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Aigis was excited for a number of reasons. Shinjiro was out of the hospital that day, and well, that was one cause for celebration. Along with that, however, was the fact her sisters were visiting. Well, not all of them, of course. She had a large family (at least twenty sisters she could remember off the top of her head), and only three were planning on coming to visit.
Who was all coming, again? Metis was, for sure. She never missed an opportunity to come speak with her. If she was remembering correctly, Labrys and Phaedra were also coming. That was a bit nerve-wracking. She never had gotten the chance to speak to Phaedra past a few casual hellos for most of their life...
No! Now was not the time to be thinking like that! They were coming to make sure moving had been alright, and she should be excited. She had so many plans, already. The main one being introduce the older two to her girlfriend… Okay, she could do this. Elizabeth was weird, but her sisters loved her and would support the relationship, anyway.
“Alright, Aigis. You can do it.” She was staring at the door, doing her best to stay calm. They could walk through at any moment…
In fact, she saw the colors that told her her sisters were indeed coming. Red eyes, something Aigis felt everyone had in her family. Well, everyone except for her. There were also the pale hair colors of her older sisters. A light green and a blue… When it came to hair, it was Metis who stood out, her hair black (or perhaps a dark blue).
It was interesting, seeing them after such a long time. None of these things would have struck her before, but now it was hard to ignore. There were so many similarities they shared, and so many differences. She’d never thought about it before… How odd.
“Sister!” Metis ran up to her, grabbing her by the hand. “How have you been? Is that one still around?”
“If you mean my girlfriend, then yes.” She nodded a bit. “I didn’t say I broke up with her, did I?”
“No, but…”
“Someone’s bein’ pouty again!” Labrys walked up, a smile on her face.
If someone who didn’t know where her family was from were to come up and hear them, they might be shocked. Labrys was really the only sister who seemed to carry the Kansai dialect strongly in how she spoke. It wasn’t surprising, though. Aigis did her best to hide her dialect (though it gave her a more stilted way of talking), Metis had spent time learning to hide it (so much so that she could speak as if she never used the dialect), and Phaedra had lived out of the house for most of her life (somewhere in Tokyo, actually, if she was right).
Just another thing about the sisters, huh? How odd, she really didn’t know what to think of her family. Well, besides the fact this family was odd. Second only to maybe Elizabeth’s, but did they really count? They seemed to be on another plane of strange, after all…
“Aigis…” Phaedra frowned and put a hand on her shoulder. “Are you alright?”
“Oh, uh, yes. Fine.” She smiled at her and moved some hair behind her ear. “Just thinking.”
“Whaddya thinkin’ about?” Labrys looked at her with a small frown on her face. “You hidin’ somethin’ from us?”
“Um, well…” She coughed a bit. “I want to introduce you to Elizabeth. She’s--”
“No good.” Metis stuck her tongue out.
“Metis…” Phaedra sounded as if she was ready to chide Metis.
“At least let us meet her first!” Labrys flicked Metis' forehead and shook her head.
“Now then…” Phaedra turned to face Aigis again. “Who is she, then?”
Aigis took a deep breath. Alright, it was now or never, right? “She’s my girlfriend, I want you to all meet her.”
Labrys and Phaedra both looked at each other and then at her, their eyes lighting up. It seemed they were excited, so as long as Elizabeth didn’t do something extremely weird, things should go well. Yeah, this was going to be just fine, she was sure of it.
“Aigis~” Speak of the devil… “Oh, are these those darling sisters of yours?”
“Yes, they are.” She nodded a bit and smiled. “You remember Metis, I assume?”
“The small, yippy one, yes?” Elizabeth nodded. “I do.”
“I’m not yippy!”
“Did I tell you? I purchased a collar for her! It should fit how she acts, no?” Elizabeth just completely ignored Metis there, didn’t she?
“Didya just say you bought our little sister a collar?” Labrys rose an eyebrow. “And it aint even the one you’re dating…”
“Labrys…” Phaedra kicked her sister in the leg with a hiss.
“Oh, are collars a sign of romantic interest?” Elizabeth tilted her head to the side. “Perhaps I should give it to a flirt to give to Metis, then?”
“I don’t want your damn collar!” Metis crossed her arms and frowned.
“But if I give it someone else first, it is technically their collar, not mine.”
