Neptune didn't find it particularly productive to be watching TV so early in the morning. In fact, she would love nothing more than to open the shop right now and entertain customers. But considering that she had that scare last night with Nepgear, she figured that she’d stay closed for a couple of hours more and see if anything else happened.
Not that anyone comes in anyways.
Neptune sighed, flipping through channels out of boredom.There weren’t any good shows in the morning, most of them repeats from last night’s primetime drama. Even the morning news just repeated the same headlines shown last night.
Sighing, she tapped the next button on the remote over and over, waiting, more hoping, for something to stimulate her.
“Hm?” something had caught her attention. She flipped back a couple of channels, until she found the channel that caught her attention.
“Oh, it’s that drama..”
The TV channel showed a single woman crying in the rain under the pale light of a street lamp. Due to the artistic eccentricities of the director, the colors of the show were in monochrome. A white and black show befitting of the main lead.
The main lead turned towards the camera, her black hair accentuating her face. One of her twin tails gracefully hung on one of her shoulders. Her red eyes, the only thing colored in the scene, with rain drops dropping from the edges of her eyelids, seductively looked at the audience.
*BRRRRR!* *BRRRRR!*
Her N-Gear, which had been laying on the couch beside her, rang. The thought that maybe she forgot to pay one of her bills crossed her mind. Without stopping to look at who was calling, she accepted the call and put it on loudspeaker.
"Oh, hey Nep. Didn't expect you to answe-"
Neptune immediately hung up, tossed her N-Gear somewhere and scampered off into her room. She thought it was a customer or an investor or her landlord, but instead it was a brunette that she knew all too well...
"Guess I'll be sleeping the rest of the day away now…" Neptune mumbled, feeling as though the brunette ruined her day, she tottered off into her room to sleep.
She should’ve changed her number years ago.
----------------------------------------
“Is this it?” Compa asked, surveying the building in front of them with uneasiness on her face.
“Yeah, it seems it is.” IF answered, reassuring her wife as she double checked the note on her phone.
IF tracked down the rude purplette that hung up on her. Since many devices now have GPS running in the background, it routinely sent its location to the cellular provider. This was normally not accessible to the public, and as a result, is under strict guidelines paired with harsh punishments. Normally accessible only in emergency situations, this was however, the great IF. Getting his kind of info was kind of a cake walk.
“A game shop, huh? It’s so Nep-like…" Compa mumbled, still examining the building in front of her eyes.
The shop was a bit rundown by IF’s standards. Because unlike the various buildings around it, it looked like this one was plucked out of the past and dropped into the future. No automatic doors, nor any hologram of sorts that one often gets greeted by.
“It’s closed...” Compa exclaimed dismissively, pointing to the sign that read 'CLOSED' behind the visible part of the door.
IF reached for the handle, but the door wouldn't budge when she tried to pull it. The shop really was closed it seemed. Was she out on lunch break perhaps? Maybe she went back to Virtua Forest.
“Should I try calling again?” IF asked.
Compa nodded and she redialed Neptune's number.
*RRIIIING!* *RRIIIING!* *RRIIIING!* *RRIIIING!*
A ringing noise could be heard from deep within the shop.
‘She’s inside’ they both thought.
*bang!* *bang!* *bang!* *bang!*
IF banged on the shop’s front door, hard enough that it wouldn’t break, but strong enough to make a significant amount of noise.
“Nep! I know you’re in there! Open up! It’s us!” IF bellowed. But no one replied. “NEP!”
IF paused to hear if Neptune would respond, but there was nothing other than the ringing of Neptune’s device, and the ambient sound of the street behind them.
“Maybe she doesn’t want to talk to us?” Compa mumbled, a frown on her face as she watched IF bang on the door.
“Maybe" IF huffed, "But I'm not going to let her get away with it."
She looked around for a bit, finding something to either get her attention or get in. But the moment her eyes laid on the old-wooden door once more, a smirk appeared on her face.
"Sorry Compa, but do you mind covering me?"
Compa shook her head, knowing exactly what IF had in mind. "I don’t mind at all..."
Pulling out a lock picking tool from out of nowhere, IF crouched down in front of the door and began working on the lock with Compa standing closely behind her, covering her attemphere.
