Chapter 3: Introductions

The next few days were pretty busy for Noire. Since Neptune wanted to keep Venus a secret until she could properly be introduced to the others, Noire had to keep her work on the down-low. Luckily, Noire usually kept her sewing hobby a secret, so keeping others from finding out what she was working on wasn't too hard. Still, trying to finish the outfit while balancing her own work was difficult, especially with only a few days to finish it. But Noire was still skilled at her craft, so she was confident she'd finish it in time, even if she had to take some late nights.

Firstly, to start working on Venus's new outfit, she had to get her measurements and find out what kind of style Venus would like. Then she had to get the materials and make the patterns. Easy-peasy.

...On a personal note, she was glad that Histoire would handle Venus's... underwear. Neptune tried to convince Venus that she should have matching socks and... panties, like she did (which was more information than Noire would've wanted to know). Venus, however, was confused, of course, so Histoire took the matter into her own hands and ordered plain garments for Venus. This disappointed Neptune, but Noire was grateful to not have to make someone else's undergarments.

Morning of Venus's planned introduction to the other goddesses, Noire was done. Proudly examining her work, she folded it up, packing it into a box, then leaving her office to deliver her gift.

"Oh, Uni," Noire said, as she ran into her sister, who was passing her office.

Her little sister glared at her with her red eyes, which matched Noire's. Her black hair was styled into side-updo, half twin-tails with black and white ribbons, wearing a black and white dress leaving her shoulders bare, detached sleeves covering her hands with her fingers free, and black shoes with black and white socks. "Noire."

Noire couldn't get used to that look. Her own sister staring back at her like that, especially when they shared the same eyes. "...Did you get Histoire's message?"

"Yes. Neptune wants to see all of us this afternoon, ...for some reason," her sister said coldly.

"Oh, good... Um, Histoire wanted me to deliver something before then, so I'm heading over early."

"Whatever."

Noire clenched her fist as she teared up. She hated to see her sister acting this way, but over the past year, she didn't know what she could do to help her. ...But she had to try something. "I... I know I'm always busy with our nation, and trying to help Neptune, but you know you can always talk to me."

"As if you'd care," Uni harshly shot back.

"Uni, I- I'm not the best sister, but you know I love you. And I want to help you. Are you... are you still thinking about her?"

"Hm, you can't even say her name anymore. Just comes to show little you care," Uni responded before walking off. "I'll see you in Planeptune later."

"Uni... why can't you trust me," Noire solemnly said, before turning around to head to the balcony so she could transform and head to Planeptune.

Helping Neptune was one thing... but how could she help her own sister?

"So, do you like it?"

"Yeah! It looks so awesome!" Venus said in amazement and excitement.

"Well then, what are you waiting for?" Noire replied. "Try it on!"

Venus happily grabbed the box, and ran to the bed of her new room. It wasn't super detailed yet, but Venus had only been born a few days ago. For now, it was one of the Basilicom's larger guestrooms, which was made into Venus's new bedroom, with basic white and purple walls, a nightstand, and a bed with purple blankets and sheets. Still, it was kind of strange, since Neptune used to share a room with her last sister, but now she had separate rooms from her new one.

Noire turned around so she didn't look at Venus changing, but she still wanted to ask something. "So, how have things been going for the past few days?"

Venus was silent for a moment, before saying, "everything's okay, but... big sis doesn't talk to me much."

"I should've figured." Of course, that small spark of hope Noire saw on Neptune's face the other day wouldn't have meant she was going to bounce back right away. This was going to take some time. "So, I'm guessing she's been working all the time."

"Yeah. I tried watching her one day, but... it's so boring! I don't know how she does it!" Venus complained.

Noire laughed. "This is going to sound strange, but it's refreshing to hear someone say they don't like work."

"Why?"

"It's... complicated." Noire took a deep breath. "You see... us goddesses need to get Shares."

"Histy was telling me about those," Venus commented. "They're the faith the people put in us, right? And they make us stronger?"

"Exactly. And we need to be as strong as we can to protect our nations. It's basically a loop, in a way. The point is, to get the people to put their faith in us, we need to do paperwork, approving and disapproving of things that'll help our nations grow."

"Oh... okay... So that's why big sis works so much?"

"Not... exactly... Like I said, it's complicated. You see... Neptune, your big sister, used to hate working. She was lazy, and preferred playing games and hanging out with her friends."

