There's several ways a story can play out, and just because it happens one way - doesn't mean it's absolute. Time isn't a static structure, after all.
There are infinite variations, infinite possibilities, and most importantly in this story's context, an infinite amount of Neptunes.
We will now shift our gaze towards one such Neptune that was on her way to converse with a CPU Protestor, one who had been given omninious energy by her alternate dimension self...
That aforementioned dimension, is where the Neptune you all know would've eventually been accidentally banished to by the protestor, and so would begin the plot of the game that you readers know as "Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory", or if not - "Neptunia Re;Birth 3".
In this version of events, however... Time shall take a different track now.
VIRTUA FOREST SAFE ZONE
In this location, is the Neptune we'll be joining in her journey.
"Huh? I thought I was the only one here... I could've sworn I heard someone talking. Oh well, let's go find this 'Rei' person, and stuff." A voice stated, sighing at her predicament.
This voice belongs to Neptune. A young looking girl that looks like she's barely past the first few stages of teenage growth, sporting two D-Pad hairclips, lilac hair, purple eyes, a new and modified Jersey Dress, and one hell of a personality.
"So there WAS someone talking in the background! Love the compliments and all, but how rude of you to talk about someone behind their back!" Neptune grumbled with a lot of emphasis in her movement and voice, evidently annoyed.
I should've expected this. The Fourth Wall slayer is as perceptive as always... In the most unbelievable way possible.
"Yes, writer. I'm talking to you, buddo." Neptune replied with squinted eyes.
"Wait a sec. I'm not in a game anymore? Then what is thi---"
Well, you see, Neptune...
"Ah! Now I get it! This is a fanfiction about me! Yahoo, reader! Can ya' hear me? Hehe..."
Please don't the ruin the opening... We're barely into this thing.
"Okay, okay. I'll play along. So, writer, have you got me going anywhere interesting? Maybe something a little lewd? I'd rather not, to be honest, but I guess it's gotta be done for the plot and the fans!" Neptune said with a lot of enthusiasm in her voice.
Don't worry Neptune, this story doesn't have the Mature tab on, so I literally cannot do that.
"Ah, I see - that's actually a bit relieving... Well, let's go to this wonderful new place I've never explored before! It IS going to be about that, isn't it writer?"
I can't spoil it for you, now please stop talking to me so I can focus on writing your expressions.
"Gotcha', Mr. HeatWave! I'm gonna get so into role that even an 'ideal world' Noire with her voice acting career underway will be impressed!" Neptune said as she chuckled at the thought of it.
"Now, where's the shy girly girl I'm meant to be looking for?"
"Writer, you're not throwing me for a loop right? Isn't she around here?"
H-Hey! You can't just go around using italics like that! I know you're trying to show your thoughts to the readers, but you might confuse a few! What if they're tired and don't see the quotation marks?!
But to answer your question, she'll be right there in a second. Just gotta write her in.
"Oooooh! Coolio, thanks so much, Mr. Wave!"
What did I JUST say?
Ahem.
Soon enough, Neptune managed to encounter who she was looking for. A tall girl with pale skin, bluish-green eyes, silvery-blue coloured hair and glasses. She was slightly taller than Neptune.
This was Rei Ryghts. She had recently started campaigning against the existence of the CPUs with the rest of her group, the Seven Sages - albeit to no sign of success.
After being kicked out by Planeptune's Oracle, Histoire, for slacking off, Neptune was forced to get back to doing some work, and decided to check in on this girl she's only met once before recently - before anything can possibly get out of hand.
"Y-Y-Y-Y-You're the CPU I met earlier! W-Why are you here?!" Rei shouted with absolute fear.
"Oh no, the CPU has come to kill me for my protests! W-What have I gotten myself into?!"
"Erm, dude... You're going way off the deep end. I'm not exactly here to do anything, in fact I'd rather be slicing through my backlog right now... I just wanna see why you're saying all this bad stuff about CPUs."
"H-huh? You haven't come to punish me? I-I'm sorry..." Rei apologises, bowing down with such ease that it's almost as if she does this regularly.
