The Search for the Macguffin

[Mami Tomoe]

I emerge from the portal and into the Dunes with a smile. The smile fades as I start to tug at my parka dress's neck, hoping to cool myself off a little. It's warmer than I'd expected, and since I was expecting a desert, that's saying something. It's a little grassy and tree-y - is there a better word than tree-y? - to be a desert here. "Uh, Histy?" I look at my shoulder. "Did we dial the wrong number? Should we leave a message after the--"

Histy sighs. "Now isn't exactly the time for jokes." She adds, "the desert we're looking for is in another area. With about an hour and a half of walking, we should reach the edge of this area. But I sense something here," she continues, "something familiar."

I blink a few times, then look around. "Dreary grassy sort-of-trees place isn't ringing any bells up here, Histy," I respond as I knock on my head with my left hand. "Are you going loopy in the desert without us even being in the desert? Are you sure you're cut out for this?" I joke. She looks like she's about to start saying something, but before she does, her eyes widen. Suddenly I feel something slimy tackle me and knock me over. I yelp as I tumble to the ground - some distance was probably made between Histy and me, but I don't know how much. All I know is she isn't on my shoulder anymore.

I look at my stomach and see a big, light bluish blob of goo. At the front of the blob is a white oval, on which its cute little smile and black nose lie. Above that are two black oval eyes and on top of its head are a pair of circular black ears. A tail which, surprisingly, is also black wags behind it. "A dogoo? Pffffft," I laugh a little, "I could beat the snot outta you with a stick!" I roll over and stand up, knocking the ball of blobbiness off of me and onto the ground. I flip and somersault backwards, making some space between me and my enemy. My opponent, if such laughably weak grind-fodder could even be called that, hops just barely off the ground, as though to indicate the battle starting. I hear some orchestral music start to play on the sidelines. It gets louder, like it's getting closer, then I see Histy approaching me. It's... coming from her? Weird.

"Wait! This is the perfect opportunity for me to teach you a few things!" she shouts, the music continuing to play. "This isn't the world we know," she says. I note that this is probably a recurring theme. "As such, combat is... different. Your abilities have changed more than a bit, so you may find that any strategy different from 'whack enemy with ornate metal' isn't as easy to pull off as it used to be. Would you like me to teach you how to fight here?"

My opponent approaches, ignorant of the oncoming tutorial. "Hey! No cheating!" I shout as I point at the Dogoo. I turn back to Histy and shrug. "Sure, I guess. Couldn't hurt to burn a little time, right?"

Histy floats off to the side of the field again. A picture of my face, looking cheeky and happy, appears in bottom-left corner of my vision. Beside it are two bars: a red and a blue bar, with 20/20 and 2/2 inside each respective bar. "Aw, man! I'm low-tier!" I whine.

"Let's not worry about that for now," she replies. "Those are your HP and SP bars. You're familiar with them - you've had them before, though they were significantly larger. Again, it's not the world we know," she explains. "I won't explain them much because you already know how both of them work. What you don't understand yet is how your equipment and abilities work." Her voice changes and shakes a little. "I know this might sound ridiculous, but I want you to hold out both of your hands in front of you."

I do as she says, with my open palms facing my enemy. "Good," she chimes. "Remember your sword. Focus on it. Even with the limited amount of Shares you have, you should be able to materialize it with the assistance of Omnilium." As she speaks, zeroes and ones spin, shake and disappear in the shape of something like a meter stick before my hands. Before I know it, my katana - the Holy Fang Blade - appears in the air. I catch it before it falls.

"Wonderful!" she calls. "I wouldn't recommend using any skills, as they drain what little of your SP you have very quickly. While your HP bar will likely never increase, your SP will increase as you gain Shares. I can't fight alongside you here quite the same as I could otherwise, but you don't need help with a Dogoo," she explains. "Let the battle begin!"

I draw my blade, discard its sheath and leap into the air. My blade hangs high above my head, waiting to be brought down on the Dogoo that dared knock me down. "Fightin' time!" I cheer and, in a flash, slice clean through the blob of cuteness. It shatters, leaving behind little green zeroes and ones. They float at the point where it fell, seemingly waiting for something. "Experience? I'll, uh, just be taking the ones," I say as I root through the cloud of mostly hollow ovals. When I finish, I quickly summon a new sheath for the Holy Fang Blade on my back, twirl it a few times between my fingers, then slide it into its sheath proudly.

"I can't say I expected a different result," Histy admits from the sidelines as the music she's playing changes yet again. "You may not have gained much from that besides what I told you, but it was an interesting experience. At least your first fight in this world wasn't caused by a snide remark or a silly mistake," she adds.

