the end of the store. Also, they were primarily white. However, unlike Lastation's exclusively black and white clothes, the white clothes in this store actually had a variety of styles with secondary colours and the pyjamas were no exception. Another thing that Jacob noticed was the nature of most of the pyjamas on display. Back home, finding a pair of summer pyjamas with shorts and a t-shirt was an impossible task. Here, that was not the case. While the summer style pyjamas were still outnumbered by the winter style, Jacob could actually find clothing suited to his tastes.

Upon finding a pair of red-striped pyjamas that seemed to be his size, Jacob proceeded to look for his friends, a task he completed once he turned around. "Oh, hello," said Jacob, mildly surprised.

IF looked at his intended purchase and looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "Jacob, what are those?"

"... These, my dear IF, are called 'pyjamas'. You do not wear these so I shall tell you that you sleep in them. They make sleeping comfortable."

"I see," IF responded with her own sarcasm. "I also see that your pyjamas are composed of shorts and a t-shirt. One would think that they'd be unsuited to wear in the cold."

"Okay, look," Jacob continued without sarcasm, "I don't wear pants. They're long and uncomfortable to wear and sleep in. Shorts are breezy and easy."

"Wow, I didn't realise I was talking to Neptune."

"Shut up. That was unintentional. Anyway, what'd you get?"

IF held out in front of Jacob a pair of white short shorts that had a cyan trim.

Jacob, in pleasant surprise, smiled. "God damn."

"I said we'd get Neptune shorts, didn't I?" IF smirked.

"Yeah, you did. And so did I." Jacob rubbed the back of his head. "Jeez, it feels like it's been months. I completely forgot about it."

Nisa, having not been around at the time they were discussing getting shorts for the CPU, was understandably a bit confused. "Am I missing something?"

"Don't worry about it," answered IF. "Now, all we need is pyjamas for Neptune. Found any?"

Jacob was a bit confused. "Why would I have found any?"

IF seemed to be equally as confused as she was when she saw his choice in pyjamas. "Why didn't you? You know what her measurements are, right?"

"No, not at all."

IF was exasperated. "You have them on you right now! Hell, I showed you them on the way here! Don't you remember?"

As a matter of fact, he did.

It happened while the quartet were walking down one of the main roads of Lowee. As usual, fruit houses of varying degrees of distortion and snow were not in low supply. Jacob and IF were at the front while Gust was talking with Nisa at the back.

Nisa was explaining the party's quest to their newest party member. "Now, we don't know where the other Key Fragments are but we have our suspicions that they are being guarded by Guard Vermins."

"I see. Are other goddesses involved, too?" Gust asked.

"A little bit. They know about Celestia and what happened with Momus but, other than that, only Neptune is vital to our mission."

Jacob and IF weren't really partaking in the conversation. The former had his own concerns to focus on. "Jesus, this weather is cold."

"I'm really getting sick of that, you know," responded IF.

"Well, it is."

"Well, here's something to keep your mind off it." IF fished out from her pocket a piece of paper. The same piece of paper that Compa wrote Neptune's measurements on before they left. She gave it to him.

Jacob opened it up. "What am I supposed to do with it?"

"You read it," IF said bluntly.

"My God, how could I have been so blind?" Jacob said, having already read the incredibly brief information several times over. Out of boredom, he read it again.

Height: 146 cm
Weight: 37 kg
Sizes: B73-W54-H70
Cup: A

"How did Compa get all this, anyway?" Jacob asked as he handed the information back.

"She's a nurse," IF replied. "I'm pretty sure she needs to know all that. And you should hold onto that."

"... Well, if you say so." Jacob pocketed the paper.

"Yeah, I do," Jacob answered as he pulled the paper out and handed it to IF.

"So why didn't you get anything for her?" IF questioned impatiently as she took the paper from him.

"Because I can't read that crap. I don't know what the sizes part means or how it's relevant to what pyjamas I should get her."

Gust's eyes were open wide. "A boy who cannot understand measurements?"

IF couldn't quite believe it. "... Are you even human?"

Jacob groaned. "Are we gonna be here all day?"

IF rubbed her forehead. "Don't worry about it, just... leave it to me." With that, she sought out the pyjamas.

