Today Mama brought me to the guild's tavern, it felt a bit scary to be near all those rowdy people, but I was happy to spend more time with Mama as she spent her day working.

Though I had to wonder what kind of work she was doing here right now... Being an adventurer was quite the mysterious line of work.

Nonetheless, it was still pretty fun to be here, the other adventurers may be rowdy, but they were also quite funny, and it was nice seeing they joke around with Mama, this was being a pretty nice day.

But then... Some shouts resounded outside... They were scared, I could feel that they were scared... Something was happening, something really bad was happening. The adventurers got up from their seats. Some were wobbling, some seemed almost unable to stand on their feet, some seemed to be flying due to not being confident in standing up on their own otherwise... The funny joyous mood was gone. They were rushing out of the tavern with weapons in hand if they had it, or with just their own fists if they were not... It was scary.

Mama got up, "You're going to leave too!?" I asked her while holding the hem of her skirt. I didn't want to be alone, they were being loud, their souls were being loud... I didn't want to hear it, I wanted them to stop....

She patted my head, "I'm sorry, I have to go..." I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes, don't go... "But it's okay, I won't leave you alone, I'll bring a special someone to protect you." A special someone...?

As I was about to ask it, Mama opened a portal, and from it fell a girl. She looked a bit older than me, had blue hair, some strange ears and... A tail in place of her legs? She was flying around too... What a mysterious girl...

"Vhera, this is Hikari, she's my daughter. Could you please take care of her while we handle this ruckus outside?" Mama said... Vhera? Is that the name of this girl?

"Okay, Biel! You can count on me!" She said with a huge smile on her face. "Then, let's go, Hikari!" Vhera held my hand, and flew through the portal that Mama had just opened...

Wa-wait, "Ma-Mama!!!" I shouted while extending my free hand towards her.

Mama... Did not take it. She gave me a warm smile, and once we finished crossing the portal, she closed it... I started crying. Why? Why didn't Mama take my hand? I'm scared... I wanna be with Mama...

"There there, it's alright." Vhera hugged me and gently caressed my back. "You're safe here, okay? Don't worry about a thing."

"... Who are you?" I asked her... Why did Mama leave me with her? I don't get it...

"Oh, she didn't tell you? Uhn... I guess... I'd be your older sister?" She said. I blinked a few times at that statement, "I mean, I view Reachii as basically my mom, and Biel is married to her, so... Since you're Biel's child... I guess we're sort-of-sisters?"

"I have... A sister?" I asked her in disbelief.

"Seems like you do!" She answered with a heartfelt smile... I-I have a sister... I...

I hugged her back... "Please take care of me, Vhera Onee-chan..."

"Aye aye, don't worry about a thing, I'll take care of you." She said while still caressing my back, it felt soothing...

After a small while like that, I stopped crying and got a bit of distance from her... Then I looked around and saw uhn... A very unusual room? It was... Filled with water?

"Where... Where are we?" I asked.

"Oh, this is Atlantis, the capital of the underwater mermaid queendom." The... Capital of the... Underwater...?

I was definitely surrounded by water... It was hard to move around, just like how it was when I swam with Mama on the hot springs... But there were no bubbles coming out... And I didn't feel wet... "I don't understand!" I said plainly.

"... You don't understand that there is an underwater mermaid queendom?" Vhera Onee-chan asked back.

I shook my head, "Not that! I don't understand how I can be underwater if I'm breathing normally? Yet how can I not be underwater if I'm swimming!?"

"Oh, that!" She said and hit the palm of her hand with her fist. "That's magic. I cast it on you before we came here, otherwise the water pressure would crush you, and you wouldn't be able to breathe, and your clothes would become see-through..." Vhera Onee-chan was scary... "Ah, sorry sorry!" She rubbed her cheeks with mine... Was she reading my thoughts!? How did she know I was troubled!? "Anyways, let me show you around, Biel can take us back wherever we are, so we don't really need to worry about staying here." She smiled, held my hand again, and started swimming really quickly.

"W-whoa!! You're so fast!" We were already out of the room, and soon out of the palace, and suddenly we were outside looking at a beautiful underwater city filled with lots of mermaids swimming around... It's beautiful...

