Thicker Than Blood (4)

After I woke in the hospital, I went back to Lena's room and started getting her ready to be discharged.

In the three days I'd been asleep, the doctors had run every test they could think of. Their conclusion: if she came in once a month for regular checkups and took her medicine faithfully, she could go home.

Of course I still worried about her. But I couldn't keep her locked up like a bird in a cage forever.

"Unnie, are you sure you're okay? Your body, I mean...?"

"The doctor said so, didn't he? Awakeners don't respond well to medicine, so all those sleeping pills hit me at once."

Still, a few days of solid sleep had left me feeling pretty refreshed. A faint throb lingered in my head, but nothing that would get in the way of daily life.

"So is there anything you want to eat? Anywhere you want to go? It's been a while ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠— let's go somewhere."

Especially since today was the day Lena was getting discharged. I could have walked on a broken leg and not said a word.

How much had we endured to reach this point? And then, by some chance stroke of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠fortune, Lena's body had improved so dramatically. After so long with no improvement at all, it was as if we'd finally found a sliver of hope.

"Hmm..."

"A restaurant? Chinese? Western food? Tell me what you want."

Lena closed her eyes as if thinking it over, then broke into a bright, sunny smile.

"I want to eat the food Unnie makes at home."

"Ah... you really mean that?"

I was thoroughly thrown. I wasn't a terrible cook, but I wasn't a good one either. Most days I just slapped together a sandwich and called it a meal, and Lena knew that perfectly well.

"Yeah. I want to eat Unnie's cooking at our house, and sleep in the same bed."

Thinking about her age, it wasn't that strange. She'd just turned a year older, but she was still an elementary schooler — and she'd lost her parents so young. Of course she'd want the arms of the only family she had left.

Still, after eating hospital food every day, I'd have thought she'd want to go out for something delicious...

Honestly, it was touching, too.

"Then let's get ready. There's nothing in the house, so we'll stop for groceries on the way."

Now I just had to figure out what to make.

This world wasn't all that culturally different from the one I'd lived in, but East and West were all mixed together here. Things had the same names and looked nothing like what I remembered.

"Is there any dish you want in particular?"

"Anything Unnie makes is good."

Then I'd go with the one thing I was reasonably confident in. I'd always wanted to make it for Elena someday, and it ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was the only dish I'd actually practiced.

We left the hospital and headed into the city together.

"Are you sure you don't want a taxi?"

"I'm fine. I've been wanting to walk like this anyway. Not rehab — just walking outside on my own two feet."

I'd meant to call a cab, but Lena said she wanted to walk on her own two legs. The mana that had been crushing her body was suppressed now, and she did look more comfortable.

"Walking to downtown from here takes forty minutes, though..."

"That long?! Unnie, you said it only took you five minutes to walk to the hospital!"

"That's on my clock."

Well, I was an awakener. Running was faster than taking a car. Last time I'd taken a taxi because I was loaded down with Christmas presents, but if I'd just run, it wouldn't have taken five minutes.

"Th-then..."

Maybe she was too embarrassed to ask for a taxi again. The way she squirmed was cute, and besides, we'd already sent the luggage ahead — we were empty-handed.

I could give her something better than walking.

"Hop on my back."

"Huh? I can still walk, though..."

"Doesn't matter. I'll give you something better than walking or running. Even most awakeners never get to feel this."

"O-okay."

I didn't have teleportation or flight, but I'd trained my body relentlessly. If I hadn't, I'd have been a corpse in some alley a long time ago. I was confident I wouldn't lose to most enhancement-type awakeners.

"Hold on tight. Don't talk — you might bite your tongue."

"Unnie...?"

"Here we go."

I broke into a run with Lena on my back, then kicked off the hospital wall and a streetlamp and launched us high into the sky.

"Unnie?!"

"It's okay. I won't drop you."

The view was familiar to me. Next I landed on another building's rooftop and kept crossing from roof to roof. The streets were packed with people and cars, so this was the fastest, easiest way to travel.

Every so often I'd collide with a pigeon or some other bird in midair, but that was still better than slamming into a person or a car and putting someone in the hospital. There'd even been news reports of high-rank awakeners getting drunk and tearing through the city for real, causing accidents.

"U-Unnie... I'm scared..."

Oh no. Was this too much for a kid? I'd been careful not to put any extra strain on her, but racing across rooftops this high was probably terrifying.

It was only about fifteen stories if you counted it in apartment floors. Couldn't be helped, I supposed. I had to remember Lena wasn't an awakener.

We'd already reached downtown anyway.

"We're here. Open your eyes."

"Already...? It didn't even take five minutes."

Maybe three. If I'd been running alone, I could have gotten here faster still.

"Where is this, though?"

"Where else? The department store roof."

The important thing here: do not jump down off the building. Not because of the height, specifically — because there might be people walking below. This wasn't a game. Land on someone from that height and you'd have a disaster on your hands. Better to land on buildings with open rooftops whenever possible.

"Do other awakeners all travel like this?"

"Mm, I think I'm the only one who does it this way."

Most of them just walked around like ordinary people. The ones who didn't were the ones who could fly or teleport. I didn't have those abilities, so I made up for it with my body.

"Unnie, are you really C-Rank? If you're this strong, then the ones above you must be..."

"I'm a bit of an odd case. Come on, let's go shopping."