"First of all, rude," I respond. "Second of all... nah, you're totally right. Onward!" I yell, thrusting my sword to the sky and charging.

[Mami Tomoe]

The rest of the walk through the savanna was pretty uneventful. Histy'd tell you otherwise - I talked plenty, arguably to nobody, because Histy was just trying to tune me out. She found a map of the known parts of the Endless Dunes, too, and we were a bit shocked to find what was 'known' wasn't exactly a lot. We had found more than a few maps that had days worth of walking filled in, but they didn't exactly seem like 'Dunes' material, so we just gave 'em bad reviews and left 'em.

Maybe this place wasn't exactly safe. Or maybe it had changed recently - or not so recently. Or maybe people just weren't into mapping. Probably a combination of a few of those things. "So," I continue the conversation, "how about this: I boldly go where no player character has gone before and you add to this map? I'll do the walking and you do the... whatever map-people do!" I beam and shrug, causing Histy and her tome to bounce a little. After regaining her bearings, she nods.

"That... actually doesn't sound like a bad idea, Neptune," she responds. She floats off my shoulder and starts to hover in front of me, holding her tome open with a map displayed on both pages. "There's a number of unexplored areas we can check, most notably one here--" a red circle appears around a vaguely diamond-shaped section of blank space-- "here--" a similar-looking circle appears around a number of small blobs where the map has no information-- "and here," she finishes, putting a circle around a pair of dots and a C.

"Ooh! That one looks like a smiley face! Let's go to that one!" I shout. "Sooooo, which way is that way?" Histy looks up for a moment, and then points in the direction I'm facing. "Oh."

"We could head that way," Histy says, "but we could also try to find other people out here. Surely a real person out here would have better information about the area than an incomplete map." She adds, "we haven't had much luck finding anyone else, but with the places we've been searching, that makes sense. We should try to find some kind of shelter - a place where another person would likely be."

"Sooooo, we could go the Loner Route and just do it all ourselves, or we could go the Friendship Route and find other people out here?" I ask. "Seems like a no-brainer to me. We'd get a better ending if we learned the 'power of friendship', so let's do that!"

Histy just blinks and sighs a little. A few black markings appear on the map. "I had structures on the map disabled for a moment, but here are all the currently occupied points in the desert--..." Histy trails off as I look at it, puzzled. She pokes her head over the top of the tome and looks at the map herself.

"Wow. This desert's lonelier than Noire," I joke. I can count how many inhabited structures have been mapped on one hand. Yeah, the map's not complete, but I still expected a bit more stuff. "You can't spell 'desert' without 'deserted', I guess," I conclude and shrug.

Histy gives me a concerned look, but she tries her hardest to smile. "It's the other way around, Neptune," she says. "The nearest structure is... that way, and it should take us about a half an hour to walk there. Do you want a few minutes to rest, or should we just keep going?"

"Onward!" I shout again. I put Histy down on my shoulder and start running once more.

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A truss tower made out of some heavily rusted metal pierces the skyline. It stands upon a raised metal platform, below which is what looks to be a run-down system of caves. It's surrounded by high sandy hills which hide it from anyone who would try to find it without a map, which fortunately I have. The tower looks like it's bent, and a bunch of weird-looking machines can be seen along the sides and exposed interior of the tower.

Buildings? Check. Signs of civilization? Check. Actual people? Haven't checked yet. "I don't think we'll find anybody here," Histy decides, "but we should look around anyways. We might find something of use." I look around for a way to reach the raised platform and see what looks like an old railway. I walk over to it and start walking across.

"Please be careful, Neptune," Histy stammers. She grabs at my hood and holds herself close to my shoulder. "Ooh, is somebody scared of heights?" I start, then decide not to prod her further. "No prob', Histy. I won't fall. And even if I do, I've got the power of plot convenience on my side! It'll all work out somehow!"

My words don't seem to reassure her at all. She continues to grip at my parka which, for some reason, still hasn't made me sweat profusely somehow. Maybe it's the whole 'I'm not really wearing much else' thing.

On the platform is a couple of buildings. I can't tell what they serve as from the outside - there are windows, but it's really dark on the inside, so I can't see anything in any of them. "Ooh! Histy, do you think there are vampires here? Maybe they're stuck here because they can't climb the sand hill thingies around this place fast enough in the night, so they have to stay here and hope ditzy people walk in here so they have blood to drink--"

Histy slaps my cheek repeatedly, swapping hands each time she does so. "Now isn't the time for this," she shout-whispers. "Just... get us off these rails and onto some stable ground, please!"

