Sophia, Maya, and Steph were having a long chat in the apartment of the blondes because the little sister wanted to know what was going on. Sophia tried to somehow talk her way out of it, but Maya had had enough of that. She decided that Steph was way too nice of a girl and deserved the full truth. Because of that, she made her blonde tell the other one the whole story.

Naturally, Steph had a hard time believing it. Still, the little sister started to believe her once Sophia demonstrated her magic by creating a portal. She had no other choice at this point, after all. As all of that, her big sister having a grand adventure in another world for the past year, was a lot to take in, she needed a break and disappeared into her room for a while. This is what it looked like, at least. In fact, she was actually just collecting a couple of clothes because she was eager to join in on the adventure.

"A-Aren’t you a little hasty...?” Sophia’s eyes wandered between her sister clinging to her arm next to her on the sofa and the packed bag of clothes in front of them. “It’s a different world, you know...?”

“Exactly!” Steph raised her voice. “You know how much I like to go on adventures, camping, exploring, making friends, and all that! It’s a dream come true!”

"Right..." She had forgotten about that a little. "What about your current friends, though...? You will lose all of them...”

“It’s, uhh... too late for that...” The shorter blonde sounded a little awkward all of a sudden. “I got a little obsessed with your disappearance and how much I went looking for you that I lost contact with all of them... Same with everyone from uni... and or uni itself...”

“...” Sophia needed a moment before she hung her head. “I-I’m sorry...”

“As long as you take responsibility and take me with you and the biggest adventure imaginable, I will forgive you.”

“She’s good!” Maya sounded impressed.

“T-Too good...” The older sister had mixed feelings about the craftiness of her little sister. “W-What about mom...? She'll lose another daughter... Sure there's Sari now. That's the new sister, right? She mentioned it in the messages I got... Still, it’s not how that works, right?”

"I already told mom that if I ever find you and chaining you down doesn't work, I'll go with you wherever that would be."

“W-Were you always this scary...?”

“Only after you disappeared without a trace. It’s also mostly just figuratively speaking.”

“I see...”

"Also, mom and I aren't doing so well together lately... We're on a bit of a break..."

“Also because of me...?”

“...” She didn’t answer.

“I hate this... You at least have to tell her that you’re leaving! There will be no more disappearing!”

"That might be a little complicated... Mom and dad took an extended holiday from their jobs to live with Sari in more of a remote area to flee from all the buzz. They said that they even plan to go offline in the beginning. The three also just left a few days ago, so it will be impossible to get a hold of them right now.”

“Urgh... How convenient.” She didn’t like it. “I-I don’t want to create any more chaos, though...”

“You maybe don’t have to.” Maya faced her girlfriend. “Though, admittedly, you’re a natural in that regard.”

“How’s the truth going to help here?!”

“Hehe.” She let out a small chuckle before continuing. “When we arrived here, you said that we can never return once we go back because you can’t leave the portal open. Someone would definitely find it, after all. The same goes with an item enchanted with portal magic."

“I don’t even know if I can remotely activate enchanted items over here...”

“It’s worth a try! Anyway," Maya then pointed around in the living room. "This is your place, right? Isn't this perfect for a permanent portal?"

“Ah.” Sophia hadn’t thought about that idea yet. “Well, it’s rented, but no one’s allowed to enter it. We could also barricade the door from the inside to ensure that nobody can enter..."

“Perfect!” The white-haired girl clapped her hands. “This way, if Steph changes her mind, we can bring her back. You two can also meet your mother once you get a hold of her. We can also do some more shopping once we run out of the stuff we got~.” She got especially cheerful during the last part.

“I’m starting to like your girlfriend a lot!” Steph was becoming a fan of her.

“Most of the time, I do, too...” Sophia had some mixed feelings about it today. Mostly because Maya was a colossal piece of work the past couple of hours. The taller blonde also knew she was doing most of it for her, too. “Enchanting something might still be better in case something unforeseen does happen...”

“Enchanting...?” Naturally, the little sister couldn’t follow them.

“Ah, let’s see...” She created another portal above the coffee table and then grabbed one of the sofa pillows. Afterward, she partially put it inside the portal before letting it shrink around it. After a while, it eventually disappeared into the pillow. “The magic is now part of the pillow.

“I see.” She didn’t, though, clearly apparent by her confused expression.

“It will take a while before you stop being confused by everything she does...” Maya looked strangely sympathetic.

“We need a second item for the other side, though... So that it can be activated from both sides.” Afterward, she grabbed another pillow and did the same again. "Maya, please activate one of them so that we can see if it works."

"Sure." Nodding once, the incognito cat poured some of her magic into the pillow, and the portal soon opened again.

"So far, so good..." Saying so, Sophia did the same with the other pillow. “Perfect!” She looked at both portals with a satisfied expression.

“T-That’s insane...” Steph had a hard time believing what was happening. “The hard part starts now, though... I have to go to the other side to connect the portals...”

“You’re not going alone!” Maya instantly interrupted her. “I don’t want to be stuck here without you in case the portals close after you go through!”

"I don't get it at all, but I'm also coming with you!" The little sister had no idea about the current events, but she had no plans to let Sophia go anywhere on her own anymore.

“Steph... If you go with us for this and it fails, there is a very high chance that you won’t ever be able to come back...”

“I don’t care!” She had a very serious expression while staring right into her older sister’s eyes.

“I won’t get out of this, huh...?” Sophia looked at Maya with a wry smile.

