Chapter 11A: A Pleasant Day

"Is everyone ready?" An excited "Yes~!" reached my ears as I shouldered my purse. We received a call from Dr. Compa, not our Compa, saying that Plutia will be released from the hospital sometime in the afternoon. In order to celebrate, Neptune and I decided that we should take the goddesses out while I shop for new clothes for Plutia.

No I don't need my daughter to test out new clothes. As a mother, I can imagine my daughter in clothes I pick… that and it helps to cosplay as a hobby… not that I'm going to say that out loud.

Neptune had already left and was warming up the van we borrowed from Vert. Blanc decided to stay home just in order to get some sleep.

"Come on~! Let's go-go-goooo~!" Goddess Neptune bounded down the hallway wearing a jersey version of Neptune's favorite hoodie, she also wore a purple summer dress under it. "Come, Blanc~!" Pulled alongside Goddess Neptune was Goddess Blanc, wearing a autumn version of her jacket and dress, inspired by traditional shrine maidens.

"H-Hey, slow down!" Goddess Vert and Goddess Uni walked up behind them. The divine counterpart of Blanc's twin sister wore a dress similar in design to her regular dress, except that it was darker green and bore a couple of X's on it and dyed her hair with a temporary green dye. My divine little sister swapped out her dress for a pair of shorts, one of my old black and white striped t-shirts and a pair of pink ribbons I bought for Blanc while she dyed her hair white.

"My, my. They seem excited." Goddess Uni nodded as Goddess Nepgear walked up next to her. Nepgear had dyed her hair a light blonde and wore a comfortable summer dress that Nepgear received for her 18th birthday from Uni.

"Ready to go, Uni?" Goddess Uni raised an eyebrow.

"Why are you asking me when I got here first?" Goddess Nepgear giggled and moved on ahead, with the other two following her.

"No reason~." After that, Goddess Rom and Goddess Ram appeared with Goddess Noire behind them. The twins exchanged their winter gear for a pair of matching gray dresses with a pink bow for Ram and a blue one for Rom. The twins had their hair dyed a mint green, much to their enjoyment.

"Let's go, Rom~!"

"W-Wait for me, Ram!" My counterpart crossed her arms and sighed.

"These girls are too excited. Geez." My counterpart had died her hair white and let her hair down. Her clothes… are very nostalgic, especially since they were the clothes that I wore on the day that Neptune saved me from those creeps… and was assaulted by them. I giggled as I watched my counterpart tried her best to look annoyed.

"Is that true, then doesn't that apply to you too?" Ah, she flinched. Got her. Goddess Noire flushed as she looked around, trying her best to find an excuse, diversion or savior.

"Hey, Noire and… Noire from a dimension where I'm a girl! Are you two done yet?" And she got the third option in the form of my husband's loud voice. Relieved, Goddess Noire nodded to me and ran outside.

Geez… that girl would be more liked if she was more honest. Placing a hand on my hip, I heard footsteps coming from the stairs. Turning around, I see Blanc covering a yawn as she walked down the stairs.

"You…" Blanc couldn't stop the yawn. "...leaving now?" Nodding, the author rubbed her eyes.

"Weren't you going to sleep more." A shrug.

"I guess." Stretching her arms, Blanc gestured towards the door. "But I need to lock the door." But I have a key… "Come on now. Get out there before your hubby gets fussy." Nodding, I left the house as Blanc leaned on the front door. "Run along now." I waved at Blanc, giggling at her insistence.

"See you later, Blanc!" Neptune's voice came from the driver's seat. Blanc raised a hand before using it to cover her mouth.

"Bye." Blanc closed the door, the faint sound of it locking accompanying it. I walked towards the van and climbed into the passenger's seat, looking behind me.