“What kind of twisted logic is that?!” Metis just was not having this, was she?
Elizabeth frowned and shook her head. “It’s not at all twisted logic. It’s the kind of logic I usually adhere to.”
“...Is Aigis’ girlfriend even human?” Labrys looked to her sister and she shrugged.
“I honestly can’t tell at this point.”
Elizabeth cleared her throat then, before Metis could sling some unsavory words at her. “I think I will take my leave for now. Do be sure to stay close by so I can say hello again soon!”
“Oh, of course.” Phaedra was quick to act, always the type to try and be polite. Sort of a polar opposite of her youngest sister, hm?
“Yeah, see ya around.” Labrys seemed to be doing her best to not laugh. She was usually pretty serious, but a fuming Metis was just the funniest thing to her, huh?
“Alright, well, we’re going to go out for a bit, so after that, is that okay with you?” Aigis frowned as she looked over at Metis. She needed to calm her down, asap. It wouldn’t be pretty if she didn’t.
“Sounds just perfect to me.” Elizabeth left a kiss on Aigis’ cheek and was soon enough skipping away.
--
“Sister, what’s this over here?” Aigis sighed as Metis pointed to something else. That was her sister, not knowing much about city life.
“Metis, stop runnin’ off!” Labrys yelled this out as she ran off after her…
“Kind of defeats the purpose of what she’s doing, don’t you think?” Phaedra laughed a bit, shaking her head.
“Yes, it does. That’s just how Labrys is sometimes.” Aigis thought for a moment. “Besides, she is staying closer than Metis.”
“That she is…” The two watched Labrys and Metis, the former dragging the latter back to the group.
“You can’t just go runnin’ off like that! You’re too naive!”
Metis pouted a bit. “I am not!”
“Yeah, you kinda are.” Labrys knew her little sister too well to leave it as it was.
“Labrys…!”
“Oh dear--” Phaedra yelped a bit when she moved forward and was hit into by a somewhat larger man.
“Hey, you should watch where you’re going, lady.” The man frowned down at her.
“I’m very sorry.” There was the politeness again, a small smile on her face.
“Huh, what’re you smiling for?” The man looked at her like she was a piece of dirt. “How about you clean my pants, huh? You made them dirty.”
She smiled at him as she shifted to sit on her knees. “Not a problem, sir.”
“You don’t need to do that, Phaedra!” Metis was back now and her hands touched her sister’s shoulders. “Just stand up.”
“Come on now, don’t be a bitch.” The man chuckled a bit as he placed a hand on Phaedra’s head. “She knows her place, shouldn’t you too?”
“Excuse me?!” Metis was about to say something else, but well…
Saying something like that to Phaedra's little sisters was the worst idea. Enough so that she grabbed his hand and squeezed it almost hard enough to break bones. The man seemed to be very upset by this too, cursing loudly when he finally pulled his hand away.
“You’re gonna regret that later…”
“Oh?” Phaedra blinked.
“You can’t even do anything right now?” Metis snorted a bit and shook her head. “Pathetic.”
“No need for that, Metis.” She shook her head as she stood, patting her head. “He’ll realize it’s futile.”
The man scoffed and turned to walk away. “Sleep with one eye open!”
“No thank you.” Phaedra laughed a bit and smiled.
Metis stuck her tongue out as he walked away. “What an idiot!”
“You don’t hafta say that twice!” Labrys shook her head. “But really, you two! Why’dya feel the need to get involved?”
“I won’t let anyone talk to my sisters like that!”
“I feel the same way.”
The two seemed so sure in that, well, Aigis wasn’t sure she could say anything about this. They seemed to really care about this, it wasn’t like she could say anything if that was the case. It was almost sweet, in its own little way.
“Excuse me!”
They all turned when a high schooler ran up to her. She seemed look worried about something. In fact, it almost seemed like she’d been following that larger man? Was there a reason for that?
“Yes?” Aigis tilted her head to the side. Didn’t she live in the same apartment?
“Who’re you?” Metis frowned at her, crossing her arms.
“Oh, I’m Makoto Niijima…” She moved some hair behind her ear. “That man, he’s dangerous. You should probably avoid him.”
“How would you know that?” Metis really didn’t seem to buy it.
