"Brother, are you sure you're really fine?"

"Yes, I am perfectly fine as you can see. How many times do we have to repeat this conversation?" Yuuji responded with a wry smile on his face. Although he was happy that his little sister was worried about him, he couldn't help but find her repeating question exhausting. Admittedly, he understood her concern.

She might have thought he would be bedridden, or possibly worse since he also thinks the same. Rather, even the doctors concluded he was dead until something strange happen that brought him back to life. If he wasn't the one experiencing the whole thing, he might think people are lying.

Apparently, the nurse tried contacting his family, but both of his parents were possibly busy and couldn't answer the call which leaves them with only one choice, his little sister. So, they must have told her the truth of his situation.

"Who knows, maybe you're not actually my brother but someone else who occupied his body? Ah! Now that I said it, that does sound plausible...tell me, are you really my brother?!"

Wordlessly, Yuuji smacks his little sister in the head while thinking how wild her imagination is. He then chuckles before saying, "since you might not believe me, then what about I exposed your secret when you—" "it's fine! I believe you now!"

But before he could say more, Ayami quickly covered up his mouth with her hands with a visibly blush on her face, a sign she was embarrassed, perhaps remembering of the past. Seeing this, he simply smiled.

"How's life has been treating you? Do I need to clean the house again?"

"Grr, you should stop treating me like a child! I'm a fully grown adult now, I can take care of myself!" Despite what she says, she still acts childish sometimes. For example, a fully grown adult won't easily get triggered by his words. One might say that's being mature, and it really is. To be an adult is not about growing older, it's more about being mature and knowledgeable. One can still act childish while their age triples that of a child.

"Oh really? Then you don't mind me visiting then? It's been a while since I've been there," he casually responded while enjoying the view of a beautiful office worker ahead of him. Ayami clearly noticed what he was doing, but she simply couldn't be bothered about it. To be more exact, her mind was filled with many ideas of trying to stop her brother from visiting the house.

"How about I visit your apartment instead?! I bet there must be a lot of trash bags that you forgot to throw away!" She decides to change the topic. It was a simple old trick that one often ignores since it usually doesn't work, but it is not zero.

"That's fine with me. You can also help me clean up my room while you're at it, I'm a sick person after all. I may have just been discharged, but you never know when something might pop up. Or do you want me to be carrying all those heavy stuff? Are you such a cruel little sister?"

"What!"

Leaving his little sister who was shocked speechless that her plan backfired aside, he couldn't deny that he felt slightly pleased when he saw the worried look on her face a while ago. But there's no way he would let her know of that. He got his 'Older Brother' persona to uphold after all.

When she first suggested staying at their parent's house on her own while he was renting out an apartment near his school, he was worried that it would lead to a disaster knowing how terrible her cooking is. He did persuade her to stay with him, but she was too stubborn and thought by living alone, she won't be treated like a child anymore. Perhaps, he may have spoiled her a bit.

Fortunately, she actually survived more than a week without calling for his help. It seems that she invited her friends to the house, and left the cooking to them. Though it might be a bit of cheating, she did prove to him that she was doing fine on her own. But all of that went down the drain when he did a surprise visit.

Although they are good at cooking, none of them are committed enough to actually clean the mess that has piled up. His little sister did plan on throwing it out later that day but the timing wasn't on her side since he visited her before she could. They both have a similarity of procrastinating till the very last second before doing something productive, as expected of Itou's blood-related.

'What's going on?' Yuuji couldn't help but silently think to himself. He couldn't believe what he was looking at. After sending off his pouting little sister, he then went to his clean bedroom with the thought of laying on his bed for a couple of hours before taking a bath. That was his plan, but before he could step inside, his movement halted.

He knew he wasn't sleepwalking, so whatever he was seeing is undoubtedly real. What was there hovering above his precious bed like it is none of his business is a spirit staring blankly at the ceiling.

First of all, he had never believed in the existence known as ghosts. He also never saw one personally, so he concluded they do not exist, or highly likely he can't see them. Whichever the case, he couldn't care less. At the very least, he was thankful for that since he wouldn't be bothered worrying that there may be a spirit watching him while he was doing his business in his room.

But now that he could see it with his own two eyes, he even squeezes his cheek just for confirmation, he finally realized ghost does in fact exists. He wanted to get closer to it but was afraid it will attack him like those in horror movies where most characters couldn't do anything to retaliate cause ghosts couldn't be harmed by physical attack or object unless there are blessed.

If the ghost could be beaten with his fist, he wouldn't have been afraid as he is now. As far as he knows, there are two obvious types of ghosts, or spirits in this case. One is good and the other is evil. But for this one, it is clearly neither of them, heck it appeared to not even register his presence at all.

Yuuji took a deep breath before he slowly walk toward his bed with caution. He thought the spirit will finally acknowledge his presence and respond, but even when he was just a meter away, the ghost continue staring at the ceiling.

"What the hell..." Even as he mumbles while sitting at the edge of the bed, it didn't show any sign of making a move. Is it possible because it was able to perceive his wariness which was why it remained quiet, and would only attack him when he put his guard down? Yuuji internally thought while contemplating if he should sleep in the living room instead.