Chapter 9
Translator: True Detective
Chapter 9. That's Not It, Actually...! (1)
No, honestly, I feel a little unfairly treated.
About my social anxiety.
Did I become timid because I wanted to be timid? The situation just made it that way.
Even if you assume it was because I was needlessly harboring a bunch of complexes in my past life, there's a real reason in this life, I tell you!
Because, well, isn't my mental age that of an adult?
But the kids around me are just little pipsqueaks. Who just graduated kindergarten.
There's no way I can just naturally approach those kids. Rather, because they're kids, I end up being careful on my end.
They cry at the drop of a hat, they get mad and yell without me even knowing what button got pushed, and for some reason, the boys keep pulling my hair, or touching my skirt and running away.
But even so, do I hit a kid? Do I chase them down and make them cry? Isn't that a bit, you know? Humanly, conscientiously.
Furthermore, I am a superhuman. Since Soi hasn't awakened yet, she doesn't need to be particularly careful while running around happily with the kids, but the story is a bit different for me.
Because if a superhuman happens to hurt someone else with their power, the story gets a bit serious from then on.
In this world, superpowers leave traces. I don't know exactly what kind of investigation method they use to find out, but anyway, they say the police have an incredibly specialized investigation team separately. And generally, a superpower is treated on the same level as a 'weapon'.
So if you hit someone with a superpower, it's immediately considered special assault. Even if I hit someone with telekinesis and it's no different from just slapping them with a hand, as long as the means is a 'superpower', it's immediately special assault.
Yes, at my age, I am naturally a juvenile offender immune from criminal prosecution. Naturally, I won't receive criminal punishment.
But aren't the people protecting me Soi's parents?
If I needlessly catch boys running away with telekinesis or something and get into a dispute, it becomes tiring in many ways.
For various complex reasons like that, I generally responded by holding it in whenever the kids bullied me, and naturally, the more I did, the more the boys trying to bully me started seeing me as an easy target.
"Geez, seriously! Lua's problem is that she's too nice!"
And the kid who got the most outraged every time I was pranked and feeling despondent was none other than my (self-proclaimed) older sister, Soi.
"You have to get a little mad too when the kids play pranks!"
Every time I saw Soi putting her hands on her hips and getting angry as if she were a real older sister, I felt frustrated in my own way.
No, kids can be a little like that.
I don't know how it would be if it actually escalated into a crime, but honestly, I understand the psychology of boys to some extent.
It's just picking fights with a pretty girl for no reason, isn't it?
Isn't it a bit much for me to act childishly just because the opponent is childish and acting childish?
"Phew, it just can't be helped with Lua. You can't do anything without this older sister, right?"
Even so, what could I say to Soi when she spoke like this?
Even if she spoke like she was frustrated and angry, there was a pride on her face that she couldn't possibly hide.
Whenever she helped me, her eyes would sparkle, and on days I even just said thank you, she would genuinely feel like flying all day long.
But how could I say something like 'you don't have to go that far' to her face?
And you know, Soi is a truly popular kid.
With both her parents being famous heroes anyway, plus being pretty and having a good personality, she has no choice but to monopolize the kids' popularity.
Soi was mainly popular with the girls.
You know, aren't there kids like that? The kind of girl who has a bit of a tomboyish side, so when she fights with the boys, the boys exaggerate incredibly and run away screaming "Uwaaah!" in disgust.
But actually, she's the kind of kid who subtly occupies the position of first love in the hearts of those kids acting disgusted.
And me, who is considered cute by such a Soi, was somehow being treated as a 'cute something' by the surrounding girls as well.
That's true, but.
"Here, Lua, say ahh~"
How exactly am I supposed to accept this?
If it were at least high schoolers, no, even middle schoolers in the slightly closer future, I could accept it cheerfully. As memories of school days or whatever.
But you know. This is elementary school.
The kids around me are all just tiny little pipsqueaks.
I'm telling you, eating what they feed me by mouth makes me feel like I'm breaking down on a personal level.
They try to hug me over every little thing, tie my hair, braid it, and seriously, how wide is Soi's network? She runs all over the school making friends as if she wants to be friends with the entire student body, so when I walk down the school hallway, kids I don't even know call my name and greet me.
Um, I thought I wanted to be popular too.
But this popularity seems a bit different from the popularity I had in mind?
Things just happen around me even if I do nothing, and kids I'm seeing for the first time start treating me like someone they know, so there's absolutely no time for me to speak first and introduce myself or anything.
Looking at it, doesn't trying to stroke and hug me feel somewhat like looking at a pet? No, since they are kids, their method of expressing affection has no choice but to be simple, but for me who isn't a kid, it's just not sitting well.
