Chapter 1: Lowee goes to Hell!
It was another normal morning at Lowee, both Rom and Ram were causing trouble for Blanc as usual while Mina handled some of the guild work. Of course, Mina's work had now changed quite a bit, instead of handling guild quests, it was trying to manage resources for pet owners across Lowee. Typically, people of their respective nations would just go to the nearest dungeon and befriend their pets there, but some more adventurous people do go further out and even near other nations' dungeons for pets. Consequently, this had lead to the need to import certain materials due to the changes in demand.
Two weeks had passed since the release of the popular Nep-Pet gadget, and Planeptune has stole lots of shares and changed the dynamic of the world economy, causing concern for the other nations.
"This is getting to be more troublesome than I thought, our nation budget simply cannot sustain the demands of pet needs for prolonged periods of time." Mina said, looking at the balance sheet in front of her desk.
"It's all Neptune's fault for approving such a ridiculous project, and now we're all suffering because of her." Blanc stated in response, looking down at her desk with one of the Nep-Pet gadgets that Neptune got to all of her fellow Goddesses for free. Not that Blanc would ever use something so ridiculous... at least not yet.
Of course, with the entire world hearing about the popular gadget, Rom and Ram overheard Blanc talking about it, and naturally, they'd go to ask their elder sister about getting them the shiny new toy. "Hey Blanc, can you go to Planeptune and get us a Nep-Pet too? I think it would be really fun to have our own pets~" Ram asked.
"No, absolutely not. Go read a book." Blanc replied, having been annoyed enough by the complications caused by the whole Nep-Pet craze, let alone letting her sisters stir up trouble too.
"But we just finished reading this book, it told us all about how to take care of Nep-Pets, and it does not cost too much..." Rom said, holding the book titled Taking care of your Nep-Pets.
"(Of course they'd publish a book to go along with this thing! Maybe I should go over to Planeptune, so I can destroy everything relating to these Nep-Pets...)" Blanc thought, clearly worried at how determined her sisters want the accursed gadget.
"You two, taking care of a pet is not as simple as you think, it is a huge responsibility that cannot be taken lightly." Mina advised, hoping to dissuade the twins from their idea.
"Oh yeah we know that too, we read about it in this book," Ram replied, holding up a book titled Taking care of your Nep-Pets Vol.2.
"(Responsibility... perhaps they can learn something from having to take care of their own pets. After all, how harmful can a Kupokitty be?)" Blanc thought, thinking over it might do good to give her sisters what they want and have them learn something in the process. Naturally, they were in fact protesting to Mina at the moment, and before it got noisy, Blanc had decided this just might work out. Standing up, she made her announcement. "All right, I am heading to Planeptune. Be good while I am gone."
"Yay! We love you Blanc!" Ram said happily while Mina looked at Blanc with rising dread.
"Don't worry, we'll make them take responsibility for everything that happens, even if they don't want to afterwards," Blanc said in response to Mina's reaction by her face. Heading out, Blanc got ready for a long journey. Certainly, she had no real motivation to head outside, and especially not travelling to Planeptune. However, the thought of getting her sisters to calm down and give her a little peace and quiet did seem good if all she had to do was pay the time and money to get what they wanted.
Throughout the travelling process though, Blanc started to wonder if this was really a good idea, the time she had just sunk travelling to Planeptune was bad enough, but now she was waiting to get into said store selling those gadgets. As if it was not bad enough, when she did reach the counter, she was greeted by Nepgear, IF, and Compa asking her purpose for coming to Planeptune, to which she could only admit it was buying certain things for Rom and Ram. In the end, she had bought a total of three, having a spare just in case she needed it for whatever reason. After finally getting out of Planeptune and finally reaching back home to Lowee, Blanc simply gave Rom and Ram their shiny new toy and went to her office to take a break.
It was now late afternoon, and Blanc could not be more glad that there was at last peace and quiet at the basilicom. At times Blanc wondered why Neptune did not just hand out one copy of the gadget to all the CPU candidates as well, though probably not even Neptune could have predicted how popular the whole thing would be, and just wanted the other Goddesses to test out functionality for fun, since this was Neptune after all.
By now, Rom and Ram had ran out to play with their new toys while Blanc is simply enjoying a cup of tea that Mina prepared for her while reading a book in peace. Peace and tranquility settled all around the Lowee basilicom, everything was as it should be, it felt like nothing could disturb the peace, everything was just too good...
Then it all happened. About 2 hours after Rom and Ram headed outside, the doors to the basilicom sprung open, and weird sounds echoing through the silence. It was obvious that Rom and Ram had returned, but what did they bring back? The answer would horrify Blanc and Mina for the rest of their lives. Blanc tried to ignore the noise with reading, but as the noise approached closer and closer to her room, she hoped nothing bad would happen... but unfortunately, things never go well in life.
