F3: Welcome to chapter 5 of the Neptunia story. Last time Vert and Chika had supposedly failed on find where Rei Ryghts is and Noire is already looking for her as well. Wonder what'll happen in this chapter. Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Idea Factory and Compile Heart. With that said Let's Get Started.
Chapter 5: Proper Introductions.
In Lowee Blanc was doing a major deep dive into the network as she was trying to find any clues of where this woman could be located. She had a call from Neptune early saying that she might know someone that knowns where she is but just like Blanc suspected the woman got away from her before she could ask. Though Neptune did give her a name to track down so Blanc was going through the network to see if their was any network activity from this woman.
However she wasn't having much luck since the woman apparently barely used the internet which meant it was impossible to track her. That was the least of her worries. Her orcale was acting rather strange especially her behavior. Blanc simply asked Mina a question and next thing she knew Mina was blowing up her face shouting at her in fact before stomping away and not a few moments later she was literally crying and on her knees begging Blanc not to fire her.
Rom and Ram were doing what they could but they were still rather inexperiance but that didn't stop them before as they asked around Lowee to see if anyone has seen the girl they were searching for. They came up empty which was a little frustrating.
Blanc got up from her seat and decided that she might as well try doing some scouting herself or maybe get some help from a certain someone she knew and decided to head toward the guild in town. Walking through town she watched her people go throughout their day without much care in the world as some of them greeted Blanc kindly.
Before she knew it she was in front of the guild and headed inside. To her luck everyone was hard at work as the hunters were going out and in from doing quests. She gave a small sigh remembering her time doing guild quests after the incident with Gold Third.
"Well. Didn't expect to see you back again Blanny." A rather familiar voice spoke as she turned to see who it was.
It was none other than C-Sha. Former leader of Gold Third. C-Sha herself has long pale brown hair worn in a loose, low ponytail held by a white and orange pill-shaped ornament. She has slanted gray eyes. On her head she wears a blue beret lined with black and gold with a gold C on the side. She wears an outft that consists of a revealing white and black bikini-inspired piece worn under an opened blue, gold, and black outfit with a C-shaped belt on the bottom.
Two thin blue straps stretch across her stomach, while around her neck is a thin blue band with a gold clasp. She is wearing brown tight with a single X-shaped wrap on the left leg held by a gold piece. She wears blue boots with black and gold accents along with gold loop attachments on top of each boots, and a material of black sticks out of each boot. She also wears short black sleeves attached to her middle fingers with gold rings and a gold bracelet on each wrist.
"Oh hey C-Sha. I take it you've been handling quests rather well." Blanc said.
However what she wasn't expecting was C-Sha pulling her into a tight embrace right into, what Blanc calls them, Vert styled chest.
"That's all you can say after a few months away. You going soft on me." C-Sha said with a bright smile.
"H-Hey! Damn it! Let go already!" Blanc shouted pulling out of her embrace hiding her flushed face.
"Show some dignity damn it!" Blanc shouted.
"Okay my bad. So what brings you down here? Something up." C-Sha said.
"Actually just been doing a bit of scouting. I'm trying to locate someone but we're having a rather difficult time looking for her. You hear of Rei Ryghts?" Blanc asked.
C-Sha hummed a moment before shaking her head "Nope. Don't think I have. Though something strange did happen yesterday." C-Sha mentioned which got Blancs attention.
"Oh. What kind of strange?" Blanc asked.
"Well. I was fighting some monsters in a labortory outside of Lowee and once I've beaten them I found a console along..." She paused a moment before grabbing something inside her breast pocket which was a computer chip.
"With this. I wasn't sure what it was so I came back here and see if you might know something on it. It has Lowee's symbol on it too." C-Sha added.
Blanc looked at the computer chip and noticed that it looked exactly like the one her sisters found.
"Yeah I know something like that. Could I have it? I can have Mina anaylze it." Blanc said before she sighed.
