Intro 6: To Be Ordinary
How does it feel to be the youngest one in the family?
Most people would answer: "It is the easiest."
Because in their mind, the hardest was being the oldest. The position where, whether they liked or not, would face them with high expectation from their surroundings.
Pressured to be better than their younger sibling.
Heavier responsibility as the most mature person after the parents.
Felt ashamed if they showed vulnerability.
Expected to be perfect.
Even if the parent didn't mind if their oldest wasn't perfect, but socially, other people would scrutinize and criticized them.
While the youngest was the opposite of that.
Low expectation, small responsibility, people more accepting when they failed over something, and greater freedom to do whatever they wanted.
No matter how people wanted to see it, most would reached the same conclusion that;"The youngest have it easy."
That's just the norm of how people would see someone in the position of the youngest.
That how everyone see a kid named Mizuno Nao after everything that had happened.
And that's how Nao himself wanted to be seen.
★
In the classroom of certain middle school, where only few students left after the bell rang and most had already left their seats to go home. At the back corner of the class near window, there were two male students, one of them slumped on the desk when the other one stood in front of him.
"Alright, let's compare our test score! I had studied hard for this test and I'm confident my score now is better than yours!"
"Yeah yeah, whatever, just do it already."
One of them was pretty excited while the other just nonchalantly brushed him off to continue.
They put both their test paper on the table in face down position, and the standing kid started counting.
"... two, one, open!"
With the signal, both of them turned the paper up at the same time.
The lazy kid got 72, while the excited kid got 82.
"Yey, I win!"
The kid celebrated his victory with so much vigour. The other kid just sighed and put the test paper back into his bag.
"Then Nao, as we agreed before, it means you will help me farm the material for my new equipments and weapon."
"Hm, alright."
Although faced with curt response, it didn't diminished the smile in his face, thinking that Nao was just being grumpy because he finally beat him.
Their moment was interrupted by the sound of door sliding open and brown haired student came in and waving at Nao.
"Nao-kun, let's go home together!"
"Coming."
The lazy kid stood up, took his bag and walked toward the new kid, passing over his friend.
"Don't forget the deal, Nao. The usual time tonight!"
His friend didn't mind it and waved at both of them at the entrance.
The brown haired kid waved back to him before he was dragged by Nao to leave.
"See you, Reiji-kun."
•
•
Nao and his twin brother, Yuuki, walked side by side in the empty hallway in tranquility.
"Nao-kun, can I ask you something?"
Yuuki, the type who couldn't take the quietness, decided to start a conversation.
"Hm."
Nao nodded.
Yuuki thought it for a moment before he opened his mouth while his gaze straight ahead.
"Why?"
"'Why' what?"
"Why you always held back?"
".....I don't quite follow–"
"The test score just now, you could have scored better than Reiji-kun or even perfect score if you wanted, but you deliberately let him win by keeping your score low even though you know he would be serious in that test."
"I'm just a bit unlucky this time, I guess. But I won all other previous bets, right?"
"Yeah, you won it all with stable scores between 70 to 80. Never more or less. As airheaded as I was, I still can notice something like that."
".... I see. So never went past the threshold even once really seemed suspicious. I'll be more careful next time."
"....."
"What?"
"I'm waiting for you to answer my question."
"Why I held back in that test?"
"More than that. I believe you know what I'm talking about."
"Simply because it's the best thing to do."
"Huh? What you mean by that?"
This time Nao no longer responded, and Yuuki didn't inquire further, realizing that Nao wanted him to think about it himself.
That conversation returned the atmosphere between them into silence. One of them looked troubled with furrowed brows, thinking hard, while the other one smiling, enjoying the moments.
What Nao said just now didn't particularly have deeper meaning that needed complex thought to understand.
Ouzawa Reiji, perhaps he could be said as the closest person to Nao outside of his family. They first met in the first year of junior high school.
When Nao didn't have anyone to talk with because his twin was in different class and he didn't recognize anyone in the class, he decided to get his game console from his bag and played quietly in the corner.
"That's MonsHunt, right?"
Nao turned his head to see a brown haired male classmate peered from behind him to see his screen.
From then on, Nao and Reiji chatted a bit, played game together, and grew close as friends.
Although they were quite different in personalities, Nao was calm, collected and a 'bit' lazy strike, while Reiji was boisterous and energetic. But they surprisingly got along well until now.
They would sometimes played around like betting on their test scores, weather predictions, guessing how long teacher would be late, etc., where the loser must grant one wish of the winner.
All the time ended with Nao winning and he could order Reiji around as he pleased like getting his lunch from cafeteria or carrying him to the next class when he was too lazy to move, etc.
However, as Yuuki had said, it was indeed a fact that Nao mostly held back his abilities.
In the test, he could had straight perfect scores if he ever wanted that just like his older brother Shizu, but he always deliberately picked some wrong answers and controlled his own score to never fell below passing grade and never too high.
So Reiji losing to him all the time were simply because that guy himself wasn't a smarty type.
However when Reiji asking for a bet in test score last week, and since then, he never asked him to play together like usual but instead studied very hard. Nao knew Reiji was quite serious this time. Nao didn't know what happened to make him like that, but he didn't mind.
Nao could had been serious too for once and aimed for perfect score to keep his winstreaks, but he didn't. He kept his score as low as possible, so Reiji could easily beat him.
Reiji finally won, he looked so happy to finally beat him. Nao knew his decision to not change was the right one.
"This is the best outcome."
Nao had learned from his previous relationship, that one-sidedly winning all the time wasn't the best way to navigate a relationship.
★
Nao and Yuuki were born as twins with only a few minutes difference. However, the contrast between them was as obvious as the sun and the moon.
One was as restless as stormy sea, while the other as serene as calm lake.
One was spontaneous and quite foolish, the other was very collected and quite smart.
One liked to be in crowds and be the center of attention, while the other like solitude.
Two sides of the same coin.
That was how everyone described the twins.
Except things weren't as simple as that.
•
•
In an afternoon, Mizuno Ayaka came back home from shopping for the ingredients for tonight dinner from nearby supermarket in their neighborhood.
When she was about to open the door, it clicked and her energetic son came out.
"Ah, Mama, ! Do you need help to bring all that?"
Yuuki asked looking at the two big plastic bags in his mother's hands.
Ayaka chuckled at her son eagerness to help her, but she shook her head to refuse.
"Don't worry, I got this. You want to go out, right?"
She asked, looking at Yuuki's outfit.
As if just remembered it, Yuuki looked up to his mother and asked, "That's right! Mama, I want to go to the park to play with other kids, can I?"
"Make sure you come back before late, okay?"
"Hm! Well then, Mama!"
