Uzume peeled off the vines from her clothes. She just had to take what looked like to be a short cut. Next thing she knew, she had fallen down a cleverly hidden cliff face only to be saved by an entanglement of vines that had acted as a net. The only problem was getting out of the damn thing. Admittedly, screaming into her megaphone hadn't done anything and had pretty much been a waste of time, but she had been desperate!
She had eventually gotten out thanks to some of the monsters in the area. Like the dogoos in the field, the baby bugs, small red bug-like creatures with a short horn on the front of their heads, didn't seem to be that interested in attacking her. However, beyond their help in chewing the vines, they had no want in sticking around or investigating her. They had run off rather quickly after Uzume was freed and able to get to the ground safely.
The red haired girl sighed as she heard her stomach growl. She had never taken care of that food situation from earlier and it had easily been about an hour since she left Rom and Nepsy. As she looked around, she saw a few mushrooms on the ground. The girl sneered at the vile things and merely got up from her spot on the ground.
She wasn't that desperate yet.
A few minutes later, Uzume had only been able to find a river. What did these girls even eat here? Uzume paused… did they even eat? Come to think of it, they lived closed off from the rest of the world with only the Goddess to provide for them. Maybe the deity just poofed them food every day. What if there wasn't anything to eat around here at all?!
The red haired girl looked glumly at the ground as she held her stomach. Thoughts of Umio's food floated in her head. And she had no idea why she suddenly felt like she could go for some fried shrimp right now, but damn it she was going to need something soon otherwise she was going to go crazy. Maybe she should've followed the baby bugs.
The sound of rustling caught her attention though as a girl wearing a black dress and blue ribbons in her hair walked out of the forest. She walked up to the edge of the river and pulled something out of her pocket. It's a handkerchief and what appeared to be a gold locket. The raven haired girl sighed as she dipped the cloth into the water and proceeded to shine it, "Shoot… looks like it got scratched. I wonder if Nepgear can fix it; I'll have to ask." She mumbled to herself as she worked.
"Um… hi," Uzume said softly, trying not to freak out the other girl.
Of course, that was exactly what happened. The raven haired girl shrieked as she threw the locket into the air in panic. Uzume caught it and looked at it. Whoever made it had a real knack for it; the craftsmanship was unbelievable! She could see the small blight that the girl had been talking about, but it didn't seem to detract from the locket's aesthetic at all!
The red haired girl smiled, holding out the gold item, "Sorry about that. Here you go." The gold item was snatched out of Uzume's hand. The red haired girl frowned. Was it not rude to snatch something out of someone's hands here?
Before Uzume could comment, she barely dodged the sword strike that followed immediately after. Where had the blade even come from?
As Uzume got her bearings, she noticed the other girl's red eyes were pretty dark and extremely pissed off. The red haired girl once again, quickly evaded another attack from the other girl, "Hey!" Uzume said. Not this song and dance again. She was beginning to think she should've just dragged the sleeping Nepsy with her, "I was just trying to give your damn locket back to ya! I'm not your enemy here! I'm not looking for a fight!"
"It doesn't matter what you're looking for, human. The only thing that does matter is your death!" The raven haired girl said, venom in her voice. She launched herself forward, locking her blade with Uzume's megaphone. Without missing a beat, she kicked the red haired girl in the stomach, pushing her back and giving both fighters more space.
Uzume tripped as she skidded backward and landed on the ground. Despite having the wind knocked out of her, she rolled on the ground, avoiding the other's blade as it sank into the soft earth. The red haired girl quickly got back up and brought her megaphone up to scream in it. It might do some damage, but this girl actually wanted to kill her. She didn't have much of a choice anymore.
She yelled.
… But nothing happened. Her megaphone was on the ground, a few feet away from where she was. It must have fallen out of her hands when she landed.
Uzume laughed nervously, "Do over?" Today just wasn't her day, was it?
The raven haired girl smirked. Uzume was officially an easy kill, "Tornado Sword!" Her blade's color turned multicolored as she rushed forward. Uzume ducked, the sword cutting her unfortunate tie in half as she did. The red haired girl scrambled to her weapon as the other girl turned to continue her attack.
While Uzume wasn't a stranger to fights, she had to admit that the raven haired girl was amongst one of the most aggressive ones she had ever fought. The girl didn't miss any opportunity to strike. Of course, that left the red haired girl without any chance to ever figure out how to attack.
Uzume slid on the ground as her opponent brought down her blade again, narrowly missing her. She grabbed the Dream Megaphone and jumped away, putting some distance between them. Uzume yelled as loud as she could into it. The attack blew her away but seemed to do very little actual damage to her. The red haired girl looked incredulous at the item. It had blasted through the ice with ease early! Was it in the wrong setting or something?
The Dream Megaphone had been designed to specifically combat the CPUs in Celestia. Uzume assumed that the girl in front of her was a CPU (Noire more than likely unless there was someone else here who hated humans here) so the Dream Megaphone should have been having an effect on her. As her eyes returned back to her opponent, Uzume gulped as a scary thought burned through her mind.