It would only take her a few minutes…
----------------------------------------
"....PTUNE!"
She could hear them louder now. Were they inside the shop? It wasn't too hard to imagine that IF had done something to get them inside...
She should’ve bought those cheap anti-trespassing devices long ago.
She heard the pitter patter of their footsteps coming closer, and closer… then they started getting louder. She could clearly tell that they were in the hall now. But with them being in the hall, the first door that they’d open was...
Neptune had her door swung open forcefully by a brunette girl with green eyes. A creamy pink haired girl followed behind her. But when both of them entered the room, there was no one currently occupying it. What greeted them was some random pudding on the table, and a purple blouse with an ‘N’ symbol on the chest hung by the front of the dresser.
"Maybe she really did go out…" IF mumbled, a disappointed tone escaping her lips as she looked around the room.
However, she couldn’t be more wrong. The owner of the room was, in fact, still in the room. With both of her feet glued to the wall, and hands on the ceiling, she pushed herself to stick to the corner of the room behind them, like a spider ready to catch its prey.
She knew that if she stayed here, she’d be discovered eventually. So, when the time was right, she dropped down from the corner of her room with a loud THUMP!
“...?”
Compa turned behind her, having felt the vibration on her feet. Their eyes met.
“...”
“...”
“...”
“...”
“...”
“...”
“...!”
“Nep-Nep!”
Pulling herself out of her trance, she immediately dashed towards the living room to grab her N-Gear.
"What!? Compa quick! Grab her!!" Catching only a shadow, IF immediately instructed Compa.
Having quickly made it into the living room, Neptune quickly scanned the area, not taking long before finding that the N-Gear was on the sofa. She immediately lunged towards it. But Compa, not trailing that far behind, jumped, intending on pinning her down with her body weight.
However, Neptune quickly stopped, twisted and twirled on her pivot foot, letting Compa land on the solid ground with a large THUMP. Mostly dampened by her boobs...
WIthout wasting any more time, she dashed towards the N-Gear and successfu-!
“-!”
Something small had hit Neptune’s hand before she could grab it. She looked to her right to see where it came from, only to see IF running up towards her, dangerously close.
She immediately grabbed Neptune’s wrist, raised it above her, and drew a circle with it as she stepped behind her. This causes Neptune's elbow to hyperextend, forcing her body to bend forward. And with IF putting her free hand on the trapped arm, Neptune was now forced to bend forward further, driving her to ground.
Having successfully pinned her down, IF rolled the arm towards her captors back as she pulled out a pair of handcuffs.
"Why do you have handcuffs?!"
"You think I don’t deal with crazy people at the Guild Hall?" she said as she cuffed Neptune.
Neptune had no rebuttal for that and sighed, "You know what you’re doing is illegal right?"
"Don’t worry about that, I can have that sorted out." IF replied, nonchalantly. "Besides. You’re being very difficult. This wouldn’t have happened if you had properly answered my call."
"...you're the worst." Neptune mumbled.
IF sighed audibly. She pulled her up, and sat Neptune down on the sofa and put the N-Gear on her lap out of courtesy.
“Now then, I think this is a great chance for us to talk.” IF said, as Compa entered Neptune’s view.
“Talk? What talk? You came all this way just to talk?”
“Yeah. You just up and left without even a thank you. That’s a pretty spoiled princess-like move if you ask me.”
“So you came here, broke into my shop, pinned me down, and even handcuffed me, just to hear that?" Neptune said, enraged at IF's reasoning, “Well gee so~rry, here. ‘Thank you’, now uncuff me and get out of my house.”
IF sighed, her face actively contorting as she tried to contain the rage she had for Neptune at the moment…
IF shook her head and put her hands up in the air in defeat then turned to her wife, “Sorry, Compa, can you take care of this? I just can't...” IF said, then left the living room.
“Nep-Nep, we didn’t come here because of that. We just, you know… haven’t talked in a long time. So we wanted to catch up.”
“There’s nothing we need to catch up on.”
