An Azure's Re;birth
"So whilst we're on our way to this, 'Virtua Forest' place. Mind runnin' me through some stuff?"
"Huh? Oh, sure thing Mr. Ragna! What is it you had in mind?"
"Haaah… Drop the mister would'ya? It's making me feel more damn older than I'd like so just call me Ragna ya hear?"
"Of course, M-.. I mean, yessie, of course Ragna!"
The group were on their way back to Compa's home. Neptune seemed to be quite happy with find, having been unable to put down the wooden sword and waving it in the air like a kid with a stick. Well, that quite literally was the case if anybody were to see her. The trail they walked on the same as it was when they left for the city but slightly darker as the sun began to set.
Ragna decided to take the down time to ask Compa a few questions he never really got answers to. "Anyway, I am curious as to that device you keep pulling out from your purse. If I'm being honest, I've never seen something like that before, so I wanted to know what it does."
Compa tilted her head before a flash of understanding made itself onto her face. "Oh you mean my N-Gear?" She went through her purse before pulling out the white and purple device and showed it off to the Reaper. "It's my handy-dandy and trusty neutral-link hammerspace storage and diagnostics apparatus!"
… The hell did all that garbage meant?
The nurse noticed the confused expression of the white-haired man before rephrasing her words. "It's what I use to manage my inventory and look over the status of our party." Ah, why didn't she say that first? Would've saved him the mental gymnastics of trying to figure it out.
He nodded in response. "Ah, so that's what that thing does." Seems kind of nice to have something that stores your crap for you at all times. "Now that I think about it, how does it keep track of people's status? Does it like record data of other people or somethin'?"
"Well, kind of. If I remember correctly from what it said on the Internep," Internep? Really? Christ, the naming conventions of this place was gonna his head spin. It was already strange how things seemed to have some sort of play on words with things back in his home, now they were mixing in Neptune's in it as well. "It takes the data of a user in a party through three main methods and updates them accordingly with the situation present at the time."
During this, Neptune spotted something shiny in the woods, a gleam of silver in the corner of her eye. Her eyes sparkled in delight. 'Treasure!' she thought before taking off, leaving a smoke outline of where she once stood.
"First there is the 'Neural-Link' . This is done when setting up any kind of personal device to a user and is triggered through a biometric scan through the camera." Compa pointed to the top of the N-Gear, the camera lens glistening. "It takes a shot of your whole body and establishes the necessary makeup of your body's needs!" She turned on the screen before tapping on it a few times before pulling up her stats.
On the screen held a full-body render of Compa with a panel of the side that read the word 'Info' with information written about her. Ranging from her name, place of birth, height, landmass residency and more. She tapped on the next tab that read the word 'Stats', the screen changing to focus on her render.
Once it had finished loading, symbols that resembled elements and numbers to indicate the ability of Compa were displayed. It seemed to quantify her current capabilities through this 'Level-System'.
"So it connects with your brain and makes this connection so it can keep track of your well-being, am I following this right?" Ragna said looking at the device in wonder. Seems quite useful. "I assume me and Neptune are now a part of it?"
"Yep!" She smiled at his deduction. "It's also how it allows for the 'Party' function to track other members of a party that aren't the owners of their own Gear. It sends a neural-link to a person asking if they'd like to join the party, and if the person agrees, their information is added to the Gear's data!"
Ragna whistled. That sort of technology seemed quite ingenious, the ability to keep track of people's life without the whole diagnostic side of doctor's or other people wanting to prod at a person to see if they were good or not.
Someone like Kokonoe would be raring to go to tear that piece of tech apart. Having the power to be able to discern a person's being and weaknesses seemed too good to pass for a scientist like her.
"However there are some drawbacks to these type of Gear." The pinkette continued though her face turned to that of concern. "If a person hasn't updated their stats through the guild or a hospital for their checkups, the Gear will simply come up with a blank and certain actions will be required to be able to see them again."
So it's not a guarantee to see how strong someone is if they do decide to join. Well that sucks.
