Neptunia Heart Souls- CHAPTER 46

 The bus made several stops along its route, but soon the bus stopped in a small town that was located between Lastation and the abandoned city that Neptune and Noire were heading to.

Neptune, Noire and Linda climbed off the bus. The moment Neptune’s feet hit the ground she stretched her arms high over her head. “Oh man! Great to get off that bus, huh?” She said.

“Yeah that was a long ride.” Said Noire.

“Yeah… Long…” Said Linda, who was hugging herself tightly.

Neptune turned to Linda and noticed how nervous the girl looked. “What’s wrong Linda? You don’t have to come with us if you don’t want to, but you won’t get any of my special pudding if you don’t!”

“Leave her alone Neptune.” Noire said, as she placed a hand on Linda’s forearm and her back. “Are you okay Linda? Listen. I can buy a bus ticket for you and send you back to Lastation if you want. I don’t mind.”

“Tightwad Noire willing to pay for someone’s ticket?” Neptune gasped.

“I paid for your ticket, remember?” Noire said, annoyed.

“Oh yeah. I guess there’s something that can get Noire to pry open her wallet after all. Friendship!” Neptune said.

Noire rolled her eyes, before turning them back to Linda. “So what do you say?” She asked.

Linda fought the urge to take Noire up on her offer. “I appreciate that, but I’d like to pay off my debt to you two.” She said. “If that’s okay of course.”

“Well you don’t owe us a debt, but I don’t mind you coming with us. I remember how tough you are.” Said Noire.

“Thanks.” Said Linda, smiling nervously.

Noire turned her eyes skywards, before sighing deeply. “As much as I would love for us to head to the abandoned city now. We really should find a place to sleep tonight. It’s going to get dark soon.”

“Sounds good to me.” Neptune said, as she began to twirl around on her heels. “Let’s see… Hotel, hotel… HOTEL!” Neptune cried, pointing at a nearby building. “I found one captain!”

“Good work Neptune. You get extra kibble in your bowl tonight.” Noire said, smirking.

“Woof woof!” Neptune barked, as she grabbed Linda and Noire’s hand and started leading them towards the building. Once the girls were inside, they were instantly blasted by the air conditioning, which made them all close their eyes and take in the feeling of cold air against their skin.

“This is nice.” Noire said, blushing a little.

“Yeah. I like this hotel.” Said Linda.

“Let’s just sleep here in the lobby.” Said Neptune.

“Ahem.” Came a voice, from the other side of the counter.

The girls opened their eyes and saw that someone was looking at them. “Sorry about that.” Noire said, brushing past Lind and Neptune and stepping up to the counter. “Can we get a room please?” Noire asked.

“Sure.” Said Noire.

“One room for the three of us? Noire what are you thinking?!” Neptune asked, grabbing her cheeks and giggling.

“Huh? Shut up Neptune!” Noire snapped. Neptune started giggling a goofy grin, which made Linda hold up her hands in defense, but she didn’t say anything. After getting the key to their room, Noire grabbed a brochure from a nearby stand before she led everyone to their room.

The hotel room wasn’t very big. Near the front door of the room was a bathroom. The room had two beds that were pushed close to the wall on the left side of the room. Located near those beds were two nightstands with lamps located on them. Located in front of the bed was a bed. Pushed close to the window at the very back of the room was a circular table and two chairs.

Once inside the room, Neptune leapt on top of the first bed and began bouncing up and down on it. “This is my bed!” Said Neptune, before she stopped jumping. The girl blushed heavily and turned to Linda and Noire “So who am I sharing it with?” She asked.

“Neptune you’re sharing a bed with me.” Noire said. Neptune opened her mouth to say something, but stopped when Noire added, “and if you say anything lewd I’m going to slap you.”

“Me say something lewd? I’m a pure maiden missy!” Said Neptune, after making sure she wasn’t in slapping range.

“Uh Noire?” Linda began.

“Oh, don’t worry about us. You can have that bed to yourself.” Said Noire.

“No.” Linda said, shaking her head. “Are you sure you want me in here? You two barely know me and what you do know of me isn’t good.”

“It’s fine, it’s fine.” Said Neptune. “We both trust you.”

“Yeah. Don’t worry about it.” Said Noire. “And don’t take this the wrong way, but I want to keep an eye on you.”

“Oh…” Linda said, her voice trailed.

“Don’t take that the wrong way.” Noire said, once more. “I trust you, but I’m still worried about leaving you on your own. Neptune’s been at this longer and she could tell you some stories about her journey.”

“Oh man.” Neptune said. “That’s all I’ll say. One pudding per story!”

Noire pulled off her backpack and reached inside. A moment later she pulled out a pudding pack and handed it over to Linda. “It’s worth the price.” She said. “But only one story.”

Linda giggled as she handed over a pudding pack to Neptune. “Now I shall regale you with a story about the haunted laboratory that almost took my life!” Neptune began,

As Neptune started telling her story, Noire made her way to the table and unfurled the brochure. Located on one side of the brochure was information on the city they were in, on the other side was a map of the surrounding area.

Noire pulled out a marker and started drawing on the map. “I think if we follow this path, we’ll reach the abandoned city without many problems. The monsters along this route though are going to be pretty tough. I wish we could have hunted more Phoenix monsters, but we might be okay.” Noire thought to herself.

“And that’s how I nearly died.” Neptune said, finishing off her story.

