Save 4: How To Spot a Tsundere
IF
Why did I join these guys? I find myself asking that question every few hours, and I've only been with them for two days. The latest reason for this question popping in my head again was Arc. He seemed like the most... sane out of the group to say the least. Compa seems normal at first, but her constant agreement with Neptune and her strange fighting style... she's strange. Neptune is... neptune. I doubt I even have to explain how her behavior isn't normal in my eyes.
But then there was Arc. I expected a lot from a fellow vagabond, and he delivered. At least at first. His support-like fighting style makes it necessary for him to have a constant eye on the field and ability to think on the fly. Guess he picked that up from always having to run away. Not to mention that he's been seemingly doing all the thinking for these idiots. But... he's still weird. He's got this aura about him that makes it impossible NOT to make fun of him and his reactions don't help either. He barely puts up a fight! Not to mention... whatever the hell he's doing now. "Uhhhh, Arcy? Are you done yet?"
"One second." We'd just got to Windy Valley, the large canyon standing in front of us, waiting to be explored! But this weirdo was... I don't know, honestly. He was standing in front of us, making a picture frame gesture with both of his hands and closing a single eye. Looking through it and into the dungeon. "Hm. Alright. I'm done." Opening his other eye, he moved his right hand to his chin and crossed his arms. "Yeah, I'm not feeling good about this one."
"I-Is that something that you always do, Arc?" Compa tilted her head to the side. Not that I can blame her confusion. This was weirdly superstitious from the usually level headed guy. And here I thought I finally met another normal person in Gamindustri. Shoulda known better.
"Hm? Oh, not really. I guess... How do I explain it?" Thinking for a moment, he nodded his head. "Think of it like when a chef notices that an ingredient they're going to use is going bad soon. It's something I do when I have a bad feeling. It helps me calm down and focus while scouting things out, you know?" Wow, an actually normal explanation! Maybe he is normal! "Sorry, I guess it does seem a bit weird." Uh oh. There it is, that feeling.
Jumping onto the bait, Neptune gave an innocent smile as she spoke. "Wow~ So cool, Arcy~ So thinking of naked women calms you down? Makes sense, makes sense."
"W-What the hell are you even talking about?!" Blushing, he took a step back away from our mascot. "I don't think about that at all! It's just a way to see if where I'm going is safe, okay?"
"Ohhhhhhh! So if you do that and see a big scary boss, you run away! Got it, got it~ Don't worry, I don't blame you."
And then he did it. Slightly puffing out his cheeks, Arc pouted while looking away from us. I doubt it's something that he does knowingly, since he seems way too keen on keeping his serious image. But it's weirdly cute. He's done it at least four times today, every time when Neptune said something that he had no comeback for. "Shut up." And, seeing as the pudding girl had a much more natural smile on, it looks like she's doing it to get that reaction in mind. I thought you two just met days ago? How are you already flirting like this? It's weirdly annoying.
Seeing that I was clearly the last sane person on this planet, I clapped my hands to get the idiots attention. "Alright, enough talking about Arc's weirdness. We've got a job to do and it'd be best if we get back before sun fall. Let's use the same formation as before, alright?"
"But-" Biting back what he was going to say, our resident support class sighed. "Fine." That's right, he did say he had a bad feeling. Ah well, he's likely just thinking to hard about it. He is way to cautious a person.
Once we started getting through the valley, I started to get the same feeling he was. Something's... off. I couldn't place it and couldn't get the chance to think about it. Every few steps we made, a giant living flower, huge ass bird or a busty flower monster girl popped up. Why are they so lucky?! I wasn't killing them with extra cruelty, nope. It was when we were fighting a pack of those bitches when I noticed something.
"Dammit, Neptune!" A yell came from behind me, along with the sound of a monster's screech. Turning my head for a moment, I saw a monster fall into the dirt just a few feet away from Neptune. It's hand raised in anticipation to attack. Is he- Putting that thought to the back of my head, I continued to fight. Hm. that fighting style. It's familiar.
Nepnya!
Arc
"Ugh, pay more attention dammit!" I yelled at the fucking dumbass amnesiac as she bonked herself on the head. "That was the tenth time I had to save you today! If I didn't do anything, you'd get hurt!"
"I'm a big girl, Arcy. Not like some low level monster could hurt me or anything. I don't have your low def stat." Her smug response only pissed me off even more.
"I don't care! I'm not going to let you get yourself hurt, dumbass!" What kind of supporter would I be if I did? This is the only way I can help. Closing my eyes, I couldn't even look at her anymore. "Holy hell. Please use at least a single percentage of your brain, Neptune."
