Chapter 1: A (Cheerful) Signal
It was a normal day at Planeptune of Hyperdimension, well… normal as Neptune was being pulled by Nepgear, since Historie had a meeting. Neptune woke up a bit late in the morning, of course, after playing video games all night so it was up to Nepgear to wake her up.
Of course, when they came into the meeting room, which sort of had bookshelves around the corner and tables and chairs, Noire, Blanc, and Vert were already there. They were not surprised by the fact that Neptune was late since this happened a lot.
"Good morning everyone!" Nepgear exclaimed, greeting everyone there. "Sorry that we're late." She said as she bowed in apology.
Blanc then waved her hand. "It's alright, Nepgear." She told the purple-haired girl before she turned to Neptune. "But in Neptune's case…" She didn't finish her sentence since it wasn't worth commenting on.
"Jeez, Neptune… This again…" Noire huffed in annoyance, she frowned as she crossed her arms. "How many times are you going to force Nepgear to wake you up?" She asked.
"Sorry! Sort of forgot about that!" Neptune said as she scratched the back of her head as she chuckled to herself. "Was staying up late…" She told the other goddesses.
"Well you're not the only one." Vert spoke up, catching all the people there's attention. She then looked at Blanc. "If I remember correctly, Blanc stayed up all night writing her stories."
Blanc then looked caught off guard before she then turned red in embarrassment and anger. "W-Wh–!? Hey! What the hell!?" She exclaimed angrily, shaking her fist anger.
"Now, now. Let's not derail this any further." Histoire spoke up, not wanting the meeting to go off-topic. "Let's talk about what I brought you all here for." She said before she took a deep breath. "Just last night, I sensed a signal that a dimensional portal had opened. Someone must have crossed between dimensions…"
"A dimensional portal?" Nepgear asked, looking at her confused. "Did the other Neptune and Uzume come back from their adventure? Then if not, Plutia and the others?" She suggested whoever came through the portal.
Histoire shook her head before speaking up with something rather grim. "No… this is different… I felt something very powerful after… The power I felt was almost suffocating… almost unnatural…" She said before she shivered. Everyone there was caught off guard by this. "I want the four of you here to investigate this while Nepgear stays here to provide back up." Then Nepgear's shoulders droop a little before nodding in understanding. "If this is someone that is willing to work with us, you don't have to fight… But… if it's not… then…" She frowned, probably hoping it's not the latter.
"Oh come on, Histy! No need to sound grim!" Neptune exclaimed, holding up the peace sign. "We'll investigate this faster than you could say 'It will only take three hours.' Okay?" She said jokingly, to which Histoire let out an exasperated sigh. "So who's with me!?" She asked.
"I don't mind…" Blanc spoke up, her dull face and tone doesn't seem to contradict what she's feeling as she held up her hand. "I have to defend my nation if things go awry."
"I too agree with this." Vert said, putting her hand up as well in agreement. "If what Histoire says is true, this might be our powerful enemy yet. I am inclined to look into this…"
Then everyone looked to Noire, who then nodded in agreement as well. "I mean… I have to, right…? She said before she looked away. "But I'm only doing this to make sure it's not anything dangerous! If this, whoever just entered into our dimension, is not dangerous, then I'm leaving!"
"Yeah, Yeah, Noire… Whatever you say!" Neptune said as she rolled her eyes and put her hands behind her head causally. "Either way! Let's go!"
–
After flying near to where Histoire told where the signal was, Neptune and the others landed somewhere in the middle of a forest and they disengaged their HDD forms. Neptune was looking around very enthusiastically, Noire huffed in annoyance, Blanc had this very neutral expression as usual, and Vert had a rather serious expression on her face.
"This is where the signal would be…" Blanc muttered under her breath as she then looked around. She's trying to look for whoever this person is.
"Hello!? Is there anyone here!?" Neptune exclaimed, not caring if anyone heard her or not. "Can anyone hear me!?"
"Neptune, even if they did hear you, why would they answer?" Noire asked, a bit annoyed by this. "It's possible that they might attack."
"I have to agree with Noire." Vert spoke up as she crossed her. "None of us are sure if they're even good, so it's best for us to be careful."
"Oh, come on! You two!" Neptune exclaimed as she pouted. "You don't know if they're bad either! So let's hold off for a little while until we get there, okay?" She then turned to Blanc. "Right? Blanc?"
"…I will say nothing on this." Blanc said with a frown before she turned and walked away.
