Chapter Text
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"You..."
"Hey, you still have not answered me yet. Do you still... ow!"
My line of talking stopped abruptly. The reason?
Hat Kid was executing another dive. This time, it was not a dive attack.
It was a dive hug!
And of course, I didn't expect this. This pretty much made us fall from our standing position. Now, we were laying on the floor, with her body on top of me.
"I MISSED YOU! I thought... you... you were dead!" she started sobbing again.
"I'm alone up here! I... I..."
"I'm sorry, kid. You see, the hometown still needs me. Well, until two days ago."
She then stepped out from my body, then pulled me up so I could lean back at the wall.
"What happened?" her confusion was written clearly in her face.
"Well, to put it simply, the problem was solved at last. Hopefully... ouch!"
Out of the blue, she clenched her fist then punched my chest.
"And by the way, this is for your strangle earlier! And take this one too!" she was still sobbing, but launched another punch anyways, still sharp towards my chest.
Of course, I deserved that. I was expecting that, to be fair. I just liked my surprise to be more... scarier. This was worth it. Problem being, her punches were really strong for someone like her. Again, I wasn't ready for this. I coughed up several times as the effect. It was unpleasant, to say the least. It was a 'punishment', after all.
"And another one for good measure!" she went for my right cheek this time.
"And another one!" my nose got a taste of her fist as well.
"One more!" again, another punch served towards my nose.
I felt like I was treated like her punching bag today. The punches kept on coming. Mainly towards my chest and my stomach, but there were few others that went towards my face.
"How. Dare. You!" she kept sending her fists, ignoring my fading shrieking voice. I tried to ask her to stop, but I just couldn't find a perfect time to do so. Luckily, she stopped punching when she saw something wrong from me. At the other end, I felt something was running down from my nose. I wiped it out and to my surprise...
It was blood.
And it didn't stop there, as some of my coughs now contained blood as well. I was drooling blood from my mouth as well.
Hat Kid... drew blood from me...
My own sister has drawn blood from her own brother!
From myself!
It didn't end there either, as I was experiencing some difficulty while breathing. My lung didn't feel right while taking a breath. I felt my energy taking a toll every time I tried to take a short breath.
"Yikes! S... sorry..." now, she sounded sad and guilty.
"I didn't mean my punches to be that strong! I'm sorry!"
"It's... *cough* it's okay... *cough*" I was left gasping for oxygen. My body fell to the floor with my hand clutching my chest.
"I... I..." at that moment, my breath was getting shorter and shorter.
"You're not okay! I forgot that you were going to use your power to come here! You must be exhausted, now! I'm sorry! Here, let me take care of this. Hang on!"
"No... *cough* it's fine! *cough* I just need to... woah!"
I found myself above the ground.
It was Hat Kid who lifted me off the ground. My little sister, who was much younger than me, was now lifting me! And without much problem! What kind of sorcery was this?
I let out few more coughs as I 'enjoyed' myself being carried to the bedroom. Hat Kid was not happy whatsoever with my condition.
"No! Please, don't die yet! It's only like five minutes since you are here! I don't want to let myself left crying and feeling guilty just because I killed you! I don't want to live with a fact that I killed my own brother with my own fists! I'm not a murderer!" Hat Kid got panicked. She sounded heavy as she cried more.
Along the way, I got few questions about her.
First, how did she has such strong fists? Last time I remembered her before she said goodbye to me, they were not that strong. Don't get me wrong, she had good self defense skills. But I was not expecting this.
Second, how did this kid manage to lift me up?! While it was fantastic and funny (in a good way), it was still weird. She never did such thing before, as far as I remembered.
Not long later, she put me gently on the bed. It was a weird but relaxing lift. I couldn't remember if I had gotten something like this in the past.
"Hang on! I'm going to get you something!" as she ran back outside, into the darkness.
Again, I let out few more coughs, then ended it up with a sigh. At this point, I got too much questions about her...
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She made a run into the darkness. She knew that she had to do something. Or else...
"Why am I so stupid today? Why?! I shouldn't be doing that!"
Hat Kid marched her way into the kitchen, whilst wiping the tears in her face.
Why? Why did she hurt his own older brother like that? Sure, he strangled her earlier, but she forgot one important thing.
He was not like her. Actually, she was one of a kind. She was blessed. She had abilities normal people didn't have. Quick recovery was one of them. She didn't feel majorly bad straight after the strangle. But him? He was a normal person. And arguably, he had been more tired than her. Yes, she was tired for the weekly maintenance, but that was her duty, and she was used to it. His brother, on the other hand, rarely did stuff like earlier, making the portals. And yes, she could also make the portals as well, and in more regular basis. No wonder he would get tired so easily after doing things like that.
