AN: First installment of "Little Sisters," an AU exploring if various characters had siblings of other characters.


Here & Far


Growing up, Keiko had never been alone.

The house had never been quiet, it's long hallways and vast space had always been filled with music leaking from her sister's workshop or the sounds of power tools, saws, metal striking metal, welding, for almost as long as she could remember.

Her parents told her with a chuckle that her sister had been tinkering and building long before she was born. Since said sister was old enough to hold a hammer and swing it, she had been fascinated by metal and their mother's craft of metalworking and had picked up on the sport very quickly.

Which was why the clang and sharp ting of metal being hit to change it's shape and mold it into what she wanted, was so comforting to Keiko and… the distinct lack of it these days made the home she had grown up in, distinctly unfamiliar.

There was no laughter and teasing quips.

No metal working.

No being picked up from school by her sister.

No voices from her sister's workshop as she collaborated with one of her best friends.

No helping their dad build and repair things around the house.

No nothing.

It was just silent now, silent with grief like it had been for the past six months.

Keiko silently slid her school jacket off of her shoulders and folded it over her arm. Pina wasn't here and neither was Draco, her fluffy little dog that Rika had named when she got her for her a couple years ago.

They must be upstairs.

Softly murmuring the accustomed greeting that her sister used to half-ass with a laugh till their mother told her off with amusement all over her voice and words, Keiko slipped off her shoes and left them a bit out of place to the side of the stairs at the entryway. Since she would come down and fix them after she made it upstairs.

The third stair creaked like it always did, reminding her of why her sister used to carry her on her back and go down the railing when they were sneaking out of their rooms to steal a cookie or sneak into her sister's workshop. Which had been about a third of the size back then to what it was now.

Yet she still made it upstairs without clumsily messing up anything or the white daisy that her teacher had given to her to give to her sister.

Her fingers gently undid the doorknob and she peeked inside out of a habit that she had before this all happened, her silent way of asking for permission to enter her sister's room.

Not that she had to anymore.

Sure enough, her cat Pina was snuggly curled up on the white pillows and blanket that was a reminder that this wasn't just her sister's room anymore. While Draco was asleep at the foot of the bed, dozing casually even though Keiko knew that she was just worried and she didn't blame her.

She pushed the door open, causing Draco to lift his head while Pina didn't twitch, likely because she had known her sister for longer than Draco had. After all, Pina had been her sister's cat for years before Keiko was born and the cat adhered to the baby brunette.

Pina was rasping her tongue over curly brown strands, over the fluffy strands poking out from under the helmet that Keiko hated more than anything. Because that helmet and that game, that VR game that her sister had been so excited to try, had taken her from her.

Six months of waiting, waiting and watching her sister be comatose from a videogame and be fully unaware of what was going on around her. Months of her sister's goofy personality and strong will be tainted by various tubes and systems to keep her alive and well while she was off in another world.

One that Keiko had almost been trapped inside too.

But rather than take her too, it had only taken her sister, wrenched her away and left her here, confused, uncertain and rather lost without her big sister.

Keiko picked up the tablet as she sat down on the chair seated beside her sister's still physical form. Waking the device made her have to wait a few seconds as the stream buffered, but it didn't take long before Keiko was watching it. Watching her sister in that fantasy world that she was locked inside with only text communication a couple times a day via her phone's connection to the nerve gear.

Her sister was pink themed, which wasn't a surprise since she normally had her hair dyed on the underside most of the time, and unlike yesterday where she had been running with a massive shield and charging a large monster with one of her two best friends, namely Asuna, running just behind her, ready to spring. Today, Rika wasn't doing much.

Normally she seemed to be not doing much of anything during the time where Keiko just got home from school, since for the last month and a half they had been talking right after Keiko got home, which was why yesterday was such a rarity.

At the moment her sister was sitting in her black smith shop, sitting with her eyes closed and her feet propped up against her main desk. While a little ways away Rika's other best friend and partner in tech inventing, Shino was whittling something, which looked like the body of an arrow.

Opening the command prompt that Kuroshiro had shown her almost two months ago, Keiko typed in her name and a message.

Keiko: Hi sis

Rika opened her eyes in the stream and her eyes, hued pink from contacts, focused roughly where the camera to the stream was right now with a smile before she was typing rapidly over a holographic keyboard.

Rika: Sup, my mini-me xD

She was obviously joking, messing with her to try and boost her mood and give a little semblance of normalcy.

Rika: how'd school go? Need Shi-Shi to convert files again so I can tutor you a bit?

Keiko smiled and leaned back against the bed.

Keiko: Nah, it was okay,

Keiko: just miss having you pick me up

Rika leaned back in her chair with a gesture that told Keiko she was exhaling in a long sigh.

Rika: I know, I miss you too, lil sis

Rika: Wish you were here with me even if I'd never let you near any kind of danger in this game

She wasn't surprised, after all, Rika was trapped within a death game. Locked inside of a game that had no real want to let her go till it was over.

Keiko: It's okay…


Rika: I'm sorry I'm going to miss your first day even though I promised I would be there…

Keiko: It's okay, you didn't have a choice, sis

Rika didn't reply.

For months she never said a word, till finally at last, she had and it went unnoticed.

Rika: I'm here


Keiko had heard the news on the train. Heard the confusing news that her mother and father were going to be there to pick her up today, the last day of her first year as a middle schooler. When normally they were busy, their work schedule not aligning properly with her school schedule.

The one picking her up had always been her sister, even before Rika could drive and had her license.

So why were they here?

She got her answer the moment she left the school's gate.

Since standing there with her weight being distributed between her best friends who were being supported by Keiko's parents, was Rika.

Rika looked a bit like her typical constant joke of being a hot mess all the time, with her now long messy curly hair in a ponytail and a casual hoodie that was too loose on her now accompanied by simple jeans with a belt and a t-shirt.

She was so thin compared to how she was before the-

Wait…

Rika?!

Keiko couldn't help it, she broke into a run, "Rika!"

Her sister was home.