"Okay girls, do you have your seatbelts on?" Goddess Vert, Nepgear and Uni had their seatbelts on. Goddess Blanc and Noire were helping Goddess Rom and Ram put on their seatbelts while Goddess Neptune swung her legs around, her's not on. Under the chorus of "Yes!", I narrowed my eyes as Goddess Neptune grinned at me. "Neptune…" My husband turned to me as I put a hand over his, stopping him from changing gears. I gestured to his counterpart.

"What?" Neptune turned around to see the other Neptune wave at him and then he saw the unseatbelted girl. "Hey," Neptune made a small frown as he stared at his counterpart. "Put your seatbelt on." Goddess Neptune pouted.

"Aw, come on~. It's fine isn't it?" The girl bounced in her seat. "This is so fun!" Neptune narrowed his eyes. Wow… it's kinda weird to see Neptune argue with… herself? My husband sighed and got out of the car.

"Stay there…" I could see Goddess Neptune's pupils shrink as she thought that she was going to get punished. "Here." Neptune reached over his goddess counterpart and fastened her seatbelt. "You see…" A hand stroked the top of the girl's head. "If you don't put on your seatbelt, you might get hurt." As Goddess Neptune was about to say something, Neptune poked her nose. "Goddess or not, I don't want seeing people getting hurt, okay?" The smaller Neptune nodded and mutter a quiet agreement, slightly embarrassed as Goddess Me snickered, causing her to pout.

Hehe… my turn. I put an arm around my chair and raised an eyebrow.

"Hey now… don't laugh at her." Surprised, my goddess counterpart pressed her lips together as her cheeks stained red. Now the others were beginning to giggle, which made Goddess Noire cross her arms and face the window, her entire face was as red as her… my eyes. Aw, I made her upset. I guess I should make it up to her la- Is that what I look like when I'm embarrassed?

"Alright!" Neptune returned to the driver's seat and changed the gear to reverse. "Let's go!"

"Yay~!"

After a half an hour of driving, we drove into a nice shopping district that had an arcade, a park, a movie theater, and a plethora of shops, hence the area being called a shopping district. Neptune, Plutia and I would come here often to have some time together as a family, sometimes Blanc and the others would come along with us.

However, there is this one shop in particular that I want to go. It is a custom designer's tailor shop where I had sent in a design of clothes made specifically for Plutia last week. It sounds pricey, but it's really cheap, you just gotta get the materials for her alongside a design.

But right now…

"Ice creaam!"

"That sounds like a heavenly treat, Neptune! What about it, girls!"

"Oooh, oooh! Me! Me! Me!"

"...I want strawberry please."

"I'd an ice cream too."

"I-I guess I'll some too."

"Ice cream? Well, I suppose we can get some."

"Mm…" I guess the girls have a sweet tooth to take care of…

"Heh," Neptune walked up next to me, having parked the car nearby. "It's a good thing I just got paid, huh?" Rubbing the back of his head, my husband headed towards the ice cream-starved girls.

Hey… I just got paid too… Wait!? Neptune, let's split it!

"Mmm, yummy~!"

"Hey Ram, can I try?"

"This smooth texture… the creamyness…! Oh, Blanc. May I have a lick off yours?"

"Buzz off, Thunder Tits."

"This is delicious! Right, Uni?"

"Yeah, it's not that bad."

"H-Hey! Neptune, this is mine! Get off me!"

"Aw, come on, Nowa~. Just a little bit."

"D-Don't you Nowa, me! I said get offfff!"

As Neptune and I watched the spectacle in front of us, I drank my strawberry smoothie and Neptune bit into his crepé.

"Neptune," Before he could respond, I bit into his crepé. Mmm… choco-banana~.

"Wha-Hey! That's cheating!" Neptune pouted as I wiped the extra cream off with my finger and popped it into my mouth. A smirk appeared on his face. "If that's the case…" Suddenly, Neptune clamped his mouth over my straw.

"Hey!" Take three long slurps, Neptune pulled away from my smoothie. This time I was pouting and he was the one smiling.

"Gotcha!" Laughing, Neptune pressed his shoulder against mine, which I happily leaned against.