The doors slammed open, and the first thing Mina saw was Ram riding on a Dolphin, the very same ones considered a dangerous species. Mina knew that was really bad situation. Really really really bad. She watched as the Dolphin floated across the room with high speed and somehow with its movements, splashing a wave of water at Blanc, getting her and her book all drenched. It was not the end though, because before Blanc could stand up to shout at Ram, an Ice Fenrir came rushing in (With Rom as the rider) and went right next to Blanc and barked loudly that Blanc's book flew out of her hands and Blanc herself almost becoming deaf.
"(SHIT!)" Blanc internally shouted, she not expect her sisters to take home loathsome beasts for pets, which would now annoy her for all of eternity.
Mina only sighed, Blanc's idea for giving responsibilities to her sisters now turned into a nightmare on top of managing a nation with pets. Worst yet, Rom and Ram just brought back two dangerous species of monsters as pets, which will no doubt give ideas to everybody in the nation to do something similar. Life was hard for Mina before, and now everything went to hell.
Two days later...
Mina and Blanc sat down at the conference room of the basilicom, barely awake after losing quite a bit of sleep from hearing the Ice Fenrir howl all night long. It was not all that bad, since getting their own pets, Rom and Ram have taken good responsibility to properly feed their pets (Even though at one point Blanc considered secretly feeding the Ice Fenrir red hot pepper to see if it would transform into a Flame Fenrir). Thankfully, for pet housing, there were development plans that Planeptune readily made available to all the other nations, so with the combined efforts of everybody, the Dolphin and Ice Fenrir had a nice cozy home.
Still, the drawbacks are massive, as cleaning up the animal shit was not something that Mina or Blanc liked to do at all. After two days of observation, it would appear that the pets also very much resemble their owners, and so unfortunately for Blanc, the Ice Fenrir continued to roar around Blanc while she was reading and the Dolphin kept splashing a water wave to get all of Blanc's books wet.
It was definitely not the worst thing ever, Rom and Ram could not be happier, even if it did sort of come at Blanc's expensive of her sanity. Of course, there had been times where Blanc really looked like she wanted to smash someone or something, but she would never do it, seeing just how close of a bond her twin sisters were forming with their pets. Mina understood this, and tried to soothe the ongoing headache that Blanc was always getting these days.
"I suppose things could have been much worse, but I am rather surprised at how Rom and Ram are pulling through with the responsibility." Mina said while massaging Blanc, knowing at least it may get better... only that today was the beginning of more rage. The silence was broken when Rom and Ram entered the room, asking Blanc to spend time with them, and them including the pets too, much to Blanc's disdain.
"I will be there shortly," Blanc replied, getting up and going over to the counter for some medicine to ease her headache. Only that the bottle had already ran out, tough luck. "Shit..."
Almost as if hearing the need, the floor near Mina and Blanc cracks open and up comes a Plum-met pipe. Jumping out of the Plum-met pipe was no other than the greatest scam-artist Gust, happy to offer "help" in this situation.
"Gust hears you are in need, I can offer something to cure headache instantly." Gust offered, holding out a big bottle with orange capsules.
"Does this even work?" Blanc asked, looking at the bottle with no label or price tag.
Meanwhile, Mina almost lost control, where as taking care of pets around the basilicom was already taxing, having a Plum-met break holes in the floor was definitely not welcomed. "Excuse me, but please use the front door next time you come here."
"Uh oh, Gust senses danger, and will take my leave now," She said as she jumped back into her Plum-met pet and it tunneled out of the building, tearing an even bigger hole than initially.
Mina walked back to her office room barely keeping herself together, everything was almost going wrong now. However, things got way worse when Mina locked the door, as the moment she sat down, the floor next to her cracked again, and the same Plum-met appeared and Gust popped out and dropped off a receipt, reading to 100000 credits. "Please pay within the next few days, thank you for your patronage!"
At this point, Rom and Ram came back to Blanc and was asking about why there was a hole in the floor, but before Blanc could answer, they heard from the oracle's room a loud roaring equal to that of a dragon, along with the sounds of furniture getting smashed up.
"Blanc... what are those sounds? Does Mina have a dragon for a pet?" Rom asked, having never heard of such sounds.
"No, I am sure she does not, probably just a vacuum..." Blanc trailed off as she ushered both Rom and Ram outside, knowing that even in her HDD form with her high HP and defence stats, Mina could rip her to shreds in seconds and decided that it was best to let the oracle calm down for a bit. Blanc knew how Mina looked right now: sharp teeth, a shaded face with one glowing red eye, which meant not even Arfoire would have survived in a battle. The lack of sleep had already been a huge burden, and now with an unexpected expense on top of managing a nation's budget, Mina had completely snapped.