While saying that, Yuuki walked past his mother, gave a cute wave to her before ran ahead without looking back.
Ayaka shook her head with wry smile at how uncontrollable her son is.
"Even I wasn't as active as him at his age, right, or did I?"
Ayaka murmured to herself as she went inside and closed the door.
In her way to the kitchen to store all the things she bought, she passed the living room.
In there, she saw her youngest son, Nao, sitting on the sofa, with PS4 controller in his hand playing some fighting game on the TV.
Ayaka put everything in her hands in the kitchen first, before she returned to the living room.
She observed her son playing from behind the sofa, not saying anything, just quietly watching.
Nao who already knew his mother stood behind him, felt uncomfortable with his mother silence.
He paused his game and turned around to his mother.
"What is it, Mom?"
Ayaka tilted her head and smiled.
"Hm? Nothing, sweatheart. I'm just watching the game you played. I remembered the last time I played this game with my friends."
Nao blinked. His eyes went back to the screen and returned to his mother, repeated it one more time before stopped on his mother with doubting look.
The game he played just came out a month ago, how would his mother knew and played this game with her friends?
Nao knew his mother just making excuse on the spot to redirect his question.
But he wouldn't expose her, instead he took the second controller and offered it to his mother.
"Want to play with me, Mom?"
"You sure?"
Ayaka was quite surprised with Nao initiative to invite her to play. Nao nodded, he was curious whether his mother really knew how to play or not.
Ayaka went around the sofa and sat beside Nao and took the second controller, observed it close and thorough.
Nao set the game into versus match, and glanced at his mother.
"Do you really know how to play, Mom?"
Ayaka picked one character at random and Nao followed suit and began the match.
"Don't underestimate your mother. My friends used to hate me because I always beat them without mercy in this game."
"Is that really something that need to be proud of?"
•
A minute later.....
["Victory!"]
Silence...
The screen showed a replay victory moves of Nao's character doing some combos to his mom's character.
Nao turned his head, seeing his mother trying her best to avoid looking at the screen awkwardly.
"Mom."
Ayaka tensed up.
"Look, that was just a warm up! Next one is the serious one!"
"Hm."
•
Three more matches later...
["Flawless Victory!"]
Nao looked at his mother once again with deadpan expression. Ayaka covered her face with both of her palms, but Nao still could see the redness on his mother's ears.
"Mom, you're noob."
"Guh!"
Ayaka removed her hands and held the controller again while trying to look calm, although the redness of embarrassment still lingering.
"Come on next! I've relearned all the things I need to know."
Nao chuckled, his mother was just too fun. He straighten his gaze back to the screen and clicked the next match, thinking he would be able to beat his mother as easily as before.
But to his surprise, this time his mother gave quite a fight. She blocked his attacks, counterattack at the right time, and gave Nao a hard time.
In the end, he still won, but his mother really surprised him just now.
His mother clicked the next match again and the countdown before the fight appeared on the screen.
"Let's talk while we play, shall we?"
"Talk about what?"
Their eyes focused on the TV and their fingers moved fluently delivering a chain of combo of attack, block, evade, etc., while thier mouth conversed at the same time.
Truly a pair of gamers, this mother and son.
"I don't know. Do you have something you want to share with this mother of yours?"
"I don't–"
"Like something that happened in school?"
".... Did Yuuki tell you?"
"For the record, I don't think what Yuuki-chan said is the whole thing. He only said you got some new friends one day, and the next day all those friends ignored you."
"....."
"Will you tell me?"
Nao sighed and started his story about the things that happened a few days ago.
One day at the kindergarten, on free time where kids were free to do anything they wanted, like playing on the backyard, sleeping, eating, etc.
Yuuki was long gone, playing ball with a group of kids in the backyard. Nao thought he would just sleep and waited for the time to pass since he didn't know anyone other than his brother.
To be honest he was quite jealous of his brother who could fit in anywhere and became friends with anyone in such a short time.
He also wanted a friend who would play with him, but he just didn't know how to make one.
However, that day some kids came up to him, inviting him to play hide and seek with them.
Nao readily agreed.
At first, everything were going well, Nao felt he could become friends with them.
However, when it was Nao's turn to be the seeker, Nao's found everyone in a very short time.
At that time, there was still nothing wrong. The turn continued to the other kids.
But when Nao got the turn again to seek, perhaps because his enthusiasm, he found everyone too quickly, again.
From then on, the group started looking at Nao with annoyance.
In the next day, those kids ignored him altogether, even when Nao tried to greet them.
"Did I make mistake somewhere, Mom?"
"Did you cheat.... Hm, no forget it. You wouldn't even know how to cheat in hide and seek yet. So perhaps, did other kids were so bad at hiding?"
Nao pondered for a moment before shaking his head.
"They mostly chose the most optimal place for hiding."
Ayaka picturing the scenario in her head, and reached one conclusion and chuckled.
Instead of the other kids who were bad at hiding, her Nao were just already anticipating where they would hide by some thought calculation.
As expected of her son, he's as special as his other siblings.
"I think it's because Nao-chan is too good as seeker."
"Is that a bad thing?"
"Hmm, I won't say it's 'bad', it's just.... hmm, how do I explain this?"
Ayaka thought hard about how she must explained it so her son could understand. It's not like she could said some complex psychological stuff to a kid who haven't entered elementary school yet.
Nao unleashed a finishing move an grabbed yet another victory, before he turned to his mother who was still thinking it through.
"Ah, I know! Nao-chan, I said before that my friends used to hate me because I always beat them in this game–"
"But you were a noob, Mom."
"–Guh! S-Set that aside for now! What I want to say is, even though I kept winning, and they were annoyed with me, we still be friend in the end. Do you know why?"
"... Because Mom is pretty?"
"Uhh, I can't deny that was part of the reason, but the thing I mean is social skill."
"The skill that Yuuki has?"
"Well, Yuuki-chan's skill is somehow too advanced for his age though, but you get the gist."
"You want me to act like Yuuki?"
"It would be too much to ask you to behave like him. Maybe just a little portion of his social skill. The skill named 'adaptation'."
"Adaptation....?"
"Yup! Nao-chan, do you realized that this family have too much diversity? Especially with your siblings and cousin."
Nao thought about it for a moment and nodded.
Yuu-nii was too self reliant and stubborn, also kinda slow, and the most soft-hearted one of all.
Haru-nii was jack-of-all-trades, good at everything, master at nothing.
Ren-nii was a sports-addict.
Shizu-nii was a nerd.
And Yuuki was.... hmm a 'Yuuki'?
Ayaka smiled when she saw Nao seriously thought about it.
"Now let's take me as an example. How do think I behave with each of your brothers?"