"Hehe… I guess that makes us even…" Huh, it's awfully quiet for those gi-Huh!?

The goddesses had stopped talking and were staring at us, some blushing, like the little version of Rom, and others; like the divine girl that was my sister's counterpart, had their jaws dropped.

"Ah!? My ice cream!" ...Or like Goddess Neptune, dropping her ice cream. My husband immediately stood up and hurried over to her, handing me his crepé.

"Oh, poor thing…" I'm not sure if Neptune meant the ice cream of his counterpart. "Here, I'll buy you a new one." The smaller Neptune's eyes glimmered.

"Really!?" Chuckling, Neptune placed a hand on the goddess's head.

"Of course, come on let's go." The Goddess Neptune hopped to her feet, crushing the cone in her hand.

"Yay~!"

As the Neptunes left, the other girls turned to me.

"Excuse me, Miss Noire?" Goddess Nepgear called to me in between licks of her vanilla ice cream. "What are we going to do after this?" Oh right, I never told them why they were here. I guess they think we're here on a whim.

"Well…" I explained my plan to the girls, the divine versions of Noire and Vert nodding in agreement.

"That sounds delightfu-"

"I wanna play!" All heads turned to see the littler Ram holding her hand high into the air, her eyes reminding me of those comedy animes I've dubbed where a character's eyes would look like lines in certaij scenes. In fact, her sister had the same look, but instead of having a "v"-like grin and her hand up in the air, Goddess Rom's mouth was like a tiny "o" and she held her hands together.

Giggling at the small girl's simply plain desire, I pointed across the park.

"I had a feeling one of you would get bored, so we came here since there's an arcade over there." The energetic one of the twins hopped in her seat, hand waving over her head.

"Can we go there? Can we? Can we?" Aw, she's so cute.

"Well, I have something to do first…" Goddess Ram's face faltered. "Buuuuut," The littler Ram hung to every second, her eyes filled with hope. So adorable! "Neptune can take you there." As Goddess Ram's eyes glimmered with joy, the sound of footsteps approached us.

"Where can I take the little tyke?" Neptune had returned, holding a bag of what smelled like cookies. Wait, where's Goddess Ne- Oh, there she is. Sitting on Neptune's shoulders while nibbling on a chocolate chip cookie, the crumbs falling onto my husband's head and shoulders. I want one…

I explained to Neptune our situation as I reached for a cookie. Mmm… chocolate chip. Nodding, Neptune dusted the crumbs off of his head and shoulders before repositioning the other Neptune so she'd be comfortable.

"Alright, I got it. Okay," Handing me the bag of cookies- Oooh, there's still a baker's dozen in here. "Who wants to go to the arcade?" Goddess Rom raised her hand. Surprisingly, her twin sister did not. Rather, Goddess Rom inched over to me and gripped onto my shirt. Aw… Goddess Neptune threw her hand up into the air, munching on another cookie she held onto with her free hand. Goddess Uni tapped Neptune on the arm.

"U-Uh… are any light gun games there?" Grinning, Neptune gave the girl a thumbs up. Goddess Uni immediately threw a hand up into the air, her eyes looking like circles while making the same mouth when the small Ram made her stance on what to do.

"I-I wanna go too!" Nepgear tossed a hand into the air, staring at her sister and, technically her brother. Alright, that just leaves…

"Ver- I mean…" I can't say their real names in public, especially with how popular our counterparts used to be and still are! "Beru," The blonde goddess smiled at the nickname. Actually, she's swinging side to side and humming. Does she really like it that much? "...And No… No…" Even though I know you don't like it… Sorry. "Nowa," The girl that was basically me flinched and flushed at the same time. "What would you two do?" I know that Rom wants to go with me.

"Why, it'd be marvelous if I could see this tailor shop you described." Goddess Me, temporarily named Nowa, crossed her arms and huffed.

