"Onii-chan, it's time to head out for school."
Suguha was still bothered by it. Shino stood by her waiting for Kazuto to finish drying his hair before they would leave for school in the morning. She really wanted him to cut his hair, but ever since the accident, he wouldn't even get his hair trimmed. After two years, his hair now reached his knees. He still had a rather feminine frame, but still no progress in the chest because he was obviously a boy. Shino and Suguha had grown a little, Suguha a little more than a little admittedly.
They had all grown. Suguha was a year younger than Shino and Kazuto, so she didn't share any classes with them, but she was getting depressed that teachers would talk to her about how Kazuto and Shino wouldn't participate in group activities and wouldn't talk at all in class. Maybe they forgot to talk would have been an option if they didn't talk at home or when the two of them were alone. Even then they barely talked. Two years, and it felt like there was no progress.
Suguha felt more depressed than ever.
The sound of a package dropping through the mail slot in the door caught Suguha and Shino's attention. When Suguha picked it up, noting that it was a code for a system Kazuto and Shino recently got for gaming, she barely knew it was for a beta test for a game she didn't recognize. There were only words on it, so it was boring. The name for the delivery was Kazuto, so she put it on the entrance table for him to pick up later when they would return home.
She was frustrated by a lot of things. Kazuto cooked all the time, not giving her a chance to learn how to cook and lessen the burden on him, although it seemed he was in a better mood when he cooked. She was also frustrated that when he and Shino did attend kendo lessons with her, neither of them could be read at all, and therefore they both became somehow untouchable. They kept on beating her at the things she wanted to be good at. They didn't give her a chance to be better at the things that might make her more supportive to at least Kazuto. After two years, she really didn't care about Shino, and honestly wanted her to go back home if progress wasn't being made.
Shino wasn't making her position in Kazuto's life clear, and Suguha had her own feelings to deal with. Kazuto finally made his way down the stairs. It still bothered her more than anything else. Because he had such a naturally feminine demeanor and such a feminine appearance, he was accepted into her middle school along with Shino. A girls only school. He fit the uniform in a way she was jealous of, and he gathered even more attention with his long hair which even she admired. His mind was gone enough that after the first time wearing it, he had no trouble putting on the skirt and the rest of the uniform.
It honestly made Suguha angry to the point she would feel a fever coming on sometimes. The Kazuto that she loved and admired was acting like a girl willingly and going to a girls only school with her.
He walked past the girls to the door and held it open for them. The lifeless expression in his eyes reminded her that he was still broken after the accident. Shino was still recovering as well. It were as if their bodies were on autopilot ever since they woke up after they arrived.
The plus side to Kazuto's popularity at the school was that he was deemed too popular, and only Suguha and Shino were expected to ever be close to him at any time. He had been called out by another classmate for a confession, but he turned her down without saying a word. He just turned around and walked away after she poured out her feelings. Suguha didn't know whether to be depressed or happy of that shut down.
The walk to school wasn't long, thankfully. The worst part of that was that boys from other schools would stare at him. The one point that made attention draw to him most was the beautiful long hair. Some guys even knew and kept mentioning how they wouldn't mind if he was so cute.
It was well known at the school that Kazuto was in fact a boy, and it was fine, because relationships wouldn't happen. He wouldn't approach a girl for a relationship, and he would shut down girls who approached him. He wasn't a pervert. He changed for physical education classes in a washroom instead of a change room, and his mannerisms suited to be feminine enough it were as if he were aiming to become a girl through surgery in the future.
When they arrived at the school that morning, Suguha finally filled her mind with something more positive. The delivery that morning was for a video game code, at least it should be. A tester code for a game that might release soon. That was her understanding, and if it was a video game, it might be something made more for a boyish audience. Maybe she could also pick that up with him and Shino and help them recover through it. If they were enjoying something, she wanted to be part of it.
Her mind was filled with that determination, and she asked some of her classmates if they had heard of the game system when she finally recalled it, and they said only a thousand people had their hands on test copies and the head mounted gaming device. Apparently one of her classmates was one such person, and she went ahead and already tested it that morning. It made her feel sick and immediately eject from the test, so she said she would pass it on to Suguha if she was so interested.
With her hands on it, she logged into the test that night. The beta test for Sword Art Online.