With all their items gathered, the party made their way to the main counter, which was being tended to by a silhouette that looked exactly like that middle-aged Avenir employee that recruited their help a couple of times back on Lastation. "Ah, hello. Is that what you're buying today?"

"All of it." IF put the clothes on the counter.

The silhouette then examined them all one by one. "Excellent choices. Although isn't it a bit cold for summer pyjamas?"

"I hate pants," Jacob answered.

"Well, to each their own. Anyway, this comes to 20,000 credits."

"Oh Gods, I forgot how expensive clothes were," Jacob answered.

"You can't pay?"

"Yeah we can," responded IF. "It just takes a bite out of the budget."

"Ah, I see."

However, Gust looked unsatisfied with the deal. "Ahem."

His attention caught, the silhouette looked over the counter. "Oh, uh... is something wrong?"

"Could I look at items again, please?"

"Oh, sure, here you go." The silhouette handed the clothes over to the alchemist who then proceeded to inspect them closely.

Gust then looked back up at him with childish disappointment. "20,000 credits? All up?"

"Yeah. Shorts are 10,000 and the sleepwear's 5,000 each."

Gust looked at the items again before looking back at the silhouette. "I think it could be cheaper than that."

Jacob and IF looked at each other with eyes that asked 'What is she doing?'

It was possible that the silhouette raised an eyebrow as he chuckled, amused. "You think so, huh?"

"Yup," Gust responded confidently before tracing one of her glove-clad fingers over the shorts ever so delicately. "Look closely. Single straight seams unravel more easily than serged or double straight. Conspicuously light. Not entirely good for cold weather. Clothes made by supplier, correct?"

The silhouette had his arms crossed by this point. Being a silhouette, his expression was impossible to read. However, he seemed rather displeased. "Very much so. Why do you ask?"

"Shorts not bad but definitely not worth 10,000 credits. Gust estimates... 7,000 credits."

Jacob, IF and Nisa didn't dare to move. Even Jacob knew that 3,000 credits wasn't exactly anything to sneeze at and to ask for such an amount to be deducted from the price of something was definitely asking for trouble.

The shopkeeper seemed to think the same. "A thirty percent discount? That's a lot you're asking."

"Potentially flawed goods. Now, what about sleepwear..."

"Okay, okay, okay..." The male stopped her before she began inspecting the pyjamas and took the clothes back. "Look, thirty percent is a bit much. I can, however, give you a twenty-five percent discount, and on all these items. How's that?"

Gust thought this over for a moment. Finally, she smiled and said "Acceptable."

The silhouette's posture relaxed. "Okay, that comes to 15,000 credits all up."

"Thanks." After paying the required amount of credits, Gust gave the clothes to Jacob, who then placed them in his disc, and walked with the party out into the main mall again.

"Okay. Do we have any other business here?" the alchemist asked.

"Gust, that was amazing!" Nisa loudly praised. "How did you learn to do that?"

Gust was caught off-guard by Nisa's praise but only for an instant. "Ah, well, Gust has been in business for long time. Learned many tricks."

"You got us a twenty-five percent discount with a complete stranger just by talking," noted IF with a very admiring smile. "That has to be something to be proud of."

Even though she remained calm, Jacob could tell Gust was on the verge of bursting with glee. "In fairness, shopkeeper was more lenient than most."

"So you're saying you can't do that all the time?" Jacob asked with a smile of his own.

"Gust never said that," said Gust with a proud grin.

"I like you already."

"So do I," repeated IF. "On top of having a goddess, a really strong heroine, a nurse and a tactician in my party, we now have an alchemist that can save us huge amounts of money on top of making us items. Is there anything we can't do?"

"No. I don't believe so," Jacob answered.

After traversing the frozen suspiciously-not-tundra for the fifth time, the party returned to the motel room. Like before, Compa was sitting beside Neptune's bed. "Hey Compa, we're back," announced IF.

The nurse-in-training looked back at the door and was pleasantly surprised to see the rest of the party. "Oh, welcome back!"

Jacob looked outside the window. "You know, it always feels like we're higher up than we actually are."

"I've been getting that impression all morning," Compa responded. "It's beginning to make me feel ill... By the way, Neptune's not awake yet."

