The Three Houses of Hyperdimension
A Fire Emblem: Three Houses & Hyperdimension Neptunia Crossover Fan Fiction
by Derald Snyder
Episode 9: Byleth in Smash
*Student Dormitories*
"You can't be serious, Claude," Dimitri said in disbelief.
"I am serious! Both Sothis and I saw it with our own eyes!" Claude insisted, Sothis and Byleth standing at his flanks.
"I swear, Claude, if this turns out be just a mod of some sort..." Edelgard shook her head.
"Come on! After that heart-to-heart we had, do you really think I would lie to you like that?!" Sothis said angrily, Byleth setting a hand on her shoulder to remind her to behave herself.
"No, but you could be deceived, being a child and all," Edelgard countered.
"Well, I know you're too serious for games, Your Highness, but what about you, Dimitri?" Claude asked. "Surely you have Ultimate Smash, right?"
"I do, but I haven't bought the DLC or anything," Dimitri admitted.
"Well then, perhaps you should, so you can verify whether or not Claude is telling the truth," Edelgard suggested. "Being a noble yourself, you should have the funds to do so..."
"...very well then. Just give me a minute to retrieve my system." With a brief bow, Dimitri strode off at a fast pace.
"Alright, how about we wait for him in my room instead of just standing around here?" Claude proposed. "I promise no traps of any sort."
"I should hope not," Byleth warned.
"Please, if there were any traps, I probably would have set them off!" Sothis pointed out. "Come on, let's go..."
*Claude's Room*
"...Well, this wasn't quite what I expected," Edelgard admitted as she looked about the room. "You seem to have quite a bit of Planeptune merchandise..."
"Well, in the interest of full disclosure, I kinda lived in Planeptune when I was a little tyke," Claude said in reply. "Close to the border, actually. You could almost say that I'm a child of two worlds..."
"I've heard that Planeptune goddess can be a bit of a lazy airhead sometimes," Sothis said. "But that she's more than capable of getting stuff done when there's a crisis..."
"Perhaps if she learned to apply herself a bit more in peacetime..." Edelgard shook her head. "But that's a discussion for another time. Any sign of Dimitri yet, Professor?"
"Not yet," Byleth peeked out the door. "Oh wait, here he comes..." A few seconds later, he stepped aside to let the Blue Lions leader in, holding his Lowee console in handheld mode, a look of disbelief on his face.
"See? Told you it wasn't a mod," Claude chuckled.
"So it's true then?!" Edelgard gasped.
"See for yourself," Dimitri handed his console to the Black Eagles leader, who began moving the left stick curiously... she then pressed a button, a voice from the console announcing 'Byleth!'
"This is unbelievable..." Edelgard muttered in utter perplexment. "How is this possible, my teacher?"
"I think I remember now," Byleth began. "It was about a month and a half before Father's death…"
*Flashback*
"If I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times, the answer is still no!" Jeralt griped as he trudged towards the knight's quarters, a few NPCs in suits following him. "I don't do this for fame, I do it because I'm good at it, that's it."
"Couldn't you at least agree to some motion-capture?!" The lead NPC pleaded. "We promise not to put your face on it…"
"No means no. And that's final," Jeralt asserted.
"Father, what's going on?" Byleth asked as he jogged up. "Why are these people harassing you?"
"Ah, Byleth. Good timing," Jeralt smiled. "If you lot want motion-capture work done, then ask my son. But no putting my face on it." With that, he went off, leaving Byleth with the NPCs.
"…Motion-capture?" Byleth inquired, perplexed.
"Right, see, we want our 3D models to move realistically, so we have an actual human performing the motions, which are recorded by special cameras and converted to motions for the 3D model," the lead NPC explained. "We specifically wanted to make a DLC character for our 2D platform fighter that uses all kinds of weapons; we've had some complaints about too many sword-users, see…"
"So you asked Father, but he refused," Byleth finished. "…well, if it's just motion-capture work you want, maybe I can help with that. I use a sword as my primary weapon, but I know how to wield spears and axes as well…"
"You would? Really?! Oh, thank you, Mr. Byleth! You are a lifesaver!" the NPC bowed in gratitude. "We already have a small studio set up in the parking lot, so this shouldn't take too long…"
*End Flashback*
"…so I'm guessing you never explicitly said no to them using your face instead of your father's," Claude hypothesized.
"Well, looking back, maybe I should have," Byleth sighed. "I wonder if I should call Rei Ryghts to sue for using my likeness without permission…"
"Why would you want to do that?" Edelgard said in mild shock. "With all due respect, my teacher, most people would be ecstatic to have their face on this game!"
"I must concur with Edelgard," Dimitri spoke up. "Nearly every student here would likely say the same…"
"I wasn't being serious," Byleth averted his gaze. It's obviously too late to do much about it now…"
"In that case, we need to decide which one of us gets the honor to play as him first!" Sothis exclaimed.
"Not I," Edelgard declined. "I don't even know how to play this game to begin with..."
"Well, fortunately, there's a little tutorial video in-game," Claude stated. "You can watch it while the rest of us throw hands to decide who plays Teach first..."
