Chapter 26.- Thinking Back

November/6th/2022

Kotaro

My cats are prone to purring obnoxiously loudly; I suspect it's a ploy to force me to wake up and feed them. My dog is a little bit more discreet, he will come into my room and slowly lick my hand until I wake up. Whenever the cats start being loud first he just stays by the door because he already knows I'm going to stand up.

"Alright…alright…" I mumble as I sit up slowly.

Rubbing my eyes I yawn, as I'm still trying to wake up one of my cats gets on my bed and ever so slowly starts rubbing his body against my sides. I reach for my phone on my nightstand and unlock it to check the time.

"Geez, it's eleven o clock…?"I mutter, annoyed. "Let's have breakfast, I guess."

I slowly get off from my bed and sluggishly walk to the door. My dog sits just by the frame of it, wagging its tail like an idiot.

"You sent you minions to do your handiwork, huh?" I say jokingly.

The silly canine stares at me and wags his tail as he breathes in and out with his tongue out. Petting his head he wags his tail with more energy. I pat him and move his head towards the direction I'm going to move. Heading to the kitchen the urge to yawn again strikes me, still yawning I stop by my sister's room. I push the door in a little and with my free hand lean against the door's frame.

"Mako, you want something eat? Gonna make myself breakfast," I ask inside the room.

"I'll eat whatever you are eating," she replies.

Nodding to myself, I back away and head slowly towards the kitchen. I pick up four metallic plates from the floor, one being quite bigger than the others. With a measuring cup I put one cup of cat food in each of the small plates. I place the small plates on top of the counter and go get the dog's kibble. The vet said our poor dog Koro is quite fat, he is currently eating special kibble and I also have to measure how much I give him. Filling his bowl with the right quantity I set it on the floor and then place the other three bowls on the floor as well. The three cats come by quickly and like the dog start eating out of their respective bowls.

I open a cabinet and take out a frying pan to make some eggs, really in the mood for some toast and fried eggs. I place the pan over the stove and go to the fridge, before swinging it open I notice a sticky note, placed on the door of it. It's my mother's handwriting.

"I'll be home for lunch, please feed the cats and Koro, take care of your sister…love you, mom," I mutter to myself.

Nothing new on that front, I swing the door open and take out some butter along with four eggs. I placed them on the counter next to the stove and switch the stove on. I open one of the drawers on the side and take out some chopsticks. I grab just a bit of butter with them and spread that little bit as much as I can over the pan. The butter starts to melt as the pan itself heats up. Stopping for a second I can hear the cats and the dog going at their food, the kibble crunching as they bite into it.

"Christ, even when I feed you guys you are noisy as all hell."

I tilt the pan back and forth and side to side, then I grab and egg and crack it on the edge of the pan. With my thumbs I pry it open and the yolk and white fall from the shell into the pan. It slowly make a sizzling sound as it starts to fry. I grab a second egg and go about the same process but the yolk breaks and starts leaking as it falls on the pan. I sigh and grab the chop sticks again.

"I wanted an omelet anyways," I mumble.

With the chopsticks I mix the yolk and whites before they have any more time to fry. Tilting the pan, I slowly continue to move my hand in a circular motion to make that more familiar yellow-ish batter. I let it sit and turn around to take the bread out of the little pantry cabinet. I take out three slices as it's the only bread we have left. I grab two plates from the rack and place them close to the stove to easily move the food once I'm done. Before returning to the stove I jam two pieces of bread in the toaster and push the button down. I open another drawer and take a wooden spatula from it. My kitchen is a maze for the unexperienced.

Flipping the omelet over I get a plate ready since it'll be ready in a minute. I start whistling randomly as I place the soft omelet on the place. I set it to the side and crack the other two eggs over the pan. The toaster dings and I turn around with the pan. I start mixing again this time with the spatula and after leaning the spatula a bit on the edge of the pan I grab the two pieces of bread. I place one in the plate that already has an omelet and the other on the empty one. Before going back to placing the pan on the stove I put the other piece of bread in the toaster. Cooking is one of my knacks I guess, I'm not great at it, but I would definitely survive on my own. Soon enough I got myself two place with an omelet each. I split the last piece of toast in two and now each one of us has an omelet and one and a half pieces of toast. Before heading to my sister's room I open the fridge again and tale out some left over curry and the ketchup bottle. I douse my omelet on left over curry and then write my sister's name with ketchup on her omelet. Man, I would be a great housewife.

