The more you have...

We were both standing in the Sunshine Shopping Center or simply SSC. It was a huge building, over two kilometers long and one kilometer wide with five floors and additional food courts on the roof. According to Vio, this was the best place in our city to forget yourself and wail in regret after spending the entire life savings during one visit. Moreover, every seller inside was a part of the unified SSC system. Each customer could not only leave his belongings at the entrance but also register to obtain a 5% universal discount card. With it you could entrust your freshly obtained items to the shops in which they were bought and everything would be delivered to your home first thing in the morning next day.

“How did we end with two hundred sixty three positions on the list?”

I asked, pocketing the discount card with one hand and holding Vio’s phone in the other. Displayed on it was the list that we had created on our way here.

“Onii-chan, there are only the bare necessities in our bathroom like soap, shampoo, and a comb. Want me to say a few words about every cosmetic product I'm planning to buy? I also put a few things that can be used to make you more handsome. Don’t worry, I will pay for them and teach you the basic know how.”

“Umm… yeah, sure, but why?”

Vio got closer, and nudged me a little, pointing towards two girls standing in front of some boutique.

“They’ve already looked at my onii-chan three times, if I put some work into improving your image, you will be like my personal trophy making every girl green with envy. I would love to show myself with the finished version of onii-chan at my side in school.”

A quiet sinister giggle was coming from her direction.

“At least you’re honest.”

I took another look at the list and continued:

“But I think of myself as a person who’s rather well versed in the secrets of woman's wardrobe. I know how a maxi dress or a sundress looks like, even different types of skirts such as box pleated, bubble, gypsy or a ruffle skirt aren’t a problem, yet I have no idea what a balconette, babydoll, bandeau or tanga is.”

My little sister turned her head slightly to the side and looked at me suspiciously.

“Are you sure you don’t know that, pervy-nii-chan?”

Fifty-fifty.

“Nope, no idea, care to enlighten me?”

For a longer while there was no answer and when I was about to let her off the hook, she took the initiative.

“Come follow me, it will be faster to simply show you on myself.”

Eh? Show me? EHHH?!

She grabbed my hand and pulled towards a nearby lingerie shop, the swiftness of this action and her determination made me obediently follow after her.

“Wait here.”

“Vio, stop, I was just joking…”

An accidental peek or two is fine, but more than that will cross the line.

The last word didn’t reach her ears as she was already whispering with the lady working here. Standing in the middle of shelves full of bras and girly panties I felt lost and abandoned. The stares of women shopping here didn’t help to reduce the awkwardness of the whole situation.

I have to stop her, I don’t want to watch my little sister strip show!

But before I had reached this conclusion, both Vio and the shop attendant went inside the door behind the counter, which confused me even more as the changing rooms weren’t in this direction.

Two steps forward, one step back, turn, three steps forward, one to the left, turn, a shelf in front of me, turn, two steps forward - I was walking around confused, wondering if I should enter after them to stop this madness.

Three minutes later the shop attendant returned.

“Violet’s brother, right? Please follow me.”

It was time to set a proper line with Vio. I slapped my cheeks hard and followed after the elegant lady.

She led me to the previously mentioned door, there were a short corridor and a closed room for the employees behind.

“Violet’s waiting, please enter.”

I was hell-bent on not moving even one step inside and instead started speaking carefully selected words:

“Vio listen. I know it may not look like it and sometimes my jokes and teases are dangerously close to the border, but I really don’t want to cross this line! For me, in my eyes, you’re and will be my cute, lovely younger sister, so let’ stop this. This isn’t what we want right? Both you and I just need someone to be close, someone who will listen to you when you’re feeling down, someone to count on and play with, someone who will kill the loneliness inside our hearts. A person that we can call a true family-”

A muffled laughter put a stop to this heartfelt message. There were two sources of it. One standing right next to me, an extremely amused shop assistant, who was trying to cover her mouth with one hand and signaled with the other for me to continue, and the other, louder from behind the door.

The more my face turned red, the more it hit me what had just happened.

I’ve been had. That little brat.

Vio opened the door and emerged from the other side, there were no changes in her outfit. Happily, still giggling, she threw herself at me and hugged tightly.

“Onii-chan, who’s the cute one here? Do you know how many points you’ve just won in my book? Come inside, take a look.”

Standing inside the staff room were four female mannequins, each of them was wearing one of the pieces of lingerie I had asked her about.

“A special lesson on female underwear for my onii-chan! This is a delicate, semi-transparent, red babydoll. Quite an erotic piece of a nightwear hanging loosely on straps and covering the area from the chest down to tights.”

Started explaining Violet pinpointing the elements and features she was talking about. As a side that had lost, I could only listen silently in shame to her happy chatter.

“This one is a bandeau, it’s a strapless, sleeveless, elastic piece of cloth used to cover breasts. It has a nice sporty vibe. There are many color variations, but I like them blue.”

Before she could move to the third one, the shop attendant took that role upon herself.

