Ram wasn't good with complicated things like money and reading and computers and counting, but in her opinion, she didn't think she really needed to be good at any of those silly things. She was good with other stuff — like video games, eating cake, and having the best ideas.

Who needed computers and books when you had cake and video games and ideas like video games you could eat? She didn't think she did.

And this time, ohhhh boy, this time? She had had one of her best ideas ever.

It was going to be big. It was going to be bold. It was going to be something everybody in Gamindustri would remember for a long, long time — maybe even forever!

She was sure about it. No doubt in her mind. This time, Ram was gonna be on top of all the popularity polls for sure! Lowee would get a bunch of shares out of it too, so who would blame her? The best part of it all was that her sister was away on some kind of "writing retreat" thingy, so now was the best time to put it all into action!

Ram couldn't help but smile from ear to ear, a bounce in her step as she bounded around, as she pictured just how well her plan would go. It was gonna be soooo cool! It was such a good idea, she'd even be nice and let Nepgear and Uni help her with it. She was a good girl like that.

There was just one problem.

Even if all four Candidates banded together to do it, even if she could get Nepgear and Uni interested in this super amazing idea of hers, there was no way she would be able to pull it off without some kind of greater power. She didn't want her idea to go to waste, but...

She just needed was a little bit of help...

If there was one thing Blanc knew that she could always feel safe about, it was money. Lowee was a nation that had been able to stockpile plenty of it over the years, and even if something truly drastic were to ever befall the land someday, she knew they would probably be able to ride it out thanks to the incredible amount that had been saved over the years.

It would shock very few indeed to hear that Lowee had been able to ride out many, many catastrophes thanks to this vault of savings. Even as Lowee ventured into the world of online, the money was still kept safe. Blanc made sure of it. The only people who could access the accounts were herself and Mina, after all. The twins could always ask for it if they had any bright ideas that required funding, so it wasn't like they would have done it either...

So it goes without saying that the CPU of Lowee was particularly upset to find her accounts drained of a significant amount one bright and sunny morning.

"No no no..."

Her skin had gone as white as the snow outside. The candy cane she had been idly munching on hang there between her lips, slack, as she tried in vain to find where all of the money had gone. Her eyes were wide as her fingers flew across the keyboard in at a frace so frantic it looked as though she didn't even have fingers, but merely a pair of blurs attached to the end of her wrists.

"Access main accounts... Access security preferences... Access secondary accounts..."

Nothing.

There was still a tremendous amount of Lowee's funds left, thankfully, but... This was insane. This was freaking nuts! Where the hell had all that money gone!?

"Access... Access something!" Giving up, Blanc slammed her hands onto her desk, snapping the candy cane in her mouth, sending the broken piece falling to the ground, already forgotten as she swallowed what was still left. She was starting to get frantic now. Was this some kind of attack on Lowee? Had someone done something in her sleep? While she had been away on a leave writing her new novel? What had happened!? "Dammit! What the hell is going on!? Access anything!"

"Ah ah ah! You didn't say the magic word!"

Blanc froze. That was her little sister's voice.

Her little sister should have nothing to do with the accounts.

In no world should Ram have the ability to touch the money stored in them. Blanc would know if she had. Like every other time — like that time Ram and Rom had decided they wanted games to be like pop up books and wanted to put that on their new console and it had done great. They had asked.

So there was no reason Ram should be here, telling her such a thing, as if she was somehow related to what was going on and had knowledge pertaining to what Blanc was in the process of having a meltdown over.

"Sis... You're supposed to turn around now..."

Yet now Rom's voice had joined Ram's.

A chill ran down Blanc's spine.

Despite that she was the goddess of the icy nation of Lowee, she felt on fire in that moment. If Rom was there, then Ram was probably there. If Ram really was there, then Ram really had said what she had said, which meant...

If this was a prank...

It had better be a prank...!

Blanc spun around, all kinds of furious words building up in her chest. She was going to tear the two of them a new one, and if they had done something worthwhile with it — because it was technically theirs to use too once they got older — she'd begrudgingly complement them after giving them spankings for not asking her and making her have ten consecutive heart attacks in the span of three seconds.

Sadly, all of these words and thoughts died when she saw her sisters in her doorway. Her arm, held up and ready to point dramatically as her words created dramatic speech bubbles, went slack at her side.

Ram and Rom were certainly there, no doubt about that, but the manner in which they were there... Blanc hadn't been prepared for it. They were still themselves, thankfully — no strange additional body parts or odd growth spurts — but that wouldn't have done much at this point. Not with the day Blanc had been having so far.

Ram was in a white suit. She had a matching white hat, matching white mustache and beard, and a cane she clearly didn't need to top it all off. She was looking as smug as ever, stroking her little mustache like the cutest, most professional looking businessgirl you ever did see.

Rom, though...?

Rom was in some kind of costume, with the only feature that was recognizable as Rom's was her head sticking out of the costume's mouth. If Blanc had looked too quickly, it might have appeared as though something had swallowed her sister whole, who in turn would have looked much too calm about being eaten.

"Come on! You're gonna miss the grand opening!" Cane in tow, Ram stepped forward to grab at her sister's slack hand. Blanc, panic and rage slowly dissipating, could only follow along and wonder if she had forgotten something, like she had been in on this all along. "Spared no extense on it, Sis, you're gonna loooove it!"

Blanc felt her eye twitching when Ram piped up again.

"You mean 'expense," Ram..."

Rom's comment didn't help things either.

Forget what she had just thought. She could pull out all the anger she needed if the two of them had done something bad.

All she needed to know now was what the hell these punk kids had done this time!