"Then... why does she work so much now?"

"Well... I think it's to block out the pain she feels," Noire explained. She knew that had to be the case.

"What do you mean?"

"You see, Venus, you're not Neptune's first little sister. Before you, there was Nepgear."

"Nepgear?" Venus was very curious about this second sister she apparently had. "Can I meet her!?"

"...No, you can't. Nepgear... disappeared over a year ago. We tried to find her, but... after three months of searching, we never did, nor did we find any clues as to what happened to her. So we had no choice but to give up."

"Oh..."

"Neptune was devastated. We all were, but Neptune most of all. Neptune loved Nepgear more than anything, and Nepgear was close friends with all of us, especially my little sister, Uni. Once she was gone, though, things... changed. Especially your sister. I used to find her annoying, but now... I miss the old, goofy Neptune."

"I'm sorry..." Venus replied sadly.

"It's not your fault," Noire stated. "Just... don't worry about what happened to Nepgear, and try to be the best little sister that you can be, okay? And try to make Neptune smile. She really needs it."

"But... how? She just wants to be in her office all day."

"Well... remember, it is important for Neptune to do her work. Histoire will always want her to focus on that. But it's also important to take breaks, too. And Neptune hasn't taken any. I've tried to make her take some, but she won't listen to me. But you... you seem to make Neptune very happy. So maybe you can do it."

"What should I do?"

"Well... make Neptune play games with you. She used to love them. Or, try taking her outside, let her show you around your nation. Once you've been announced to your nation, that would be a good time to convince her to take you out and show you around."

"But Histy says Neptune never goes out."

"Hm... well, remember how I said you have to protect your nation. That means you have to learn to fight, so you can protect it from monsters and such. So, try to convince her to take you out on some quests. It's been rather peaceful in Gamindustri, so there might not be many big threats to deal with right now, but there are plenty of smaller, low-stakes threats that the two of you could take on, so you can practice."

"Okay, I'll try that!" Venus finished with her hair, putting the last touches on her new outfit. "Done!"

Noire turned around, and smiled, happy. "Perfect. It's almost time. I'll check with your sister to see if you're ready to go."

"Okay!"

IF and Compa were in the elevator heading up to Neptune's living area. It's been a year seen their friend, and Compa was excited to see her friend. IF, on the other hand, was rather annoyed.

IF had long brown hair, part of it was pulled in a side ponytail by a leafy-looking bow, and green eyes. She wore her favorite, large, blue coat over a black tank top and black shorts, and blue boots with black socks. Compa had long peach-colored hair with matching eyes, held up with a hairband. She had on a light-pink wool sweater over her well-endowed chest with detached sleeves, a red plaid skirt, tight high tights with red heart patterns on top, wooly leg warmers, and white shoes.

This had been the first time they had seen their friend in a year, and Compa was excited. IF on the other hand...

As the elevator opened up, Compa happily skipped out, with IF close behind. Entering the main, they found themselves among all goddesses of Gamindustri, which included Blanc, her little sisters, Rom and Ram, Vert, and Uni, along with Histoire. Neptune and Noire, however, were not yet present.

"IF, Compa, good to see you again," Histoire greeted. "I'm glad you could come."

"Oh, it's so good to be back!" Compa exclaimed. "I wonder how Nep-Nep's doing."

"Well..."

IF was just glaring at the goddesses, of which Blanc noticed. "Do you have something you want to say?" she angrily asked.

"Well, you know, we were waiting for Neptune, and then she never comes. We call to ask what happened, and we're told the search for Nepgear is over," IF counters.

"And? What of it?"

"Well, you know, you could've told us beforehand! So we could've had a say in whether or not we should've stopped!"

Blanc was about to say something, but Vert stepped in. "Iffy, you must understand, we were looking for so long, and we found nothing. We didn't want to give up, but there was little point in continuing when there was no sign of finding her."

"I get that, but we were trying to help Neptune! And then suddenly, we couldn't!" IF replied.

"Iffy..." Compa said.

"And when we tried to go comfort Neptune, we weren't allowed in the tower! This is the first time we've been invited here since! Maybe if we were involved, we could've been there for her the whole time!"

Histoire sighed. "...I can't argue with that. Noire's been trying to help Neptune feel better, and she feels like perhaps she waited too late. I should've argued against Neptune denying your visitation."

"You're d*** right!" IF replied. "...Wait, hang on a second, Noire's been here?"

