Neptunia Heart Souls- CHAPTER 50

 Uni woke up at her usual time. Sitting up in bed, she stretched her hands high over her head and yawned. “I’m a little surprised I was able to get any sleep last night. After everything we heard yesterday. What about you Nepgear?” Uni asked. Uni waited a few seconds for Nepgear to respond. When that didn’t happen, she looked down at the floor, but Nepgear was gone.

“Nepgear? Nepgear?” Uni called out.

Uni threw her blankets off her body and instead of getting changed, she ran downstairs and into the living room. To her surprise, she saw Nepgear was lying on the couch in her sleeping bag. Her eyes were closed and her cheeks looked flushed. “Nepgear? Are you okay?” Asked Uni.

“Huh…? Uni?” Nepgear breathed, as she slowly opened her eyes. “I’m sorry, but I’m not feeling good.”

“Uh-oh.” Uni said, as she made her way over to Nepgear. “I’m sorry Nepgear. I didn’t hear you get up last night.”

“Yeah. I didn’t want to bother you. I started feeling bad last night, so I decided to come in here. I’m really sorry about all this.” Said Nepgear, taking a deep breath.

Uni shook her head. “That’s alright. Why don’t you get some rest today and I’ll worry about work.”

“Tell Kei that I’m sorry too please.” Said Nepgear.

Uni nodded. “No problem.”

Uni went into the kitchen and quickly made breakfast for herself and Nepgear. She also made some lunch for her friend as well. After that, Uni headed to the front door. “I made breakfast for you and some lunch. I wasn’t sure how your stomach was feeling, but please eat it if you can.”

“Thanks Uni.” Nepgear said, weakly. And with those words, Uni headed outside.

Nepgear took a deep breath and waited several minutes, before she sat up and unzipped her sleeping bag. “I’m sorry for lying Uni, but there’s something I have to do.” Nepgear thought, as she got to her feet and ran upstairs. After changing into her regular clothes, Nepgear headed back downstairs and made her way outside.

Nepgear ran from parts store to parts store and even a weapons shop grabbing as many items as she could. Once she had finished, Nepgear headed back to Noire and Uni’s house. “I hope you don’t mind me using your workbench.” Nepgear said, as she placed all the items she had purchased on the ground and got to work.

In a few short hours Nepgear managed to make an incredibly basic N-Gear and with the rest of her time she created a few grappling guns. “This will do for now.” Nepgear thought, as she looked down at her work.

Ever since Nepgear and Uni spoke with Histoire, Nepgear couldn’t get what they had uncovered out of her head. “I know I’m working with partial information, but if we can unseal Histoire now. If one of the goddesses has her, maybe I can rescue her tonight!” Nepgear thought. Though she didn’t like the idea of distrusting any of the goddesses, even though she was sure she didn’t know them very well.

As Nepgear soldered bits and pieces together, she couldn’t help but wonder if she had ever gotten sick in her life. “I actually can’t remember ever getting sick. Not even a stomach ache.” Nepgear thought. “Goodness. I wonder how far back my memories actually go.”

After Nepgear finished with creating her devices, she hid them downstairs where she could retrieve them later on. After that, Nepgear headed downstairs and ate the breakfast Uni had made her.

As Nepgear ate, she couldn’t help but wonder if she was about to make some terrible mistake. “Maybe I’m wrong about this. Maybe someone else has the original Histoire.” Nepgear thought, but every time she felt as though she had talked herself out of making a mistake, she began to have her doubts. “Black Heart is a bit weird. What if she does have the original Histoire locked up somewhere, but why?”

After Nepgear finished eating, she made her way back over to the couch and laid down. A few moments later, Uni opened the door and stepped into the house. “Hey Nepgear. I got off early to take care of you.” She said.

“Hey Uni.” Nepgear said, looking up at Uni who wore a concerned look on her face. “I’m actually feeling better now.”

“That’s good.” Said Uni. “As I was walking to Kei’s, I actually thought about coming back and carrying you to a Fairy Tower. I wasn’t sure if that could help or not, so I didn’t bother.” Uni said, blushing and giggling nervously.

Nepgear smiled. “Thanks Uni.” She said. “And I hope you can forgive me for lying.” The girl thought.

When the sun finally set over the horizon, Uni made her way upstairs. “Are you sure you don’t want to sleep in my room tonight?” She asked.

