Ram scowled as she paced back and forth across her and Rom's room. Her small arms were crossed defiantly across her chest, and if there was a single word that could describe how she was feeling this morning, then it would most definitely be the word "NO!" — naturally yelled as loudly as she possibly could.

Rom watched her sister make what seemed like her hundredth turn before heading back towards the other side of the room, frowning worriedly. Their older sister had been in a bad mood for a few days now, and it seemed to little Rom like Ram was now taking up the role of the "normal" version of Blanc — a version which still often found herself in a bad mood.

"Ram...?" Rom swallowed nervously after calling her sister's name. She'd been ignored. She didn't like it when her sister was upset, and she liked it even less when her sister was upset but she wasn't. She didn't like disagreeing with Ram... At the same time, though, Rom looked to the articles of clothing Mina had given them first thing this morning and smiled a little. She thought they were pretty.

"It's not fair!" Finally speaking, the petite CPU Candidate made a ferocious declaration and pointed at her sister dramatically — no, she was pointing at the clothes that were on their bed.

"What's not...?" Rom bit her lip and looked away. She really didn't like seeing Ram like this!

"It's a wedding, right?" Recrossing her arms, Ram began tapping her foot, as if she was about to give a super obvious explanation that everyone should understand. In her mind, that was exactly what she was doing. "Then why do we have to wear these boring dresses? Sure, they're pretty and all, but I want to wear a wedding dress too! So it's not fair that only Nepgear and Uni's sisters get to do it!"

Unbeknownst to the twin Candidates, a certain Oracle had just pushed their door open to peek in on her favorite girls. She had, perhaps foolishly, told them to try on what they would be wearing for the wedding tomorrow. Whether she was hoping to catch them in the process of changing or just make sure that they were actually doing what they were supposed to be doing and not goofing off — or worse, ruining the expensive dresses — remained to be seen... but hopefully it was the latter.

"Well... Why don't we get married too someday...?" Her words apparently having an effect on Ram, Rom smiled slightly as she watched her sister slowly begin to think about the prospect. Smiles were much better than scowls and frowns.

Behind the door, Mina Nishizawa gasped and covered her mouth. Her Candidates, talking about marriage? But... But they were too young! They still needed help taking baths and even eating sometimes! And... And they were just so young! Their whole appeal was their sweet, childish innocence! How could this be...? Where had she gone wrong...!?

"- Okay! I've decided! I'm going to get married!" Ram puffed her chest out proudly. It wasn't like there were many eligible people in their age range, so Ram knew she had to move fast and make sure she called dibs before her sister could. That in mind, before Rom could make any move or comment before her (as if such a thing was possible — plus, Ram knew exactly who her sister would want to marry anyway, so it didn't really matter who Ram chose), Ram continued. "And I'm going to marry Peashy!"

Rom tilted her head, opening her mouth in a small "o" while Ram made a victorious pose. Her sister sure was taking this seriously! And if Ram was, then... Then Rom would have to too!

She tapped her chin with a finger and began to think, long and hard, about who she'd want to marry. This... This was serious business, after all! She didn't want to make a mistake or anything like that. Ram had obviously put a lot of thought into her choice, so Rom owed it to Ram — and to whoever she would marry! — to do the same, didn't she?

And yet... A blush rose to Rom's cheeks as she settled on a certain someone. It had been obvious from the start, really. It had been the first person she'd thought of, but she'd wanted to be sure... But she was sure!

Tapping her fingers together, Rom shyly looked over at her sister.

"T-Then... Can I... Can I marry Nepgear...?"

"- Ehhhhhhh!? Nepgear!?" Ram was stunned! She had been so sure that Rom would want to marry... Well, her! After all, wasn't she the best possible candidate for the job? She'd be much better than Nepgear, that's for sure! Was it because she'd suggested Peashy first instead of Rom? Well... It didn't matter! Rom was supposed to want to marry her, not Nepgear! Stomping her foot, Ram crossed her arms. "H-Hmph! I don't care what you do, so long as you stay away from me and Peashy!"

"Rom...?" Rom frowned. She had thought really hard about who she'd wanted to marry too, but it looked as though that had only made Ram upset again. What had she done wrong? She knew Ram wouldn't want to choose Nepgear, so that made it okay for her to, right? She didn't understand what she'd done wrong. Lowering her head, despite fanciful and childish thoughts of dancing around in wedding dresses with Nepgear dancing around in her mind, Rom's lips quivered. "I... I'm sorry, Ram..."

"Ah, no, that's-" Ram waved her arms in front of her. She hadn't meant to upset Rom or anything like that! It was just... She and Rom were supposed to be together forever, right? ... Maybe picking Peashy instead of Rom had been a bad choice? Ram bit her lip as she tried to figure out this serious problem that had been placed in front of her.

"I can solve this!" To the surprise of the twins, a cheerful voice came bursting into the room from outside of the door. Surprised, Ram nearly toppled over, while Rom grabbed onto the nearest stuffed animal to defend herself. The pair had had bad experiences with people surprising them in their room.

There, standing at the door, was none other than their caretaker and Oracle, looking positively terrifying.

"If you girls don't try on those dresses this minute, you both will be married to me."

"Nooooooooooo!" "Noooo..."

""We don't want to marry Mina!""

