24.Quiet Talk: In The Photo

Editing/Standardisation: Medicine Melancholy
Original Translation: Medicine Melancholy

Aureo Uber

“Mission Accomplished (nya)!”

The moment they laughed and said so in unison, the power of the white piece of paper that had served as a relay was finally exhausted, and my consciousness that had been dreamily looking at a different world was pulled back and returned to the world in which I now live.

I was in a room of a deserted Internet cafe attached to a train station. My body, which had been frozen in a sitting position for a long time, was so stiff that when I stretched out lightly, I could hear cracking noises coming from all over my body.

“… Looks like they’ve stabilized without incident. It was chilling even for me at one point… but now that I no longer have the means to interfere, I can only hope that they do their best.”

I couldn’t directly interfere with the other side due to the circumstances surrounding me. If I tried to cross over there with my body, there’s a high risk that I would invite some unwanted guest to come over here. Therefore, as a compromise, I had slipped a few pieces of paper into that person’s belongings… to catch “those two’s” attention, and to introduce “her” to her inner world… Such was the minor assistance I could be able to send them, but now that I had used up all of the pages, I could no longer interfere or even look at the situation.

… Suddenly, I started to mock myself. Why did I care so much about “her” anyway? Considering my purpose, it was already accomplished for me when I sent “her” over there. In the worst case scenario, it would have been fine if she became those villains’ plaything, as long as she could spread her seed to the other world.

In the first place, the formula for sending the target to the other side even included a description of how to rewrite the target’s mind to suit my own needs. However, once I was certain that the player chosen to reincarnate into that race was the rightful candidate, that description was erased. I knew that it would be an extraordinary hardship, considering the integration with other techniques.

Four train stations away from where the company building was located. From there, it was a ten-minute walk. I arrived at the address written in the note. It was on the outskirts of the same city, on the edge of a quiet neighborhood. A number of fences lined a large plot of land that was recently given away when a large landowner passed away. Large commercial facilities, nursing homes for the elderly. Amidst the rush of construction, there was an ordinary one-story house that looked like a private home.

Its entrance was tightly sealed. The residents of that house… a pair of brother and sister, not quite reaching adulthood, were victims of a hundred missing persons case that’s currently making headlines, and their whereabouts were still unknown.  Another person in the vicinity, a son from a nearby sword dojo, is also reported missing, causing concern among nearby residents. In fact, if I looked closely, I could see the missing posters all over the neighborhood.

I went under the rope that was blocking the path. No problem. The surrounding security had already been wrapped up, and it’s nowhere to be found at this time of day.

Because the reason I came here was to investigate in this house.

There was a famous support player nicknamed “Princess” among the players.

The name first appeared in the first officially sponsored avatar contest. In the beginning, it was widely believed that corporate productions would occupy the podium anyway, and in fact, there was a wide gap in the degree of perfection between private and corporate productions, except for the avatar created by a single individual, who beat out a host of other companies to win the competition. Moreover, the creator at the time was only a 13-year-old child.

A 13 year old girl could create a work of art that surpassed the avatars of many other companies. Well, it might be possible if she was very talented. In fact, the modeling data sent to us with the application for the employment examination was really excellent, and we could see traces of her high level of talent and study. I would like to hire her immediately myself.

But that was the present I was talking about. So what was it about a 13-year-old girl’s first work that was so dainty that even the recent works made by those same hands were hazy in comparison? Wasn’t it because… ‘the original model existed’?

… And that brought me to this place. That avatar looked too much like the person in my memory, albeit much younger and with some differences.

I put my hand on the key to the electronically locked door and muttered a few words, and the door was unlocked with a clunk. When I opened the door, I saw an indoor space with almost no steps and handrails everywhere for catching and standing. The structure seemed to be centered on a hall that combines the kitchen and living room into one, each of which was surrounded by adjacent rooms.

I stepped forward and found the room I was looking for… a Japanese-style room with a Buddhist altar sitting inside. Opening the tightly closed door of the altar, which was apparently well maintained, as if never missing a day of cleaning… I found it.

The photo of those siblings’ parents, who had died in an incident years before, was there. What was reflected in the photo was unmistakably the image of “hers” I had been searching for.

“… Ha, haha, hahahahaha… I thought I had everything under control, but I could never have guessed that what I was looking for existed so close by… What a ridiculous turn of events… hahahahahahaha!”

The “jewel” that was supposed to have been sent away with me, but slipped out of my hands and I could never find her, no matter how long I worked for it. I had no idea that she once existed so close by. I could only sneer at the fact that I found her so easily and unexpectedly. A few drops trickled down from the corner of my eye.

Her long hair, which used to reach her waist, was now neatly trimmed around her shoulders. However, her face, strangely enough, had not changed much. I had always been concerned about her childish face, but it seemed that it had not changed much with the birth of her child and the passage of time.

Everything made sense now. The girl that the avatar “Iris” was based on, was without a doubt… my little sister.

I also picked up the family photo that was lying next to it. It showed four people, parents and children. In the center was my smiling sister and a dark-haired Japanese man with a good-natured look, smiling calmly as he stood by her. A dark-haired girl of about 5 years old, who looked like my sister but had Asian features, grabbed the pants of the father figure and looked shyly at the camera.

And.

A boy about 10 years of age, turning away embarrassedly while being hugged on the shoulders by my sister.

With an appearance that at first glance could be mistaken for a girl, he had a face that bore a striking resemblance to my sister’s, and his hair… was silver like mine.