Ayaka clicked on the controller again, starting the next match.
Nao recalled his memories when he saw the interraction between his mother and each one of his brothers.
With Yuu-nii, she would sit with him to watch Masked Riser and discussed the episode they've watched with enthusiasm.
With Haru-nii, she would talk with him about anime, manga, or novel that's popular up to date, but sometimes she also loved teasing him by deliberately spoiling the story or spreading misinformation.
With Ren-nii, she became his partner in sport that required at least two people to play, like catch ball, tennis, even soccers.
With Shizu-nii, she would become serious and conversed with him about many complicated things that Nao was too lazy to remember.
With Yuuki, Nao felt headache. It was like he saw two Yuuki existed in the same place at the same time with how hectic they've become.
... Oh.
Now he understand what his mother meant in this talk.
"So that's what you mean by 'adaptation'. To act depending on the person you faced or the situation you were in."
"Yup, exactly! And Nao-chan, how do you think I will adapt with you?"
"Hmm? ..... Huh?!"
Ayaka's playstyle suddenly turned around into aggressive mode and the character she played moved in moves he had never seen before and quickly depleted all his character's HP.
["Flawless Victory!"]
"The answer is by pretending to be noob and beat you in the game you thought you were best at, fufufu~"
"Wait, how you do that? I never see that combo before. Mom, teach me!"
"Ehh~, should I? But I need to prepare for dinner now. So maybe later?"
"Mom~!!"
"Ahahaha!"
•
•
At first Nao was hesitant going the trouble with his mother 'adaptation strategy', said he would rather be alone just like his brother, Shizu.
But his mother reprimanded him, stating that that he and Shizu were different.
Shizu was fine and welcoming the solitude because he loved books more than making friends, but Nao wasn't like that.
Nao still argued that then he would just play with his brothers, but his mother interjected again, said that what Nao really wanted was a friend. Someone outside of his family, who genuinely enjoyed being with him, have the same interest and the same wavelength with him.
Thought reluctant, Nao decided to try first just because his mother promised to teach him that combo later.
The reason those kids ignored him after playing hide and seek was most likely because they thought Nao was cheating as he found them too quickly, while in reality, he just pin-pointed their hiding spots by the calculation of probabilities based on each kids habits and personalities.
Nao thought what he did was normal, but his mother convinced him that it was definitely not.
Common kindergarten kids didn't have the capacity to think that complex or even picking up the habit of others in their first conversation.
So the plan was to make Nao adapt with other kids level.
With the help of Yuuki, Nao was able to apologize to the group of kids who were ignoring him, said he won't cheat anymore (though he really didn't) and still wanted to play with them.
They forgave him and they played together again.
From then, Nao held back; deliberately took his time from finding them if he was the seeker, and hide in not-so-hard-place to find if it was his turn to hide.
Not only in hide and seek, in any other games, Nao would keep his ability appropriate with the kids around him, not too good, not too bad.
Enough to be 'Just Right'.
He once asked his mother, whether deliberately pretending to be bad at something in a relationship could be considered as insincere to his friends.
But his mother answered.
"Hmm, adapting to other people don't necessarily make you insincere. But I get where you're coming from. It's just, when someone was too special, higher chance they might be ostracized from their surroundings. Not like there's anything wrong with being special, but most people rather adapting than facing the trouble that may or may not arise from it."
To be honest, Nao didn't understand at that time and his mother just smiled and added.
"It's fine if you don't understand now.
Just remember this. Someone who get along with you when you're adapting to them is your friends.
But someone who you can show yourself without pretense and accept it all is someone you need to treasure. just like your family and many people that will come in your life later."
★
Nao hold that message dear in his heart, especially so after she was dead 2 years later in an accident.
After she died, Nao re-evaluate himself, wondering how he should behave now in this family that's no longer have their main pillar.
He saw everyone changed from that day on, and all he could was watching.
Once he thought how to support them, how should he change, how should he act, but after careful consideration of everyone personalities, he decided to not change anything.
There were many reasons for that conclusion.
First, he was the youngest of the bunch.
He has seen everyone enough to know if he showed his concern for them, it would just make them felt more miserable, being worried by someone younger than them. Especially to Yuuichi who was the eldest and Haruka who blamed himself the most.
Yuuuchi has taken his position as stand-in for mother, while Haruka started wearing 'mask' to cover his self-blame.
Ren was already there to be their support and Shizu just closed himself in his lab.
Although Yuuki was crying the loudest when she died, but he has another pillar who will help him stand again outside of this family.
Second, this family have too many prodigies like Haruka, Ren, and Shizu.
Nao could see Yuuichi was having difficulty to catch up with everyone. Adding himself to the list would be just putting more pressure on his eldest brother.
There were still a few more reasons aside of that, but all led him to the best thing he could do, which was...
"Just be a normal ordinary Nao for them."
★
Back to the present time...
Tomorrow was the first day of high school for Nao. So after played a few hours with Reiji in an online game, Nao ended their gaming session and went offline.
He turned off the light, pulled the blanket to cover his body and went to sleep
Unbeknownst to him, a white circular hole suddenly opened under his body and he fell inside the hole just when opened his eyes again.
Everything happened too fast, and Nao's room remained as is as if nothing ever happened, except the fact that Nao himself was gone.
★
I remember falling when I laid on my bed, almost asleep, when I suddenly lost the sensation on my back and falling in the white empty space for quite some time.
"Umm, hello, you're still alive right?"
Now laying on my back, on a fluffy surface in a white space filled with nothing, except for a blonde woman with golden eyes, wearing white robe-like outfit with divine feels to it, standing slightly in front of me to check my condition.
I get up from my position to sit and look around, confirming there was really nothing in this place, except this woman.
"Phew, it's a relief you are fine."
The woman breathed a sigh of relief with the hand on her chest.
Considering the circumstances that leading me to this place, the divine atmosphere around this woman, and all other factors, I think I could guess what was happening here.
But just to be sure, let me ask, "Who are you?"
The woman nodded and introduced herself.
"My name is Shiela. It might hard for you to believe, but I'm–"
"A Goddess, as I thought. Hm, I don't think I died, so it must be a summoning. So does that mean, you have some sort of task or mission you want me to do?"
Shiela was a little taken back with how readily I accepted her identity and even guessed her intention with me on the first try.
She coughed and composed herself.
"Yeah, it's as you said. So will you listen to my story first?"
Shiela began explaining the world named 'Myurelia', where humanity were in an endless war with demon race, ruled by entity called Demon Queen. As of now, humanity on that side were almost losing the war and they all prayed for the help from Goddess.
However, there was a rule that for Goddess like Shiela, where they couldn't directly intervened with problem in lower realm unless it's also involved divinity.
