Why hello there, it has been a bit hasn't it? But I make my (less than) triumphant return and bring to you a peace offering of wholesome yuri, hopefully, that makes it up. As always I hope you enjoy

Synopsis: As the candidates celebrate a very special new DLC for their favorite MMO, Nepgear notices a tiny detail that the ever astute developers seemed to have missed.

"So when can you get on?" -Uni

"Hmmm as soon as I finish all of my quests and work for the day, what about you?" -Nepgear

"Same" -Uni

"Ughhhh you dummies, work can wait! This is super important!" -Ram

"Uhh Ram, aren't we going out with Sis and C-sha tomorrow?" -Rom

"Well those losers can wait!" -Ram

"Well if we all have work to do, we can get on after we're all done, how does that sound? :)" -Nepgear

The ever energetic group chat of the CPU candidates was buzzing even more so than usual, as Nepgear sat on the edge of her lower bunk, she couldn't help the smile that made its way on her features. Seeing all her friends this excited was something that genuinely made her happy, not that she wasn't excited herself, she certainly was. It's not every day your favorite game gets a new DLC.

That's right, the ever-popular four goddesses online 2 was getting a new DLC, and not just any DLC either… for you see,

"You and your little goddess-lites excited to see yourselves on the big screen?" Neptune asked as she peered over the railing on her elevated bed, seeing her younger sister this excited was always something Neptune relished,

"Mmhm, I'm sure Uni, Rom, and Ram are gonna look so cute in the game~" Nepgear cooed,

"You know you're gonna be there too, right?" Neptune chuckled.

Yes, this was a very special DLC indeed, for you see, it adds 4 additional NPCs to the game, 4 special ones indeed. Black Sister, Purple Sister, White Sister Blue, and Pink all are added in the DLC, and it wasn't just that! They also added on an additional story segment to be completed with it!

"Ehh… it's kinda embarrassing to see me in a game…" Nepgear nervously explained

"What do you mean? My adorable smokin' younger sister is making her grand debut! Me and the gals are hopping on ourselves to beat the story as soon as it comes out!" Neptune jovially explained, "Even if Noire is the biggest tsun ever, and perhaps Vert is a little too excited, and Blanc had to threaten the programmers with a giant hammer so that it's impossible to low angle camera shot the youngins; they all are super excited in their own way"

"I mean I'm definitely excited, just a little nervous is all haha" Nepgear scratched her neck, looking down at her phone to see a collection of messages waiting for her, somehow they had devolved into discussing the pros and cons of magic and firearms. With a sigh, Nepgear played her common role as mediator, and as the night wore on, and seemingly Rom and Ram either ran out of energy or were ordered to bed by a certain brunette, Uni and Nepgear said their parting lines, wishing each other pleasant dreams, before shutting off their phones for the night, waiting eagerly for sleep to overtake them as so they can play the newest DLC as soon as possible.

Nepgear was practically hopping as she made the all too familiar walk back from the guild hall back towards the giant sky needle she called home. Unfortunately for the unsuspecting monster populations, Nepgear tore through them with her boundless energy in no time at all, quickly finishing her laundry list of tasks, before turning them in, as she did every day, before making her way back home.

And even if she made the walk as quickly as she could, she couldn't help stopping to greet the eager citizens that surrounded her every so often. With a sigh, she excused herself for what felt like the 5th time as she continued on her way, eventually (and far later than she had intended) she got her way into her room, as she eagerly booted up her console, jovially she watched the progress bar march forward installing the talk of the day, looking down at her phone to see the impatient goddess in training she called her friends 'eagerly' discussing their plans,

"If that dummy doesn't show up in the next 5 minutes were starting without her!" -Ram (20 minutes ago)

"We can't start without Nepgear!" -Uni

"Ohh? And why is that!" -Ram

"Ughhh just because" -Uni

"Uni is right Ram, we need to wait for Miss Nepgear" -Rom

"Ok, I finished up, we can start whenever you guys want" -Nepgear

"Finally!" -Ram

Nepgear chuckled to herself at the antics of her friend. Of course, she knew Ram wouldn't leave her out, Ram had matured a lot over the years, and Nepgear knew how she valued all her friends. Nepgear couldn't help but feel proud of her, considering when she first met her Ram was… more than a little bratty, and got really jealous whenever she was around Rom.

