Steph managed to talk Sophia into taking her with them into the other world. The taller blonde wasn’t the biggest fan of the plan, but she also knew she had no chance of winning against her little sister. Not to mention that she still felt incredibly guilty about having made her go through so much pain. So, after she made her send their mother a message about what was going on, without details, of course, the older sister finally agreed to let her come with them. Once she got the portals to work and even succeeded in making a permanently accessible way between the worlds by enchanting some items with the magic, everyone went to her storage dimension.
“T-This place is so freaky…” She seemed a little scared, but Steph was still looking at the all-white space with great interest. “Where even is this…?”
“No idea.” Sophia just shrugged her shoulders.
“Eh?!”
"I was just experimenting with a place to store things while traveling, and here we are!”
“Where is here, though?”
“Don’t sweat the small details!”
"Small?!"
"Small~."
“I wonder how long it will take me to get used to the carefree Sophia… You used to overthink and overcomplicate absolutely everything…”
“Those days are gone!”
“Hmm…” Maya wasn’t sure if she could agree with that.
"Overthink stuff in a way I get depressed because I can only see the negative side!"
“Ahhh… Yeah.” She nodded a few times. “Nowadays, you overthinking things usually ends up in a catastrophe and or explosion…”
“Ahaha….”
"Are you actually as wild as you told me in your story?!" The little sister got loud again.
“She was seriously holding back on the details.”
“M-Maya, what did I tell you about shutting up?!”
“Heh.”
“Wow!” Steph’s eyes started sparkling. “I can’t wait to see you in action!”
“See what you did?!”
“Yup~.” The incognito cat was having a good time.
“Urgh… Fine.” Sophia gave up. “Let’s just go home.”
“Okay! Wait, our new home, right?” Her little sister wanted to make sure.
“Don’t get too hasty… But, yes… I mean the new world.”
“Yay!”
“This will be something…”
Afterward, Sophia encased the still-open portal and the enchanted pillow back up in a super thick wall to make sure no one would do anything stupid, and the trio went through the portal leading to the mansion's basement. Before that, the taller blonde used a generous amount of healing magic on everyone to make sure they won't introduce anything nasty to the new world. In retrospect, she felt a little conflicted about not having done the same when she and Maya came over, but she was in no condition to have thought about that back then. Thinking about there being just no way that they could've introduced anything worse than what already exists on earth made her feel a lot better about it, though.
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“Wow!” The trio arrived in the living room, and Steph immediately got even more excited. “This feels sooo cozy! Rather than a different world, this feels more like something from an antique show or something like that… Just that someone’s actually living in the place.”
"Well, it's just us, and you haven't seen the outside yet, so…"
“Speaking of us,” Maya glanced at the incognito tiger. “What are we going to do…?”
“No idea…” Sophia shook her head. “To make things even more complicated, I can sense Chloe coming home… She’ll be here in a few minutes…”
“Oh… Well, she will probably be the easiest one of the bunch, but we also left a bit abruptly and on a weird note with her… This will be something, huh?"
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“Yeah…”
"Chloe… That's the girl you befriended in a village you found not too long ago, right?" Steph tried to recall the story her sister had told her earlier. “Is something the matter with her?”
“Uhh…” Naturally, there were many things, but Sophia decided to focus on the most recent event with her. “Right before Maya and I disappeared, we discovered that Chloe seemed to be from our world, as well. According to Canir, she died about 20 years ago and started a new life here afterward. Neither Chloe nor we knew about each other’s past, though…”
“Wow, that sounds messy… Also, that girl died, as well…? That's pretty sad…”
“I like to think about it from the other side. Both of us got a new chance.”
“T-That is true…” Steph still looked awkward, though. “Happier circumstances still would’ve made it better.”
"…" The taller blonde had nothing to add and decided to change the topic. "About Chloe, though… This world is a bit special, so try not to be too surprised, okay?”
“What does that mean?”
“Just try to, okay…?”
“No.”
“Thank yo- wait, what?”
“I have no idea what is going on, so I will react however I plan to react to whatever will happen.”
“…”
Sophia tried to make her agree for a little while longer, but it was no use. There was only one girl more stubborn than the incognito tiger, and it was the very girl she tried to convince right now.
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“Sophia! Maya!” Once the fox-girl arrived home and heard noises from the living room, she immediately barged through the door and jumped at the couple not too far away from it. She tightly hugged both of them at the same time and even wrapped her bushy tail all around them. “I’m sooo glad you’re ba-, huh?" She had small tears in the corners of her eyes, but once she got a better look at the two, she immediately got confused and let go of them again.