"This is such a manly thing to do," I tease myself.

"Get in here already, it smells good!" My sister yells.

I laugh soundly and with both plates in hand go over to her room. I push her door in with my back and there she is, sitting up on her bed, with about five pillows behind her to keep her that way.

"You are talking a whole bunch today, huh?" I tease.

"Shut up," she says with a giggle.

I sit on the edge of the bed close to her. I set my plate on her nightstand and keep hers as I place it slightly over my lap. Getting a better look at her I notice she is drenched in sweat, her forehead and neck a bit shiny from the sweat itself.

I'm about to place her plate as well on the stand when she stops me. Her hand weakly clutching my arm. She shakes a little but I just look up at her slightly pained expression. Dysautonomia is no fun, not for her and not for me…it pains me as well to see her like this.

"Can I eat before you wash me?" she begs.

I can't say no to that face. I grab the spoon and take a little bit of the omelet with some ketchup on it, I bring it up and Mako slowly opens her mouth. Carefully I put it in her mouth and she brings her lips down on the spoon as I pull it out of her mouth. She chews slowly and then quickly opens her mouth, breathing out quickly.

"Hot hot hot…" she complains.

"Ah, sorry about that," I mutter.

She continues to chew, and even manages to swallow, the uncomfortably hot omelet. I grab some more with the spoon but this time blow on it gently to at least make it a bit cooler for her.

"Ok, here it goes," I say, bringing the spoon close to her mouth again.

Slowly again she opens her mouth and closes it once the spoonful is inside. I get the spoon back to the plate and rest it for second on the side of the food.

"How's that settling in your stomach," I ask, "not going to throw it up are you?"

She shakes her head and finally swallows her mouthful.

"I'm liking it a lot, it's been a while since I had eggs," she says with a smile.

I return the smile and pat her head quickly, it must be awful, hell I'm not the one with the actual illness and already feel how awful it is. Being tired all the time, feeling dizzy, headaches, excessive sweating, and just a complete lack of body control. Some days she can't even get up, as a matter of fact it's been almost a month since I last saw her stand.

"Hey let me try on my own," she says.

She reaches for the plate on my lap and I help her get it close to her. She slowly places the plate on top of her lap with a little of my help. Slowly and with her hand shaking a little she grabs the spoon. I try my best not to pity her…after all she strictly asked me not to. It's a little hard at times, I just want to help her, but I don't want her to feel like I pity her. I don't after all, she is the strongest little girl I know.

At least today she has the strength to feed herself, and that's good. Also looks very proactive, the change in attitude is definitely a good sign. Most of the time she is too tired to even try and be happy or not sad about anything.

"This is harder than I remember," Mako jokes.

"Don't push yourself, I can always feed you," I say, "It's no problem."

She nods, but keeps feeding herself. While she eats I reach for my plate and start eating myself. The cold curry tastes quite alright with the warm omelet. Always been a fan of contrasting things like that, this case being the cold curry followed by the feeling of warm, soft egg.

"That game you've been playing finally comes out today, no?" Mako asks after a spoonful of food.

"Yeah," I say and chuckle, "I'm pretty excited."

"What's it about anyways?"

"Well…I mean it's a bit hard to explain. It's just this huge world that feels so real. There are monsters and other people you play with, all having a blast. You do quests, fight monsters, explore places, all in virtual reality it's like having no limit to what you can do."

For the first time in a week Mako, finishes what's on her plate and sets it aside with her spoon on top of it. I feel happy about this little thing, it might not mean a lot, but it sure feels like a big deal for me. She leans back a little and closes her eyes. Breathing in and out softly she remains still.

"I really hope this doesn't upset my stomach or something," she mutters.

"Don't think about it then," I advise.

I eat the last of my breakfast and put the empty plate on top of Mako's. I grab them both and walk out of her room.

"If you can, start undressing, I'll get the other stuff," I say to the air as I walk out.

I place both plates on the sink and slightly rinse them, I'll clean them later, got to go one thing at a time. The bathroom is close to my sister's room; I enter it and grab the designated bucket and sponge. I crouch and fill the bucket with lukewarm water. With my teeth I grab the sponge and hold the bucket with both hands. Slowly pacing to my sister's room I go carefully to avoid spilling any water.

