A Long-Overdue Nap
My day began with hand-washing laundry—something I had never done before in my life.
People might ask who on earth hand-washes their clothes these days, but the only washing machine I could afford was a toy Jouju play-set. If I wanted to save even a little bit of money, crouching down to wash them by hand was my only real option.
"Ugh."
But damn it, these stupid breasts kept getting in the way.
It wasn't like I could just slice them off like an Amazon warrior from Greek mythology.
Every time I leaned forward, they blocked my view, making the chore incredibly annoying.
The clothes I was wearing got completely soaked, to the point where it would have been easier to just do it naked. So, I stripped off the damp, darkened shirt and finished the laundry in my underwear.
Oh, my aching back.
Just because my body had changed didn't mean it was immune to fatigue or pain.
After spending so long bent over like a hunched old man, my joints let out a sickening pop that definitely shouldn't have come from a healthy body.
...This was a precious body I'd somehow obtained.
I resolved to be more careful with how I moved from now on.
I soaked the clothes, which reeked of rotting fruit, in detergent until they smelled fresh. Then, following instructions I'd found online, I laid them out one by one in a flat, sunny spot.
Maybe I should just screw the budget and buy a washing machine.
It felt a bit rich coming from someone who couldn't even earn their own living until recently, but I couldn't help but think that spending money for convenience wasn't such a bad thing.
My earlier resolve to save money and avoid buying a washing machine vanished into thin air. As I collapsed onto my bed after finishing the laundry, a sudden thought struck me.
The reason I could never save money was my complete lack of self-control.
Because I couldn't suppress these impulsive urges to spend...
Even if I was making decent money from streaming right now, there was no guarantee it would last forever.
Besides, I was still just a small-time streamer with a peak viewership of barely under a thousand and a stable active audience of only three hundred. I couldn't even make a fortune right now if I tried.
Granted, yesterday my viewers had showered me with donations like freshly fallen snow to celebrate me breaking my losing streak, but that money hadn't hit my bank account yet...
*Sigh.*
My younger sister used to handle all the chores—managing the money, cleaning, cooking, laundry, everything. Now that I had to do it myself, holy crap.
I finally understood exactly why she had packed up and left.
Though, it probably wasn't for a reason as simple as being sick of chores. Unlike me, she was strong.
She was a positive girl who could pour her heart into anything with a smile. She was so different from me—someone who wanted to avoid and run away from everything—that it was hard to believe we were even related.
Still, if I had been in my sister's shoes, wouldn't I have broken down and run away too?
Having your only family member constantly talk about wanting to die, dragging around someone who couldn't even move on their own... She probably just wanted to escape the bleakness of that future.
...The reason I didn't resent my sister for leaving was because, after turning into this body, I realized just how hard it was to survive on my own.
No matter how much money you had, hard work was still hard work.
Humans pile up trash just by existing.
Your body gets dirty every day, so you have to wash.
Even if you don't go outside, you still have to wash your clothes...
...I really miss my sister today.
She's my only family, after all.
I reached for a card lying on the bed. It was a resident registration card.
It featured a slightly younger version of my current face, with the number 2 clearly engraved as the first digit of the resident number. A registration card that shouldn't exist, one I had absolutely no memory of.
Naturally, since the only place I'd gone since turning into this body was the convenience store, I had never taken an ID photo for it.
The card's very existence was a mystery, but at the same time, it served as a stark reminder of how unrealistic my situation was.
...What would my sister think if she saw me like this?
Would she fail to recognize me, forcing me to spend ages explaining who I was?
Or would she naturally accept me as her older sister, just like this ID card suggested?
I couldn't predict it at all.
An online friend like Earth is Boring, who had known me for a long time, had never seen my face, so they only judged whether I was male or female based on my behavior...
But how would someone who knew me from childhood up until my transformation react to seeing the current me?
That was one of the things I was most curious about right now.
...Well, no point dwelling on it.
It wasn't like I expected to see my sister again anytime soon anyway. Besides, I couldn't even contact her.
With a rustle of the sheets, I lay on the bed, staring blankly at the ceiling like a fish in a bowl.
I had no intention of streaming today, so I planned to spend the day doing absolutely nothing.
Surely it was fine to waste just one day like this.
I'd worked hard lately, hadn't I?
Even if it was just to the convenience store, I'd actually gone outside.
I'd gone to bed early and woken up consistently in the morning.
I'd done the chores myself and even earned money through streaming...
I was living a productive life that would have been unimaginable in the past.