So that's why, she summoned someone, which is me, to deal with that.
"So it's the mainstream isekai plot huh? Alright then, why me?"
"Umm, my senpai recommended you to me, said you would definitely solve any problem."
"I don't think I ever did anything that warrant recognition from divine entity, why would anyone recommended me? Ughh, forget it, next question, why I'm like this?"
I asked that while pointing at my own body that's only wearing white T-shirt and black short pants, my usual attire to sleep.
No, it's not my clothes that I was questioning, but my body. There were bulge on my chest, my black hair was longer, and something down there was missing.
In short, I'm a woman now.
Shiela were fidgety and nervously said, "Etto~, Myurelia is a world where all species are female. So when I summoned you here, I changed your body so it could fit best with the world there."
"You transformed me even before I accept the quest. Then what if I refuse?"
"Eh?! You will refuse?"
She really didn't expect me to refuse huh.
But to be honest, I don't think I even have any right to refuse. Something like she couldn't send me back if the request wasn't completed or something.
I don't know how time works in that world, but tomorrow is the first day of school, I would get a very long scolding if I ever missed it whatever the reason was.
Shiela waved her hand, and a blue door appeared beside her.
She looked apologetically at me and said.
"I'm very sorry. To send you back, you just need to go through this door, however, it cannot be opened unless the request of the people from that world be fulfilled first."
As she said that, she demonstrated it with pulling and pushing the doorknob, and it didn't budge.
See? As I thought again.
I stood up and streched my body as a warming up.
"Alright. You can send me now. I want to end this as fast as possible and catch some sleep for tomorrow."
Once again, she was taken back at my nonchalant response, but quickly regained her composure back and waved her hands again.
A golden magic circle appeared under my feet, and slowly my body were disappearing into particles starting from my feet.
"To help you in your mission, I already installed all necessary knowledge you needed to have about that world. Mizuno Nao, I pray for you success."
★
By the time my vision blurred and went dark for a moment, but the next second, I was already somewhere that looked like a throne room in classic RPG, full with women wearing knight gears, some maids, and two beautiful women standing in front of the throne that I believe are the Queen or Princess of this country.
There was really no male in this room.
All of them seemed surprised with my arrival.
My clothes still the same as before, white shirt and black short pants, but this time I finally got a leather shoes and bra equipped.
That's quite considerate of you, Goddess Shiela.
"Oh, Thank goddess, the Hero has arrived! Maid, quickly prepared the best room for–"
"No, I won't be here for long. Where is the Demon Queen?"
One of the beautiful women on the throne, the older one, probably she's the Queen of Humanity, started instructing the maids and I quickly interjected, don't want to bother with pretense and just end it all fast.
Now I think of it, her words weren't japanese or any language I could recognize, but somehow I understood it all and even talked back with the same language.
Is this what Goddess Shiela meant when she said she installed all necessary knowledge I needed? Pretty neat perks.
"Eh, uh the Demon Queen right now most likely still in her castle in the Demon Continent."
Though she was baffled with my rudeness of interrupting her, the Queen still answered my question.
Demon Continent, let's see, when I heard that words, the location instantly came to my mind, a very large continent that was in the other side of the planet from my position now. Moreover, there's no way to reach that continent without ship as it was surrounded with by the sea. And even using ship would take at least 2 months with it's fastest route.
Eh wait....
Does that mean I can't go there in a day?
I can already see the long paragraph of scolding I will get if I don't back by this morning.
If I knew it's going to be like this, I should had just asked the Goddess to transfer me straight to the Demon Queen's castle.
....
Oh, right, transfer!
Or to be precise in this situation, what I need is 'teleportation' to go straight to the Demon Continent.
Shizu-nii once said something about teleportation, what was it again?
"Eh, teleportation device? Hmm, I can't build it with the resources I have now, but theoretically, it is possible. Though to create that advanced technology you will need many things such as...."
All those things were still impossible to create on our world as of now, but this world, although the civilization here seemed similar to the medieval era, but this world has magic.
With that alone, everything that was just a dream on earth, all could be be a reality in this Myurelia world with some modifications. Alright, next....
The two women in front of the throne came down approaching me.
"Ano, Hero-sama?"
The younger woman called me.
They were probably worried about me, but there's really no need. I waved my hand in the air and a scroll appeared in my hand.
Many eyes widened at my action, but I paid it no mind and gave the scroll to the queen.
"Bring me all the materials listed in here. In the meantime, can I get the room you wanted to give me before?"
"Oh alright, Head Maid, please escort Hero-sama to her room."
The princess instructed a maid to guide me to my room. Meanwhile the Queen opened the scroll I gave her and her eyes widened seeing the contents listed there.
"I know you have it all. I already scanned the whole palace with sensory magic and confirmed that all the materials exists."
"B-But this one here is....!"
"You want to end this war, right? Then we do it my way. Well, excuse me."
When I was silent the whole time back then, I was actually concentrated in searching the materials I needed by dispersing my mana to the whole castle like a scanner.
How could I control mana so easily? Let's just say that the perks of knowledge given by the goddess is really handy. Not just basic knowlegde like language, world terrains, and common senses in this world were provided, even how to use magic was quite easy with this kind of perks.
Fortunately, each items existed. I just needed to build the machine and wait for the other essential items to be delivered.
Leaving the throne room following the maid, my mind focused on the strategy to end this all as fast as possible.
★
Princess Dorothy Laurialis, the sole heiress for Laurialis Kingdom, the biggest kingdom of all humanity. Right now she walked on the hallway to the room where the Hero summoned from another world should be resting. Accompanied by two maids and two knights behind her, each of them holding a box filled with the materials asked by the Hero.
This was the first time Dorothy ever see a summoned Hero. Previously she only ever heard them from her grandparents and old books in the royal library.
But the Hero this time was 100% different from the Hero in her imagination.
The Hero was shorter and seemed more delicate than her. She didn't introduced herself and even more, she was so rude to her dear mother, the Queen. So when her mother wanted to send someone to bring the materials listed on the scroll to the Hero, Dorothy volunteered herself to follow, said it was to show the sincerity of Laurialis people to the Hero, though in reality she wanted to pick a fight with her.
When she finally reached the room, even before she knocked on the door or called for her, she heard the Hero asked her to just come in.
When the knight opened the door for her, and everyone went inside, they gasped.
Inside the room, the place where it's should be where the sofa and tables for guest in Dorothy's and the maids memories, now in it's place exist a circular metal platform with several magic circles around it.
"Wh, what is this....?"
Dorothy couldn't help but asked, but the Hero, Nao didn't answer her and continued doing something with the magic cirlces on the floor.
"You came at the right time. You bring everything I asked?"