As Nepgear looked at the game booting up she felt her eyes glow as she saw the altered home screen, now adorned with her and her fellow candidates, now looking significantly more goddess-like,

"Look how cute they made us look~" Nepgear cooed as she logged in, making her way to the designated meeting spot, and, expectedly, she saw the awaiting forms of the thief, ninja, and samurai.

"Took ya long enough" Uni started, offering one of her signature snide chuckles, as Nepgear nervously approached,

"Haa sorry, it took me a bit longer than I thought to walk through town, people kept stopping me" She explained the reason for her tardiness,

"Just tell them to take a hike, like I do!" Ram eagerly explained while Rom sighed, knowing full well this was not just some joke.

"I feel bad for the citizenry of Lowee… Rom, you are their only hope…" Uni deadpanned,

"Well, do you guys know where we have to start?" Nepgear moved on from the poor fate of Lowee, trying to get right to the point, and unlock their icons as quickly as possible,

"Oh… uh, yeah, there's a new quest in the guild, and an NPC in the chapel *excite* Blanc and our sisters already made their way to start it" Rom explained, and while usually, the group would usually take on everything together, the older sisters were surprised by the candidates insisting on doing it separately. Perhaps it was a sign of maturation.

After a little more catching up and small talk, the group made their way down to the guild hall, to start their adventure.

The group made their way through the dungeon, destroying wave after wave of disposable fodder mobs. Many buttons were mashed, and much time passed, but soon, their efforts paid off as they spotted the jewel that lay atop the pedestal, gingerly, Nepgear took it into her hands,

"Look there it is!" She happily exclaimed,

"Alright, one down" Uni nodded,

"Wait, what?"

"Well we're gonna need like 15 more of these suckers then we can trade them back in town for a gem so we can give it to a gatekeeper, so he can let us into another dungeon where we fight a series of bosses to get the real gem" Uni explained

"That's insane, who designed a game this way!" Ram angrily complained,

"You… don't play a lot of MMOs, do you?"

And after many, many hours passed, the girls finally trudged through the last stretch of the dungeon, their sights finally upon the real jewel,

"Man I thought we were done after that seventh boss, but then, bam! There's number 8" Uni recalled

"I just… wanna meet us…" Rom whined,

But… even if it was more of a grind than anyone really felt was necessary, and even if they were up at an aberrantly late hour (Blanc had somehow been convinced to let the twins stay up, with a little push from a certain adventuress C), all the CPU candidates had to say they had thoroughly enjoyed the time they had spent together. Truly, gamindustri had nothing to fear, for, in these young budding goddesses, they were getting a group of dedicated true friends. Ones that cared about each other almost more than themselves, but who's to say really.

In any order, as the group finally (and I mean finally, I mean seriously, this DLC was meant to be completed in multiple days) made their way back to the chapel, and as they were many times before, a certain blonde was waiting for them,

"Welcome back chosen ones" Bouquet greeted as she always did, and despite the fact the group would usually run up and eagerly greet their favorite AI, they were far too tired to manage that feat.

"Heyyyy Bouquet…" Ram tried her best, but her voice faded as she yawned loudly,

"Haa sorry we don't have our usual energy, but we're a bit tired you see…" Nepgear scratched her neck as she explained the situation to the AI, who laughed nervously, before nodding her head, clearing her throat as she cut to the chase,

"Well, some very special guests are waiting for you" She brightly smiled as she bowed, making way for them to enter. For a moment the group looked amongst themselves, their excitement from earlier returning despite their exhaustion. Gleefully they made their way into the sanctuary, until,

"Welcome, chosen ones" A dignified voice spoke out as they entered,

"Is that… Miss Nepgear?" Rom asked, confused she looked beside to the mage next to her, who laughed nervously,