"...sor-"
"Hey, Arc. Let me ask you something." Thankfully, IF's voice helped me calm down, thankfully speaking over whatever annoying comment Neptune was about to say. Turning to her, I let out a sigh of relief before grabbing my head in an attempt to stop the growing headache. "You're fighting style. Were you self taught?"
"Hm? Well, mostly. One of the few friends I have taught me the most effective way for me to use my magic and how to use it. He taught me the thing about weak points."
"Weak points? Like the big red spot monsters in games usually have?"
Surprisingly, it wasn't me who answered Compa. "Weak points is a theory originating from weapon smithing. It basically says that everything in the world; be they weapons, rocks, monsters, even people, have a weak point. Hit it in just the right spot and boom. Even with a butter knife, you could take down a goddess. Well, in theory at least." Woah! She's dead on! IF's so fucking smart!
Nodding my head at her explanation, I was then struck with a bit of confusion. "So, what is the question then? If it's about my aim, I'm just getting lucky today, I guess. Normally, I miss a shit ton more and end up getting exhausted by the first fight. Today, my accuracy is up to eighty percent! Hehe, maybe I'm getting better!"
"Nah, I think you're lucky." To even hear Compa say that, in such a sweet voice, made me truly believe I was nothing but a summer ant. "But still, luck is a great thing to have!"
IF awkwardly laughed before turning her full attention to me. "Anyway, I'm surprised. That kind of fighting style is really impressive, Arc. It requires quite a bit of research to figure out each monster's weak points. I'm surprised you're still an E rank."
Geez, how am I supposed to react to that kind of praise? Scratching the back of my head, I nodded and whispered a thank you. "Yeah, the only thing I have going for me is my head. But even then, if I screw up once in a fight, I'm dead. It's better not to even try, you know."
"Arcy, you're such a coward!" Neptune, seemingly waking up from her self indulgent stupor, slapped me on the back. "Ah well. I guess that just means we have to pick up your slack!"
I wanted to get angry or even offended by Neptune's joke, but the fact that she was right and also having my back, I just laughed it off. "Thanks Neptune." Giving me a dumb smile, we continued our journey to the edge of the valley, where Chian said the monster usually was spotted. All the while, however, I kept noticing it. It feels like someone is watching us. It's not exactly something I'm used to. Being the weakest guy in the room all the time usually made me easily ignorable, so when I was catching someone's attention, it was easy to figure out. Not to mention whoever this is isn't being very stubble. They weren't just watching me, but the entire group in general. But they haven't done anything so far. Let's hope that stays the case.
Either way, after a solid session of killing every monster that was foolish to come into my path (Read, Neptune's and IF's path), we finnlay reached the edge of the valley. Just a few hundred feet away from the entrance to a road that leads to Midgard city, the city where Chian's friend was trying to send the materials from. Taking a deep breath, I leaned against a wall and chewed on a Nep-bar. "Monster, monster! Where are you? I'll give you a snack if you come out!" Compa yelled with her hands cupped around her mouth. No shot that work-
"CAW CAW!"
"Oh come on! I wanted a break!" No rest for the wicked, eh? Flying high from the sky, a large red bird with metal wings flew towards us and... "It's got Compa!" Picked Compa up by its claws!
"AHHH! Why again?!"
IF, not missing a beat, immediately re-equipped her weapons and began to run towards where the bird was flying. Meanwhile, Neptune and I were still reeling from what the hell just happened. "N-Neptune, transform and go save her!"
"Uh, uh, uh. How did I transform again?" Oh come on! Even if we did catch up with the bird, how the hell are we going to reach it into the sky? Oh, wait! I got it!
"Alright Neptune, you better figure it out soon. Printing: Placement-Hunter." A knife with a detachable hook on the hilt appeared in my hand. Taking it off, I threw it to the lilac haired girl who caught it and aimed. "Also, please don't get mad at me."
"Huh? Why would I EHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH?!" Throwing the knife towards the monster, Neptune was pulled along with it. The hook in her hands somehow pulled her along with it. Screaming all the way, Neptune flew near the monster. "ARCY, I HATE YOUUUU!" Even saying that, she was able to force herself into a transformation, cut off the bird's head and caught Compa before flying back towards us. "Arcy, I really did not appreciate that." Even with her now mature tone, she sounded extremely annoyed.
"S-Sorry, but you're the only one out of the four of us who can fly, you know?"
"And what if I didn't remember how to transform?"