“But, why?" Compa asked, failing to understand as to why Neptune was playing so hard to get. "We don’t hate you, if that's how you feel." she explained, "We weren't even mad when you didn't come to our wedding. We delayed the wedding even, just to find you. And when you didn’t respond to your birthday invitations, we still looked all over for you”
“And? What are you trying to tell me here?” Neptune asked, her voice not amused as she listened to Compa speak.
Compa frowned, “...we miss you, Nep-Nep. What's so hard to understand?"
"You don't understand anything…"
----------------------------------------
Neptune had gone silent after that, Compa tried to restart the conversation a few times but to no avail. The two sat there for minutes, and then hours… and eventually it was the afternoon and IF had returned to the room to watch Neptune with her wife.
"Nep, what do you mean we don't understand anything?" IF asked calmly, after being briefed by Compa.
But the lilac-haired girl remained silent.
"What happened after The Crash?"
Unfortunately for IF, she had sat herself right beside Neptune earlier. So in response, Neptune had turned to the brunette and head butted her straight in the forehead. The unexpected force pushed IF to lay on the sofa as Neptune regained her footing and stood up.
“Nep-Nep!”
IF rubbed her head in anger.
“What the hell, Nep!?”
"Don’t you da–Tch! You wouldn't even understand anyway. ."
“That’s why we’re here dammit! So we can understand you!” IF said, standing up, her rage almost reaching critical mass.
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“There’s nothing you two are going to understand! Especially you two! Good for you, both of you are now-”
*SLAP!*
IF slapped Neptune. A red mark now burned on her cheek.
"Listen here, Nep." IF said sternly, "Maybe we'd 'get it' if you actually talked to us, huh? Ever thought about that? I don't know what's going on inside your head, but what I do know is that you're being unreasonable. If you hate that, fine, I apologize, But how about you tell us what happened after The Crash and we can go about fixing things?!"
"No. And besides, you don’t have an idea on how to fix things. So, why don’t you just uncuff me and leave me the fuck alone!?"
“Okay, that does it! You want out? I’ll give you out!”
IF had enough, she grabbed Neptune by her clothes and forcefully dragged her out of the store to somewhere with Compa following behind her.
That somewhere just happened to be Virtua Forest. In a familiar spot no less.
Putting Neptune down from IF’s shoulder, she uncuffed her and stepped back a few paces.
"We're fighting." she said, stretching in preparation for the fight.
"And if I don't?" Neptune replied, standing up and feeling her wrists.
"I can tell that you don't sell that many games, Nep. Do you want me to take away your secondary source of income? Ban you from the Guild Hall?"
“Now you have the right to ban people? Are you that kind of a hot shot?”
“Why don’t you find out for yourself.”
"Tch…" Neptune huffed angrily and stared at IF, a mix of contempt and anger on her face as she spoke next and materialised her bamboo sword, "Fine. But if I win, you leave me alone."
IF put a hand to her head and shook it, sighing dismissively. "Don't worry, Nep." she told her, sounding closer to her than she actually wa-, "You never stood a chance to begin with."
Neptune turned to see IF standing right behind her. She swung her sword at her, but IF simply weaved under it.
Expecting some sort of attack next, she jumped back prematurely to avoid it. But the attack didn’t come, and IF simply straightened herself up, sighing in contempt.
“Tch...” Neptune clicked her tongue and shook her head.
She lunged towards the brunette, covering the distance in 5 long strides, and swung her sword, intending to hit her abdomen.
IF stepped back, her torso barely touching the tip of the bamboo sword as it swung across her. Neptune retaliated with an upwards swing and stepped forward, but her opponent simply stepped back, as though it was that easy.
Because of this however, she now had better posture to do what she originally intended to do. So she stepped forward once more, straightened herself out, and swung her sword down onto IF’s head.
However, things would not be as easy as it seemed, as IF took a stance and raised her left hand, knocking the sword out of the way as it came down. Making the swing miss entirely. Knowing that Neptune was unable to stop her momentum, she pushed her open palm towards her chest.
Neptune quickly buckled her forward knee, using the momentum of her previous swing to duck under IF’s palm strike. Putting her hands on the ground, she swung her legs underneath IF, making the brunette jump back to dodge. Giving Neptune leeway to stand up.