After hearing their responses to the prospect of marrying her, Mina almost cried out "Noooooooooooooooo!" herself.

Almost.

An unusual trio of redheads had gathered at a small cafe nearby Planeptune's amusement park that morning. It wasn't particularly unusual that the three were meeting together — they were all friends, after all. What made it unusual was that two of the three seemed to always be traveling, while the third rarely ever left Leanbox.

"... so then, Lady Noire got up on stage and even posed like the rest of us had!" MarvelousAQL smiled to her two friends as she finished recounting the prior day's events to them. "Afterwards, it looked like Lady Noire and Lady Neptune were having a really good time with each other, even though Lady Noire was embarrassed. They were so cute!"

One of the other two, Cave, closed her eyes and nodded as she took a sip of her coffee. Due to the peace in Gamindustri that the world had been enjoying as of late, as well as a certain blue haired idol being on tour in Planeptune in the hopes of raising shares there (everyone doing their own part to help the ailing country's situation), Cave had found herself doing a bit more traveling that she was used to.

"In other words, despite how their situation would be considered unfavorable, things are progressing well between them."

"You've got it!" MarvelousAQL replied cheerfully, bouncing in her seat like the cheerful girl that she was. Cave simply nodded in response, while the last member of their group...

Well, the last member of the trio, a younger girl named RED, seemed to be much more fascinated by the two busty beauties she was eating with than the topic at hand. Her gaze traveled from the face of one beauty, to their chest, then to the face of the other girl, and so on. She couldn't help but grin to herself as she finally tore her gaze away to change the subject. How often did chances like this come up?

"Say, would either of you like to get married?" Unable to restrain herself any longer, RED put on her widest smile and fluttered her eyelashes at her two friends. Both of them knew about RED's desire to have as many wives as possible, but it had seemed like lately she'd let the matter drop. Apparently the subject of an actual wedding was the catalyst for old habits to rear their head once again.

"I don't know if ninjas can get married..." MarvelousAQL's response was surprisingly innocent. She placed a finger to her lips and turned her gaze upwards, clearly in deep thought about the matter.

"I imagine that if they couldn't, there wouldn't be any of them around," Cave commented, glad that she had been given the chance to avoid having to answer RED's question. While marrying RED was obviously out of the question, she would be lying if she were to say that the thought had never crossed her mind regarding girls...

Cave lowered her gaze and coughed as the girl she had in mind rose to the front of her imagination.

How would 5pb. look in a wedding dress...?

"Whoa, Marvy, check it out! You have to squint to see it, but Cave is blushing!" Practically squealing in delight, RED motioned for her shinobi friend to look at the Leanbox soldier. It was just so unlike Cave, after all! Maybe she was seriously considering RED's offer...? Ohhhh yeah, wifey number one (or two, technically) get!

"D-Don't misunderstand-" Cave quickly took a swig of her coffee, hoping she could use the time it took her to drink it to contemplate a plan of action. She hadn't meant to be caught in such a situation, and now that she had, she had to do something about it before it escalated into something that might reach 5pb.'s hears. Placing her cup on the table, her expression almost completely stern, Cave gave RED a firm look. "I was wondering what ninjas might resort to in order to further procreate if they truly could not get married. That is all."

The comment — with such big words! — combined with her completely straight face seemed to do the trick. MarvelousAQL had missed the blush completely, and RED had absolutely no idea what Cave had just said. The two girls exchanged glances and shrugged at each other, allowing Cave a moment to sigh inwardly in relief. That had been close.

"Well, I've gotta go..." RED lifted her cup to her lips, leaving it there for a long moment, before slamming it down — now empty — on the table and wiping her lips with the back of her hand. "I'm meeting NISA and Gust for dinner, and if I'm gonna get one of them to propose to me within a month, I've gotta find something to wear. See you, girls!"

The two remaining redheads watched their friend go in amusement. She never really did give up, did she? Maybe that brief period where they had stopped hearing about becoming RED's wife had just meant that RED had moved on to another target in the meanwhile... Cave shook her head and closed her eyes. She wondered if she could ever be so open about her feelings.

"So... You were thinking about 5pb., right?"

Cave snapped her eyes open and found herself looking at MarvelousAQL, who was staring back at her with a very knowing expression. W... Wasn't Marvy supposed to be ditzy!?

MarvelousAQL smiled as she watched Cave try to find a response.

"Don't worry, nobody else knows. But you can't fool me. Information gathering is my specialty, even if I don't always know what to do with it," MarvelousAQL continued to smile as she stood, before she walked over to the trash can to throw away her empty cup. She made her way back to the table, bouncing all the way, and instead of sitting back down, stood in front of Cave — her mind elsewhere as she gingerly touched the two swords she kept at her sides at all times. "If you have something special, go for it. Don't let yourself lose it and be filled with regrets after it's too late... Even if you get turned out, there's nothing worse than never knowing."

With that, the ninja named MarvelousAQL turned and left the cafe, leaving a stunned Cave in her wake. The ninja had clearly had something on her mind, something Cave couldn't even possibly fathom, but as to what it was... She didn't think she would ever know. Despite how the girl was sometimes, MarvelousAQL could be surprisingly mysterious at other times.

Cave licked her lips nervously.

"'Go for it,' huh?"

As she pictured a certain blue haired singer, she decided... Maybe one of these days she'd do just that.