Neptune let out a heavy sigh as she sat at the dining table, waiting for Compa to finish frying the bacon and eggs.
“What’s with Nep-Nep?” Compa asked.
“Hahah…” Nepgear let out a dry laugh and rubbed the back of her head, “Well…”
The day had just started and Neptune was already exhausted. Both physically and mentally. The reason? Why it was her lilac-haired younger sister that sat beside her. It was the way she groped her boobs, as if she were inspecting them to their finest details and measuring every inch…
Neptune shivered at the thought, “Remind me to never take a bath with you alone ever again, Junior.” she told her little sister, “Ever.”
“Eh…?” Nepgear was slightly shocked by her older sister’s decision, and was about to object to such a statement, but when she looked at Compa, the congo-haired woman only shook her head and Nepgear relented.
It had been a long time since Neptune had company over for breakfast. She had often been alone at breakfast time, usually eating at the counter since she had nothing better to be doing.
So actually sitting here at the dining table with Nepgear, while waiting for Compa to finish frying the bacon and eggs… it was something she only dreamed about occasionally.
"Say, Compa. Where do you work now?" Nepgear questioned
"Ah, over at the hospital near the Guild." Compa answered, "I've been working over there for five years now actually!"
"And what about you and IF? Are you and her living together?"
"Mhmm!" Compa enthusiastically nodded her head as she fried the last set of bacon and eggs.
"Junior. They're married." Neptune told her younger sister bluntly, "They have been for a while now."
"EH?! THEY ARE?!"
Neptune winced slightly at her younger sister's surprise and excitement.
Meanwhile Compa nodded once again, "Yep! Like Nep-Nep said, we're married!" Compa took a break from all of her frying to show her ring in all of its glory to the lillac-haired woman.
"You didn't know, Ge-Ge?"
"I-I… H-How would I know?!" Neogear exclaimed, "When?! Where?! Why didn't I get an invite?!"
Compa turned back around to finish off her cooking, "I thought we had invited you, Ge-Ge?" Compa asked curiously, "I'm sure IF had sent the invitation to your email…"
Nepgear blinked, "Ah, did she?" she sighed in disappointment, "It must've gotten buried in the sea of client orders…" she groaned, "Now I feel bad for not greeting you two."
"It's fine! The ceremony was simple anyway, since we wanted to save money."
Nepgear sighed in relief and smiled, "Congratulations on getting married, Compa!"
"Thanks, Ge-Ge."
Neptune sighed and stood up from her chair, “Sis?” Nepgear asked, looking curiously at her older sister who suddenly stood up for no apparent reason.
“I’m gonna prep the shop.” Neptune replied, “Call me when food’s ready. Yeah, Compa?”
“Mhmm”
Neptune nodded and walked toward the actual shop part of her building, past both her and Nepgear's rooms. When she arrived and looked towards the entrance, she noticed the shutters covering the windows.
Compa had likely pulled them down last night. Which she was thankful for, since there was a lot going on last night and early into the morning that had her occupied. Next thing she noticed was the dusty floor, and she sighed at that.
She took a breath, in and out. Her day as a shopkeeper starts now.
She began to open the previously mentioned shutters, pulling out a set of keys to unlock the lock that was tying them down, and pushed them up and over her head, letting inertia finish the rest of the trip up. Now that they were open, the natural light that came in from outside allowed her to see how dusty the shop floor really was.
"Damn… there's more dust than usual."
She walked back towards her room and opened a not-so-secret nearby compartment that held a broom and a dustpan, and returned to the store floor to sweep. She swept the entire store, storing the dirt under the stands of an aisle before sweeping them into the dustpan and dumping it into a nearby garbage can.
After a few short moments of this, and making sure everything was swept, Neptune went back to the hidden compartment and grabbed a garbage bag from within. With it in tow, she headed outside to sweep dust and any litter she could find.
After some time of sweeping, as she was sweeping her block of the sidewalk, a gust of wind blew over and blew away all of the contents it held. Neptune did the best she could to limit the litter flying away and covered the dustpan with her broom, dumping whatever was left into the garbage bag
“Sis! Time for breakfast!” Nepgear could be heard calling from the lobby
Neptune huffed and smiled to herself, “I’ll be there in a bit!” she called back to her sister, tying up whatever was inside of the bag and dragging it into the garbage bin that was in the nearby alley.
