Chapter 2

“Onii-san, please wake up – it’s important!”

I have awoken to the feeling of gentle tugging on my arm and the sound of a slightly excited female voice.   Even in the drowsy state caused by the morning it’s obvious to me the voice is that of Lumi, my little sister from yesterday.  Although, she seems less reserved today.  Is it possible that something is happening?  If that’s the case then I’m worried – I may have had some rest but I am still finding it extremely difficult to move.  I guess I’ll just keep my eyes open and respond for now.

“What’s going on?”

I question her, but to hear my voice sound so weary is strange – I was thinking I felt slightly better than I was yesterday so it’s odd that it sounded like this.  Aaaah, how it would be great to be young again.  Wait, that’s not something I should be saying!  Instead, aren’t I actually young again?  I ask for forgiveness – I seem to have forgotten that I’m only eight years old.  Before I reach the age I have the right to say things like that I must experience another sixty years of life!

“Mnnn….  Father is coming to see you.”

“Father?”

After hurriedly nodding her head, Lumi leaves the side of my bed in a second heading for the table covered with green plants and tools then proceeds to tug off a few leaves of three of the plants.   She mutters herself, in a voice that was almost inaudible.

“These were the ones that she said to use, right?”

Following that, she goes and grabs a bowl and crushes the leaves up with her fingers.  It’s amazing!  Not only did it crush so easily, it actually began to look like a type of paste.  Just what kind of plants were those leaves from?!  Wait, it’s probably something like they have an abnormal amount of liquid in them…  That doesn’t make any sense at all so I should stop thinking about it.

Focusing intently on her task, Lumi finishes incredibly quickly and when she turns around there’s an extremely satisfied and proud look on her face making her seem like she’d accomplished something great.  Which, for such a young girl, she probably has.

Please tell me I don’t have to eat that paste, though.   I don’t want to.  It looks disgusting.   It’s like death, I swear.

She grabs a spoon and begins to walk to me, informing me that my hopes were in vain.   I guess it was to be expected but still – wouldn’t anyone hold onto whatever hopes they had of not eating something disgusting….   Similar to how some would avoid things like Brussel Sprouts at all costs!  Though, in that case, a lot of their bitter taste is actually to do with how when they are bought from a store, they are almost never fresh.  Try some fresh ones – they’re a lot better!

I seem to have trailed off…  Anything to distract me from the bitter truth that I’m facing right now.  That is, that I’m going to have to eat this disgusting looking baste while being spoon-fed by my little sister.  I’m sure that their are some perverts that would find this situation one of the best experiences ever but I’m not one of those types!  When I think about them, I can feel shivers coming up my spine.

“Onii-san, would you please eat this.”

Lumi says such a thing while raising the spoon up to my lips.  In hindsight, I should have raised myself up a little earlier so that when she did this I wasn’t lying completely on my back.  This is uncomfortable.  Fine then, I’ll consume this spoonful then use a little of my restored energy to raise myself up so that it’s no longer an issue!

Opening my mouth, Lumi places the paste into my mouth and waits for me to get it off the spoon.  After ensuring that I’ve cleaned the spoon of all the paste, she takes it out of my mouth and goes to get another spoonful.   That may be what she is doing, but what I’m currently trying to do is determine whether or not this paste is making me want to gag or not.  Did that sound sexual?  I hope not.

Wait, don’t get side-tracked!  I need to adjust myself so I’m not lying down, not think these funny thoughts.  Is it really such an easy thing to go off-topic?

Anyway, I’m now sitting up on the bed, so I will be more comfortable as this medicinal treatment (If that’s what it is) continues.  Lumi noticed me doing this of course, but she didn’t comment about it.   I was thinking she may have made a comment about how wasting energy was bad it seems she isn’t going to.  I’m thankful for that as explaining would be a hassle.

