"Now leave. Or else I'll actually finish what Nep-Nep started."

Those words rang out in her head and never left. As if she had been left concussed after an earthquake or anything similar of the sorts.

She hadn't planned for that conversation yesterday to go as it had panned out. Let alone for Compa of all people to make such a statement.

However…

"S-She really is scary when she's mad…" Vert grumbled to herself before she threw another chip in her mouth as she watched a random anime airing early in the morning. "I really picked the wrong person to piss off, and this anime sucks too…"

Vert grabbed the remote from beside her and shut off the TV. She yawned and closed the bag of chips before tossing it aside. The blonde-haired woman laid on her bed in thought.

"What was I thinking?" Vert asked herself.

Maybe the last impression of her was she was still the same old same old. A mulberry tree that couldn't ever be uprooted. And even when you planted a seed on the same soil, it'd produce the same tree and the same fruit.

But they saw something different. She saw something different. The young nurse defended her adopted mother as if staking her life. Determination wasn't the word; unconditional is.

Vert closed her eyes and began to think.

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"So these are the two kids?" Vert asked as she and the two other Goddesses examined the two babies peacefully sleeping on the table in front of them.

Neptune nodded, "Yeppers…!" she exclaimed in a hushed voice. Even her being able to realize that she shouldn't wake babies up when they were sleeping, "It's been hard to keep them quiet, and they're really loud."

"What were their names?" Noire asked

"Compa and IF."

Blanc hummed in thought, "You want us to help you locate their parents, correct?"

Neptune nodded

"I'm sure that we could put up fliers and a request on the Guild, but that's all we can do, Neptune." Vert offered, "We are deathly busy with our own matters, you see. So we can't dedicate too much time to this endeavor."

Neptune cocked her head, "Huh? Are you sure that's all the three of you can do? I thought that maybe we could all go looking in our own nations to see if we could find their parents…?"

Noire was shaking her head vehemently, "We are busy, Neptune. Like Vert said, the best we can do is make posters and post a notice alongside the regular quests at the Guild."

The purplette frowned, "Absolutely nothing…?"

Blanc sighed, "I can get the twins to ask around on the streets, but that's the most you're getting from me."

Noire put a hand to her head and let out her own sigh, "I guess I can do the same with Uni. But that's really stretching things. You should've just taken them to an orphanage, Neptune."

"And if the orphanage I bring them to treats them horribly?" Neptune argued, "I'd rather I have raised them myself than have a chance at that."

"She isn't wrong…" Blanc mumbled in response

"Hehe~ of course I'm right!" Neptune said triumphantly

"I never said it was a good idea though. Take it from me, raising two children is very draining on you."

Neptune waved her hands dismissively at the thought, "It'll be fiiiine! I know there'll be issues but I'll handle it in my own way! I am the protagonist after all!"

The remaining three CPUs collectively rolled their eyes at the purplette.

Noire stood up first, "If that's everything then, then I'll take my leave first."

Vert stood up next, "I'll also make my way out. This was quite an unusual meeting, but it was interesting at the very least."

Which left only a brunette and purplette to be left inside of the meeting room, a moment of silence between them as the latter furrowed her brows at the two women that had left moments earlier.

Blanc finally stood up after closing the book she was reading throughout the entire meeting. Without another word she headed towards the exit, and Neptune could only sigh in exhaustion that no one truly understood her plight and always belittled her.

"...You need to be serious about this, Neptune." Blanc suddenly spoke, turning back to face the aforementioned woman

"I am though!" Neptune cried out in response, "Why do you all think that I'm not?"

Blanc sighed, "This isn't something you can take lightly, Neptune. It's going to eat away at you and change you. You're going to be saddled with responsibilities I know for a fact you haven't had to deal with. If you're not prepared for that then you might as well have given them to an orphanage."

Neptune gulped, "R-Right…"

Blanc suddenly turned back around, though Neptune could've sworn she had seen a smile creeping up on the woman's face, "Take care then, Neptune."

Neptune blinked as the brunette finally left, "See ya…?"

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

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"So how are the children?" Vert asked as she stood in the lobby of the Planeptune basilicom, observing Neptune running around the place to try and… grab the two children in question.

"Oh, Vert!" Neptune called, glancing towards the woman as she ran after one of the kids, "Didn't expect to see you here! Give me a bit, need to catch IF here…!"

"That's IF? Where is Compa?"

"I really, really need to catch IF. So I'll tell you everything after!"

Vert sighed and walked over the path of where IF was running and stood there, "Come here now, child. Your…"

"Mom"

"Your Mom needs you to settle down."

IF stopped in her tracks, that was for sure. But the child's eyes gazed upon something other than the blonde's face…

Luckily, Neptune scooped her up before anything else could happen and placed her on a sofa nearby, which also happened to hold Compa, who had somehow been sleeping peacefully through all of the commotion.

"Alright, IF. Stay beside Compa and be good okay? Mom needs to do serious adult stuff."

The child in question gave an obvious pout, but relented eventually and went to sleep, sleeping beside the other… which woke up Compa, and now she was awake instead of IF.

"Thankfully, it's just Compa, and not IF this time…" Neptune muttered to herself, scooping up the other child, who clung to her arm like a koala as she woke up.

She finally walked over to Vert, with a complicated smile on her face as she waved to her with her free hand, "What's up, Vert? Anything you need from me?"

Vert cleared her throat, "Why are you avoiding the meetings?"

Neptune winced for effect, "Ouch. Straight to the point with ya huh?"

"So?"

Neptune sighed, "I mean, can't you see why, Vert?" Neptune asked in response, "The kids have taken up all of my time. I tried to make a schedule, but I just can't now that they're both 1 year olds."