"Yeah," Uni replied. "Apparently, she even knows why Neptune called us here."

"Well, it's hard to refuse a goddess visiting your nation nowadays," Histoire explained. "Though it's not like Neptune gave her much attention before. Still, Noire is the only one who has come visit to Neptune after... what happened, and yes, she indeed volunteered to help out."

"Well, good to know she actually cares. That's one less goddess I'm annoyed at," IF commented, to which the goddesses began to step back and look away in shame. Well, Blanc was still mad, and Uni didn't react, though she clearly wasn't happy.

Before the conversation could continue, Neptune finally came out. "Wow, it's so good to see all of you!"

Everyone was surprised by how she sounded. "Neptune... you sound chipper. Last we heard, you weren't doing so well..." Vert noted. "We even were just talking about you."

"Oh, well, you see, something really exciting happened," Neptune replied, though her voice was still noticeable quiet, now that they were paying attention.

"Yes, indeed, Neptune's mood has improved due to what has happened in the past few days," Histoire added, "though I still think it'll take some time before she's back to her old self."

"Why do we care?" Blanc asked. "It's just Neptune. You really want her to go back to her moronic self?"

"Well... I would like her to still be willing to work, but-"

"Hey, hey, hey," Neptune cut in, "enough talking about me. We're here for the exciting news!"

"What kind of news is it!?" Compa replied.

"Yeah, this is getting boring," Ram added, who had been sitting back with her twin sister, not wanting to get into the adult's conversation.

"Well, let me show ya!" Neptune turned to the door she entered from and called out, "Noire, bring her in!"

Everyone was shocked by what they saw, as Noire walked in, guiding a young woman behind her.

She clearly was related to Neptune, but she wasn't her lost sister. She had the same light purple hair and purple eyes, but she looked a little younger than Nepgear, closer to Uni's physical age. Her medium-length hair was pulled into a side ponytail with a band that had four beads strung on it, with flat ends that had the letters ABXY on them, like the buttons on a controller. She was wearing a white and purple jacket, which was unzipped, revealing a simple orange shirt underneath, along with a simple string necklace with a round, white-and-orange-ish opal on it. She also had on a purple skirt over black tights, orange wooly leg warmers, and white and purple shoes.

"Wha-what?" IF replied shocked.

"She looks like Nep-Nep and Ge-Ge..." Compa said.

"Neptune, what is this!?" Blanc shouted.

"Well, my fellow goddess, let me introduce you," Neptune replied. "This... is Venus, the newest Candidate of Planeptune, and my new little sister!"

"Hello!" the new Candidate greeted cheerfully with a wave, before repeating, "I'm Planeptune's new CPU Candidate!"

"You- you got ANOTHER sister!" Blanc roared.

"Th-the heck!" Uni chimed in, who, like Blanc, was both shocked and angry.

"And I haven't even gotten one..." Vert replied sadly.

"Your outfit is really cute, miss Venus," Rom said.

"Aw, thank you!" Venus replied.

"Well, go on, Venus!" Neptune exclaimed. "Introduce yourself to the others!"

"Oh, uh, sure!" Venus bounced on over to Blanc, and held out her hand in greeting. "Hi, I'm Venus, Neptune's little sister!"

"You don't have to give your name each and every time, you know. We already know what it is," Blanc explained, as she grasped Venus's hand, and shook it in greeting, while trying to calm herself down (which, as you're about to see, wasn't going to last very long). "My name is Blanc, by the way. I'm the goddess of Lowee."

"Flan? Wow, that's a cool name! And you look super cute, too!"

"Thank you- Wait, WHAT DID YOU CALL ME!?"

"Yeah! You're super small and adorable! And you're hat is really awesome!" Venus continued, oblivious to what Blanc was yelling about.

"Why you...! Are you mocking me!? Stop insulting me and complimenting me at the same time!" Blanc growled.

"Huh, I don't get it? I'm trying to be nice..."

"Venus... you're just making her mad," Noire intervened. "Maybe it's time to talk to her little sisters."

"Oh, okay!" Venus replied, turning away from a still fuming Blanc, to see her sister. "Hi," she started, before getting her first good look at them. Turning back to Neptune and Noire, she asked, "uh, big sis, I think they're clones! They look like each other."

"Um, no, they're twins. That just means they were born at the same time, and happen to look alike as a result," Neptune explained, before quietly saying to herself, jokingly, "Well, maybe they could be clones..."