She’s now going through the motions of collecting a chunk of the paste in the spoon, feeding it to me, waiting for some time until I’d finished eating the paste then going to get more paste.   It appears that there is a huge amount of this paste to be consumed…  This has got to be the worst breakfast I have ever tasted!  (I’m fairly sure that it’s not actually my breakfast.)  Having tasted a large amount of this stuff, I have come to the decision that I would rather eat military rations than this shit.  Each time she brings the spoon to the mouth I think my disgust is showing on my face because…

“Sorry, onii-san!  There’s only a small amount to go…”

Lumi’s been apologising after every spoonful of the paste she feeds to me.  It’s obvious that she’s noticed my disgust but isn’t the amount of apologies she’s giving to me just a little high?  I suppose it could be normal for a young girl to feel bad about causing their older sibling pain but isn’t that usually if the two are close?  A more accurate way of putting it – isn’t our relationship supposed to be only at the beginning stages?  Before yesterday, it’s as though all she has done is watch me, I think.  If that’s it…  I think I feel close to her because I saw her watching me from the door.

Ehhh…..  I’m not sure how to feel about this.  If it was some other person, wouldn’t they be classified at least as being slightly stalker-y?

“It’s finished!”

Lumi is celebrating as I have finally eaten the last spoonful of the paste.  I’m happy as well!  For a couple of reasons, in fact.  The first one being, mainly, that I have some time before I have to eat that goop again!  What?  I know I’ll have to eat it later, but the reprieve from torture is always welcome!  I think that there could be reprieves during torture, but I may be wrong.  Oh well, it’s not like it matters to me.

“Thanks.”

There’s something wrong with me as that’s the best response I could come up with.  Am I really this socially awkward?  It’s not so.  I’m just imaging it.  That’s right.  Think positive thoughts about rainbows and candy….  That made me feel like puking so I guess I’ll just accept the fact that it’s true.  I am socially awkward .

“Is onii-chan anxious at all?”

“Anxious?”

“It’s the first time onii-san will see father while less sick.”

Less sick, huh?  I suppose you can’t say I was healthy but isn’t it a fact that before, I’d never spoken a single word?  If that’s the case, how do they think I picked up the ability to speak?  I suppose they might just assume I learned it sub-consciously or passively when people spoke to me.  If people spoke to me.

I nod.  That’s because I really am anxious thinking about it now.  How dare you to that to me Lumi!  I wasn’t worried at all until you mentioned it.  Is this what they call the manipulation of peoples thoughts?  Is that even a thing?  It has to be a thing.  Like hypnotism.  Hypnotism’s a thing.  I’m not trying to justify my thoughts to myself…  God damn it!

How blasphemous.

Anyway, enough of the irrelevant chatter – I should be in control of my thoughts and not let them wander all over the place.   To calm myself down, let’s try and think about things from this world.  I’ll probably get somethings wrong, but it’s important to have some foundation when thinking of the rules of this world.

First point:  The main language of this world is probably English.  Well, at least some form of it which has evolved differently from the other worlds.  The reason I say this is in the other worlds that spoke English, Japanese honorifics weren’t a thing – this is the first world where they’ve occurred alongside English so if I were to hazard a guess, the honorifics were borrowed in the same manner words like how the phrase Déjà vu was borrowed.  Or something.  I’m guessing that because of the way Lumi calls me ‘onii-san’.  I didn’t think about it earlier…  I was once a huge weaboo.  I guess I still am.

“Onii-san will be fine though!”

“Right…”

Why can’t I be as confident as her?  Is it my mental age?  Maybe.  If I had the immaturity and innocence of a child as young as her I might not be afraid of this kind of thing.  Hmmm….  Wouldn’t an eight-year-old also find it difficult to deal with this sort of thing?  If thought about like that, then isn’t Lumi the odd one out and she just had an optimistic personality?

On another note, since the time I consumed that paste, my energy is actually at a semi-decent level.  I’m sure it won’t last though.  It feels like something akin to coffee or tea.  Or is a better way to describe it as similar to a painkiller?  That’s the general gist of it anyway so-

My train of thought is interrupted by the sound of knocks on the door.  When Lumi hears this, she nods goodbye at me and heads towards it, leaving while a man waits at the door.  If I’m guessing right, looks like I’m about to ‘meet’ my father.

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