"Oh man, that's weird, hearing yourself speak" As they fully entered the room, they saw the scene before them. The CPU candidates looked at their own spitting images, fully adorned in angelic armor (decidedly much more covering than the ones worn by the CPUs, again, Blanc demanded it)

"Woah! It's me!" Ram yelled out as she quickly closed the distance between her character and the model of herself,

"Hmm, and who might you be?" White Sister (Pink) looked at the ninja before her with confusion, before turning to her twin, "Say, are we sure these are the chosen ones? They look like a bunch of losers to me" The pink-haired AI smugly asked her blue-haired counterpart, and the real one couldn't help but chuckle

"Haha, they messed up on this one right?" She asked,

"Seems right to me" Uni pointed out,

"Haa yea, that's Ram" Nepgear seconded, after the betrayal from her two 'friends' Ram looked to her last lifeline, who fidgeted in place a bit, before quietly adding,

"You know, you do kinda act like that… sometimes… maybe" Rom tried her best to not sound harsh, but even still Ram could only hang her head,

"Man, do I really talk like that?" She asked, seemingly to no one, and the other candidates could only laugh for a bit, before they all turned once more, to face their in-game personifications,

"Ignoring the pink one, I'm sure you have traveled long, and endured much hardship to get here, and for that we are grateful, we thank you, chosen ones" It was Black Sister who spoke, bowing on behalf of all of them, and after a moment, the rest of the angelic AIs bowed in synchrony, even White Sister.

"Oh… uh, it was no big deal" Uni huffed as she flicked her hand through her hair, until noticing the stares from her fellow goddesses-in-training, "What?"

"Uh, Uni?" Ram started,

"Did you just act like a tsundere…" Nepgear continued the thought

"To yourself?" Rom finished, and Uni swallowed hard as she considered what happened,

"N-no! You're imagining things!"

"No, that definitely happened!" Ram mischievously giggled,

"Again, are we sure these are the guys? Anybody else having any doubts?" White Sister again spoke up, voicing her complaints

"Enough, Bouquet was very specific, wasn't she?" Purple Sister corrected her,

For around the next 20 minutes, the group stayed there, messing around, and conversing with their in-game versions, admiring the care and detail that went into replicating them in-game, sure their personalities were not perfect, but they weren't expecting them to be. But it really was remarkable technology, with how accurate they looked physically, and how much they sounded like their real-life counterparts, it was almost eerie. But, as Nepgear looked a little careful, she noticed a crucial detail that seemed to be wrong,

"Hmmm, say, Uni? Could you stand next to Black Sister for a moment?" She asked, nice enough, and after a moment of confusion, Uni obeyed, standing next to the AI,

"What?" Uni almost felt Nepgear's eyes peering through the screen, it was odd in a way,

"Hmmm, I knew it! They messed up! I need to contact the devs!" Nepgear proclaimed, and the whole group seemed to perk up at this,

"They… messed up?" Rom asked, and she and Ram looked at each other, before looking closely at the model,

"It looks fine to me!" Ram pointed out,

"Yea, what are you talking about, Nepgear?" Uni also seemed to be confused, and almost a little defensive

"I don't blame the devs for not noticing… but as we all know, Uni's boobs shrink when she goes into HDD, yet this model has her boobs the same size as her base form!" Nepgear proudly presented the fruits of her research, and immediately Rom and Ram began to do their own investigation, before coming to the same conclusion,

Uni, however, was silent. As the girls continued their conversation, they only noticed something was wrong when they looked at the bottom of their screens,

-player Uni has logged out-

"Uh oh"

"What do you think that means?"

"Think she got sleepy?"

The remaining girls looked among themselves for a moment, before Nepgear spoke up, "I'll talk to her… maybe it really does bother her?"

"What? Having small boobs? I mean it bothers sis a lot, so maybe?" Ram pointed out,

"But, Uni is bigger than sis…" Rom added,

"Hmm, I think it may bother her that she's the only one that gets smaller?" Nepgear asked rhetorically,

"Well who cares, she's being a big loser! Big boobs make you evil! Right, Rom?" Ram was quick to point out, "Remember what happened when sis got big boobs?"