"It also won't be able to grab an enemy's data if you have never encountered them before!" She spoke. "So you still need to give them a wallop before you get anything useful from them!" So beat up assholes that get in the way. Got it. Seems easy enough, that was more forte of getting information in the first place.
"Hm, got'cha." Ragna nodded. "Wait a minute, where the hell is Neptune? Wasn't she just ahead of us not too long ago?"
Compa looked up from her N-Gear, looking around in front of the path but didn't see Neptune either. Just where could she have gone? She couldn't have gotten that far from them.
"Nep-Nep? Where did you go?" Compa said as she cupped her mouth.
Damnit, did their conversation go on for that long for her to have gotten lost already? Of all people, he would've expected Compa to be the one to have the bad sense of direction and get lost.
Now that he thought about it though, it seemed like something Neptune would do, at least getting lost from getting too hyperactive and antsy. Yeah, if he thought about it that way, he could totally see her doing that quite a bit.
Ragna clicked his tongue. Seems like finding Neptune was on their list of things to do before they can find out information about their drop-in.
"Hey, Ragna. Look over here." Turning his head to look at Compa calling out to him, his eyes followed to the N-Gear she gripped. "I have Neptune's signature on the Expedition Map. This will let us find her quickly. It seems she has wondered off to a secluded spot."
Having located their missing party member, they took off towards the location marked on the map.
It didn't take long for them to arrive, being greeted by a struggling Nep. She stood in front of what appeared to be a silver rimmed chest with a keyhole on the front. Her hands grasped in-between the ridge of the chest as she was crouched in front of it, heaving herself up as best she could.
It made for a funny sight. Though that wasn't the time for that. "Neptune, don't charge off like that damnit!" Ragna's yell caused the purple girl to yelp in surprise before falling over.
She lay on the ground before rolling sideways towards the group. Dust kicking up at her antics. She stopped herself shortly before them and looked up from their gazes.
"Heya guys! Look what I found!" Neptune pointed towards the locked chest. Both Ragna and Compa not looking too impressed. "Treasure, with a capital T!"
It took a moment for Ragna to process the scenario before him. Treasure out here? There's no way in hell it ain't a trap.
"Oh you did?" Though looking disappointed, Compa gave the girl on the floor an understanding nod. "I see… Is it not opening?"
"Hmm no… When I pulled at its lid, it didn't budge no matter what I did!" The purple girl got up from the floor and began to pat herself down. "I tried to open it up normally like in an RPG, nothing. I then tried to jam my sword in-between the gap and wedge it open, nada! And then I tried to stick it in the keyhole like a K**blade but it just turned my weapon's durability from 'Pristine' to 'Minimal-Usage'!"
"Maybe its because you don't have high enough strength stats to open it?" Compa offered her input.
Neptune looked ready to kick the chest in annoyance, likely from being denied her treasure. Ragna looked on in disbelief. "Hey Neptune? Shouldn't you be more cautious of this kind of thing? There's no way there is just treasure lying about for people to up and grab in a place like this."
"Huh? What do you mean by that Raggy?"
"Don't call me that. Ever." He said, putting on a 'there is no room for debate on this' look. Like hell that nickname was gonna fly when he was around.
"Mou. Fine, be that way. But still, this is only the tutorial dungeon Ragny-Rags. Stuff like this is common when exploring out-of-the-way paths and is supposed to reward the player for thinking outside the box!"
"Haah… Look if I can get that stupid chest open, will you behave and let us get to our destination in peace?"
Neptune put on a inquisitive face, debating on the deal. However it didn't take long for her to give her answer. "Sure thing!"
She really was easy to deal with. Promise her what she wants and she'll comply almost instantly. Seriously, that attitude would get her in trouble some time in the future and he knows for a fact that it'll happen.
Ragna walked towards the silver chest before stopping beside it and facing the purplette who stood in front of it, having hopped over to it in anticipation. With his good arm, Ragna reached in between the chest and its lid before prying it open with a satisfying 'thud'. It wasn't even that strong of a lock to stop him with the minimal strength he used.
