Chapter 1:
"Vert! What the hell is the meaning of this!?"
"You've surely gone stale, Jared. If it was like before, then you wouldn't have missed such obvious signs to begin with. Did the marriage dull your senses?"
"Tch…!" the Passerby curses for his lax in training.
She's right. Now that he thinks about it, the signs were already there. He only brushed it off since he had faith in Vert. But that carelessness, ego, and trust, has brought him into this very situation. Who would have thought that Vert would turn against him? If he was only prepared, then this surprise attack wouldn't have been too surprising.
"And don't think you can escape. I've been planning this since that day" Vert mischievously smiled at him. The passerby's mind races to find a way out of this.
"Now then Jared, shall we begin?
To our Nepgear Game Show!"
Confetti bursts from out of nowhere as a podium slid in front of Vert and the Passerby. They're spaced apart, with a giant television in the middle of them. The rest of the gang claps in excitement for the program to finally start.
"Wait what!? Nepgear Game Show!? I'm the topic of a game show!?"
"Yes, yes. My dear Nepgear, this game show is about finally determining once and for all, who gets Nepgear as their Little Sister" Vert answered.
"But, I'm already Sis' Little Sister!"
"Oh, c'mon Junior, lighten up. At least, you're now the star of this fic. Well other than that one which the author is having a rough time writing action scenes"
"…Don't excuse the author, Neptune. If the author is lazy then he should be whipped to shape" Blanc added.
"…That's right, me. Excuses like 'I have work in the morning' or 'I have writer's block' is a lame excuse" Blanc-II said.
"Ahuh. Says the 2 that can't even get decent reviews in their book despite collaborating" Noire-II retored.
"WHAT THE HELL YOU JUST SAID YOU TWINTAILED TSUNDERE!?" Blanc-II snapped.
"…No, me. Don't engage. They judge what they don't understand" Blanc-I quickly stopped her other self from attacking.
"…Kh! You're right. We'll get them someday"
"We've been dragged into something stupid huh…" Uni remarked.
"Woah! Games! Games! Can I play? Can I play!?" the little tyrant jumps up and down excitedly.
"…Now, now Peashy… eat the last of your veggies please…!" Plutia calms the excited kid down, as she plunges a broccoli into her mouth.
"Mgh!"
"Putting their failing books aside, what's the mechanic of this Nepgear Game Show, Vert?" the Passerby asked.
"It's simple. Both of us can choose one partner and whoever answers the QnA the most, finally gets Nepgear as their Little Sister. By the way, there's only 5 questions"
"Like I said, I'm already Sis' Little Sister!"
"Interesting, interesting…" the Passerby nods.
"Don't just nod!"
'If anything, this is a great opportunity to increase my teasing and bullying. Vert-I has been comforting Nepgear lately and it's resetting my goal where I lightly bully Nepgear to finally building a yeti detector. It's been 2 months and my research paper has been put on hold. So, if I get that, I'll finally be able to atleast get a doctorate on Yeti research… '
"Hehehehehehehehehehehe…"
"Nice meeting you, Gear. Thanks for raising us" Iffy-II said, noticing the devious smile on the Passerby.
"*sniff!* *sniff!* Ge-Ge was always there for me…!" Compa-II sheds a tear.
"I'm not dead yet!"
"So then, Jared! Please choose your partner!" Vert excitedly pushes the program forward.
"Oooooh, I get to pick a partner huh…" the Passerby considers his options.
Obviously, amongst the crowd of people, he should pick his wife. However, the problem is that this is a Nepgear Game Show, meaning, questions are going to revolve around Nepgear. Neptune isn't too keen eyed on her sister. So, the subtleties of Nepgear's day-to-day will be over her head. So therefore, there's only one answer.
"Uni, I choose you"
"EH!? Me!?"
"It's the most sensible choice…" Noire-II says under her breath.
"Wait! Nepu! I demand a probe on this decision! Why not pick your wife?!"
"Heh, I'm sure he's like 'Neptune probably doesn't' know a whole lot about her sister. So better pick her best friend then'" Noire-I said.