The following day, Blanc did her best to mind her sisters while giving Mina the day off to rest as well as buying a replacement desk for Mina. In her spare time she had also boarded up the two holes made by Gust's Plum-met pet. Thankfully for Blanc, Gust's mysterious medicine really worked with treating headaches. Still, Blanc had now considered maybe getting her own pet. After all, keeping up with her sisters by herself was a bit much, and slowly thinking through about what pet, Blanc visited Mina.
Mina had all calmed down after the previous day, quite ashamed for losing her temper in the most embarrassing way possible. "Blanc, I am sorry about yesterday, it-" Mina began before Blanc excused her.
"It is fine, I was pretty tired too. Listen, early tomorrow morning I will be up early, I have a solution to all of this." Blanc said, confident that what she had planned would be good (At least that's what she thought). Walking over to her own desk, Blanc picked up the Nep-pet gadget that Neptune had given her, and along with the third one she bought from Planeptune, wondering if she would be using both or just one. In the end, she decided that one was probably enough and got to rest early. Before the break of dawn, Blanc would get right up and put her plan into action, she walked out of Lowee and into the dungeon she had in mind...
As the morning was beginning, Rom and Ram had gotten up and was about noisily with their business, and Mina could only hope that wherever Blanc went to, she would return soon, trying to entertain the twins and their pets was a huge task after all.
Finally, Blanc had landed at the balcony and turned off her HDD from the short flight, and when everybody saw that Blanc had returned, they ran to her. Blanc however, had a satisfying smile on her face, all her annoyances would be taken care of here and now.
"Blanc! Where have you been all morning? We wanted you to play with us." Ram asked, while her Dolphin followed behind along with Rom and the Ice Fenrir.
"I have been busy choosing out my own pet, and he will play with you guys from now on..." Blanc replied, before a giant shadow rose from behind Blanc. The form was mainly grey colour, along with a metallic tail and two huge arms. "The order is simple: Play along with my sisters and their pets."
"-BEEP BEEP-, ORDER ACKNOWLEDGED, KILLACHINE OPERATING AT FULL POWER." Said the giant robot behind Blanc, brandishing its Mace and Axe on each arms. Meanwhile, the reaction that came from Mina, Rom, and Ram were blank stares, along with Ram making a mental note of "Oh shit."
Rom and Ram had immediately bolted out of the basilicom the other way with their pets while Blanc's Killachine gave chase, and Mina, barely recovering from what she just saw unfold, confronted Blanc. At first, she had to figure out what Blanc exactly did: The CPU had gotten up early in the morning, travelled to World Maze, somehow preyed one of the sleeping Killachines from the mascot character's seal and made it into a pet of all things.
"Blanc... this is not a solution, that thing will maim both Rom and Ram." Mina protested, while Blanc had other ideas.
"It is fine, this special edition of the gadget that Neptune gave to all of us CPUs has additional control features, and so I have a remote control for that thing. Now, let's go to the Gamindustri Graveyard's Colosseum and get you someone helpful." Blanc suggested, revealing the 3rd gadget she bought days earlier.
"Wait, we now have 3 Nep-Pets here, a 4th would definitely drive up our costs, and didn't the Graveyard sink when we finally defeated the Deity of Sin?"
"That may be true, but the Colosseum stands at the highest point and has been kept just above the water. In fact, I saw a rowboat going there as I returned."
"But that still doesn't explain why I would need a pet myself..."
"Oh it does, I heard from Nepgear that during the battle with ASIC, you've taken the hobby to licking Rom and Ram, so therefore, I suggest we recruit the Replicant, you will certainly learn well from that."
Mina froze, she was not expecting this one. Of course, maybe she was at fault here for finding out from Nepgear back then and then trying to suggest copying CFW Trick, but none of that mattered now, there was a way more pressing matter. "Wait Blanc, first you have a pet that would most certainly harm the twins, and then now we're recruiting the splitting image of CFW Trick? We'll traumatise them at this rate." Mina protested again.
"But surely there has to be something to keep them in check... or do you want to keep cleaning up shit and break another desk?" Blanc replied, thinking that everything should be fine, it was not as if Rom and Ram could not stop a Killachine.
In the end though, Mina refused to go to the Colosseum, and instead tried to get Blanc to follow with where Rom and Ram could have ran to. Unfortunately, the time it took for Mina and Blanc to discuss the Colosseum idea meant that Rom, Ram, along with the 3 pets had already ran far away to some other place. She can only hope that Blanc's claim about the remote control was accurate and that nothing too bad would happen. Admittedly, it was a huge burden trying to take care of both the twins and their new pets, but still, this was not exactly what Mina had in mind when Blanc went out to get a pet of her own. In addition, Mina also did not want to blindly chase for the CPU Candidates when Gust could break another hole randomly in the basilicom while they were gone.
Note - The whole idea of a Fenrir pet was in fact, inspired by a fanart I've seen some time ago, the artist also included his/her own original monster for Ram's pet but the closest association I could make was a Dolphin, so I just took the idea and ran with it.