She walked back into the shop and put back the broomstick and dustpan into the hidden compartment that they came from before she headed off to the dining room to have breakfast.
“... and then Iffy wore that pink suit right?” said Nepgear, being able to be heard as Neptune made her way to the dining room.
“Yeah!” Compa laughed in response, “That one! I remember that one!”
Neptune was going to say something as she entered, but the smell of the eggs and bacon caught her attention first. Neptune made a weird sound of satisfaction and held a hand to her face, “It smells so goooood!”
Compa giggled and waved dismissively, “It’s nothing.”
Nepgear let out a sigh and rubbed her head as Neptune went to sit down. “Thank you for the food.”
“Thank you for the food!”
----------------------------------------
“Man, Sis…” Nepgear mumbled as she watched Neptune down a glass of water like it was a bottle of alcohol, “You really did become a drinker huh?”
Neptune tilted her head in confusion at that, “Eh? Whadya mean?”
“Nothing. Just rambling.”
“Suit yourself.” Neptune sighed and leaned back in her chair, content with the food she had just eaten.
“What are you going to do today, Nep-Nep?” Compa asked
Neptune sat up in her chair and struck a thinking pose, “Mmm… I kinda need to man the shop today.” she responded, “What about you Compa?” Neptune asked, staring at the congo-haired woman, “Don’t you need to be back at work today?”
Compa shook her head and smiled, “It’s fine. I took a leave.”
“What about Iffy?” Nepgear asked, confused that they won’t be visiting her today.
“...” Compa paused and looked away, “Well…”
“Can’t we visit her?”
Neptune groaned and stood up, “We’ll visit tomorrow, Junior.” she told her lilac-haired younger sister, “I want to make some money for today.”
“Did you forget that we’re already well off though, Sis?” Nepgear questioned, “We can just visit her right now and talk about whatever.”
Neptune put a hand to her head, “Look, Junior. I just need to get my head straight.” She turned to look at the nurse beside her, “That cool with you, Compa?”
Compa nodded, “We can visit her anytime. It’s not like she or I are going away anytime soon.”
Neptune glanced back at Nepgear and motioned at Compa, “See? Now how about you finish your breakfast.”
Nepgear let out a disappointed sigh, “If you say so, Sis…”
It didn’t take long for Nepgear to finish what was left on her plate after that. She drank her two glasses of water and followed her Sister to the store front.
“Should I help?”
Neptune stopped beside her room’s door and crouched down to take a bucket and mop out of the hidden compartment.
“Sure, I guess.” She pulled the bucket out of the compartment and passed the mop to Nepgear, “Take this bucket, add a bit of laundry soap and pour some water into it. You know how to do that much right?”
“How rude!”
Neptune rubbed the back of her head sheepishly, “You have been shut in your room for the better part of the last twenty years, Junior.”
Nepgear frowned but nodded in understanding, “That’s fair…”
The lilac-haired woman then heads off to the laundry room and picks up a box full of powdered laundry soap. She then went into the bathroom, filled the bucket with water and then dropped some laundry soap she felt comfortable with. She stirred the water with her hand to get a nice lather going.
Confident that she had followed the instructions well, she wheeled the bucket with the mop and headed back to her older sister who was waiting behind the counter.
“That’s a bit too much…” Neptune told her younger sister with a sweatdrop, noticing the amount of lather.
“Really?”
“Ah, right…” the purplette reminded herself, “You’ve never seen me do this before, have you?”
Nepgear nodded meekly, “Err… n-no. It’s quite the experience honestly.” she said truthfully, “And the bucket is really heavy with water in it.”
Neptune let out a chuckle and nodded, putting a hand on her lilac-haired sister’s head, “I’m not mad at you.” she reassured her, “It’s just that it’s wasteful if you put in that much laundry soap every time you know? We still have to use that for the washing machine too. So I try to put in only a pinch at a time. Serves the same purpose and saves on laundry soap. Y’know?”
Nepgear nodded thoughtfully, “Oh…! I didn’t think of it like that.”
Neptune sighed and put a hand on her hip, “Even someone like you hasn’t thought of it like that, huh Junior?” she shrugged indifferently, “We can clean the store faster if you take the mop. I’ll use a rug, and if you miss some spots I’ll clean those up with it.”
“Sounds good.”