As my feet hit solid ground, Histy lets out a long breath. I feel her grip on my parka loosen, but she doesn't let go. I look up at the tower - it doesn't look like the kind of thing anyone could climb unless they had some kind of rust resistance thing. It's also narrow enough that it couldn't have been built with a staircase in mind. There are a few tubes running up and down the tower, and on further examination some lead underneath the platform and into the ground far beneath it.

Histy and I decide to quickly check one of the buildings. One's a shabby-looking sort-of-house where there's a bunch of beds, some really old food and an even older computer. For a moment I feel chills, then a little burst of energy. My eyes go wide. "Neptune?" Histy gently shakes my shoulder. "Are you all right?"

The desk that the computer's on has a few drawers. As I search through them, the chills get more and more powerful. I pull one drawer open - it's oddly heavy, I notice as I pull the drawer from the desk. I root through it, ignoring Histy's scolding as I do so until I see a large, rounded, purple N on a black and purple D-pad like device. It's big, about the size of my torso, and inside it lies four disks. I pull the device from the drawer with a big grin on my face.

"Ta-da!" I cheer as I hold it over my head. "People here had faith in me!"

[Mami Tomoe]

Histy examines the device. "Yes, this is Planeptune technology," she concludes, "but... something about it makes it seem like it wasn't made by Planeptunian hands. Something's off." She continues, "don't you think you're jumping to conclusions a little? It's a good sign that this was here, yes, because it means somebody believed in you here. However, the fact that you couldn't sense that faith before you entered this building means that the faith couldn't have been strong, or it at least wasn't multiple people believing in you."

I open my mouth to object, but nothing comes out. "Nope, you've got me beat," I respond. "That might just rule vampires off the list of things that could be here, though. I thought our OS had a built-in vampire-hunting function..." I stop for a minute. I blink, then look at the device again. "What if that's what's off about it?! Maybe somebody--"

"No," Histy says, exasperated. "Please, stop."

"I'm a bit of a handful to deal with all on my own, aren't I?" I observe in a somewhat off-topic fashion. "Should I get you a Nep-handling buddy?" I pull a blob of Ermanilium from out of my sleeve. I place it in midair at about head level and start to think. Who else do I want to join me first? I hadn't given it much thought beforehand, but a bunch of faces jump to mind as I think about who should come first. Iffy, Noire, Blanc, Vert, Marvy, MAGES...

But my mind finally stops on Compa. She was the first person to join me when all this started, so why shouldn't she join me here? I quietly hope that when I summon her, she'll know a bit about this place somehow. Though it takes a while to do so, the ball of Omdeeduhdum starts to take shape, dragging down and out into the shape of a person. It expands outwards a bit all over, then green zeroes and ones start to swirl around the mass of rainbow-coloured material. The zeroes and ones fly into the mass and, in a quick flash, there she is: Compa. With a quiet oof, she tumbles to the ground. I help her up and smile. "Welcome to--"

"The desert doesn't have many plants," Compa shouts in the voice that could only ever be Compa, "but if you look reeeeeeally closely," she adds, stepping closer to me and lowering her voice, "you'll see them in the less hot and dry places."

Histy sighs. "What did you do, Neptune?"

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"...So I thought we'd need a guide," I explain as Compa and I walk across the rail. Histy floats between the two of us. I can hear Compa let out a gentle "woah" each time she almost loses her balance, but she doesn't ever seem to be in danger of falling. "But I also kinda wanted Compa around again, so I just added the teeeeensy request to the summonuhbum stuff that she should know a lot about this area. And, uh, I guess that means that now she just knows a lot about the desert." I laugh a little, but my laugh goes nervous and eventually fades as Histy stares daggers into my back. I pick up my pace a little.

"There's not much water in the desert," chimes Compa, "but there's still some because otherwise people couldn't live in deserts." Histy loudly exhales. "Neptune, for the record: the next time you try to do something nice for me, please don't."

I reach the end of the railway, watch Compa finish the last few steps and say, "So, do you guys think we're ready for the first dungeon?" I point down into the darkness below the platform we were just on. The cave system's really dark now - the sun started to set, so now it's harder to see details from above.

"I don't know, Nep-Nep," goes Compa. She sounds a little uncomfortable. "But the desert gets cold at night. It's gonna be night soon, so maybe we should go somewhere warm."

I think for a second. A cave doesn't exactly seem warm. "Ooh! I know! I'll make us something out of Umhumdrum - we could have a tent and a campfire and we can roast marshmallows and dip them in pudding and..." I continue as we walk up one of the hills surrounding the old structure.

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Half an hour later we have a camp set up. A white tent with purple edges is set up beside a little campfire. Three sticks with marshmallows pierced on their ends hang over the fire, around which Histy, Compa and myself have sat down. I'm holding two of the sticks and Compa's holding one, since Histy can't really hold her own marshmallow up to the fire without putting her life in danger.