“And this is Tanga. Please notice how the small red panels in front and the back are held together by strings on the sides. Despite its girly appearance and frills, there is also a version for men. The style of those panties and the word Tanga originated from Brazil.”

“Emi! Don’t steal my fun!”

Protested my sister and quickly moved towards the last mannequin.

“Ekhm… and the last one is a balconette. It’s a bra designed to lift and enhance the petite attributes of certain less lucky girls, but don’t mistake it with the push-up bra. Look at how nicely the black and white elements and frills complement each other.”

Said Vio, while Emi was ready to follow with additional details, they evidently knew each other while I was playing solo.

“The straps are set wider apart and it visually lengthens the waist, at the same time the upper body silhouette seems slimmer with more enhanced curves.”

Listening to a cute petite girl and a more mature elegant one giving me a lecture on lingerie wasn’t that bad, but the mushy words I had said were still making my face hot. The biggest shock was a realization that those might have been my actual feelings.

“Buy whatever you need, I will be waiting outside.”

“Onii-chan’s not interested in picking a pair of panties for me?”

“You’ve won this round, give me a rest.”

“Emi look! Red-nii-chan, so cuuute~!”

As there were many things to buy we sped up considerably after the lingerie accident. With a phone in hand, I was removing completed points while the shopping veteran Vio was planning our route.

Clothes, shoes, clothes, a short break to eat a crêpe and more clothes, she was making quick decisions and didn’t hesitate while buying, but from time to time stopped to ask about my preferences. Among the ones she had bought were some that really made me look forward to seeing her wearing them. However, I noticed that she was avoiding any accessories like rings, necklaces or earrings.

Vio had even managed to convince me to buy two sets of clothes for myself.

Next were cosmetic, beauty care products, a few extra kitchen utensils, a book about the Eprya history, three cookbooks, and some daily necessities. I stopped asking her how much she was planning to buy after the amount of spent money had exceeded my entire reserves.

When I mentioned school and asked if she needed anything for it, she said that everything was being kept in her locker back at school and there was no strict dress code, after all, ‘how those little bitches can show off their super expensive brand clothes with a dress code in place?’.

After that came the time to buy electronics. I bought a wall clock to our flat, a wristwatch just in case and a really cheap second-hand phone as a temporary substitute for Luna. Vio was more interested in buying a TV, but in the end, she bought a small alarm clock with radio. We had also decided to pool our money together and bought a cheap laptop for browsing the internet and watching movies.

There were only two more categories left. The furniture and the special category.

“Onii-chan, let's go. This is a dark, evil place.”

“It’s an ATM, I want to check how much I’ve spent.”

Hmm… with around 7k left I’m still going well.

“How about you? No problems with buying a bed for me?”

“I was restricting myself a lot… so there should be still some cash left.”

I turned back towards my little sister, who was strangely keeping a lot of distance between herself and the cash machine.

“Hold it right th...ere?”

A thirty centimeters big moth-like thing was flying above Violet’s head.

“Don’t worry, I won’t spend everything like last time. I’ve learned my lesson.”

Some parts of its purple skin were bare and human-like, like the area of its belly, legs, arms, and face, while the rest was tightly covered with a cloth-like coating on which an elaborate orange designs resembling spider’s web were inscribed. Additionally, the entire neck was wrapped with grey fur akin to a warm scarf.

“Onii-chan?”

The compound eyes were not only devoid of eyelids but took almost half of its face, they resembled fly eyes. Its hair was also strange, actually, it was more like a lot of purple elongated butterfly scales connected with each other to create overlapping sheets. There were also two pairs of huge grey moth wings on its back with the motif resembling huge eyes. However, the rest of its features were just like those of a human.

“Deaf-nii-chan! Is that some kind of your new play? Say something.”

It made a circle around Vio’s head, even flew in front of her eyes, and looked to be searching for something, but there was no reaction to it from my sister’s side.

Holding my breath and looking at it only through the corner of my eye, I waited a moment for the moth thing to fly away. As soon as it had distanced itself I quickly went towards Vio, grabbed her hand and pulled strongly towards me.

“Come.”

Confused Vio was trying to resist, but I put more strength into pulling and went in the opposite direction to the unidentified danger.

“Auch! It hurts!”

Vio’s protests drew to us the attention of the nearby people, moth thing included. With no time to waste, I wanted us to evacuate as fast as possible. There was a chance of this thing activating the Seal and washing Vio’s brain clean of memories.

“Just come!”

I sped up my steps and Vio almost tripped not willing to follow me.

“Fuck you! Let me go!”

Whatever it was, it had noticed that I was shooting quick glances to ascertain its position and a big grin showcasing needle-like teeth had appeared on the moth thing face, after which it quickly flew away.

“Fu- Ouch!”

Angry Vio had kicked my shin using her full force. I released the grab on her hand and gave this brat a look full of reproach to which she had responded with an even angrier face.

““What?!””

We screamed at each other this one word. I knew that it wasn’t her fault, but knowing and feeling were two different things. Still, I at least managed not to lash out at her any more.

“Go home.”

After saying those two words I simply walked away leaving Vio behind.