A Reunion (2)
In a washroom in District B, somewhere.
“..Hic, snif... Mom, Dad...”
“...”
“Lumiel, it’s time for me to send you away.”
“Hic, al-already..?”
“I-I don’t want to... Mom, Dad...”
“It’s okay, it’s okay...”
“Mom and Dad are sending us to a good place, right?”
“Hic, hic... Why has Big Sis stopped crying?”
“...Mom and Dad probably don’t want to see us crying as much as possible.”
“They might want to see our faces first when they reach the good place, so we should smile.”
“...Hic, snif, ye...”
“..Ah, I got it..”
“..Let’s go, I’ll send Mom and Dad off.”
“..Wait a second, Big Sis.”
“Huh?”
“..You can’t leave me, Big Sis.”
“You can’t go to the afterlife leaving me behind. Understood..?”
“..Of course.”
“Where would I go without you?”
“Come on, let’s go.”
Thud.
My sister’s body jerked violently as I grabbed her shoulder with my hand.
She must have been startled by the touch.
How much I missed that warmth, I couldn’t even describe it.
After my parents passed away, my only remaining family was her.
And now she was gone too, so soon.
I had thought she was dead. She had disappeared five years ago.
I had sworn to find out who killed her.
Even after five years, I couldn’t find even one clue, though.
I finally understood why.
Because she was alive. Because she had survived.
I didn’t know why she had become such a terrifying villain, but.
For now, she was alive.
“..Sis.”
“?!”
I called out to her with a trembling voice, forcing myself.
My voice startled her, and she turned around quickly, one more time.
Oh no, it couldn’t be.
Just looking at her back made my heart race like this, and seeing her face—
Kung.
As expected.
My heart sank. It felt like it had actually fallen.
She was really standing right there before my eyes.
Silver-white hair that reached all the way down to her waist,
and eyes that shimmered like pearls, pure white.
Exactly the same appearance as the sister I remembered from five years ago.
“Lu-Lumiel?”
My sister looked at me, her voice startled, and she backed away further.
She looked flustered.
That made sense.
I was the only one who had come back from the past.
From her perspective, she couldn’t possibly know how I had found her.
“Why... why here..”
My sister’s eyes trembled.
She took a step back after another, trying to distance herself from me.
That’s why I was afraid.
That she would disappear like that.
Like she had that day at the Association.
And in that case, I wouldn’t even have a guarantee to find her again.
“..Don’t go.”
“Sis, where are you going? Huh?”
Since she had moved away, I stepped closer and grabbed her wrist.
I had no need to lie.
No need to pretend to be a sibling I had only met again after two months.
Because the one standing here now was the only sister I had in the world, the little sister I had finally reunited with after five years.
“..Lumiel.”
Her quiet voice lowered.
She glanced between the exit and me, so it seemed her plea had gotten through somehow.
If not, my sister would have already left.
She wouldn’t have hesitated if I hadn’t said anything.
I didn’t know why, though.
But seeing that she hadn’t shown her face to me in five years.
It seemed she had never even considered coming back to me in the first place.
What had happened back then?
After two months ago, what had happened to my sister in the Z-district since that day?
My sister opened her mouth once more.
“First, put this down..”
..Put this down?
“I don’t want to..!”
A sharp voice shot out reflexively.
Why was my sister trying to distance herself from me?
What were those two months supposed to mean?
She had promised she would never leave me.
Why had she hidden herself for five years and given me this terrible situation of reuniting as a villain?
“Let go..? We just met my sister again..!”
No. I could just erase that as if it never happened.
Now that time had been reversed, everything was something that had never occurred.
I was the little sister who had found my missing sister after just two months.
The Lumiel who had lived her whole life for a whole year as if half her heart was missing had become nonexistent.
I pulled my sister’s arm toward me and hugged her body tightly into my arms.
“Just a second, just a second. Stay still, Sis.”
“This time, I won’t let go for sure.”
I just wanted to feel my sister’s warmth for a moment.
I’d think about the other things later.
That kind of impulse came over me.
..It’s chaotic.
Just being reunited with Lumiel made me chaotic.
She had come to find me even in the Z-district?
Of all places, what were we going to bump into?
Yeah. Honestly, it felt good to see Lumiel again.
It felt good to see her face again..
If my purpose was just to live with Lumiel, I could have just come out of the research lab and gone back to her.
I hadn’t been hiding for five years to deal with the Association president at all.
“Just a second, just a second. Stay still, Sis.”
Something had twisted tightly.
The body that was already trapped in Lumiel’s arms couldn’t move an inch—
and it wasn’t even lightly pushed away.
The strength felt at least equal.