"Wh—!? Hey! Blanc! At least answer me!" Neptune exclaimed as she chased after the brown-haired girl.
Noire and Vert then looked at each other before the former just sighed. "We don't even know if they're human…" Noire muttered under her breath, so that no one could hear.
As they walked to where the signal was earlier, Noire, Vert and Blanc were being a bit careful about. However, Neptune was rather carefree about all of this. Well, until they heard a loud gunshot nearby to which everyone immediately looked around with bewilderment.
"Whoa! What was that!?" Neptune exclaimed, looking around for where the gunshot sound came from. Then another came afterwards.
"That was a gunshot…" Blanc mused, trying to look where the gunshot was coming from. Then after the second gunshot, a loud roar of a monster came from the left of them. "And that was…"
"A monster…!?" Vert exclaimed as she whipped around to where the noise was coming from. "Someone has to be fighting here. And they seem to be in trouble. We should help them."
"Yeah! Let's go, team!" Neptune exclaimed as she rushed towards the noise. Then Vert, Blanc, and Noire looked between each other before she shrugged as they chased after Neptune.
When they got there, there was a girl with a youthful, pale complexion and light blue hair that was very long that reached to her ankles. She wore a purple hoodie with blue sleeves, white knee high socks, and blue and purple shoes. She fought an Ancient Dragon with just a gun, which is pretty hard for her to try and do alone.
"A girl?" Blanc looked at the girl dodging and shooting the dragon. She looked like she was having trouble with defeating this monster.
"Looks like she's in trouble…" Noire muttered under her breath as she frowned and crossed her arms. "Anyway, we should help her." She said, to which everyone agreed.
Even though they were investigating this strange signal, they all wanted to at least help the girl. So without saying another word, they all summoned their weapons and rushed over to help her.
"H-Huh…? Who…?" The girl asked, looking at these people who were helping her. She was very bewildered by the sudden sight of them.
"Woah, bud! Let us handle this, okay?." Neptune said to the girl before pointing her sword at the dragon. The other three readied their weapons, getting ready to fight.
The dragon then flew towards the group with raised claws. All of them moved away from the attack before Noire moved in first to attack. She did a couple strikes with her rapier before the dragon tried maneuvering around to attack the black-haired goddess.
"Oh no, you don't!" Blanc moved in front of Noire and blocked it with her hammer before countering it. She swung her hammer hard and struck it with all her strength and knocked it down to the ground.
"Penetrate Spear!" Vert exclaimed as she snapped her fingers while Noire and Blanc moved away, then a bunch of spears summoned behind her and directed all to the dragon before a cut of green energy sliced through it, dazing it
"And now for my new move… Purple Flash!" Neptune said before an energy surrounded her before charging towards the dragon with a sword in hand as the blade glowed a brilliant glow. Then she sliced through the monster before exploding in blue and purple energy, finally killing the monster.
"Yay! We won!" Neptune exclaimed, doing a victory pose. "Too easy for all of us together, right?" She said as she turned to the others.
"Of course we did." Noire said as she put away her weapon. "I didn't even have to use that new move on that monster, unlike you two." She then looked between Neptune and Vert.
"Well that's because we wanted to test them out on a monster as strong as an Ancient Dragon." Vert said with a smile as she also put away her weapon and clasped her hands together. "Exactly like an RPG." She added.
"Vert. This is not the time." Noire said with a frown, crossing her arms. "We have to go and…" Her voice then trailed off as she saw that the girl was looking at her. "Uhh… What do you want?"
"Woah…! Black hair…! That's so cool!" The blue-haired girl exclaimed, almost mesmerized by Noire's hair. "Can I touch it? Can I? Can I?"
Noire just stared at the girl, trying to process what she was saying before she immediately took a step back. "W-W-What!? Like hell you can touch it!" She exclaimed as she stomped her foot. "What kind of person says that when they meet someone!?"
"Eh? I just want to touch it." The girl told her before she tilted her head. "It looks cool, that's all! And pretty! Neehee!" She snickered a little.
"W-W-Wh…!?" Noire immediately sputtered, blushing a little as she saw the girl giving her a big smile.
"Woah there, buddy!" Neptune said, waving her hands. "If you want to tease Noire, you have to do it properly." She smirked as she turned to Noire. "Like for example…!"
"Y-You shut up, Neptune!" Noire interrupts her with a very angry expression. "E-Either way, we're on a mission right at this moment. We can't be here for a while."
