Almost Second Nature
Welcome to my Nepfic called "Almost Second Nature". Something something no mainline game since forever.
Chapter 1
“Gamindustri. A land of opportunity, filled to the brim with games and desires of said games. It is said that the Original Goddess split into four new ones that now control whatever was left for the lands.”
These are the words of a figure, handling a large book, inside of a dark room. Only the ceiling light was turned on, making only the book fully visible. The book had many scribbles, information that was recorded for ages. The figure opens said book and read it, copiously. The voice was distinctively female, a bit soft in tone. The pages are slowly flipped over and over.
“The four main lands continued to expand over time, and new areas were created, almost synthetically. Things expanded over time, different creatures came first, then humans started populating it, life flourished in the best way possible.
“It is said that the Four Goddesses are powered by Faith, commonly known as ‘Shares’. Was this a leftover from the original Goddess? No one could tell. This Faith was immediately crystallized into something called Share Crystal, a literal crystal. These are the power sources for the goddesses, and once belief is given to them, they can use something called Hard Drive Divinity, making them transform and become even more godlike. The crystal is protected inside a building called the Basilicom, in the center of each land. Around the Basilicoms, towns were formed, as a way to naturally protect the Share Crystal. These towns expanded and formed massive cities, with millions of citizens.
“Each of these cities had a goddess to protect them and regulate what games were made and played. These were…
“Planeptune, the Land of Purple Progress, located to the west. The most advanced nation, it is spearheaded by CPU Neptune / Purple Heart, its goddess, and her younger sister, CPU Candidate Nepgear / Purple Sister, as well their Oracle, Histoire.
“Lastation, the Land of Black Regality, located to the east. The most industrialized nation, it is commanded by CPU Noire / Black Heart, and her younger sister, CPU Candidate Uni / Black Sister, as well their Oracle Kei Jinguji.
“Leanbox, the Land of Green Pastures, located to the north. The most beautiful nation, it is controlled by CPU Vert / Green Heart and her Oracle Chika Hakozaki.
“And finally, Lowee, the Land of White Serenity, located to the south. The most snowy nation, it is led by CPU Blanc / White Heart, her little sisters CPU Candidates Ram and Rom / White Sisters, and her oracle Mina Nishizawa.
“Over time, the world of Gamindustri revealed that it was not kind to its inhabitants, as many terrible games and companies were created. These were discarded in a location in the center of the world. This was called the Gamindustri Graveyard, where bad parts and games were dumped into. As time passed, this place created its own amount of Shares, as people believed that it could affect their daily lives and games they played. With the collaborated effort from all the Goddesses, the group behind it, the Arfoire Syndicate of International Crime or ASIC, was defeated, and most of the Graveyard was cleaned.
“As time passed, and events twisted the land, like the sudden appearance of the PC Continent and the Gold Third threat, Gamindustri became a gate for other dimensions, reshaping the land with many things pouring their way through. One of these were smaller versions of the Share Crystals that were found by the locals outside the main cities. The placement of the smaller Share Crystal seemed unnatural, like something placed there by hand. These started to affect the population and eventually got out of control, creating monsters and creatures. This led the goddesses of the main lands to attempt to fight these creatures, as they became more and more powerful.
“But this was only the beginning of the troubles that Gamindustri would face.”
---
Outside of Planeptune, the situation was starting to be impossible to contain. Monsters and creatures were roaming the local Virtua Forest, making it impossible to even have a casual walk. Armed with her wooden sword and godlike strength, Neptune and her friends made their way down to the forest, and as expected of a goddess, she was unstoppable, even before using her Hard Drive Divinity.”
“I’ll Nep you right up!,” exclaimed Neptune, the goddess of Planeptune as she fought after all sorts of low, medium and high leveled creatures. “Come right here for your dose of Nep!” Neptune had a short stature, even in comparison to others, and pink hair, with D-Pad hairclips. Her half parka and dress didn’t mean business, like ever, and her thigh-high striped socks made her look more like a kid than anything.
“Neptune, c’mon. You had enough fun, now let’s go back to the city. We can’t say here fighting things just because you like it,” said her companion and best friend IF, commonly called by others as Iffy. A tomboy with a girly streak, Iffy had long brown hair, green eyes, and loved using her blue jacket. She looked largely unimpressed with Neptune’s strength.
Together with her, another companion, Compa, a blonde, yellow eyed former nurse that worked full time for Neptune. She used a nice looking sweater with bare shoulders and a red plain skirt, and a little bag with a heart on her left side. Her chuckle was pretty telling, she seemed to be having fun.
Iffy, however, just shook her head. “There’s nothing left for you to fight.”
Neptune approached Iffy, holstering her wooden sword to her hip, but not really. “Iffy, you’re so boring! There are monsters around! I need to make sure they stay here and never get into the city!”
“Look, I know you wanna look like you’re working to Histy, but we’ve been here for seven hours! Neither me or Compa ate anything!,” Iffy informed Neptune of her fighting escapades. Compa nodded, and her stomach growled loudly.
“Heh… Eh… Heh… Sorry… Okay, I’ll stop… Let’s go back to the Basilicom, I’ll make sure to treat you right,” said Neptune trying to sound apologetic after causing the issue.
“No need for that. I’ll be going to the guild, which is where I was supposed to be three hours ago.” Iffy informed her and took off, clearly mad over this.
“Iffy, wait! I…” Neptune tried to stop Iffy but it was too late. “I… I got carried away. But fighting is so much fun!”
“I know, Nep-Nep, but… Neither me or Iffy are goddesses like you are, so we still need to eat and do basic needs.” Compa informed Neptune that her standards were different. “She’s not mad at you, she just needs to eat.”
“Fine…” Neptune sulked, and left the Virtua Forest, very unhappy with these events.
The two walked back to the Basilicom, and were met by a Histoire, the Oracle of Planeptune.
“Oh, hey Histy! Hey guys and gals that are reading this event! This is Histoire and she is t-” Neptune was promptly interrupted by Histoire.
Histoire was a fairy-like human, with medium blonde hair in two pigtails with a purple and white headdress on her head. Her outfit was a purple graduate gown lined with golden designs, a white folded down collar and a teal tie. And to complete the look, she was sitting down on a tome, that allowed her to float.