“If she’s at least half as stubborn as you are, no.”

“Unfortunately, I’m about twice as stubborn as she is!” Steph only raised her voice.

“That’s possible...? You’re out of luck, then.” The white-haired girl smiled back at her blonde. “I’m also on the side of her coming with us, so...”

“Yay!” The other blonde liked the sound of that.

“...” Sophia went silent for a moment. “You have to write mom a message, though! I want her to know what’s going on! I don’t care that the two of you are taking a break from each other or whatever!”

“We haven’t grown that apart from each other!” Steph pulled out her phone. “I already sent her a message about how I think I found you, together with the picture of the two of you!” She then presented her chatlog with their mother to her sister.

“That’s good...”

“Maya, can you take a picture of us?" Steph handed the incognito cat her phone and clung closer to her older sister.

“Uhh...” She stared at the small and flat thing in her hand. “What is this...?”

“Eh...?”

“Steph, technology isn’t a thing in the world she came from.”

“S-Seriously?!”

“We have magic instead. For the most part, that’s a lot more fun!” Sophia gave her a thumbs up.

“The vibraty things aside!”

“Them aside, yeah...”

“Vibraty things...?” The shorter blonde also got confused.

“Ignore that.” Sophia did just that and faced Maya. “It’s a little like those tablets we got, just smaller.”

“Ohh!” She looked at the phone with greater interest now. "How does it work?"

“That’s a topic for another time.” The taller blonde couldn’t be bothered to explain it now and just opened the camera app for her. “Once it looks good, you put your finger on the big round button, and it takes a picture for you."

“I see!” Afterward, Maya pointed the phone at the sisters and waited for them to get in a good pose. Once Steph had sufficiently cuddled against Sophia’s side, she took a cute picture of them. “That should do it... Sophia, I also want some cuddly pictures later!”

“You want to cuddle with Steph...?” She tilted her head.

“You, you idiot!”

“Hehe~.”

“Are you two always this flirty...?” The little sister sounded a little envious.

“Eh?” The duo tilted their heads. “That wasn’t flirty.”

"Oh no..." She had a bad feeling about this. "Are there any more cute girls in that world...? If you two don’t think that’s flirting, I’ll probably get way too jealous once you actually start to. I can’t do that while being single...”

“I still get surprised by just how adorable everyone there is every single day!”

"Let's go!" For some reason, Steph sounded the most motivated yet.

“Yep. No doubt. You two are sisters.” Maya could only roll her eyes.

“Okay... I still have my reservations about the plan, but... If you send mom another message, we will take you with us...”

“YES!”

--

Hey mom

I found her!

I found the idiot!

Our idiot!

I told you so!

Sorry that I was such a pain, but there was no way I could give up!

She got roped into a bit of a mess, though...

I’m going with her for now.

It might take a while, but I’ll try my best to get back to you with more as soon as possible!

Have fun with dad and Sari during your timeout!

See you soon!

--

Afterward, she also attached the picture of the two to her messages.

“Was the idiot part really necessary...?”

“That’s the most vital part of the whole thing!”

“I agree!”

“You haven’t even seen the message!” Sophia glared at Maya.

“It’s pretty self-explanatory, though.”

“Urgh...”

"Are we good to go now?!" Steph's excitement was rising once again.

“S-Sure...”

"You might want to change your current clothes first, though..." Maya glanced at the shorter girl. She still was wearing her black jacket over an oversized white hoodie combined with relatively short black shorts barely peeking out under her hoodie and some sheer black tights that looked the exact opposite of warm together with black and white sneakers. “It’s a lot colder over there. Your jacket and the hoodie seem fine, but I start shivering just looking at your legs...”

“That’s alright~.” Steph smiled at her. “I actually like the cold a lot. Never been much bothered by it. Warm weather is my enemy... I’m actually the exact opposite of Sophia when it comes to all that. She turns into the textbook example of a cat once summer is over...”

"Ahaha..." The girl in question awkwardly scratched her cheek while waiting for Maya's retort.

“You really found your calling, huh...?” It didn’t take long.

"Y-Yeah..."

“Hmm...?” Steph was obviously missing some information here.

“D-Don’t worry about it!”

Afterward, using some sort of magic, Sophia tampered a little with the door to the apartment, making sure that no one would ever be able to enter it. Once she was happy with the result, she created another standard portal next to the two pillow ones. However, Maya and the shorter blonde decided that she had to use it last to ensure that nothing fishy would happen. Maya went through it first and was then followed by Steph, who, despite her excitement, was naturally highly nervous but made it without problems to the other side. At last, Sophia followed after them.

In her all-white storage dimension, the older sister first had to calm down the younger one, though. Seeing it for the first time was quite the event, after all. Once Steph was finally able to deal with the situation, Sophia connected the two portals of the pillows with each other. After their disappearance in the storage, Sophia returned to her old world again to collect one of the pillows. On the off chance anything went wrong, she was the only one to get back on her own.

Back with one pillow, the blonde tried to forcibly activate both, including the one in the other world, by pouring a significant amount of her magic into it. Inside her storage, her magic power had returned to her normal, totally overpowered levels. However, she still had to use over two-thirds of her total amount for both portals to activate. It did work, though, so they now had a usable portal between her old world and her storage connecting to the new world.

It took a little longer to explain everything that just happened to the overly confused Steph, but she eventually understood enough, or at least pretended to, so that the group could finally go on.