Neptunia Heart Souls- CHAPTER 9

 Neptune and Nepgear walked side-by-side as they made their way to their next destination. The sun was shining brightly and a warm breeze blew through the girl’s hair. “I’m glad the weather is so nice.” Nepgear said, closing her eyes and feeling the warm breeze blow over her face and through her hair.  

“Yeah. The weather could have been a lot worse.” Neptune agreed.

As the girls walked, they passed by several monsters. They thought about hunting them down, but changed their minds. “I have a feeling were going to be doing a lot of hunting as we get closer to the second Fairy Tower.” Said Neptune, after Nepgear proposed going after them.

“That’s true. We also shouldn’t wear ourselves out too much either.” Nepgear said, putting her energy sword away.

Several hours later the girls were starting to feel a bit tired. “My feet hurt and I haven’t played videogames in a week. I’m tired and also the suns too brighter and I’m sweating!” Neptune said, fanning herself with her hand.

“Yeah. I’m feeling tired too.” Nepgear muttered. “Were pretty close to the forest where the second Fairy Tower is. Let’s find a place to rest, okay?”

“Sounds good to me!” Neptune said, suddenly cheering up and rushing ahead of her sister.

“Tired, huh?” Nepgear said, in a small voice.

“You say something little sister?” Nepgear asked.

“Nope!” Nepgear lied.

The two girls started running as fast as they could across the plain until they finally reached the forest. “Where should we rest? I don’t really feel comfortable sleeping out in the open like this.” Nepgear said.

“Looky looky!” Neptune said, gesturing into the forest.

Nepgear followed where Neptune was pointing and spotted a house located in the forest. The house stood two stories tall. Most of the windows had been boarded up and the front door swung back and forth as though it had a mind of its own. “I wonder if anyone lives there.” Nepgear wondered, aloud.

“If someone lives in there, I’ll be very surprised.” Said Neptune.

“Yeah. It looks abandoned.” Said Nepgear.

“Which means it’s ours!” Neptune cheered, as she ran towards the house as fast as she could.

Nepgear tried to stop her sister, but her words were drowned out by the cheers and laughter of her sister.

Both girls ran up to the house and looked the building over. Even though the building looked dilapidated, they didn’t see any structural problems with it. “I think we can go in.” Nepgear said.

“I hope it’s not haunted!” Neptune said, opening the front door and disappearing inside before Nepgear could say anything.

“Haunted? Why did you have to say that big sis?” Nepgear asked, as she followed after her sister.

Nepgear gasped. The moment Nepgear had stepped into the house, she found herself standing in a long, empty hallway. “Sis? Where are you?” Nepgear called out, but Neptune didn’t respond.

Nepgear took a step forwards. As her foot touched the floorboard, a loud squeaking noise erupted and bounced off the dusty walls. Nepgear’s eyes went wide and she hugged herself tightly. “This place is haunted! Neptune! NEPTUNE!”

“What’s up sis?” Neptune said, poking her head into the hallway.

Nepgear yelped. For a moment she thought she spotted someone standing behind Neptune, but quickly realized it was her sisters shadow. “I just found some lights.” Neptune said.

“Huh?” Nepgear glanced up and saw a light bulb poking out of the ceiling. To her surprise the light bulb was on. “This place has electricity?”

“Yeah. Maybe it has pudding!” Neptune said.

“NO!” Nepgear cried. “This place looks really old! Don’t eat anything you find, understand?”

“Aww…” Neptune pouted. “Fine, but I better not catch you sneaking any one-hundred year old pudding for yourself.”

Nepgear shook her head. “You won’t sis.” Nepgear said, as she made her way down the long hallway and soon found herself standing in a kitchen. “I wonder who used to live here.”

“Don’t know.” Neptune said, as she moved around the kitchen and opened each cabinet, drawer and refrigerator. “Huh… It’s broken and empty.” Neptune said, sadly.