“That won’t be necessary, Neptune. The readers already know of me by this point.” Histoire said, correcting Neptune.
“Aw man. Can’t get anything right today...” Neptune complained. Compa immediately went to the kitchen area of the Basilicom’s bottom floor.
“Sorry Nep-Nep, but I need food! I’ll catch up with you later!” Compa rushed off, making Histoire raise a brow at her.
“Nah, don’t worry about it, Histy. She’ll be fine! Anyway, is Nepgear back from the PC Continent yet?” Neptune asks, as the two take the elevator to the top floor of the Basilicom, where Neptune, Nepgear and Histoire lived.
“She hasn’t come back just yet. The last message I got from her was that she was trying to find a way to get the PC Continent’s Goddess back up with the help of their sister. You remember her, don’t you?” Histoire asked, and Neptune winced, quite a lot.
“Ehhhhh… I’d love to say yes, but I don’t, really. What color was her hair again?” Neptune fired back with a question of her own.
“It was pink. Her hair color was pink.” Histoire replied.
“Riiiight… Awkward…!” Neptune said as the elevator stopped and opened its doors to reveal Neptune, Nepgear and Histoire’s home.
A mostly pink colored place, the top floor was how Neptune, Nepgear and Histoire lived their lives. It was a little empty as Nepgear was not around. To the front of the elevator doors, the main living room, with a larger than life TV set with the latest Planeptune-branded console. To the right side, a workshop made by Uni for Nepgear to tinker with electronics. To the left, a hallway that led to the balcony and each of their rooms, although there were 3 rooms, Neptune and Nepgear shared one, and Histoire had another.
“Right, Histy… So, did you find anything about the crystals appearing in Gamindustri? These are from Ultra Dimension, right? Where Plutia and my adult counterpart came from,” asked Neptune, who jumped to the pink couch opposite to the TV and kicked back.
“No, Neptune, those were ‘CPU Memories’. The minor Share Crystals come from Zero Dimension and from what I believe it was called Heart Dimension, where the original Uzume came from.” Histoire corrected her, once again.
“Riiiight, it’s been so long! It feels like a decade has passed since that happened. I wonder if Uzume is still around these days…” Neptune wondered outloud.
“It has been a decade since and the CPU Shift Period ended as soon as Uzume vanished. Neptune, you and the other goddesses were brainwashed!” Histoire elevated her tone as she recalled prior events.
“Hey, I don’t remember that! That’s what being brainwashed does to you. It washes your brain, and you forget! A-Anyway, we’re splitting hairs here, did you find anything about the minor Share Crystals from Zero and Heart Dimensions?” Neptune asked again.
“Yes, I did, but it’s not all good news, unfortunately. I found three things. First one: Arfoire is certainly, one hundred percent, not involved. Second: These minor Share Crystals are all corrupted; from the studies I was able to conduct. But being near a large Crystal purifies them. Third: I managed to find coordinates to other dimensions using a few of the purified ones.” Histoire explained, making Neptune raise a brow.
“Well, I don’t think Arfoire is that capable, so… But what’s this about other dimensions? Are there other dimensions that we don’t know of? I know that Ultra Dimension’s gate is still open somewhere, but I remember the Zero and Heart Dimensions not really being accessible anymore.” Neptune asked, and Histoire had to explain with a map. She pulled one from inside the book she used to float in the air and placed it on the ground, then floated above it.
“Here, this is the map I was able to create. Using the crystals I was able to trace where these other dimensions appear to be located. Here’s our dimension in the middle, what I call ‘Prime Dimension’.” She pressed her finger in the middle of the map, then moved herself and her finger to another area. “Then, to the top right, we have the Gray Area of Super Dimension, where multiple variants of the Prime Dimension exist, but with many changes.”
“Oooh. Like what?” Neptune asked, looking first at the map then at Histoire.
“One has no Nepgear. Another has Nepgear but only after your SuperDimension counterpart got 95% of all shares to create her from scratch. Another one has Noire being inside of a high school as an idol. I also found a Dimension where a Maker is a proper Goddess, being able to use HDD as well.”
“Wait a sec, Histy, you were able to determine all of that with one crystal?!” Neptune exclaimed, eyes going wide.
“No, I had over fifteen Crystals. Once I touched one, I was able to see the timeline like a ghost,” Histoire informed Neptune. "There was one where all of you were idols too… But that was close to the Ultradimension Area. In fact, the middle left is the Ultradimension Area. Where Plutia comes from. Strangely there are two of them, but I couldn’t tell the difference between them.” She moved to the right side of the map. “Here, on the right to our Prime Dimension, I was able to find the Zero and Heart Dimensions, where Uzume came from.”
“To the bottom, I was able to find the New Era Area… It’s where your Ultra Dimension counterpart is currently residing. She’s with another set of goddesses, that are called ‘Failure Goddesses’ apparently.”
“Okay, that’s interesting. Does that world have an Arfoire?” Neptune asked, curiously.
“It does, but she’s a businesswoman. All of them do. Still very the same, I’m afraid,” Histoire informed.
“Well, we can’t break the trend after all. But if all these dimensions are fine and dandy, why the heck we’re getting Share Crystals from Zero Dimension?!” Neptune poked the map, looking at Zero Dimension’s location. “It doesn’t even look that close to us! Wait, is this one per one scale? And isn’t the Zero Dimension gone?”
“Yes, but I was about to tell you what I found here. We’re stuck in a loop. I observed it for three hours. Zero Dimension and Heart Dimension appear, a copy of our Prime Dimension also shows up next to it, then it goes into fast-forward mode before all three vanish. Something has changed…” Histoire warned her.
“It has to be Arfoire again! She didn’t die off last time!” Neptune jumped from the couch, almost ripping the map up.
“Wait, Neptune! One more thing… This is not only happening to Zero Dimension or Heart Dimension… But all of these. They are all stuck in a loop. Appear, move in fast forward, vanish, reappear, repeat. This is why I said Arfoire can’t be behind this, it’s statistically impossible for her to have this sort of power, because if she did… She would have defeated everyone by now. Plus, she was destroyed last time.” Histoire looked at Neptune, almost begging her not to go.
