“I-It’s all Neptune’s fault this happened! She wasn’t doing her part at all as a Goddess!”
Oh, how the one person that loved her the most had turned on her the instant things went south. And she realized this too little too late, after one year had passed since then, and she was down in the dumps...
Not that Neptune could dwell on it too much. She had, after all, revealed her ‘secret activity’ to one of the two people that she wanted to keep it away from. Being out of her control to reveal it, as she had found herself lying on the floor in a drunken haze, and in the comfort of…
“N-Nepu!” Neptune jolted up and stood up off of the ground. Her cheeks warm when she touched them, and a still slumbering Compa lying there on the floor, soundly.
She was so mature. Able to stay level-headed throughout her ramblings, professional in how she took care of Neptune’s needs and more, and in general patient with her through all the years of avoiding her and IF.
Neptune frowned, “Right. IF…” she sighed and put a hand to her head, inadvertently smelling her own body odour and recoiling from the stench. “Fuck…! I need to…” she stared at Compa, “I need to wake up Compa and have her shower first. It’s only fair…”
She yawned as she glanced between Compa and the door frame behind the counter. “It doesn’t seem like she’s going to be waking up anytime soon. I might as well get ready…”
She dusted herself off and headed for the hall through the door, to the shared washroom.
“Eh?”
“...Huh?”
From the door next to hers, out came someone she had been living with, but hadn't seen for multiple years.
“Um… ah…” Neptune awkwardly said, trying to reach for the words on how to greet this person, but coming up short, “H-Howdy there… err… J-Junior…?” Neptune's heart skipped far too many beats, as she attempted to greet her younger sister.
“Oh…?” the lilac haired younger sister would stare drowsily at the older one, “Oh, Sis… Ehehehe… good morning…” she yawned and scratched the back of her groggily.
The lilac haired woman, or more specifically, Nepgear. Looked like an absolute disaster. Her hair was all over the place; frayed, dried up, frizzy, you name it, she probably has it on her hair. Oil grease included. This included her clothes, but only the oil grease part.
The most telling thing for the older sister, however, was the eyebags. It was as if Nepgear hadn’t slept for weeks, months even, as the lilac-haired girl seemingly struggled to stay awake and make it to the bathroom to freshen up.
It was as if she had been yanked from a different dimension, and plopped right into this one. It was truly an uncanny sight to behold.
And yet, every time Neptune tried to communicate with her in the past… she was reminded of all of her failed attempts.
“Junior? I need you to cover for me! Can you-”
“ACK! NO! SON OF A FUCKING—!”
“Junior! I’m heading out! Are you sure you’re gonna-...”
“FUCK! I HAD IT! GODDAMN SHUT UP! WHY DO YOU ONLY GO OFF WHEN I DON’T WANT YOU TO!”
“Junior! I left some food for you!”
And then followed by silence…
Okay, that one didn’t seem that bad. At least Nepgear wasn’t cursing at her. So there was a dialogue in that last one. But still…
Nepgear threw her head to the side, and right into Neptune’s view as it could be assumed the girl was walking backwards to talk to her like this.
“Mmm…?” she hummed sleepily, “Why the forlong look on your face, Sissss…?”
Neptune jumped back slightly and brought her hand up to her face, “I-It’s uh… it’s nothing! Err… g-good morning!”
Nepgear nodded and gave a drowsy smile in return, “Yup, it’s a good morning indeed…” she said, letting out another yawn.
From there it was an awkward walk towards the bathroom the two sisters shared. And in Neptune’s mind, the lilac haired younger sister seemingly wasn’t letting up in her pressure whatsoever.
But was that really the case?
She shook her head. There wasn’t any way it wasn’t.
Nepgear noticed this however, and tilted her head in response. “Sis? You good there…?” she yawned once more, but covered her mouth this time, “Ah, sorry… I stayed up all night again…”
Neptune blinked, “All night? Doing what?”
“Engineering things. Everything seems to work, but then it somehow ends up broken when I test.” Nepgear lamented,which was easy enough to follow along for now. “It's been such a pain. Last night, it was a huge pain to swap out incompatible assembly code since the client messed up what processor I was supposed to use… Then, I had to redesign my board since I forgot that I had to put in PMIC’s for the memory IC. And…”
“...Ahahaha…” Neptune chuckled dryly in response, scratching her cheek nervously.
She had no fucking clue what Nepgear was talking about. At all.
“Um… so… that must be really tough…” she said awkwardly in response
Nepgear gave a nod, clearly “Yeah… it’s a good thing my client is pretty reasonable to deal with”
“Client?”
“Yup… client. They’re working on making a drone. But they kind of lumped all of the engineering on to me…”
There was a momentary silence in the room as Neptune stopped in her tracks and stood where she was.
Nepgear walked over to her older sister and blinked, “...Sis?”
“Um…. uh…” Neptune blinked in return as she seemingly regained her senses and shook her head, “Sorry. So… how much are they paying?”