“W-We’re back…” They had no idea what to say.
“M-Maya, where are your ears and tail?! Sophia! Sophia…?” Chloe noticed that more than just her ears and tail were amiss with the blonde. "W-What happened to you?! You barely even still are Sophia! Your hair is different! You’re taller! Bigger, too! Eh? Wait, who are you?!” To make matters even worse, she then spotted the other blonde further inside the room.
"You're cute!" Steph had her very own reaction to the situation. "Wait, why does this girl have a tail? Ears, too! Looks like an arctic fox to me…? Huh? They move?! Are they real?!” She was about as loud as the other confused girl. “I-I have to see that fluff from closer!” Immediately after, she closed in on the fox-girl and went right for her tail by burying her hands deep into it. “T-This fluff is divine!” Afterward, she went as far as giving her whole tail a big squeeze.
“E-Eek!” Naturally, Choe had a strong reaction to that and flinched in response.
“T-Those ears, too…” Once she had her initial fill with that, the little sister tried for the next type of fluff.
“S-Stop that!” Sophia finally reacted before it was too late and karate-shopped her sister’s head before pulling her away from Chloe.
"W-Why would you do that?! The fluff! THE FLUFF!"
“Yep, she’s her sister…” It’s not the first time Maya said that, and it certainly won’t be the last time. “Just even more unhinged…”
“Just look at her!” Sophia glared at her sister while pointing at the shivering fox-girl, who had even more tears in the corners of her eyes while she had wrapped her fluffy tail all around herself.
“I-I want to have your kids!” It had the opposite effect on Steph. She only got more excited by this adorable display.
“H-Huh?!” Chloe looked even more shocked.
“STOP IT ALREADY!” The taller blonde got loud. “I get you, but there are some rules in this world that are very important! Our tails and, even more so, our ears are super important to us! You can't just go and touch them! They are extremely sensitive! So much actually that only your partner is allowed to touch them!”
“O-Oh!” Steph’s expression changed, and she immediately faced Chloe again. "I-I'm soo sorry! I had no idea! I just saw the fluff and lost my reasoning! Wanting to have your kids aside, because you are way too cute, I had no plan to sexually harass you with that!”
“Stop it with the kids, too!” Sophia was still yelling at her. “That’s just as bad in this situation for many different reasons!”
“Why?”
“Because two girls can have kids with each other in this world…”
“WHAT?!” Things were getting out of hand fast.
"Properly apologize to Chloe now, and we can have a talk later…"
“Wait, what...? S-Seriously…?” Steph was still completely overwhelmed. “Again, I’m really sorry…” She looked at the fox-girl once more. "I'm new here, and it seems like I made many mistakes…I love everything fluffy and foxes, especially the arctic kind, are my favorite… Seeing that attached to such a cute girl seems to have made me lose my restraints… I didn’t know that you shouldn’t do something like this. The same with the kids thing just now… I have many, MANY, M-A-N-Y questions about that, but I wasn't serious in that way when I said it. I am very sorry about my outbreak…"
“I-I see…” Chloe stopped shivering after hearing that, and her tail relaxed again. “T-Thank you for apologizing. I guess there’s nothing one can do if you don’t know about it, huh? It’s also, uhh… it's half as bad if a cute girl like you does that without knowing…” The fox-girl was still a little all over the place, but it seemed like she could forgive her.
“Ehehe~.” The smaller blonde liked her reply and was happy that her apology got accepted. “By the way, why do you have the ears and tail of an arctic fox…? They being pink and even fluffier aside?”
“Uhh… because that’s how I was born…? It’s pretty normal to have some sort of animal characteristics, after all. I’m more confused about why Maya and Sophia have lost them… Also, who are you…?”
“I’m Steph! Short for Stephanie! I'm Sophia's little sister, and I will live here starting today!"
"I see. It's nice to meet you! My name is Ch- wait, what?" She stopped mid-sentence. “Sophia’s sister… Steph…?” She then glanced at the older sister. “I-I thought…”
“It’s a long and very complicated story…”
“It’s normal to have parts of an animal attached to you…?” Steph was still busy with that part. “I mean, I’m all for it. It's adorable! But… Wait, what?!” She then also fixated her eyes on the taller blonde. “What’s that about you and Maya having lost your ears and tail…?”
“It’s a long and very complicated story…” Sophia only repeated herself.
Afterward, she gestured for everyone to sit down on the sofas because there seemed to be a lot of questions floating around that needed some answering. Unfortunately, Sophia had no idea where to even start, so it looked like this might take a while.