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After waking up, Kou spent a few busy but uneventful days, and before she realized a week had passed. So far she was still attending school through VR. But there had been some changes…

“My name is Mary West. I was born here in London but my parents both came from Ireland…” ¹

A speaker transmitted a voice that still held some cuteness of youth, reciting the English lines from a textbook for the whole classroom to hear.. Once Kou, the owner of that voice, finished reading the indicated section of the textbook, all her classmates replied with loud applause.

“Very good, Mitsuki. Your pronunciation is really nice.”
“Th-thank you…”

The English teacher praised her, and she sounded a bit timid when responding.

Before, all the teachers would often avoid telling Kou to speak in the classroom out of concern, but now they were much more open to it. Kou had also become more proactive about it, volunteering to read like the other students. Something she had avoided doing until then.

Kou’s appearance in real life also reflected that of a cute girl.

Because of that, Kou stopped worrying about how her classmates would see her once she attended in person, loosening her tongue around school, which also increased how often her classmates would talk to her.

That change was seen by the students as the once timid Mitsuki Kou finally starting to open up to others, which made them even more endeared with her. But Kou was the only one oblivious to that.

◇◇◇

Once classes were over, Kou logged out and her consciousness returned to the hospital.

She would be spending the rest of the evening working on rehabilitation, so she had to change into clothes that were easier to move in…something which was still a bit of a hurdle for her, considering her mind was still largely that of an innocent boy.

After a deep breath, she removed her hospital gown, exposing her white skin to her own gaze, whether she desired it or not, along with her pastel-colored cotton underwear, which covered her more intimate areas.

Her mother Amari had prepared her underwear, and anticipating those mental struggles, had picked only those with plain designs.

But even then it was a stark difference from the male underwear she was used to, and seeing how they fit more tightly to her body and felt soft to the touch, made her feel restless.

It was weird for someone to get embarrassed of seeing their own body, so Kou constantly repeated to herself that it was fine, but that did little to make her more comfortable, so she finished changing as quickly as she could, before she got too embarrassed.

After clumsily changing to a baggy T shirt and some sweatpants, which took a bit due to her body still feeling a bit rusty, a nurse came with a wheelchair to pick her up, and then they headed to the rehabilitation area of the hospital.

Kou’s current life was only attending school, and then going there for therapy and exercise.

“Alright Mitsuki, the Half Dive Restrictions should be disabled now, could you activate that mode for us?”

The nurse did something with a tablet connected to Kou’s NLD, and then the young physiotherapist lady in charge of Kou’s recovery gave her some indications. A window popped up in Kou’s vision, where she accepted the prompt and a usually hidden program was launched.

Then a sensation similar to entering the virtual world took over her mind, though her consciousness remained in the real world. It was a very odd feeling, like her body was only partly in the virtual world now.

Usually all communication between the brain and body would be interrupted when Full Diving into the virtual world.

But that was canceled here, with Kou’s body still feeling the real world, and her consciousness being wide awake, with only a portion of her sensations tied to the virtual world. That was a Half Dive, a function usually inaccessible in regular NLDs.

“I’m in Half Dive now.”
“Very good, I can see you’ve properly linked up with your virtual avatar too. Would you like to try walking along the parallel bars now?”

The physiotherapist lady was referring to Kou by her last name, but her intonation still sounded like she was talking to a small child.

It was probably Kou’s small stature that made it harder for people to see her as a high schooler. Such treatment was often making Kou feel disappointed, but she had to try and ignore those feelings for now.

Urged by the lady’s kind voice Kou grasped one of the bars and propped herself onto her feet, and after readjusting her footing many times over, she began to slowly walk forward.

She felt like her knees would give out many times over, but she remained strong and continued pulling herself forward along the bars, until she eventually reached the end, where she essentially collapsed onto the chair placed there for her.

“Good job, you did really well! You actually got to the end all on your own today!”
“Umm…thank you.”

Being praised in such an exaggerated manner made Kou feel embarrassed yet again, so she stammered a bit when replying. The way she did it only made her appear even more childish, however, which attracted many warm stares from people nearby, making her feel even more awkward.

But she was seeing her improvements as well, and her body was listening better to her, which made her smile a bit amidst all the embarrassment.

And then for some reason many old ladies and men who were also working on rehabilitation began to give her candy, making Kou tilt her head in confusion.

Eventually she finished her usual routine and now could rest until a nurse came to bring her back to her room.

While she waited she took some of the candy, which the lady in charge had placed in a small bag for her, and put it in her mouth. She had picked a piece of chocolate, from a brand that existed for a long time and sold them in small packaging.

As the sweetness of the chocolate spread through her mouth, Kou began to think back to the last week of rehab and her results so far.

Usually someone who had been inactive for as long as Kou had been would require a lot more time to recover to that extent.

She had only accomplished that in such a short time frame thanks to the NLD’s Rehabilitation Half Dive Mode, which would let her input movements for a virtual avatar which then would be translated to movements of her real body.

The NLD had initially been created as a medical device after all, though those functions had been locked away and could only be accessed with permission of an authorized professional.

It would use data gathered from Full Dive movement to assist with translating those actions during rehabilitation.

And luckily for Kou, she had spent three months inside of Destiny Unchain Online, moving fully virtually in rather athletic manners, so that was a great asset when it came to rehabilitation.

But that did nothing to help her atrophied muscles from not moving for so long, so she still had to work on building enough muscle mass again.

Then again, that translation of virtual movement to real world movement could only happen if the virtual avatar was close enough to one’s real body, otherwise the difference would be too big.

And once again, the fact that Kou’s avatar as Crim was nearly identical to her new body was like a secret trick to make things easier.

“Now that I think about it…maybe this is also why I never got to make a character myself…”
“Hm? Mitsuki, did you say something?”
“Ah, I’m sorry. It’s nothing.”

The physiotherapist lady overheard Kou’s musings, so Kou had to quickly play it off as nothing.

“By the way…I know I’m not supposed to really meddle with the private affairs of patients, but there’s something that’s just been nagging at me this whole time.”
“…Hm?”

As Kou was unpacking another bite of chocolate, the lady spoke to her out of the blue.

Looking at her, Kou realized that this was the first time she was working with this specific lady, so she could only tilt her head in wonder at what the question would be, putting the piece of chocolate in her mouth.

“You’re the Scarlet Demon Lord Crim, right? …Wait, ahhh! Are you okay Mitsuki?!”

That question came so out of left field that it made Kou feel like she had been hit by an explosion head on, making her choke on the chocolate and throwing her into a coughing fit.

1. This line is in English in the raw.