“Thanks, but I don’t want you to catch this thing.” Said Nepgear. “I’m sure I’ll be okay tomorrow.”

“Alright. Goodnight Nepgear.” Uni said, as she headed upstairs.

Nepgear waited a few moments before she sat up. “Time to get to work.” Nepgear thought.

Nepgear grabbed her devices. She grabbed her basic N-Gear and slid it into her regular N-Gear’s holster. Then she slid the grappling guns she created on her wrists. After looking everything over, Nepgear grabbed a few articles of clothing and slid them on as well. Now Nepgear wore a long sleeved black top over her regular outfit and a black mask that hid her face.

“Alright. Time to go.” Nepgear muttered.

Nepgear slipped out of the house and started running as fast as she could through the streets of Lastation. The city was beautiful at night. Green lights lit the streets and a strange hum could be heard coming from the surrounding buildings and was soon standing in front of Lastation’s Basilicom.

Lastation’s Basilicom, unlike Planeptune’s Basilicom, was much larger and it was made up of hundreds of thousands of windows and it had strange points that jutted out of it. The building was large, but did have ledges where people could stand outside and look across the massive city.

Nepgear aimed her right hand at a ledge overhead and fired her grapple. The grapple was made up of an arrowhead that was attached to a very thin cord that had incredible tactile strength.

The arrowhead struck the ledge and after pressing a single button, Nepgear was hoisted into the air. After landing on the ledge, Nepgear glanced around and spotted a nearby door. Carefully making her way over to that door, she tried the handle. Thankfully it was unlocked and Nepgear was able to slip into the Basilicom.

Now Nepgear stood in an empty hallway that was only lit up by a few lights. “Now where is Black Heart’s office?” Nepgear wondered to herself as she pulled out her basic N-Gear. “I hate that I wasn’t able to put everything I wanted into this thing, but I’ll improve it as time goes no.” Nepgear thought bitterly to herself.

Nepgear carefully made her way through the building as she searched for Black Heart’s office. As Nepgear searched, she kept her eyes on her basic N-Gear’s screen. “Security camera up ahead… Hack it… Finished.” Nepgear thought to herself. “Laser grid up ahead…. Disable it… finished.” As Nepgear disabled and hacked the security system, she also reactivated them as well.

After nearly an hour of searching, Nepgear finally found herself standing in front of Black Heart’s office. The office door that stood before her was incredibly large. Nepgear held her breath as she pushed against the door. To her surprise the office door swung open, but no alarms went off.

“Nice! Now I can really search for Histoire!” Nepgear thought, as she entered Black Heart’s office and closed the door.

Nepgear was shocked by what she saw. The office beyond was huge. Located in the middle of the room was a large desk that had several computers located on it. The walls were lined with all kinds of bookshelves as well. What surprised Nepgear however, was how messy the office was.

Located near the desk were several whiteboards filled with crazy scribbles. The floor was covered in strange outfits and papers were strewn everywhere. “Was Black Heart robbed or something?” Nepgear wondered to herself.

Nepgear made her way to Black Heart’s desk and sat her basic N-Gear down on it. After pressing a few buttons on her device she started pulling the drawers open. She went through each drawer and looked at each piece of paper and file that was inside. By the time Nepgear went finished going through each drawer in the desk, her basic N-Gear started beeping.

Nepgear pressed a red button on the device, before taking a seat at Black Heart’s desk. Thanks to her basic N-Gear, she had gained access to Black Heart’s computer. “The firewall on this thing was really simple to hack through. Now all I need to do is find some information on Histoire.” Nepgear thought, as she began pounding information into the keyboard.

A few moments later she found several entries on Histoire, but none of them were important. “It looks like Black Heart’s information on Histoire was hidden as well. That’s weird.” Nepgear thought, as she scratched her chin thoughtfully.

Nepgear took a deep breath and leaned back in the chair. “Maybe I was wrong about all of this. Maybe Black Heart doesn’t really have Histoire after all.” Just as the thought entered Nepgear’s head, her eyes turned to the whiteboard.

“What the goodness!?” She cried, jumping to her feet.

Scrawled all over the whiteboard were pictures and sentences. “Why do I dream of Histoire?” Nepgear read the first question. “Why do I enjoy cosplay? Why can’t I be proud of Black Sister? Why can’t I focus? Something is missing. What?”