“This time, I won’t let go for sure.”
Just a moment.
‘This time’?
What did that mean, not letting go this time?
“..What?”
“..I won’t let go, Sis.”
“I won’t ask where you went. Now.”
“Let’s go back. Huh? And let’s talk slowly.”
I had never intended to approach Lumiel this time either.
After all, Lumiel was still attending the Academy, an institution for training heroes..
and had become one eventually.
There was no way I could act as a villain around such a Lumiel.
“..”
But now the story had changed a little.
‘This time’. It might not have been a special meaning.
Maybe it meant she wouldn’t lose what she had once lost.
Or perhaps I was fixated on something unnecessary.
Thinking about how I had regressed.
But.
Just earlier, when I tried to lightly push her away, she hadn’t been pushed away.
The child who had always feared even a little dark place had no tremble at all here in this rotten train station.
And those eyes.
Eyes that I couldn’t believe were sixteen years old.
..If I thought this way, a simple suspicion would become genuine doubt.
“What, let’s go.”
If my hypothesis was true..
I might need to revise my plan.
A lot could go wrong from the start.
Thinking about those variables.. it would be better to stay together.
I could think of detailed plans slowly later anyway.
Berry..
The Association had told me to go to the Academy, so I could just go find her.
Thinking about her being Lumiel’s sister would mean the Academy would be easy to enter.
“What, let’s go.”
“What?!”
The words that came out of my sister’s mouth were way off from what I had expected.
I had thought my sister would push me away somehow or other.
I had thought about clinging to her all day.
I had even thought of the last resort method to forcibly bring her along..
“..R-really?”
It seemed my sister had never meant to completely cut ties with me.
But then why hadn’t she come looking for me even once?
..I didn’t know.
I didn’t want to think about it.
Because the important thing right now was that single word from the sister who had just come back.
“..Are you coming with me? Really?”
“W-what? Why are you so startled.”
“Of course I have to go back..?”
My sister’s answer came back.
She said it was only natural to go back together since we had just reunited.
It was natural, of course.
We were siblings, and..
Since I had recovered the missing sister, it was only natural to go home together.
If I hadn’t known about the past.
..It made me think I should have thought more deeply about my sister’s actions.
But I didn’t want to.
Because the sister in front of me was too precious.
It was impossible to think about the foundation while having the daily life I had yearned for five years right in front of me.
“..It’s just that I can’t believe I just met my sister again.”
“I thought I’d never see you again.. Sis, I thought you had left me too..”
“..Why would I leave my Lumiel.”
She had left last time.
As if it was only natural, my sister looked at my eyes.
Maybe it really had been my fault last time.
Maybe there had been a future where I could have been with her.
“Right? Sis isn’t leaving me, right?”
“..Sorry, because my sister suddenly disappeared.. it made me anxious. Too much.”
“..That’s it.”
Chiiik.
The train I had ridden started making a loud noise as if it was about to depart again.
“Let’s ride it, Sis?”
“..Tell me the details slowly. It’s fine.”
I grabbed my sister’s arm and started running toward the train door.
There were a mountain of things I was curious about. There were also a mountain of things I had to know.
But..
I wanted to hear it later.
Only then would it feel even more real that there was a ‘later’ with my sister.
I just wanted to feel that I had truly recovered my sister.
Clunk.
I was pulled by Lumiel’s hand and boarded the train, and I sat next to her in the seat.
“Hng..”
Lumiel was immediately smiling as if she was happy.
Looking at that smile.
I thought I would definitely protect that smile.
I closed my eyes and let my mind wander for a moment.
I had failed the last cycle too, partly because Lumiel had grown rapidly until right before she became S-class, and I had acted too hastily.
But if it was really true that Lumiel had come back with me.
If Lumiel also had her original power.
There really was no time.
That said, would I tell Lumiel the whole truth?
She wouldn’t believe me.
How clean the hero Association’s image was.
She might worry that I had been brainwashed or something during the missing time, or she might insist on getting me treated.
But even if she believed me, that would be a problem as it was.
Because Lumiel had always said she wanted to become a hero since she was little.
I didn’t want to break that dream.
I just wanted to quietly deal with the Association president.
Knock, knock.
“Sis?”
Just then, I felt a sensation of someone poking my cheek with a finger.
Of course it was Lumiel.
“..Huh?”
“Why did you call?”
And Lumiel got up from her seat and knelt in front of me,
and with her hand on my shoulder,
she delivered the words like thunder.
“I thought about it a lot..”
“Sis should enroll in the Academy.”
“It’s not right to leave Sis alone at home and me go back to the dorm again.. it makes me anxious.”
“..Eh?”