"Nep-Nep, you haven't really said yet, but what is this place?" Compa asks. "I think you tried welcoming me, but... ah... the desert's really big," she says as she starts to shake again. Histy puts a hand on Compa's shoulder and she stops.

"This isn't the world we know," Histy answers. "This is a world called the Omniverse. Neptune summoned you to help me, ah, handle her. You should know better than anyone that she can be a bit difficult," goes Histy with an awkward smile. "Well, you and IF."

Histy continues, "we're trying to make a new Planeptune here. We need a Sharicite to bring what will be our Planeptune to the sky, and apparently a Sharicite exists somewhere in this desert. We're hoping to find it. When Neptune summoned you, to my understanding, she tried to give you knowledge of this area - the Endless Dunes - and in doing so forced a number of desert facts into your mind."

"Soo-rry," I chime in. "In my defense, I didn't know that the Gumteedum that made you had the mind of a Genie!" I pull my two marshmallows from the fire as they finish cooking, then hand one off to Histy. With a little difficulty, she takes it and puts it on a Histy-sized plate for herself.

"I think I have something that helps, though!" Compa declares proudly. "Finding an oasis is really difficult! If we can find one, maybe we can find the Shary-thingy we're looking for!"

Histy's expression changes to be a little disappointed. "I... suppose it's as good a lead as we'll get," she concludes. "We'll rest for now and get to searching for an oasis in the morning."

At that Compa and I ate our marshmallows and went to bed. Compa fell asleep after a few minutes, and not long after that Histy came in, deciding a quarter of her marshmallow was more than enough sweets for her. She went to sleep not long after that, and with nobody to strike up conversation with, I soon followed.

[Mami Tomoe]

I yawn, stretch my arms and crawl out of the tent. The heat hits me in the face like a slap from a hand made out of... something heavy, like whatever bricks are made out of. For some reason, I don't really feel tired, or like I want to go back to bed at all. If anything, I want to keep exploring.

I feel a gentle tap on my right shoulder, then Histy's full weight lands there. It's not a lot, but it's still enough that I feel a difference. "I guess you're ready to keep going? It certainly looks that way," she says with a smile. She looks refreshed, happy in a way I've not seen her like before. "Yup! But what about--"

I hear a moan from inside the tent. I turn my head and see Compa poke her head out. "Are we going already?" she complains, then yawns loudly. "Can I sleep a little longer? Just... just five more minutes," she adds, then tries to crawl back into the tent. I dip into the tent, grab her arm and drag her out. "That's not happening! On your feet and outta that tent, sister, 'cause we're going oasis hunting!"

I ignore Compa's protests and continue to drag her away from the camp and into the desert.

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"Can't we just fast-travel, Nep-Nep? This is boring," whines Compa, "and I'm still tired." It's probably been a good hour or so since we started traveling. I'm already feeling tired - I did enough walking yesterday - but I'm definitely not gonna show it. I have to show some degree of strength as a leader, I decide. "We haven't discovered the place we're going to," I respond, "so we can't, really. Oh, and the map's not working right," I add.

Histy's floating along just in front of Compa, scrawling away at her tome and working on her map. "It looks like we've reached the dots of undocumented land we saw on the map, but after crossing a few of the locations we've traveled over with the map we're editing, it doesn't seem as though we'll find anything of interest out here," says Histy matter-of-factly. "I suppose that you want to keep going either way, right, Neptune?"

I nod. "Leave it to RNG. Maybe we'll find something neat that someone just forgot to mark! Or maybe somebody found something out here and thought it was really cool, so they didn't mark it so other people couldn't find it--"

Compa picks up the pace a little to be right beside me. "Nep-Nep, we're not looking for just anything. We're looking for a--..." she stops. "Uh... what are we looking for again?" she asks.

"A Sharicite," Histy clarifies. "We're looking for a Sharicite, and if we can find one out here, I'd be impressed. If someone intentionally found one and didn't mark it, I would be surprised someone didn't mistake it for a simple gemstone and decide to sell it."

I shrug. "We've got time! Why not look around here? If we find something, great - if we don't, we have a whole desert to search!" Compa sounds less than enthusiastic when I finish talking, but Histy seems almost encouraged by my enthusiasm. For a moment I wonder whether I should prioritize making Compa happy or keep Histy positive, but I soon discard the idea of a binary moral choice system for the ridiculous idea it is.

I slow down a little to look at Histy's tome. The black dots where the structures were are gone, but we've gotten rid of a couple of the unmarked parts of the map that were there before. Evidently we didn't find anything, otherwise Histy would've marked it. I pick up my pace a little. "Sooooo, how's map-making, Histy? Having fun?" I ask.