"Ah, c'mooooon. I told you I'm not here to do anything to you! Now, spill the beans!"
"Ah, well... S-Sorry. The main reason why I---" Rei started explaining, before she stopped mid-way with wide-open eyes. She felt that something was wrong.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!" Rei screams, hundreds of painful memories flooding in as she felt the ominious power that she recieved out of the blue surface inside her. They weren't her own memories, but yet they felt so... genuine.
"Yikes! Are you okay, Rei-Nay? You kinda sneak-attacked me there!" Neptune asked with white eyes within a thick black outline, being geniunely shocked whilst having her eyebrows furrowed in concern.
Suddenly, a malicious aura could be felt off of the formerly shy woman, even without anything else notably changing.
"CPUs should... CPUs should...!"
"Eh? Whatcha' saying? Do you have a volume slider that I could use or something?" Neptune asked casually, being confused as to what's going on.
"CPUs should...! CPUs SHOULD JUST DISAPPEAR!"
As soon as Rei exploded with inner rage, a part of the ominious dark blue power leaked out of her and landed onto Neptune.
"Wh-What the?! What in the Neppity Nep is this thing?! Get this thing off'a me!"
Suddenly, the dark blue energy pulled itself off of Neptune's top clothing and erupted into a giant purple vortex that sucked the air intensely.
"What is this convenient crossover trope I'm seeing right now?! It's pulling me iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin...!" Neptune squealed as she felt her body give up as it fell into the embrace of the portal, immediately closing once it caught its prey.
Once this happened, Rei immediately snapped out of her trance.
"H-Huh? What just happened? Did the CPU actually just disappear?"
"No freakin' way! You just got the hang of that ability pretty damn quickly! Impressive!" A voice stated with a smug and entertained tone out of nowhere, as it flew down and appeared next to the amazed Rei.
"I did this...?" Rei asked herself, lost in her own thoughts.
"Yep, and for my personal entertainment, this is just the beginning. I was also the one who gave you that power by the way, your other self insisted on it." The voice replied, retaining its smug attitude and interested tone.
"Yes... I did this! OF COURSE! I'M THE ONLY ONE WHO CAN DO THIS!" Rei stated to herself as she began laughing manically, ignoring the voice congratulating her on her victory.
"Sheesh, you need to chill out a bit."
Meanwhile, elsewhere...
Three girls had now stepped out of a large building. According to the citizens inside, this institute is referred to as St. Freya Academy. A school designed to teach and train future Valkyries against a mysterious and constantly evolving force known as the Honkai - a force that wishes to completely eradicate humanity.
"Whewie~! I can't believe we finished our training first. We actually rule!" A white hair braided girl with blue eyes stated, resting her arms behind her head as she walked out with a smirk next to her two friends.
"We would've finished sooner had it not been for Kiana Idiotka messing around with her horribly improvised techniques." A short girl with drill-styled silver-grey hair and grey eyes said, merely eyeing the individual in question with no emotion as she let her invisible robot, Project Bunny, carry her. It almost seems like she's floating.
The white haired girl notices this and tenses up, cheeks puffed out in a cute manner and having an adorably angry expression.
"HEY! I did awesome there, thank you very much! And we were still the first group to finish and be dismissed!"
"Please cut it out, you two..." The girl in the middle of the two stated, possessing thigh-length indigo hair, as well as purple eyes.
???
Neptune was slowly coming to her senses as she opened her eyes, no longer feeling as if she was being carried along by the, in Neptune's terms, "Sneeze Portal". She was currently looking at fast moving white objects against a light blue background of sorts.
"Well, I have been in weirder places... But even this is creeping me out, just where am I?"
Suddenly, she realised what was going on. She was actually staring at the clouds passing by her.
"Woah... I'm falling! I'm totally falling, you guys!"
"I mean, I'm pretty sure at some point in the past this already happened to me, and I ended up okay, but y'know... You can never be certain."
It didn't, you're thinking of another version of yourself.
"Huh?"
Oh nothing, nothing.
"Huuuuuuuuh..." Neptune asks in a slow, suspicious tone.