She should had thought about that!
"Why..."
But anyway, she switched on the power for the lamps. She grabbed the nearest mug she could find, then filled it up with fresh water. While filling the mug, she took a glance at the sink.
Lots of dirty plates, glasses, and what not. They had been sitting there for days. She took a mental note for that, to clean it up as soon as she could, before his brother took care of it.
She also took a box of tissue with her. Nothing wrong bringing this up as well, she thought to herself.
With a mug full of water and a box of tissue in her hands, she switched off the power and rushed again to the bedroom.
"Are you okay now?" she still had the concerned face while handing the mug to her brother. She then put the box on the table beside the bed.
" *cough* not yet. But, t-thanks."
"I still have to do something. Stay here, okay?" she rushed back into the darkness.
"Hey, wait... nevermind..."
Few moments later, she came back to the bedroom... with three bags. My own bags. She carried two of those normally, with her hands. The other one, in the other hand...
She did it with her head.
Yes, she carried the last bag with her head. The bag was perfectly placed as well, so it didn't fall. The thing was, those bags were quite heavy for me to carry. And she did that, without much problems. Again.
She firmly placed those bags near the cupboard, before approaching me.
"H... how did you do that?"
"I'm just good at it, you know!" she showed her cute smile.
Not long after that, my nose felt itchy. After taking out some tissues, I blew my nose. Much to Hat Kid's horror, more blood was spotted on the tissues I held. Her smile faded instantly, then proceeded to bow her head down. She put her hands to cover her face, as she started to drop her tears again.
"No... why... I'm such a stupid kid! I... I... didn't mean that! You came here only to get treated badly by me! I'm terribly sorry!"
I didn't want to see her suffer in her guilt, so I lifted her body, then positioned her nicely so I could hug her.
"Hey, it's alright. It's only some blood. I'm fine." I brushed and patted her head, trying to calm her down.
"No. That's quite a lot of blood! I wished I didn't hit you so hard!" she said softly between her tears. She was still sobbing.
"I'm fine, okay. There, there. You don't need to be worried about my condition."
"I'm dearly sorry..." she put her hands around my waist, hugging me back. She also buried her head on my shoulder.
While hugging her, I quickly realized something.
Her body was... weird? I couldn't tell. Like, her body was different. I felt like something was on her body, but I didn't have any idea. One thing I can confirm, was the fact that I felt a different feeling between while I hugged her right now and the time when I hugged her for the last time before she went off with the spaceship.
But, I kept those question for myself, maybe later I could figure out.
She pulled her head away from my shoulder, only to look at my confused face.
"Hey, Mike. What's wrong? You looked... puzzled?"
"Nothing, dear. I... I feel comfortable hugging your small body again. It has been a while."
"Me too! But, you are still tired, right? Let's get some sleep. I'm tired as well."
"Alright then."
Minutes later, Hat Kid and I went to sleep, with my hand patting and rubbing her head. She seemed to enjoy it, judging from her smile in her sleep.
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Unfortunately, that sleep didn't last long for me. I would not deny the fact that my head was still full of questions. Questions about her life in her spaceship. And how did she become much, much stronger since the last time I saw her.
I got out of bed, quietly, to make sure I didn't interrupt her sleep. I took a look of her face. She was still smiling.
"I missed her dear cute smile like that. It is heartwarming..."
For the next minutes, I was just taking a slow stroll around the bedroom. There was not too much change in the bedroom. Or, there was none, probably. The majority of the room was the same. There were still lots of pillows at the so called 'pillow land'. The furniture were still there as well. The change I could notice was the presence of new dolls. The dolls were... unique?
There was one who resembled like a crow. Then, there was another one who looked like... a weird man? There was another one as well looking like a creature wearing a cloak and a hood.
I decided to look around the pillow land. Whilst looking around, I saw a weird, distinct light beneath the pile of pillows. That light got my attention, and I decided to dig the pillows. Without waking her up, of course. The pillows were quite deep, and it took quite the time to reach the source of the light. But, once done, a secret door awaited me.
"I don't remember having this room before. Did she make it herself?"
I dropped inside to see the contents. There were few books, a table, some more lights so the room wouldn't get dark, and more pillows. But, a big book was placed at the center of the table.
" 'My diary'? This is new as well..."
I knew this was a wrong thing to do, generally. But, if this has something to do with her living, I couldn't care less. Plus, this would be great if I can get something to answer my earlier questions.
And with that, I sat down firmly between the pillows, and started to read the book.
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