"I can honestly say I lack the words to describe it," she answers. "I can't say it's a riveting hobby, but it's not boring. Maybe it gets more interesting when we find things worth mapping out," she decides.

Maybe when we find things worth mapping out. Those words bounce around in my mind a bunch while we walk through the desert, finding absolutely nothing to make the search worthwhile.

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We travel for what has to be multiple hours. After a short break spent eating some summoned food and drink, we continue traveling for another hour or two. By then I can feel my stomach growling again and my throat begging me for more water. Unfortunately for me, I've already finished my last bottle and I can't summon another without stopping us for another three minutes. "Can't I just have some of yours, Histy? Pleeeeeease?" I beg.

"I told you that you shouldn't have had a Nep Bull with your lunch, Neptune," she says, clearly dodging the question.

I look over my shoulder at Histy to give her my best puppy dog face, then look at her water bottle. I must have forgotten it was Histy-sized - It wouldn't even be a mouthful for me. I decide to give up. "It wouldn't even be worth your time to have anything from this," she says. "It's so small that--"

"Way ahead of you, Histy," I cut her off. "I just forgot about the size issue, is all."

"I'd offer you mine," Compa starts, "but I already finished mine. And the other one. And the other one," she continues. "And... I think I lost count."

I turn back to face Compa. "Aw, no problem. We can just get some more, no problem! Maybe..." I trail off and my eyes wander over Compa's shoulder. I can see a pair of trees bending into one another just off in the distance. With an expression probably coated with curiosity, I take a step to the left, leaving my vision completely unobstructed by Compa. My eyes meet with what I think I could have never even imagined in my wildest dreams--

A pool of pudding. My jaw drops. Without a word, I dash across the red-hot sand toward the in-ground mass of custardy goodness. With a cheer I leap into the air, land beside the pudding pool and crouch down on my knees. I dip my hands into the pudding and pull it up to my mouth, but something seems wrong.

This isn't pudding, is it? Suddenly, I feel myself lose balance and fall into the pudding. Rather than being in pudding, though, I find myself looking at the sky. It's dark and there's solid ground beneath me - rocky ground, cold and hard and uncomfortable to lay on. I try to stand up, but before I can, I feel something press against my stomach. I look to the source and see a boot - a familiar-looking boot, a lot like the ones I wear as Purple Heart.

I follow the leg to a torso and the torso to a face. My own face. "I think it's time we had a talk."

[Mami Tomoe]

“Talk? Wait, whuh-- what about?”

Suddenly I feel uneasy, looking at my-- er, Purple Heart’s-- face. There’s something about me-- er, her-- that’s not quite right, and I can spot it almost immediately. Which, I’ll admit, is a bit uncharacteristic for me.

...Okay, very uncharacteristic, but you get my point.

Her eyes narrow to the point that if they were tangible, the power buttons in her eyes would be getting squished. “You never were the brightest, were you?” she comments, lifting her boot from my stomach. I take in a long breath, noticing as the rather great amount of pressure that was placed on my is alleviated, I can actually breathe again.

Huh. Hadn’t noticed I wasn’t breathing, I think to myself and stand up, gasping a little.

“You see, we’re supposed to be working together, running Planeptune as we see fit and to the best of our abilities,” she begins to explain. My eyes roll the moment I understand where she’s going. “I’m the muscle of this operation and you’re the brains. Wrapped into one, we’re the perfect leader, no question about it,” she continues. As I listen disinterestedly, I note that she’s walking circles around me, easily two arm’s lengths away from me at the least.

Distance doesn’t seem to mean much here, though, I note, what with this place seemingly stretching out as flatlands forever and ever.

“However,” she adds, seeming almost irritable all of a sudden, “it’s clear one of us isn’t doing their job right.”

I immediately feel hot and uncomfortable all over my body. I manage to conceal that feeling by playing dumb, though. “Aw, c’mon, I’ve been busting my tush over here. Obviously it’s you that’s the problem - you haven’t even been here for the past--... uhhh…”

I take a moment, tapping my chin and thinking. Purple Heart-me is not amused. “How long has it been?”

“Two days at most,” she comments. “I’ve been here, but you’ve been weak, so I haven’t been able to help.”

I beam, continuing the dumb act. “So it is you! Don’t worry, since you’re accepting the blame, I’m not gonna punish you or anything. Besides, you’re me, so that’s gotta be some kind of masochism or something--”

“SHUT UP!”

I let out a little eep and cover my ears as Purple Heart-me lets out an incredibly powerful bellow. It doesn’t really take a lot of time thinking to realize we’re not exactly on good terms right now. “What’d I do?”