Dorothy eyes twitched for being ignored, but she controlled her emotion and asked the maids to bring forth the box they brought.
"A batch of mana potions, high quality mana stones with elemental attributes; four lightning, four fire, two holy, and one chaos. And last, ughh, our treasure, The Royal Tiara."
The two maids each opened the box their brought, one filled with 12 small bottles with clear blue liquid, while the other box filled with several sparkling stones, each at the size of a fist.
While on Dorothy, she opened a small box, showing a golden tiara, adorned with several jewelry and one big red gem at the center.
Nao take the mana potions and drink 4 of them and put the rest in a leather bag.
Next she took all the mana stones, placed them on the floor in magic circles she had drawn beforehand. All the stones reacted to each magic cirlces and disintegrated into light particles and absorbed by the magic circles.
The circular platform shine brights, and everyone was astonished even though they didn't know what Nao has done or tried to make.
Nao came up towards Dorothy, extended her hand toward the tiara in the box on her hand.
Dorothy thought Nao would take the tiara, but unexpectedly, she only take the center red gem of the tiara and examined it throughly.
"Wh-what are you doing?!"
"Hm? Just taking what I need?"
"Didn't you write the royal treasure in that scroll? Why are you only taking the gem?"
Nao sighed. She turned around and threw the gem into the shining platform.
Boom!
The gem shattered into pieces at the center of the platform and a small shockwave happened in the room, frightened the two maids until they dropped to their butts, the knights readied their weapon, guarding the princess behind them.
Not long after the shockwave, the light emitting from the platform changed into purplish color.
"The gem is the last ingredient to create the teleportation device to go to the Demon Continent. Because that gem is something that can only be found there."
Only Nao seemed normal as she walked towards the platform.
Took a while for Dorothy to understand Nao's words. "Teleport....? Eh wait, what did you say? You mean that gem is from Demon Continent?!"
Nao already stood at the center of the platform, tilted her head at the princess question.
"Huh, you didn't know.....? Oh, now I get it. Well, no need to mind it too much. Tell the Queen that I will be back in an hour or two. See ya~"
After saying that, the platform shone brighter and in the next second Nao disappeared in front of everyone bewildered gaze.
★
When I opened my eyes again, the scenery changed from the luxurious palace room, into outside of big cave at the foot of a rocky mountain. There were only barren land and dark sky as far as I could see.
According to my surroundings, it seemed this was the entrance of abandoned mine in the Demon Continent.
There were many human skeletons laying around, complete with their equipments and weapons scattered around their body.
As I expected, at some point in the past, human were actually on the winning side of this war, to the point where they could almost win.
That's actually where the red gem came from, from a soldier who went to the Demon Continent and came back alive, bringing a souvenir.
One of the most important parts of the teleportation device, other than the particle accelerator and few other things, was the anchor point. Preferably it should be another device in the target location, but it's just impossible, so I went with the alternative option, the native materials.
Well, I must say thanks to whoever it was that brought that gem back to the human kingdom, because it became an anchor point for my teleporter to work since that gem was something native to Demon Continent.
I dispersed my mana to the ground, doing a resonance search like I did on the human palace. While waiting for the results, I did some stretches as a warm up until I found what I was looking for.
I got the signal.
"Yosh, let's finish this quick so I can go to sleep again."
While muttered that, I started running toward the direction where the Demon Queen's castle was located.
★
On the throne room of the Demon castle, the Demon Queen sitting on throne while listening to the reports by her two subordinate.
They were reporting the success of their armies in seizing another human territory in the recent battles.
After that reports, at the ending before the subordinate leave, one of the them said to the Demon Queen.
"This is hot topic I got from our spy in the Laurialis Kingdom capital, that they had just successfully summoned a Hero. However there's still no information about this hero so far."
The Demon Queen nodded and her subordinates finally left the room, leaving her alone thinking about all the reports she just got.
"Hero, huh? Is she the same hero that appeared 150 years ago and killed the previous Demon Queen?"
While she was wondering about that, the sounds of the door of the throne room opened and closed was heard once again by her.
"Is there anything you forgot to say, Limia?"
"I'm not Limia."
Demon Queen raised her head to look ahead, a few meters in front of her, a human girl wearing white T-shirt was just standing there, curiously looking at her up and down.
"Eh, human? Wait, how could there be a human here?! Who are you?"
Demon Queen stood up, totally flabbergasted by the sudden appearance of human in a Demon Continent, undetected and standing so casually in front of her like it's nothing.
"Hm, other than wings and horns, Demon was very similar to human. Maybe in the past Demons were actually human?"
"I ask you again, who are you?! Answer me now or I'll kill you."
"The Hero."
"Don't joke with me! The Hero just been summoned not long ago, and it takes 2 months for human ships to get to the this continent. There's no way you were the Hero!"
"That's not my problem if you don't believe me. I just want to get the quest done so I can go back to sleep. So, Demon Queen...."
The human drew the sword on her waist and pointed the tip at the Demon Queen.
"...Let's get this over with."
As soon the human said that, Demon Queen shot a black plasma ball to her.
However the human slashed the ball with her swords into two parts, and started running to the Demon Queen.
When the cut plasma ball exploded behind her, the Hero jumped and slashed, and Demon Queen materialized a black sword in her hand to block the Hero's sword.
From then on, it was full on battle, exchanging slashes and spells until the once clean and beautiful throne room seemed like it was just hit by a tornado.
★
Around 10 minutes later...
The Demon Queen fell to her knees, her whole body full of cuts and bruises as she grimaced in pain, and I stood before her with the blade pointed to her head.
"Somehow, it feels anticlimactic."
It's sure as hell did feel like that.
Is this person really the Demon Queen?
I'm not fighting the wrong person, right?
"How the fuck you even get here, Hero!?"
"Well...."
Teleportation device is convenient, isn't it? Should I thank Shizu-nii later?
"After all that fight and noise, how could none of my guys heard the commotion? Did you kill all of them in your way here?"
"Uhh...."
No, I really didn't. Why would I want to expend my strength to fight useless mobs? It's just a waste of time. Instead, I cautiously sneaked in, passing all detection from patrolling demons, and reached here without being caught. Haru-nii tricks for predecting things came useful at time like this.
Also, no one coming here was because I already created a special barrier that could block any noise and vibration from the battle from going out, enveloping the whole room. It took me 2 bottles of mana potion to replenish all my the mana needed for that barrier before I took my step inside to fight you.
"Is it because of that sword? Is that the holy sword from human kingdom?"
"Um no, it's...."
It's surely a sword from human kingdom, but I don't know if it was holy or anything. I mean, I picked it randomly on my way here from a random human skeleton scattered around in the place where I was teleported.
