Pre-Chapter Notes

Hey, everyone! Wow. Just...wow. I REALLY feel like an ass. I figure I'd have some long absences but I never thought it'd take me over a whole YEAR to make a new chapter. There are a myriad of excuses I could use, but let's face it: nothing I say can truly justify my extended absence. Wouldn't be surprised if I lost some followers because of it. All I can really offer are my deepest apologies. I originally intended this to be a lot longer of a chapter but I couldn't come up with much bore with diverging from the chapter's theme this time around. Maybe I'll be able to fix that next chapter. But for now I'm back! But before that... REVIEWS!

F14M3RZ
"Crack-induced headcanon?" No wonder you and Angron get along so well. Just wait 'til Blanc actually joins the party. I got a real treat in store then, so look forward to it.

Jack Hunter
Glad to know that got you cackling. Honestly, I feel my buddy Angron handles the comedic situations better, but I do what I can when the ideas cross my mind.

Rush
The deal with Mina will be explained below. As for Kuri in "A Hero's Tale", that's up to Angron. Kuri in this story is my own depiction, but Angron could possibly go his own way in his story. We may make cameos and references to each other, but our stories are our own so you never know how each one is gonna roll until it happens.

Rift Hero
Thanks for the compliment.

DISCLAIMER

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Idea Factory, Compile Heart, and all other official parties involved with the series.

I own nothing.

Except for Zeno. He's my property.

HEY! I am no one's property!

Quiet, plot device.

I'm going on strike!

Do you want this story to be abandoned?

Uhhhh...

Then start walking, "hero."

I'll get you for this...

What was that?

I said I'm going! I'm going...

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

THE LAND OF WHITE SERENITY

With the coming of the next morning also came Zenotyne's usual routine. The boy was in the bathroom brushing his teeth. He was still half asleep but he did have enough sense to knock first and make sure no one was inside. No WAY was he going to risk walking in on one of the tsundere sisters. Even the tiny berserker would have trouble matching that wrath. Still, he had trouble sleeping the night prior. On top of the boy/girl debacle, the couch he slept on wasn't really that comfortable. Their gracious host did warn him about it but the boy was in a bad enough mindset to not care at the time.

Soon, there was a knock on the bathroom door. "Zeno, hurry up already." It was Noire. He already let the girls freshen up first, so what could she want? "If you take too much longer we'll start eating without you." Oh, right. Food. Kuri was cooking breakfast for them this morning. Wonder what was on the menu? Only one way to find out. Zeno quickly finished his morning hygiene routine before heading to the eating area.

"Good morning," said Uni as the boy entered the room. She and her sister were already sitting at the table waiting for him. Noire made a small quip about him taking too long for a guy as he took his seat. The table and the kitchen was a little on the small side and wasn't extravagant, but it surprisingly had enough room for all of them.

"Excellent. Now that everyone's here we can start eating." The one who spoke this time was Kuri who was bringing them food. Zeno inwardly grimaced a little at the sight. Not at the food. The food was fine and looked normal enough. The source of mental distraction was Kuri. He was wearing a different outfit today, but it looked even more like a trap than the one he wore last night. The bottom layer looked a bark blue school swimsuit for girls and somehow showed no 'evidence' of his true gender. Over that, he wore a rather strange one-piece article. It looked like a red short-sleeve shirt and pair of shorts put together with a decorative metal plate here or there, yet the top stopped around the bust level and it had no groin area. It seemed to be held in place by a white and red belt with a large circular buckle that had a large 'K' on it. He also wore knee-high black socks and some boots matching the body. He also seemed to have a smartwatch or something on his right wrist. His hair was still the same as before but he did opt to not have the cat ears on today. Zeno wasn't really against the outfit or anything. It just reminded him of how he embarrassingly fell for Kuri's feminine appearance. It would probably still be a while before the boy would work past it.

"Hey, Kuri? I have a question," Noire started. "Do you know why the Basilicom was closed? Usually, they're open 24 hours in case of any citizen concerns. I don't think I've ever seen one closed before."