“Oh wow!” Linda said, tears had formed in the corners of her eyes. “Your sister was amazing! She carried you all the way to the Fairy Tower? That’s amazing!” Linda said.

“Yeah.” Neptune said, giggling a bit. “I feel bad about making my sister worry about me like that, but everything worked out at the end.”

“So where’s your sister now?” Linda asked.

“Oh we left her back at Noire’s house with her sister Uni. Noire absolutely had to come with me to activate these Fairy Towers.” Said Neptune.

Noire sighed deeply as she made her way over to the bed Neptune was sitting on. “When Histoire asked me to help you Neptune, I took that responsibility very seriously. I also thought it was a good opportunity for our sisters to interact with each other. Uni hung out with me most of the time and rarely get’s to spend time with girls her own age.”

“Aw! You’re a great big sister.” Said Linda.

Noire shook her head. “I needed some work, but I’m getting better.”

“So Noire…” Neptune began. “Did you figure out our route for tomorrow?”

“Yeah.” Said Noire, as she took a seat next to Neptune.

“Let me guess. Were hitting every monster nest on our way over there?” Neptune asked.

“No Neptune.” Noire said, shaking her head. “Even though we have Linda helping us, I knew that wouldn’t be a good idea, so I chose the safest route possible for us.” Noire sighed deeply. “But yeah. There are some really big monster nests out there and I’m sure they would have given us some great share energy!”

“You see Linda? You see!” Neptune said, hiding slightly behind Linda’s back. “Noire’s scary when she wants that share energy!”

“Oh please.” Noire said, sighing deeply. It was at that moment a thought came to Noire. “Linda? I was going to ask you. What do you know about the abandoned city?”

“Good question. You were knee-knocking nervous when you heard we were going there.” Said Neptune.

“Huh? N-No! Not me!” Linda said, giggling nervously.

Neptune sighed deeply. “I wasn’t going to do this, but…” Neptune raised her hands and started wiggling her fingers.

“No wait!” Linda cried. “It’s just… I don’t want you to make fun of me.”

Noire waved her hand dismissively while Neptune lowered her hands. “No one’s going to make fun of you.” Said Noire.

“What Noire means is, no one’s going to make fun of you unless you say something really sad.” Said Neptune.

“No Neptune.” Noire said, shaking her head. “Anyways Linda. People who’ve lived in Lastation have heard all kinds of creepy stories about the abandoned city. I’m just wondering what you’ve heard. That’s all.”

“Oh…” Linda said, her voice trailed a bit. “Well to be honest with you. I think the stories I’ve heard probably line up with everyone else’s. I heard that weird things started happening all over the city. People were disappearing. Ghosts started haunting the streets and even portals to other worlds started to open up everywhere. Eventually the city became too dangerous to live in and every evacuated.”

“Whoa.” Neptune said, astonished. “Is that true?”

Noire shook her head. “I don’t know. Believe it or not, but there are no records about the abounded city. No one knows who lived there and why people left.” Said Noire, shrugging her shoulders.

“Creepy and cool.” Neptune said, her eyes sparkled with joy. “And were going there tomorrow! Excitement!”

“Oh really? I’m surprised.” Said Noire, resting her chin on her hand. “I thought you’d want to get out of it.”

“No way!” Neptune said, jumping to her feet. “I love this kind of thing! I think…”

“Well enough of the Neptune show.” Noire said, getting to her feet as well. “Neptune. You should go and get us some dinner. We’ll relax for the rest of the day.”

“Fine…” Neptune said, as she started trudging for the door. “Oh. What does everyone want?”

“You can decide.” Said Noire. “But not pudding. We already have plenty of pudding in our backpacks.”

“I’m fine with whatever.” Linda said, as Neptune looked at her.

“Whatever pizza sound good to everyone?” Asked Neptune, but the girl didn’t wait for an answer as she left the hotel room.

“That girl. I swear she…” Noire said, sounding more annoyed than she actually was.

“You two do seem like good friends.” Said Linda.

Noire grinned and blushed a little. “We are. Neptune can be annoying, but I don’t hate her or anything. Our trips together have been fun honestly.” Said Noire, turning to Linda. “She can make conversations a bit difficult though.”

“Yeah?” Linda said, giggling.

“With that said. Is there anything else about the abandoned city that you know of?” Asked Noire.

Linda crossed her arms in front of her and turned her eyes towards the ceiling. “To be honest. I can’t really think of anything else. Ghosts, monsters and portals to other worlds.”

“I see…” Noire said, sighing deeply. “That’s basically what I’ve heard myself. I’m just wondering how much of it is actually true. I’m not saying ghosts don’t exist, but it’s weird.”

“What do you mean?” Linda asked.

“Well… It’s weird that a Fairy Tower would be located in the middle of a city in the first place. I’m sure Neptune feels the same way about that. Also it’s weird that an entire city would suddenly be flooded with all these stories forcing people to leave. Doesn’t make sense really.”

“Yeah?” Linda said, nodding in agreement.

“Well as much as I would like to get to the bottom of this…” Noire began, as she grabbed the brochure she drew on moments before. “Our job is just to activate that Fairy Tower.” Noire slid the brochure into her backpack, but was certain she wouldn’t need the map anymore. “Listen Linda. If at any point you don’t think you can go on. Just let one of us know. I promise we won’t take it personally.”

Linda smiled. “Thanks.” She said. “But I want to see this all the way through for myself.”