“Eh? Around a hundred-thousand credits. Why?”
“On–!?” Neptune’s jaw dropped to the floor.
Now it was Nepgear’s turn to blink, “Oh. You didn’t know? I’ve opened up commissions for my engineering work.” she explained calmly, “I’ve made a ton of money from it, and it’s been good practice for me. I get to make things and refine my skills. All the while making money off of it.”
“Ah… good for- wait… HUH?!”
Now Neptune jumped back, in total shock this time, as she stared at her younger sister, “And how much have you made?!”
Nepgear put a finger to her cheek in thought, “Maybe almost five-hundred thousand Credits…?”
“THEN WHY THE FUCK ARE WE STILL IN THIS SHITHOLE THEN?! HELL, I COULD’VE JUST BOUGHT THIS PLACE OUTRIGHT WITH HOW MUCH MONEY YOU HAVE!”
Nepgear winced and moved closer to her older sister to cover her mouth. “Um, sis… calm down".
Neptune cleared her throat, to at least be slightly more charitable to their friend that slumbered in the lobby. “Calm down? What the fuck do you mean calm down?! Do you know how many times I’ve been beaten black and blue by those dogoos!?”
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Nepgear paused, “Wait, Sis. You really didn’t know?”
“Of course I didn’t know! I thought you became a shut-in or something! So I had to go out there and do some quests to make up for the loss!”
“Um you didn’t notice Sis?”
“Notice what!?”
“That you always have change in the register?”
Neptune immediately went quiet, “...Eh?”
“And also, that you always have enough capital to restock after a big sale…?”
“Huh?!”
She was right. Absolutely right. Every summer and winter Neptune rode the wave of e-store sales and dropped her prices accordingly. It was always a huge uptick in revenue for her, and an opportunity to move stock and make way for other games she didn’t have in her shop. Even with that, reinvesting money back into the business takes a chunk of money that’s supposed to be for their living expenses.
And yet somehow, some way, there was always enough money to restock, which never put them in the red. In fact, if she recalculated her expenses up until now, she wasn’t even close to reaching the red.
On top of that, there was also the fact that she always had change in the register. No matter how you slice it, her business isn’t doing well on a year-by-year basis. She only had two upticks per year, and somehow made enough sales to have way too much change in the register.
Neptune grabbed her younger sister by the shoulders and shook her slightly, “So you’re the reason!?”
Nepgear nodded and gave a sheepish smile in return, “Er… yeah." she said awkwardly, "You seriously didn’t notice?”
“How could I notice!?" Neptune shot back instantly, "I had been getting kicked around by dogoos left, right, and center! I came home like I had run a marathon! I had to eat instant cup noodles each and every day! Sometimes soy sauce and rice! And there’s not even a single customer!”
“Um… Sis… your breath kinda smells…” Nepgear mumbled, slowly, and awkwardly, pushing Neptune away from herself, trying to create distance between them.
Neptune wasn't having any of it unfortunately and grabbed Nepgear's elbow to hold her in place. “IT’S JUST MORNING BREATH!”
“What’s… going on?” asked a familiar voice behind them, Compa seemingly having woken up from all the commotion.
“Oh, hello, Compa!" Neogear chirped excitedly, "Goodness you’ve grown!"
“Ge-Ge? Ehehe…” Then a loud THUD could be heard as Compa fell back down, entering sleep once more.
Neptune sighed and put a hand to her head. "We should get breakfast ready…"
Nepgear shook her head and grabbed Neptune’s arm. “Firstly. You need to shower Sis. I know you’ve been drinking last night, but please remember to brush in the morning”
“You knew!?” Neptune shouted, taken aback that Nepgear even knew in the first place.
“Who else was keeping the shop open? And cleaning up after your mess? And putting the shelves back?”
“Y…You?” Neptune cautiously asked. To which Nepgear nodded, “So, um… you knew huh? Ehehehe…” she scratched the back of her head in embarrassment.
“With that said…”
“Eh?”
Nepgear suddenly slipped behind her and pushed her defenseless sister along, a smile forming on her face.
“Let’s take a shower, Sis!”
----------------------------------------
Neptune sat in silence in the tub as she watched her little sister scrub her body with lather. She hummed a soft tune as she took the bucket from right beside them and doused herself with the water from it to wash away the lather that lingered on her body.
Neptune watched the water run away into the drain before looking back. And when she did, it looked as if Nepgear had been plucked out of the past and plopped into the present.
For now, she let time pass slowly.
“...Have you invented a time machine, Sis?”
Nepgear, who was lathering her hair with shampoo, turned around to stare at her older sister and give her a confused stare. “Mmm? What do you mean?”
Neptune smiled awkwardly, “I mean, that you look no different than how you looked twenty years ago. So, I was wondering if you had time traveled into the future”
“It’d be awfully convenient for you if I made a time-machine”
“Hahaha… that’s true…” Neptune let out a nervous giggle and paused, “If you did make a time machine, I would have used it as you slept.”