With that as a plan, Nepgear started mopping the floor, while her purple-haired older sister chimed in with her foot against the rug to also clean it. They worked silently, just letting the cloth on their respective cleaning products rub against the tiled floor. As they cleaned, Neptune would occasionally have to walk over to the bucket and wring her rug over it, then dousing it in water and wringing it again, before returning to the shop floor to resume cleaning.
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All Nepgear could do was watch in awe, as she barely recognized her older sister.
“Junior.” Neptune then suddenly called out to Nepgear, “After you’re done mopping. Could you open the cash register for me please?”
Nepgear blinked, “Huh? Oh, umm… could you repeat that, SIs?”
“Open the register after you’re done mopping.”
“Right, register. I know how to do that.” she told herself as she continued to mop
After mopping the entrance, Nepgear walked over to the small compartment and set aside the mop and bucket, figuring that Neptune would eventually get to draining it. She then headed to the register and pulled on one of the sliding drawers to take out the key that opened the register.
*BRRRRR!* *BRRRRR!*
Just then, Neptune’s phone would ring beside her, and even before she could call out to her older sister, the purplette had already grabbed her phone and answered the call.
“This is Neptune. How can I help you?”
“Ah, I see. Right. Yes. Yes, that’s the one. Are you counting inventory first? Right, give me two seconds.”
Neptune moved behind the counter and pulled out a record book from one of the sliding drawers. Having seemingly been forgotten about, as she opened the record book, Nepgear could see her sister’s handwriting on the page.
Having landed on the page she was looking for, Neptune told the supplier to tell her the items they had and it seemed like whoever the supplier replied in kind, the purplette nodding and making noises of confirmation twice before frowning and shaking her head at the last item.
She then thanked the supplier and ended the call, putting her phone back where it was on the counter.
“This is concerning…” Neptune mumbled to herself
“Hmm? What’s going on?”
“I got a customer complaint some days ago that their game was broken. Said it wouldn’t even boot from the disc. We do have a generous return policy, but the problem is that we don’t have that game stocked. So I had to take it to the supplier, but as it turns out, that specific game isn’t on their list to deliver today.”
Nepgear blinked, “I don’t get it.” she told her, “Couldn’t we just refund them the money then?”
Neptune nodded, “We could, but that customer really wanted that game. So I want to replace his defective copy of it as soon as possible.”
“Again, Sis. Do you forget that we’re well off because of my commission work?”
“It’s not about that, Junior” Neptune replied, “I could give them the refund, but then they’d most likely just go to Amazoo to buy it instead.”
“That is true…”
Neptune sighed, “Oh well…I think I’ll just take the loss and refund the customer, then buy the game from Amazoo”
“Aren’t you taking too much of a loss on this one customer though, Sis?”
“I don’t get that many customers, Junior.” Neptune stated matter-of-factly, “I need to keep any that I have. It’s how I’ve kept this shop going and living with the money I had in the past.”
“Right…”
“Anyway, I’m going to open the shop now.” Neptune said, walking over to the front door to switch the sign from ‘Closed’ to ‘Open’. “You can go back to working on your commissions if you want to, since it’ll be boring waiting behind the counter here. Thanks for the help by the way.”
Nepgear shook her head, “It’s fine, Sis. I’d love to help you out actually.” she said in response, “It’s not like I really manned the shop properly to begin with. I only took over whenever you went somewhere.”
"You sure?" Neptune asked hesitantly, "It'll be really boring though…"
Nepgear nodded and pointed to the TV off to the side currently playing the nation's news channel, "We can all just watch some TV."
"Suit yourself I guess…" Neptune mumbled, grabbing the remote for the TV and changing the channel.
"Ah, do you mind if I join in?" Compa asked, popping her head out from the side of the entrance to the back.
"Weren't you in the living room?"
"It's kinda lonely, hehe…"
Neptune sighed and nodded, "We can watch a movie then. I was planning to watch a TV show, but three's a bit of a crowd."
Thus they spent their entire morning, all the way till lunch, watching movies from the old LED TV mounted in a corner of the store, as they waited for any customers. Neptune would occasionally walk over to the front of the store to mop up some dusty spots that were forming before returning to the back of the counter to continue watching the movie.
All of it seemed like it was the most natural thing for Neptune to do.
“Maybe it was the desperation of these last twenty years that straightened her out?” Nepgear mumbled to herself, thinking out loud
Once the movie was done, Neptune stood up and stretched, “Okay… I think it’s time…” she mumbled to herself, “Junior? Could you man the store for me while I’m gone?”