She sighs and, in a blur, appears before me. She presses a finger against my chest accusingly. “You only just picked up the slack two days ago is my point. Unless you have to, you don’t do anything is what I’m trying to say. If you had me to lean on here, you wouldn’t be working as hard as you are.”

As she speaks, I notice Purple Heart-me’s eyes look almost… reddish-orange in colour. For a moment I try and see if I can remember a time that happened to me, but it’s not ringing any bells. I can’t help but shudder a little, wondering what’s even going on.

...Nope, no dice.

“Whaddaya mean, I don’t do anything?” I shoot back, mimicking the accusing finger of Purple Heart-me. “I do lots of stuff! Like that one time with the Dogoos--”

Purple Heart-me glares at me. “That was ages ago. You humiliated yourself, then got help from me to make yourself look like you weren’t a complete fool by saving Noire.” She laughs a little and continues, “unless you mean that one Dogoo you fought here, in which case, OH, BRAVO. What a wonderful job you did, defeating a single cannon fodder monster all on your own,” she says, applauding and giving me what had to be the most sarcastic expression to ever be worn by anybody ever.

I grit my teeth and exhale hard out my nose. I try and think of something, anything I can toss in… my own face, but nothing comes up. Nothing that couldn’t be used against me, at least. “What’s your deal, anyway?!” I shout, frustratedly materializing the Holy Fang Blade. I separate it from its sheath, discard the sheath and grip the hilt of the blade in both hands. “If you’re trying to piss me off, then good job, you did it!”

A smirk crosses Purple Heart-me’s face. She materializes what looks almost like my Trinity Blade, though it appears to glow the same reddish-orange colour as her eyes did. As I make that observation, I check her eyes and see that colour in them.

This can only be bad.

“A fight to the death?” she says arrogantly, taking the battle stance I know all too well - wings appearing behind her, with her blade running diagonally across her flight-readied body. “It’s been too long!"

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In what feels like a blur of movement, Purple Heart is upon me, hacking and slashing away at me. I barely manage to turn the flat of my blade towards her, flipping and turning it to try deflecting her attacks. I notice, through my frantic attempts at blocking, that one stab manages to make it past my sword, cutting a hole in my parka dress but fortunately not breaking skin. I immediately return my focus to defense - but I can’t just defend forever, I decide, so I need a plan… some way of getting through my own defenses.

My mind immediately turns to the serrated edge of the Trinity Blade. If I were to catch the Holy Fang Blade in one of the nooks on the edge, I could push it in the opposite direction of the swing and try to throw Purple Heart off-balance. That could give me the opening I need.

In practice, it might not be so easy, but it’s all I have so far.

I grunt, pushing Purple Heart backwards with my blade, sending her hovering backwards into the air. It’s hard to do that, what with a CPU with Hard Drive Divinity active being significantly more powerful than a CPU in human form, but I manage, panting and sweating already. “Getting tired, are you?” she teases, her expression turning slowly sadistic. “How about you turn in early, then?”

She does just as I hope - she flies toward me with her blade high over her left shoulder. I need to push it away… so my weak arm is my left one, which means I’ll want to make her rely on that. So I’ll push left and down!

With a shout I clash swords with myself once more, focusing all my might into disarming her or at least throwing her off. I look into her fiery eyes for a moment - she’s powerful, but she certainly wasn’t expecting that, based on the look of fear behind the flames. “I’m the brains, huh? You must be pretty DUMB, then!”

With one last push, I hear a gasp escape Purple Heart’s lips and her weapon leaves her hands. With hope renewed, I attempt to plunge my blade into my opponent’s chest--

Only to feel resistance. Very powerful resistance, in fact. My eyes widen and I look up to Purple Heart, who appears confident as ever. “And I’m the muscle. I’m stronger than you.”

It’s then that I notice the sword I had just disarmed had reappeared in her hands. A little indent had been made on the blade’s flat where my thrust had landed.

There’s so much I want to say. You couldn’t possibly have recalled your sword that quickly, for instance, or how did you do that, or ANYTHING, really, but nothing comes out.

Unfortunately, Purple Heart sees fit to knock something out: the wind from my lungs as she knees me hard in the stomach. I wheeze and fall over on my side.

“Well, that was disappointing. I don’t know what I was expecting, though,” she complains. “You really never were the brightest. You had your morals and your friends, but without me to give you power, you would have neither.”

I cough and gasp on the ground, my shaky arms hugging my chest. The Holy Fang Blade has its point embedded in the ground in front of me - if I had it in me, I would stand up and pluck it from the ground, but I just feel so drained.

