From that point on, the rest of my elementary school days didn’t turn out as bad as I feared without Hyo-chan around. Just like Hyo-chan, Aneki would often come over for dinner and she was more than happy to help look after me while Mom was out later than usual. We’d even have sleepovers some nights and bathe together.

I was even able to meet Aneki’s friends at one point and they were surprisingly just as accepting as she was. My cooking became an excellent icebreaker that also left a good first impression on the group, enough that they’d let me hang out with them when it was convenient. During this time, I had no idea what a ‘JK’ or ‘gyaru’ like Komi was. Maybe it was a trend that was starting to get off the ground, but all of Aneki’s friends looked the part in their own unique fashion sense. There were times when they teased me, but I don’t think there was malice or something behind them. I was still figuring out how big kids were doing things outside of school, so I had no idea what they were implying most of the time. Aneki would step in and coddle me at some points though, which helped me relax and just observe what everyone was discussing, only answering when a question was directed at me. I may not have contributed much and was the only ‘little kid’ among them, but I really felt I was part of a group, and I was happy about it.

There were times when I couldn’t see Aneki and her friends—understandable as they were all high-schoolers—but that was made up with the former texting and talking to me on the phone. Aneki and I had some rough moments at times, too, as well as some scary ones, but we somehow managed to pull through and come out a little stronger, both in ourselves as well as our bond. Aneki really became a good, essential part of my family, like she really was my older sister, and I took great pride with how cool she was.

That was why I became such a mess of tears and snot when it was time for us to graduate from our schools and Aneki had to move for college. We promised to keep in touch and she’d come by to visit during breaks, and we did just those as I went on in my middle school years. This time was mostly hell for me, both in a social sense as well as all the fighting I was going through. The couple times I saw Aneki during that time were like small escapes from my harsh reality, going into dreams as she became more adult-like than I thought was possible. I would have higher respects for her at each meeting, both as my older sister figure, as well as a woman. I became more self-conscious than I was before at our first meeting, more nervous than when I was going into a fight with someone bigger than me. It became especially awkward for me whenever she gave her affections like she did when I was younger.

I wanted to push these feelings for Aneki down, have fun with my big sister like I had back then and not let the distasteful things I heard from middle school influence my thoughts toward her. I just couldn’t ignore them though. I couldn’t ignore the fact that Aneki was a woman, I was a growing man, and we really weren’t related by blood.

I’m not sure if I’d call Aneki my first crush, but I had come to terms that I was hopelessly in love with her. Even so, I valued her highly as a big sister, and I was afraid of that changing if I came out and confessed, especially considering how she was way out of my league. As much as it pained my heart to even consider it, I had to convince myself that she was likely already seeing someone, and she was only stopping by during breaks to see her ‘little bro.’ Putting her college studies, personal and love lives, and everything aside to humor me, I felt like I was becoming a burden to her. Whether I was a kid or a growing teen, I knew I loved her enough that I’d want her to be as happy as she had made me. I had witnessed how hard she worked to get to her places in life, to achieve her goals in adulthood.

I wanted to do whatever I could to support Aneki, even if it meant distancing myself from her, and that was just what I had done slowly over time.

~~

I can’t remember the last time I last spoke to Aneki, but she wasn’t on my mind very much during my times in high school. Maybe it was because Komi was there and I got to see Hyo-chan again, even though our ‘friendship’ was estranged. Now that I had died once and transferred to Raiza, I felt guilty of distancing myself from her without saying anything, without thanking her for being there for me, without telling her my feelings, even if they couldn’t be returned. With the way I had gone out, the news of my death reaching her would be hard to miss. I wondered if she was as sad of me being gone as my aunts likely were, or maybe she didn’t feel anything because I stopped talking to her. If it was the latter, I wouldn’t blame her for feeling that way for how cold I might have acted.

Nyra asked me suddenly as I walked to the inn with my familiars.

I raised a brow,

she answered,

My face scrunched with discontent,

I could imagine her taking my sarcasm in stride with a bow,

I nodded, inconspicuously pulling my smartphone out of my [Storage],

she advised as I scrolled through the gallery on my phone.

When I came to Raiza, all the contacts I had on my smartphone were wiped clean, but my files and pictures were still there and I was still able to access the internet. I may have upgraded to a new phone back home, but I made sure I had everything from my old one transferred over, including all the pictures Aneki sent me. Like Komi, Hyo-chan, and all the girls in my harem, I had a file that kept all of Aneki’s pics inside.

I pulled up the very first selfie I ever had, the first picture that Aneki sent me. It depicted her giving the camera a bright smile with a hand holding a peace sign while pulling a younger, more oblivious me into her chest.

I gave a light chuckle while smirking,

Mametama asked, interrupting my telepathic conversation with Nyra.

It wasn’t until my cougar familiar spoke up that I realized I stopped walking to look at the pictures on my phone. I shook out of my daze, brought my smartphone back to its home screen and tossed it back in my [Storage],

Kenaka suggested.

I nodded in agreement,

~~

{Nao}

“Achoo! Whew, that was a good one. Could someone be talking about me right now?” I asked aloud to no one in particular.

“Is that another one of those strange superstitions from your hometown?” One of my coworkers from the kitchen asked, “If that were true, wouldn’t you be sneezing up a storm when you’re one of the most talked-about women in this city?”

