“Welcome home, Onii-chan!”

When he got home, took off his shoes, and ploddingly walked half way down the hall to his room, he heard that sound coming from his left side, the direction of living room.

Haruyuki automatically responded with a slur.

“...I am back...”

He walked another one, two steps, then, on the third step he suddenly put on the brakes.

‘- Huh?’

‘What was that just now?’

In Haruyuki’s awareness, for Arita Haruyuki’s 13 years and 10 months of life from birth up till now, he should be an only child. Instead of feeling displeasure, he was supposed to be thankful for being lucky, was he actually unconsciously very lonely, and started hearing things?

Even so, it would not be ‘Onii-chan’. Even in a cute girl’s voice. Is this an urban legend of ?Imouto? or what?

While Haruyuki was having self doubts in an unnatural pose, he again heard an improbable sound.

‘Funfuun’, kind of humming. Pitter-patter kind of light slipper sounds. Not just those, somehow a sweet fragrant smell too. Illusion... smell? Do such words exist?

He dropped his school bag from his shoulder, turned 180 degrees, and then stiffly walked towards the living room.

Then he saw a mirage too.

At the left side upon entry, usually, its original purpose was not put to much use, at that kitchen space.

Around 10 years old. A surprisingly slim and slender body, wearing some elementary school uniform that consisted of a white blouse and a navy blue skirt with shoulder straps, and above those was a pink apron. Reddish hair with small pigtails on both sides, under a smooth and round forehead, the face could only be said to be ?innocent?. Maybe of slight mixed blood, the milky skin was covered with small freckles, and the large eyes were reddish-brown. To say the full impression in one word - .

‘...Angel? Spelled like that?’

Having lost his thinking ability, Haruyuki was just staring while spaced out, the girl glanced at him then said with a cute smile.

“I am baking cookies right now, please wait a bit more, Onii-chan.”

“...Uwaa!”

Haruyuki did a delayed scream, then hid his round body behind the living room door. While unable to understand the situation, he just poked the top part of his face out.

The girl tilted her head in wonder, soon after she gave another smile, and turned around to peek into the oven. Her red hair with two pigtails swung softly, and shone from the winter light coming from a window.

After coming this far, Haruyuki finally determined that this was not a mirage.

For daydream, or delusion, the girl’s existence was way too real. This means - this could only be a malicious program in the Neuro Linker. Ultra high detailed model layered on Haruyuki’s view, information like sounds and smells were fed to him. It is unknown who did this imitation for whatever reason - .

Since, there could not be an ?Imouto?.

There was no need to be afraid of a polygon fake. While Haruyuki was thinking that in his mind, he stepped into the kitchen, and extended his right hand to the ?Imouto? who looked up smiling.

Then, he pinched the freckled cheek, and pulled.

For the Neuro Linker that communicated with human consciousness using quantum signals, at sight and sound level limit, virtual reality that’s hard to tell from reality can be made. Due to the limits in memory and CPU power, creating the whole human is the best it can do.

However, for the other senses, especially the sense of touch, it is hard to digitize, or research is slow. Something like a ?Human cheek?, the skin texture, muscle resistance, and contraction in reaction type of complicated virtual sense is impossible to perfectly recreate. So, if he did that, then his fingers will return a lifeless gum like feeling -

“Wh, wha ar yo doin ~”

“...Uu, uwaaaaa!?”

Haruyuki shouted, let go of his hand, jumped back and his behind hit the refrigerator.

It’s perfect.

Soft, smooth, also young and vivacious, that can only be said to be perfect ?feeling of pulling a 10 year old girl’s cheek? - up till now he had never experienced this - occurred on his fingers.

While being stared at by the suddenly outraged girl with round cheeks, Haruyuki extended his right hand towards the Neuro Linker at his neck, removed the lock and pulled it right off.

From his view, time, calendar, application icons and AR information disappeared.

The girl did not disappear.

‘Haruyuki, sorry.’

That starting message from his mother, he finally noticed that it was left in the home server, he put the Neuro Linker back on, and stood there listening.