"W-WAIT A SECOND! What if I'm remembering this wrong?! I'm falling at a pretty fast rate and for quite a while now too!"
"We can't just start the story off with me as CPU-branded paste on the ground!"
"GAAAAAAAH! What do I do-What do I do-What do I do-What do I do-What do I doooooooo?!"
Back on the ground...
"Kiana, Bronya... What are you two planning to do when we get back to the dorm?" The purple eyed girl asked the two girls parallel to her sides.
"Beating Bronya!" / "Beating Kiana Idiotka." They both reply at the same time, causing the two to stare at each other. Kiana was making a "Grr!" sound as she stared intensely. Bronya did not show any emotion, as usual.
"But... Don't we have our Valkyrie mock exams to prepare for? They're coming pretty soon..." The currently unidentified girl asked with legitimate worry... More so for one person in particular.
"The Bronya will be perfectly fine, Subject Mei. The Bronya is always 100% awake in class at all times. The Idiotka though..."
She turns to face Kiana, who was still staring at her intensely.
"Still needs a lot of work and studying to do."
"HUH?! But what about when you said that you'd beat me when we got to the dorm?"
"Because the idiotka is predictable. That's precisely why Subject Kiana is called Kiana Idiotka."
Kiana stomped with one of her feet on the ground in a fit of childish anger.
"I'll prove you wrong! Just you watch, an ace valkyrie like me can get past even studying with absolute ease!"
Bronya still didn't change her neutral expression, but if one were to look closely - she did squint her eyes a little bit.
"The chances of anything being different over the course of this week until the start of the exams is 0%."
"HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEY! MOOOOOOOVE OUT OF THE WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!" A voice mumbled in the very far distance. It wasn't enough to grab their full attention just yet, but...
"Huh...? Did you guys hear something?" Mei asked, looking around gently.
"Da. The Bronya is sure that she's picked up something."
Kiana scratched the back of her head as one of her eyebrows raised in confusion.
"What are you two talking about? I didn't hear anything."
"HEY! THE PEOPLE THAT LOOK LIKE BLOBS FROM UP HERE! YOU'RE IN THE WAY! MOVE, MOVE, MOVE, MOOOOOVE!" The same voice shouted again, only this time being far more audible.
"Is that a person?!" Mei asked in absolute shock.
"Da. And the source of the voice is coming from..."
Both Mei and Bronya look up. Mei's pupils have shrunken down in fear, and even Bronya was showing a bit of concern on her face.
"Guys, seriously - what are you two doing?" Kiana asked, but before she could look in the same direction as her friends...
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!" The voice screamed as the source of it finally became somewhat visible to Mei and Bronya.
Before they could react though... A loud crash bombarded the air, with any nearby birds in the vicinity quickly flying away in fear.
"Ow, ow, ow, ooooooow! My health bar has definitely gone down a bit from that..."
Both Mei and Bronya were absolutely stunned. The latter, as normal, couldn't display it that much - but even she was set aback tremendously by what had just transpired.
A girl, with no valkyrie battlesuit, just fell from a very high place - and seems to be mostly unharmed.
"Y-You're still alive?! Are you okay?!" Mei asked frantically in a panic, never having been in a situation like this before - with said situation taking longer to settle down in her head than normal.
"Probability of change updated from 0% to 10%." Bronya muttered, unsure of what just happened or why it happened.
"Huh? You gals talking to me? What's up?" Neptune asked with a beaming smile on her face.
"Y-You're not injured?" Mei asked, still absolutely stunned.
"Who, me? Naaaaaaah, stuff like this is nothing. I've dealt with far worse before."
Mei at this point was very close to believing that she was in a dream, and Bronya was still taken off-guard quite a bit.
"How did you survive that fall without a battlesuit?" Bronya asked, choosing to keep herself composed.
"I've just always been able to. I guess that's one of the perks of being a CPU!" Neptune chuckled a bit. "Fall damage be gone!"
"A... CPU?" Bronya enquired.
"Like, a computer part?" Mei replied, settling down a bit easier now.
"Huh? You girls don't know what a CPU is? Where have you guys been living?" Neptune asked, before looking around at the environment around her.