"Preposterous, I know more about my sister than the back of my hand"
"Oh yeah? What's her favorite food then?" Noire-I asked.
"Oh, I know this one, easy as pie… it's um…. It's… ummmmmmmmmmmm…?"
"Sis… that hurt" Nepgear is hurt.
"Nepu! No no no! I swear I know what your favorite food is!"
"Heh… can't even tell her Sis' favorite food" Noire-I smirked.
"Oh yeah? What's Uni's favorite food then?"
"Easy! It's omelet!"
"Wrong. It's ramen" the Passerby quickly corrected.
"What!?" Noire-I is shocked.
"Sis… that hurt" Uni is hurt.
"It's kinda embarrassing for me that my counterpart doesn't even know her sister's favorite food…" Noire-II shakes her head.
"I swear it was omelet! She eats them all the time!" Noire-I quickly throws in a counterevidence.
"…Don't you just cook omelet when you're stressed with work, Noire? I think she just eats your extras" Blanc-I said.
"Wait, what!? I do!?"
"…Ugh… so I'm this deep huh?" Noire-II reevaluates her work-life balance.
"No wait!? Really!? Uni is that true!"
"Um… yeah… I keep eating your leftovers…" Uni confesses her Sister's sins.
"Why didn't you tell me!?"
"Because you have these eyes that you're about to kill someone when you're stressed" Uni looks away as she explained.
"Wait, really!? I do!?" the scales have fallen before Uni's Big Sister.
"Yup. One day when I was visiting Noire. The whites in her eyes were so red it was like a jump scare" Neptune nodded to herself as she recounted the story.
"…I remembered when we had a conference call, and the pupils in her eyes were so small and shaking it was like she's onto something" Blanc-I adds.
"When I went to a convention, she wa—! Mmgmhgh!"
"No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop!" Noire-I covers Vert-I's mouth.
"Uhm… just to be clear, am I like that too?" Noire-II asks.
"…" no one answered her.
"Why are you all silent!? Am I really like that!? Really!?"
"There, there, Noire… At least you self-aware now…" Plutia smiles at her.
"That is not comforting at all!"
"…Take a look at the bright side. Your other self have fallen and now you're salvageable" Blanc-II added.
"Are you treating me like I'm some defective product!?"
"My, I think we'll be having less of those coffee incidents. Our future seems to be bright" Vert-II excitedly looks forward.
"So I am like that!"
At least you're not wasting eggs like her" the Passerby said.
"I told you that's not comforting at all! And wait, coffee? Am I really a coffee maniac at work!?"
"…" no one answered her.
"Why are you not answering!?"
"Putting aside the fact that the 2 Noire's have reached self-objectivity. I want Uni to be my partner" the Passerby said.
"Ugh… do I really have to?"
"If we win, you can spend a week with Nepgear. On a resort. Alone"
"Wait!? I'm the prize!?" Nepgear said.
"Hrmm… that is tempting…"
"Don't just ignore me!"
"Alright. I'll do it. But only because I want to hang out with Nepgear" Uni declared as she walks over to the Passerby's side.
"Now that that's settled, I would like to pick my counterpart as my partner" Vert-I said.
"An obvious choice" Vert-II proudly says as she walks over to her counterparts' side.
"And now let's get started! Starting with the first question!" acting like a proper host, Vert-I raised a palm before the TV, guiding our eyes to look at it.
The TV flashed white before fading out revealing a picture. A picture of…
"Maybe I've gone blind or something, but what am I looking at exactly?"
"It's brown!" Plutia excitedly says.
"I mean. Yeah. It's brown, light brown even. Fair brown?"
"…Maybe it's food? Like fried chicken?"
"The skin? It would look all ragged though not smooth"
"…maybe it's a skin of a book?" Blanc-I suggested.
"…there would be textures if it was. Since the shot was taken so close" Blanc-II adds.
"Um, I don't know what's going on, but I thought the game show was about me?" Nepgear asked.
"It is about you, Nepgear. Now then the first question. Please tell me the details of the picture" Vert-I asked the first question.
"Details? I mean, it's brown. So, what more details does it have?" Noire-II asked.
