Leave a comment

The next day. Moreover, before eating breakfast.

I placed the Jizou statue in the center of the room where we all had gathered.

“If you would, Rir…”
“Woof!”

She placed her hand on the statue’s head and closed her eyes. She would now open the Reincarnation Shop and buy both World Transfer Privilege and Soul Separation¹.

“Woof, I bought it!” she announced merrily, after taking her hand off the statue.
“In that case, choose the option to go to Earth right away. Once you use it, we’ll all go there too, because of the Time Stop function.”
“Alright…!!”

She nodded at me and then placed her hand on the statue again. A short time later, the usual message popped up in my head.

I opened my eyes. In front of me was my room on Earth in the morning. I was still wearing my pajamas, so it looked like we properly arrived at the moment we had left last time, thanks to the Time Stop function.

For now, I wanted to see Mika’s face. I opened the curtains and looked at the neighboring house. At the same time, the curtains in Mika’s room were also flung open and our eyes met across the windows.

Yep. She’s as cute as always.

She opened her window, so I did the same with mine.

“It looks like there were no issues.”
“Yeah!”

Thinking of something, I checked our surroundings. It wasn’t anything I had to feel guilty about. Once I had verified there were no other people, I brought my lips to Mika’s. She noticed what I was doing, and also brought her body close to mine for a kiss-

“Sure is hot for being so early in the morning. Though maybe that’s just me.”
“Big Sis, Ayu-nii…”
“”Bwuh!?””

The neighboring windows had opened, and Kanata and Sakura were leaning out, just like Mika and I did. It looked like our younger siblings had seen us. I was sure there hadn’t been anyone before. Either we took too long before we started kissing, or the act had lasted longer than expected.

How embarrassing.

Kanata also went to caress Sakura’s head, to which she reacted with bashful joy and her face turning red.
Are they just as much of a sickeningly sweet couple as we are…?

“Oh, well. I’ll check on Shuu for the time being.”
“Alright.”

I pulled my head back and contacted Shuu on my phone. He immediately replied and confirmed that he had properly arrived. However, Rir was nowhere to be found.

Hm~, we still lack information. Her conveniently living together with him has been too much to ask from the beginning, so she simply might’ve been mixed into our class.

When I checked the time, five minutes had already passed. Somewhat flustered, the four of us went to our respective living rooms.

“Oh… Ayumu… Kanata! Good morning.”
“Ah, morning!”
“”Good morning.””

Dad and Mom were already there. For some reason, they looked rather happy.

“Well, that’s good,” Dad said in relief. “I was afraid whether we’d find out it has all been a dream the next day.”
“Same for me,” Mom agreed. “But it looks like that wasn’t the case.”

I see, so it really was yesterday when we came home.

“By the way, you mentioned that you would go back to the other world… did you actually do that?”
“Yep. We were there for around three weeks.”
“”What!? Three weeks!?”” our parents shouted in shock.

That was only natural.

“You really were there for three weeks?” Dad asked. “It was just yesterday that you came back…”
“Time probably doesn’t pass the same way, after all,” Mom guessed. “More importantly, let’s leave all that difficult talk for later. Breakfast comes first.”

Said meal – consisting of fried eggs, toast, and more – had been prepared on the table.

“Eh-heh-heh… well, after what Ayumu made for us yesterday… you’ll probably no longer think that highly of my cooking, but…” Mom commented with a self-deprecating laugh.
“N-No! That’s not the case!”

Maybe I had gone overboard with the omurice plus hashed beef sauce, after all. Mom seemed a bit dejected.

“Well, it doesn’t matter. For the time being, I will leave making dinner to you, Ayumu.”
“Really?”
“Yes, really. Seeing my son’s cooking is on par with an ultra-high-class restaurant. Moreover, you made it so quickly and didn’t seem to have a hard time. So, I’ll leave it in your care.”

Mom was smiling as she said that, but she seemed to be serious.

“What will you do in the future, Ayumu? Although it sounded like you’ve already become successful in that other world. Maybe you could work as a cook, on this side?”
“Hm…”

True, becoming a cook doesn’t sound bad either.
It felt a bit like cheating, since I only was this skilled at cooking by bringing over my skills, but it probably was a valid option.

“Rather than that, we should eat, or the food will get cold.”
“Oh, you’re right.”

Urged by Kanata, who was already sitting at the table, the three of us hurriedly followed his example and ate the breakfast Mom made.

________
______
___

After eating, I washed my face, brushed my teeth and changed into my school uniform. It had already been close to one hour since we had returned to Earth. Right now, I was still sticking my head out of the window, having a pleasant chat with Mika.

“It’s time,” Kanata, who’d also been leaning out of the window to talk to Sakura, told us, after he shot a glance at the clock in his room.
“Right. Let’s go back, then.”

I opened my status screen and selected the “Return to Anazumu” option.

We opened our eyes.
Yes, everything is as we left it one hour ago.

Mika, Kanata, Sakura, Shuu, me… and Rir were all present.

“Good, we’re all here. So, Rir, what happened on your-”

Kanata tried to ask her right after he opened his eyes. She however…

“Woof~… *sob*… w-woof!”

…started to sob and hiccup the moment she saw Shuu’s face, in lieu of answering my brother’s question.

“D-Did somethin’ happen, Rir!?” Shuu asked as he grabbed her shoulders in a hug, but she just shook her head.
“Shuu! You’re here! I love you…!!! I love you so much!” she screamed loudly, as if she was meeting her lover for the first time in years, and pulled him into a tight embrace.

TL notes:
And on that ominous note we end volume 16. Just what happened to Rir to elicit such a strong reaction?

While I appreciated the insights this volume gave us about common sense concerning dungeons and leveling in Anazumu, it felt like more of the same we’ve already seen during Alim’s and the sages’ leveling journeys. I guess the saving grace (at least for my own sanity) was the absence of status screens this time.

1. The original is “Time Stop function”. I assume that’s an error.

Support Us

Unlock Early Access ------- Select Project ------- Project Gender Bender Project Necro ∴ Support your favorite series and unlock chapters before the public release.