"Hmmm yea, but what about Miss Vert?"

"Blanc calls her evil all the time"

"But… she's over a lot, and, and Sis says we're not allowed in her room when she is" While the two most innocent cinnamon buns on planet gamindustri continued, Nepgear mulled over all the past events, sighing before speaking up,

"I'm gonna talk to her, I'll see you, girls, later. Goodnight" she added before logging off herself,

"Oh, uhh goodnight Miss Nepgear"

"Bleh"

-player Nepgear has logged out-

"Uh, Ram? Shouldn't we get to bed soon? *sleepy*"

"Bleh, Blanc said we could stay up, and we should take advantage of it!"

(This proved to be a terrible decision)

As Nepgear looked around her room, she let out a deep sigh

"..."

Did it really upset Uni that much? In all honesty, Nepgear thought it was kinda cute, but, she supposed, she never really actually sat down and talked with Uni about it. And, she supposed, she did bring it up a few more times than was necessary, but she didn't think it actually bothered her that much.

Gulping as she looked down at her phone, Nepgear mulled it over for a moment, before shaking her head. It was her fault Uni was like this, and she had to fix it, in person. Getting up, and making her way down the hall, she was surprised to see the light in the kitchen was one, figuring she knew what that meant she continued on her way,

"Oh hey Nep Jr, you and your lil gal pals enjoying yourselves?" Neptune asked as she continued her rummaging through the fridge,

"Well, it was going good…" Nepgear responded, and for a moment Neptune paused, and slowly peaked her head out of the fridge,

"Hmmm was it too difficult, and the twins had a freakout? I know that 5th boss was pretty brutal" Neptune sagely nodded her head,

"No…"

"Hmmm, you find a game-breaking bug? Hackers? Cheetahs?"

No… I said something mean to Uni, I didn't mean it tho, and she just left." Nepgear explained, and Neptune scrunched her face for a moment,

"Hmm… say, what happened?" Neptune asked,

"Well… you know how Uni's erm her chest gets smaller when she transforms to HDD?" Nepgear started,

"Does it now? Ha, Blanc'll think that's funny"

"Well, I noticed in the game, the Uni model, it has her chest the same size as her base form, and when I pointed it out, Uni went silent, and then just logged out" Nepgear pushed her fingers together as she explained the situation,

"So what're you gonna do?" Neptune asked as she lazily stuffed her mouth with some leftovers from a few days ago,

"I… I don't know, talk to her maybe? If it's bothering her… then I'd feel terrible for bringing it up as much as I have…"

"Well if she's anything like Blanc then I don't know what good that'll do, although if Vert is to be believed…" Neptune pondered for a moment, and in the moment, Nepgear seemed to think it over, before speaking once more,

"If there's even a chance, then I have to take it" She spoke, determined,

"That's my Nep Jr '' Neptune gave her a thumbs up as Nepgear nodded, turning to leave the building, after a yawn, Neptune concluded she had sufficiently stuffed her face, making her way down the hall back to her own gaming setup. Putting her headset on, she was greeted by the pleasant conversation her good friends were having at the moment,

"I SWEAR TO GO TITS FOR BRAINS I SAID YOU'RE NOT ALLOWED TO POSE THEM LIKE THAT" You, dear reader, get one guess as to who that was. If you answered Blanc you get a cookie.

"Fufu then you must love my brains my dear princess" The ever suave voice of a certain tea-loving blonde cooly responded, and after a moment of reflection on what the words meant…

No earplugs on planet earth could have prepared the poor CPUs of Lastation and Planeptune for the eruption issued by the Loweean. So, par for the course as far as Neptune was concerned.

A little over 15 minutes passed as Nepgear prepared herself for what she would have to say. Or more accurately she prepared herself for what Uni would say, would she be mad? Would she be embarrassed? Did she even want to see Nepgear? Nepgear shook her head, she would force the issue if she had to. As she gently floated along the side of the building, right to where she knew her best friend's room was.