“He’s...been affecting my school badly. I’ve been trying to gain more information as the Student Council President, but…” She looked away.
Labrys blinked a few times. “Oh hey, I was one of those once, you know? Don’t go gettin’ yourself into a lot of trouble because of it! I know it’s an important job, but…”
“Oh, please don’t worry about it.” She shook her head and sighed a bit. “I won’t get into any big issues, I promise. I just wanted to warn you.”
“...If you’re sure.” Labrys looked like she wanted to say more, but decided against it.
Metis, however, had no reason to dice her words. “Good luck, looks like you’re gonna need it.”
--
When they made it back to the apartments, things went to hell really quickly. It took no time at all, really. It was almost impressive, in a lot of ways. She’d never seen something like this happen so quickly, and it started so simple too.
A man approached, a yellow scarf wrapped around his neck. He seemed...pleasant enough, but something about him was off putting, at least to Aigis. She actually wanted to push her sisters back and talk to him herself, leave them out of this. Too bad he seemed interested in all of them.
“Hello ladies!”
“Who are you?” Aigis wasted no time.
“Oh?” He blinked a few times. “I’m Ryoji Mochizuki! My cousins live in the building, actually.”
“Then what does that hafta do with us?” Labrys frowned, seemingly confused.
“Yes...I don’t think we know them. Well, Aigis might, but not the rest of us.” Phaedra smiled at him, feeling just a bit bad about all of this.
“Oh, well, nothing about my cousins, I was just explaining who I was.” He smiled and turned to look at Metis. “Oh!”
“Oh what?” Aigis moved to block off her little twin from him. No way was she letting him near her.
“I was asked to give something to a girl with black hair and a red butterfly clip in her hair, that’s all!” He held up his hands defensively.
Aigis didn’t seem to want to back off, but Phaedra put a hand on her shoulder. “Let’s just see where this goes.”
“...Fine.”
Metis sighed a bit, fiddling with the clip in her hair. “What do you want, then?”
Ryoji reached into his pocket with a hum and produced...a collar. “The elevator attendant asked me to give this to you--”
It took no time at all for Metis to start choking to poor fool with his own scarf. That was to be expected, seeing as how badly she’d reacted to the collar before when Elizabeth produced it. The fact he wasn’t important to Aigis and had such an easy to grab scarf didn’t help either.
“Should we do somethin’?” Labrys looked over at her little sister and sighed.
“...Maybe we should let her get her anger out.” Phaedra sighed, shaking her head.
“We should ask Elizabeth why she thought this was a good idea.” Aigis sighed, shaking her head.
“You called~?” Speak of the devil…
“Why did you give that to him?” Aigis frowned.
“The other flirts I found had no interest!” Elizabeth shrugged. “One’s afraid of me, another’s in love now apparently, I was thinking Theo but you’d see past that and he’s busy with Shinjiro, and …Well, he would do it for money.”
“Is that so?” Aigis sighed. “How much?”
“Enough for dinner if he offered it to her, double if he finds a way to get it on her!” Elizabeth smiled happily.
“Is it worth it though?” Labrys frowned as she peeked back at Metis.
“I don’t think so, I feel he should have asked enough for his hospital bills…” Phaedra shook her head.
“Is that so?” Elizabeth thought for a moment. “Well, then if he gets it on her, I’ll pay all his medical expenses!”
“Elizabeth…” Aigis sighed, shaking her head. “He’ll need a funeral if he does that.”
“Hey!” They both looked over and Ryoji was waving, somehow doing fine. However, that wasn’t going to last. Why? There was now a collar on Metis and she looked very angry.
“Looks like you gotta ‘bout five seconds to get that off her before she attacks you again…” Labrys looked away. “I don’t wanna see it.”
“We’ll keep you in our thoughts.” Phaedra smiled at him.
Elizabeth tapped her chin. “Perhaps we should stop her…”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea…” Phaedra shook her head.
“She’s gonna go at it until she’s not angry anymore.”
“Just call the ambulance ahead of time, Elizabeth.” That was about all Aigis could suggest in that moment.
“I see. Should we film this at video evidence?”
“Let’s not, I don’t wanna have to bail her outta jail…” Labrys shook her head.
“Well then!” Elizabeth clapped her hands together. “Let’s just watch this and see what happens!”