[- sorry, but we will be taking care of a relative’s child for two or three days. You know right, Nakano’s Saitou-san, my cousin. He went on an emergency overseas trip, like I just said, I too will be going to Shanghai today. I will return three days from now, please look after that girl. If anything happens, send an email, see you.]

His mother, Arita Saya, worked for an American bank in the dealing department. Every night she wouldn’t be home till around midnight, once in a while she flew overseas and left him home for a few days and things. For that, how many parts for work and how many parts vacationing with the man she went out with, he did not know. If the divorce 7 years ago wasn’t because his father cheated on her, Haruyuki would have thought that it was strange that he was left in her care.

So, since Haruyuki was in elementary school, he was continually left in the care of the Kurashima house two floors down in the same apartment complex - that is Chiyuri’s home.

Chiyuri’s mother and father always kindly welcomed him, on the other hand, if they had shown being bothered even once, he would have felt very bitter. Without any place to go, he would have grown up and become a child ten times more bullied than he was now.

While thinking about those, Haruyuki peeked at Saitou-san’s child moving busily in the kitchen.

After the oven timer gave a light sound, the girl opened its door and pulled out a metal tray. A sweet smell drifted by strongly. It seems the source of the fragrance were cookies.

She carefully moved with tongs around ten cookies onto a large plate covered with cooking paper, then she relaxed with a sigh.

Holding the plate with both hands, she turned around, and looked up at Haruyuki.

“Umm... sorry for using the kitchen without permission. I thought Haruyuki onii-chan would be hungry when he returned... so...”

A much lower volume voice than earlier, Haruyuki thought.

‘I see, this child too, felt uneasy about whether the ?onii-chan? she was left in care of showed a bothered face or not. I am so helpless. Even though the opponent is a girl I met for the first time, there’s no reason for me who is older to feel scared.’

While feeling some pain inside, Haruyuki tried his best to put up a smile and said.

“Th... thank you. I am starving.”

Doing so, the girl too, smiled happily like ice melting.

“Umm, I am, Saitou Tomoko. Elementary school 5th year. We haven’t seen each other for many years, so you might have forgotten... I think onii-chan and me are second cousins. Umm... I am unworthy, but please look after me.”

While holding the plate, she bowed, that made Haruyuki’s heart beat rocket up and his sweat glands open wide.

However he soon remembered his earlier thought, and managed to return a barely understandable greeting.

“Yes, err, I... I am Arita Haruyuki, h-here also, p-please take care of me, Saitou-san.”

The instant reply of ‘Tomoko is fine’ and smile caused Haruyuki to desperately pull his thoughts going far away back to normal.

Nakano’s Saitou-san, about that, all he remembered was having this kind of relative. For a parent’s cousin, that was normal.

“...Y, you are also a single child?”

Hearing that, Tomoko nodded.

“There is just father and me in my family. He suddenly had to go on a business trip, I said I was fine by myself, but he was worried. Earlier, he brought me here from school, and then left for Narita.”

Tomoko answered while placing the plate of cookies on the table, which confirmed something for Haruyuki.

“Ah, then, you haven’t met my mother.”

“No. I have only been given an instant key for onii-chan’s house.”

That was very fortunate. If it was that mother, she would have shown Tomoko a 100% bothered face without hesitation.

- However.

‘Then, if it’s like that. That means for the next three days, I will be living alone with this girl.’

‘No no, you don’t need to panic, you fool. The opponent is just an elementary 5th year child. She and I are a whole two years apart... Two years... Whole? Is that whole?’

Without noticing Haruyuki’s panic attacks, Tomoko said ‘Please wait till it cools’, then after another smile, turned around. She quickly washed the bowls and things in the sink, at the same time boiling some water, and after just a few minutes, she returned with a tea tray. Clearly, she’s already more familiar with this kitchen than Haruyuki.

Girls are incredible, after thinking that, Haruyuki shook his head. A child, the opponent is just a child.

However the cookies, were so delicious that they could be sold just like that in a shop.

After eating nine of the so-so big cookies, Haruyuki wondered how many years it had been that he had eaten someone’s handmade sweets, and sipped the tea Tomoko poured for him.