Knowing full well that Uni never locked her window, after all, she was on one of the top floors, and the only people capable of reaching said window were her fellow CPUs, Nepgear carefully pushed the glass pane as she floated down, her feet touching on the ground as she deactivated her transformation.

"Uni?" She gently asked, looking around, she didn't spot the adolescent she was looking for, "Uni?" She asked once more,

"What? What do you want? Wanna make fun of me again?" Nepgear felt a chill run down her spine at the tone of her friend, looking around again, she finally spotted her seated on her bed, legs drawn to her chest. Her tone was, unlike her. While Uni often used a haughty tone, and got too embarrassed for her own good. This, this was defeated almost. Almost like she truly believed Nepgear was there just to insult her more.

"Uni…" Nepgear had prepared for a lot. This wasn't one of em.

"I know! You… you wanna make fun of my chest some more! Everyone always does, what's one more?"

"But… I…" Nepgear truly didn't know how to respond, in both of their states of exhaustion they seemed to be unable to truly think straight.

"Or, or! I know! You'll make fun of me for somehow getting even flatter in HDD. Hey? Don't Rom and Ram both get bigger than me in HDD now!? I'm so un-goddess like right? That's why I gave the devs the wrong measurements, I gave them my base ones… I thought, I thought no one would notice, but of course, you're right there to make me look so inferior again! Everyone always points it out an-" Uni's voice was silenced by a pair of hands physically stopping the words that attempted to leave the opening,

"ENOUGH!" The owner of said hands yelled, and after a moment of deep breaths, her hands fell to her sides, "Enough, Uni."

"But-"

"Enough" Nepgear immediately shut her down, her face contorted into a pained expression,

"Nepgear?" Uni asked softly,

"That's what you thought the whole time? Some friend I am" Her tone was unreadable, and soon after the words left her mouth, she shook her head, looking back at her friend, "Uni?"

"What?" Uni's voice was apprehensive,

"Who cares about any of that junk? It's all nonsense" Nepgear firmly said, and in response, the girl next to her gave her a quizzical look, "Do you think just because my chest is a little bigger, that makes me more goddess-like? Well, that's a bunch of junk"

"But… I'm supposed to represent my nation, my HDD makes me look so childish…"

"Who cares?"

"That's easy for you to say, you're already so gorgeous" Uni pouted, and Nepgear narrowed her eyes,

"That doesn't make me any better than you, I'm sure those people won't care when they see how brave and strong you are"

"..." Uni was silent

"You wanna know something else? I think you look very pretty in your HDD form, your drills are very cute. I only pointed out the devs' mistake in the game because I want everyone to appreciate the real Uni. Everyone should get to see the truest expression of Uni's cuteness" Nepgear smiled as she explained, and she saw her friend look up to her,

"Y-you mean that?" Uni asked in a shaky voice,

"Of course. Have you ever known me to lie?" Nepgear winked

"Thank you" Uni quietly added after a few moments of silence, and Nepgear couldn't help but feel her smile widen, "I'm really grateful I have you as a friend Nepgear…"

"Ahh the feeling's mutual" Nepgear gave her friend a hug, and the two stayed like that for a moment, before Nepgear stood up and made her way towards the window,

"O-oh, u-uhhh Nepgear… it's really late… you don't have to fly all the way back to Planeptune, you can stay here for the night if you want, but only because I don't want you to fall asleep while flying!" Uni nervously offered

Nepgear's smile got even wider as she made her way back into the room.

Welcome welcome, I'll get straight to it

Uni-bot- No I don't think I'll be doing that anytime soon, that's about as far as I'll push the rating in honesty

end5- I'll... leave that up to the dear reader's interpretation as to what Nepgear had in mind lol

Gigarot- Nepgear is Neptune's sister after all, the mischievous energy runs in the family i suppose, as they do say, a picture is worth a thousand words, and I'm sure they'll figure something out...