“What are you going to do with the time machine?”
“I dunno. Maybe go back I guess…”
“I see…”
Silence filled the air as Nepgear continued on with lathering the shampoo all over her hair in the meantime. After scrubbing her hair with shampoo, she took the bottle of hair conditioner, squeezed out its contents and rubbed her hair with it.
“Gear?”
“Yeah?”
“Are you still my little sister?” Neptune had to ask. For her sake. For twenty years she hadn’t talked to the person in front of her. Twenty years they haven’t seen each other for so long. Twenty years and just look, her little sister had grown so much.
“...I don’t know Sis… I mean, you started drinking and all. Something a older sister would never show in front of their little sis”
“...”
“I thought you knew, but my walls weren’t sound proofed at the time. So, I could hear all of your drunken rampages.” Nepgear added, “You do realize that going on tirades in your room doesn’t make you an adult right?”
“Sh-Shut it would you?! It’s an adult thing to drink and forget about painful stuff!”
“Right~~~” Nepgear said in monotone. “And now you’re going to tell me that you’ve become an upstanding adult since then?”
“I have become an upstanding adult! I’ll have you know that! I’ve learned to do taxes, manage paperwork, coo- okay, so I buy microwaveable food. But still! I’m more of an upstanding adult than I have ever been in the past!”
“Sis, anyone can do that” Nepgear stated the obvious in a deadpan tone of voice.
“Gh! Don’t just ruin my parade! At least I’m now good for something!”
Nepgear washed off the conditioner on her hair with the shower head nearby. She stood up and headed into the tub. The water overflowed as she sat down next to her Sister. She leaned back, soaking the heat of the water, and the relaxing echoing silence of the bathroom.
“I used to hate you know.” she suddenly said.
“You wouldn’t really understand how I felt at the time. But I used to hate you. All I did was work in place of you, clean up your mess, and then fail miserably to try and get you to do your job. It wasn’t like that everyday, I know. It was fun. But… at the back of my mind in it all. I used to hate you.
When the Great Crash happened… something clicked inside me. It felt liberating. Like I was able to fly. I was like “Oh… I’m free…”
So I did what I wanted to do. I didn’t care about the shop. Or didn’t care about you wasting money. I didn’t care at all. I just wanted to do what I always wanted to do. It was fun, it was really fun. All the new inventions I made, all of the most enjoyable times were in that room that I never came out of.
It was so fun.”
“I… I’m glad that you were able to find yourself, Junior. I guess I was right to assume that you do in fact hate m-...”
“But… before I knew it. It was dark. I was alone.
I had all these toys in front of me. And nothing was making me content. I was happy for sure. But I wasn’t content. The equipment I had set up in my room was starting to irritate me. The mini robots I made are making me bored. Looking back, I think I was just lonely” Nepgear leaned into her Sister.
“I used to hate you. But you changed. Even when you couldn’t sell anything, even when you had to beg the bank to loan you more money, even when you couldn’t defeat dogoos. All I saw was my big sister working so hard… and I…I’m just a good for nothing…!” Tears had started to flow from the lilac-haired girl’s eyes..
“So I worked… I really worked. I wanted to go back. I wanted to make my sister smile again. That goofy smile like she didn’t care about anything. Your usual complaining voice when I tried to get you to work, your excited look whenever it’s time for dessert, I want to go back.
Even if I have to do all the work again. I don’t care. Because I had my big sister. I had my Big Sister-!”
“I’m sorry, Sis…” Neptune apologized.
“I guess, hearing all that… I don’t know how to respond. I was selfish back then, and it’s kinda embarrassing looking back on it now. But, you know… I just didn’t know any better, and I just took it all for granted. You, Compa, IF… yeah… looking back. The blessings I had before, I might not get them back anymore”
Neptune turns to face her sister.
“I’m really sorry Si-aaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAH!”
Electricity shocks Neptune from her chest. She couldn’t help but release a moan. Nepgear continued to squeeze her Sister’s melons with the fiery eyes of an engineer admiring their work of art.
“Stop squeezing my bobs, Junior! I know I have boobs now, but they’re not that special!”
“They are though! You used to be as flat as Blanc! Ooooh! And they’re so squishy as well!”
"Nepu! W-When did you turn into a pervert?! Isn't it normal for people's boobs to grow as they get older?!"
"Huh? But I'm not? I just thought they weren't real. I've seen you for decades without boobs, and now twenty years later when we don't have our goddess powers, you have boobs. How could I not be interested?"
"This isn’t the time to be interested in my body!"
“It is! I need to record this new development!”
“Record!? What do you mean record!?”
“Ah cr-! N-Nothing! I didn’t say anything!”
*Squeeze!*
“Nepu!”
“Oh, so you’re this sensitive huh”
*Squeeze!* *Squeeze!*
“Nepuuuuuuuuuuuuu!”