Neptunia: Merc's Involvement

Chapter 35: Planeptune - Taken Over

"Agh man! thish ish shooo good!"

"Neptune, don't speak with your mouth full!" Said Vert to Neptune, who was stuffing her mouth as if there were no tomorrow.

"Neptune, that's bad table manners!" Said Nepgear in a hurry as she removed the food stains on her mouth with a handkerchief.

Alex and the Planeptune Sisters, along with the other CPUs and CPU candidates, were invited to Vert's mansion to eat together.

Unfortunately, Neptune was being Neptune again and made sure to show it to everyone around the table.

"Ugh, green peas. Maybe if I move them over here, no one will notice." Said Noire quietly while picking up the peas one by one with her fork and putting them back.

"Noire, don't be a picky eater. You'll set a bad example for Uni."

While Leanbox's CPU scolded Noire, Uni simply sat next to her sister and smiled while sweat dropping. She was already aware of Noire's picky habits regarding food, but never really put too much thought about it.

"And you too Blanc. Reading on the table is not polite at all."

"Just give me a second, I'll reach a good stopping point soon." Answered Lowee's CPU without taking her eyes off of the book's pages.

"Seriously, you three are so troublesome sometimes." Said Vert while lowering her head and sighing with her eyes closed before raising again and opening her eyes to look at Alex. "What's wrong, Alex? You haven't even touched your food yet."

Not only his food, the young boy wasn't even paying attention to the ruckus around him. His mind was somewhere completely different right now.

"Alex!"

"Huh!?" Said the young man as he quickly looked at Vert.

"Your food."

"Ah...Yeah, it's good..."

Leanbox's CPU looked with some concern at Alex, who answered quickly about a meal he had yet to take a single bite out of.

"Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, why?"

"You seem distant today"

"I was just thinking about stuff..."

Even though it's been days since that incident, Alex still remembered clearly that battle. If he hadn't gone all out from the start, the young man could have kicked the bucket within seconds.

"Alex, you shouldn't worry about the difference of strength between you and CFW Magic. The fact you managed to hold your ground on your own against her and made it out in one piece is amazing enough in itself."

The young boy didn't say a thing, he simply looked at her with a surprised expression. He was amazed she could figure out what he was thinking so well just from that vague explanation.

"Are you surprised?" Said Vert with a smile.

Although her accurate guessing skill did surprise him, trying to know how she figured it out wasn't really one of Alex's interests at the moment.

"I just, didn't like how she didn't go all out on me. For the first time, I felt like I was the prey."

What bothered Alex the most was that CFW Magic played around with him during the entire fight, despite him taking it seriously and going all out on her.

"That's what bothering you?"

The young boy didn't answer this time. He simply looked down with an expression that showed how displeased he felt with that battle. Vert could only smile, as she had seen someone similar making that expression before many times years ago. And for a very similar reason too.