On the other side of the table, his red-headed second cousin blew on her cup with a serious face. Each of those gestures, were simple and cute, just looking at it gave him a warm and snug feeling.

“...Thanks for the food. They were... d-delicious.”

Haruyuki somehow managed to say that normally, it made Tomoko show a huge smile of relief.

“Really, I am glad! Since you did not say anything, I was worried.”

“S-sorry. I was eating in a daze...”

“That’s true.”

With ufufu laughter, she extended her hand in a half-raised posture, and took a cookie crumb that was stuck to Haruyuki’s cheek.

Then she threw it in her mouth, and laughed again.

Zing, noticing a strange sound effect in his brain, Haruyuki wiped around his mouth in panic.

“W, well then, err... th, that is, what should we do now? Wa, want to play games? I have mountains of them, a collection of games starting from 40 years ago...”

After saying so, he remembered that most of them are the bloody and hellish graphic type.

However fortunately, Tomoko smiled and lightly shook her head.

“Well, I don’t play too many games. I have a bit of trouble with Full Dive...”

“I, I see.”

Haruyuki looked at her after saying so, on her small neck above the top blouse button, he belatedly noticed that the current era's absolutely necessary social tool, the Neuro Linker, was not there.

Indeed, there are families who avoid having elementary school student wearing the Neuro Linker permanently. The unlimited Global Net is a hothouse for many different kind of crime. Even with the parental control functions, it’s difficult to block 100% of the harmful information.

If they only use sight and sound mode for daily school classes, it’s reasonable for them to be scared of full dive that cut all five senses. Then what should they do, while desperately thinking, his eyes finally stopped at the large panel monitor in the living room, Haruyuki pointed to that.

“Th... then, want to watch a movie on that? Even for old 2D software, they are pretty fun.”

However, this time too, Tomoko shook her head slightly, and shyly said.

“Umm... Instead of that, can we talk? I want to learn about onii-chan’s middle school.”

She then stood up, walked around the table, and sat beside him.

A milk like sweet smell tickled his nose, his long nurtured anti-female field activated at that moment, and Haruyuki moved back in reaction. His chair leaned, about to make him fall to the left, he flapped both arms to balance himself.

Tomoko laughed while looking at Haruyuki returning to his original position with a bang.

“Onii-chan, you have a pretty cute side to you.”

‘- Uwaa.’

While blowing bubbles from his mouth, Haruyuki lowered himself deeper into the bathtub.

On his mother’s whim, the Arita house bathroom is very big. The bathtub is big too, so Haruyuki’s huge body fit in it with no problem and he was able to extend his hands. He breathed in a big whiff of the bathwater soap scented steam, kept it in his his lungs, then exhaled it slowly.

Even though his speech was awkward, his rare long speech made his throat hurt a bit. Along with the curry rice dinner Tomoko cooked, he calculated that he had spent four hours total speaking. He was strangely impressed that he had so many stories to talk about from his everyday life.

In the end, starting with the Umesato middle school’s different systems, various episodes with his two childhood friends, to his ?most important person?, that is the black clothed upperclassman as well, were completely talked about. The only things he did not mention, was the bullied incident that continued till a few months ago, and - the ?other world? related information.

To those talks that he thought certainly were not interesting, Tomoko seriously listened, and once in a while laughed with a comment.

Is this the feeling of having a sister? Haruyuki tried to get a hold on it.

At the same time, he hated himself for maintaining a certain doubt.

It’s just - too perfect. One day after returning home from school, a little sister suddenly appeared, baked cookies and made curry, and even used the killer move of ‘Wanting to talk with onii-chan’. Beyond that, they will be living with just two of them for three days?

Haruyuki was not brought up in such a pure way that he could accept this rare event that fell on him.

However, even if this incident had a back side to it, who would have done it and for what reason? And how should he go about to check it?

After thinking for a while, Haruyuki raised his top half from the bath, and took the aluminum silver Neuro Linker from the corner rack.

Even though it was water proof, he wiped his neck of water just in case, and put it on from behind. The U-shaped parts swung together, and locked around his neck.