The chest began to glow a light from being opened, he noted that inside there seemed to be nothing beside the light. 'That's weird.' He thought, still unused to this world's oddities.
Neptune unopposed to the ball of light moved her open palm to it before grasping it. It shimmered before disappearing between her fingers. "Oooh, a gun!"
She opened her hand and instead of the light he expected, a yellow and silver worn pistol emerged. How a ball of light turned into a weapon like that, he had no clue but it was a disturbing thought that a gun was just laying about for any person to find if they were strong enough to open said chest.
If he wasn't convinced that there was something wrong with this place, this certainly made him consider it. Who the hell thought it was a good idea to leave this kind of crap around?!
The girl paid him no mind and began to inspect the gun, looking at it up and down. Now this would complete her kit! She didn't know why but it felt as if she was missing something to compliment her badass sword wielding.
She brought out her wooden sword in her right hand with the pistol in her left.
"Alright, now this is what I'm talking about!" Neptune began to aim down the sights at an imaginary opponent, making gun shot noises with her mouth, swinging her sword as she mixed up her moves.
"Right, now that you've got what you wanted, you ready to follow along?" Ragna said.
"Yepperoni, lead the way fellow protagonist bud!"
With the girl now sated, he gave her a nod before walking towards the waiting nurse with the girl in tow.
Neptune quickly broke off from behind the man and began to show off her new find to Compa who complimented her newly acquired weapon. Admittedly, it didn't look like much and if anything looked more rustic than robust in its current state.
But having more than a lifetime of experience fighting all kinds of people made it so that he didn't underestimate things by their appearance. It may not look like it, but even something like that squirrel's (big, soft, and fluffy) tail could be lethal, considering how she used it to pummel her opponent soundly.
He was on the receiving end of that tail pummelling a fair few times when he encountered her back when he was on the run.
With the party reformed once more, they set off back onto the path leading to their goal.
"So those things are what are terrorising your world?" The words barely managed to escape Ragna's mouth as he observed the creatures before him.
… This had to be a joke at his expense, right?
The group was hidden behind a bush, looking over it and into an open field. Before them stood one of the monsters that was said to be disrupting the lands.
The 'monster' that jiggled before the group gooped around the place, bobbing its body up and down as it walked around carelessly. It was a blue tear shaped slime that had the features of a canine, two black pointed ears with a perpetual smile on its snout.
It's tail swayed side to side. If it wasn't already obvious by its happy face, the creature seemed to in good spirits.
"Yes! Those monsters are the ones that are causing problems for the landmasses. Be on your guard as Dogoos are known to come in large packs and swarm parties." Compa replied, ignorant to the Reaper's befuddlement.
Dogoos… That's what they were called? Fitting, but their existence felt mocking to the man. Being reduced and subjected to this kind of disparity in enemies didn't help his already decreasing mentality in the slightest.
He looked down at his feet and found a pebble. He picked it up, throwing it up and down, testing its weight. 'This'll do.'
"So all we gotta do is cut straight through them?" Ragna earned a nod from the nurse who was still staring at the Dogoo. "Fine. Then follow my lead. Hah!"
With a quick motion, Ragna tossed the pebble in his hand at one of the Dogoos closest to the group. As the pebble left his hand, it resounded out with a bang as if it broke the sound barrier before impacting against the snout of the Dogoo.
The force of the pebble went through the monster, leaving a clean hole from one end and out the other. It stumbled back and forth before crying out its signature 'Dogoo~' and breaking into bits of data.
Seeing his successful ambush, he quickly leapt out and began to engage with the rest of the Dogoos.
"Hey! No fair, I was gonna do that first!" In her own hands, she held her own pebble and in the other her newly acquired gun. She was too busy debating on whether to make her entrance with either one. "It's okay Pebs, you'll get your shot next time…" She whispered to the named pebble before storing it away.
"Come on Compa, we can't let him outshine us gals!"