"Or maybe it's that Goddess' blessing again–"
"Can you please stop asking question, it's getting annoying at this point."
"....."
She obediently shut up, so I will at least answer her last question.
"Just for the record, the Goddess didn't give me anything other than suitable body and common knowledges for this world. My mana reservoir is average or maybe even lower than most human here. I don't have any cheat."
Her expression was really hilarious, between disbelief and anger.
"That's impossible. Then how could you defeat–"
"Because you're suck! Given with your strength, if it was Ren-nii who is here, you'd be dead not even in 2 minutes fight."
"....Hah?"
"Besides, what was that spells and traps? Yuuki's at least five time more unpredictable than you."
"From what kind of world were you even come from?!"
"The world where I was surrounded with all kind of prodigies in their own fields."
"....."
That look again.
A indignant gaze filled with helplessness and anger that I don't know to whom it was directed to.
Maybe it was me?
Maybe it's the Goddess?
Maybe it's humanity?
Or maybe it's to herself?
But no matter whoever it was, my objective remained the same.
"I'll end this, Demon Queen."
I raised my sword high, and Demon Queen closed her with gritted teeth, and.....
Swush
★
In the Laurialis Kingdom, inside the room that was assigned for the Hero, a kind of crowd gathered in the room.
The princess, 2 maids and 2 knights stood by watching, while several people wearing mage robe were investigating the magic circles engraved on the floor around the metal platform.
"At first glance, this magic circle looks like acceleration magic, this one is temperature controlling magic, and this one is decay magic. But all of them was layered with more complex patterns behind it. It is to the point I no longer can tell what kind of spell each of these magic circles can do."
One of robed mage reported her finding to Dorothy. Though she couldn't find anything useful, but magic that was completely foreign greatly piqued her interest for magic research.
She wanted to investigate the device thoroughly, even wanted disassembling it to see what else it's made of, but the princess forbid her, saying it's the Hero's creation and they couldn't do anything to it without her permission.
Dorothy looked at the metal platform with worried eyes. It's been almost three hour after the Hero gone.
"Did she really go to the Demon Continent alone....?"
The door of the room opened, and the Queen step inside. Dorothy walked toward her mother.
"Dorothy, what happened to the Hero? What do you mean she was gone in front of your eyes?"
"I.... I don't know, Mother. The Hero just standing on that thing for a moment and then disappeared after saying she will be back in an hour or two."
"What a thing to happen! Our intel said the Demon armies already seized the second fort and moving steadly. But now you said, our last hope, the Hero was gone. Without the Hero, how could we win the war–"
"I'm back."
""!!""
Before the Queen could go into panic rambling, the quite melodious voice resounded in the room, and everyone instantly looked at the source.
The Hero standing there looked a little tired. Her white T-shirt were a bit dirty by dust and several cut here and there.
Everyone was a little startled by her sudden appearance, but eventually they breathed a sigh of relief knowing the Hero was fine.
The Queen walked toward Nao with worried look.
"Hero, where have you–"
"Let me rest a bit. All that work really drained all my energy."
Nao walked to the bed threw herself on the softness, slightly feeling her fatigue diminish.
"Work? What did you do?"
This time was Dorothy who asked her.
A little dazed off, Nao answered, "....Solving the problem straight from the roots."
"What do you mean by that–"
"Your Majesty! Haah haah, Big news! I got a big news from the frontline! Haahh~"
Once again, their words were interrupted by the arrival of one knight that looked out of breaths but with ecstatic expression.
The Queen turned around and spoke, "Speak slowly. What news did you bring?"
The knight stabilized herself and stood straight and said with enthusiasm.
"The Demon Armies, all of them had retreated from the frontlines! No, not just from the frontlines, they all fly away from the continent. From the trajectory, most likely they fly back to the Demon Continent! The same news also arrived from every nearby kingdoms!"
""!!!!""
That news shocked everyone without exception.
Remembered the Hero's words, all eyes now were directed to the girl laying lazily on the bed with her feet dangling and her eyes closed.
"Did she really....?!"
"I never heard about this kind of Hero!"
"She must had gone straight to the Demon Queen and dealt with her!"
"No wonder she really tired now!"
"Hero-sama, so amazing!"
Words of praises flying around, gaze of admirations, even worship were directed to the tired Nao.
Dorothy and the Queen didn't know how to react. In one side they held very huge gratitude toward the Hero for her swift action, but at the same time, this is the first time in history a Hero ended the war just in a few hours after being summoned!
Now they really doubted if the girl in front of them was really human, not the Goddess herself.
How should they act in front of deity?
While they wondering about that, Dorothy, saw a change on the Hero's body.
"Hero-sama, your feet....?"
Hero's feet was fading away, shattering into light particles slowly.
Nao opened her eyes and sat upright looking at her feet, and muttered, "Finally."
She turned her head to the Queen.
"Queen, spread this words to all Kingdoms in human continent: Humans are forbidden from setting foot on the Demon Continent. As long everyone follow it, war with Demon race won't ever happen again. Do you understand?"
"I-I understand! I will personally relay your message to all Kingdom!"
The Queen politely bowed her head to the Hero. In her mind, the Hero in front of her was no longer a normal human, but an entity that was close to divinity. Her position as Queen was no longer something that need to be minded in front of her.
Nao nodded, then turned her head again to Dorothy.
"And you."
"Y-Yes, what is it, Hero-sama?"
Dorothy followed her mother gesture of bowing her head.
Nao took something from her pocket and threw it to Dorothy, "Catch."
Dorothy was a bit startled, but she eventually able to catch the thing thrown at her. When she opened her palm to see what she just catched, her eyes widened to see a blue gem, around the same size of red gem from royal tiara that was previously used by Nao.
"You seemed upset when I took the gem from your treasure, so I decided to repay it back. Well, I couldn't find the exact same one, so I just picked the one I think most suitable for you. I hope you don't mind."
"This is...."
Dorothy was at loss for words. Previously she thought the Hero was a rude person and doing things as she please without consideration.
But the blue gem in her hand was exactly the same color with her eyes. For the Hero to remember her displeasure at that one moment and gave something with the thought of her, Dorothy felt ashamed of her own immaturity
Clutching the gem to her chest, Dorothy raised her head to Nao whose body has became slightly transparent and her disintegration already reached her knees.
"Hero-sama, can I.... can we know your name?"
"....."
"I-I'm sorry! I've been rude–"
"Nao."
"Eh?"
"Come to think of it, I never said my name, huh? My name is Nao."
Everyone in the room etched that name in their mind. Because for them, that name will be a name that will be passed down for generations in this world.
Dorothy saw the Hero almost completely disappear, so she asked her last question.