Was her weapon that weak… or was her opponent just that strong?
The raven haired girl smirked, "That was the best you had? I won't even need to transform to kill you." The blade returned back to normal, but her red eyes bore holes into Uzume (it seemed that everyone other than Rom seemed to have that ability), "I guess I should just end this now. I'll figure out how you got here later. Volcano Dive!" She yelled, charging forward and leaped.
In that moment, Uzume knew that she was in trouble. The girl's blade had heated up and the red haired one was certain that even if she could block the attack, she was in a world of hurt. And unlike Rom, she probably wasn't going to get healed after all was said and done. If she lived that attack. Uzume prepared herself to jump out of the way as her opponent was falling back down to the ground.
"Critical Edge!"
A split second later, Nepsy was in front of her, her own sword in hand. Even with the other girl's force, Nepsy had been able to block her attack, both of them skidding to mere inches in front of Uzume. The fire that blazed around the blade funneled upward into the sky. The red haired girl could still feel the heat almost singe her.
"Noire, stop!" Nepsy said as she managed (barely) to push her back.
Noire blinked as she gathered her footing once again, "What do you mean, stop? Don't you see who you're defending?! That's a human, Neptune! In case you don't remember, we're supposed to be preventing any of them from getting to the Goddess." The raven haired girl stood her ground but with Nepsy in the way, she didn't advance. However, her eyes were carefully watching for a hole in her defense though.
Nepsy shook her head, keeping her own sword at the ready, "Nope. That's not our job. Actually, to be honest… I don't think we have any official todos in this story. It's actually a nice change of pace." She shrugged and pointed to the red haired girl, "Anyway, Uzume over here isn't a bad human. She's actually really nice. Histy and Rom like her and she's all good in my book."
"They… whatever. She's not okay in my book and that's all that matters to me ." Noire stepped forward, getting close to the two girls. She stared directly into Nepsy's eyes, "Get out of the way, Neptune." Her blade was turning red again as fire began to surround the metal.
Was she...?
Uzume gritted her teeth, preparing to walk around Nepsy. No way in hell was she going to let her get hurt on her account, "What the hell did I do to you? I was just trying to give you back your freaking locket and then you attacked me for no damn reason! You didn't even give me a chance to explain what I was doing here!" She argued. Nepsy put her hand out, stopping Uzume from advancing. The dark glare from Noire reminded her that Nepsy was her only safety net in this situation.
"That reason is none of your business, human!" Noire yelled back, sounding more livid by the second. Her red eyes blazed almost as much as the sword in her hands. Uzume was really wishing for Rom's personality back because this stubborn one was beginning to piss her off. And in a few moments, she was just going to walk around Nepsy and kick this one's ass!
Noire shifted her stance, backing up only a tiny bit. Just enough room so that if she did attack, she'd probably only barely miss Nepsy. The red haired girl growled, "I think it is when you try to freaking kill me!" She had her megaphone at the ready. Even if it did only push her back. Even if this girl had abilities that could trounce her own hand to hand. There was no way she was backing down from this.
"Ohh… will both of you just taking a nepping chill pill already!" Nepsy yelled. She tried to diffuse the whole situation by putting her arms out to separate both girls. However, being the shortest of the group meant that she had the smallest wingspan so the distance wasn't that much. Unfortunately, her cry hadn't been enough to grab the attention of the two girls.
Nepsy hung her head, "Just listen to me!" She shouted. The appearance of a purple circle underneath all of the feet caught the two combatants' attention. The fact that it was glowing told Uzume that the lavender haired girl was preparing her own attack, "You two are really starting to get on my nerves. I don't want you both to fight. So the two of you calm down otherwise I'm going to nep ya both!"
Uzume took a sharp breath and lowered her weapon. She may have been pissed, but she didn't want to fight Nepsy. Noire, on the other hand, still looked ready to fight. Nepsy sighed and the purple circle dissipated. As the two exchanged a glance, Noire's blade began to cool. However, her glare was still as cold as even.
The lavender haired girl shrugged and put on a smile, "Alright, with that outta the way, let's restart this encounter! So Uzume met Noire. Noire meet Uzume." She said, trying to be more positive.
"I don't care what her name is!" Noire was glaring full force at both of them. Her grip on her blade was tight as her knuckles went white. It seemed like a miracle that the sword's handle wasn't crushed under her hold.
Nepsy shook her head. As she looked back at the raven haired girl, she seemed more disappointed and tired than upset, "Noire… please… we don't need to fight. We can just all be happy. Maybe the Goddess will listen to her and we can… well..." She trailed off as Noire's angry glance intensified. Still Nepsy gained a determined look and met her stare, "We can actually go to Gamindustri. It'll take Rom a while. Heck, she'll probably just be hanging around us for a few years, but eventually she'll get used to things. Even though a log cabin in the woods with you has had its own appeal… Don't you want something different?"