It could've been Fate spiting the nurse that moment when Neptune started stirring. "Mm..."

Jacob raised an eyebrow at the waking CPU. "You were saying, Compa?"

Gust looked at Neptune with a curious gaze. "Quick sleep. Perhaps goddesses have higher metabolism than regular humans?"

"A-Anyway, how was shopping?" Compa asked, flustered.

"Better than we could've imagined. I'll explain when Neptune wakes up," answered IF.

After a few moments, the purple-haired goddess sat up in her bed and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. Like before, she was wearing her jacket. "Whoa... how long was I out?" Neptune blinked a few times to wake herself up.

"Good morning, Nep-Nep. Are you feeling better?"

Remembering that she once felt sick, she came to the realisation that she didn't feel sick anymore. "Yeah... Yeah, I am! It's gone!" She looked towards Compa but found Jacob, Nisa, IF and Gust as well. "Hey, who's the girl?"

"Neptune, this is Gust," Jacob introduced. "She's the one who made you the cold medicine and she's joined the party."

"Really? That's super!" Neptune sprightly hopped out of her bed and made her way towards the shorter girl. "So Gust, was it? I think I'm gonna call you Gusty."

Jacob sighed. "Neptune, what's wrong with just Gust?"

"It's okay! Gust not mind," the alchemist assured.

"Neptune, you have to hear this!" said Nisa. "We went shopping while you were asleep and bought 20,000 credits in clothing. Gust, however, managed to persuade the shopkeeper to discount our purchases by twenty-five percent!"

Neptune was awed. "Whoa! Really?"

"Easy target," claimed Gust even as she hid her pride. "Nothing special."

"So did you get me anything? Huh? Huh?" she pestered IF as she stood right in front of her.

"We did! Now get away from me." IF lightly pushed Neptune a few steps backwards. "Yeah, we got some clothes for you. Jacob's got them, in fact." She glanced his way. "Jacob?"

"Gotcha." As Jacob reached into his disc, Neptune watched in anticipation for what goodies would come out of it. Her mind was going a million miles a second as she tried to figure out what he got her.

When Jacob finally pulled out the short shorts, Neptune could not have been more disappointed. "Oh no! I ain't wearing shorts and there's nothing you can say or do to make me!" she defiantly declared.

"Neptune," Jacob commenced, already tired of this, "we can't exactly have you run around flashing whoever happens to be behind you whenever you bend forward. Plus, it's freezing cold outside. Do you want to get sick again?"

"So what if I get sick? Gusty can just whip up another remedy and I'll be up and going again."

"Gust is not medicine-dispensing machine," the alchemist said indignantly. "Ingredients valuable. Should not be wasted on what can be prevented in first place."

Neptune pouted, not at all budging from her previous statement.

"My dear sister, please. I'd hate for you to endure such pain, again..." Nisa pleaded.

"I understand how you feel, Nep-Nep, but this is for your own good," Compa gently explained.

After a few more seconds of keeping a straight face and stance, Neptune's head finally slumped. "Okay, okay... I'll wear the stupid shorts."

"Thank you," said Jacob.

Later that day, after Neptune had stopped sulking over the shorts, the party had decided to raid a dungeon that was on the map that the Chamberlain gave to them. This particular dungeon was, at the very least, very unique. Well, compared to the previous dungeons at any rate. The main path of the medieval castle-esque dungeon was covered in olive and brown tiles and was separated from the brick walls by lanes of smaller pink-ish tiles that also held tall stone pillars that supported the roof. Lining the walls were arch windows that had pink light-emitting lamps situated on each side of them and, on the odd occasion, glowing six-petalled pink flower symbols. The party wasn't paying any attention to this, though.

"I don't think those colours work," said Jacob as he looked at Neptune's shorts as she once again took point.

"Oh, that's what you were staring at," answered IF. "Have to say, yeah, I could've made a better choice."

Jacob thought for a moment. "What if we just swapped the colours around? Teal with a white trim."

"Sounds a bit basic. What about teal with a violet trim?"

"Hm... Nah, doesn't work. What about teal with a cyan trim?"

"Sounds a bit better... What about navy blue with a green trim?"

"Doesn't really work with her hoodie. How about... navy blue with a violet trim?"