"Hm? Mission?" The girl then narrowed her eyes. "What kind of mission?" She asked as she tilted her head to the other side.
"It's nothing you should be concerned about." Blanc spoke up, answering for everyone else.
"Yep! Yep! This is a super secret CPU mission!" Neptune exclaimed, holding up a peace sign. "So no one should know about this, okay?"
The girl's eyes then widened a little bit before she narrowed her eyes, looking at each of them in the face. She looked like she's in thought for a while before she then opened her mouth. "Woah… You're CPUs too…!" She said with her eyes widened with shock before she smiled. "So maybe you can…?"
Everyone raised their eyebrows. This wasn't their first time meeting a CPU randomly. "Ah! I see! You're a CPU as well" Neptune said to the young girl, who was looking back at her quizzically, before giving her a smile. "Oh! And could you tell us what nation you rule?"
"Neptune… Don't just ask that so suddenly…" Noire muttered as she elbowed the purple-haired girl before looking at the young girl apologetically. "Sorry about her. She just jumps into thi…" She then stopped herself when she saw that the girl was still staring at her hair with eye sparkling. "Would you stop that?" She asked in a warning tone.
"Oh! Oops! Neehee!" The girl then narrowed her eyes again at each one of them. "I see! You're Neptune! CPU of Planeptune!" She pointed at the purple-haired girl before pointing at Noire. "You're Noire! You're Lastation's CPU!" Then points at Blanc. "Brown-haired one is Blanc! The CPU of the everlasting winter wonderland, Lowee!" She said, to which caught Blanc immediately off guard. "And the tall one is Vert! Leanbox's CPU!" She said as she pointed Vert. "And your mission is…" She narrowed your eyes again before nodding. "Oh! I see! You came here in search of a very powerful signal in this area! And this mission was assigned by… ah! Histoire!" She said, to which everyone was immediately caught off guard. "So? Did I get it right?" She asked.
"How did you…?" Blanc looked at the young girl with wide-eyed shock. "I mean… you probably heard our names somewhere… so that might be a possibility… And you might have also known about us, but…" Her voice later trailed off, still trying to process what she heard from the girl.
"There is absolutely no way you could have known what our mission was. Or the fact it was assigned by Histoire." Noire continued for Blanc, who was as shocked as the rest. "How the hell did you even know that!?" She asked, frowning at this girl that she's a bit cautious of.
"Oh! Sorry about that… Didn't mean to do that! It's…" The young girl then looked off to the side. "It's a bit hard to explain." She said, smiling awkwardly as she scratched her head.
"Please don't avoid the question." Blanc said, looking at this girl with a rather serious expression, who was finally out of thought. "Could you tell us how you know about that?" She asked as both her and Noire both stared at the young girl.
"I…" The girl immediately shied away, completely different from her earlier demeanor. "Um… i-it 's… um…" She then took a step back from them.
Neptune, who was still dazed from what just happened, noticed this and immediately stepped between them "Woah! Calm down, you two!" Neptune said with arms. "I get that you're weirded out by this girl, but you won't be getting nothing! Nadda!"
"I know that you're both shocked" Vert spoke up, grabbing both Noire and Blanc's attention. "I'm also shocked by this as well, but don't you see how scared she is?" She said, pointing to the young girl. The said girl looked like a deer in the headlights, standing there with wide eyes, almost about to run away.
"Ah. Sorry about that." Noire said, giving the scared, young girl an apologetic look.
"I'm sorry too…" Blanc muttered, seemingly having calmed down a little bit. She then saw that the girl nodded, seemingly accepting both of their apology. "But could you at least tell us who you are."
The girl slowly nodded again before taking a deep breath, Neptune turned to the girl so that all eyes were on her. "My name is Sapphire. I'm Planeptune's CPU." She spoke before giving them a wide grin. "Neehee!"
This is a slight rewrite because there was something I wanted to add so this is an Author's Note written a while ago.
That's all for now! I hope you enjoy this prequel to NextDimension Sapphire ReBirth! And now on to something I want to say.
This story can be read before ReBirth, but it can also be read after I finish the Lastation arc. This story is something that I want to explore a bit more about the cheerful side of Sapphire to other people. So when her personality changes, I want to explore how they would react.
I want to write this since I don't think I can explain Sapphire's character more clearly with just ReBirth. I could explain it in the original, but I don't feel up to going back and continuing it.
I will also write the characters to the best of my abilities.
Either way, that's all for now! Please Review and Stay Safe!