After receiving feedback, this story has been rewritten.
Chapter 1
Oborozuka, early in the morning.
Erika carefully got out of bed, and expertly switched the grip of the four-year-old girl to her wife, Freya. She changed her clothes, and looked at herself in the mirror. The dress she chose helped to flatter what little figure she had.
Even before the ...unpleasantness... of 12 years ago, she had already resigned herself to having stopped 'developing' since middle-school. She rearranged her light red hair into a ponytail, and adjusted her glasses, and exited the bedroom.
She looked in each of the other bedrooms, to check the other children were alright. Astrid, Freya's little sister was sleeping soundly. In the next room, Freya's daughter, Mizuchi, had climbed into her twin brother's bed sometime earlier, and currently had Hiroshi in a death-grip. She wasn't going to be able to release her without assistance.
She then walked over to the newest feature of the apartment; a door leading directly to the adjacent apartment. A few weeks ago, Freya had bought this 3 bedroom apartment, in Japan, so they could be closer to Erika's family. However, a few days ago, circumstances necessitated expanding the living arrangements. Rather than move, Freya just stated "I like the area," and just bought the neighbouring apartment. It's scary how much money Freya has access to, Erika thought, and not for the first time. The second living space betrayed the otaku-nature of the two girls currently occupying it.
Hikari's 'side' of the living space boasted a heavily customised gaming computer, and various posters, and shelves full of manga and figurines. There was a lot of science-fiction amongst the collection, but it was mostly biased towards mecha. Kuroko's 'side' was similar, but the bias was towards superheroes. Someone looking closely would also notice a significant portion of Kuroko's collection were apparently 'alternate-reality' themed versions of Hikari's. Separating both 'sides' of the room was a Police Box. A faint glow came from its windows, and a slight vibration could be felt when touching its walls.
Looking towards the sofa, she could see both girls crashed-out. When the younger children were being put to bed, they had been connecting the television in the 'main' apartment to a games console and the Wi-Fi. They obviously spent some time doing the same in here, and had fallen asleep while watching a movie. Erika pulled open the doors on the Police Box, to reveal a three foot server-box sitting at its rear, a set of shelves above it, containing various games and BluRay discs. Towards the front of the cabinet, hooks and recharge-points lined the walls.
Erika carefully lifted the wireless headphones from Kuroko, and collected the fallen controllers, ejecting the disc from the games-console as she went. While she was returning the items to their correct places, She heard Hikari's quiet voice behind her.
"Good morning, Erika," she said.
"Good morning, sleepyhead," replied Erika. "I see you were busy last night."
"Yeah, we finished around two."
"It's not like you to fall asleep on the couch like that."
"I know. It's kind of embarrassing. Could you give me some help?"
"Sure. Hold on a moment"
Erika walked over to the couch, grabbed Hikari's shoulders, and did some complex motion with her hands. The front section of what turned out to be a human-sized suit of exo-armour popped open, to reveal a red-faced, six inch tall humanoid.
With butterfly wings.
One of the control panels was throwing sparks, and showed signs of water damage. "Still drool in your sleep, I see."
"Shut up," Hikari muttered. "It's a side effect of the faulty gene-loom that made me."
"No. I'd say it was genetic. Look at Exhibit A, next to you," indicating a damp patch on the cushion Kuroko was using as a pillow. "Thank god neither of you have corrosive saliva."
"Kuroko doesn't count. She also came from a gene-loom, even if it was a different one to mine."
"Your mother also does it."
"...fine..." she mumbled. "I meant to ask, how long has that been happening?"
"Since a few days before your 'involuntary isekai adventure' began."
Just under a week ago, Hikari fell through a space/time rift, bringing Kuroko and her little sister, Midori, with her. The moment Freya set eyes on them, she immediately took them in as her own. When Hikari explained they were the children of an alternate-reality version of her, Freya immediately 'fast-tracked' their adoption. She probably hacked every single family-registry database in this quadrant of the galaxy, thought Erika. And, if she hadn't, Hikari would have.
"So, am I going to have to call you 'Mama-Erika' now?" asked Hikari.
Erika just stuck out her tongue.
"Looks like I'll have to make a trip to Akihabara, for spare parts," said Hikari.
"Wasn't this just a prototype?" asked Erika. "What happened to your other armour?"
"I don't have it," she replied. "I had to strip it for its techno-organic components, and a few other parts, to perform an emergency, life-saving, operation."
Kuroko's cybernetic legs and right arm suddenly looked familiar. Erika raised an eyebrow.
"Don't judge me," Hikari guiltily stated. "I didn't know Arachnes existed until last month, and in my defence, there was a building collapsed on top of her."
"So how are you going to head outside, without the local population freaking out?"
"Like this."
Several glowing rings of purple runes suddenly started orbiting around Hikari's small frame. A few seconds later, she was human-sized. The only differences to being human-looking was the pointy ears, and the large butterfly wings. The 'sylph look' was only spoiled by the beige and black combat uniform she was wearing. One shoulder bore the rank markings of an Artificer Captain, and the other had the insignia of the 'Galactic Defence Command' prominently displayed.
"Wow!" exclaimed a voice from one of the doorway. "Hikari-oneesan, you look just like Magical Girl Inaba-chan when you do that."