Neptune wondered for a moment, but engaged into HDD, turning into Purple Heart, with her goddess form without any external parts. “It might be useful to see if she is still around. And if she is, she might know something. I won’t be long, Histoire.” With supersonic speed, Neptune / Purple Heart flew off through the open balcony window.
---
“One thing to mention about the goddesses that are left on the lands is that they completely change once they use their Hard Drive Divinity. An almost complete one-eighty from what they are… Or perhaps exactly what they are, without using a mask.”
Purple Heart touched next to the Gamindustri Graveyard, where the ‘Arfoire Syndicate of International Crime’ used to operate. This location was filled with half destroyed buildings and all sorts of piles of trash. For a time, it was completely deactivated, but due to recent events, the Graveyard came back but only Arfoire was the main threat. She was dispatched due to time shenanigans, leaving a gaping wound to the world, and causing the Graveyard to reactivate and be part of the world again.
Now in a dull orange color, the land was lacking bravado to sip Share Energy from the lands. The lack of a main villain was likely the reason. The goddesses wanted to destroy the Graveyard again but the goddess of Leanbox, Vert, decided to veto its destruction and have it as a historical place, but not as a museum. ‘We’re doomed to repeat our history if we forget it’, her words.
Purple Heart decided to fly and see if she could find anything from above. She could see a large hammer with a skull could be seen on the ground, no owner. Next to it, a multicolored sword, with its tip being burnt like fire took over.
“Hm.” She mused as she flew deeper in and at the epicenter of the Graveyard, where she and her goddess friends defeated Arfoire, she could see a person, seemingly crying. She quickly touched down to engage this person. “Who are you?” She’d ask, summoning her sword.
“You might not remember this, since it has been too long for you. But this is the fifteenth anniversary of my defeat as the Deity of Sin. In the next years, I was planning, watching… And I couldn’t get the PC Goddess either.” Initially this person was a magenta hair color person, with not a lot of clothes on, but transformed into the familiar looking witch character.
Arfoire, the Deity of Sin. With the powers of shapeshifting and time skipping, she had a very pale skin, almost light purple, purple lipstick, a large witch hat with flowers and golden thorns, and her traditional black one-piece with purple stripes along the cuffs and torso area, and thorns around her neck. But something was different about her. She didn’t seem to attack Neptune.
“Arfoire! I knew you didn’t die.” Purple Heart, gripping the sword even more. “Wasn’t Psychoshock enough for you?”
“Neptune, listen to me and you listen to me good. This is it for me, I give up. I’ve tried everything I could do to win. I can transform into everything I want, possess objects, travel through other timelines, and in the end, I always get defeated by the likes of you and the other goddesses. I. Am. Done. No more I’ll be ridiculed by the likes of you.” Arfoire said, looking very serious at Purple Heart, which was strange, considering that lies and deceit are part of her personality.
“W-What? What do you mean?” Purple Heart was understandably confused.
Arfoire’s fist clenched. “What do I mean?! WHAT DO I MEAN?! I AM TIRED OF THIS! I’m tired of losing this damn game against you and the others! It never, never goes right! Even when I plan in advance, take literally years of planning, it never works! It never does! I always account for everything and I still can’t win! I’m giving up this life of villainy!”
Purple Heart remained confused, deactivating HDD to talk to her straight as Neptune. “Wait, you’re for real, Arbore? I thought you weren’t the kind that would give up! I mean, you never ever do! And it’s really boring fighting you all the time, but that’s what you do best!”
“Do not call me that! And I’m sick of losing. I surround myself with capable people, I lose. I go alone, I lose. I plan years ahead, all the possible ramifications too, I LOSE! NO MORE!” She stormed off.
“Wait, wait, you can’t just do that! We’re supposed to be enemies! It’s in the script! Look!” Neptune summoned a fairly large script play for Arfoire, only for her to burn it to a crisp with her magic.
“TO HELL WITH THAT! I do not wish to partake in this nonsense anymore! I have no dignity, no respect, no home, no life, no family, no one to go back to! I had to be a dialed down version of my biggest supporter to just enter this place, and she’s dead! All of you killed her! I got all this power and it’s for absolutely nothing!” She screamed at Neptune’s face, who noticed that Arfoire was tearing up. The other woman just visually slumped on the ground of this large open area.
“Arfoire… Are you being serious right now? All you do, all you know is being a villain! Ever since we met, in fact all the dimensions I came across you were a villain!” Neptune tried to convince her, but the words weren’t right ones. “Also to be fair, CFW Magic was so strongly attached to you, she even had your voice actress!”
“Neptune, I swear… I do not need this right now. It’s failure after failure. Always… Always failure after failure...” Arfoire said before starting crying copiously.
“Awkward…” Neptune mused quietly and tried to pat Arfoire’s head only for her hand to be swatted away.
“I DO NOT NEED YOUR PITY! LEAVE. ME. ALONE!” Arfoire continued crying, and Neptune wanted to leave, she really did, but seeing someone cry so hard like that made her have pity for Arfoire.
“C’mere, c’mon… Let it all out…” Neptune pressed herself to hug Arfoire, a tender moment. Obviously, Neptune had her resentment over it and was ready to attack the woman at any point, but everything so far seemed genuine, Arfoire was crying herself out to the point that she was screaming. And Arfoire didn’t push Neptune away this time.
After what seemed to be over ten minutes of straight crying, Neptune helped her up, now back to her Purple Heart form.
“That… That was very unexpected of you,” Purple Heart noted. “But I suppose everyone can change, even you, Arfoire.”
“Hey. Don’t say it like that.” Arfoire pouted rather cutely.
“Now. Just to check, are you done with villainy for real?” Purple Heart questioned again, just to make sure.
“Yes. I’m gonna try to do something more honest, as you’d say. Like robbing a bank, or cloning credit cards.” Arfoire nodded.
“Uhm. Yeah, those are still very villainy. Maybe not compared to destroying the entire world but still bad,” she pointed out.