"Yessie! I'll back you two up Nep-Nep!" Compa replied as the two quickly jumped into the fray, joining Ragna's ambush.
Ragna lead the charge, despite not having his Aramasa he was still capable of fighting anything that came his way. He let out a yell as he pulled back his fist before sending it at the Dogoo to his left, launching it up with an uppercut. With it airborne, he swapped targets and performed a wide roundhouse kick, knocking back more Dogoos that tried to jump him upon seeing their friends being hurt.
Not far behind, Neptune noticed the now flying monster in the sky and took aim, kneeling down before firing three rounds into the Dogoo. Just like the one before, it burst into data before it could land.
With the monsters staggered from his attack, Ragna took the time to quickly dispose of them by an onslaught of jabs and kicks and rounds, each one striking with the intent of putting them down for good. Normally he'd be more careful with such attacks, especially with him being crippled and down one eye, but the idea of these monsters being a threat was not something he'd humour at all.
"Leave some for us Ragsy!" Before he could finish off the blue dogs, Neptune cleaved through them with a yell, finishing them off for him.
Behind her, Compa had her syringe out, daintily running with it before tripping over her feet. She let out a'Meep~!' before finding the sharp end in the face of one of the stray Dogoos. As she reached towards the upright syringe, she pushed down on the syringe as she tried to pull herself up only to inject the unknown liquid into it. Its face morphed into surprise before adopting crosses for eyes, dissipating before her and offsetting the syringe, causing her to fall once more.
Neptune broke off into a sprint, gathering the attention of the last Dogoos of the pack. With their eyes on her, she turned before swiping down on one as it attempted to headbutt her. Having taken it down, she pulled out her gun once more and fired the remaining bullets in the magazine into them. Despite the rain of lead, one more persisted. Seeing this, Neptune took it as her moment to shine. "Watch this guys, I'm about to go all out!"
She put away her gun before gripping her wooden sword tightly with both hands before launching towards the last foe. "Cross Combination!" Upon reaching the Dogoo, Neptune sliced and hacked away into it before launching it up. She leapt to follow the enemy before winding up and sending it back into the ground with a loud thud as it impacted the dirt.
Instead of dying as she expected, the Dogoo bounced up and away from her. "Hey, get back here! You're supposed to vanish into EXP after my cool finisher!"
"What th-." Before his sentence could finish, Ragna's face was consumed by the bouncing Dogoo as it sat happily on his face.
Everything stood quietly at the conundrum, the only sounds breaking the silence was the panting of a tired Compa and failed hidden snickering of Neptune as she tried to contain her laughter.
It didn't take long for Neptune to break as she began to bellow out loudly, pointing at him and falling to the floor as she clutched her stomach.
A dark aura radiated from Ragna as he stood still. His hand made its way to his face before gripping the Dogoo and ripping it off, a pissed off expression now adorning his face. He stared at the creature that looked derpily at him before crushing it into data.
In spite of his prior face-hugging fiasco, he tsked his tongue before breaking off from the two. "Quit laughing Neptune, or else I'll just take Compa with me and leave you behind to find your own way to the damn place."
Neptune gasped. "I knew it! You are going for the Compa route! It's because she's more developed than me and hits that 'ditzy and smexy' Nurse personality to a tee, isn't it?!" She pointed at the man, who now had a tick forming on his head.
Faster than she could see, the girl now had a bump on her head ala Reaper punch express.
The group continued their path towards the landing zone of where Compa had found them, the terrain becoming more destroyed as they went deeper in. Along the way, they disposed more groups of monsters, Ragna and Neptune taking point as Compa stayed in the backlines providing support. Their team composition was well filled, Ragna acting as the pseudo-leader and 'Tank' as Neptune said, Neptune as the DPS and Compa the Field Medic.
It was surprising to see that for a sudden rag-tag group, their teamwork was almost suiting for his current style of one-armed combat. The keyword being almost.