"Oh. That." Kuri quickly finished serving the food before taking his own seat. "It was really just bad timing for you guys, I guess. The Broken issue here in Lowee has gotten pretty bad lately. I don't know the details but I've heard that a lot of them have been moving around lately. And they usually don't do that. And Lady Blanc being missing just makes it all the worse. So the officials at the Basilicom put up a curfew for office hours for almost all businesses to only be during the day."

A curfew? Seriously? It was no secret Lowee's culture was catered more toward younger audiences and a family-friendly environment, but that seemed like a little much. Then again, Blanc wasn't around to make that decision. Was it Lowee's Oracle? She always did seem pretty protective of the twins, but this seems like a bit much for her. Regardless, the girls were quick to use the 'bad timing' statement as a chance to shoot icy glares at Zeno. The boy was going to have to work hard to get them to stop taking that potshot at him.

"Well, the Basilicom's open now, right?" Zenotyne began. "Then we'd better finish up breakfast quick and head over to see the Oracle. After that, it's open season for Broken."

"'Open season'? As in you're going to actually look for and fight them?" At that moment Zenotyne used a hand to cover his mouth as he realized he said something he probably shouldn't have. "Are you crazy? Normal people can't beat those monsters! Axel asked me to give you guys some help, but I'm not going on a suicide mission!" Zeno was having a hard time coming up with something to say to that. Well, the boy's already let out his plans. He might as well clear things up.

"...Uhh, yeah. About that... I actually can fight them." Kuri wasn't sure how to react to such a claim. He was looking at the boy like he had just grown a second head or something. "It's this thing on my arm: the D-Loader. It allows me to fight on par with the Broken and get rid of them. But do me a favor and don't spread the word, will you?"

"And why not?" Noire butted in. "That 'thing' has been a huge help in the past. And it has the potential for so much more. Why would you want to keep something like that a secret?"

"Because I don't want to get overloaded." Zenotyne waited a moment for his response to sink in. The girls were still confused by his reasoning and Kuri still seemed to be having difficulty following that he was even capable of this feat. "Look, don't get me wrong. I want to help out as much as I can, but I'm still just one person. If the whole world learns I'm the only one who can fight those things then everybody and their brother is going to come looking for me to solve their problem. Plus, we still don't know what the source of the Broken even is yet. Even if I do beat them all somehow, what's to stop more from cropping up later? I'd just be slowing down the problem; not stopping it. I'll help where I can when I'm around, but for now I think it's best I try to learn more about their origins before I set out for something that ambitious."

"You've really thought about this, haven't you?" Uni asked after a moment. The sisters couldn't deny the sense of his logic. Now they were feeling kind of selfish. They had sent Zeno to fight a few Broken since their rescue to help bring up Lastation's safety and security, but only now did they realize they weren't thinking about his position. Word had started to spread about the 'Data Breaker' who could eliminate the Broken, but the public never had a face to go with the name. Now it was clear why. He didn't want to stand out until he was sure he found a way to stop them for good.

"...You guys are serious, aren't you? He can actually do this?" Kuri asked in disbelief. Everyone nodded to confirm Zeno's abilities. Then their host brightened up with a smile. "Now I have to help. I may not be much of a fighter but I heal fairly well. You can just leave the support to me." Kuri could heal? That talent would be welcome as Zeno and the girls had no healing Skills.

"Are you sure about this?" Zeno asked. The boy wouldn't have pegged his new friend for a healer, but often times looks can be deceiving, as he is well familiar with. Regardless, he needed to be sure of Kuri's resolve. "Broken are no joke. Even with the D-Loader giving me the abilities I need there have been times I had trouble fighting them. And I'm the only one who can do any real damage to them. On top of that, I have a pretty good feeling we'll be facing more than one at a time. Things could get real dangerous real fast out there."

"Don't worry..." Kuri started. He then pulled out a small pocket-sized sketchbook and a pencil and appeared to start drawing something. Doodling? At the table? The matter of table manners aside, how was that going to help? After a moment Kuri's pencil started to glow. He then swiped his hand upward towards the ceiling. Despite coming off the book, the pencil left a trail of lead in the air and something seemed to come from the book. It followed the pencil line and grew in size before continuing where Kuri's hand stopped and then landed behind him. With a confident smile, he said, "...I have ways of protecting myself."