"Maybe we should just make the whole thing teal."

Both of them thought for a second.

"You know, there's nothing wrong with the basics. Let's stick with teal and a white trim," Jacob offered again.

"Yeah, sounds good."

Finally, a random encounter broke the monotony. The three monsters that appeared were-

"Final release!"

- so quickly defeated by Neptune's Neptune Break that Jacob couldn't figure out what they were.

Gust noticed something that intrigued her, however. "That is a strange sword."

"That's the Mech Sword, Armas," Compa explained. "It's a test model that a friend over in Lastation wanted us to test for the Lastation Tech Expo."

"Ya like it?" Neptune asked as she walked up to Gust and showed her the advanced weapon.

Gust analysed the deactivated hilt. "Gust does. Good weapon?"

"Well, for a sword to be shown at a Tech Expo, it's surprisingly weak compared to what you can get in stores," answered IF. "We're keeping in touch with Chian to tell her about any flaws we come across. So far, we've told her that it needs better stats and a cutting edge. Can you think of anything?"

Gust shook her head. "Gust is not engineer. Like Lastation Tech Expo candidates nonetheless."

"It can't be helped. We've covered pretty much all the weaknesses so I think we're good anyway."

And so the party continued to trek through the dungeon, Neptune Neptune Breaking anything that came their way while the rest of the party stood and played rock-paper-scissors to stop getting bored all the while, when...

"Oh my GOD!"

Jacob's shout got everyone else on the defensive. Neptune activated Armas once more, IF got out her claws, Nisa extended the energy blade of her prinny gun and Gust pulled out a brown broom. Compa didn't draw her syringe as she was too frightened.

"What is it? Where is it?" IF questioned.

"Jacob, what's the matter?" Nisa asked.

"Get it away from me!" Compa cried.

"This dungeon has stairs!" Jacob shouted.

Indeed it did. In the right turn ahead of the party, there were brown stairs with short brown railings. However, they only lead to an elevated section of the floor that was elevated by a black inverted dome to halfway between the floor and the roof and there was another set of stairs to the right of the platform that just lead back down to the actual floor. What's more, the stairs could be circumvented by trekking on the pink section of the floor that was in no way vertically changed since they entered the dungeon. In short, the stairs were completely useless. The party seemed to know how pointless it all was as they looked at Jacob with consistently high amounts of disbelief.

"... Stairs," IF repeated. "You scared the crap out of us because of stairs."

"Sorry about that," Jacob apologised. "It's just, well, so far, all the dungeons except for the snowy forest were pretty much just elaborate corridors without so much as a carpet. Now, there are stairs. Now, don't get me wrong, we've had stairs since the fifth generation of gaming. It's just that this is a hell of an innovation as far as Gamindustri goes."

Gust turned to Compa. "What is Jacob talking about?"

"Oh! Don't worry about it," Compa replied with a slight bit of worry. "He likes to talk."

"Is Jacob insulting Gamindustri?"

"Yes..." Compa sighed. "He does that a lot."

IF still looked a bit irritated at Jacob. "Don't do that again. Now, let's get moving."

The party continued progressing through the dungeon when they came across something else.

"Goodness gracious, there are also stairs that go down."

"Jacob, shut up," IF snapped.

The party continued progressing through the dungeon further when they finally came across the boss monster. Unfortunately, it was no Guard Vermin. It didn't even look anywhere near as threatening. It was just a palette-swapped version of the Blue Shadow that the party sans Gust and Nisa encountered in Weird Sci-Fi Place #1 the day Jacob got out of the hospital. This palette-swap had red fur with purple claws.

"You know, I remember this thing looking more threatening the first time we saw it," Jacob remarked.

IF looked at Gust. "Hey, you can fight, right? What exactly can you do?"

Gust shook her head. "I cannot fight, sorry. Gust requires a battle ticket to be bought from the Lastation Store for the low low price of three dollars forty-five."

Jacob groaned and rolled his eyes. "Fine, whatever. We just won't use you."

"Hey!" Nisa shouted with indignation. "When I said that I required a battle ticket, you threw a tantrum and dropped me onto a Gyuki! Why is she exempt from your draconian practices?"