After turning it on, the start-up logo shone in front of his eyes, and after twenty or so seconds of brain connection check, the virtual desktop opened. Moving his right hand finger quickly, he opened the Arita home server window.

In the data storage, Haruyuki thought of going into the family album, but he hesitated. In recent years they haven’t taken any family photos, but in there before Haruyuki became so rounded - when his father and mother were still happily together, there were lots of their family pictures. Those things, he would rather die than look at.

Going back up to the home server lobby, he opened the connection to the external net.

A few solid access gates popped up. These were all of the Arita relatives’ home nets. Of course you cannot fish for data as you like, but you can leave messages or check the relatives’ public schedules.

However, the access gate with ?Nakano’s Saitou-san? home net did not exist. Most of the home net top pages only showed recent reports of family gathering pictures, he checked them out, but the only connections were from his mother’s family, a few uncles and aunts, it did not cover their cousins.

For a moment, Haruyuki looked away from the desktop towards the bathroom door and listened. He could hear slight sounds from the panel TV in the living room. Tomoko was probably still watching family oriented variety shows. Since she strongly urged him to take a bath first, he should finish quickly and go out. If the reason for his long bath was due to doubt if she was his real second cousin, even more so.

He looked back to the desktop again, the access gate that was floating in the center - his mother’s family home net, he opened it.

He ignored the family picture taken in a mountain village, and clicked on the gate connecting to the internal net. Of course a login confirmation appeared, Haruyuki quickly moved his fingers.

There, he entered the ID and password he got from mother. Since this access will be logged, if the other side asked his mother about the login reason, he would be in big trouble after his mother found out that he stole her ID, but he did not think that his village born grandparents would check their home net access logs.

But of course, he must quickly finish what he had to do. Haruyuki hurriedly dived into his mother’s family home net, and opened the album folder.

He was overwhelmed by the number of pictures from all the years, but he found the era and number of people from the folder data. If his vague memory was right, five years ago for his grandfather’s birthday, a lot of Arita family gathered. He might have greeted ?Nakano’s Saitou-san? at that time. If it’s like that, then five years or so old Tomoko should be there.

His search was soon over, and a few thumbnails were stacked.

He flicked each with his finger.

Not this, not this either... ah, around here. The next one was bingo.

“Onii-chan?”

Suddenly, a song like voice came from his right side, Haruyuki turned his head in reaction.

Then, he froze with his right finger in the air.

Not sure when, the bathroom door was opened a crack, on the other side, Tomoko peeked in with her face and right shoulder shown.

From the reddish hair head that was warped in a towel, to the slightly shy looking face, then the slender neck and shoulder skin, his view moved down - .

“Wha... wh, wha...”

To Haruyuki who was moving his mouth quickly, Tomoko returned a slightly pink smile.

“Onii-chan, can I join you?”

“To... gether... that...”

“Since, onii-chan is taking so long. I got tired of waiting.”

With an ehehe smile, Tomoko entered the bathroom without waiting for an answer. Haruyuki lowered his body in panic, and shout with his eyes shut tight.

“S, sorry, I am getting out now! I am getting out soon so wait a bit more!!”

“It’s okay, we are second cousins.”

‘It’s absolutely not okay -?!!’

While his brain screamed, Haruyuki’s biological optical observation system, that is his eyes, betrayed his command and opened. When the small bare feet on the ivory tiles entered his view, his breath stopped.

Both of his eyes’ focus automatically moved up. Surprisingly slender calf drawn with slippery lines. Small round knees and supple lower legs.

The end of the legs were barely covered by a pink bath towel, Haruyuki momentarily thought, ‘fool, what are you doing’, he blamed himself as his eyes moved further up. The towel covered a body that did not have too many bumps, his eyes moved pass the cloth that could come off at any moment, and saw smooth skin covered a delicate collarbone.

“B... but, please don’t stare at me so much.”

And finally, the shyly lowered face.

Haruyuki compare that to the large Arita gathering picture shown on his view’s left side.

The front line was a group of children including himself. Now, he would not know who was who, but fortunately, the pictures in this era used technology that contain embed data.