“Oh. Well… Then Neptune, are you saying I should make an honest living by being a simple person? You know that both of us are comparable in power, right?” Arfoire raised a brow at the goddess.
“Ultra Dimension Arfoire opened up a farm, if I’m not mistaken…” Purple Heart pointed out, with an uncharacteristic smirk. “You could do the same.”
“Really? What happened to me there? Or should I say, ‘that version of me’?” She asked, rather curious about what happened.
“She was a villain through and through, but quit at the final bit,” Purple Heart informed her. “Now, let’s leave this place and you can start a new life, Arfoire.”
“Wait, wait a second. Are you just gonna forgive me like that?” Arfoire stopped Purple Heart for a second.
“Well, I am. And it’s not because I’m the protagonist. If you are looking to change, you must take the steps yourself. I can’t change you for you.” And the prompt reply got Arfoire looking away, not willing to accept the words, but they were very true.
“I…” She looked down again. “I hate being a loser. I just do. I wanna do something that I could claim as my own.”
“I’m willing to believe that. I really am.” Purple Heart said, offering her hand. “Let’s go to Planeptune. I’ll try to figure something out with Histy. Perhaps get you a nice cozy home you can call yours. Then you go from there.”
Arfoire hesitated at first, and after looking at Purple Heart’s hand, she took. “Yes. Let’s go…”
---
“Legends say that the original goddess didn’t actually split herself but instead created the four goddesses from her power that was growing overtime and caused her to alter reality without thinking. It was a necessary thing to stop herself from going insane. However, that didn’t take, as she did go insane, and her powers were sealed in the Gamindustri Graveyard. And whoever gets this power is doomed to cause mischief forever.”
Once she touched down with Arfoire at the balcony, Neptune disengaged HDD to look at her. “Arfoire, look. It’s not that I don’t believe you, don’t get me wrong. But we have history.” Neptune pointed out, poking the woman’s chest. “A lot of it, it seems, heh.”
“Hey! Don’t poke me. But yes, you are correct. I can’t expect you to be all ‘trusty-touchy’ with me, and I have to say that I deserve the treatment. But I swear to whatever you like that I can’t just stay like that. I have no family, no friends, no home, nothing. Not even money. I have my powers, sure, but what does it matter if I can’t win?” She briefly covered herself but then continued her explanation.
“Well… Yes. It’s important to fight for yourself but also to have something to go back to. It gives you even more reason to do the things you want to do.” Neptune informed. “So if you have nothing, it kinda makes it pointless to fight.”
Arfoire didn’t say anything, and even with her imposing figure, it seemed she was conflicted with what she said. Neptune imagined that it was a knee-jerk reaction of being a loser, but knowing Arfoire, it was completely unlike her. So she continued.
“Look, Arfoire. I know you find me irritable – it’s my charm sometimes, sorry – but please listen to what I have to say. I have the protagonist role for a reason. It’s because I want to believe that people can be better than what they are. You never stopped to think that once you get what you want, that you destroyed the world and everything, it would be useless to continue? Like, let’s say you won. I’m gone, and the other goddesses too. What will you do? You can’t cause terror on lands you already conquered. You can’t attack enemies when you don’t have any. You can’t retaliate when you’re never attacked from the lack of enemies. You’d go paranoid, thinking that friends are trying to take you down, so you’d turn on them until there’s nothing left but you. And that is not a world that I find very interesting, or heck, even good! What would be left for you if you destroy everything?”
The speech seemingly affected Arfoire, she raised a brow at Neptune.
“I know you’re smart, even if it doesn’t look like it. So please understand that destroying everything isn’t a desirable goal to anyone, because the challenge would evaporate quicker than water on a frying pan!” Neptune continued.
“That… That makes more sense than I want it to make. I’ll be honest, I never thought what would happen if I won against you.” Arfoire admitted.
Neptune motioned Arfoire to enter the Basilicom’s top floor and entered her pink room.
“Here, let me tell you a little secret. So there’s a few dimensions out there. While you were planning to take the PC Goddess for yourself, me and my friends had to fight this crazy goddess that wanted to destroy everything. And in one of these dimensions, she managed to do it. The end result? Ninety percent of the world was destroyed, life was just gone. And even worse, she managed to make annoying copies of you that she could revive with her powers. We all thought it was you not learning your lessons, but nope! It was just her causing these issues.” Neptune informed a bit of the past to Arfoire.
“Wait a- What do you mean, she made copies of me??? How’s that possible???” Arfoire exclaimed.
“Not the point! But yes, she could do that. Even worse, she was fully loyal to her cause,” informed Neptune. “Pretty cool actually, but also she was just insane. Unlike you, who realized that being evil is… Not good.”
“Right, okay.” Arfoire crossed her arms, her figure being elevated by it.
“But I mean it, Arfoire! You don’t have to be evil and destroy everything. We can be friends, even rivals. Perhaps both! It’s all up to you.”
“Neptune, why are you trying to believe in me? I could be playing a ruse against you.” Arfoire questioned, rather puzzled.
“Of course you could! But this is what you can call ‘being trustworthy’. We all have our weaknesses, and we sometimes show it. It’s when we show it that we can try to understand each other better. That crying back at the Graveyard? That was genuine.”
Arfoire had no answer to that, only a cute pout.
“Yeah. That was genuine.” She poked Arfoire’s belly. “No way you’d fake that much crying.”
“Being your rival does sound interesting…” Arfoire noted.
“That means you’d be willing to spar with me at some point.” Neptune giggled.
“Hm. I wouldn’t say no to that…” Arfoire giggled as well. Neptune extended her hand again and Arfoire immediately took it.
“Then I guess… This is the start of a new friendship, isn’t it? Oooh, isn’t that exciting! I can see books and games about it! Arfoire and Neptune join forces, become best friends and have delicious pudding together!”
Arfoire looked at Neptune with a face of disappointment. “Neptune, I’m not dating you.” The woman said flatly.
As Neptune chuckled, Histoire appeared on the doorframe. “Neptune! I just got a call from Nepgear. The PC Continent is under attack by Arfoire!”
“What.” Another flat tone of voice from the woman present. “How could I be attacking it if I’m standing right here?”