There were points where Neptune would get antsy and charge in, wanting to gain more 'EXP' to level up and get ahead of the group so she could become the leader which resulted in her subsequent bathing in Dogoo jelly. Compa sometimes tripped up at the worst of times, accidentally poking the Reaper's behind, causing him to yell and miss his swings.
However when he commanded them and listened to his calls, the fights went relatively smoothly, even if the weird comments of the two were starting to get on his nerves. What the hell does 'I'm gonna Nep you up!' even mean?
Soon after dispatching a group of Boxer-Men and straight up Perverts, they soon found themselves at the centre of their incident. A small Neptune sized crater could be seen, trees and bark littered all over the forest's floor.
"And here we are. Where I found you two." Compa stepped forward before giving jazz hands to the crater. "It seems that its still intact, normally the guild would do routine checks in designated dungeons such as these to sustain the wildlife and see if anything had changed and fix things when necessary. But it seems that the monster attacks won't let them even do that…" She trailed off at her explanation, the realisation making her sad.
''I guess such changes from the norm made it more evident at how different things are nowadays.' The Reaper thought.
"So, do you remember anything now that you're here Nep-Nep? Ragna? Maybe even something you lost?" The nurse asked.
Neptune had her hand under her chin, looking deep in thought. She looked up towards the nurse. "Oh, I guess I do know something I lost."
"Oh, what is it?" Compa's eyes sparkled at the revelation.
"It's my memories of course!" The response earned her a blank stare from Ragna and a concerned look from Compa. "What? Does my joke not land as well as I did from the sky?"
"Neptune." Ragna said. "I don't think it's a good time for those kinds of jokes." The day was already long enough as it was, if nothing was to come from this expedition, he'd rather go back as soon as possible and rest up at Compa's house. At least then they won't get lost in the dark this deep in the forest.
Last thing he'd want to do is be annoyed in the dark. Who knows how camping would workout with Neptune, Compa at the very least seemed to be more competent for that kind of thing.
"Oh, before I forget. Ragna, I wanted to ask you something." The nurse started.
"Huh? Oh, uh sure. Shoot."
"I noticed you were having problems with fighting earlier, despite looking like you have a lot of experience, it felt as if you were missing something to it." She said.
Now that she mentioned it, it was admittedly a bit awkward to fight as he was right now, having been mostly accustomed to fighting with both arms and his Aramasa. It wasn't as if he were bad or found it hard to fight as it were, but some of his signature moves were hindered without the Azure Grimoire or sword, resulting in more experimental moves he normally wouldn't do to accommodate his deficit.
He nodded towards her, knowing there was no point in disagreeing with her statement. "Yeah, I will admit the way I am fighting now is different to how I'd normally fight. I usually fight with both arms and my sword."
The mention of a sword seemed to have sparked something from Compa. "A sword?" The Reaper nodded again.
Compa took out her N-Gear and began to tap away at the screen. Just what was she doing now? During this, Neptune leaned over the pinkette's shoulder, skimming over her inventory with curiosity.
It didn't take long as a few taps more, two items began to materialise in front of her, their outlines being traced before it took shape. The Reaper's jaw dropped.
How the hell did she get his sword?! He thought that he left it back home. That wasn't good. The Rabbit is gonna have a field day trying to find the thief who stole it. Hopefully nothing came from it, as that line of thinking spelt more headaches to come.
Once the sword materialised, the coat fluttered above lazily, slowly following in pursuit. The nurse held out her hands after pocketing the device, catching the sword but quickly found herself flying forward as she held it by the flat side.
Before she could get a face full of steel, he stepped in front of her pulling the sword away as her face collided with his chest.
"You okay?" The Reaper said as the nurse looked up at him. Her face took on a blush, realising how close she is to him.
Her mouth opened and closed like a droughted fish, words failing to escape her mouth. She quickly let out a distressed noise before shutting it tight, giving him a nod. Soon after the nod, her face was covered with his red jacket, her face becoming even more flushed than before.
Ragna chuckled before pulling the jacket off and resting it over his shoulder. Once it had fastened, he looked back at the nurse who still clung to his chest. "Um… Compa, you wanna get off?"