She giggled, "This tail is not for show, you know? I'm proud of my swimming speed!" I don't think I'd be that fast even if I had a tail... "Come on, come on, I'll show you something good!"

Vhera Onee-chan started swimming up, until we were high above the buildings. I looked downwards and could already see the whole city from here... "So amazing..." To think there would be a city below the waters, I would never have imagined it...

She giggled again, "It is, isn't it? But we're just getting started! There are a lot more places to go!" She started swimming again, to the sides this time, away from the city, and towards some colorful underwater rocks. Vhera Onee-chan never let go of my hand, but she also didn't hold back on the swimming speed at all... It felt really nice.

We explored the underwater for a while. She showed me the beautiful colored rocks that were apparently called a coral, she showed me a variety of very unique fishes that I had never seen before, she let me taste some of her favorite algae that were absolutely delicious...

It was really fun, Vhera Onee-chan was nice to be around, she talked a lot and explained lots of things to me. I was happy, I wish I had met her before.

And then, at some point, a portal opened below us, and we were suddenly sucked inside it... Though the water wasn't for some reason.

Me and Vhera Onee-chan were back home. Mama was right in front of us... She was fine... Mama wasn't hurt... Mama came back... I hugged her tightly, I cried, "Mama..."

She caressed my back... No matter how nice Vhera Onee-chan's touch felt, Mama's was the best after all... I really loved being with Mama... "I'm back. Welcome back." She said with a small giggle.

And then, me and Vhera Onee-chan told her together, "I'm home!"

AliceShiki

Vhera is a very special case of a character... She was a mermaid NPC made by Reachii, I believe she was a princess, but I'm honestly not sure... I remember she was basically family to Reachii, but she didn't really have any blood ties with her... And I think Vhera's family was alive and kicking, so I dunno how exactly they basically started viewing each other as family... Maybe it was just a whimsical decision.

Either way, Hikari wanted to play around with Vhera for a long time, yet for some reason we never ended up going to visit her, and the one time she was brought around to the tavern, nobody controlled her and the story ended up not moving forward... Yet Hikari had always had a very strong desire to be Vhera's older sister... Yeah, older sister.

As I already said before, those episodes are in alternate realities. In this one in particular, Hikari is still a child and doesn't have her two older sisters that she had in AG. So Vhera would be her only sister... But well, back in AG Vhera was still quite young, while Hikari was a teenager, so Hikari would obviously be the older one.

I'm happy I was finally able to write something that involved Vhera, but... Tbh, even though I'm pretty sure I read almost everything that had Vhera appear in, I barely saw any traces of a defined personality on her. So it was really hard to do anything with her that I felt comfortable with... Which ended up leading to this story that ended up not having much happening at all. Though I still enjoyed it anyways.

What else...? I guess I kind of always wanted a sister? Hikari did have two sisters back in AG for sure, but I wasn't quite comfortable enough with myself to talk about myself proper, or to have Hikari have a talk about herself, before the two had left the game.

But... I've always wanted one. A sister that I could have some girls' talk with, that I could talk about my boyfriend, about my worries, about the things that are currently troubling me... But I don't really have one. I only have two older brothers that I am honestly not comfortable with talking about anything personal with.

I did almost ending up having a sister though... My aunt had a really sickly daughter from birth, and she had to give the parenthood of her daughter to my parents in order to let them keep the girl in a better hospital than my aunt could afford... The daughter died anyways though, and the aunt died a few months/years later... I dunno the exact timeline because this happened either before I was born, or when I was too young to know what was happening, I just heard stories of it.

But well, if my aunt's daughter had survived, she'd probably be my sister these days (since well, my aunt would have totally died either way, so the child would remain with my parents). I dunno if she'd be my older sister or my younger sister, but I'd have a sister to talk to regardless... I wonder if it's weird that my only feeling when thinking of this story, is a feeling of "Such a shame, I could have had a sister" instead of anything else... Perhaps it's because it involves people that I never met, so I just can't care much for their deaths.

I think that's all I had to say on this topic. I think I probably won't make any other story involving Vhera because I plain and simply don't know a thing about her character, so it's hard to try making anything with her. A bit of a shame, since I have been looking forward to this kind of opportunity for years.

Oh well, see you in the next one~