Zeno and the girls were completely dumbstruck. Behind Kuri now stood a living sketch of a large tiger. Almost too big to fit in the room in fact. It seemed that, aside from healing, Kuri had to ability to enchant his drawings and bring them to life. Was his healing revolved around that as well? Either way, something like this could very easily be used for a large variety of situations. That settled it. Kuri was coming with them. After all, living drawing or no, it's hard to refuse someone who has a big cat eyeing you like you're its next meal.

Zenotyne and his party were walking down the Basilicom toward a room in the far hall rather than the Oracle's office. They were expecting his visit so getting in was far easier than his experience in Lastation. They still found it rather odd she wouldn't be there with everything going on in Lowee right now. The boy couldn't help but wonder what she was doing without the twins to look after. Hopefully, she wasn't burying herself in her work. Well, he'd find out soon enough. As the group approached a pair of doors they heard voices from the other side. A LOT of voices.

"This is Rom and Ram's playroom, isn't it?" Uni spoke up. "They often brought Nepgear and me to play with them here, but who's in there now?" An excellent question, indeed. Zeno stepped forward to grab the knob to one door and turned it. As the boy slowly opened the door he and the others leaned in close to peer through the opening. Inside, they were greeted with the sight of what looked to be about a dozen or so children playing. The all looked to be roughly around five or six years old and seemed to be enjoying themselves. Some were playing with blocks, others took turns on the indoor children's slide, some were coloring, and a few were playing on a game console. There we a couple of adults supervising the children, but there didn't seem to be any sign of the Oracle.

"Please! You shouldn't run with those! It's dangerous!" It was at that moment everyone's eyes focused on one child in particular. He was running around the room laughing as though he was having a blast of a time. The concern was that he was holding a big pair of scissors in his hand over his head pretending it was some kind of plane or something. Trailing behind the tyke was a woman trying to convince him to stop running. She had long light-blue hair worn in low pigtails with a large ring on each one and was wearing a white and red outfit similar to a graduate student.

"I think we found her." With these words said, Zeno fully opened the door to let himself and the others in. A few of the kids noticed the new faces and more or less stopped what they were doing to inspect the new faces. Naturally, this had a butterfly effect until the whole room was watching them. It was actually a little embarrassing, but on the plus side this allowed the woman in white and red to catch up to the child she was chasing and retrieve the scissors from him. She then caught on to the rest of the room and locked eyes with Zeno and the others. She then quickly handed the cutting tool to another adult before approaching them.

"Hello, Lady Noire, Lady Uni. It is a pleasure to see you again." She and the sisters exchange pleasantries before her focus shifted to the other two. "Who are these new faces with you today?"

Zeno then stepped forward and offered his hand to shake as he spoke, "I'm Zenotyne, but call me Zeno. You may have heard of me as the 'Data Breaker'." Truthfully, he was still a little on the fence about the nickname, however while they didn't know it was him specifically the public had pretty much already decided what to call their unknown hero. The boy felt it was best to just accept it and roll with it as best he could.

"And my name is Kuri, Ma'am. It's nice to meet you."

"I am Mina Nishizawa. I am the Oracle of Lowee. I am pleased to make your acquaintance." Mina shook Zeno and Kuri's hands before instructing the group they would continue their conversation back in her office. They waited for her to let the other adults know she would be stepping out for a while before escorting them to their destination. There were only a couple of chairs in Mina's office aside from her desk chair so the boys opted to stand so the girls could sit. "On behalf of Lowee, I would like to thank you for coming all this way."

"It's no big deal, Miss Nishizawa," Zeno replied. "When I heard the situation I had to come running. Though we did run into a little...hiccup. What's the deal with this 'curfew' thing we've heard about?" The sisters shot Zeno a quick 'look' at the word 'hiccup'. Yeah. That's still happening.