"Then, I'd catch you." Wouldn't be the first time she crashed into me. Surprisingly, she didn't continue the argument, instead, letting Compa go and turning away from me with a huff.
"T-That was scaaaary." Compa, now back on solid ground, practically planted her face into the first. "I'm never flying again..."
Running back to us, IF glared at me before smacking my arm. OW! "What the hell, Arc? Why didn't you tell me you could do that? Do you know how far I ran? I think I pulled a muscle." She sure was out of breath and seemingly beginning to sweat.
Before I could respond, A strange voice that we've never heard called out to us. "Hold it right there!" Slowly gliding down from the sky, a woman with six detached black and blue wings appeared. She had long white hair and was wearing a black one piece that reminded me of Neoptune's transformed outfit. She even had metallic gloves like Neptune. Ah, it's Black Heart. Well, we're either dead, or super dead. Smirking at us, Black heart, pointed a finger at Neptune. "It's been a while, Neptune. Still as annoying as ever, I see."
"Ah, someone who knows Nep-Nep!" Jumping up from the floor, Compa gave our new guest a wide smile. "It's nice to meet you! We're Nep's friends and she's lost her memory! Can you help us out, please?"
Surprisingly, Compa's request seemed to calm down some of the hostility that Black Heart was showing. Taking a step back, Black heart almost seemed to blush. "A-Ah, well... I do know Neptune, but she is no friend of mine. Perhaps mortal enemy would be more correct?" Each of us turned to the still transformed Neptune.
"What did you do?" Compa asked disapprovingly.
"She probably made fun of her until she couldn't take it." IF added with a shake of her head.
"Or used her money to buy a bunch of pudding." Honestly, that was the act that made the most sense to me. I wouldn't be surprised if the console wars started because Neptune annoyed the other goddess one too many times.
"Why are all of you acting as if it's my fault?"
"Because it probably was." We all said in unison. Earning us a few tears from the transformed idiot.
"I thought you guys were my friends..."
"Um... what is going on?" Black Heart looked legitimately confused by our current actions. So, I turned around and gave her a bow.
"I apologize for anything that this idiot has done to you. As her guardian, it's my responsibility to make sure she talks accountability for her actions. Neptune, apologize."
Looking between myself and Black Heart, Neptune let out a sigh and gave her own half hearted bow. "Even if I don't know what I did, Sorry."
Standing there in complete and utter shock, Black Heart seemed to legitimately not expect this outcome. "E-Eh? Uh... i-it's fine but... wait! No! I won't let you trick me!" Suddenly she flicked her wrist and a large black sword with a glowing blue blade appeared in her hand. It was much thicker than Neptune's transformed weapon and seemed to be twice the woman's size. She pointed the sword at me, of course. "I don't know who you are, but if you think you can fool me, you are absolutely incorrect! I am the CPU Black Heart and I will not be treated in such a way! Learn your place, human!"
Flying at me, she swung her weapon down and would have hit me if it wasn't for Neptune reacting faster than me. She resummoned her sword and parried the attack. "Hmph, I didn't want to fight you. But, if you're going to attack my Arcy, then I won't let that go!"
"You're Arcy?" Ugh, she already views me as her walking wallet. Refusing to answer me, Neptune flew forwards to match Black Heart. Each of their swings clashing with each other. The two of them flying through the air and seemingly were trying to kill each other. This isn't...
Running up to me, both Compa and IF looked up in the sky at the battle with me. "Is there anything we can do to help? The nurse asked.
"Doubt it. Even if we get Arc to use that knife again, we'd just get in the way." IF had a point, the two of them were evenly matched. But Neptune won't last long. Not only does Black heart seemingly have all of her memories from the war, but Neptuine already used a bit of her energy saving Compa. Dammit, what should we-
"Arcy! Catch!" Eh?
"Huh?" Looking into the sky, I saw Neptune swinging Black Heart around like a bag of sand. Looking around me for a way to run, I noticed that my two friends were now gone. Wow, what amazing friends you two are. Before I could think of a way to stop this stupid plan, Black Heart was thrown into my body. "GRAH! What is it with goddesses crashing into me these days?!" When she crashed into me, the two of us got tangled for a second before we flew in different directions. Black heart slamming into the ground like a bag of bricks and I was thrown far until I almost hit the walls that surrounded the valley. "Dammit, Neptune.."