Hear his words, she quickly pushed herself off as she tried to compose herself once more. This time, instead of Ragna being teased, it seems like Neptune's newest victim was Compa.
"Hohoho~ It seems that this story has found its current OTP. Looks like I'll have to force the writer to make the next Lily Pairing between me and Ragsy to catch up. When is it my turn to get lovey-dovey with him dangit!" Neptune said, Compa flaying her hands in her face as she attempted to sway such claims.
"No, it isn't like that Nep-Nep! He just caught my fall so I wouldn't hurt myself. Isn't that right?"
Ragna looked on in bafflement. But it didn't last long as he felt the ground beneath him give way. He paused before looking down at the cracks forming. The other party members were too caught up to notice.
"Ah shit. Compa! Neptune!" His sudden shout gave pause to the two girls, stopping their antics. "Watch your footing!"
Thinking fast on his feet, he grabbed his imbedded sword, he assumed that caused the ground to give from him dropping it, before running towards the girls as they stood dumbstruck.
However, before he could reach them, the ground broke. "Shit?!" The Reaper cried as the ground consumed them.
Neptune and Compa screamed from the sudden plunge as they plummeted below into the darkness, both holding onto one another. Ragna clenched his teeth. As he delved deeper into the dark, he grabbed Aramasa by the hilt before triggering the sword's mechanism to extend in tandem as he slammed it, digging it deep into the wall.
The sword screeched as it ran against the wall before slowing to a halt, leaving the man hanging. He looked around as his eyes attempted to adjust to his new surroundings. It appeared to be a cavern from the little light that broke through from the hole above.
He looked around, surveying the area, searching for the girls. Nothing.
Damnit, they must've fell deeper in. With a click of his tongue, Ragna planted his feet against the wall before pushing himself off with his sword in hand. Soon his feet found itself onto a platform before he tucked into a roll, letting the momentum carry through the rest of his body.
He stayed in his crouched state before standing up. Now on, hopefully, stable ground, he looked around the cavern.
Around him appeared to be an empty mined cavern with crystals forming out the walls and ground, glints of ores shining on the rocks. If it were any other situation, he wouldn't be hard-pressed to be looking at them from their beauty. But right now he had to find his party.
The man readjusted the coat on his shoulders before hooking his sword on the magnetic catch on his belt, the familiar weight easing him. Right. They couldn't have fallen that far, hopefully Compa could patch them up in-case they got hurt from that fall or fight enemies.
So far they seemed well-off enough to fight most monsters that come their way, he hoped they could hold out long enough 'till he finds them.
With concerns on his mind, the Ragna took off on the path going down, hoping to find them unharmed.
"Owie! This didn't happen in the last timeline, remake, remaster. Whatever they call it!" Neptune cried, her face sore from face planting from the height.
"Oh no, are you okay Nep-Nep? I didn't mean to land on you I swear!" Compa said now on her feet. "Here, I'll heal you."
Compa closed her eyes as she pointed her hands towards the fallen Nep. A R/W Disc appeared before wisps of green zeroes and ones floated towards Neptune. A haze of green encompassed her.
A look of wonder made its way onto Neptune's face as she pushed herself off the floor. "Ya know, no matter how many times I see it, its so cool to see you just heal us like that."
"Gee, thanks Nep-Nep. I'm glad I can be useful to the party." Compa smiled.
The two now better, they looked around their surroundings. It was dark before the crystals around them began to glow brighter, giving a line of sight.
"Wow, what is this place Compa? Another dungeon perhaps? Or is it like a super-secret zone that we stumbled upon?" The nurse gasped.
"Oh my, this isn't good. We fell into one of the undergrounds in Planeptune." It appeared that she was familiar with this place. "Nep-Nep we got to get out of here and fast!"
The sudden urgency from the nurse startled the purplette. What could have tipped her off like that? "What? Come on Compa, it surely can't be that bad, can it?" This called for adventure, and this place looked like it had all sorts of great loot spots. "Besides, you have me, the kickass, badass and adorable protagonist to protect you after all. If any thing gets any funny ideas, I'll wallop them into next Sunday."