“You’re rusty Nep.” IF commented idly, as if she had no care for this fight at all.
“What about you?" Neptune questioned in return, "You haven’t even taken out your katars yet.”
IF shrugged nonchalantly, "If you want me to put in a little bit more effort then be my guest."
“Don’t look down on me!” Neptune exclaimed, rushing towards IF, swinging at her in retaliation. IF dodged again, this time side stepping to get behind her.
She quickly reversed the hold of her sword and swung it at IF’s head. However, IF had leaned back, the bridge of her nose grazing the tip of the wooden sword. Neotune swiftly swung her back leg in response, intending to deliver a roundhouse kick to her head. But IF ducked under it. Seeing this as an opportunity, Neptune swung her other leg, performing a hook kick.
IF weaved under it and stepped backward. Immediately, Neptune straightened her hold on her bamboo sword with one hand and thrust it toward IF’s face.
IF roughly dodged the attack, a thrust being much harder to predict than a normal swing. Let alone expected.
“What th–"
Using the thrust, Neptune was now dangerously close to IF. She grabbed her sleeve and slipped her other arm on IF’s belt behind her. With both grips firmly in place, Neptune stepped in with her back foot, raising her arms over her shoulder, putting IF on her toes. She faced forward while thrusting her hips at IF’s, further lifting IF off the ground. And in one swift movement, she pulled IF from her sleeve, to her hips, over her shoulder and slammed her down on the ground in front of her.
*THUD!*
“Guh...!”
“You think I’m rusty now?!” Neptune exclaimed angrily as she stepped back, letting IF stand.
“Kh... I thought I had gotten stronger than you already." IF grimaced, a look of shock plastered firmly on her face, "Seems like I still have lots to learn.”
“Don’t kid yourself. I’m the one that taught you how to fight." Neptune scoffed, "I know your weak spots better than anyone else.”
“I guess it’s my bad taking it too easy on you then.” IF commented, jerking both of her hands, making her favorite weapons slide out of her sleeve.
“En garde, Nep.” IF told the purplette, taking an unfamiliar stance.
Instead of her leading hand being almost stretched out, she kept it lowered. Her leading shoulder compensates for the lack of guard by blocking her chin from view. Her feet weren’t as wide as before, being a bit closer now and on their toes.
It was both familiar, yet unfamiliar at the same time. It was an evolution of a stance that she once raised against her so long ago.
How time really flied...
In one stride, IF covered the distance between them, thrusting her leading weapon to one lilac colored eye. Neptune shifted her head to the side, part of her hair being clipped by the katar in the process. But just as quickly as she thrust, IF pulled back her leading hand with the same speed and thrust at her again. Thus giving Neptune little room to breathe.
“Shit…!"
Neptune dodged the one jab. But another one came, and another one, and another one, and another one! She had to continuously dodge the flurry of jabs coming straight at her face, forcing her to take multiple steps backward in a vain attempt to find an opening.
“—!”
Neptune parried one of the thrusts, leaving IF’s body open. Not wanting this opportunity to go to waste, Neptune quickly stepped in, and swung her sword.
IF thrusted her other katar in response, but Neptune quickly ducked under it, letting the sharp blade slip over and past her. She frantically reversed the hold on her wooden sword for a second time, and thrusted it behind her, towards IF’s back.
IF quickly turned and parried the thrust with one of her katars as she did so, swinging the free one at her. Neptune did another duck under and swung her weapon at IF’s face.
She leaned back, avoiding the attack and thrusted both her katars at Neptune.
Neptune jumped backward, initiating a backflip and swinging her legs at IF.
“Tch!”
IF stopped herself from attacking, and leaned back, the subtle breeze of the kick wheezing past her nose.
The moment Neptune recove-
A katar’s tip was now right before her. She instinctively threw her head to the side, while putting up her sword, ready to block. However, as the sword was made of wood, the metal of the katar easily pierced it, cutting the sword in two.
“Da–”
IF drove her shoulder to Neptune’s waist, grabbed both her legs and lifted her up. She then slammed Neptune onto the ground.
*THUD!*
“Tch…!”
