Nepgear and Uni said goodbye to their sisters. After that a strange silence fell over the house. “Well… They’re gone.” Uni said, standing in front of the doorway. Uni crossed her arms in front of her chest like her sister would before abruptly turning to Nepgear. “Nepgear!” She began.
“Y-Yes ma’am!?” Nepgear said, taken off guard by Noire’s sudden outburst.
“We need to get out there and get some work finished. Let’s go!” Uni shouted.
“Right!” Nepgear said, and with that she followed Uni out of the house. The two girls made their way to the guild and started looking through the dozens of quests. “Hunt monsters, collect herbs, collect scrapped parts…” Nepgear said, as she read through each quest.
“Look at this one.” Uni said, suddenly appearing next to her friend.
Nepgear glanced down at the request paper. “I’m looking for workers to carry out various jobs.” Nepgear read. “It’s signed Kei Jinguji.” Nepgear read.
“It looks a bit suspicious.” Said Uni, eyeing the request. “But I don’t see a reason to turn it down just yet. Let’s take the quest on.”
“Alright.” Said Nepgear.
A few moments later Uni and Nepgear found themselves standing in front of a small grey building. The building was only one story tall and it had two large black windows embedded on either side of the door. “This building kind of stands out, huh?” Noire asked, when she glanced at the buildings that surrounded it. Those buildings were incredibly large and were black in color.
“Yeah, but that doesn’t really matter does it?” Asked Nepgear.
“No. Not really.” Said Uni, shrugging her shoulders. “Come on. Let’s go inside.”
Uni and Nepgear stepped through the doors of the building and instantly found themselves standing in the middle of a large mess. The floors were covered in boxes, wires and papers that were nearly stacked to the ceiling. Located on the furthest side of the room was a large metal desk and a single girl sat behind it holding a cell phone to her ear.
“Yes.” The girl said, looking straight ahead at Uni and Nepgear. The girl motioned for them to come closer. “I understand that you’re busy, but I’m extremely busy as well. I just moved into my first building and I still have no internet access. How do you expect me to do any business without the internet?”
Nepgear’s eyes suddenly lit up with joy as she rushed forwards. Uni watched as her friend started dancing around the table trying to get the girl’s attention.
“One moment please.” The girl began. “I think someone is having a fit in my office. I might need to call an ambulance.” The girl took a deep breath as she moved the phone away from her ear. “Can I help you?”
“Me! I can build a device for you that can give you access to the internet for free!” Nepgear said, excitedly.
“Seriously? How long will it take you to get done?” The girl asked.
“Not long! An hour! Two tops!” Said Nepgear.
The girl eyed Nepgear for a moment, before she brought the phone back to her ear. “I’ll be in touch.” And with that, she hung up the phone. “My name is Kei Jinguji.” The girl began, getting to her feet. “And you two are?”
“My name is Nepgear!” Nepgear said, the girl was bursting with joy.
“My names Uni.” Said Uni, standing close to the door. “Sorry about my friend. I’m not sure what got into her.”
“Sorry about that, but I love building things like this! I promise I can build you a great device that will give you unlimited access to high speed internet with no slowdown time whatsoever!” Nepgear said.
“That is tempting.” Said Kei, scratching her chin thoughtfully. “How much would it cost to get this done?”
“Cost? Oh no. I’ll do it for free.” Said Nepgear.
Kei sighed deeply. “Then I’m afraid I can’t agree to those terms. It’s true that getting this done for free would be advantageous to me. I wouldn’t fee right taking advantage of your charity.”
“It’s not charity.” Said Nepgear, surprised by Kei’s response.
“She’ll do it for two thousand credits!” Uni said, suddenly appearing behind Nepgear and placing her hands on the girls shoulders. “But you have to supply all the parts and electricity she’ll need to make it.”
“I see…” Kei scratched her chin. “That price does seem more fair considering what I’ll get out of the exchange. Nepgear are you happy with the conditions?”
“Um… Yes.” Nepgear said, after Uni gave her shoulders a gentle squeeze.
