I am back – Chapter 133

“It’s been a while since I felt like this.”

As usual… well, it was my older sister who just started staying with me, but anyway, just like yesterday, she went to shower first.

Is my sister just naturally adaptable? It’s only been a day, yet she seemed much more at ease than yesterday.

There weren’t many of her belongings in my room yet.

Today, all we brought were mainly her clothes—some outfits to wear to work for the next few days and some underwear to change into immediately.

And also the items she used while showering.

I couldn’t say that the atmosphere in the room drastically changed because of those. There were still many empty spots in the room. I hadn’t even brought another computer since coming here.

In fact, I had given a computer to Dana first, and she was really happy about it. One reason I hadn’t felt the need to study or do anything extra here was that I had said I didn’t need any rewards, but now that I have this much money… it’s like I’ve lost my drive.

And thinking about how all my relationships from the two worlds were gone after I came here made everything feel so hollow.

After meeting my sister, I was solely focused on rebuilding my connection with her.

It got much better after my companions came over, but still, the items in my room didn’t increase. I just didn’t feel the need to buy anything else.

“What do you feel like?”

When I asked, my sister replied while sitting on the bed.

She was in short shorts and a white t-shirt.

Honestly, her outfit wasn’t anything particularly extravagant. It was just a summer style that you’d see quite frequently outside.

But just thinking about her lying next to me like this from now on made my heart race uncontrollably.

“It feels like… being with many people.”

“……”

Her words left me momentarily speechless.

After I died, she stayed immersed in her thoughts for a long time. During that time, she hadn’t met anyone else either.

Only Older Sister Yu-ri had consistently come to see her, but even that couldn’t fully cure her state.

As time passed, at least she could move her body a bit to survive, but even that was all she could manage.

There was hardly any effort to strive for dreams or to make new friends… such things were nearly nonexistent.

Naturally, spending the night with friends wouldn’t have happened either.

“It’s been a long time since I spent time like this… It feels fun. I wonder if it would have felt like this if I had lived with Yu-ri when I was a student?”

“Maybe so.”

I nodded along with my sister’s thought.

Of course, Yoori had probably never lived in a one-room apartment. She always acted as if she didn’t know there was another world outside of the one she lived in.

Even if she knew that there were houses with just one room, she wouldn’t grasp what living there meant. If she had lived with me, she would have been surprised from the very first day.

In our childhood, neither my sister nor I nor Mom would have wanted to show such sides to Older Sister Yu-ri. Yoori might have felt pity for us.

However, I recently began to think that if we were truly friends, it wouldn’t be embarrassing to show such sides and we could be proud of it instead.

How I look and what my situation is… I realized it’s far better to discuss and support each other rather than continuously hiding from friends.

And it seemed my sister thought the same.

“Ah, you need to shower too. Sorry, I ended up holding you back from going in.”

Lost in thought for a moment, my sister smiled at me and spoke.

That smile was incredibly endearing.

“Yeah.”

I nodded and entered the shower room.

*

I lay on the same bed as yesterday.

It seemed my sister didn’t want to sleep away from me. Her attitude was like she didn’t want to miss this chance she had finally caught again.

And I felt the same. After sleeping with her once, there was no need to think about sleeping apart.

Just like yesterday, my sister embraced me.

My face was buried in her chest. Our bodies were pressed together, sharing warmth through our clothes.

Honestly, it would be a lie to say I didn’t have any dirty thoughts.

But at the same time, I also thought about how nice it would be to just stay like this forever.

Having never had the experience before, perhaps I was scared that things might change after mixing bodies… I definitely had those thoughts.

But beyond that, I was longing for this warm sensation.

When I was a man, I didn’t often hug my sister. No, to be precise, that was the case after I started to ‘look like a guy.’

Before that, when we were still kids, we would hug each other without any particular consciousness of it. Of course, it wasn’t like we were always attached; it was more of a rare moment of a brief hug, but I always missed those embraces.

And now, we could always hug like that.

As if to unravel the five years we hadn’t seen each other, my sister hugged me tightly.

From her chest, I could hear a faint heartbeat.

Not racing too quickly, a calm and steady heart.

But in contrast to that heartbeat, my sister held my body tightly.

“……”

As I closed my eyes and focused on her body heat, truly, I had no other thoughts.

I just wanted to fully feel this time spent with my sister.

“I wasn’t able to fall asleep this easily for a while.”

My sister quietly said to me.

I didn’t say a word; I just listened to her voice.

“I kept seeing you die in front of me. It felt like it was all my fault…”

“That can’t be your fault.”

When I firmly said that, my sister paused for a moment, and then she quietly continued,

“…If I hadn’t said strange things to you.”

“Strange things?”

“Because of this world…”

“Shouldn’t we help each other out?”

I tightened my hold around her back.

Did she feel my embrace? I heard her take a small breath.

“How can that be your fault? If anything, I…”

If I hadn’t jumped in, that child would have died right in front of me. And there was no way we could forget that sight after seeing it firsthand.

Of course, my sister and I could have stayed together, and we might have been able to overcome that wound someday.

However, still…

The other people I met after that would have become utterly unrelated to my life.

The Demon King might not have fallen, and that world might have eventually perished.

I know it.

That it’s all just a hindsight story.

But from my experience, in the end, life tends to be about outcomes. Everyone I encountered was someone I met purely because I happened to be there. Relationships are not predetermined; every accomplishment I made was simply because I tried, not because someone decided it would happen that way. Help can be received, but…

So again, if we think retrospectively…

Because we were able to meet again like this.

Because I remembered my sister’s teachings, I was able to save the world. I met companions with whom I could risk my life, and I was able to shake off at least a bit of the fear of death.

So there was no need for my sister to feel guilty.

“…So let’s just not think about it like that. Just be happy that we could meet again like this, that’s all that matters.”

“……Yeah.”

My sister, hearing my words, gently stroked my hair.

“Do you know?”

“Yeah?”

I replied softly to her small voice.

Her breath brushed against my head. Holding me tightly, she said,

“More than any moment I spent alone over the last five years.”

My sister’s whisper was crystal clear in my ear, for there were only the two of us in the room, and the only sounds were ours.

“The moment I slept beside you yesterday was the most comfortable moment for me.”

“……”

I didn’t know how to respond to her words.

Truthfully, I felt the same.

Since my companions came over and we started living together in this house, I could sleep more comfortably than I did alone in this vast place.

And between reuniting with my companions, lying like this with my sister felt most comforting.

“So as a repayment for that.”

My sister said while gently stroking my hair.

“I’ll make an effort to ensure you can sleep comfortably from now on.”

“……”

There’s no need to make an effort.

Just holding me like this, I felt there couldn’t be anything more comfortable.