"If she doesn't rip me apart first." She added which C-Sha raised an eyebrow at that.
"Something that matter? Having troubles with your oracle?" She asked.
"Well... something odd happened this morning. I asked her a simple question and next thing I know she's tearing into me like I did something wrong and stormed out. Then another strange thing happened, she came back crying and practically begged me not to fire her. She did a complete one eighty on me that it threw me for a loop." Blanc explained.
C-Sha took in everything that Blanc said and she came to quite a conclusion that made her chuckle.
"Oh this is priceless. Completely priceless." C-Sha said which kinda annoyed Blanc.
"What? What's so funny?" Blanc asked.
"Oh nothing. But here. See if she can do something about this and... your orcale might have something else to say when you get back." C-Sha added which confused Blanc a moment.
"Well I better get going. I got a quest to take care of today. Take care Blanny." C-Sha said and without another look the former Gold Third extied the guild.
Either way Blanc has a computer chip to analyze and maybe she might know more and be able to inform the others.
=HDN=
IF was called for a mission in Planeptune as she was heading toward Otori cave as Historie informed her that their was a monster outburst coming from their worrying that the monsters might get out and cause some destruction toward any small villages nearby. However she didn't come alone either as Neptune was with her as they stood in front of the cave.
"Alright let's get going. The quicker we get this done the faster I can play my new game." Neptune said.
"Really... this is kinda for your sake too you know. Considering your shares right now." IF replied crossing her arms.
"Yeah yeah I know. C'mon we better get going." Neptune added as they headed inside the cave. However what they didn't know was that Croire was watching the both of them enter the cave.
"Well... guess I should introduce myself to them. Though I need to gain their trust first." Croire said as she has an idea in mind snapped her fingers and teleported away but more than likely toward the deeper part of the cave.
Neptune and IF were in the cave with their weapons drawn and were already slaying some monsters. IF stabbed a Flame Fenrir in the back of the neck killing it instantly while Neptune used her Cross Combination to take down a Hound as it vanished into pixels.
"So Neptune. How is Histoire anyway?" IF asked.
Neptune sheathed her katanna before she answered "Well actually, she's been a bit slow lately. Yesterday she was looking for more information about Linda and all but it took a longer than expected. Like ten minutes longer." Neptune replied.
"Really. That long. Should that be concerning?" IF added.
"A little. Honestly I know I give her a lot of crap lately but even I know when something isn't right. Especially that time I returned from the Zero Dimension without Nepgear that time she burned up really bad." Neptune replied.
"Yeah I know. You were practially running around with your head cut off finding that patch. Speaking of Nepgear. What is she working on anyway?" She asked.
"Who knows? She said it's something for Planeptune. She even didn't want me to see it. Probably something super secret." Neptune replied.
"Well whatever it is she'll share with you eventually." IF added as they encountered more monsters up ahead.
"Right now let's clean up some monsters." IF said as her katars ignited into flame like swords as she slashed at large machine like monster.
"Never said it better myself." Neptune said as she slashed at a large blue turtle like monster making sure that it didn't get away from her. After ten minutes the two were near the back of the cave as the monsters were almost cleared out.
Neptune wiped some sweat of her forehead as to catch her breath.
"Wow. Been a bit since I've done any monster extermination quests. Take a lot out of you." Neptune said.
"Maybe you should do more exercises instead of playing games." IF said taking a jab at her friend which made her pout a little. Suddenly they heard a loud scream coming from the other direction. They looked to the source of the scream and noticed a girl running toward them as if she was fleeing away from whatever was chasing her.
"Help me!" The girl screamed at them as she ran past them.
However Neptune caught a glimpse of the girl as she ran past them to hide.
"Hey... that girl almost looks like..." Neptune paused as they heard a something coming toward them at a fast rate.
"Here it comes!" IF shouted readying herself as the monster came into their view. It was a large white and black spider like monster as it has eight spiked legs with spikes on each one along with two small talons on it's mouth and a large abdomen.