Despite her attempts at reassuring the nurse, Compa looked on scared but gave an unconfident nod. She pulled out her syringe pre-emptively, clasping it tight as her hands jittered. It seems to have gotten to her more than she thought.
Seeing her attempt to lift the mood failed, her line formed a line before she summoned her sword and gun. Neptune took the lead and followed the path to her left, doing 'Eeny, meeny, miny, moe' to decide their path.
An old bridge stood before the girls, its age showing as rust appeared by the edges of the construct. It seemed stable enough as she poked the bridge with the end of her shoe. "Looks fine to me." And with vigour, Neptune confidently stepped onto it.
Compa looked more worried but took a deep breath and joined her.
The metal bridge creaked and groaned from the new weight but held as the two walked across. The breeze within the cavern causing it to whistle eerily. Shivers went down their backs from the sounds.
Just as the two were about to get across, the sounds of feet stomping ahead of them sounded out, echoing in the cavern. In front of them was a hooded figure, her long silver hair flowing out the sides. In her arms lay an injured girl, her red-pink twin tails fluttering, dressed in an almost militaristic fashion.
It was a weird sight to see if the purplette were to be honest, but she was worried for them. Maybe Compa was right about this place, if a woman and supposedly her daughter look distraught and are running from something.
She gripped her sword harder before calling out to them. "Hey lady, are you oka-."
The hooded woman grit her teeth. "Move out the way, or we're all dead!" She said, not stopping her sprint.
Before Neptune could retort angrily at her for interrupting her offer of help, behind the woman came a loud roar, the sound of rocks being burrowed as the cave shook.
Out from the ground, a massive insectoid monster appeared, its mandibles encroaching forward as its antennae and legs stomped angrily towards the woman and kid.
Its anthropomorphic arm reached into the wall before ripping out a large sword before encasing the handle in webbing. With a big windup, it held the sword in both hands above its head before slamming it down onto the ground, kicking up spikes that travelled towards the pair.
The silver haired woman turned to see the spikes before running faster, however she let out a pain gasp as she fell to her knees, the leg in question enflamed and scratched. She closed her eyes as she hugged the red-haired girl, embracing for the impact.
Neptune broke off into a sprint and tackled the two out of the way, the spikes narrowly missing the group as they tumbled.
"Nep-Nep!" Compa cried as she clung to the bridge's handles, riding out the spike's impact hitting the rigid bridge.
Now the two saved, Neptune stayed crouched by the hooded figure, protectively covering them. "Wait, you're-.." The woman started, causing Neptune to glance at her. Her eyes didn't stay on them too long as the monster raised its sword again before roaring once more.
A serious face made its way on Neptune's face. This was serious, no time for jokes when there's lives on the line.
With its battle cry, the insectoid charged headfirst with intent to kill its latest victims.
Word Count: 5730
Started: 16/06/2023
Final Draft: 23/06/2023
AN:
Hey, welcome back to this story. We're finally getting into the more interesting parts of this story, and I hope this deviation from the original script and homages to the original Hyperdimension Neptunia (And not Re;Birth 1) were interesting to long time fans. I know I had fun incorporating and creating lore and backstory to have mechanics and such, and I hope you appreciate them too.
No Omake this time, I'll be doing them every other chapter, so one with and then one without and repeat. Felt better to not bloat the story to up the word count as well as some parts just need to stop to add to the suspension drop and cliffhangers.
Currently in the process of writing the next chapter as we speak, so expect more action between the now separated party. Following both the perspectives of Ragna on his path and Neptune and Co. on the other.
And if you want to write some reviews about anything regarding this story, please do as it encourages me to do better alongside criticism of the story. Also if you are writing a review not under an account, please add a name to refer to you by. It's getting a bit hard to respond to things by just Guest and can get a bit confusing.
Now, onto the reviews.