So, just for today, wouldn't it be fine to let myself drift along with the passage of time?
...I knew it was just self-justification, though.
My eyelashes felt heavy, and my eyes began to drift shut.
The bright light from earlier gradually faded into darkness.
Come to think of it... I used to sleep when the sun was at its brightest. Exactly at this time of day.
Maybe I'll take a nap. It's been a while.
Unable to resist the weight of my closing eyelids, I finally drifted off to sleep.
My throat ached.
Because I hadn't drunk enough water, the raspy sound I made when I tried to speak sounded pitiful, like a whimpering, abandoned puppy.
I should have chugged some water before passing out.
It was still a lazy afternoon with the sun high in the sky. Sleeping any longer would probably mess up my sleep schedule, so I forced my heavy body upright.
To soothe the burning dryness in my throat, I grabbed a plastic water bottle sitting on my desk—since I didn't have a refrigerator—unscrewed the cap, and chugged.
...It was lukewarm.
No matter how cold the weather was, water left out at room temperature without a fridge was bound to be tepid.
Still, I wasn't in a position to complain, so I drank the lukewarm water to ease the pain in my throat.
"Whew..."
Did I need to buy a refrigerator along with a washing machine...?
Actually, was it weird that I had lived this long without appliances that every normal household had?
I looked around the familiar room.
...Why was I only realizing this now? No matter how many times I looked, this place lacked too many things to be called a proper "home."
All we had was a high-spec computer, a bed, and the things my sister had left behind when she moved out.
It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that the only reason I could function in this house was because of her leftover belongings.
After all, most of the clothes I wore belonged to her, and the shampoo and conditioner I slathered on—just to feel a bit more like a girl—were things she had left behind.
Among those items, the one I used most was a mirror so cracked it looked like it belonged in the trash, which was currently reflecting my image.
It was a large mirror, showing down to my hips, which she had set up saying I might need it someday too.
...I used to think a mirror was the most useless thing in the world.
But now, just as my sister had implied, nothing was more important than this shattered mirror.
Because it was the only way I could see myself. The only way to look at this transformed body.
Even now, my reflection stared back at me.
A blank, somewhat sorrowful expression. It didn't suit my current face at all.
I forced a smile, but unfortunately, while this face was beautiful, it seemed lacking in expression.
The forced smile looked incredibly awkward, just as it had before.
So, I looked at the things scattered around the mirror instead.
There were several combs my sister used, makeup she'd left behind, and hair ties I'd forgotten to clean up, scattered across the desk.
Seeing them brought a sudden thought to mind.
My sister had once said that tying your hair up made it much easier to move around.
"...Should I try tying it up too?"
My bangs constantly poked me in the eyes, and even just walking from the bed to the bathroom or the computer caused my hair to sway all over the place. It was a pretty tempting idea.
Besides, I was a little curious to see what I would look like with my hair tied up.
I picked up a stray black hair tie, popped it between my lips, and gathered my thick, beautiful, silver silk-like hair.
I'd only done it because characters in anime and manga always held the hair tie in their mouths when tying their hair...
But I could have just left it on the desk and picked it up when I was ready.
And thinking about the fact that I was holding a hair tie that had been gathering dust for months in my mouth made me feel a bit...
I quickly got to work.
Since I used to tie my sister's hair for her when she was little in place of our mom, putting it into a ponytail wasn't actually that difficult.
"Let's see..."
I looked into the mirror.
"Oh."
Reflected in the mirror was a version of me with my hair tied back in a ponytail.
Because I'd left my bangs framing my face, showing my forehead for the first time didn't look too awkward. If anything, it drew more attention to my red eyes, making me look even more unreal than usual.
Since it was my first time tying it up, the tight band pulling at my scalp felt a bit annoying. But it was the kind of minor irritation I'd get used to over time, and it was definitely much more convenient than letting my hair fly wild.
Above all, the exposed nape of my neck—the ultimate charm point of a ponytail—looked as enticing as the forbidden fruit.
...Though it was hard to believe this body actually belonged to me.
I undid the ponytail I'd worked so hard to tie.
It was comfortable. Gathering my long hair, which reached all the way down to my waist, made managing it much easier.
But it didn't suit me.
It felt like forcing myself into a trendy outfit that didn't fit my style.
"I guess..."
"...I look best with my hair down."
The cracked mirror once again reflected my image with my long hair flowing free.
Yes, my current self definitely looked best with straight, loose hair.
"..."
Time to go bring in the laundry.