Dull pain coursed throughout Neptune's entire body as her vision went black for a second or two. Her arms, legs, hell, even her brain cells were numb. Oxygen had been forced out of her, her lungs disparately commanding her to breathe. IF quickly mounted on top of her, pinning her down and pointing her katar at her.
“I told you. You don’t stand a chance. Even I can tell just from looking that you’ve become rusty”
“Yeah? And what do you know, Miss hotshot!?” Neptune snarked back with venom
“Your swings are too wide, and your movement is too heavy. I can tell that you’ve been taking deep breaths as we’ve been fighting. Especially before you've committed to an action. Though your reflexes are still there, you’re heavily overcompensating for your lack of speed by forcing your body to move, leaving your next moves sluggish”
“...”
“Now that we’re in a talking mood...” IF stood up and let out a sigh of relief, brushing some dust off of her in the meanwhile.
“...” Compa walked up to her, a concerned look on her face as she subtly glanced over to the unconscious purplette taking a dirt nap.
“Sorry you had to see all that, Compa...”
Compa shook her head, “It’s fine. I’m just…" she let out a sad sigh, "You really had to resort to this...”
“Sorry” IF apologized, placing her hand on Compa's head, gently playing with it and making a mess of her hair.
“Hey!" Compa exclaimed childishly, "Stop that! I spend so long working on m-... Huh? Nep-Nep?”
Compa had stopped trying to use her hands to swat away IF's own, and the brunette could see her wife's eyes wander over to the senseless purplette.
IF, confused, tilted her head and followed Compa’s line of sight...
Neptune was now standing up, a shadow covering her eyes. IF's sense of danger kicked in as she pulled out her katars once more and stood in front of her wife, shielding her.
The air was still, stiff even. IF and Compa held their breath as Neptune raised her right hand, as if reaching for something. The cold wind blew, and IF shivered. Neptune grinned, a grin that was unbefitting of her, a grin that they couldn't comprehend, a grin that sent chills down their spine…
"Transform…"
A pillar of darkness suddenly erupted from underneath Neptune’s feet, obfuscating her from view and sucking any source of light away from its surroundings. IF and Compa braced themselves from the strong winds as they tried to peer inside of the pillar. At the height of it all, it seemed like color had been completely drained from Virtua Forest. Everything was monochrome, the trees stood completely still, and it all went silent.
But as fast as the pillar of darkness appeared, so too did it disappear. Erupting once more and bringing back all feelings, as well as revealing the person inside.
“N-Nep...?”
It was her. How long had it been since they last saw her in that form? How many adventurous memories did that form hold? The years of colorful memories flashed before their very eyes, as her long purple braided twin tails flapped behind her, and the circular symbol on her chest sinisterly glowed.
Before IF could even mutter a word of surprise, Purple Heart suddenly appeared before IF and swung her katana, a murderous aura surrounding her as they exchanged looks.
“Kh-!”
IF quickly side stepped out of the way to dodge. But in the process of doing so, only barely managed it and had a good chunk of her hair cut in the process.
“Compa ge-...Tch!”
She had wanted to warn Compa to run and find a safe spot to hide, but Purple Heart quickly followed up on her previous attack and wasn't allowing for even the tiniest amount of breathing room.
*CLASH*
IF let out an internal sigh of relief as she was able to block the attack with both of her katars.
She then redirected the overhead swing to the ground, hoping to jump back and plan her next move, to try to gain the advantage in this fight that was quickly turning sour.
Purple Heart had other ideas however, and quickly recovered from the misdirection. Twisting and turning on her one foot to deliver a roundhouse kick to the gut, Purple Heart was hoping to send IF flying with this one kick.
"Too fast! I can't keep up!" IF thought to herself, bringing both of her arms in front of her and staggering her feet so that the momentum of the kick wouldn't send her backwards.
Purple Heart quickly adjusted, unfortunately for IF, as the CPU did one of those cool backwards spins to land on her other leg and deliver a straight kick instead.
This broke through IF's guard and the brunette was sent flying with G-Force comparable to that of a fighter jet, crashing through many trees along the way.
"Guh…" IF bounced off of the last tree to eventually stop her momentum and coughed, quickly, but shakily pulling herself off of the ground and wiping what little blood spurted from her mouth.