"We don't share a house. Don't give the human ideas." She said, blushing slightly, "And the only thing I want is her and all the other humans dead! Any one of them who steps foot here should be destroyed! I don't know why Histoire or Rom let her through and I sure as hell don't know why you're defending her." She looked away. She blinked and wiped the corner of her eye, "You all are being stupid! Don't you remember the last time this exact thing happened?!" Noire screamed. Her red eyes seemed to soften before hardening once again, "I won't let it. Not for a second time!"
Between the talking, Noire had seen an opening in Nepsy's defense and dashed forward. Once again, Uzume only had a small amount of time to react. She brought up her megaphone hoping it would survive the hit.
But it never came.
The clatter of a sword averted her attention. The two girls had fallen to the ground; their weapons joining them only a few feet away from them. Nepsy was… more or less clinging onto Noire, thus preventing her from moving properly as the other was trying to get back up and retrieve her blade.
"You can't, Noire. She didn't do anything wrong!" Nepsy yelled, holding onto the raven haired girl's waist, "You'll be just as bad as the humans that..."
Even Uzume felt the air grow cold as Noire glared at Nepsy and her voice trailed off. The lavender haired girl didn't attempt to put up a fight as she was shoved to the ground. Noire's red eyes seem to glow with anger. Her fists were balled, "Don't. Finish. That. Sentence!" She was seething as she looked away from the girl and then back, "How dare you? How dare you!" Noire screamed, her voice reaching a new high.
Nepsy looked down and shook her head. She didn't move from her place on the ground, "It's not right. Uzume hasn't done anything bad. Neither did..." She gave a glance back up, looking at both Uzume and Noire. Clearly whoever they were talking about was either off limits in general or just in front of Uzume, "Neither did she. So, if you kill her, then you're just as bad as the humans that attacked us!" She said, her purple eyes surprisingly serious.
She was actually attempting to counter Noire's glare!
The raven haired girl looked away as her body trembled. She walked over to her sword and picked it up. The blade seemed to glow red with power as the air around it began to swelter. Her eyes darted to Uzume, then to Neptune, and back to Uzume.
Her sword's glow disappeared in addition to the weapon itself, "When I find you again, you're dead." She said. Her red eyes were serious, but there was something eerily familiar about them. Something that Uzume had seen once before. The girl's sword disappeared in a stream of numbers as she stalked off.
After a few moments, Nepsy sighed and shook her head, "I guess I'm in the dogoo house for that one. You okay, Uzume?" She asked, finally getting up from the ground and looking at Uzume. Her own sword disappeared in the same fashion as Noire's had.
"Uh yeah. Thanks for sticking up for me." Uzume said lamely, her mind still playing catch up after that rollercoaster, "Is she going to be okay?" The red haired girl asked, gesturing in the direction Noire had left. Up until that moment, she could care less about how that girl felt but… where had all that pain come from? It was a look she had seen in so many of the rebels' faces after a long battle that only ended in defeat and the loss of many.
"Normally I'd say yeah, but I think I rattled her a bit too much. I should've guessed she didn't want me to bring her up while you were still there. She doesn't like it when I talk about her normally." She gave a half hearted chuckle, " I guess we should be happy that she decided to just drop it for now, right?"
Uzume stared at Nepsy as the lavender haired girl picked up her head, "Well, I should go catch up to her. It's bad news if she pouts all day long and the last thing I need today is her running into Rom and chewing her out accidentally. Plus, if she's talking to me, then she's not looking for you right?"
Uzume watched Nepsy as she flashed her a smile.
"Why?"
Nepsy cocked her head, "Why what?"
Uzume asked, "Why would you help me? Rom was scared of me. Histoire barely trusts me. And Noire pretty much hates my freaking existence. Why are you so different from them?" It just didn't make any sense. Nepsy was the one person in all of Celestia who didn't seem to automatically hate her guts. How could she when everyone else was seemingly okay with just killing a human on sight with no questions asked?
Nepsy looked thoughtful for a moment, "I guess I'm just a good natured protagonist. Even if the story is following you around more than me, I'll still be the best main character," She said as she shrugged. She gave Uzume a wink when she noticed her confused look, "You should get moving if you want to see the Goddess. She should be that way," Nepsy said, pointing in the distance. She winked, "See ya later, Uzume." The pink haired girl said as she left in the direction Noire had stalked off in.
Uzume sighed as Nepsy ran off. She supposed it would be too soon for her to be trusted with such a reason. Plus from that argument with Noire, she guessed that perhaps that whatever fight with the humans had also affected her.
Just what had happened?
She had been thinking of it earlier. The one Gold Third member that had returned, B-sha, had been very silent about the result of their expedition to Celestia. The Rebirth movement had discovered that Avenir had been funding the Gold Third to explore Celestia through various reports, but they had never believed that that had been the end of their involvement. They just had no way to prove it. Nepsy said that Celestia had been attacked.
What if Avenir employed the Gold Third to do it?
The red haired girl sighed and shook her head. It was only a thought, but she had a feeling the company that kept Lastation in a militaristic state had done something rather sinister to this place and only time would tell just how much of a problem that would be. However, today wouldn't be the time to think about that.
She needed to get to the Goddess.