“H-Huh?” Nepgear was snapped out of her daze, “Where are you headed, Sis?”
“The guild.” she replied simply, “I’m going to do some quests to make some money.”
“Oh okay, the guild…” Nepgear blinked and paused in realization, “Wait… you’re going to do… QUESTS?!” her infamous shock and awe face on full display as she looked at her older sister, “B-But Sis! Neither you nor I have our powers anymore!”
Neptune shrugged indifferently, “I’m only doing the dogoo ones is all.”
“But you don’t need to do quests anymore! We’re well off!”
Neptune let out a tired groan, “Enough of that will you? Just because we’re well off doesn’t mean I should stop doing good habits. This store wouldn’t be here if I had just laze around after all.”
“B-But…!”
Compa smiled ‘innocently’, “Ge-Ge, I think you should accompany Nep-Nep~”
Nepgear sweatdropped, “I kind of don’t want to though…”
“It’s okay. If you two get injured, I’ll be right there to patch you both up!” Compa reassured her friend, “I am a licensed nurse after all!”
“T-That doesn’t make me feel any be- Ow! Okay okay! I’m going!” Compa pinched Nepgear’s side with a sinister smile on her face, one that made her ‘want’ to go whether she liked to or not.
----------------------------------------
As Compa waved both her and Neptune a goodbye, Nepgear couldn't help but notice the wooden sword that her older sister had holstered to her side. It looked comical to use against dogoos, but her sister's wooden swords were always very tough. Made out of some super bamboo material, or so she thought, they were able to withstand even an attack from an Ancient Dragon.
That being said…
From all the nicks and scratches on this current sword, it clearly went through a lot, and its age was starting to show.
"Sis, have you been doing quests ever since then?"
"Hmm? Yeah. Whenever I don't sell anything I do some small quests to make up the money I could've potentially gotten."
Nepgear went quiet, “... I had no idea.”
Neptune nodded and remained silent.
In the twenty years that had passed, Nepgear knew there was going to be a gap between the older sister she knew then, and the one that she knew now. But this gap… this gap between personalities was a bit too wide, and it shocked her to no end.
She knew Neptune was going to change in appearance, but a change in personality wasn’t anything she expected to happen. Had the twenty years of isolation really changed her into an upstanding citizen? It sure seemed so, as Nepgear could barely recognize the girl that took confident strides in front of her.
Truly, she was ashamed that she didn’t think Neptune would change.
“Nepu?” Neptune hummed, feeling something grab her hand, she looked down and then looked behind her to see Nepgear with an apprehensive look on her face. “What’s up Junior?”
“C-Can we hold hands…?” Nepgear pleaded shyly, “I might get separated from you. I don’t know the city well anymore, you know?”
Neptune sighed and smiled, patting her younger sister with her free hand and nodded, “Of course.” She then interlocked their fingers and walked the rest of the way to the guild.
----------------------------------------
Neptune swiped up on the touch screen of the tablet she was using to find quests for her and Nepgar to do. Multiple small text boxes flew by as she scrolled to the bottom of the list, where all the low paying and easy quests were.
She tapped on one of the text boxes, and another window opened in front of her, revealing the details about it.
“Dogoos…” Neptune mumbled to herself, trying to take Nepgear’s power level into account, “Does this quest only have dogoos in it?”
There wasn’t much deliberating that Neptune had to do when it came to gauging her little sister’s current strength in comparison to the strength of the enemies of the other quests. Nepgear had, after all, only ever been constructing machines for people in the last twenty years, so she was definitely out of shape. Let alone proficient with any weapon, her old sword included.
So as Neptune hit the accept button, she didn’t put that much thought into it and glanced at her little sister standing beside her.
“We’ve accepted that quest?”
“Yup.” Neptune replied, “It’s just three dogoos. Even if you’re rusty with the sword, it should be something you can barely do.”
Nepgear crossed her arms, “That’s rude, SIs! Telling your little sister that!” she pouted
Neptune shrugged indifferently at Nepgear’s response, “That’s how it was for me as well, I’ll have you know.” she told her, “I could barely do these quests myself. So take it as someone with experience telling you what to expect.”
Nepgear frowned, “I see…”
“Anyway, it’s in Virtua Forest. Should we grab water from the guild shop before we head out?”