ArmantusCumPinnae - Ah thank you for your hard work. I actually dont mind if you use the traditional british style. I dont want the Author to be overburden. I'm just saying if you gonna use such style, perhaps say it on top of the chap just before. Overall i love the world building you make and i do hope to see more. Im jist mofe concerned about ragna since he is technically have no acces to his original power or even his sword. He may be a powerhouse without them bu i do kinda hope Ragna gets something to fully optimize his skills. Cheers and have a good one.
Thank you for your support, I hope to continue impressing or at least interest more people with my world building for the Neptunia world. And it's fine with the format change, I don't mind. If it lets more people find the work more digestible and the request in sensible, changes will be made and made apparent in the Patch Notes above the chapter to denote said changes.
And don't worry about Ragna just yet, he is still very much a powerhouse, but his strength and powers will be a focal point I want to explore and to not spoil things since this is basically only the start, he won't be nerfed or held back. I can promise you that much. After all, he got Muramasa back, didn't he? This is only the beginning.
Guest (3) - Hopefully you won't nerf Ragna too much, given that he could even hold his ground against Azrael in some amount of time despite being crippled and that was before he drastically improved himself as fighter.
P.S. Would Ragna be the party's cook?
As stated above, Ragna won't be nerfed. Can't show all my hand this early now can I? Trust me, as a long time Blazblue fan, Ragna will get his time to shine on the battlefield and show off his stuff.
And he most certainly would be. Be sure to look out for more moments between the cast and omakes. Cooking is one of the things I want to use as a plot point to build their relationships.
Pieceofcake-22 - Well, a well written fic about my one of my favourite protaginsts Ragna? Count me in. I have nothing about the story itself as I see it's pretty good. Will more Blazblue characters make an apperance or is it just Ragna?
Thanks for the compliment. And well, there already has been a Blazblue character appearance outside of Ragna. Afterall, they appeared before Ragna did in the story. That's all I'll say, its up to you who figure out who it is.
All I'll say is their next appearance may be very soon.
ryuryushin14 - Oh my God yes a very good story and my favorite protagonist I count me in on reading this and hope it will not get abandoned.
It won't unless I explicitly say it has been abandoned. So fear not.
Red Rebel (Thanks for using a name instead of Guest) - Hmmm tbh about relationship im on the fence. While I agree with another about Ragna the pimpedge FTW and it wouldnt do Ragna justice if he doesnt have women troubles. Just... just look at the hell he had to deal with that involves women. I pity the poor bastard. But i do feel that Ragna deserves all tge love he can get cuz god dam, Arcsys had been teasin us for so long and when we finally had an official ship, they torpedoed it before it could even leave the harbor. I just want ma boy happy.
With how most of neptunia girls are built like a certain triple soul monster. I dont think romance is gonna fly or at least it would very far off. Perhaps Ragna would treat them like little sisters or something similar or just sometimes spoil them. Now if they have a crush with the good reaper thats a different story. Perhap they would try to get Ragna to spoil them as much as possible or try to get his attention.
Basically currently, the girls might like romantically him but he doesnt( at least it might very far off into the future). Overall i just dont want you push thing. Let it flow normally. But i wont deny i do wish to see some fluffy moments for my favorite reaper. He certainly deserves it after CF. I want ma boy happy.
Hoh, this is a long one. Like I said, I would love to see Ragna get a true happy ending and it would be interesting to see him have Harem hijinks but for the sake of this story, it won't happen unless said otherwise. I will make their relationships as interesting as possible, but once again, unless stated otherwise, it'll most likely stay in Omakes. And yes, the sort of familial relationship would be best.
Guest (4) - I could see the girl on Ragna hijinks being chaotic. And Vert is the type to like handsome muscular men. I can already see a bath scene where some of the girls try to peek on Ragna.
How'd you guess one of my Omake ideas already? Look forward to that in the future.
Next Chapter – Vermin's Guarded Treasure Bunkery
Estimated Release Date: 30th June to 6th/7th July 2023.