"Nao-sama...."
"Yeah?"
"Who are you exactly?"
"....."
Nao didn't answer right away. She looked up as if she was thinking it through.
For a moment, the room was only filled with silence while the disintegration still continued.
At least until a smile appeared on Nao's lips as she made eyes contact with Dorothy.
"I'm just 'Nao'. Nothing more or less. Just an 'Ordinary Nao'."
"Ordinary, what does that even mean–"
"Goodbye."
Before Dorothy could continue asking her, Nao said her last farewell and her body scattered into light particle and disappear to nothingness.
★
Meanwhile in divine realm, Shiela looked at the place where Nao previously standing with worried look.
"Is it really fine? Will she be okay there? Senpai said he is the perfect person for this, but I really couldn't help but worry. What's Senpai thinking in recommending him. No matter where you looked at it, he is just a normal kid–"
"Oh, I'm back here? I thought I would be sent straight to my room."
"!!"
While Shiela was walking back and forth worrying about the human she just sent to that world, the person in question just appeared again in front her nonchalantly.
Shiela scanned Nao body up and down, see the cuts and dirt on her white shirt, and one conclusion came to her mind.
"Wait a minute, did you died in that world? How? It's not even half a day yet."
Nao yawned and walked to the blue door that Shiela said to be the door that could send her back.
"So noisy. I didn't die. I properly completed your quest, even with bonus."
"Don't lie to me–"
Click
Whatever Shiela want to say there, she must gulped it down again when Nao opened the door easily.
What she said before was the truth. The door to go back could only be opened if the request was completed.
So Nao went there and back in just a few hours, and opened the door, meant that the request was really completed.
Shiela's brain short-circuited to the point she was late to realize Nao already walked into the door and closing it.
"So sleepy~"
"Wait! Your bo-"
Click
"-dy...."
The door closed and it's automatically disappear from divine realm.
Thud
"~~~~~"
Shiela fell to her knees and let out a silent scream while clutching her head low.
"What in the Creator God's name just happened?!!"
In the realm that filled with nothing other than herself, Shiela let out a frustrated scream.
She raised her head, remembered something.
"That's right, I can just see what she done with my authority."
Shiela stood up, and waved her hand. A rectangular screen appeared in front of her, showing Nao's figure from third point perspective at the throne room of Laurialis Kingdom.
Shiela fast forwarded the video, seeing everything Nao has done in that world.
Creating teleportation device to go straight to the Demon Continent, sneaking in the Demon's castle to her battle with Demon Queen.
"What the....? This kid, she really skipped everything and go straight to the final boss!"
The video showed the scene where Nao and Demon Queen on her knees, with Nao's sword raised high.
"So that's why she can go back early. She really completed her mission–, wait, wait! What did she do?!"
What showed next wasn't Nao giving Demon Queen her last strike, instead, Nao slammed the sword to the floor beside the Demon Queen.
["As expected, I couldn't kill. Whose influence is this really? Was it Yuu-nii or Mom?"]
"What?!"
Shiela couldn't help but exclaimed at Nao unexpected action.
["Demon Queen, before, you said the word 'again'. That's mean similar thing happened in the past. Tell me everything about this world history, from Demon perspective. What was it that started this endless war?"]
The scene continued with Demon Queen honestly recounting the world's history she knew to the Hero.
The past in her story, the Demon and Human was already separated even in their living lands. Human lived in Human Continent, while Demon lived in the Demon Continents.
The Demon Continent was a desolate land where no plants could grow, so there was no such a thing as farming or agriculture.
Demon lived by eating monster meat, since only that species that was abundant in Demon Continent, but soon that became a problem on their own. The population of the monster dwindled. The remaining monsters got stonger and many times in their hunt, Demon came back not with meat, but with corpses of their comrades.
At that times, a Demon came back bringing meat and fruits, said they got it from the land on the other side of the sea.
That was the starting point for the endless war.
Demon knowing the abundance resource on Human Continent wanted to occupy it for the survivability of their race, and the human fought back to defend their land.
There was never a peaceful confrontation between them such as trading or negotiations. It was mostly because Demon race at itself wasn't a smart race and ruled by the brawn, not brain. And also human deep prejudice against them.
Demon would win at first in this war, almost fully conquered the human continent, and then a Hero would be summoned by the Goddess with blessing that could turn the tide for humanity, to the point where the Hero would always kill the Demon Queen at that time.
Losing their leader and facing the Hero, the Demon would retreat to the Demon Continent and humanity gaining the upper hand would always lead a group to eradicate all the Demons in Demon Continents.
But since human came without the Hero (since the Hero would always return to their world not long after slaying the Demon Queen), humanity ended up wiped out by the new Demon Queen, and the cycle continued endlessly.
After hearing the story, Nao asked Demon Queen to call all the commander level demons to the throne room.
From there on was just a ridiculous spectacle.
When the Demons saw Nao, the Hero, standing beside their Queen on the throne, they at first were wary of her, but Nao cut the chase straight asking them to stop the war.
They wanted to protest, but Nao said that instead of going into war and more and more Demons would died in the process just to take Human Continent, how about they just turned the Demon Continent to be like Human Continent, they seriously considering it.
Demons aren't smart, but it's not like they couldn't be taught.
Nao started talking about all kind of method to turn this desolate land without life into a land that is full of life, just like in human side.
Most of the problems came from the bad soils that couldn't support any lifeforms, but with modern knowledge from her world, Nao was able to solve that, of course with the help of magic to accelerate the process.
Nao also taught the demon everything about agriculture and farming, and asked for the Demons that was still in human continent to bring back all kind of seeds and several livestocks for them to cultivate in this land.
Farming itself would take time before they could be harvested, but fortunately the stock supplies they 'robbed' from their last battle were sufficient enough to last until the first harvest time.
With everything planned in place, the Demon Queen give order for all Demons to return to the Demon Continent.
In the meantime, Nao went to the center of the continent and drew a big magic circles, performing the large barrier magic that enveloped the whole big continent in a dome shaped barrier, and it costed her all her mana including all the mana potions she had left.
When Demon Queen asked her what barrier it was, Nao said it was barrier to prevent human from invading.
Nao already did so much to make the Demons retreat and give up on war, it would be fruitless if human took that as a chance to invade again and resetting the cycle.
When everything was done, and Nao saw Demon Queen overseeing her subordinate started turning an area into farming land, plowing the soils, spreading the seeds, making barn for livestock, etc.
Nao smiled and retreated into the darkness and activated the teleportation magic to go back.
When Demon Queen turned around to thank the Hero, Nao was already gone, returned to Laurialis Kingdom.
But even when there was no one in front of her, Demon Queen bowed her head and said ["Thank you, Hero."]