“Great. When do you think you can get started and have this device finished?” Asked Kei.
“Just to play it safe. Three hours?” Nepgear offered.
“That’s more than acceptable.” Said Kei, extending a hand to Nepgear.
Nepgear smiled brightly and took Kei’s hand into her own. “Nice doing business with you.”
Uni smiled proudly. “So while Nepgear’s doing nerd stuff, what can I do to help?”
“Nerd stuff?” Nepgear said, in a small voice. Uni gave Nepgear’s shoulders another gentle squeeze which got the girl smiling again.
“Well as you can see. This place is a disaster area. Could you please straighten things out for me?” Asked Kei.
“Will do.” Said Uni. “But if you don’t mind. What is this business of yours?”
Kei smiled. “I’m glad you asked.” Kei began, as she cleared her throat. “You two have fought monsters in the past, correct?”
“That’s right.” Said Uni and Nepgear.
“During those battles, have monsters ever dropped any items?” Asked Kei.
“Yeah. Quite a few of them actually.” Said Nepgear.
“The items that monsters drop can be used for many different things. From synthesizing medicines, to creating new powerful weapons. That’s what my business is. To hire hunters to kill monsters, gather the items they drop and sell them to people or business for a profit.” Said Kei. “Of course I’ll expand my business to cover other things, but for now that’s what I’m currently focused on.”
“So these boxes…?” Uni began.
“Yes. They have items that monsters have dropped. You can shove those over to a corner. Right now I’m trying to find my filing cabinets.” Said Kei.
Uni smiled. “Well finding filing cabinets is my specialty.” Said Uni. “Nepgear? Ready to get to work?”
“I’m ready.” Said Nepgear. “I’ll have to go out and buy some supplies first.”
“That sounds good.” Said Kei. “Just remember to get a receipt.”
And with that, Nepgear and Uni started working. Nepgear headed out of the building and nearly an hour later returned with a bag filled with parts. By the time Nepgear had returned, Uni had found several filing cabinets and was currently helping Kei fill them with paperwork.
“How did you collect all these items?” Uni asked.
“I hired hunters before to gather these items for me.” Said Kei. “I knew things would be tricky at the very beginning so I decided to have some things to fall back on to help keep me afloat.”
“That makes sense.” Uni said, though she wasn’t actually sure if it made any sense or not.
While Uni continued to help Kei, Nepgear got started on her device. It took her a few hours to finally complete, but soon she was finished. “I’m done!” Nepgear said, as she plugged the small device into a nearby outlet.
Kei glanced at the device skeptically. The device was small and it flashed a green light. “Really?” She said, as she made her way over to her desk. After lifting the lid on her laptop she began pounding information into it. “It works.” Kei said, her eyes lit up with joy. “Thank you Nepgear!”
“You’re welcome.” Said Nepgear, blushing a little.
“May I have the receipt?” Kei asked.
Nepgear did as she was asked and handed the receipt over. “So altogether I owe you about five-thousand credits.” Said Kei. “I’ll send that to you right now.”
“Thank you!” Said Nepgear, who was bursting with joy.
Kei took a deep breath before she turned her eyes towards the floor. Even though there were still a lot of things that needed to be taken care of, Kei couldn’t help but feel a little better about things. “Nepgear? Uni? How would you two like to sign an exclusive contract with me? You’ll have steady work and earn ten percent more.”
“Oh… Well…” Nepgear began, her smile faded.
“Bad idea?” Asked Kei.
Nepgear shook her head. “To be honest. I’m not actually from around here. My sister and I are… doing something important and I’m not sure how much longer were going to be here.” Said Nepgear.
“As for me. I need to get permission from my big sister.” Said Uni.
“Your big sister is your guardian. Correct?” Asked Kei.
“Yeah.” Said Uni.
“I see…” Kei said, folding her hands together in front of her. “How about a verbal agreement then. Until Nepgear leaves and Uni get’s permission, you two will continue to work for me? How does that sound?”