"Ehhh…I hate how it gets sort of sticky…"I hear Mako complain as I walk in.

She takes off her pajama top and sits on top of her sheets with a black sports bra. I sit down on the edge of the bed again and set the bucket at my feet, plucking the sponge from my lips and putting it beside me on the bed.

"Any color in particular you want today?" I ask getting up from the bed.

"The blue one, no wait the green one," she says.

I open her drawer and take out a pair of panties and the green bra. My sis is the type of person who buys bras in bulk. Or so I say but she just has the same model in different colors, it just strikes me a bit funny. As I turn she throws her bra at my face. I get it off my head and put it over the drawer. She sticks her tongue out at me as she covers her chest with her hands.

"No kidding around, this is serious sanitary business," I joke with a bossy tone.

She laughs softly and turns around, I throw her bra and panties on the bed and sit down after taking hold of the sponge again. I reach down and soak the sponge in water, before bringing it up to the bed I squeeze it a few times, making sure it won't drip anything once I'm wiping the sweat off. As I bring the sponge up Mako moves her hair away from her back.

I begin brushing the sponge on her shoulders, slowly wiping off her sweat. Then her neck, making sure I rub a bit hard just below from where her hairs starts growing. I soak the sponge again and squeeze it, repeating the process I did at the beginning.

"I bet other people would be super embarrassed about this," she mumbles.

"Why?" I ask as I start with her back.

She shifts her position slightly and breathes out pleasantly.

"I don't know, I don't think other siblings are as close as we are," she says.

"Well, that's good no?" I ask, "I mean you wouldn't want to be all smelly because you can't wash your back."

"Haha shut up, I'm not smelly."

"You sure?" I tease, "Hands up,"

She slowly brings her hands up and I scrub her side and armpit while I'm at it. She holds back the urge to get away and just chuckles a little but then she sighs loudly.

"I feel like a big baby though," she says.

"I could…try to be a little less helpful if it hurting your pride or something," I comment.

"It's not that, I just don't want to become a bother to you," she explains.

"It's quite alright, I don't mind at all," I answer.

She chuckles and lets out a relaxed sigh, finishing up with her arms I rinse the sponge again and squeeze it so it doesn't drip. I reach around her and clean her chest, being sure to be quick as she tends to get all embarrassed about it. Getting done quickly with that area in particular, I grab the green bra next to me and pass it to her. She takes a bit to put it on but eventually manages to do so.

"I'm tired of being tired," she says chuckling.

She turns around and I get started on her stomach.

"It tickles," she says.

"You always say it does," I say.

Done with returning the bucket to the bathroom and putting her dirty clothes on the hamper I walk back into her room.

"You need anything else, madam?" I tease.

"Not at the moment, kind sir," she follows along, "no wait! Bring me some manga from your room, I feel like reading a bit today."

"Alright."

I go back to my room and pick some random manga I have in my shelf, Mako doesn't really have a favorite genre or type of story she just enjoys reading random four koma or a series of anything once in a while. I grab a few at pure random and then bring them back to her. She smiles and thanks me as I leave her room and I go back to the kitchen to wash those dishes I left in the sink. Again, I would make a damn fine housewife. I laugh at the though and put the plates on the rack.

"Now what time is it?" I ask myself as I take out my phone.

The display reads two in the afternoon. Damn, where did my time even go? I make my way to my room quickly.

"Hey I'm going to play now alright?" I yell as I pass my sister's room.

"Ok!" she yells back.

I go into my room and boot up my nervegear, alright let's get this started. I strap it on my head and lay down on my bed.

"Link start!"

Alright, here we go. Random colors blind for a few seconds, then circles appear validating my already calibrated nervegear sense receptors. Language, I select Japanese, and then I'm greeted with a familiar log in screen asking for my information. Without hesitation I type in my information and I'm prompted with an option I have never seen before. It's the screen that leads to character creation but below the option to create a new one I can see that my beta character was kept stored in the system. I feel myself grin but I'm not in my physical body anymore so it clashes quite loudly with my lack of reality check. I go with my previous build and then huge letters welcoming to Sword Art Online appear before my eyes. Let's have some fun. More bright lights blind me again, but this time there won't be more menus after it. I'm standing in a familiar place now. I rub my eyes a little and then look around.