"Whoa! Okay that is ugly!" Neptune shouted as she went wide eyed.
"I've seen some big bugs but that definately takes the cake." IF said readying herself.
"Alright. Time to get serious." Neptune said as a bright light surrounded her as she began to transform.
Once the light vanished Neptune was a completely different person. One she was taller than her human form as she now has long purple hair braided into twin tails that nearly reaches her feet. She now has bright blue eyes with white pupil in the shape of power signs. In her hair she wears black clips with D-Pad shapes on them. Along with that she wears a black body suit that exposes her newly develop chest somewhat. Her bodysuit contains white outlined D-pad symbols around her shoulders and the arms have purple outlines along with down the sides while the front of the bodysuit contains purple areas near the bottom.
On her breast areas is a purple strip across it. Her leg wear are a pair of black boots with purple tips. On her back are light pink wings.
This was CPU Purple Heart. She branded her sword ready for battle.
"Let's handle this quickly." Purple Heart stated.
The spider monster charged at the both of them aiming to kill. IF and Purple dodged out of the way as Purple Heart floated above before charging at the monster. She raised her sword and went for it's abdamen but the monster reacted by attacking her with spikes coming out from that top of it's legs that seem to hone in on her.
"Whoa!" Purple Heart dodged them and even blocked one of them that got a little too close for her to avoid. IF was on the ground attacking with her katars at its legs trying to damage them but it was having little effect on it.
"It's armor is too tough! I can't break through it!" IF shouted back.
"Attack its abdomen. That's more likely it's weak point." Purple heart called back as she was trying to get the monsters attention as she slashed at the back of the monsters head.
Taking the opportunity IF ran ahead using her Multi Support to boost her speed. Though the monster wasn't easily fooled thanks to its vision it saw IF trying to run past it and it quickly lashed out managing to hit her side knocking her away.
"Iffy!" Purple Heart shouted with concern which distracted her for a moment allowing the monster to spring it's trap. It open it's mouth a unleashed thick webbing at the CPU ensnaring her in it's web as she fell to the ground.
"Shoot. I got careless." Purple Heart said trying to free herself from the webs. With one of its prey trapped it focused on the other one as IF got up from the attack and was trying to come up with a strategy.
The spider raised one of its legs and attacked IF with it hoping to impale her with it.
"Guess it's a good time to try this out." IF thought deciding to try her new skill as her body glowed red as her Dragon Skin skill. Once the leg reached her... she didn't feel any pain as the attack seemed to have bounced off her.
Purple Heart watched in amazment seeing her friend taking on the monster.
"Alright let's try this!" IF said using her other skill. Her right arm glowed a deep purple and thrusted forward and just then a large purple colored snake appeared and attacked the spider biting it in the back as the monster screamed in pain dealing sever damage to it while also poisoning it.
"That should do it." IF said as the poison spreads througout the monsters body while it was trying its best to fight it off the poison but it didn't matter as in seconds the monster succumbed to the poison and fell to the ground dead and vanished into pixels.
"Well... didn't expect it to be that potent." IF said before going to check up on Purple Heart.
Using her katars she cut away the web that were entrapping her freeing her.
"Thanks." She thanked before transforming back into her human form.
"Wow was not expecting that. I thought you were going to be skewered for sure." Neptune replied.
"Just a few new skills I've learned. Though where'd that girl go?" IF asked.
"I'm over here." The girl called out and came out behind a stone pillar coming into view.
"Thanks for helping me. I couldn't get that thing off my tail." The girl stated.
IF walked over to the girl to check up on her making sure she was okay as she checked for injuries.
"You don't appear to be injured. Still what were you doing in a place like this? It's rather dangerous you know." IF said gently scolding her.
"I needed to find some material for a weapon I'm making but couldn't find any. Then that monster showed up and tried to eat me." The girl said however Neptune got a better look at her with a thoughtful look.