“A-Arfoire! Neptune, what is this?” Histoire asked, distressed.
“It’s her. The no-longer-villain Arfoire.” Neptune pointed at her, poking her belly again. “She wants to change so I’m giving her a shot. But what did you say? Arfoire is attacking the PC Continent? How is that possible?”
Arfoire brushed her hair. “It is literally impossible. I do not possess time bending powers. I can possess anyone, or be anything, as well body surf once my body dies and move through time but not bend time like this. It might have to be someone else.”
Histoire pondered. “Could it be…? No…”
Neptune raised a brow. “Histy, you’re scaring me.”
“Neptune, the prophecy! Page 213, section 8. ‘In the event that the world lacks a natural villain, one might be spawn unnaturally by the world.’” Histoire mentioned something in the book she used to float.
“Wait, wait. So, you’re saying that because I don’t want to be a villain anymore, the world itself spawned one of me so we can continue to have a villain? This has to be a joke.” Arfoire wasn’t amused.
“It is not a joke… ASIC here was the villain of our world, and Ultradimension had the Seven Sages. Without you or the ASIC around, or even anything like the Gold Third being a counterpoint, or even the original Uzume threatening us, something had to be done.” Histoire informed.
“Well, it’s proof that you have, indeed, reformed, Arfoire! But if a copy of you is attacking, how can we stop it, Histy? Does the book say anything?”
“Well… It’ll take me three days to find out.” Histoire informed.
“We don’t have three days if Arfoire 2 is actually attacking the PC Continent.” Neptune replied back.
As Neptune and Histoire continued to discuss a possible plan, Arfoire clenched her fist. “I’ll help.”
“What?” The two girls looked at the allegedly reformed villainess.
“If I stop my copy, I’ll be able to say I won against something… Even if it was a copy of me.”
“I guess that works, Histy! Now, big question: Why would you attack the PC Continent?” Neptune said, looking at Arfoire with some minor expectation.
“Well, a direct attack is usually not the best unless you’re wanting to… To…” She immediately stopped. “Histoire, tell Nepgear to fend off the attack, it’s not a real one. It’s just a proxy, tell her to get into the main chamber and secure whatever is necessary to keep that PC Continent’s goddess alive.” Arfoire said before looking at Neptune. “Neptune, we need to go there and stop… Myself. That is weird to say.”
“You can’t just go looking like that, Arfoire. They’ll attack you immediately!” Neptune warned, causing Arfoire to copy Nepgear’s Purple Sister form.
“Now they won’t attack me. C’mon Neptune.” Arfoire said.
“Ah, before that… Nepgear calls me ‘big sister’ when she’s like that. Just for your information.” Neptune informed her with a chuckle before turning into Purple Heart, then flew off.
“Ugh! Fine! Big Sister!” Arfoire grumbled and followed suit, flying with Purple Heart to the PC Continent.
---
“Legends also say that the state of the world will be a constant fight. If a villain is defeated, another will take its place. And if no villain exists… Then the world of Gamindustri will create one based on past trends…”
The PC Continent. A land that of mystery, it appeared all of sudden and it was under attack quickly. Ultradimension had its own PC Continent, so Hyperdimension having one wasn’t reasonable… Maybe it was there from the beginning. Once Purple Heart and Arfoire entered its borders and flew over it, it was chaos. The ground seemed to be cracking open, with a pulsating purple light emanating from it, people were running for their lives, and red lasers were being thrown around.
This area seemed to be a market of some kind, as there were plenty of destroyed wooden stands, and lots of destroyed technology bits all over the floor. People were also found on the ground, unmoving. Purple Heart managed to spot an army. “Look, they have army forces. Let’s get closer to see what they are going to do.”
“Defensive positions! Pre-Alpha Squad, secure the civilians! Closed-Beta Squad, fire back at the targets!” Once they were closer, they could hear the voice from a military commander, giving orders to two squads. They saw the commander pointing at the horizon and finally, the two could see what was attacking the troops.
A group of mecha-looking creatures, with sharp edges all over, but looked very mass-produced looking, fairly humanoid, as they were bipedal and slim in construction. Its colors were red, blue and green, while using a large laser weapon that looked twice their size, but they didn’t seem to be minding that.
“Defeat. Conquer. Stop. Madness. Defeat. Conquer. Stop. Madness. Defeat. Conquer. Stop. Madness.” Each of these robots spoke in a loop, over and over, very mechanical and unnatural.
“Yikes. This is bad, Neptune.” Arfoire said, using her own natural deep voice, which sounded very unnatural as it came from Nepgear’s HDD form.
“Your voice is off…” Purple Heart noted.
“Right, sorry.” She coughed up a bit and attempted to copy Nepgear’s voice. “My goodness, Neptune! This is bad! … Is that better?”
Purple Heart replied with a thumbs up. “Much better. Now… Let’s assess what’s going on.”
The two touched down a bit more, now seeing that the attack was being coordinated by what seemed to be a teenager. He had blonde spiky hair, that went over one eye, and had a small stature, as well a badly ripped tank top and baggy shorts, as well large shoes. He seemed to be sitting down on a quadrupedal robot, using it like a chair. “YEAH! Destroy their asses! Make them pay for releasing games before they are ready! I’ll give you more than a bad review! Hahahahaha!” He did seem to be enjoying himself.
“What a little brat… Permission to pummel him?” Arfoire asked, but using her own voice.
“Perhaps. He might be the distraction you mentioned.” Purple Heart said, looking at a distance, seeing a larger army approaching. “Can you stop this robot army? I’m gonna try to find their Basilicom, if they have one. And if I can’t, I’ll see if I can find Nepgear.”
Arfoire turned back to her regular form, and cracked her knuckles. “Finally! Well, don’t mind if I do.” She also cracked her neck, and even more of her knuckles, about to let loose at the army.
“Right…” With that sorted, Purple Heart flew around to find something that could resemble a Basilicom. She flew for what seemed to be for too long, looking for a building that could go up. A look back would show that Arfoire was starting to turn the tide against the army of robots.
“I’m impressed she hasn’t turned on me just yet. Maybe she really means it…” Purple Heart added as she continued searching, eventually finding a massive hole that went downwards. “Was this where the Basilicom was located, I wonder…” She touched down and started looking for Nepgear.