“You weren’t really going to eat anything you found, right?” Asked Nepgear.

“Huh? Of course not! I was just playing around.” Neptune said, waving her hand dismissively. “Anyways, why don’t we explore the rest of this house? Maybe we’ll find some place we can sleep or something.”

“Right.” Nepgear said.

Neptune turned to leave, but stopped when she felt someone grab her hand. “What’s up?” Asked Neptune.

“I… Was worried you’d be scared or something, so I’m going to hold your hand.” Nepgear said.

Neptune smiled mischievously and eyed Nepgear for a moment before she said, “aww! Thanks Nepgear!”

Neptune and Nepgear made their way out of the kitchen and started making their way from room to room. As they moved they kept their eyes open for any monsters that might have wondered into the building.

The girls entered what looked like a living room. The room wasn’t very big, but it looked cozy. A fire place was located on the far side of the room, the walls had a few paintings on them and there was a large couch as well. “Whoa!” Nepgear said, when she spotted a table filled with old computer towers. “I’ll check those out later, but they look so old!”

“That’s my geeky sister for you.” Neptune said, smiling proudly. “I’m just… WHOA!” Neptune cried out, which caused Nepgear to jump “Look! Look! A game console!”

“Huh?” Nepgear said, looking the console over. The console looked pretty old and even though it was covered in a fine layer of dust, the girls could tell that it was unusual. “I’ve never seen anything like it before.”

“Me either. What’s the deal with this orange swirl mark?” Asked Neptune.

Nepgear shook her head. “Let’s check it out later.” Said Nepgear, leading her sister away from the console.

“I have bad news Nepgear. Chances are good that that game console is going to end up in my backpack.” Said Neptune.

“I know how you feel!” Nepgear said, barely able to contain her excitement. Depending on what’s in those computer towers, a few motherboards might end up in mine!”

Neptune and Nepgear quickly finished looking the house over. Once they were finished, they headed back into the living room where the computer towers and game console were waiting for them.

Nepgear instantly made her way over to the table, but a thought entered her mind. “Big sis?” Nepgear began, her voice shook a little as she spoke.

“I’m not going anywhere.” Neptune said, picking up the old game console. “Have fun Nepgear!”

“Thanks!” Nepgear said, smiling brightly and blushing hard. After that, Nepgear turned her attention to the computer monitors and went to work.

As Nepgear scrounged for tools to take the computer monitors apart, Neptune looked the game console over. Neptune considered herself a game console expert, but she couldn’t place where the console was made or what company created it. “This is weird.” Neptune began, as she pressed a button on the front of the console. The lid on the console popped open, but besides learning that the console was a disc drive, she still couldn’t figure it out.

“No hook ups either. Not that I can find.” Neptune said, glancing around the living room. She spotted a box nearby that was filled with cords and other items. Grabbing the box she dumped it out and started separating the contents. “Nothing. This is weird.”

“I can look the console over later if you want.” Nepgear said. “Give me a minute to look these computer towers over.”

“By a minute you mean a few weeks, right?” Neptune asked.

“No. I won’t take that long.” Nepgear said.

Nepgear managed to locate a few tools that would help her take the computer towers apart. Nepgear didn’t say much, but every once in a while she would squeal with delight before continuing her work. Every once in a while Nepgear would look back at her sister to make sure she was still in the room with her.

Neptune had given up on finding any of the consoles cords and instead tried to find a way to fit it into her backpack. “I’m going to need to make some room.” Neptune muttered, as she gabbed a pudding cup and peeled off the lid.

An hour slowly passed and soon both Neptune and Nepgear were starting to feel tired. “I’m getting exhausted.” Nepgear said, stretching her hands high over her head.

“I’m feeling it too.” Neptune said. Neptune had managed to fit the game console into her backpack. She felt like going back home and trying to figure out more about the console, but knew she wouldn’t be able to convince Nepgear to do it.