I waved my finger in dismissal, “No no no, it’s not like that. See, where I come from, when it’s not allergy season or hay fever, sneezing like that means someone close to you is either talking about you or thinking of you very strongly.”

At least, that’s how I’d like to interpret it.

“Wooow, that sounds so romantic,” one of the passing waitresses sighed, “I don’t think you’ve talked much about your love life before, Nao. Does that mean you actually have someone in mind?”

“The Nao Yosaka, the ‘Golden Mistress,’ in love? Now this, I gotta hear,” another one thirsty for gossip said.

I waved a hand, “It’s not like that. I do have a couple friends I cherished back home … there’s also my little bro too.”

“You have a little brother?” the girls in the kitchen asked in sync with widened eyes.

“We aren’t related by blood and there weren’t any marriages involved. It was just something that we came up with together on the spur of the moment after he helped me out when I was younger. We hung out and played together almost all the time for a few years until I had to move,” I explained while I prepped the ingredients.

“That sounds so nice. I wish I had something like that,” the romantic waitress commented.

“You never saw him again after that?” the gossiping waitress asked.

I stopped prepping the ingredients and looked up in thought, “I tried to come back and visit when I had the chance. He was really growing more handsome each time I stopped by, but you should have seen how cute he looked being nervous around me. Sometimes I just wanted to pick him up and take him home with me.”

“Oooooh!” the girls in the kitchen responded.

“What? What did I say?” I asked, confused.

“Nao, do you really think we wouldn’t say anything when you said that with that body? I wouldn’t blame the kid getting all nervous if you looked this good the whole time,” the gossiping waitress said as she gestured to my form.

“Large breasts, wide hips, both in a huggable, housewarming frame, all wrapped in deliciously tanned skin with a strong personality that looks out for others while having the best cooking skills in the city. Aaaaah, please marry me, Nao!”

“I refuse,” I boldly said to the ‘lovestruck’ cook—who for the record was also a girl like me.

“Aaaah, even the way you turn me down is so cool! What a treat! Thanks for the meal!” the rejected cook exclaimed.

“Just for curiosity's sake, what if your ‘little bro’ proposed to you?” the romantic waitress asked.

All my motions stopped at the question. My mind blanked out any previous thoughts about my job and replaced them with a fantasy.

~~

“Aneki, I can’t hold myself back any longer. I love you, and I want to express it in every way possible, starting with your body,” the Ma-chi in my fantasy confessed, looming over me like a predator ready to feast on their prey as he pinned me down to my bed by the wrists.

“Ma-chi … I’m not as much of the ‘cool, amazing big sister’ as you thought of me,” my fantasy self admitted, averting her gaze, “I’ve done awful, shameful, degrading things. This old body of mine … was tainted by other men more than you may think. You deserve to be with a girl that’s cleaner, more refined than an old bitch like me.”

To my fantasy self’s surprise, fantasy Ma-chi held my chin and directed my gaze to him, looking into his sharp, but gentle stare, “I don’t need a girl … I need a woman. I need you, Aneki, and if being ‘tainted’ by other men is the problem, then I’ll just taint over those guys’ marks with my own. I’ll make sure that you won’t get marked by anyone else ever again … by making you my wife.”

“Ma-chi …” my dream self breathed as dream Ma-chi closed in on her. She closed her eyes and fully submitted herself to the ‘little bro’ who has become a man.

~~

My face got very warm as I fantasized that moment, giggling like an idiot with a dumb smile stuck to my face, “Yeah, I would love for it to turn out like that.” Once I finally calmed down, though, I remembered that I wasn’t alone. I turned around and saw all the girls currently working in the pub gathered around me.

They were all dumbstruck with their jaws dropped to the floor.

“... What? I can dream a little, can’t I?” I asked, trying to defend myself, but I was sure embarrassment was painted on my face.

“What are you girls doing standing around? Pick your fucking asses up and get back to work,” our boss, who we all called ‘Mama,’ commanded boldly.

“Yes, Mama!” we all responded without argument, hastily getting back to our tasks. In my case, I was preparing breakfast for one of our waitresses who was taking the day off.

Those of us who worked in Mama’s pub have the privilege of eating breakfast here before we open for the day, after paying for it at a discounted price, of course. The waitress I was cooking for, who’s actually doing the job daily as an adventurer’s quest, is someone who not only stood out from most others in our staff, but she and I were living in this city under similar circumstances. Today was different as she had two new party members that joined her recently. How she got them to join … was questionable, if I had to be perfectly honest, but we have more freedom to do what we like around these parts and I wasn’t a stranger to certain shady dealings, so I had no right to stop and tell her how to live life properly.

With four servings of breakfast ready, I personally served it to my ‘part-time’ coworker and her party, “Here you are, dig in. I don’t have a right to say anything about this, but I expect you to give me the dets on what brought you to redeeming slaves, Komi-chi.”

“Thanks, Nao-chin! We’ll be out for today, but if you want, we can get together for dinner later and I can explain then.”

I nodded in confirmation, “I’m holding you to it then, so don’t flake, or I’ll get Mama to help me find you, and I don’t think either of us want that.”

The high-school aged gyaru, Komiwa Karuga, who was a Champion like me, chuckled, “No, we don’t, so you can count on me to be there!”