“Nepgear! Nepgear!” She shouted a few times to hole. “Did she really go down here…?”
As she wondered, a familiar voice could be heard from above. “Sister! I’m here!” She looked up and saw Purple Sister, in her pink-colored hair, as well her very exposed black skintight bodysuit, and thigh high boots. She touched down and hugged Purple Heart immediately.
“Nepgear, I’m glad you’re safe. What happened here?” Purple Heart asked immediately after the hug.
“It’s Arfoire… And someone else. I don’t know who, it was all so fast! One moment I was talking and then suddenly we were attacked by robots, then they took the entire Basilicom away with a single attack… I called Histy to ask for help and then got called back saying that the robot attack was a decoy…”
“If it is Arfoire… Well, it might be a little difficult to explain…” Purple Heart explained, a bit awkwardly.
“What do you mean?” Before Nepgear could continue, another person flying with her showed up. She was another CPU Candidate, with a white outfit, black accents and a fake crown on her head. Her eyes were in a bright magenta glow, that faded once she saw Nepgear.
“No trace of anything about this magic, Nepgear. The PC Tower is gone...” replied this lady.
“I’m sorry Maho.” Purple Sister said. “Ah, Neptune, to you remember Maho? Gray Sister? She’s the CPU Candidate of the PC Continent.”
“My apologies, if I have, I might have been affected by some sort of memory reversal by time rewrites. Neptune, Planeptune’s CPU.” Purple Heart said.
“Maho, Gray Sister… Nepgear already spoke of me, so.” Gray Sister informed.
The three were flying above the massive hole, and the purple cracks slowly stopped, with a light rain starting. Purple Heart looked at the direction that the attack was happening, and it was over, apparently. The army was helping downed civilians, and other civilians were also helping. The robots seemed to be all destroyed. Then she could see Arfoire flying and carrying someone.
“Wait a second… Is that Arfoire?!” Purple Sister exclaimed, very surprised to see her.
“Neptune, I ended the fight. And got our little perpetrator for questioning.” Arfoire said, holding the blonde teenager in her arms, he was knocked out cold. “Don’t worry. I didn’t do anything other knocking him out.”
Gray Sister and Purple Sister immediately got their weapons summoned to fight Arfoire, before being immediately stopped by Purple Heart, who jumped in front of Arfoire. “Don’t! She’s on our side!”
“Eh?! But she attacked the place! Look at what she did!” Gray Sister exclaimed, almost screaming at them, and briefly looked at the massive hole. “Sister…”
“I can explain. Let’s go somewhere safe.” Purple Heart informed them. “Let’s head back to Planeptune. Your people will recognize Arfoire in the open, Maho.”
---
“The information in the book can be false but most of the time, it’s truthful. Some say it was written by the goddess in her final moments. Others argue that she wrote at the beginning… If that’s the case, she is the one that doomed this world into a cycle...”
After a lengthy round of explanations back at Planeptune, both Maho and Nepgear were confused. Everyone was inside the living room, Arfoire refused to sit down, as she was also watching the blonde teenager, that had since woken up and was tied up with a lot of pink tape, including his mouth.
“Wait, wait. You don’t want to be evil anymore? And somehow that broke the world? How is that possible?” Nepgear asked Arfoire. “Forgive me when I say this, but I don’t really trust you being here, so close to any of us.”
“It’s fine, Nepgear. I have harassed you and your fellow CPUs enough for that treatment, so I don’t expect any different from you. But I can assure you that I have nothing to do with the attack. If you saw me there, it might be a different version of me. Maybe from the past, maybe from the future, who knows? Like I said to Neptune, I don’t want to do that anymore.” Arfoire explained herself.
“She’s trying to change, Nep Jr! I think we should give her a chance! She helped the PC Continent today!” Neptune, ever the optimist, said, very proud of Arfoire. “You’re a hero to a lot of people today, Arfoire!”
“Hmm… That is a nice feeling, I’ll admit.” Arfoire nodded with her eyes closed.
“More timeline things. I was hoping that I wouldn’t have to deal with it anymore…” Nepgear noted. “Now Arfoire is apparently doing it… Maybe it’ll be in a similar case to yours, Maho. But I hope not.”
“Yeah, that isn’t good, Nepgear…” Maho looked at Arfoire. “Fine. If Neptune is willing to give you the benefit of doubt, so will I. But don’t try anything funny.” She warned the woman. “I’m keeping an eye on you.”
“Very fair, Maho. I don’t deserve your trust yet.” Arfoire nodded again. “Now… What do we do with that boy?” Arfoire walked to the blonde boy and ripped the pink tape from his mouth.
“Arfoire, you really didn’t need to do that, you know? He was gonna talk if-” Neptune was about to say something and the boy tried to spit on Arfoire, who dodged it.
“Woah. A little feisty, aren’t we? Now, this isn’t a democracy, you’ll tell us what’s going on and maybe you can walk away free with all your limbs intact.” Arfoire casually said to the boy.
“You bitch! Double-crossing the NAS group!” The boy replied.
“You see, that’s the thing. Whoever that was, it wasn’t me. So you better speak up, or you’ll have me plus these three on your ass.” Arfoire tried again. “And not in the lewd way, which I’m sure you’re thinking of.”
“Let’s start with this: What is NAS?” Maho asked, getting up from the couch and approaching him.
“Okay, okay! Jeez, you hag…” The boy scoffed. “Well, NAS means ‘Not A Slave’, we’re a group that are trying to free ourselves from the tyranny from the PC Goddess. I’m Danny Dan, Operations Saboteur! My job was to distract the army, and it seemed to work… The PC Tower is gone! Finally!”
Maho walked closer to the boy and slapped his face as hard as she could. Then pulled the pink tape and taped his mouth shut again. “I heard enough.”
Nepgear looked at her apprehensively. “Maho…”
“Man, where did our games get so dark recently? Is this a modern era thing?” Neptune asked in general.
“Right… We have something to go on, Neptune. Apparently a version of me is with this ‘NAS’ group to take on – and was successful at it – the PC Goddess.” Arfoire said. “We might need more help to figure out what happened there.”