"Oh..." Venus sounded, luckily not hearing her sister.

"Hi, I'm Ram, goddess Candidate of Lowee," greeted the first of the twins. She had long brown hair with blue eyes, and was wearing a gray dress over a white shirt with a pink ribbon, white tights, and pink shoes with white puffballs and blue ribbons on them.

"And I'm Rom, the other Lowee Candidate..." her shy sister added. As mentioned, she looked like Ram, but with shorter hair, and she wore light-blue instead of pink (though the ribbons on her shoes were pink, the inverse of her sister's).

"Wow, nice to meet you, Rom..." Venus held out her hand, "...and Ram!" and she held out her other hand...

...Both pointed to the wrong person, Venus having gotten the two confused.

Ram, whom Venus confused as Rom, huffed. "I'm not Rom, I'm Ram! I just told you that!"

"Oh, sorry, uh... Rom," Venus replied, once again putting the wrong name to the wrong person.

"Really? You're a big dummy!"

"Ram, it just seems she has trouble with names," Vert intervened, "I'm sure she'll figure it out over time. Oh, and I am Vert, the goddess of Leanbox."

Venus turned to the green-clad, blonde woman, the next for her to meet, and voiced the first thing she noticed about her. "Woah... you're really tall..."

"Oh, well thank you."

"Is that why they call you Vert?"

"Hm, I don't follow."

"Wait, what are you trying to follow?"

"Oh, no, that's not what I mean," Vert responded with a giggle, "What I mean to say is that I don't know what you mean when you say, 'I'm Vert because I'm tall'."

"Oh, well, you're vertical, like in height," Venus explained.

Vert's giggle shifted to a full-on laugh. "Oh, I never thought of it that way. No, Vert means 'green', which is the color of my nation."

"Oh... Do all the nations have a color?"

"Indeed they do. My nation is known as the land of green pastures. And your nation, Planeptune, would be the land of purple progress," Vert explained to Venus. "...I am admittedly surprised, though. My height usually isn't the first thing people notice about me," she then noted, folding her arms under her large chest, giving them a bounce.

...Though Venus continued to be oblivious to this somehow, saying, "so what do they notice?"

"Oh, you haven't noticed?" Vert replied, with another bounce.

"Noticed what?"

"My bountiful chest."

Venus tilted her head. "Uh, I still don't get it. You're weird."

Vert got a despondent look on her face, while Neptune began to laugh and Noire said in shock, "she really can't tell, can she?"

"Vert's boobs are invisible to her!" Neptune chuckled.

Even Blanc was starting to join in the laughter. "Oh, finally, you get what you deserve!"

This reaction seemed to confuse Venus more, so she decided to move on. "Okay, I'm going to meet other people now! Bye, miss Vert!"

"Goodbye..." Vert replied, slightly distraught. All that flaunting, and somehow Neptune's little sister didn't even notice.

The next people Venus interacted with were IF and Compa. "It's nice to meet you, Venus," IF greeted. "Good to know Neptune got a new sister. I'm IF."

"I... F..." Venus repeated. "Your name's just... letters?"

"Yeah, just those two letters, though you can call me Iffy, if you want."

"So you're Iffy? Does that mean you're confused about something?"

"No... it's just a nickname," IF explained. "There's no deeper meaning behind it."

"Huh... oh... okay!" Venus replied, only sort of understanding what IF meant.

"Yeah, and I'm Compa!" Compa added, "uh... can I call you Ve-Ve?"

"Vivi?" Venus replied. "Like... a dog?"

"What? No! It's supposed to be a cute nickname!" Compa explained.

"Oh, okay. So what are you the goddesses of?" Venus asked, figured it would be a good question to ask, since everyone else introduced themselves as such.

"Oh, no, we're not goddesses," IF explained. "We're humans, we just happen to be friends with your older sister."

"Oh, that's cool. So, if your not goddesses, what do you do?"

"I'm a nurse," Compa answered. "If you got a boo-boo, I help make it feel all better."

"Like that bump on my head that I got yesterday," Venus replied, referring to something that happened the day before.

"Ooh, let me look at that!" And Compa began checking Venus's head.

Noire, who was still watching everything with Neptune, leaned over to ask her, "what happened?"

"There was an accident with the fridge," Neptune answered, not offering any more details.