Moving his focus, made names appear and disappear in front of the children.

This name, appeared on the 6th person. ?Saitou Tomoko?.

When he stared at it, the child’s face automatically zoomed in, becoming the same size as the Tomoko in front of him.

Five years old then. It is said that girls change, but becoming this face in five years...

No way.

Haruyuki took a deep breath, held it, then let it out.

He faced the girl that said she was his second cousin with a vacant expression, and called with a sad smile.

“Tomoko-chan...”

“What is it, onii-chan?”

“...You, are a ?New Burst Linker? right?”

The reaction was immediate and real.

Tomoko’s cute face, instantly became blank with a surprised look.

That face probably was dyed red with some other reason than embarrassment, and the right eye jerked.

But what was impressive, was the around 10 year old girl, tilted her head and said with a normal cute voice.

“What, onii-chan, what did you say? Bu..rst? What is that?”

“Tan line.”

Haruyuki replied with a murmur.

“What?”

“Around your neck, there’s a nice tan line. Similar to mine. To that degree, you could not get it unless you often worn it since birth... the Neuro Linker.”

Tomoko - probably not her name girl, covered her neck with both hands. Then, Haruyuki continued.

“There’s a picture from five years ago in my grandfather’s home server. Saitou Tomoko-chan was there... even though I am saying it in this situation, you are 10 times cuter.”

The girl’s face jerked again, showing a complex expression.

Eventually that multi-faceted face, settled on a sulky face that was one light year from the naive face till now.

“Geesh.”

With her hands on her waist around the bath towel, she clicked her tongue strongly.

“I checked the family album here. To dig around in your grandfather’s home net, you have too much distrust.”

The sharp dig made his eyes spin, but Haruyuki somehow managed to retort.

“Y... you are too unreasonable. You probably faked an email from Saitou-san to my mother, what would you do if my mother checked with them?”

“The email and call from your mother’s Neuro Linker to Saitou-san were all interrupted and redirected to me. It took three days of preparation.”

“That... must be hard work...”

While holding the edge of the bathtub, Haruyuki let out an amazed sound.

To put a virus in someone’s Neuro Linker, it could only be done with a cable direct connect. Probably this girl checked his mother’s movement, and connected their Neuro Linker in the changing room of the sports gym that his mother frequent.

Of course, having a family member subjected to that did not feel good, but before that, he was impressed. This world has many self proclaimed Linker hackers and wizards, but to leave their safe home and go to the outside for ?Social engineering? - meeting others to do offline extreme hacking - there are not many strong ones like that.

Hearing Haruyuki’s words containing admiration, the girl’s face showed a strong smile.

Seeing that, Haruyuki continued to voice his guess.

“...For you to go this far, you must be trying to hack my supporter, ?that person?, that’s too naive. For that person, one look and she will know you are a fake, unlike me who took 5 hours. ...I can understand that you cannot win fighting face to face as a Burst Linker... since the opponent is that ?Black Lotus?...”

‘Would you hurry and leave’, while thinking that he said up to that point -

At that moment.

The girl’s presence, again changed sharply.

Her eyes shot out strong light, with a hint of red like her hair. Her glossy lips twisted into a bend, showing pure white teeth.

An expression that can only be described as arrogance looked down at Haruyuki, and the girl said in a low voice.

“...Hey you, what did you say?”

“...Eh? Th, that is... even if you challenge her face to face...”

“Cannot win? Me? That’s why I sneak around and go about this bothersome real hack?”

‘- That’s not it?’

At the same time Haruyuki asked that question with his eyes, the girl’s right hand moved, and took off the towel that was around her head. She threw that towel to the floor with a loud thud, then pointed her index finger at him.

In the foggy air, he seemed to see that her near deep red hair stood up on ends. With her short hair waving like flames, the girl let out a threatening voice.

“It’s too bothersome, I will force you to listen to me. I will have you pay dearly for looking down on this ?Scarlet Rain?-sama, wait right there till I get my Neuro Linker!!”

With her index finger waving, she stuck out her thumb, then turned it down and wiggled it, turning around in a big move.