"She does, doesn't she?" commented Kuroko, still lying on the couch, but with one eye open. "When I first saw Hikari-nee, I would have thought she wouldn't be caught dead wearing a frilly pink dress. However, her 'magic wand' over there is giving me second thoughts."
She then opened her eyes, stuck her tongue out, returned Hikari's two-finger salute, and stood up.
"It's just inconvenient for her that her magical resistance also affects magic she casts on herself." She looked towards Hikari. "You still have to recast that after four or five hours, don't you?"
"I've managed to get it to last for six now," she replied.
Standing next to Hikari, the resemblance between Kuroko and the 'sister' she brought back with her from some alternate version of Earth was uncanny. Their species traits were their only physical differences.
Both girls were just shy of 6 feet tall, had red hair, and green eyes (Kuroko had six, arranged as two 'normal' eyes, and 4 smaller 'mini-eyes' near the outside corners of them). They also had the same 12D hourglass figure as their mother.
Mizuchi looked towards where Kuroko's right arm had earlier indicated, and saw what was on the computer desk, propped up in the corner. She turned towards her older sisters and stated, matter-of-factly, "Gluing stars and pink glitter to a Dalek blaster does not make it a magic wand."
"The wizards from four dimension jumps ago don't know that," Hikari replied. "When I left, their authorities were still trying to figure out how the Exterminate 'spell' works. I've only ever fired the thing twice. It doesn't have any charge left, anyway. I'll have to tell you about my time on that world sometime."
"Meanwhile, Mizuchi, seeing as you're awake," said Erika. "Go wake up Hiroshi and your aunt Astrid, and get changed. We're going out and about today. School starts soon, and we need to get uniforms fitted for everyone, as well as a lot of stationery."
"Yes, Mama-Erika."
"Also, how do we disguise Midori? An Arachne, even a small one, will still draw attention."
"About that," replied Kuroko. "Mama used to carry around a device that Mum built for her, back before the population of my world gained knowledge of non-humans onto our Earth's general population. It gives the wearer the illusion of being human, and should still work. Hang on a moment."
She went into her bedroom, and brought out a device that looked like an old Sony Disc-man.
"Mr Yana probably isn't going to be taking visitors this morning, since he has night shifts all this week. We'll have to give him Mother's thank you present another time," said Kuroko. "However, the people who live between him and Mrs Sasakibe came back from their holiday around 9:30 last night. We should go introduce ourselves after breakfast."
"Hi. I'm Seamus, the System Holographic Interface Program for the Mobile Space Dry-dock 'Irish Rose.'
"My predictive enquiry algorithms have detected that you require information on Gene-looms.
"First invented in the year 2684, Gene-looms utilise a combination of cloning and gene-splicing to help stabilise population growth of off-world colonies. A mixture of bio-synthetic, bio-mechanical, and techno-organic elements are used to 'grow' a person, and can even splice DNA of normally 'incompatible' pairings.
"Neural mapping programs are used during the process to upload any required information into the developing body, and the key physical attributes of the person can be customised to the environment. For example; reinforced bones for high gravity worlds, secondary gills for worlds with little to no land, etc.
"Early versions of the device only ever produced fully-grown adults. However, the mk3 and mk4 versions were able to produce young children, providing the family bonding experience of raising children. The mk5 devices onwards had advanced enough to produce embryos, which could be either implanted in a parent, or incubated in an artificial womb.
"Unfortunately, the potential for abuse of the Gene-loom requires them to be highly regulated. Facilities containing them must submit to regular government oversight, with random testing of memory-implant algorithms, and any customisations to genetic profiles. The most recently reported incident was reported 16 years ago, when Artificer Captain Freya O'Reilly was sent to investigate the looting of Automated Emergency Way-point Station 9A4G, near Proxima Centauri. The thefts were traced to the Resupply Station 'Okinawa' in orbit, around Ryza, where she was accidentally scanned by an illegally-modified mk2 gene-loom. Apparently, the station's owner wanted to make his own fairy garden. The device was confiscated and reinitialised. Everyone involved was investigated and dealt with, according to the law. The 'fairies' were either adopted into their respective families, or placed under the foster care of the Galactic Emperor."
Just after 8am, the floor below:
Mrs Sasakibe was on her way out, to do some morning shopping, when the elevator opened. She looked over, and noticed the family that just moved upstairs a few days earlier. Two of the girls were wearing some sort of cosplay military uniforms. They were accompanying a few young children that she was yet to be introduced to.
"Mrs Sasakibe, good morning," Kuroko called out. "I hope we're not inconveniencing you, by visiting so early."
"Oh, good morning, Kuroko-chan. It's no trouble at all."
Freya called out from the elevator "Sorry to skip out before properly introducing the family, but I have an emergency meeting to attend. I'll make it up to you some other time." The elevator doors closed, and she continued her journey to the ground floor.
Erika introduced Mrs Sasakibe to the rest of the family, and started chatting for a while.
After about 15 minutes of small-talk, Mizuchi got bored, and hared-off along the walkway.
"Hey, Mizuchi-chan! Get back here!" Erika called out.
Mizuchi just spun around, and stuck out her tongue. Mrs Sasakibe just laughed. She's as energetic as next door's girls, he thought.
Things got interesting, when Mizuchi called out, on her way to the stairs,
"Mama-Erika! Mrs Sasakibe's neighbours have the same last name as you do!"