As Compa finished up with Venus, IF continued, "well, anyway, I work for the Guild," IF answered,. "I help with surveillance on monster activity, and I also take on quests. Nowadays, I tend to help teach the newbies. I might actually see you there soon, depending on how Neptune wants to train you."

"Oh..." Venus replied, remember what Noire told her, "does that mean Neptune won't help?"

"That's up to her, though I would say that she probably should," IF replied, shooting a look to Neptune. She wasn't yet sure how Neptune was faring with her new sister, but as far as IF was concerned, Neptune had better be there for her sister's sake.

Neptune cheekily waved back.

"Well, I want both of us to join you, okay?" Venus told IF.

"Great! Can't wait to see you," IF replied.

"Okay, I have one more person to meet. Buh-bye!"

"See you later!" Compa replied.

Venus made her way to the last person she had yet to introduce herself to, Uni, who had gotten over her initial shock of Venus's introduction, and had slunk away to the corner of the room.

"Hi," Venus greeted.

"Hey," Uni said, disinterested.

"I'm Venus! What's your name?"

"Uni."

"Oh, Noire said she had a sister named Uni. Are you that sister?"

"Yeah, not that it matters," Uni replied, before pushing past Venus and leaving the room.

"What's HER problem!?" Blanc commented after seeing Uni run off.

"We haven't seen each other in a while," Vert noted. "Maybe something happened?"

"Still, she could've at least given her the time of day," IF said.

"Isn't it morning?" Venus asked.

"No, that's not what I meant, it's a saying," IF said. "It means to be polite to someone."

"Oh..."

Noire walked up to Venus. "Sorry that Uni wasn't very kind to you. I'll talk to her about it later."

"It's fine... so, is she a goddess like us?" Venus asked Noire.

"Yes, she is. She's is the Candidate of Lastation. We've just... had some trouble getting along lately. It's not your fault."

"Oh... do you think she'll be my friend?"

"I hope the two of you become best of friends," Noire said.

"So, Venus, what do you think of everyone?" Neptune called over.

Venus skipped over to her sister, saying, "they're great! You have so many really cool friends!"

"Glad you like them!" Neptune replied, though there was a hint of distress in her voice, making it seem as if she herself didn't want to see them right now.

Rom and Ram headed to Venus and Neptune, hoping to talk with them some more (and maybe straighten out their naming problems with Venus), while the rest of the goddesses gathered together, along with IF, Compa, and Histoire.

"Well, she... certainly is something!" Vert started.

"Yeah, we'll need to keep her straight, for sure," IF said. "She's definitely not the brightest."

"Well... she is a newborn Candidate," Noire argued. "Maybe she just needs time."

"But aren't CPUs born with pre-given knowledge appropriate to their physical age?" Blanc replied. "I mean, my sisters are kids, and they're probably smarter than Venus. H***, your sister's smarter than her!"

"But she's not the only less-than-bright CPU we know," IF noted, motioning towards Neptune.

"Yeah, but at least Neptune can get my name right!"

"Well, how often can people get HER name right?" Noire pointed out. "We can, but others have lots of trouble, for whatever reason. Maybe this is the universe giving us a chance to experience Neptune's frustration. I mean, Venus can't get my name right, so she calls me Nora."

Blanc chuckled at that. "Nora? Really?"

"Don't ask. What I want to say is... Venus probably has some strengths we haven't seen yet."

"Noire is right," Histoire added, "Venus was just born, and we don't know what she is capable of yet. And she might not even know yet either. Just because a Candidate was born with pre-given knowledge, doesn't mean there aren't things they might still need to learn."

"Right, and besides..." Noire looked over to Venus and the others. By now, Venus had started doing this ridiculous dance, and Rom, Ram, and Neptune were all laughing and enjoying the display. Rom was even starting to join in. But what was important was that Neptune was smiling. "...If Venus can make Neptune happy, then that's what's important."

Blanc and Vert were silent after that statement.

"Really?" Noire responded. "You know, I really am the only one who cares about Neptune. You do realize we wouldn't be friends and allies if it weren't for her."

"Well, perhaps that's why Venus is here," Vert said.

"What do you mean?" Compa asked.

"Well we're born from the wishes and the faith of the people, right? So, perhaps Venus was born because the people realized how lonely Neptune was without her sister, and they wanted someone to heal the emptiness in her heart. So, those wishes became a new little sister for her." Then Vert sighed. "...If only my people would notice the same thing for me as well."