"Are you going to play, Professor?" Dimitri inquired.
"...I think I'll just watch for now, if that's all right," Byleth demurred.
"Suit yourself," Claude shrugged. "Ah, Sothis, you know how to play 'paper-rock-scissors', right?"
"Of course! Everyone knows how to play that!" the little greenette shook her head.
"All right then, on three," Claude said, he, Dimitri and Sothis holding out their fists. "One-two-three!" He and Sothis threw paper, while Dimitri threw rock. "Well, looks like you're out, Blayddid." He and Sothis then threw again, the former coming up with scissors, while the latter threw rock. "Aww, nuts! Sothis wins."
"Of course I do," Sothis said smugly, making a show of 'breaking' Claude's 'scissors'. "Byleth is all mine."
"Don't say it like that," Byleth sighed, averting his gaze.
"I see now... thankfully the controls seem rather simple," Edelgard nodded. "Well, since this is my first game, I'll be using that red plumber from the video."
"Alright, then I'll use Link," Claude nodded. "How about you, Dimitri?"
"I'm playing Corrin. I like his long reach," the blonde responded.
"You do have an extra controller, I hope," Edelgard said as she looked around.
"Yeah, right here," Claude nodded, opening a little door and taking one out. "I assume Dimitri will just use his system as a controller."
"Of course," he nodded.
"Well, may the best warrior win!" Sothis exclaimed with a smile.
*A few minutes later...*
"Player 2 defeated", the game announced.
"I can't believe I just got bombed out of the arena," Dimitri sighed. Edelgard had already been eliminated, having not realized the bottom of the screen was a KO zone.
"We'll play with items turned off next game," Claude assured him as he and Sothis went at it. "Gotta say, you're getting a good handle on Teach already..."
"Of course, I've seen him fight in real life after all," Sothis sniffed. Alas, she was launched into the blast zone by Link's side smash, securing victory for the Golden Deer leader. "Hey, I didn't know he swung his sword twice!"
"Your loss, my win," Claude smirked. "Okay, let's get items turned off so this next game is more fair..."
"Yes, and this time, I will prevail!" Edelgard asserted, gripping her controller tightly.
"Be careful not to break that; it isn't yours," Dimitri cautioned. "Trust me, I speak from experience. Sylvain never let me hear the end of it..."
"Sylvain? I shudder to think what kinds of games he has on his system..." Edelgard shook her head.
"Actually, most of them are legitimate and family-friendly," Dimitri responded. "The closest thing he has to a 'dirty' game would be that RPG based off the CPUs themselves..."
"Bet he plays Vert a lot then," Claude joked. "Okay, we're ready. Since I came in second at 'paper-rock-scissors', it's my turn to try Teach out..."
"Fine, I'll go back to who I was playing before," Sothis ceded, selecting Lucina on the screen.
"Well, may the best one win," Dimitri stated with a determined expression.
As the four started a new match, Byleth couldn't help but smile at the sight of the three house leaders playing together for once... He'd been worried about Edelgard seemingly shutting herself off from the others, save for Hubert. (Maybe my worries were unfounded after all...) he thought to himself.
"Ahh! I got chomped!" Claude cried as his Byleth was KO'd by Dimitri's Corrin.
"I'll avenge you!" Sothis vowed, managing to nail Corrin with a counter and KO him as well. The two then respawned, now down to their last stock...
The game continued, but in the end it was Edelgard of all people who managed to take victory, dunking Dimitri into the bottom of the screen! "Oh! I didn't know he could do that!" she gasped in surprise. "But, a win is a win."
"I knew I should've air-dodged..." Dimitri sighed, shaking his head. "Well then, it's my turn to play Byleth now." As the game went back to the character select screen, me mused, "I wonder what alternate colors he has..."
But none of them were expecting what popped up on the screen. "Wha- it's a FEMALE Byleth?!" Sothis cried.
"Excuse me?" the real-life professor grunted, leaning in closer to get a better look. "But- why?!"
"Well, Robin and Corrin have male and female variants too," Claude pointed out. "It's not unprecedented..."
"What a tacky design," Edelgard observed, her voice thick with disgust. "Why is her bust as big as Vert's?! And lace pantyhose?! What were they thinking?"
"Sex sells?" Claude ribbed, only for both Dimitri and Byleth to smack him on the head. "Ow! What?!"
"Not in front of children!" Dimitri indicated Sothis.
"What he said. Say anything like that again and I'll double your homework," Byleth threatened.
"Ugh, it's not like he went into detail," Sothis sighed.
"Okay, okay, I'm sorry," Claude rubbed his head. "But it makes me wonder, if in another reality, a female Teach is criticizing her male self's design..."
"Please don't. This is surreal enough as it is," Edelgard sighed.
"I agree. Are you three going to play again or not?" Byleth pressed.
"We better! I wanna win this time!" Sothis insisted.
"Right, let's get moving," Dimitri concurred, switching back to the male Byleth and confirming his choice.
And so the game went on, night falling before any of the group realized it...
*Episode 9- End*