Title: Sin City
Fandom: Hyperdevotion Noire – Goddess Black Heart *
Rating: PG
Length: 685 Words
Content Notes: No notes apply.
Author Notes: Inspired by this song (SFW) from the Borderlands 2 OST.
Summary: A small film noir AU. Featuring Noire. Imagine that.

* To avoid a potential tagging nightmare, it might be best, IMO, to have a single fandom tag for Hyperdimension Neptunia and its multitude of spin-offs.

* * * *

"The night is hot as Hell. It's a lousy room in a lousy part of a lousy town. I'm staring at a goddess. She's telling me she wants me. I'm not gonna waste one more second wondering how I've gotten so lucky."
— Marv, Sin City

* * * *

I'm Lid. It's not my real name. At least, I don't think it is. People've been calling me that for so long that I'm not really sure when they started doing it, but let's be fair: There's a lot that I don't remember. I'm sure most of it's unimportant, so I don't sweat it.

One thing I do remember is what I do well, and that's hide. Not like I'm running from anything, I mean, but hiding like I just want to see something without being found. That's what people pay me to do. I'm pretty good at it. You'd think I'd be able to keep up with my bills, but there's a difference between being good at making money and being good with money. Know what I mean? I'm good at the first, not the second.

So ... she came into my office. Late at night. I'm usually out on business during the day, but I come back to file stuff at night, maybe have a drink. Nothing good. I'm a cheap date, even when it's just me. But I'd been back a while before she showed up. Knocked on my door, too hard for as young as she looked. The eyes threw me. Hard as nails. Didn't even have to open her mouth for me to figure there was a lot more to her.

Said her name was Noire. Pretty sure it wasn't really her name, either, but I'm a skeptic like that. Said she needed my help to find a couple of people. Friends of hers, I guess. I tried to ask her the usual questions, see if she wasn't just missing the obvious like so many people do, but she cut me off, said it had to be me. I didn't question that, but I held out a hand for money. She had it, and a lot of it. Don't know where she got it, but I didn't question that, either. Figured I'd be good as long as her money was good, too.

She was looking for three people, she said. Said they went by Vert, Neptune, and Blanc. (What kinds of names are those? Then again, I'm Lid, so –) Said she had to find them ASAP, or bad things were going to happen. Bad things? I'd seen a few. Some, I could talk about. Some, I probably shouldn't. Ever. So I took her at her word, promised I'd do my best to find 'em in a jiff if she just gave me descriptions and the like.

Something about her really struck me, I think. I don't know what it was, really. It was almost like she had this aura about her. When she spoke, I wanted to listen, and I did a better job than I usually do. It wasn't that she was cute. I mean, she was, but I don't mix that and business. Usually. Most of the time. There's just not a word for it, I think. She had presence. Almost like she was more than just a person. More like ... a goddess. Maybe that's too strong a word, but that's about as close as I can get to it.

So we hit the streets, both of us. She said she'd keep me safe. I thought that was funny, but I believed her, anyway. She didn't need me because I could fight, even though, you know, I'm actually pretty good at that. She needed me to be a finder, not a fighter. So I got down to finding. In the city. In the middle of the night. Never a good idea. If it had been anybody else, I wouldn't've agreed to it at all, I think.

It was when the monsters started pouring out of the alleys that I realized that, maybe, I'd bitten off more than I could chew. Monsters. Haha. Monsters. In a city full of people. That's the kind of stuff I used to read in tabloids. But they were real. Fortunately, so was I, and so was she, and so was all the crazy magic stuff she started to do ....

END.