Noire shook her head. "I get where you're coming from, Vert, but I'm not concerned with 'why' Venus was born, but what she does. I think she could help pull Neptune from her depression, but she stills needs to figure out who she is as well."

"Yes, again, you're right Noire. Venus will need to figure out who she will be as a goddess. Though the effect she may have on Neptune is hopefully a positive one. And adding on to that, they'll hopefully grow together as both sisters and goddesses. As of now, though, we must prepare her for her duty as a goddess. We still need to announce her to her own nation, and then from there, we have much to teach her."

Noire took one more glance at Venus and Neptune. "...Let's allow them to have some time to themselves for now. And then..." she turned to IF, "you said you could help train Venus?"

"Yeah, if Neptune would hang with us more often," the brunette replied.

"I'll make sure that happens. Neptune needs to be surrounded by friends, and Venus needs to get to know them too, so she can grow closer with all of us." Noire took one more look towards Neptune. This could a change for the better.

Author's Note: And now everyone has met Venus! Well, mostly everyone (sorry, while they will be mentioned from time to time, there will be no Ultradimension in this story, or Uzume and Adult Neptune, for that matter. I'm thinking of saving those for a potential sequel, but no amount of thinking ahead changes the fact that I need to finish story one before even acting on that.)

Quick note, I usually plan to make three chapters of any new story before uploading it, and uploading all three at once to start. But, since this story has a prologue, I would've counted it as one of the three chapters. But as I was finishing things up for this story (namely, drawing the cover art), I was so into writing this, I decided to write the next chapter right away. So now, under my logic, you get FOUR chapters to start. Lucky you!

I hope you like Venus's design. I think it's really good. I want to mention the beads hold her hair into the side-ponytail. I got the idea from a prototype design for Nepgear, where, instead of having the single D-pad hairclip like Neptune's pair of them, she was supposed to have hair clips that looked like the face buttons on a controller, including having the ABXY letters on them.

As I understand, it was scrapped because you wouldn't be able to see the letters in gameplay. And while I get that, personally, I wouldn't care. As long as know what they're supposed to be (you could show them in the cover art or a CG scene, for instance), we'd get the idea, and could just imagine they're still there. But whatever, it's not a big deal anyway.

Back to Venus's ABXY accessory, it took me a bit to figure out how to make it work. Eventually, I came up with beads with flat ends for the ABXY letters. It's probably my favorite part of her design.

Now on to some of the story events. When my friend proofread this for me, she loved the jokes I made for the introductions, especially for Blanc and Vert. If you are wondering how Venus could possibly miss Vert's chest, the way I see it, beyond her magnificent obliviousness, she doesn't really think about that part of the anatomy, it's not something she's concerned about, and add that to her stupidity, she can't process what people are talking about when they bring it up. (Or you could think of it as "Venus-vision". To her, everyone is flat.) Plus, the "Vert-ical" and "Flan" jokes, I thought was pretty good.

Actually, there's an interesting bit of... trivia? I don't know if this counts. When I first told my friend about this series, I mentioned Blanc and Vert, and she got annoyed at me because I mispronounce those names. Except, I did pronounce right... as they are pronounced in the games. As we figured out, apparently Blanc and Vert, which are French words in origin, are not correctly pronounced in the games. They seemed to have mistaken which of the words have the silent letter at the end.

Blanc, in the games, is pronounced with the C being silent, but in French, it's supposed to be pronounced as "Blah-nc" (sounds like it could've been the basis for the English word "blank", both of which mean "white"). And Vert is supposed to be pronounced with the T being silent, sounding like it rhymes with "bear". This is good to know, but now I can't unhear how they're pronounced in the games.

This might've been a flaw with the games originally being Japanese. Heck, there is precedence for my theory, because it is a joke the Neptune's name can't be properly pronounced, as brought up in the story. I couldn't tell why, I don't speak Japanese, but I will say, I find it really weird. I get the joke, but when they translated it to English, they kept the joke straight, and I find it weird to hear because Neptune is not that hard to say here.

But that Neptune joke is the basis for why Venus can't pronounce Noire, because that word is, objectively, a little hard to say, or at least, not hard, but weird to say in English (at least I think so), and for whatever reason, I thought Noire and Nora sounded similar. I mean, kind of, but not really. It's more like they're spelled similarly. My mind is weird.