"Hm... you're name wouldn't happen to be Croire would it?" Neptune asked as the girl nodded.
"Yep. That's my name. How'd you guess?" Croire asked.
"Oh it's just that you look familiar to another Croire we know of expect she's a little smaller than you. Almost fairy size." Neptune said.
"Still we should probably get out of here. We don't know if their are any other monsters here." IF added.
"Where do you live at?" IF asked.
"Oh I don't live anywhere. I kinda move from place to place wherever I want to." Croire replied with a small smile.
"Hm... well... if you like I can take you to Lowee. First we'll report the quest completed and then head to Lowee. That sound good." IF replied.
"Yeah." Croire said.
"Why don't you go ahead Iffy? I'll go and report the quest." Neptune suggested.
"Thanks Nep. Let's get going Croire." IF said as they all left the cave while Neptune walked back to captial, IF rode her bike with Croire on it back to Lowee which was going to be a rather long ride back home.
Though in Croires mind her mission was rather a success as she finally got to IF and now she just had to wait and put her real plan into action.
=HDN=
Back in Lowee Blanc had returned to her home and gave the computer chip to Mina to have analyzed again while she decide to play with Rom and Ram for a bit to keep them company after all it wouldn't be right to simply ignore her sisters, no matter how much they like to tick her off sometimes as they were all currently outside in the snow.
Though another thought didn't leave her mind more importantly about Mina and her behavior ealier that she was at first very angry with her and then suddenly crying and begging for her life not to fire her which was both rather strange and odd at the same time. Plus it doesn't help that C-Sha apparently knows what's going on with her and didn't want to tell her what it was.
Though to get that thought out of her head she was helping her sisters building a snowman in front of basilicom most certainly brighten the twins day.
"This is way better than being inside all day!" Ram cheered as she rolled a much bigger snowball which would be the lower body.
"This is fun!" Rom cheered rolling a slightly smaller snowball that would be the middle of the body.
Blanc simply smiled as she was carrying an even smaller snowball that was going to be the head of the snowman.
Ram rolled hers into place and then Rom rolled hers up and with Rams help balanced it on top of her snowball. Blanc placed the final piece on top of both of them.
"It's turning out to be quite the snowman." Blanc added with a smile as Rom and Ram added the final pieces which were some sticks that were the arms along with rocks for eyes and mouth and then a carrot for the nose.
"Snowman complete." The twins cheered as Blanc chuckled at them having a good time. However her N-Gear buzzed as someone was calling her. She checked the ID and noticed that it was Vert before answering it.
"Hey Vert. Everything alright you look rather frazzled." Blanc replied.
"To be honest I'm not exactly sure. I found a lead on where to find Linda but... for some reason I don't recall where I've found her. Almost like my memory hits a blank." Vert replied.
"Are you sure? You rarely ever forget anything." Blanc questioned.
"That's just it. The last thing I recall was heading into a cave with Chika and going into a room that was inside the cave. Next thing I know I blacked out and we're both near the entrance of the capital." Vert replied.
"Almost like someone hit you with a memory wiping item. Though you said it was a cave. There are a lot of caves in Leanbox." Blanc mentioned.
"I know but I just can't remember which one it was." Vert added.
"Well... hopefully that the others have found sometihng that could help us trace where Linda is hiding and then we can find Rei." Blanc stated.
"I'm sure both Noire and Neptune are working on it." Vert replied.
"Okay... I'll keep you informed." Blanc said before disconnecting with Vert. Just then Mina came out to find Blanc.
"Lady Blanc. I've completed the analysis on the computer chip and it appears to be another video file. You'll want to take a look at this." Mina stated as Blanc and the twins headed inside to her office. Once their Mina inserted the computer chip and played the video file.
The video showed the same place like the last video file with most of the same scientists in the room. However their was some change more importantly toward the capsule in the room and that it seemed have grown as it looks like a small child now with dark brown hair curled in on itself.