Uni and Nepgear thought about this for a few moments. “So this is a legitimate company right? You wont ask us to break the law right?” Asked Uni.
Kei smiled. “I promise you. This business will be strictly legal. I actually expect all my workers to strictly obey the law.”
“Well in that case.” Nepgear began.
“We can agree to that.” Said Uni, nodding.
“Excellent!” Said Kei. “Would you two like to keep working today, or wait until tomorrow?”
“We can keep going.” Said Uni.
“Excellent. I was hoping you two could help me bring these boxes into the back. I’ll sort them out myself. I just need help moving them.”
Uni, Nepgear and Kei spent several long moments moving the boxes filled with items that monsters dropped into the back room. The back room was rather large and it had three long metallic shelves already filled with other boxes.
“Thanks girls.” Said Kei, after they moved the final box. “I’ll send you the credits I owe you. I’ll also inform the guild that you completed your quest to my satisfaction.”
“Thanks Kei.” Said Nepgear.
“Yeah. Thanks Kei.” Uni said.
For a moment Uni and Kei locked eyes with one another. For a moment, Kei’s cool business woman demeanor seemed to drop and a strange look appeared on Kei’s face. “Y-You know. It’s strange…” Kei began.
“What is?” Asked Uni, tilting her head slightly to the right.
Kei opened her mouth to say something, but pressed her lips firmly together and shook her head. “It’s nothing. I’m sorry to hold you two up. I’m really glad we met and I’ll see you both tomorrow morning. Around eight?”
“Sure.” Said Uni.
“See you tomorrow Kei!” Said Nepgear, and with that the two girls left.
Once Kei was alone she began rubbing her forehead. “How strange. I don’t know why, but I suddenly remembered something. I think I met both of those girls somewhere before.”
***
“Oh wow!” Nepgear said, her eyes were twinkling. “That was such a productive day! We got a great job, I built an internet device and we got paid so much money! That was amazing!” Nepgear said, excitedly.
“Yeah. Today was really nice.” Said Uni. “I think we should celebrate by buying us some dinner!”
“How about a pizza? I’ve been craving a Lastation pizza!” Said Nepgear.
Uni nodded. “I could eat a pizza. I know a great place too.”
After Nepgear and Uni reported their quest, the girls bought themselves a pizza and took it home. They celebrated that night by playing video games and eating pizza before heading off to bed.
The next morning they returned to Kei’s building to help her with several more items. Once they returned from work the girls saw their big sisters heading towards Noire’s house.
“Noire!” Uni said, excitedly running up to her sister.
“Hey Uni. How did it go?” Noire asked, patting Uni on the head.
“Good.” Said Uni, happily. “Listen to this Noire…”
Nepgear ran up to her sister. “Hi Neptune. How did everything go?” She asked.
“Great!” Neptune said, patting Nepgear on the head as well. “We managed to activate the next Fairy Tower and we found some really strong monsters too! Oh and Noire went kind of crazy trying to kill them all into extinction it was hilarious.” Said Neptune, giggling.
“Exclusive contract!?” Noire snapped, catching the attention of everyone on the street. “Exclusive contract doing what young lady?”
“J-Just work big sister.” Uni said, her cheeks were bright red.
“What kind of work?” Noire demanded.
“Y-You know. Work. I… I didn’t really ask, but…” Uni said.
“You’re not signing anything missy! Tomorrow I’m going to talk to this Kei Jinguji myself and read this ‘exclusive contract’ very closely. If I see one period missing or a comma used in the wrong place, I’m going to give her hell! Do you hear me?” Noire demanded.
“Yes big sister!” Uni cried.
Nepgear sighed deeply and smiled. “Noire really loves Uni, huh?”
Neptune nodded. “That’s true.” Neptune took a deep breath. “By the way Nepgear. You didn’t sign this exclusive contract did you?”
Nepgear shook her head. “Of course not.”
“Good.” Said Neptune, crossing her arms in front of her chest. “As your big sister you have to run every contract by me. I won’t let anyone take advantage of my cute and very smart baby sister!”
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