“Wha-- wait,” I say, struggling to sit up. “One… one question.”

Purple Heart sighs. “What now?” She sticks her sword in the ground and folds her arms. “I’d really like to just get this over with.”

I attempt to focus on Purple Heart’s eyes for a moment. “What’s the deal with your eyes? I’ve… never seen me like that.” A weak cough escapes my lips as I finish my sentence.

For a moment she seems almost puzzled, then a smirk crosses her face. “I guess it wouldn’t hurt to have a little storytime for the one about to die. I’ll explain, and then I’m in charge. Deal?”

Rookie mistake. “Deal.”

She starts off, “there are a few points you’ll remember that I need to tie together for you to understand all this with that peabrain of yours. First, when you lost your memory. Second, when you regained your status as a Goddess. And third, before you lost your memory.”

Even though I had said I didn’t want to know who I was before I lost my memory, my interested piqued just now. I can’t say why, to be honest, but I kind of wanted to know. That, and I had the feeling it would help me figure out who exactly this was. I got the feeling this wasn’t really me.

“So when you lost your memory,” she continues, “you didn’t have your powers as a Goddess. You remember that, right? You were just podgy little Neptune with a wooden katana you found in the trash. Then when the need arose, Histoire managed to force you into HDD.”

My composure returns as Purple Heart speaks, and my breath comes with it. I blink and raise an eyebrow. “Okay, I know I could drop a few pounds, but what’s your point?”

“I’m getting to that,” she replies somewhat angrily, then continues calmly, “when you regained your status as a Goddess - after Arfoire had stolen it from you - that means of regaining your power was strikingly similar to how Histoire gave it back to you. The catalyst was faith: in the case of after your memory loss, it was Histoire’s faith in you to save your friends. In Arfoire’s case, it was the people’s faith in you as somebody responsible for heroic acts.”

“I think I’m getting the point here,” I respond. “But what’s so important about before I lost my memory?”

“Right, the part that involves me,” she replies. “A CPU’s power is linked to her identity. When you lost your memory, your identity was buried away in your mind, so when you became Purple Heart again…” My heart skips a beat.

“...That Purple Heart wasn’t the same one as I am.”

My eyes widen and my jaw drops. “So-- you’ve been acting this whole time?!”

“Partly. I’ve been watching - I’ve always been able to - and seeing how stupid you are is frustrating. Very frustrating. Now, then--” she smirks. “Time to die, airhead. I want my body back!”

So I need faith, I think. I’ve found faith in one person and I’ve found faith in a group of people. So if it doesn’t matter how many people believe in me, that has to mean--

Squared-off, dark greenish zeroes and ones storm around me. I look up and into Purple Heart’s eyes - she’s shocked, to the point that her blade is lifted over her head, ready to cut me down, but it isn’t moving. She seems almost captivated…

And it’s then that I feel different. Powerful, unlike I’ve ever felt before. My eyes dilate and adjust - everything looks a little bit more blue than it did a moment ago, and a pair of very faint power buttons appear centered in both of my eyes.

A few words rush through my mind: BLAST PROCESSING ACTIVE.

“If nobody else will… I’ll have faith in myself!”

I recognize my voice. It’s deeper, it’s more commanding - it’s Purple Heart’s. The Holy Fang Blade embedded in the ground becomes the Trinity Blade - it whirs to life, glowing purple as I take the hilt in both hands.

The tables have turned, I think, taking my flying battle stance. “It’s time that we end this!”

In anger, not Purple Heart lashes out at me chaotically, but I find that with an incredibly unfamiliar sort of speed, I quickly overwhelm her - I match each blow of hers with one just slightly more powerful until eventually she’s on the defensive, sweating at the brow and visibly panicking. “No… no, it’s not supposed to end like this,” she hisses. “IT’S NOT SUPPOSED TO END LIKE THIS!”

I let out a battlecry and slash hard at not Purple Heart’s Trinity Blade. It shatters, leaving behind zeroes and ones in its place. I kick my opponent back down to solid ground and stop hovering, planting my boots on the earth once more. “You made one mistake,” I declare proudly. “You took the monologue bait.”

At last I plunge my blade into not Purple Heart’s chest and, in a flash, she vanishes, leaving behind a cloud of binary. I let out a sigh of relief and, suddenly, feel a little bit uneasy. Maybe I’m not quite in the right condition for a transformation right now…

Suddenly I catch something - a voice, Purple Heart’s voice. You will reach the greatest heights the Omniverse can offer, it says, or you will plummet to its greatest depths.

My eyes widen. Your fate is as the Omniverse's new Goddess, or as a failed usurper in its Hell.

I hear a sound like something shattering and suddenly feel weak. Consciousness slips between my fingers and everything goes black.