Shaking my head, I was surprised I wasn't too injured, but I could definitely feel some pain when trying to breath. Ugh. "Y-You! Give me my weapon!" Looking up, I saw Black Heart also attempting to stand up, at a much faster rate than I am, I might add. However, I was able to grab the sword and use it to get up faster. God damn, this shit is heavy! But, with a smirk, I hid my body behind it. Printing: Weight-Hunter, Attaching the small knife to the large sword, I threw it on the ground.
"Have fun." Without waiting another second, she flew towards me full speed to pick up the sword, only for the extra unexpected weight to cause her to crash directly into the wall beside me. "That's what you get for threatening Nep."
Running away from the site, I didn't want to end up getting a fist full of sword from the pissed off goddess. However, the anger never came. Instead, the CPU popped her head out, coughed up a rock and glared at me and Neptune who had flown down to us. "I... I won't let this defeat stand! You tricked me!"
"What do you expect?! You're a goddess! I'm not winning a normal fight against you!"
"You should still have some pride in a fight! I... I hate you!" Bolting up into the sky, the woman flew off into the wind.
"Wait, we still need... answers. And she's gone." With the enemy gone, Neptune turned back to normal while Compa and IF came out of their hiding spots. "And where were you guys?!"
"A shiny rock distracted me."
"I went with Iffy to look at the rock!" I hate both of you. "Awww, don't get mad, Arcy! You did great beating up Black Heart!" With a smile, Compa patted me on the head. Stretching up to do so. "Good boy."
"Mmph. Whatever." Turning away from the girls, I did my best to try and keep my image intact. "A-Anyway, we did what we had to do, so let's go report to Chian and hopefully call it a night. This dungeon run's ran me dry."
Smiling, Neptune jumped into the air and gave our group a peace sign. "Yeah! Victory! Oh, and I'm starving! Arcy, carry me please!"
"You're the strong one here, you should carry me!"
"But I'm a maiden. Pretty please~ I'll kiss you on the cheek if you do."
"How about you pay me the money you stole from me two days ago!"
"You remember that?!" Why you- Stepping between the two of us, IF grabbed both of our ears. "Owowowow!"
"Will you two stop fighting for five minutes? Come on, let's go."
Even as she kept walking, she was still pulling our ears. W-Why does she have to be so strong?! It wasn't until we got to the exit of Windy Valley that our ears were granted mercy. "Owie! I think she stretched it." Rubbing her ear, Neptune kicked our S-rank friend in the shin. "Meanie."
"Neptune!"
"Ehehe!" Jumping out of the way of her grab, Neptune ran backwards out of the dungeon until- "opps!"
"Ah!" She bumped into someone. Neptune was still standing, but the person she ran into fell forward into the ground. "Hey, watch where you're go-ING?!" Standing up, the black haired girl looked at the four of us. She had long black hair styled in twin tails held by blue ribbons. She was wearing an elegant blue, white and black combat dress with detached sleeves and white frills. What is it with every other girl I meet having detached sleeves? Compa, this stranger. Hell even Neptune gets detached sleeves in her transformed state.
"Ah, sorry. Oh jeez! Are you alright?! I didn't do that to you, did I?" The stranger was covered in dirt and bruises. At Neptune's sentence however, the stranger glared at me. Why would you... oh. It's Black Heart. was honeslty pretty easy to figure out. I mean, we were the only people in the dungeon all day, and she did kind of look like Black Heart.
"Yeah, I'm- AH!" Before the human black heart could do anything, Compa jumped on top of her. "W-Wait! Stop!"
Ignoring her however, Compa seemed completely in the zone. Pulling out bandages and medicine from the small back that she always carried with her. "AAAAAAND done!" Jumping off of her, the young woman was now completely covered head to toe in bandages. She looks like a zombie.
"I-I can't move! My legs are tied together! Help meeeee!" Sighing to myself, I already noticed that I was going to have to bite the bullet and fix this. Neptune was too busy holding in her giggles, Compa was smiling at her work and IF was nursing a headache. I'm going to have to clean up all of your messes, aren't I?
"Scuse me." Pulling out a small pocket knife, I undid all of Compa's bandaging, ignoring her protests. I made sure to leave behind the bandages on her arms and around the top of her head however. She did crash into that wall pretty hard. "I apologize for that. My name is Arc S.W and this is my party. Compa, Neptune and IF"
"You're part of my party~" Neptune oh so helpfully added.
Holding in a groan, I nodded. "What she said. Anyway, if you're hurt we can bring you back to town. What's your name?" Giving her my hand the girl nervously grabbed with it, light ting on her honestly cute features appearing as she did.
"..re."
"Hm?"
"M-My name is Noire." Pulling herself up with my hand, Noire dusted off her clothes. "Pleasure to meet you I guess."