"Oh it's good to be back!" I yell from the top of my lungs.

"It is, isn't it?"

I turn around and see a person I hadn't seen since the end of the beta period. I smile widely and shake his hand, bringing him in for a hug.

"Charles!" I say as I pat his back.

"Heh, thank you god you kept that avatar; if you hadn't, I would never have spotted you so easily." he says.

"You didn't change yours either so that's good," I say with a grin, "wait so you've been like standing around?"

"Kind of," he says, "there's no way I'm playing this alone, friends is what makes it fun. Actually a friend of mine should be logging in shortly I believe."

While I wouldn't go as far as to say this game is boring alone it definitely is much more fun with friends, the beta was a blast I can't wait to get into the full version.

"Hey, I think that's him," he says as he starts walking.

"How can you even spot people on a game where they might as well be anonymous?" I ask.

He shrugs and keeps walking through the main plaza. With flashes of light new players appear before us, their faces smiling and I can sense their excitement as well. A bit in-front of my bald friend I spot a man thrusting his sword into the air like a beginner. I laugh to myself and scratch my nose a little. I will admit I might've done the same, but that was before.

"Wait hang on, let's party up first," I comment.

He stops for a second and quickly going through his menu sends me an invite. I accept it and I see his name appear below mine in my HUD.

"Just like old times," he says.

With a smile he turns around and makes his finals steps to approach the guy blatantly thrusting his sword upwards in the plaza.

"Haha, want to get an orange cursor over your head already?" Charles asks.

The man turns around and with a gleeful face runs over to us.

"Charles!" he shouts as he sheathes his sword in-front of us, "you…you are bald…"

"Indeed I am, and guess what? Charles is my user name once again," he replies while laughing.

I try not to mind too much their lovely reunion as I look around. It almost makes me nostalgic, for reasons I can't begin to explain. I spent a lot of time in this game, more than I am even willing to admit. Mako used to ask me why I looked so tired some days in the morning. The answer was just that I was busy spending time in here, during the beta test at least. It seems she'll be asking me that question again shortly. Maybe I can even get her to try the game.

The amount of people still logging in an hour into the game is astounding, flashes of light every few feet all across the main plaza can be seen, one after the other, players pop in to have the time of their lives, it makes me smile for a reason I really can't explain.

"Oh, I forgot, this other guy with me is…his name is Daath. We met during the beta testing period," Charles says.

I take a step forwards and extend my hand to introduce myself. This man I don't know shakes my hand strongly with a very smug grin. For some reason I don't quite know how to feel about him. I look up at my HUD and see his name has been added to our party and subsequently below my HP bar.

"Pleasure to meet you, Alshep. A friend of Charles is a friend of mine," I say rather elegantly.

"Haha! I knew it! Same character name as always!" shouts Charles.

Alshep grins widely and punches Charles on the arm playfully.

"Shut up, you chose a bald man!" he teases.

I sigh to myself a little seeing how rash this guy is. Reminds me a lot of the class clown back in my school. If he is anything like him…boy is this gonna be fun.

Crysina here!

I hope you enjoyed this chapter.

Thanks to mangachiaki for beta-reading this chapter!

MORE backstory! This time just a short glimpse into what Daath's life used to be like. I know know, this chapter is a bit short and I'm super sorry about that, but this is the last of the short backstory chapters. Take in mind most of these chapters have been written with months of anticipation. We are fast approaching the end of the second arc of my story, I hope you guys are ready for that. Personally I think my greatest chapters start a little further down the road, I can't wait to hear what you guys think about them.

I'm super glad to see that everyone enjoyed the last chapter a lot. I was a little weary about giving Ruri that much of a spotlight, given she is a bit of a wildcard. Of course this statement might not make much sense because I wrote the chapter. How can she be a wildcard? I hear you ask. WELL! I thought she might've been a little too silly or something, but it seems to have been quite a success with both my beta-reader and you guys so I'm glad.

Please leave any kind of comments, thoughts and or questions in the reviews. If you leave a question I will try to promptly answer it via PM or if you guys want I will answer them on these ANs I have at the end of the chapters in case you are curious about other people's questions. Really just leave in the reviews anything you like, I love having interaction with people that enjoy my story and hearing what you guys have to say about it overall.

Thank you for reading! See ya soon!

Next Chapter: "A Place of Our Own"