"That would be because, unlike you, we did not recruit Gust for her combat skills. Gust can provide us with items to make dungeon crawling easier and, as an added bonus, she can get awesome discounts. Neither of those things need a battle ticket." Jacob looked over to the alchemist. "At least, I don't believe so."

"Gust provide alchemy skill and discounts free of charge to party," Gust informed with a winning smile.

"And there you go."

Nisa's fists were clenched so hard that it seemed like she'd tear her own gloves.

"So how are we going to take on this monster?" IF asked Jacob while the monster was still in its idle animation.

"Dominant strategy, as always. Neptune and Nisa fight the thing head on, you use your speed to provide close-range support while Compa and I provide support fire."

Gust looked at Jacob with surprise. "A deep strategy for just a monster."

Jacob shrugged. "It gets the job done more quickly," he said before lifting himself into the air with his jetpack.

Gust watched him with even more surprise. "So that's what it does..."

"How about we don't worry about strategy this time?" Neptune suggested. "Neptune Break can probably slice and dice this guy into a million pieces."

"Fair enough," agreed Jacob Go right ahead."

"Alrighty!"

Neptune stepped forward and held Armas to her body, its energy blade pointing up and between her closed eyes. Suddenly, her eyes shot open and she raised her sword into the air at the same speed, a fiery purple aura engulfing the energy blade at the same time. Once more, like a bullet, she sliced through the red wolf multiple times in quick succession at speeds that could only be normally reached by fighter jets. After perhaps eleven hits, Neptune paused for a moment to finish her assault with a final, massive, explosive slash. When Neptune returned to the ground, she looked like she was just warmed up. The boss, on the other hand, looked like it had taken an extreme amount of damage.

"Super Dimension Game Party, finish it!" Neptune ordered as she dramatically pointed Armas towards her opponent.

At once, the party unleashed their might on the crimson dog. It didn't take long at all for it to burst into data in defeat.

"Did you call us 'Super Dimension Game Party'?" Gust inquired after their victory.

"Yeah, she did," Jacob responded as he landed on the ground. "I find the name stupid as well, don't worry."

"Same here," IF chipped in, retracting her claws.

Nisa seemed offended. "Well, in my opinion, I think it is a fantastic name!"

"In your opinion, it is a fantastic idea to prance about in this frigid cold weather in a legless jumpsuit with your zipper undone," IF returned. "I brought a hot pack. What's your excuse?"

"Please don't fight!" Compa pleaded. "Anyway, it doesn't seem like there's anything here. Let's go back."

Jacob sighed. "A bloody waste of time, that was..."

Having cleared the dungeon, the party turned around with the intent to go back the way they came.

"... Hold it."

A short girl stood in their way. She had very messy light blue hair that had a tendency to splay outwards from her head as well as two very long tendril-esque strands going down to her stomach. She wore a white leotard in addition to white leggings, sleeves and gauntlets, leaving only her shoulder blades, upper thighs and upper biceps uncovered. However, her gauntlets were actually claws with white tips and diamond-shaped joint coverings as well as disjointed circular cuffs that had two parallel black spikes protruding backwards parallel to her forearm. Even more surprising about this girl was her wings that floated behind her. They looked like square 9s with a sky blue "head" and a pink "shaft". The most distinguishing aspect of her, however, was her blood red eyes. It was the irises. White ovoids with a thin U shape indicated a CPU. As did everything else before.

"Hey Blanc," Jacob greeted as if he came across one of his classmates in school.

White Heart seemed a bit perplexed that Jacob deduced her identity but she recovered quickly. "I take it Noire told you about my HDD form as well?"

"Well, your eyes, your wings and your attire, which look like Neptune's and Noire's when they go HDD, kind of give you away but she did tell us about your HDD form as well. So are you here to kill Neptune to become the True Goddess?"

"... You and the other outsiders can leave," she said with her usual quiet voice. "This is between me and Neptune alone."

Nisa stepped forward and drew her prinny blade again. "I refuse. You choose to fight one of us, you choose to fight all of us."

"That's right!" shouted Compa with determination as she pulled out her syringe. "We're a party. You'll have to go through us, first!"