“We should get the other goddesses, make a Summit.” Nepgear informed. “They want to know that something is happening again to the PC Continent.”
“And that Arfoire is both behind it and not behind it…” Neptune added. “Histy! Histy, call the other goddesses, we have an emergency…!” She said, leaving the room.
Arfoire looked at Maho. “Look, I get it.”
Suddenly, Maho snapped at her, interrupting the witch. “Get what, exactly? If you remember anything, like I do, then tell me, what is the reason for the chaos you caused everyone, that you caused to me, personally. Even possessing me and making me fight against my friends! All for what? Dominating everything? How boring and pathetic you must be for thinking that you’d have anything in a world you destroyed by your own hands. I understand this now, and Nepgear helped me a lot, more than I could ever hope for.” The girl looked at Nepgear, that smiled at her. “So you don’t you give me this pity party speech. If you wanna own up to your terrible villainous nature, you better start acting good and fast.” She finished, her fists clenching hard.
“You’re right. Looking back, it was a fruitless pursuit of power that I already have... I’ll try to get your sister back.” Arfoire offered a hand to Maho. Maho looked at her and got even more serious.
“I’ll believe it when I see it.” The other girl flatly replied.
“Maho…” Nepgear winced a bit. And Maho stormed off to the balcony, Nepgear following suit, leaving Arfoire alone with the boy, and turned her head at him. He blinked a few times, not understanding anything.
“You better behave. These girls… They have a mean punch.” Arfoire said, with a bit of a smirk. The boy could be seen gulping loudly.
---
“Neptune, I can’t do that… The other goddesses are busy!” Histoire said.
“Histy, the PC Tower is gone! They took the entire thing away! If that’s not the power of a goddess, I don’t know what is!” Neptune flailed her arms a lot. “Get Kei or Mina on the line then! Or Chika!”
“Fine.” Histoire informed her and called the other three, in a shared call.
Kei Jinguji picked up. As tomboyish as always, with her white short hair and blue eyes.
“Neptune. Histoire.” She nodded.
Then Mina Nishizawa, with her long and beautiful silver hair, and new outfit picked up.
“Oh, it’s Histy and Neptune! Hey you two!”
Then Chika Hakozaki picked up, with her nice green hair, but using an office-adjacent outfit, apparently serious about business.
“Shut up! I’m not letting Vert buy any more companies, Phil! Oh, sorry. Just dealing with some crap.”
“Fellas, we got a major code purple in our midst. We’re dealing with time shenanigans again… So I need your help. It’s been a while, yes, but this is imperative. We might be dealing with something bigger than the original Uzume, Kurome, from last time.” Neptune informed the three Oracles. “You know the evil one that wanted to kill us all~? And all that? Yeah, it’s worse.”
“Wait… Bigger than the original evil Uzume? How is that possible?!” Chika exclaimed.
“Well, for starters, the PC Continent’s Tower is gone! It’s just a massive crater, a hole on the ground! I saw it with my own eyes, and so did Nepgear and Maho!” Neptune exclaimed, with her arms flailing a lot. “We need a Summit!”
“Okay, okay. I’ll try to get Blanc.” Mina said, very concerned.
“Neptune, what is the plan with this? Do we have a name or any idea who did the attack?” Kei asked, very sternly as usual.
“We do, we even managed to capture one of their members. They call themselves ‘NAS’, meaning ‘Not A Slave’, they are against the ‘tyranny’ of the PC Continent, apparently.” Neptune informed. “The plan is to figure out what happened to the Tower. We’ll question him more and get information, because he didn’t give us much.”
“Noted. I’ll make sure to inform Noire.” Kei replied, with a nod.
“Okay… Yeah, that sounds ominous. I’ll get Vert on the Summit, ASAP.” Chika said.
“Tell them to come to Planeptune.” Histoire said, before the other three women nodded and ended the call. “Neptune, I’ve been looking into the tome… Nothing that is happening right now has been recorded inside of it.”
“Like… Ever? This is the first time that we’re not going through a circle?” Neptune asked.
“Exactly. Meaning that something happened… Something beyond the CPU powers you all possess.” Histoire said, before getting closer. “And about Arfoire. Do you think she has changed? It seems… So out of place for her to be like this.”
“Well… I think that the enemy of my enemy is at least my buddy. And I saw how much she cried, and said things. It could be staged, yes… But I think I should at least give her benefit of doubt. Maybe she has changed. I don’t know,” Neptune replied a bit concerned for her own safety. “But… I guess we can keep her close, so we can keep on watch…”
“Well. Just remember that she could betray you at any point.” Histoire warned Neptune. In reality the warning was not only justified but almost a necessity, considering how many times they faced Arfoire, even if it was from other dimensions.
“I’m… I’m well aware of that. I just hope she’s been truthful.” Neptune gave a weak smile.
“Ever the optimist, Neptune…” Histoire chuckled.
Chapter 2
“Gamindustri is home to many things, and one of them is Dimension Hopping. It is said that the ability is limited to a few chosen by the Original Goddess, in a way to balance the universe. Two beings were able to hold it originally, but only one of them has kept this ability for unknown reasons. Their whereabouts are unknown. It is unknown why this creature was given this purpose as well. It might have been for reasons beyond any of our understanding…
“The book continued revealing information as it was written by the Original Goddess, she created everything. But with creation, it also comes with destruction, and it’s impossible to decouple one from the other. If she really made this world that way, then everything we do is a cycle. It repeats over and over, without anyone thinking about it. It’s meant to be this way. Heroes defeat villains, new threats appear, villains get the upper hand, creating new heroes that defeat the villains, and so on.
“If this is a cycle, a way to stop it might exist. No one has looked for it, and no one seemed to be interested in doing so. If we are stuck in this cycle, we might as well enjoy the ride… Except what if the cycle wasn’t the goddess’ creation but a consequence of her actions? Gamindustri is doomed to repeat itself because it had protections put in place by the goddess, not because she created the cycle. If that’s the case, then the cycle can be broken.
“The only question is… What happens when this cycle is broken?”