"Lua's problem is that she's too scaredy-cat. But don't worry! This older sister will help you!"
"..."
Well, anyway.
Like that, 1st grade, 2nd grade, 3rd grade.
We hardly even took tests, and even if we did, it wasn't like a report card was made and sent home or anything.
I was almost called a genius by my surroundings.
Because I already knew everything they teach in elementary school.
It wasn't like I went to some gifted class, and if it's just the curriculum set by the government, wouldn't it be weirder not to know?
Even if I had forgotten, it comes back to me appropriately if I read the textbook.
That was also a problem.
Over the first 3 years of elementary school, I was somehow being treated as a 'promising prospect for the next generation'.
With both her parents being superhumans, and it being like that in the original work too, Soi awakening an ability is a natural progression, but unfortunately, until we became 3rd graders in elementary school, the only one among the two of us who had awakened a superpower was me.
However, whenever Mister Dohyun had a related interview, he would inevitably bring up the story of how he was helped by me, and Aunt Yujin didn't deny it either.
Saying that the disposition of a hero was already visible from that young age, and that there was nothing I didn't know at school.
By the time I realized it, it was already too late to shed that image.
"Huh."
This wasn't it.
Wasn't what I hoped for a future like a light novel, where I just live moderately happily, sandwiched between heroines and being happy?
Of course, even if I try my best, I'll only end up being one of the characters in a slice-of-life story with a bunch of beautiful girls, rather than the protagonist of a harem story.
But somehow, doesn't it feel like the whole world is expecting something from me?
Hasn't the atmosphere become something where I'm a genius but also quiet and timid so people want to take care of me, yet somewhat precarious at the same time?
The most bewildering thing was my own mind; I was actually thinking 'I don't hate' that situation.
Exactly. I had become a corrupted human being who actually thought a life of having an elementary schooler as an older sister and leaning on her was okay!
"Phew, really."
Soi firmly presses a handkerchief around my lips and wipes them, as I was lost blankly in thought holding a piece of bread.
No, I know I got some on me so I can wipe it myself. I just intended to wipe it all at once a little later!
More importantly, you got some on your mouth too?
Why are you making an expression like a young but reliable older sister that appears in a high school heroine's flashback?
"The older sister is the best, right? Hmm? Lua wouldn't be able to do anything without her older sister, right?"
"..."
To Soi speaking with the smile of the happiest person in the world, I thought about what on earth I should answer so as not to hurt her.
Yeah, okay!
Because we're still elementary schoolers!
We've only just passed the halfway point, haven't we? Things change again when you become middle schoolers!
I just decided to stop thinking and finish eating the castella I was eating.
And after becoming 4th graders.
"Lua? I don't really know a name like that."
I met Chaeyi again.
"You can't recognize me...?"
"How can I recognize someone I don't know?"
Her voice is cold.
I didn't know the Chaeyi I knew could make a voice like this?
She was a kid who always tagged along behind me, firmly tugged on my clothes whenever she had the chance, stuck closely right next to me the moment I sat anywhere, pestered me to braid her hair, and shared food with me if there was any.
Was she a kid who could make such a cold expression?
Seeing the two of us like that, the surroundings started buzzing.
"What, do you know each other?"
"Because it's Lua. Her mom is Meteor, and her dad is Gale. Aren't the children of heroes acquainted with each other?"
"For that, Soi doesn't seem to know her well?"
Hearing Soi's name come up, I suddenly realized.
I quickly looked toward Soi.
Soi was already glaring at Chaeyi with her eyes wide open, forming an angry glare.
Ah, this is that.
That pattern where she just roughly laughs it off when she's teased, but if other kids tease me, she pops out from somewhere and chases them away with a loud shout.
I quickly grabbed Soi's wrist.
"Huh?"
"No. I, I think I saw wrong..."
Ah. I stuttered.
Because I spat it out hurriedly.
At my words, the kids' heads tilted to one side.
"Didn't she call her name earlier?"
"Did she hear it separately from somewhere?"
Hearing them whispering to each other, my face flushed red.
"Hmph."
Chaeyi let out a nasal snort, turned her face away again, and rummaged through her desk.
"Hey...!"
"No, Soi, let's go."
"No, but still, she...!"
I quickly dragged Soi away.
I was glad to see her, and it was a bit of a shock that she couldn't recognize me.
But still, what can you do.
Our memories are memories from when we were kindergarteners.
Even if she doesn't remember me, it can't be helped.
The tip of my nose stinging for no reason must definitely be because my mind is being influenced by my body's age.
I decided to think of it that way.