Even though she didn't look like it, White Hear was definitely a little bit peeved at this determination. Still looking very stoic, she drew her weapon. Had her opponents been anyone else, their knees would probably be shaking right now. White Heart wielded a massive white axe that was as tall as she was. The shaft bent at several places, providing hand guards for the two grips that White Heard held tightly with one hand on each. The head of the axe was, of course, the most imposing aspect. There was a devil-like blue horn on the back of it, a revolver chamber was in the middle of it and the edge, while a bit wide and uneven, still looked like it could cleave through just about everything.

"... Fine. I'll take on all of you." She then looked at Gust and a spark of hostility could be sensed from her. "I especially look forward to crushing you."

"Huh? What?" Gust was confused at White Heart's aggression being directed at her.

IF seemed a bit curious. "... Huh. Do you and Gust have a history together?"

"I'm curious about that as well," said Jacob.

"Kiss my ass." This time, White Heart's face indicated her agitation. "Now, roll over and die."

Gust seemed rather frightened. "Ah, help! Gust does not want to be revolver-axe food!"

"Oh no," Jacob droned with absolutely no concern on his face whatsoever. "Whatever shall we do?"

"No, Gust," IF said, jumping on the deadpan train. "If only she had some form of self-defence that she could fall back on to defend herself."

Nisa joined in. "If only she could fight back. Sniff. Weep. If only. Wipe eyes."

"Worst party ever!" Gust cried out in frustration.

White Heart took that moment to zoom over to the diminutive alchemist and swing her very large axe horizontally.

"Eep!" Gust cried out as she held up her broom in a futile attempt to protect herself.

Fortunately, the axe never came close to her. Blocking the axe from gaining any momentum from the start was the katana held up Purple Heart, who put herself between the two females.

"I would prefer it if you picked on opponents of your own strength," Purple Heart said before attempting to kick White Heart's side. White Heart, however, pushed herself away from the kick and distanced herself from her purple adversary. Both of the CPUs focused on each other firmly, their weapons ready to strike at a moment's notice. Gust took this opportunity to get away.

Jacob noticed something odd about White Heart. While Purple Heart looked as serious as normal and looked at White Heart no differently than she looked at Arfoire or Black Heart, who she fought purely because they threatened the safety of her and her party and had absolutely no personal reasons behind it, White Heart seemed absolutely enraged. Outwardly, she seemed to be as stoic as Purple Heart or Black Heart but Jacob could tell that, underneath that exterior, pure undiluted anger lay dormant. This fury wasn't a natural thing for her, something that she exuded all the time; it was directed exclusively at Purple Heart.

Before Jacob could analyse any further, White Heart was distracted by the sudden appearance of a massive glowing magic circle that span in the air beside her.

"What the-"

"Take this!" Gust shouted as she stabbed forward with her broom, causing a beam of light to shoot out from the circle through Lowee's CPU right before the circle disappeared. After the beam thinned out and dissipated after a second, explosions could be heard but not seen around White Heart, knocking her about and kicking up strange green-and-blue-ish dust stuff off the ground that floated in the air before vanishing. White Heart was brought down onto one knee.

"Whoa..." Compa was awed by the powerful magic attack.

"Oh, so you're fighting now?" IF asked.

Gust looked very annoyed at IF. "Gust cannot rely on party for defence. I must fight if I want to live."

"Good enough for me," said Jacob as he rose into the air. Aiming at the now levitating White Heart, he fired a Wide Roar at her. She noticed in the incredibly large bright red laser and flew to the side to evade. Jacob moved the laser to follow her but White Heart flew towards him and tried to shoulder-ram him. Jacob lifted himself out of the way, allowing White Heart to harmlessly fly by him. When she stopped herself mid-flight, Purple Heart arrived to slash at White Heart's arm. White Heart heard her coming and turned around in time to block it, leaving the white and purple goddesses in a lock.

Jacob saw it again. The hatred burning within White Heart. The hatred aimed entirely at Purple Heart. She hid it to the best of her ability but she evidently couldn't keep up the façade in the heat of battle. Her eyes ever so slightly shook. Her lips tightened. With a snarl, she forced Purple Heart away from her, closed in while Purple Heart was still wide open and slammed her axe into her side.

"Nep-Nep!" Compa shouted in fear as Planeptune's CPU was sent flying. However, Purple Heart effortlessly recovered in the air before she hit the wall, showing that there was nothing to worry around.