Then, her right foot that took a step, stepped on the towel that she threw earlier, and slipped.

“Nyaa!?”

A high pitched scream. Looking at the girl falling in an almost perfect back flip, Haruyuki also shouted.

“Uwaa!?”

He hurriedly opened both arms, and caught the girl before she hit the bathtub’s edge. However his feet slipped inside the bathtub, so he also fell backward.

Splash.

With a huge splash sound, a water pillar went up high, that blew up most of the bath towel.

When Haruyuki hit the wall behind, he shut his eyes to wait for the pain to pass, then lifted his head to check the situation.

He was sitting in the wide bathtub.

A red haired girl was riding his flabby stomach as cushion. Her slender body was held by both of his arms.

And also, both of them were completely naked.

“U, uwaaaaa!?”

Haruyuki shouted that, then,

“Ugyaaa -?!!”

The girl’s scream overwrote his shout. She stumbled around, then from her foot’s bounce on Haruyuki’s stomach, she somehow managed to escape out of the bathtub. She picked up the bath towel on the floor, fled to the change area in high speed, then showed just her face.

“...I will beat you to death.”

When he heard her footsteps head towards the living room, Haruyuki thought in a daze.

‘- I saw and touched.’

‘- Not that. That girl was probably an assassin from the one of the six kings. With that word and action, she will probably be back later to challenge him to a duel.’

Then, should he remove the Neuro Linker to prevent that? However, she is probably an enemy they will meet again, so it might be better to obtain information early. Since he is just level 4, losing once won’t cost him too many points, also - since the opponent is just a child, he might not lose that easily.

With about 80% of his thinking processes in confusion, the remaining 20% reached that conclusion, then the name that girl said earlier pop up in his brain.

?Scarlet Rain?. He probably hasn’t heard of it. For the color circle, it’s probably ?Long range red? type, with that, he thought she might be a Burst Linker belonging to the red legion. He would find that out when they duel, but he wanted a bit more information.

It will take some time for the girl to put on her Neuro Linker, start the OS, and finish the quantum connection check. While he sat in the bathtub, he issued a voice command.

“Command. Voice Call. Number 01.”

At that moment, [Voice call for registered address number 01. Is that okay?], that holo dialogue appeared in front of his eyes. He instantly answered ‘Yes’.

With two rings, the opponent answered.

“It’s me. What’s wrong, Haruyuki-kun, calling at this time.”

With that smooth voice, a background sound like musical accompaniment of splashing water was heard.

‘Ah, is senpai also taking a bath...’ While thinking that and other things, Haruyuki talked to the person he called - one of the strongest Burst Linkers, Black King ?Black Lotus?, also known as Kuroyukihime.

“Sorry for calling this late. I want you to tell me about something...”

“Oh, what is it?”

“Well, senpai, do you know of a Burst Linker called ?Scarlet Rain??”

The answer to his question, was a bit long silence.

“...A, ah, what’s wrong?”

“...Nothing, sorry. You are seriously asking that right?”

“Seriously... of course. I won’t make a prank call at this time.”

“I see. Hmm, this should be my omission. I used the common calling only so haven’t told you their names. However, ?Silver Crow?, you are also a bit short on study.”

“Eh...? What, does that mean...”

Haruyuki’s tilted head heard running footsteps in the hall, on top of that was Kuroyukihime’s cool voice.

“- ?Scarlet Rain?. That person is also called ?Immobile Fortress? and ?Bloody Storm?... is the second generation Red King.”

...Huh?

In a daze, with both eyes and mouth wide open, Haruyuki’s thoughts stopped.

Right after, the bathroom door was pulled open hard, and the red haired girl again appeared.

She must be really furious, since she only wore underwear on top and bottom. However she did not seem to be hiding anymore, her pure white body was held high, and arms crossed in front of her chest.

He moved his view on reaction, and noticed the only other thing she had on other than underwear, then stared at it. Around her slender neck, a glossy pure red shone.

The girl showing a violent smile, shouted with a cute yet forceful voice.

“Burst Link!!”

Viiiii!!

- That familiar, yet always hair-rais-->>

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