"...I'll go with you." Ah, she narrowed her eyes. "Just because we have to talk about something later…" I made her mad. Neptune laughed and balanced his goddess self.

"While we're at it, why don't we make names for everyone else?" Neptune placed a hand on Goddess Blanc. "You're fine, since our Blanc isn't here."

"Nice."

"By the way, who are you gonna go with?"

"Bigger Noire. Don't wanna deal with the noise."

"Oh, okay. Fair enough."

After that quick conversation, we finally made nicknames for everyone.

Goddess Rom was named Gii.

Goddess Ram was named Tee.

Goddess Noire was still named Nowa, much to her chagrin.

Goddess Vert was happily named Beru.

Goddess Nepgear was named Ge-Ge.

Goddess Uni was able to keep her name, all we had to was add an extra letter to her name, Yuni.

In order to keep confusion low, Goddess Neptune was named Neptuna while Neptune kept his original name.

"Okay, now that everything is set up. We'll meet back here in a hour." Neptune nodded, finally putting Neptuna down. Gathering the girls he would guard, Neptune guided them towards the arcade while I took my group down towards the tailor shop.

After a couple of turns and crosswalks, we reached the shop, MAGES. & Cave's Tailor Shop. Period included.

I know of this place thanks to 5pb. MAGES. happens to be 5pb's younger sister, who harbors a talent for tailoring, while Cave, a special friend of 5pb, helps prepares the materials needed and also acts as a stylist on certain days. I opened the door and walked inside, the store was a simple looking tailor shop, having a large table made to cut long strips of fabric while there was another table that had a wheel-type sewing machine. Sitting behind the counter was MAGES.. The woman wore a dress that looked like it was from that visual novel game that Blanc played for Vert's channel, on her head was a hat that looked similar to a witch's hat and by her side was a cane that she carved herself, similar to shepherd's cane.

"Hello…" MAGES. looked up from her phone and made a small smile. Heh, as emotional as ever.

"Greetings, daughter of Jinguji and mother of Planeptune," And as theatrical as ever, too. "What brings you to this mad magician's laboratory?"

"Hi, MAGES." I could tell that the girls were confused as to how I was pronouncing her name with the period, and without screaming. "I've come here to pick the clothes I ordered last week." Nodding, the girl went into the room behind the counter. Looking around, Cave didn't seem to be around. "Is Cave not here?"

"Negative, my comrade has taken temporary leave in order to handle a personal mission." Ah… 5pb. "It is unlikely that the Organization has captured her. After all, she and my sister are under my protection an-" Clearing her throat, MAGES. placed a box on the counter. "Here is the item you requested, forged through the most dangerous levels of alchemy."

"Thank you. May I take a look?" The woman nodded.

"My pleasure." Opening the box, I was treated to the sight of the clothes that I had designed. It was a baby blue dress made with pink bows, white and yellow trimmings and a white belt with a purple N on the centerpiece of the belt. It was designed to act as both outdoor clothes and pajamas, since Plutia loves to nap. Ooooh, look! There's even pink Goopy slippers! "Those are a present, for the little Planeptune." Handing MAGES. my credit card, which I had to use since I didn't have enough hard cash… ugh, I closed the box and helped the tailor place it into a bag.

"Thank you as always, MAGES." Tipping her hat, MAGES. nodded to the goddesses behind me.

"I should be saying the same, especially to these young ones." The girls blinked in confusion. "Seeing the clothes I had designed so long ago being worn flatters me so." MAGES. bowed. "Have a nice day."

"Ah… Now what to do." We still have fifty minutes to go. What should we- huh? "Blanc, what are you looking at?" My close friend's smaller counterpart was staring at a sign, which belonged to the store next to MAGES. & Cave's Tailor Shop, it was bookstore called Histoires & Arfoires. Oh that's right, Neptune's parents run a chain of bookstores after they retired from management… although Arfoire returned to managing me; she still works with my mother-in-law whenever she has time. "Do you want to go in there?"