"Yes...about that..." Mina reluctantly began as her eyes became downcast. "Even before the recent migration, the Broken threat was particularly bad here in Lowee. It was within our nation where the first encounter happened. At first, we believed it was an isolated event, but soon we had received reports of similar sightings in other nations. A large percentage of our citizens are young or elderly. With no known way to defeat them and the absence of Lady Blanc, it was decidedly too dangerous to allow most hunter groups and even some businesses to operate during night hours." That made sense. Kind of restrictive, though. How did the city deal with it? "Unfortunately these new rules also caused a change in Lowee's employment rate and economy. Many citizens found themselves forced to take jobs during times they would normally devote to their children and this caused something of a public concern. To help soothe these concerns I thought until the core issue had been resolved we would turn part of the Basilicom into a temporary daycare." So that was the reason for all the kids. Well, if nothing else, looking after the twins did give her experience caring for children.

"So what exactly IS the situation in Lowee?" Noire asked. "I had received reports from our borders of Broken movement, but we'd like to know the full extent of what's happening."

"Oh, yes! Please wait one moment." Mina walked toward her desk and started going through some of her drawers. She looked back and forth between some of them becoming increasingly worried. Did she misplace what she was looking for? After a minute or so of this, she finally found it. She pulled out a large paper that had been folded over enough to be the size of a small book. After clearing some space on her desk she unfolded the paper before laying it flat. "Whew... I apologize for the delay. This is a map of our nation of Lowee. The Broken within our borders were previously scattered about. None of them were very close to any of our cities or villages, thankfully." As she spoke everyone gathered around to get a better look. Mina pointed and tapped various places on the map to give examples of known Broken locations. "However, shortly after we had heard of Lady Noire and Lady Uni's rescue we began to notice strange behavior. Some of these monsters stayed where they were, but others began to move elsewhere."

"Move, huh?" Zeno asked. "Something like that happened back in Lastation. Any thoughts about the change?"

"Yes, the Oracle of Lastation and I have discussed this and we have come to a theory." The other four leaned in to better hear what Mina had to say. "We cannot say for certain, but we believe that the Broken may be connected somehow with the missing leaders of the nations."

"You really think so?" asked Uni.

"Indeed, I do. Miss Jinguji was kind enough to to tell me of the events surrounding Lady Noire and Lady Uni's rescue. I was also able to contact Planeptune's Oracle and to she passed on the reports of Lady Neptune and Lady Nepgear's rescue as well. We believe the Broken Mister Zeno fought at that time was a guard placed there to prevent them from being discovered or released. Lady Noire and Lady Uni were imprisoned in an enclosed cavern and did not need a guard."

"But that changed when the mining company found it," Zeno said piecing things was also a little off put by Mina calling 'mister'. Normally he'd ask a person not to be so formal, but the boy was well aware her penchant for orderly conduct was almost on par with Kei and was only outmatched by her politeness so he just let it go.

"So the one we fought on the way out was sent to guard us before anyone could find us," Noire added. "But that raises a bigger question. Who sent it? Broken or not, these are monsters. I can't imagine them obeying anyone's orders like that."

"We do not know that yet, unfortunately," Mina responded. "However, that does not change the fact that does seem to be what is happening. This is further enforced by the fact monsters in general typically do not migrate and can even be territorial of their habitat. There is some force behind those creatures that is conspiring against us. It seems it was necessary that each nations' leaders be imprisoned somewhere to achieve their goals, whatever those may be. But now that Planeptune and Lastation have had their leadership restored the force behind it all it is feeling threatened. So we believe the Broken that have reportedly left their original locations are actually being sent to the locations of the other leaders."

"Which means if we follow them we can find the others!" Uni exclaimed. It seemed the prospect of rescuing Rom and Ram had really lifted her spirits.

"But that causes other problems..." Kuri started. "That also means there will be lots of them we would have to fight and defeat before we actually find them. Maybe even a few back to back. Or even at once."

"Yeah. And assuming we even do find them, we could still have to fight on the way back. I hate to say it, but the odds aren't looking good."

"Yes. However, I believe I can come up with a means to help that." Mina's statement got everyone's attention. What was this plan of hers? "While not as many as Lastation, we have a few Monster Fighter teams in Lowee. We would be willing to hire them to assist and act as a diversion and draw some the Broken away. During that time Mister Zeno will be able to use his talents to reduce their numbers however he believes he can as everyone searches for and rescues Ladies Blanc, Ram, and Rom."

"Not to put your hopes down or anything, but what makes you so sure we'll find them in particular?" Good question, Noire.