“I CAN EXPLAIN, CALM DOWN!,” said a very comically angry sounding Neptune against her fellow goddess friends, Noire, Vert and Blanc, standing in front of Arfoire, who wasn’t amused by anything.
“She’s not supposed to be here!”
“What is she doing here?”
“Neptune, you better explain this.”
The three goddesses were all complaining to Neptune about their most deadly rival being there at the Planeptune Basilicom.
Arfoire didn’t seem to be bothered by it. But she did speak.
“I’m here by my own volition. I have nothing left, since it was taken by me – arguably correctly – and I don’t wish to do this cat and mouse game anymore. Now I found out that somehow the world decided to either create a new version of me to cause mischief or it’s an alternate version of me doing what I’m not willing to do anymore. I don’t need you all to believe in what I’m saying here, since we have history, and apparently with alternate versions of me that soured our idea of me but believe it when I say this: If this world takes me for a fool, then I’ll show it that it’s more than just wrong. If it believes that I’ll always be a villain, then I’ll show it what I can do.” Arfoire gave the four goddesses a speech that was incredible.
The reaction from the four goddesses was silence. There was a moment they also looked at each other, making eye contact with Neptune.
Neptune chuckled nervously. “I say we give her a chance! She didn’t attack me at any point! She had plenty opportunities to do so.”
Arfoire nodded and agreed with “Yes. If I wanted to, I could have. But Neptune remains unharmed, and will continue to be so.”
The first goddess to complain was Noire, of Lastation. She sported traditional black twin-tails and red eyes, as well as a nice figure. She looked at Neptune with a face of utter contempt, impossible to mistake. “Excuse us for a moment.” She grabbed Neptune by the arm and walked around, with the other two following, to the other room.
“Hey! Watch it!” Neptune complained pointlessly.
Immediately, she drilled Neptune verbally. “So, you’re telling us that our enemy wants to do a truce? Did you forget what she did the last time she was around?! Or the other times we faced her?!”
The next goddess was Blanc. Her slim and mostly flat figure, almost matching Neptune’s, with brown short hair and blue eyes, was on display. Her cute hat was there as well. She didn’t seem to be visually angry but mostly confused. “I think she’s trying to deceive us… But hasn’t done so. I don’t trust her, but this seems very strange…”
The last goddess was Vert, a much taller bombshell of a woman, with blonde long hair and deep blue eyes, dressed very properly, almost like a princess. “While I agree with Noire, I also think that Blanc is correct. There is no reason for her to act like this unless… Perhaps she can also feel ‘shame’?”
“No, no! You guys aren’t getting it,” said Neptune, trying to steer the discussion back to an explanation. “Arfoire cried in front of me over the failures she had. And Noire, we went against an Arfoire from the Ultra Dimension, where Plutie came from. And that one from Uzume was a fake. But! I don’t think she’s trying to deceive any of us. Mostly because…”
Neptune’s face got a little dark. “I went to the PC Continent with her, it was chaos. The goddess there was taken, and apparently there was an Arfoire behind it. But it was not this Arfoire, but another one. We don’t know which, but they seem to be highly competent. The entire PC Tower Basilicom was just gone. The streets were under attack by robots too.”
Vert was the first to ask: “Do we have any leads?”
Neptune nodded. “Yes. We got someone from the group that attacked the PC Continent here. They are called ‘NAS’, short for ‘Not A Slave’, they are going against the perceived ‘tyranny’ of the Goddess there.”
Vert put a hand on her cheek. “Hm. The information is both good and bad at the same time. It’s good that we know who did the attack but it’s bad because we don’t have more to go on.”
Noire brushed her right twin-tail back. “Robots you said? It might be manufactured in some Lastation factory. I’ll try to see if I can find any orders from our factories. Don’t want to be funding an attack like that.”
Blanc looked at the other two. “Neptune, I’d like to go investigate the PC Continent, if possible. We need to find some sort of clue that could help us, now that the dust has settled.”
Neptune gave her a thumbs up. “Alrighty! But… Arfoire might join us in some capacity. Are you okay with that?”
Blanc nodded. “I’m fine as long she keeps her end of the bargain.”
Vert clapped her hands. “Okay. I suppose I could look up any information online about this NAS group. If I find anything, I’ll let Chika know, then she can let the other Oracles know.”
The four goddesses nodded. “Alright, we got our jobs to do.”
Vert and Noire went to the balcony, turning into their goddesses’ forms, and flew away in different directions. Neptune and Blanc went back to the living room, where Arfoire was taking a sip of tea.
“Back so soon, Neptune? And Blanc?” The woman said, with her legs crossed.
“Me and Blanc want to investigate the PC Continent,” Neptune said. “There’s gotta be something there that could help us find whatever did this.”
“Yes. We don’t know how they are structured either. Any information we can get from the source, directly, will be helpful.” Blanc added.
“Well… Then I’m coming with you. If the world wants to make me its bitch, it’s gonna get it.” Arfoire stood up and placed the cup on the coffee table. She sounded serious.
“Small problem… I don’t think you should have this look…” Neptune informed. “No offense Arbore, but you’re dark and purple, and evil all over. Bad vibes, bad mojo.”
“Hm. Can’t you use a disguise?” Blanc asked. Didn’t take long for Arfoire to do just that.
This disguise was a black haired, twin-tailed blue eyed high school girl, sporting a nice figure and wearing a black jacket, white dress shirt, high waist black skirt, and loose red tie. On her back, a backpack. The end result looked like a newbie journalist reporter. “This can work.”
“Ayo? Nice work!” Neptune clapped her hands at Arfoire. “You look the part. Can you sound the part too?”
“Hai!” Arfoire said, hyping her voice up to be high-pitched. “Oh. My. Gosh! I’m standing next to the Goddesses of Planeptune and Lowee! You two are insane! My name is Chiaki Post, and I work for the local Planeptune News journal… Would you mind giving me an interview?”
Blanc made a face that felt like her face shrunk to somewhere. “That… That was quite the whiplash…”
“Woah… That was perfect, Ar- I mean Chiaki!” Neptune was still impressed. “Now… We are good to go.”
“Hai!” Arfoire in her Chiaki guise said.
---
...