"Oh Noire, Noire. So naïve…" Vert-I shakes her head.
"I think you should say that to my other me"
*TING!* *TING!* *TING!* *TING!* *TING!* *TING!*
The electronic buzzer clips its sound as the Passerby's partner furiously mashes on the button with a vigor of a viking about to charge into battle.
"My, my. It seems we have someone that's not naïve. Yes, Uni?"
"H… ek" Uni whispers.
"The what now?" the Passerby asked.
"It.. er ..eek"
"?" the Passerby is even more perplexed.
"IT'S HER CHEEK!"
"Cheek!?" everyone chorused.
"Yes, it's her cheek! Her cheek! It's Nepgear's cheek when she sleeps! Don't you see how loose the muscles are!? How those pores are stretched? And how the cheek bone is slightly digging out! It's her when she's sleeping face up!"
"Wait! Wait! Wait! How do you know that was my cheek! And how do you know so much!?"
"In fact, I can tell that this picture was taken 3 months after we defeated the Deity of Sin! Because there's still remnants of skin cream on her because she was too embarrassed to show the scratches of her fights to others!"
"Again, how do you know that!?"
"Not only that! This was the time when she told me that she went on a quest that day and was trying very hard not to get too sweaty because she had to do more menial tasks afterwards! I have a recording of our conversation afterwards where she said she slept like a log that day! Dammit! Vert when did you take such high-quality photo!?"
"Hehe… unlike you, Uni. I have mastered all the techniques of sneaking into Planeptower" Vert-I sinisterly snickers.
"Espionage!? I knew it! I knew I should have gone training!" Uni cursed past self.
"Why master such a thing!?"
"I see… so there are parts of my Little Sister that I even don't know about…" the Passerby nods.
"Other me, shouldn't you have structured the questions where even I would know? It's unfair that you gave her a freebie" Vert-II complains.
"I'm sorry. But Chika said that we should throw in some curve balls" Vert-I answered.
"Again, don't just ignore me!"
Ignoring her, the TV flashed black, before a text appears flashing in red and white with confetti effects.
*CORRECT!*
"HOW IS THAT RIGHT!?"
"Um, Plutie. Do you know what's going on?" Neptune asks.
"Not at all! But it's fun!"
"Noires?"
"I'm just rolling with it. I think my counterpart is depressed right now" Noire-II points at her counterpart.
"I won't make omelets… I won't make omelets… I won't make omelets… I won't make omelets…"
The TV flashed white before fading out revealing a picture. A picture of…
"…Hair? Eyebrows?" Blanc-II tries to discern the picture on the screen.
*TING!*
"Not only is it her eyebrows! But it's her eyebrows when she's confused about something! In fact, based on the elevation of the eyebrows from their resting position, the light hitting the skin, I can tell that these eyebrows were taken back when she was heading into Virtua Forest where she got lost. The quest was about finding a dragon egg"
The TV flashed black, before a text appears with a red X mark.
*WRONG!*
"What!? Wrong!?"
"Yes that's wrong, Jared…" Vert-II snickered.
"What!?"
"Because it was a quest in our Virtua Forest where she got lost and was looking for a dragon egg"
*CORRECT!*
"What but how!?" the Passerby couldn't help but express his confusion.
"You seem to have forgotten Jared…"
"What?"
"That there's less trees in our Virtua Forest" the moment she said that the Passerby slams his palm on his face.
"Damn! Because our forest is denser than yours, her skin has a very slight green offset!"
"…I don't even understand what's happening anymore" Blanc-II said.
"…Don't worry. It's like this every time" Blanc-I added.
"…By the way, where's your Sisters?"
"…They're with Mina"
"Uhm, Neppy…? Where's Iffy and Compa…?"
"Oh? They're in the kitchen cooking dinner"
"Dinner!?" the kid excitedly says.
"Oh no you don't you little twerp! Eat your veggies first! You've been putting those green stuff off since lunch!"
"Waw… Neppy so mature…!"
"Now that our scores are even. Let's now proceed to question number 3…!" Vert-I announced.
[To be continued]