"Neptune, while I do understand your plight, you are still a Goddess." Vert said sternly, "You have a responsibility just like the rest of us to show up to the meetings and discuss how things are going with your nation."

"But I'm real busy with the kids, though."

"And so is Blanc. Yet she still makes time for the meetings."

Neptune groaned and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Right… you're right. I'll try and make time out of my hectic schedule for the meetings again then. Sorry, Vert."

Vert gave a triumphant smile and nodded, "I'm glad that I could get that across to you." she glanced to Compa, "And this is Compa? If the other one was, IF?"

Neptune's demeanor instantly changed once Vert switched the topic to one about the kids and nodded with a bright smile. "Yeah! As you can see, she's not as energetic as IF is, but they're pretty much inseparable unless one of them is sleeping."

"They seem to handle being apart just fine though?" Vert questioned; confusion strewn all over her face.

"Well, I'm their adoptive mom. Of course they'd be fine around me if they're not with each other." Neptune explained, "Isn't that right, Compa?"

Compa made a noise of confirmation and looked towards Vert, pointing with her small child finger to… Vert's 'assets', "Big boobs…!"

Vert took that as flattery, "Aw…! Thank you, Compa!"

Meanwhile Neptune was more annoyed. But it was more of a temporary thing as she asked, "I guess since you're here. How are things in Leanbox? I'll give a report on my side to make up for missing this month's meeting I guess."

"Fine. I haven't made many appearances, but everything's going on at a steady pace. Maybe some things that worry me, but that can all easily be handled. Nothing too serious." Vert explained, "And you?"

"I'm not too sure actually. I've kind of left everything up to Nepgear. Hehe~."

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"YOU WHAT?!" Blanc shouted angrily at the purplette as she, Vert and the aforementioned person rode the elevator all the way to almost the top.

"Luckily, IF and Compa weren't here to hear you scream that…" Neptune mumbled audibly, "B-But I had no choice to! It was either going to be me or Junior that would raise them, and I decided I'd do it myself and properly!"

"That's not a good enough excuse, Neptune!" Blanc said in retort, "And you know for a fact it isn't!"

"T-That's just kind of how it ended up happening though…" Neptune sheepishly answered

"Now now, Blanc. I'm sure that Neptune has been having it rough with the two kids, isn't that right?" Vert said, trying to mend the already tense situation between the two.

"I don't need to be hearing anything from you, Vert…" Neptune mumbled.

Which caused Blanc to nod in agreement.

All Vert was left with then, was with a confused look on her face as to how the two women quickly reconciled their feelings towards each other and remained quiet for the rest of the elevator ride. Which wasn't that long to begin with.

As they stepped out of the elevator, the trio of women would be greeted with stacks of paper littered not only on the main work table, obscuring Nepgear's face from view, but also on the floor scattered about almost everywhere. At least Nepgear had the decency for herself and others to make a clear path to the table.

"Are you sure your sister is fine, Neptune?" Blanc asked out of concern

Nepgear instantly gave a nervous giggle from across the room, "I-I'm not really, but I think I'll manage." she said, "I-I think…? This is quite a larger workload than I've ever taken on in the past."

Blanc sighed, "Nice to see you haven't worked yourself to exhaustion, Nepgear."

"Indeed. Whatever could Neptune do without you? She'd probably be more strapped for 'time' than she already is." Vert chimed in

Vert couldn't see it because Neptune was behind her, and Nepgear was behind the stack of papers on the desk, but both sisters were visibly frowning at Vert's comment.

Blanc could easily see Neptune's discontent with the blonde's comment and quickly took over before the atmosphere became stale.

With a slight cough beforehand, Blanc spoke, "The three of us came to check in with how you were doing, but…"

Neptune gave a sad, embarrassed giggle, "Y-Yeah…"

The trio walked along the pathway to the table, with Neptune speaking up for the trio collectively, "So, where do we start, Junior?"

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The next thing Vert knew, it was already early into the night. Her room dimly lit and eerily quiet as she shifted from her bed into a sitting position.

"I don't see how I've done anything wrong though…" Vert mumbled in thought to herself as she did a few arm and neck stretches while sitting. "Sure Neptune and the others might've been taking my jokes the wrong way, but that's just them not having any sense of humour…"

Vert sighed and turned on the lights to her room first off, and second off turned on her own personal computer that she always brought with her so that she could be practicing wherever she went.

"What was Neptune like in the past again?" she asked herself as she sat down and started to aimlessly look at Chirps from Chirper, "Bright, cheerful? Lazy, always handing off most of her responsibility to her sister…"

The blonde shook her head, "That's how she was before she adopted the kids. How was she when she did?"

Then Vert drew a blank.

And that's when she realized something fundamentally wrong about her thinking…

"Wait, did I just completely forget what Neptune was like, after she adopted IF and Compa?" she asked herself. Then she shook her head again in disbelief, "No…! It's definitely not me forgetting. Neptune was simply the same even after adopting the kids. That's all it is."

Satisfied with her delusionary answer, Vert kept on scrolling Chirper. Until she got bored. Then she browsed Youtoo, halfheartedly watching strategy and analysis videos for the FPS game she was playing competitively.

Ultimately however, Vert still ended up bored. And that thought of the discrepancy between her memories and how Neptune was in the present day, and how everyone treated her, came crawling back to the forefront of her mind.

"It seems I need to grab a can of pop and focus myself on the game if I want to truly push these thoughts to the back of my mind…" Vert mumbled to herself.

"Very well then…" Vert stood up and left her computer running as she left her room. Her browser ran currently on a tab showing Chirper and letting the latest Chirps from those she followed show first.

And just as the door closed she'd miss a tweet mentioning her of all people, asking "How are you doing, Vert? I saw on the news you got into some drama?"