"Noire, huh? Cute name."
"C-Cut-"
"Hehehe, she sounds like the kind of girl who doesn't have friends!" And of course Neptune had to say something like that to the girl she just beat up. "Oh, I bet you do cosplay too!"
"W-Wha?! S-Shut up!" Glaring at the lilac girl as she danced around us, Noire puffed out her cheeks.
Deciding to pull everything back together, my fellow guild member coughed into her hand. "Anyway, what're you doing in a place like this? You don't seem like a guild member. Not to mention you're pretty scratched up."
"Uh..." Glancing between all of us, Noire gulped loudly before giving us a half hearted smile. "I uh... don't remember."
"..." You're really running with that? Come on, I expected the goddesses to be smarter than tha- "OHHHHH! A fellow amnesiac! Hehehe, look, Arcy! We have a third! Maybe we should make a team?" Neptune... I don't even know what to say. These goddesses are fucking stupid. "Aw, but we don't know where to escort you then. Ah well, guess you can join our party! You know what they say! Fellow empty heads should stick together!"
"Whose head are you calling empty?" Noire and I responded in a strange sense of unison.
"sigh* what a bunch of idiots." IF led our ragtag gang back to Lasation, all the while glancing at the obviously pretending Black heart. Whatever. As long as she doesn't do anything dumb, it's fine.
Neptine! I mean tune!
"Ah! A sweet, sweet bed!" Collapsing on a bed, Compa let out a soft sigh before rolling around on it. "Oh, and it's nice and soft too!"
"H-Hey! We're supposed to bunk, Compa. Don't throw all the pillows on the floor!" IF ran over to her bunk mate, throwing the pillows back on the bed as fast as compa rolled the off. "Seriously, stop!"
"Hehehe!"
THis was the sight that I saw when I came out of the shower, drying my hair and wondering how the hell did this happen. Well, we're sort of low on money. With myself having to cover both Nepotune's and my tickets, I didn't have enough to pay for a hotel room for myself. As usual. So, we took Chian's recommendation. A small hotel near the edge of town had rooms with three beds, which were the best we were going to do. Neptune and Noire on one, IF and Compa on another. Personally, I'd be fine with a chair or sofa, but we weren't so lucky to get one. "Alright, I'm done now. Who's next?"
Without much fanfare, Noire stood up and walked to the bathroom, blushing all the way. Guess she doesn't like the thought of taking a shower after a guy. Turning back to my bed, I was about to lay down to relax when... I saw Neptune, laying there with a flower in her mouth. "Hello there."
"Neptune, get off."
"Why, I'm going to sleep here." Before I could yell or ask why, she raised her hand. "Nowa's all injured, right? Shoulnd't she get the full bed instead of you? The fully fine gentleman should just take the L, no?" Dammit. What the hell am I supposed to do if Neptune uses completely fine , I refuse to believe this! "Now, come er and snuggle up with me!"
"I'd rather sleep on the ground, thanks."
"Arcy! Don't be so rude! Come on, come on!" Honestly, I really didn't have the energy to debate, I really needed to sleep. So, I layed on the bed, turned my back to Neptune and pulled the covers over me.
"Night."
"Hehehehehe. Oh, where's my marker! I need to leave some drawings on you while you sleep~" Ugh.
AN: Good evening everyone. I'm back now, sorry about the wait. My absensce wasn't exaclty expected, so I'm sorry about that. I'll be back with my regularly schedualed updates as of now, so next week I'll be updating ACQB. I orignally wanted to update both stries at the same time, however I'm still recovering so I couldn't do as much writing as I'd wanted. Either way, thank you all for understanding and I hope that you enjoyed this update.
Edison Estella Cutipa: Hello, thank you for your review. Thanks for also going back in my old story and giving it a read/review. This story is a complete remake however, so who knows, maybe you might get your wish about Nep. Who knows! I do, but I ain't telling. You'll have to keep reading and I hope you do and conttinue enjoying it. I do plan on changing quite a bit, perhaps to the point that this story and the old one turn out to be complety different. Either way, thanks for reading and understanding about my break.
JoannaQuire: Wow, thank you for your kind words! But please, don't be hesatent to le tme know if you have any cretiques. I want to make this story as good as I can so if there is anything I can imporve from your perspective, please let me know. Thank you for reading and for reviewing.
HaMCRI: I aperciate your kind wishies. While I'm still not at 100%, I wanted to come back as soon as I could. Nothing helps me relax better than writing. Thank you.