Blanc nodded. Aw… this girl's completely honest.

Walking inside, I took a place at table while I let the girls look around. Gii was immediately drawn to the piles of picture books, Blanc looked over some reference books while Beru watched over her, causing the smaller girl irritation and frustration at times.

Finally, Nowa decided to sit down across from me. Resting one arm on the table, Nowa rested her head on her hand as she stared me.

"Hey… Noire."

"Yes?"

"You told me that loved your husband, right?" This question again? Okay then.

"I did."

"But exactly why do you love him." Geez, was I really this specifically curious when I was younger?

"Well, in all honesty, Neptune and I didn't get along when we first me." Nowa's eyes widened.

"Really?"
"Yes, in fact, we basically detested each other the first week we met. But as times change, feelings do as well." Nowa raised an eyebrow. "However, I can say this confidently: I love and always will love Neptune." Nowa looked away, her face dusted red.

"I-I get it. Geez!" The other three girls returned, books in hand. Blanc in particular was sparkling. It looks like I get to use the rest of my hard earned cash after all, and it's for spoiling the girls too~.

Although it's only been forty-five minutes, I decided that we should go to the arcade. Blanc was already reading her new book while allowing Beru to guide her along. Gii was holding my hand, happily humming a cute tune. Nowa was walking behind me, a smile on her face. As we approached the arcade, there seemed to be a crowd at the front of the place. That's strange, the arcade doesn't need entry fees.

As we got closer, there was an ambulance in the middle of the crowd… Huh? Did someone get hurt? That's horrible! Off to the side of the crowd was IF and Uni, both in their police uniforms, comforting… Oh… Oh no.

Wrapped in a blanket, crying her eyes out was Tee. The girl was scratched up, but she wasn't bleeding or anything, which is relieving. Yuni and Ge-Ge were trying their best calm the girl down. Neptuna was staring at the crowd, her eyes unreadable. Wait… where's Neptune!? Handing Rom over to Nowa, I rushed over to Uni and IF.

"Uni!" My little sister looked to me, fear in her eyes.

"Sis…" I looked at the girls.

"Are they okay?" IF patted me on the shoulder.

"They're fine…" I looked around. Neptune's still not here.

"Where's Neptune?" Both IF and Uni looked at each other, when Ram, eyes full of tears, gripped onto my sleeve.

"Aunty Noire… These big meanies… tried to hurt Nepgear and Uni… and Uncle Neptune drove them away… but I tried to make fun of them…" No… don't tell me. "They were in a car… and… and…" I wrapped my arms around Tee patting her on the head.

"It's okay… I'm here now." Tee cried into my arms as Gii ran up to her, worried for her sister. "Gii, look after your sister." If my guess is right… then…

Then…

Neptune's…

"Excuse me…" I shoved my way through the crowd.

"...ven seconds in the air before landing on his shoulder and…" Neptune… please.

"Pardon me…."

"...e's bleeding profusely from the head and his side…" Almost there…

Once I got through to the crowd, I finally got to the medics treating the man lying on the ground.

"Oh… god…" It...is…

"A hit and run. Yes, that's what caused his injuries."

His right arm was bent backwards….

Blood was leaking out of the back of his head and from behind the middle section of his body...

One of his legs was contorted painully…

But it wasn't just any regular person…

I ran past the policemen blocking the perimeter and dropped to my hands and knees next to him.

No! Please, this can't be happening!

"Neptune!?" My husband was lying on the ground, surrounded by paramedics as they lifted him into the stretcher.

"Ma'am, are you this man's wife?" I answered the officer's questions before told me that they were taking Neptune to St. Compa's Hospital… the same one Plutia's in.

...Why…? Just why?

I had to gather the girls and follow the ambulance to the hospital. But, as I got to the girls, I couldn't keep my tears from spilling.

Dropping to my knees again, I covered my face as the ambulance drove away.

"My family…"

…

Why?

Why is this happening to us?