Scene moved on to Nao warning the Queen to relay a messags to never set foot in Demon Continent again, and Nao returned to this realm.
The rectangular screen in front of Shiela disappeared, but she was still with that expression that said she was completely confused with what she had just watched.
It was 5 seconds later that....
"Nothing is ordinary about this kid! Ahhhh, writing the report for all of this will be a headache! Damn you, Senpai!!"
★
Myurelia after that day progressed in peace.
Common people at first didn't know that a Hero was summoned in Laurialis Kingdom, and that it was the Hero who ended the war directly after her summon.
Since only a handful people ever saw the Hero, like the Queen and the Princees, the maids and knights that were there at the day of her summon, it was only through them the tale of the Hero Nao spread.
How she was very different from all the previous hero in history, and the first Hero who ended the long conflict with such a short amount of time. By the time the news spread, humanity already could no longer see any sign of Demon in human continent.
Because of these achievements, many people speculated that the Hero wasn't a normal human, but actually an Angel or maybe the Goddess herself who descended to human realm and solved the problems from it's source.
The teleportation device she left behind, though it couldn't be fully comprehended by the mages, left a foundation for the birth of transfer magic, the lesser version of teleportation that could send any object to certain range in an instant. It was then later became a mean of transportation and a way to strengthen relationship with each kingdom, since distances were no longer a problem.
Meanwhile, in the Demon Continent, a few months after the big turning points, the barren land now already became grassland.
Their first harvest of their farm was great, much more rewarding that fighting in a war all year round with human where both sides would get casualties.
Though many Demons still have the tendencies to fight, they were reprimanded by the Demon Queen herself to behave and never leaving the continent again.
Both sides lived the life they always wanted.
Human who wanted the peace, and Demon who wanted their survivability ensured.
Both sides held a deep gratitude to one individual who created this situation.
Song of praises and gratitude were passed through generations in both sides for one particular Hero.
Human and Demon lived on their own continents without ever making any contacts for centuries.
Until one time 500 years after the peace returned.....
By many overlapping coincidences that could only be described as 'Fate', a human princess and a mysterious demon met, and fell in love with each other.
Although that will be another story on it's own.
★
That was the full story of Nao TS...
However, the story she told everyone in the living room was the toned-down version. Many details in were changed just so it would fit with the current Nao personality of someone with the label 'ordinary'.
Such as teleportation device were changed into great magic performed by many royal magician to send her straight to demon castle.
The fight were extremely compromised to the point Demon Queen seemed really weak in her story and could be defeated easily.
After battle Nao was sent straight back to meet the Goddess and returned to her bed after passing the blue door and slept instantly because of her tiredness.
So many details were skipped and Nao didn't even bother to explain many things.
"Dad woke me up and dragged me down to meet you all in kitchen, where Yuu-nii was squeez–"
"You don't need to say that!"
Before Nao could finished her words, Yuuichi screamed with red face, remembering that embarrassing moment.
"Anyway, that's all. Any question?"
Nao just continue and end her story.
Everyone was silent.
To be fair, Nao's story was too much like a fever dream that made them skeptical of the truth, but the spectacle where she made a bottle of cola appeared from thin air was a proof on its own.
In this awkward silence, Ren raised her hand, and everyone, except Nao, looked at her.
"You said you could sense my.... hmm, the thing on my shoulder. How exactly did you perceive it? Was it through some detection magic or something?"
"No. I just know. I can't see it, but I can feel it's presence and movement. Now it's hiding behind your back, left side, back again to your right shoulder."
The whole time, Nao didn't even raised her head. Her eyes focused on the screen of her console, playing game.
Still a bit skeptical, Shizu put her hand behind her back and looked at Nao, "How many finger I hold up behind my back?"
"Two, five, zero, three, zero again, why are you giving me middle finger?"
"Shizu!" (Father)
Shizu coughed and gave an explanation.
"If Nao story about the other world is true, perhaps it has something to do with the body itself. Nao said the Goddess changed her body to fit better with the world, so it's safe to assume her body now still retained the function it has when she was in that side.
Nao, when you made that bottle of cola appear in your hand before, was it magic?"
"Yeah."
"Did you create that from thin air?"
"No. This world don't have mana, so I can't do complicated things like creation."
"Then what was that?"
"A recall magic. After breakfast, when I went to the kitchen, I put a magic mark to the bottle before putting it in the fridge. As long I'm within the range of the mark, I can call it to my hand anytime. It doesn't cost mana."
"So it's ," Haruka muttered
Ren beside her thinking for a moment and nodded.
Yuuichi who heard that also thought for moment and remembered, "Oh, that Ninja anime."
Meanwhile Shizu continued her inquiry.
"Can you do other magic?"
"Hm, not many. For example, Yuuki, come here."
Nao paused her games and called Yuuki.
Still standing behind the sofa, Yuuki walked toward Nao with enthusiasm.
"What is it? Are you going to show me magic? What kind of ma–!!"
When Yuuki was in the range of her hand, Nao reached out her finger to touch Yuuki's lips.
Yuuki widened her eyes, take a step back and frantically moving her hand in panic without a sound.
"Something like this."
Nao said with ease, not even bothered by the panicking Yuuki.
"This time it's sealing magic." (Ren)
"Useful magic to make her shut up." (Haruka)
"Yu-Yuu-chan, are you okay?" (Yuuichi)
Nao looked at Shizu, who observed the still panicking Yuuki while muttering something.
"Heh~, did the magic interrupted the function of the ? No, she can't open her mouth, so maybe it's the
"Shizu-nii, do you have any more question?"
Interrupted from her thought, Shizu returned her gaze to Nao and pointed out a finger.
"One more question. About the world you described. You said there's no male species in that world. Then how they reproduce? I understand since there's only female there, lesbian relationship is a norm. But can an egg fertilize another egg?"
"Oh, that? Actually, among the female there exist an existence called Fut–hmphh!"
"Alright, stop right there. Don't say more. We have a child here. Don't taint her innocence."
Before Nao could finish her words, Haruka moved fast and covered her mouth with her palm. She said this while stealing a few glances at Yuuichi, but the one in question just tilted her head in confusion.
Seeing the situation getting stale again, Ren clapped her hand drawing everyone attention.
"Okay, let's just move on from all this unrelated talks and continue to the last person."
By the time she said this, the effect of Nao's magic finally wore off and Yuuki can open her mouth again.
"Puhaaa~! You guys are mean!"
Not bothered by that comment, Ren looked at the only one who hasn't shared their story.
"Tou-san, it's your turn."
With that, all eyes were drawn to one person, the Father.
With complicated expression on her face, the father opened her mouth.
"I....."
Author's Note
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