“We should! Even back then that walk was always quite the hassle! And I was always thirsty from a quest as well!”
----------------------------------------
"I…" Nepgear took a moment to have a drink of water, "I didn't know it'd be this… tough…"
Neptune smiled sheepishly at her younger sister. "Junior, we kind of only just arrived at the quest site, and you've already drank a fourth of our total water…"
“Sorry…” Nepgear apologized, out of breath as she took another sip of her water, “I didn’t… think that I’d…” she stopped to breathe in and out heavily, “be this much out of shape…”
“Haha, don’t worry about it.” Neptune said, laughing dryly, “I can handle the dogoos by myself. It’s not a huge issue for me.”
Nepgear had wanted to give a retort, but when she looked at her clothes, she blushed in embarrassment.
Not only was sweat pouring out from every orifice of her body, but because she was sweating so much, her normally white sailor uniform had become translucent, letting the world know that she wasn’t wearing anything underneath except a pink bra and panties. She didn’t think that losing her powers as a goddess would weigh this heavily on her. But here she was downing the third bottle of eight that they had bought for the quest.
In comparison, her Sister doesn’t look tired at all. Sure, she’s sweating, but she’s not heaving breaths like she’s about to drown.
It was quite the difference…
Neptune glanced slightly at Nepgear, “If you’re feeling that down about it, you can just throw me a water bottle when I need it”
Before Nepgear could even give a reply, Neptune had already dashed off towards the group of dogoo. Unsheathing her sword from its holster and swinging it at them.
“Well… I guess that’s already been decided.” she told herself, moving to lay under a tree and rest, watching the action unfolding before her.
When she returned her gaze to her older sister, she had jumped back and took a fighting stance, as her swing hadn’t broken through the dogoo’s slimy exterior. As soon as she landed, the dogoo jumped aggressively towards her, trying to take advantage of the downtime.
Acting quickly, Neptune jumped away once more. However, another dogoo jumped towards her, trying to catch her mid flight. The purplette grit her teeth and quickly raised her wooden sword to block.
“Tch… you little.” she cursed, her arms almost buckling from the weight.
Like a rubber ball, the Doogoo bounced back and landed squarely on where it jumped. Neptune landed on, forcing her body not to topple backwards as she bends her knees in an attempt to regain balance.
“Hiyah!” The moment she felt stable enough, Neptune dashed towards the dogoo with an overhead swing, fully intending to strike through its slimy interior and turn it into pixels.
It’s been a long time since Nepgear had seen her sister fighting. And she had to admit, she’s gotten weaker. Her movements were slow, sluggish even, and she doesn’t do any bombastic playful movements. She was sweating hard just from fighting doogoos, and these were the fodder mobs back then.
Despite that, she still fights with whatever fight she has left within her..
The world had changed. The country had changed. Her sister had changed.
Change is constant, and yet, in her small dark room, with nothing but the light of her monitor filling it, she didn’t notice.
Twenty years was a long time. A long time for the past to blur together, a long time for feelings to wane and wax like the phases of the moon. A long time for anyone to live the way her sister lives currently.
While she was working on the next big commission, her sister was moping on the floor. While she was typing away at her computer, her sister was running a business. While she was shouting at the top of her lungs of her frustrations, she was doing quests. While she was getting burned from soldering, she was getting beaten up from the simplest of quests.
“I’m sorry…!” She couldn’t imagine the hardship that her sister had gone through. How she poured blood, sweat, and tears just to put a roof on their heads. Just to put food on their plates. Just to pour water in their glasses.
“I’m so… *hic!*... sorry…!”
‘Help me’ she was screaming it loud and clear; that genuine silent cry.
And yet, her sister continued on. Enduring.
“I didn’t…! *hic!* I didn’t notice…!”
Even in these twenty years they haven’t seen each other: even in the years of constant transformations, reformations, and transitions, something stayed. An unyielding piece stayed.
A simple piece that made her talk to her again. A simple piece that made her forgive her. A simple piece that made her realize her spoiled ignorance. A piece that prompted her to be used by her Sister for a long time. A piece that made her heart flutter. A piece that gave her butterflies in her stomach. A piece that made her excited to see her sister smile.
A piece that makes her wish she could see her smile all over again.
Was it love for family? No. Was it love for her Sister? No. As a fellow goddess? No.
It was admiration.
And today, her admiration was renewed.