“Did you find anything good?” Asked Neptune.

“I did, but…” Nepgear began, gesturing towards three computer towers. “These towers are still active.”

“They are? What are they doing?” Asked Neptune.

Nepgear shook her head. “I don’t know. This house is kind of strange. It’s really close to the second Fairy Tower. Maybe it was setup to monitor the tower or something. I don’t know.” Nepgear got to her feet and stretched her hands high over her head. “Let’s ask Histoire after we activate the Fairy Tower tomorrow.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Neptune said, stretching her hands high over her head as well. “Let’s get some sleep.”

Neptune and Nepgear collapsed on the couch. Even though it smelled old, the girls were able to drift off to sleep.

***
The following morning the Nep’s made their way out of the house. Thanks to the surrounding trees, the girls couldn’t tell if it was sunny or not. They could at least see where they were going.

“I wonder what kinds of monsters were going to run into.” Nepgear wondered, as she grabbed her energy sword.

Neptune had her katana out already. “Doesn’t matter! We’ll Nep up any monster that gets in our way!”

The girls made their way through the forest until they reached a large clearing. Located in the middle of that clearing was the Fairy Tower. This Fairy Tower looked like the first one they had activated and it was also surrounded by monsters.

The girls spotted Clyde monsters, Ms. Clyde monsters and even a Super Otaku. Neptune and Nepgear rushed forwards and cut through the monsters with relative ease and soon they were close to the Fairy Tower.

“I’ll keep them busy Nepgear! You activate the tower!” Neptune said, as she launched herself at a group of super otaku that were rushing towards them. Even though the super otaku looked like people, they were actually monsters. The creatures reached for Neptune with their large hands, but Neptune easily defeated them all with only a few swings of her sword.

Nepgear did as she was told and slide the USB memory stick into the Fairy Tower. Moments later the Tower came to life.

“Hello.” Histoire said, bowing to Nepgear. “It’s a pleasure to see you two again.”

“Hi Histoire. It didn’t take that long to activate this tower.” Nepgear said, to Histoire.

Neptune finished with the last of the monsters before she came over to the tower as well. “Howdy Histy! Is everything working fine? Not rusted anywhere?” She asked.

“No. I’m not rusted.” Histoire said, put off by the question. “Would you two like to alter your stats?”

“Sure!” Neptune said.

Neptune and Nepgear started pressing buttons into the terminal. “I don’t have enough share energy to change anything.” Neptune said, sighing deeply.

“Same here.” Nepgear said, looking out at the remaining monsters that were roaming around the clearing. “These monsters might not be strong enough to give us any good returns. We should probably move on.”

“Yeah.” Neptune said. “I feel exhausted again. Let’s go back home.”

“Home?” Nepgear said, when she suddenly remembered the house the two girls had just departed. “That house Neptune! Histoire! I was going to ask you about this house that’s located near here.”

“House?” Histoire said, surprised. “Oh my! There’s a house!” Histoire said, once she finished scanning the area.

“Yeah. We found it just a little while ago. It looks really old.” Nepgear explained. “Also we found some computer towers inside and three of them were still running.”

“That is very strange.” Histoire said. “This Fairy Tower was deactivated a few weeks ago and that house wasn’t there before!”

“Whoa… Spooky.” Neptune said. “Do you think it was a ghost or something?”

“I seriously doubt it.” Nepgear said, shaking her head. “What do you want to do Histoire?”

Histoire thought for a few moments. “Activating the last Fairy Tower is important, but I also think we need to look into that houses origin. Do you two mind going back and looking it over more thoroughly? I know it might take a while, but I’m sure you can do it.”

“Take a while?” Neptune said. “Uh Histoire, maybe you shouldn’t judge everything based on your size. That house might be two stories tall, but it’s still pretty small.”

“Small?” Histoire said. “According to my scans, that house’s basement alone is enormous!”

Nepgear’s eyes went wide. “Basement?”