[A Few Days Later]
The young boy suddenly opened his eyes and after waking up. Looking around him, he saw it was a room in Planeptune's tower.
'Eh? What happened?' He thought for a moment before recalling the events that took place in the Graveyard "That's right! The Deity of Sin!"
Alex quickly sat up, but the throbbing pain he felt in his gut stopped him from getting up.
"Ugh! What the…?" He said to himself while looking down at his body.
He was covered from head to toe in bandages.
This odd and meticulous technique was, without a doubt, Compa's handiwork.
Alex placed his hand over the bandages and analyzed his wounds for a moment before remembering what happened.
"Oh, right...I won against her, and then he appeared..."
While he wondered about the cloaked man, the door suddenly opened.
Alex raised his head to look and saw Compa entering the room with a set of new bandages.
"Ah! Al-Al, you're finally awake!" Said Compa with glee after seeing the young boy sitting on the bed.
The young nurse then placed the set of bandages on the bed and left the room to tell the good news to the others.
Without delay, Compa returned with the CPUs and the CPU Candidates accompanying her along with IF and Histoire.
"Good day, Alex. How are you feeling?" Asked Vert with a smile.
"Good I guess..." He answered while scratching the back of his head. "How long was I out for?"
"Five days but the doctors said it'd take weeks for you to wake up." Explained Blanc.
"Why is everyone here?"
"Isn't it obvious? We were waiting for you to wake up." Answered Noire calmly before Alex looked at her. "D-Don't get the wrong idea, though! I also just happened to visit for some business related to Lastation today! It's not like we've been visiting every few days to check on you or anything like that!"
While Lastation's CPU crossed her arms and looked away, Alex and Uni both looked at her and sweat dropped.
"Well, at least there was an effort to be nice." Said the young man before realizing something. "Wait. Where's Neptune?"
"Big Sister? She's right-Eh?" Said Nepgear while turning her head to look at Neptune, but noticed she wasn't in the room with them. "Where's Neptune?"
"I'm not sure. She was with us just a moment ago" Said IF while feeling confused.
"Move it, move it! Protag coming through!"
"Wha-Whoa!?" Said the guild member as she suddenly had to move aside to avoid Neptune, who was running at full speed into the room.
"Hey Ally! How are you feeling?" Asked Planeptune's CPU with a smile.
"Like someone tried to mummify me while I was asleep." Answered the young man bluntly.
"Yeah. That's usual when Compa's doing the patching up."
Despite not looking like it, Alex felt very relieved of seeing Neptune back on her feet and still as perky as always.
"Anyway, I have something special for you." She said while searching through her pockets and then taking something out to hand over to Alex. "Here you go!"
Alex looked at the object In Neptune's hand and his eyes widened.
"A pudding?"
"Yeah! You just beat the big boss in this arc so what better way to celebrate than with some good ol' pudding!? I even brought one for me!" She said while showing him a second one, both of them were chocolate flavored and each with a plastic spoon ready.
Everyone looked at Alex, wondering what would happen and he could notice these stares.
'I see...so that's how it is...' Thought the young boy for a moment with his eyes closed.
Even if he had yet to know who the cloaked man was or what his true intentions were, that didn't matter right now.
The ASIC had been dealt with for good, Arfoire had been defeated, and Gamindustri would be in peace for the time being. That was more than enough for the him to feel satisfied for now.
And the best of it all, Neptune was already in top shape again.
"Hey Ally..."
Alex then opened his eyes and looked at Neptune.
"Yes?"
"Let's eat them together!"
The young boy looked at her with widened eyes for a moment before his expression returned to normal. He wondered if Planeptune's CPU had overheard part of what he said to her while she was sleeping, or if this was just her usual behavior again. Either way, he didn't bother thinking too much about it.
"Sure thing!" He answered cheerfully.
Alex then extended his hand, took the pudding and looked at Neptune with a smile. Feeling truly happy for the first time in many years.
[TimeSkip]
The sun was now beginning to set as after a long afternoon of just being in Planeptune with the CPUs, Alex felt like it was FINALLY time to return back home to his apartment in Lastation and get back to a normal life.
After he had been carried there by Noire and Uni, Alex bid farewell to the two as he walked back to his apartment opening the door and being back home for the first time in a LONG time.
He practically collapsed on the couch and had a deep sigh as he could finally relax after everything that had happened to him throughout the Gamindustri Tour.