"Actually, come to think of it - what is this place?"
"You're at St. Freya Academy, we're students training to become better valkyries against the Honkai."
Neptune laughed for a bit.
"Did I say something funny?" Mei asked in a confused state.
"The Honk-eye? What is that, a daydreamed superpower?"
Both recipients remained silent. But before they could reply, however...
"GET OFF ME!" A muffled voice screamed from under Neptune's dress.
"Oh, whoops, sorry! I should've done a quick head count, I was pretty sure I saw three blobs on my way down here..."
The struggling voice is then freed by Neptune standing up, this of course - being Kiana.
"What the [CENSORED] IS WRONG WITH YOU?! You don't just fall out of the [CENSORED] sky AND EXPECT SOMEONE TO JUST SHRUG IT O--" Kiana ranted, before freezing in place as she looked at the source of her immense pain.
"By the way, writer - you can praise me at any time you want for covering those naughties up."
You didn't need to.
"Yeah, but I wanted to keep it PG, but anyway - we can talk about your payment to me later." Neptune chuckled.
What the fu--
"Wait a sec... How are you even still alive?!" Kiana asked, now taking the turn to be absolutely dumbstruck.
"Plot armour." Neptune replied with a straight face. Or rather, she's trying desperately to keep it that way.
"Oh, I forgot to introduce myself to you three happy-go-luckies. My name is Neptune~!"
Suddenly, Kiana and Mei's eyebrows start furrowing a bit as they look elsewhere, their brains in the midsts of processing.
"Neptown-Nepta..." Kiana tried saying to herself as she joined right next to Mei and Bronya.
"Nep... Neptu... Neptune?" Mei asked, being legitimately puzzled.
"Oh c'mon, I seriously don't get this gag! Is my name really that hard to say?!" Neptune blurted out loud.
"But, nonetheless, well done, my sexy bodysuit wearing friend! You got my name right. Good on ya'." Neptune stated with a smile.
"Oh, thank you Neptune. It's a pleasure to meet you, even if us meeting like this is admittingly a little weird..." She replied, smiling back with a look that could rival twenty angels.
"Pleasure to meet you too, Subject Neptune." Bronya stated with a small smile.
All three then look to face Kiana, who was still looking elsewhere in confusion.
"Neptona... Neptuan... Ne-- Ah, forget it!" Kiana shrugged off in a fit of frustration.
Bronya scoffed quietly so that she wouldn't hear it.
"Ah, don't worry. From my neighbourhood, it's a bit hard to pronounce my name too. But you can call me whatever you want, just make sure 'Nep' is in the nickname." Neptune smiled.
"Alright then, I'm just going to call you 'Nep'. You don't deserve me going through the effort to say your stupidly hard-to-say name, after what you just did." Kiana replied as she gave off a "hmph".
"Ah, the classic tsundere in its natural habitat. How cute." Neptune replied with the most smug face the group had seen yet.
"W-What?! How am I a tsundere?!" Kiana protested, being both confused and in her typical childish anger.
"Believe me, I've hung around with a certain black haired girl long enough to know all the signs. I should have a qualified degree at this point, to be honest."
"Da. The Bronya is in agreement with Subject Neptune's analysis."
"S-Shut up Bronya, you're not helping!"
"So much for trying to stop you two earlier..." Mei said as she sighed to herself.
As the trio began to walk in a different direction, Neptune followed them as she continued to engauge with the group.
Unknown to them, hidden behind a distant pillar...
"I've investigated the source of the detected crash." A deeper female voice spoke.
"Excellent. What did you find?" Another voice replied, this time being a male voice.
"... a girl that somehow survived a fall from the sky without a battlesuit on."
"Do you have any identification on who it is?"
"No, but I've managed to overhear the name of the girl. Neptune."
There was silence for a few seconds.
"How amusing... Continue your observations and proceed as normal. Keep an eye on K-423 as per your original instructions, but pay more attention to this 'Neptune' girl. I will see if I can identify her in the meantime, but for now - be sure to note her every move."
"Understood."