The Rebellious Phase Came from Japan
"I-I knew T-Toka Mama was Korean, s-so I thought... it would be nice if I could talk with her in Korean...."
That I could speak Korean at all was beside the point. It wasn't a lie that I'd thought it would be nice to talk with Toka Mama in Korean.
Drawing was my hobby, and I held a kind of awe for Toka Mama. If we ever actually got to talk, I'd wanted it to be easy—in Korean.
Not that I had ever imagined Toka Mama would turn out to be my mother's close little sister.
"Anyway, we've been at this long enough. I'm ending the stream and going to bed. Izumi's still a student, and I don't want to keep her up all night. I've got work to get to again tomorrow, too."
"Then... g-good night, everyone...."
…
21. Izumi and Toka Mama surprise collab just dropped!
22. Those two look pretty close, don't they?
23. Whoever called her an unfilial daughter last time, reflect on yourself.
24. >>22 Anyone can see how awkward it is lol
…
39. The Demonic Woman who seduces every single person she meets: Kaino Izumi
40. We're stuck here the exact same way lol
41. Mei-chan's charm is terrifying
…
63. Mei-chan is a total filial daughter
64. Be my wife, Izumi
65. >>64 I'm afraid she's my wife
66. Why is Korean-speaking Izumi this cute?
67. >>66 Mei-chan was always cute
68. >>66 Especially when she's about to cry. That's the cutest.
69. >>68 Abuse faction, you're under arrest
The moment the stream ended, Aunt Sia spun her chair around to face me.
"Right. Izumi... no, Mina. There's something Auntie's been curious about. Mind if I ask?"
"Ah, yes. Th-that's fine."
"Mm. Auntie watched your stream, and you said once that you wanted to do a drawing stream, didn't you?"
"Yes...."
"Would you show me, just once? Auntie's a fairly well-known illustrator, so when people around me say they draw, I can't help getting curious."
"Ah, okay...."
At her request I opened the art folder on my computer and pulled up the most recent file: fanart of Charlotte, the one and only irrefutable lawful wife of Uncle.
Luna, Serena—girls like them were nothing but concubines, unable to reach even the tips of the charm Charlotte showed. In Uncle there was no lawful wife but Charlotte, who had appeared first and piled up the most history with Uncle Satoru...!
Of course, it wasn't that I disliked Luna or Serena. They were proper characters in Uncle, proper heroines. How could I hate them?
But lately, if you wandered into the fan community, the number of newcomers arrogantly insisting that Luna or Serena was the lawful wife had been climbing. Every time I saw a post like that, the veteran who had followed the original since chapter one wanted to land a single sharp rebuke—except the anime had blown up, the cocky newcomers had multiplied, and I was holding back in case they turned it around on me.
It was absolutely not because I was scared of posting in the community....
Whatever someone thought after reading my post had nothing to do with me, right?
...I-It really was like that.
"...This is Charlotte, from Dark Uncle Survival, isn't it?"
"Y-yes, th-that's right...."
"Wow. I'm not just being nice. This is genuinely good."
"Heh, ehehe.... R-really?"
"Yeah. You could go pro right now and I don't think there'd be a single problem."
"Heh, hehe..."
The top of the industry—and the illustrator I loved most—was praising my picture. Asking me not to smile would have been unreasonable.
"Mina. Do you want to become an illustrator?"
"Ah, th-that's not it."
I shook my head at once.
For me, drawing was a hobby I could enjoy, and nothing more. It was a famous fact that the moment a hobby became a job, most people lost the joy of it. So no matter what happened, I had no intention of making drawing my work. Wanting to do a drawing stream had only been something like telling the people around me, I have this kind of hobby.
"For me, drawing is just... a hobby that l-lets me unwind when I'm tired...."
"I see. That's a little disappointing. Then do you remember what got you started?"
What got me started drawing?
"Uh, umm..."
I'd liked drawing in my past life too, but I'd already loved it before those memories ever started coming back, so it wasn't the past life's influence. It felt more like I had simply been drawing since some point I couldn't name....
"I-I'm sorry. I don't really... remember how it started...."
"Really? Not even a memory of someone recommending it to you, way back?"
"Euu..."
"There has to be something! Think hard!"
It was a shame for Aunt Sia, but truly nothing came to mind. Even so, I could read the room well enough.
I was Super Hyper Ultra Kayano Mina, evolved a whole dimension higher for having cleared the Purgatory of Arcana Shooter.... She wanted to see my drawings. She'd said it was a pity that I had no thought of becoming an illustrator. And now she was fixated on me remembering what had made me start. So maybe the reason I drew now had something to do with Aunt Sia.
Even in the earliest memory I could call up, I had already been drawing, and the last time Aunt Sia had seen me was when I was five—an age I barely remembered. On top of that, I had loved the illustrator Yukino Toka since I was little, and every time I looked at her work, something about it felt familiar.
In other words, the one time I met Aunt Sia before I turned five, that was when I'd taken an interest in drawing.
How perfectly logical a deduction was that.
"Um, d-did you... maybe t-teach me how to draw...?"
"Ah, uh—uhh..."
At my question she stared at me with wide eyes, as if thrown. She couldn't hide the corner of her mouth already climbing, though, and a moment later she covered it with her hand and gave a little happy stamp of her feet.
"Ahh, well, 'I taught you' is a bit much, but..."
Even as she said that talking about this was embarrassing, Aunt Sia began, slowly, to draw the past out, like she had been waiting to tell it.
"A long time ago, big sister Seon-a brought you to Korea, just once..."
Sia had wanted to draw since she was little, but practical problems kept her from ever studying art in earnest. Even so, she drew whenever she had a spare moment and posted the pictures on social media. The person who saw them, came all the way to Korea, and cheered her on—saying she would support her, so Sia ought to start drawing properly—was Seon-a.
In her first year of middle school, Sia met a benefactor she wanted beside her for the rest of her life. Their names were even similar, and Sia decided the meeting really was fate. So even now, whenever the company where Seon-a served as a director asked, Sia took the commission without a second thought, no matter how busy she was.
A bond that had run since that first year of middle school. Seon-a even had a daughter, Jia, only five years younger than Sia, and Jia became the reason Seon-a and Sia grew closer still. They lived apart, one in Korea and one in Japan, but they talked by direct message almost every day and called each other, an older sister and a younger one.
More than a year after Seon-a's help began, Seon-a gave birth to her second daughter, Mina. Sia hated that school kept her from rushing over at once, but the moment summer break started, she headed for Japan. And there she met a cute little angel. An angel so cute that she wanted to protect her for the rest of her life.
After that, every time school let out, Sia went to Japan. She had been steadily saving money from commissions, so her wallet was never in any real trouble, but Seon-a always covered things like the airfare, asking her to look after the girls. Her parents knew what Seon-a meant to Sia, and they never opposed the trips.
When she was in Japan she spent the days playing with Jia and looking after Mina, and once the two of them fell asleep in the evening, she drew. Sometimes she was tired, but to Sia they were happy memories she would never forget.
And five years passed.