[Mami Tomoe]

I wake up feeling groggy, a little achy and...

...significantly smaller. Immediately I realize I'm back in my Neppy body, as usual. On top of that, though, I feel something interesting. Something different. A power like Share Energy, and yet... not that at all, really.

Then it comes into focus - a humming sound, almost, pitched really high. I feel a weight on my chest, something poking into my stomach. I open my eyes and see Compa and Histoire both looking wide-eyed at where I think the weight is.

It's at that moment I remember - oh, hey, I was in there to get the Sharicite. Right.

As I look down to my chest, I see it: the beautiful, incredibly large gemstone, coloured a deep purple. As I sit up, it tumbles into my lap... which I have to admit did hurt a bit. It's nothing compared to the feeling of awe it pulls out of me just from looking at the thing.

Histy's voice snaps me out of my thoughts, though. "How did you...?"

A nervous laugh escapes my lips and I scratch the back of my head. Time for a dumb act which is really only halfway an act, I think. "Uhh... one second I was running for some pudding, and then the next I was here." I lift up the Sharicite, looking at it from numerous angles out of curiosity. "This thing doesn't look like what we want, though. It feels like what we want, but is this it?"

A few steps away I hear a wistful woooooow out of Compa.

Histy flips up her tome and does what appears to be examining the Sharicite. "It certainly doesn't look like any of the Sharicites this generation," she remarks, "but I have recorded here an old Sharicite used by Planeptune - a Mascot Sharicite, from back when the Mascots were kept for more than emergency protection. You might also want to look a little closer," she adds.

At that I squint, trying to glean whatever detail Histy wants me to. I notice something in the center of the shiny rock - a little power button like the ones that appear in a CPU's eyes, or the kind that a modern Sharicite would be in its entirety. "Huh. So this thing's basically what we have back home with a little armor? Neat!"

From the looks of things, Histy's not really in the mood for arguing with me over that point. "The real test for it is trying to channel faith into Share Energy with it," she concludes. "Do you think you could do that, Neptune?"

With a smirk, I stand up and hold the Sharicite high. "I'm really feeling it," I reply. Suddenly, my voice changes, deepening to Purple Heart's. "I am the one true Goddess!"

Binary storms around me. In a flash the world's a little bit smaller, my newly-gained braids extend behind me and a little gust of wind kicks up, sending grains of sand brushing against my skin. The gem in my hand glows, and I see something in the corner of my eye: the SP bar increasing from 2 to 3 with a little chime. "Interesting," I comment, willing my wings into existence behind me. "How about a test flight?"

I lift myself a bit off of the ground, then let Compa climb onto my back and Histy settle herself on my head. I look to my right hand, where I was just holding the Sharicite, and notice something - a purple, glowing power button. "I'm sensing its presence in your hand," Histy points out, and as she does, I notice it too. "I'll make a note of that in case we ever need to move the Sharicite. Hopefully we never do once we return to the Fallen Angel."

I nod, shaking Histy a little in the process, though she doesn't seem to mind. "Hold on tight - I'll have us out of here in a flash!"

With a blur and a shriek from Compa, I take off, leaving behind a purple trail of light in the air.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

A few minutes pass. Histy and I spend most of the time listening to Compa go from being terrified of falling to having a queen of the world moment, sitting up on my back and holding her arms out in the air. A cheer fills the air rushing incredibly quickly past us, courtesy of the queen of the world, which quickly turns into laughter.

"I might have to take her out flying every now and then," I say over my shoulder to Histy. Compa cheers in agreement and Histy, who has now moved to my shoulder for more efficient communication, nods.

After a few more moments of silence, Histy looks like something's eating at her a bit. "I know you wouldn't lie to me, Neptune," Histy starts somewhat awkwardly, "at least about anything important. You might lie to get out of doing work, or that sort of thing, but..."

I look away and my face warms up a bit. "Trust me. You don't need to worry for a moment about how I got this," I respond, holding my Sharicite hand up. Histy makes a noise of protest, then shoots back, "what you think doesn't mean anything might be very important. If you have something to tell me, please, do. If anything, I can at least read through my tomes and tell you whether or not your suspicions are correct."

I feel like continuing to stand my ground, saying something like I don't have any suspicions, but in all honesty, what I heard back there worries me. "Let's talk when we get back, okay? I'd like to keep this between us. If we need another head to put together, I can bring Iffy here," I decide. "Compa's nice to have around, but I don't want to trouble her with this."

Histy nods, and as I turn my attention back to the world ahead of us, I notice the gate out of here approaching incredibly quickly. "Going down," I shout and dip toward the savanna, flying through the gate at top speed once more.