After that we bought what we needed at the department store and took a taxi home. Lena had been so frightened, and once, years ago, I'd tried this stunt with shopping bags and the bag had ripped — I'd accidentally dropped an egg bomb on the street. Cleaning that up had been such a headache that ever since, if I had luggage, I walked or took a cab like a normal person.

Maybe because we'd browsed so much while we were grocery shopping, by the time we got home the sun had already set. I was pretty sure she'd been discharged around lunch. We'd grabbed snacks in between, but she had to be starving.

"We're home!"

"There's nobody here, you know."

"I just wanted to try it. It's been so long since I actually came home."

"Alright. Wash your hands and change first. I'll start on dinner."

"Okay! I can't wait!"

"Don't get your hopes too high..."

Alright. Now what.

The last time I'd actually cooked in a kitchen had to have been two years ago. On my own, the most I'd ever made was fried eggs or instant ramen. Everything else was takeout I reheated at home.

I'd bought some basic side dishes just in case, but Lena had specifically asked for food I made, so I had to cook at least one thing properly myself.

We'd bought all the ingredients. Now I just had to prep and cook.

Chop—!

"...Mm."

I'd been trying to cut a carrot and sliced straight through the wooden cutting board.

Calm down. I'd only been cutting people and monsters lately, so I'd botched the force control.

"It'll be fine, right?"

Slowly. Watch the strength. Even in this cursed world, thanks to a man named Mr. Baek, easy, convenient recipes were everywhere.

And this was my favorite dish.

More precisely, it was the dish Capella had loved.

At the very least, I had to make something a human being could eat. Lena had just gotten out of the hospital — I wasn't about to send her right back in.

Fortunately, I managed to cook something that was... passable.

Lena said it was delicious and ate it all up. Every recipe had been easy to follow. It was just an ordinary plate of braised short ribs you could find anywhere.

Thank you, Mr. Baek. You were helping far more people than most heroes ever would. More than some Eyeball Collector, or some deranged S-Rank dropping giant bombs to blow off steam.

We got through dinner without incident, and by late night I collapsed onto the bed.

"Who would've thought getting the gamey smell out of meat would be harder than taking down most awakeners..."

"Unnie, are you asleep?"

The door opened and Lena came in.

"No, I'm awake."

She was in her pajamas, hugging a pillow. She clearly wanted to sleep together.

"Then... can I sleep next to you? It's different from the hospital bed, so I can't fall asleep."

"I bought you something nicer than the hospital bed. You don't like it?"

"Th-that's not it! I'm just not used to it yet! It's not that I don't like the bed you bought me..."

Lena waved her hands in a fluster. I'd teased her enough.

"I'm kidding. It's cold — hurry up and get in."

"Okay!"

I lifted the covers and she dove into the bed, delighted. Maybe because she was still small, the bed wasn't cramped. But if she rolled the wrong way she could fall, so I had to be careful. Her body was frail — a fall could hurt her badly. Better put some cushions on the floor just in case...

"...Hey, Unnie. The food you made today — was that something Mom used to make a lot?"

Then Lena spoke, carefully. The question caught me off guard.

"Huh? How did you know that?"

Braised short ribs had definitely been Capella's favorite. Before she'd lost her parents as a child, Capella's mother had made it often at home. I knew that because the original Capella had said so herself.

How Lena knew was another question.

"...Since I was home for the first time in so long, I looked around a bit. There was a photo in the album of a dish that looked a lot like what you made."

There was something like that...?

The album Elena was talking about was one of the things we'd brought from Capella's old house. Those were Capella's memories, not mine, so I'd never looked through it that carefully. The only time I'd opened it was when I was decorating this place to look like Capella's old home — I'd wanted Lena to feel as familiar as possible. Even if she'd been so young back then she wouldn't remember it ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠herself.

"Unnie, what kind of people were Mom and Dad?"

"Ah, that's..."

The follow-up question short-circuited my brain for a second. I was sorry, but that was a hard one to answer. I had no memories of the parents at all. I'd become Capella after those two were already dead. I had no memories from before, and no knowledge either. Capella's past hadn't been covered much in the original.

And I wasn't about to make something up.

"If you don't remember, you don't have to tell me. You were little when you lost Mom and Dad, too."

That was something I must never do. It would be a lie to two people who were no longer in this world — and a deception of Capella and Elena besides.

"I just... being home after so long, I wondered what the house was like when we all lived together with Mom and Dad."

Lena seemed to shrink a little under the covers.

"...I'm sorry."

"N-no! It's okay! You didn't do anything wrong. And I just need you, Unnie."

When I apologized, Lena poked her face out from the blanket. The way she forced a smile only made me feel worse.

"So just stay with me. Don't do anything dangerous because of me... As long as I have you, Unnie, I don't need anything else."

Because I couldn't really call myself her real sister.

The Capella Lena was talking about was already gone. I couldn't feel Capella's consciousness anymore. The only one here was me. Even though I'd taken on the role of Elena's sister because I'd been asked to — if someone asked whether I was real family, I couldn't answer.

"So it's okay. I just need you, Unnie."

Lena smiled as she said it. But I couldn't hide the tears welling in her eyes.

She was at the age when you miss your parents the most. No matter how mature she was for her years, that didn't change the fact that Lena was a child who longed for her parents' arms.

So I would keep being Capella, Lena's family, for as long as I could. No matter what happened.

"...It's getting late. Let's sleep."

I wiped the corners of her eyes.

"Okay. Sweet dreams, Unnie."

"You too."

That was the only thing I could give her.

I quietly patted her back until she fell asleep.