Unfortunately his relaxation didn't last long as Alex felt a presence in the apartment with him.
He opened his eyes and sat up, looking around and saw Yae standing behind the couch.
"You could've knocked." Said Alex is a jokingly manner as Yae simply ignored his remark.
"You look pretty beat up." She said.
"Yeah but I'll be fine. Anyways what's up?"
"Remember our deal?"
"Deal?"
Initially Alex was confused as to what Yae was talking about however he eventually remembered what she was referring to.
"O-Oh right. The deal. Uh, you sure she still wants to see me? It's getting pretty late and I really gotta rest my wounds." He said.
"She's already at the tree. Best not keep her waiting." Said Yae, again ignoring Alex's comments.
The boy just sighed, knowing that Yae was just gonna keep telling him to go.
"Okay okay fine. I'm going." Said the boy in a slightly annoyed tone as he got up from the couch and left the apartment.
As Alex made his way over to the park, the sun slowly began to set as on the walk, he reminisced on all that had happened to him over the past couple of months.
Honestly, he couldn't even imagine that winning a simple tournament in Planeptune would have led him to this crazy world tour all around Gamindustri that wound up in him saving the whole country.
'God. Now that I think of that, it sounds like some crappy anime.' Thought Alex as he chuckled to himself.
Regardless of the believability of his recent experiences, he was now finally able to return to a normal life.
Once he finished thinking about the past, he had arrived at the bottom of the hill and began to walk up.
As he did, he felt a gentle breeze coming from ahead as well as numerous Sakura Pedals floating and dancing in the wind, almost as if they were swirling around him.
He found that a little odd but decided to shrug it off.
When he reached the top and saw the Sakura Tree standing there as always, he also saw a person standing there as well, as they stood in front of the tree, back facing Alex.
Just from seeing the back, he took notice of her bright pink hair that was similar to Yae's, just in a different hairstyle.
"You've, arrived. I take it that you were sent here by Yae, right?" Asked the person whose voice revealed them to be a girl.
"Yeah I was. I take it your Yae's acquaintance? Apparently you're the one who sent her after me, and also you've also been wanting to meet me for a while now." He said.
"Yes. That is correct. I've waited a long time to see you again. Six years to be exact."
"Six years? Man. Don't really know what's so interesting about m-wait, did you just say again? Do you, know me or something?" Asked Alex.
"Know you?" The girl then laughed to herself for a bit before responding.
"Yeah I know you. In fact, I know more about you than you do yourself." She said.
Alex was a little perplexed by this girl's intriguing and ominous responses that he decided to cut straight to the point.
"Okay ma'am just, say what you wanna say already. Who are you?" He asked.
"Who, am I? Aww. It hurts to hear you say that Alex. After all, you already know who I am." She said as she finally and slowly turned around to face him.
"It's me. I've missed you so, so much." Said the girl, who had a genuine and heartfelt smile.
When Alex saw her face, he was little confused at first until he took a closer look at it.
That was when old memories began to flood his mind, as it began to connect the final puzzle pieces of a past he had long since thrown away.
Once the pieces had finally aligned, a clear picture was now in his head as he knew who this person was.
Alex's eyes widened in shock as he was at a loss for words.
Tears slowly began to trickle down his face until he finally spoke, as only one word was spoken.
"M-Mom?"
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Chapter 48: Complete
Closing Thoughts: Well well well, apologies for taking so long on the final chapter.
I wasn't sure on whether to end it on a cliffhanger or not but as you just now read, I opted to end it on the latter.
Anyways, I sincerely thank you all for reading Neptunia: Merc's Involvement.
It honestly was a pretty big nostalgia trip for me writing for solely Neptunia again as it reminded me of the days in 2018 when I was first starting up here on WattPad with non other than Neptunia.
What'll be next for me on the alt account? Who knows.
I assume it'll be a sequel sometime in the near future, but I'll have to think about that.
Obviously since this account's main focus is one everything not Honkai, then that means Neptunia isn't the only franchise I'm willing to do.
Obviously if you wanna see me dip my hand into other IPs then go ahead and leave me suggestion.
Anyways without furtherado, thank you all for reading this story.
Sincerely, FlameHaze.
Neptunia Merc's Involvement: Completed
Thanks for Reading!
Ending Theme: Memories of You