"I must admit, that is a little bit of an assumption. However based on the fact you and Planeptune's leaders we each found within your own nations, as well as together rather than separately, we believe we will find them where the Broken are gathering." Pretty decent reasoning, albeit a little iffy, but they didn't have anything better to go by.

"So where are they gathering exactly," Zeno inquired.

"From what we can tell, the Broken seem to be heading to this general area." Mina pointed to an area on the northeastern side of Lowee's regional map. "This is the Bois de Toundra, or Tundra Woods. It is a dense forest of pine, willow, and alder trees and shrubbery. It is generally inhabited by some of the larger animals like moose and bears, but it is also home to some dangerous monsters. The most notable are the Fenrir wolves. They are thankfully solitary creatures, but a single one often requires a full team to defeat."

"So we have a snowy forest, strong monsters, lots of Broken..." As Uni counted the conditions and complications, the concern started wear onto her face. Worse yet, she wasn't wrong to note those concerns. The odds were stacked against them, and would likely worsen as time went on and more Broken arrived. However they approached this, they were going to have to do it soon before it became too dangerous.

"I guess we better get rolling then," said Zeno. "Mina, could you contact those Monster Fighter teams you mentioned? Tell them to meet us just inside the forest. We're gonna hit the local shops first and stock up on supplies."

"Wait, we're going now?" The older sister asked.

"We have to. The Broken already have a head start on us. The longer we wait, the more we'll have to fight. We'd best nip this in bud as soon as we can before it becomes impossible to break through." Noire could only respond to his claim with a sigh. She didn't like the idea of rushing into this situation, especially so soon after the last time they rushed something, but this time she didn't have a sound argument. At least this time he seemed to be thinking it through a little more this time.

"Of course," Mina responded. "I will do all I can to assist you." As every started to leave Zeno made sure to exchange contact numbers with Mina. They were going to need to stay in contact in case of any new developments when they were in the field. With who knows how many Broken out there they were going to have to play this one smart. Hopefully they would get through this without too much trouble. Most of all, find Blanc and her sisters. But only time would tell the results of this venture.

...Aaaaaand done!

Sorry it took so long to get this out. I'll try to keep this from happening again. And to further that I think it's best I put myself back on a time limit. Rather than a new chapter a week like I originally aimed for back in the day I'll try for one a month. The time limit should give me more of a sense of obligation to get this done while the month-long timespan shouldn't make me feel too pressured and make my writing suffer. Which leaves the other part of the post-chapter notes...

GAME UPDATE

Unfortunately, I sadly have opted to cancel the project. I did make a decent amount of progress, but about a month ago my external harddrive crashed and I lost all the data on it, which included almost everything involving the game. I've gotten a new external since then but the game would require me to pretty much start from scratch. Plus, Japan's been pretty jumpy on blowing the copyright whistle as of late. Even if it would have been completely free and even have promoted them via disclaimers, it would not change the fact that I would be using the Neptunia creators' intellectual property for my own purposes without their permission. From what I've seen in recent history with other similar projects I've heard about there would likely be a pretty good chance they would send me a Cease And Desist Order as early as the first alpha release. The only real way I would be able to get it out to you guys then would likely be as a finished project, which would take FAR too long without outside input and bug hunts, and going that far could possibly give them grounds to straight up sue me.

So for the sake of my own legal safety, the game version of this story is no more. There may be means out there I could use to defend and protect myself from such a backlash but my knowledge of local legal affairs, much less international, is spotty at best. And that's being generous. I apologize it's come to this but the more I think on it the more I realize the risks involved in the venture.

HOWEVER! I haven't given up on getting a game of some kind out. As I fiddled with the RPG Maker MV system and learned how it works I started to get some old ideas from my high school days floating back into my head and saw how I could finally make that story a reality. There's still a LOT of planning to do, but this story would 100% be my own. While there would be some inspiration and references to other works I enjoyed over the years, its world, plot, characters, EVERYTHING would be of my own design so there wouldn't be any worry of legal troubles. I'll go more into detail about it another time since I still have to actually figure out how I'm going to give it all shape.

In the meantime, I've got some big plans in store for the next few chapters so look forward to that. Until then, I'll catch you all next time. Zeno out!