Nepgear swallowed hard. Her hands started to shake by her sides. “Alright… I think it’s time for me to leave.”

Just as Nepgear turned to leave, the doors to the room opened and Black Heart appeared. The goddess looked angrily at Nepgear. “You snuck in my office to steal my countries secrets?” She said, in her words were filled with venom.

“Of course not!” Nepgear said, before covering her mouth with her hands. “I mean… of course not.” She said, deepening her voice.

“Don’t lie to me!” Black Heart snapped. “You break into my Basilicom, you enter my office without permission and hack my computer? How dare you try to steal my cosplay secrets!” Black Heart said, pointing a stern finger at Nepgear.

“Huh? No.” Nepgear said, shaking her head. “I just wanted to see if you stole-”

“STOP!” Black Heart cried, as she ran to the middle of the room before dropping to her knees in front of an article of clothing. Tears formed in the corners of Black Heart’s eyes as she scooped up the outfit and hugged it close to her chest. “Why? Why can’t I remember what I need to? I’m trying to work, but I can’t focus on anything. I try to focus on my hobby, but I don’t remember if I like this or not. Do I like it?” She asked, looking into Nepgear’s eyes.

Nepgear felt a lump form in her throat. “I’m sorry Black Heart. I don’t know.” Nepgear said, shaking her head. “I feel like were all missing something too and it’s frustrating.”

Tears began trickling down Black Heart’s bright red cheeks. “Do I love my sister?” She asked.

Nepgear took a deep breath. “I’m sure you do.” She answered.

“WHAT’S GOING ON HERE!” Black Sister roared, as she flew into the room. “An intruder! Maybe if I blast her my sister will be proud of me!” Black Sister said, as she aimed her rifle at Nepgear.

Nepgear gasped as she held her hands up in defense. “Hold on!” She cried.

“Sister? Will you be proud if I send her to hell?” Black Sister asked.

Black Heart shook her head. “I doubt it.”

“Fine!” Black Sister said, puffing out her cheeks in anger. “But I’ll do it anyways!” And with that, she pulled the trigger on her rifle. A large beam of energy exploded out of her rifle and struck Nepgear.

A large smile appeared on Black Sister’s face, but it soon vanished when she saw that Nepgear had used a barrier to block her attack. “Sorry. Got to go!” Nepgear cried, as she ran out of the office as fast as she could.

“COME BACK HERE! IF I DON’T KILL YOU MY SISTER WILL NEVER LOVE ME!” Black Sister screamed, as she ran after Nepgear.

Nepgear ran through the Basilicom. Unlike her trip to Black Heart’s office, Nepgear’s attempt to escape the Basilicom wasn’t going as well.

Nepgear set off alarm after alarm. Lastation Soldiers started flooding the hallways looking for her. Robots started patrolling the many hallways as well. Meanwhile Black Sister continued to fly through the Basilicom as fast as she could in her pursuit of Nepgear.

Nepgear managed to get back to the balcony she used to enter the Basilicom in the first place. Unfortunately for her, dozens of spotlights were moving around the Basilicom in hopes of capturing the intruder. Not only that, but several large tanks were now roaming the streets.

“Wow… I wasn’t counting on this kind of security.” Nepgear thought, bitterly.

“HURRY UP AND BRING ME THAT INTRUDER! MAYBE IF I BLAST HER MY SISTER WILL PAT ME ON THE HEAD AND TELL ME I DID A GOOD JOB!” Black Heart screamed, over an intercom.

Nepgear leapt from the balcony and landed gracefully on her feet below. After that, Nepgear carefully made her way back to Uni’s house.

The trip back to Uni’s house took longer then Nepgear had anticipated, but she did manage to get back home. “I can’t believe how well that worked out.” Nepgear thought, as she closed the door behind her.

“Nepgear?” Came the voice of Uni, from somewhere up stairs.

Nepgear pulled off her mask. “Yeah?” She called out.

“What’s all that noise outside?” Uni asked.

Nepgear thought quickly. “I don’t hear anything.” She lied. “Oh goodness! Why did I say that?” Nepgear thought, mentally kicking herself.

“Oh. Okay.” Uni said, which surprised Nepgear. “Sorry for waking you up.”

“No problem.” Nepgear said. After a few moments, Nepgear let her breath out, before she plopped herself down on the couch. “Oh goodness. I need to get some sleep.”