“Where...!?”
*BAM!*
IF dodged Purple Heart’s stomp by quickly standing up and stepping back as soon as she could. Purple Heart was quick on the draw as well, however, and stepped forward, swinging her sword at the brunette.
It barely registered to IF's eyes that Purple Heart had even swung her sword, but she had managed to knock the swing over to the side and lunged at Purple Heart to make use of the opportunity given to her.
"-!"
*CLASH!*
IF raised her katar and blocked the next swing that came her way, the attack that she wanted to do being put on the backburner, as once again, she was put on the defensive. Her arm instantly started to shake uncontrollably from how heavy the attack was. This wasn't any sort of strength she was used to encountering, and it was freighening how strong Purple Heart was right now...
Seeing this, Purple Heart quickly set up for another swing, this time aiming for her head.
*CLING!*
IF blocked with both katars. Her feet digging into the ground from the amount of downward force in the attack, and her left arm becoming numb from the shock.
‘She's superhuman! This is crazy! At this point I'm going to lose!’ Eventually her right arm started to go numb, meaning that IF had now started to lose feeling in both her arms and that her body was quickly reaching its limits.
Purple Heart slammed down on IF's katars once more, as if trying to break down a door with an axe.
*CLASH!*
*CLINGCLINGCLINGCLING!*
She was barely hanging on, but IF's guard was slowly being chipped away as Purple Heart unleashed her flurry of swings to break past it.
*CLASHCLASHCLASHCLASH!*
It was like an I-beam was continuously being dropped on her, each slash from Purple Heart, each contact of metal on metal rumbling her entire core. Her knees had started to buckle slightly, and her back had started to ache from trying to maintain this defensive stance. In the meanwhile her arms had started to buckle and slightly lower, another sign that her defense was slowly losing its impact.
Clouds made of dust and soil get puffed into the air with each strike, covering them both.
*CLASH!* - *CLASH!* - *CLASH!* - *CLASH!*
IF’s feet were now practically buried inside of a crater. She had lost the feeling in her legs a couple of slashes ago, but how many attacks ago was that? She couldn't tell.
*CLASH!* - *CLASH!* - *CLASH!* - *CLASH!*
IFs knees were about to give out. On top of that, her arms had been lowered almost close to her head, and she completely lost all feeling in her arms.
'Not good! At this rate I'l-" her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of cracks forming on her katars. 'I'm done for aren't I?'
Her body had also started to finally reach its limit...
*CLASH!* - *CLASH!* - *CLASH!* - *CLASH!*
*CRACK!*
IF’s katars broke, a face of despair as they shattered into a million pieces. The impact of the break caused IF to be blown back by the force of all the swings combined. But Purple Heart’s last swing continued following its arc, the tip of her katana cutting IF’s skin.
*SKKKKKKKKKKKKKSSSSH!!*
Moments before she was blown away, the katana of Purple Heart cut through from her left shoulder to her right hip. Blood instantly gushed out, like a fountain, showering Purple Heart with the red liquid that she seemed to rejoice in.
IF, knocked back into a tree, falls onto the ground and groaned, eyes barely able to see anything as she tried to stay conscious.
“Dammit...” she muttered, trying to sit herself up. But her body wasn't listening to her. In fact, it's as if her body was shutting down, forcing her to fall asleep...
Something eclipses over her. Beneath the shadow formed by the sunlight peeking through the leaves and branches, the power symbol in her eyes glows radiantly.
“Nep...”
Purple Heart raised her sword and--
*THUD*
Something bodied her from behind. The warmth of another, instantly pierces her. Two arms, slightly shaking, wrapped tightly around her torso.
“Nep-Nep!”
“...!”
----------------------------------------
"Woah! Compa! Hey! I know I'm a suuuuuuper strong Goddess and all, but you can't just throw yourself at me!"
"Why not? Nep-Nep is the greatest, bestest Goddess ever isn't she?"
"Haha, it doesn't work like that Compa. Right, IF? Even if I'm the bestest Goddess ever, there's only so much I can handle."
"...I want a hug too."
"Come on over then! The more the merrier!"