Even behind her ice cold face, White Heart's surprise was easily seen by the party. "... How did you survive that?" she asked.

"You make it sound like you expected me to die. The truth is, your attack barely hurt me at all." Purple Heart didn't look at all injured as she readied her sword again. "Blanc, how many levels lower are you than us?"

"... Hey... The monsters here took much more damage than I expected... And mister boss monster didn't even put up a fight... This is a low level dungeon!" Compa realised.

IF seemed to just realise it then as well. "Hey, yeah... It's like how we started off in Lastation."

"... You think that matters?" White Heart responded with barely restrained anger. "You could be level 100 and I could be level 1. I'm going to end you anyway."

"Oh no you don't!" Nisa shouted as she jabbed the side of White Heart's face, knocking her back. When she recovered, Nisa pressed on with an uppercut that White Heart dodged but she couldn't dodge Nisa's hook that followed immediately after. White Heart was sent spinning, something that she used to her advantage when she brought her axe around to smash Nisa. The heroine dodged under it and IF took advantage of the opening by hitting White Heart's face with a flying kick. When she landed, IF kicked her in the stomach, bringing her head down so that IF could heel kick it. White Heart was sent reeling again and Compa contributed by slapping her face as hard as she could when she stumbled close enough in her direction, knocking her to the ground.

Instinctively, Compa stepped back and aimed her syringe. As White Heart slowly got up, she looked at Compa with her aimed weapon, IF and Nisa who didn't have their weapons but were in melee fighting stances, Gust with her broom and Jacob and Purple Heart who were floating in the air.

"... Bye." White Heart, heavily injured, flew quickly down the corridor and to the exit of the level.

Jacob and Purple Heart landed on the ground now that there were no more threats and the latter transformed back into her human form. "You know, I miss the days when bosses put up a fight," Neptune commented. "These six on one fights just take away any form of challenge."

"Shouldn't we chase her?" Compa asked.

"What for?" Nisa asked. "She has nothing we desire and she refuses to answer our questions. There is nothing to gain from her capture."

Gust put her broom away. "Gust is still upset at deception," she said, annoyed.

"Oh boo hoo," IF responded without a care in the world. "You're in a party now. You need to pull your weight."

"But Gust synthesises items and gets amazing discounts!" she whined. "It only fair to be paid to fight too!"

"Yeah, no. Enjoy the labour. By the way, how did you know her?"

"Gust doesn't know her," the alchemist claimed. "I never seen her before."

"Oh, you probably don't know. That was White Heart."

That was a definite shocker. "What? I attacked Lady White Heart?!"

"Yup. Enjoy the revelation. Now do you know her?"

Gust pursed her lips. "... Gust sold item to Lady White Heart once."

Compa and Nisa became interested in the conversation. "What was it?" the nurse asked.

"Special medicine. Meant to increase resistance to cold weather."

"I can see where this is going," remarked Jacob, who had also gained interest in the conversation as well as Neptune.

Gust rolled her eyes. "Prank. Actually powerful anti-depressant. Hi-Five Radio broadcasted how Lady White Heart hugged everyone she came across and spoke in song for entire day."

Everyone was stunned silent.

"... Is there a video of that online or something? Because I definitely want to see that," said IF.

"Audio broadcast only evidence of Lady White Heart's antics. Still, many people can attest to seeing and experiencing event."

"... A happy Blanc sounds scary," commented Compa.

"I am so gonna have to get the story from her one day!" Neptune declared. "Come on, let's go home!"

"Right behind you," responded Jacob as the party ventured back to where they entered the tower.

Okay, that does it. It should not take 176 words to describe a character. There has got to be an easier way of doing this.

Additionally, I am never writing about clothing or business again. This chapter was absolute HELL to write and the chances of me having not gotten something wrong somewhere are about the same as the sun spontaneously going supernova within the next five minutes. I am so thankful that I know many people who know even the slightest bit about anything else. I'm also thankful to have played Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale and have even the slightest grasp on how JRPG businesses work.

Additionally, I know this is a very boring and slow chapter. Sorry about that. Hopefully... oh, who am I kidding, the next chapter's not going to have much in it, either. I don't even know what I'm going to call it yet.