"What is the matter with all of you!? I thought the growth process should've been finished a week ago!" The head scientist shouted.
"Sir if we progress the growth rate any faster then the child will never fully develop to where it needs to be and die. Even from the infant stage to now took almost two and half weeks to complete." Rei Ryghts in the video stated.
"We don't know how long those CPU's will stay up their so we need to hurry this along right now!" He shouted again.
"Please sir. We are working as fast as we possibly can but as my wife said. If we continue then the subject will die before ever hitting pre teen or even the adult stage. I promise you sir give us time and she'll be ready." A man stated.
"You better be right Mr. Itoma. You have a lot riding on this to or did you forget." The older man said as the other man nodded looking away from him.
"Yeah... I know." He said as the older man left in which that ended the video.
That left the four of them stunned more importantly Mina.
"No way... Kaito Itoma... he was in on this." Mina stated.
"That's horrible." Rom added sadly.
"But why? He's a good guy. They must've forced him to do this!" Ram said.
"Their's only one way to find out. Rom, Ram you two stay put. Mina assemble the guards and have them find him and bring him to me. I know he's still in the basilicom. I want to have a chat with him about this now." Blanc ordered.
"Of course." Mina said as she left the office to find the guards.
"What are you going to do big sis?" Rom asked.
"Like I said all I want is to talk with him and hopefully get this settled." Blanc answered as she waited for the guards to find Mr. Itoma.
=HDN=
It was a long ride back to Lowee but both Croire and IF made it as she stopped in front of the entrance to Lowee.
"Well. Here we are. " IF said as they rode in with Croire looking everywhere that caught her fancy.
"Wow. It's kinda like living in a fairy tale. This place is awesome!" She cheered.
"Glad you like it. Do you want me to drop you off anywhere?" IF asked.
"Actually I could go for a bite to eat. I'm starving after running from that monster." Croire said rubbing her stomach.
IF hummed a moment before she thought "Maybe dad wouldn't mind a little company. Besides it be kinda wrong to just let her walk around starving." IF thought.
"I know just the place." She said as she rode toward her home. It took about ten minutes to arrive home as Croire noticed where they were.
"Is this your place?" She asked.
"Well it's me and my dad right now. I'm sure he wouldn't mind some extra company." IF smiled as the two of them walked inside the house.
"Dad! I'm home!" IF called out but for some reason he didn't respond which was rather strange.
"Hm... weird. He told me this morning he had a short shift today." She added.
"Maybe he's working overtime or something." Croire said.
"He would've called me if he was." IF said as she pulled out a bright pink flip phone from her pocket and opened it only to find that he hasn't called her.
"Okay something is definately wrong." IF said getting a little worried.
"Hey. He's could be getting something and lost track of time." Croire said calming her down.
"Yeah... your probably right." IF replied as the two decided to wait it out. IF cooked up a small meal for them as they continue to wait.
A few minutes quickly turned into ten, which then became thirty minutes which then turned into fifty. It wouldn't be till an hour that past that IF was done waiting and got up from her seat and marched outside toward her motorbike.
"I'm sorry but something just doesn't feel right." IF replied as she got on her motorbike.
"W-Wait you don't have to go yet!" Croire shouted but by that time IF along left the driveway and zoomed her way toward the basilicom.
Croire gave an angry scowl at this well know that her plan would have to wait a little longer. Besides she had to make sure those CPUs couldn't find Rei Ryghts either and she knew just who to confront for that as she snapped her fingers opening a small rift next to her before jumping into it as the rift closed behind her.
F3: And that is chapter 5 of my Neptunia. IF's dad could be in trouble and it would seem C-Sha knows what's going on with Mina. Wonder how Blanc will take the news? With that said don't forget to follow and/or favorite this story and leave behind a comment. With all that this is Fireuser3 and I'm Out.