~ Narrator POV ~
The pair of High human and spirit made it home exactly 15 minutes after school ended, and since Seiji's house was about 30 minutes or so away from Private Seirei Academy he made it before Masachika, Yuki, and Alya got there.
Who he didn't beat back to his house was his aunt Haruka, after the call with Ai in Seiji's body, Sakura had called Haruka to check on Seiji and make sure nothing had happened to him.
Haruka was out grocery shopping at the time so when she did arrive to check on Seiji he was already gone. After calling his phone a dozen times with him not answering she panicked and was on her way to call the police but stopped when she saw Seiji, who looked taller for some reason walk up to her.
Before Seiji could greet her, Haruka beat him to it, but instead of a greeting he got a scolding.
Haruka walked right up to Seiji, her expression giving nothing away, just as she was in front of him Seiji was going to happily greet her until… "Ow! What did I do!?" He exclaimed more in surprise than pain, in fact he couldn't really feel it.
"You have a lot of explaining to do young man!" Aunt Haruka said, still holding onto his ear, she was so angry that she either failed to notice how much taller he had grown, or accepted the fact that he had always been this tall, after all even before the evolution, Seiji was always taller than her.
After a while she let go and crossed her arms looking at him expectantly, Seiji rubbed the back of his head nervously.
"Hmm, despite being physically stronger than her, you still appear scared of her? What type of family dynamic is this?" Ai asked curiously, looking at Seiji being nervous to Haruka.
"Please shut up, Ai." Seiji said through their telepathic link.
"Well?" Haruka said, still looking at Seiji waiting for an explanation.
"You must've gotten a call from mom when she heard I didn't show up for school?" Seiji asked slowly. When he saw Haruka nod at him he went on to explain.
"Well, I did show up at school, but my stomach wasn't feeling all that well this morning. A classmate noticed this and suggested I go home for the day and she'll notify the teacher of my absence."
Haruka thought for a moment but then nodded, causing Seiji to sigh in relief only for that relief to be killed when Haruka asked him another question, "That explains why you weren't at school, but that doesn't explain the reason that you weren't at home despite having an upset stomach."
'Shit!' Seiji cursed.
This whole situation was a surprise to him, he hadn't expected his mom to call Haruka and he hadn't expected Haruka to catch him as he was coming home. His plan if his mom asked him was to tell her a half lie and hoped she wouldn't ask anymore questions, if she did he would just tell her the whole truth.
Aunt Haruka was different. She was on the list of one of the people closest to him and wouldn't mind if she found out about the Multiversal Group Chat. However the circumstances around Haruka was diff compared to the rest, even his own mom.
To Seiji, Haruka already had enough on her plate, between working and taking care of two young teenage daughters who are in their prime years for puberty to strike, Seiji didn't want to pile on her worries with the group chat.
Sakura on the other hand was different from Haruka as well, of course Seiji doesn't want his own mother to worry over him, even more than Haruka.
But he couldn't possibly hide anything from her, so he would have no choice but to either one; tell her about the group chat, or two; let her figure it out on her own, which Seiji saw no point in doing.
While Seiji was thinking, Haruka gently grabbed his face, looking at him with nothing but maternal love, making him snap out of it. " I'm fine, really, Aunt Haruka, Just probably something I ate yesterday, but I'm all good now." He said.
Haruka stared at Seiji's face for a moment before finally letting his face go and sighing, "Come on, you probably didn't eat anything this morning did you?" She asked, already knowing the answer.
"I'll make you something to eat." She said before walking into Seiji's house and Seiji followed quietly.
While Haruka was cooking, she and Seiji made small talk like her asking how his week was, or embarrassing stories of her daughters, and Seiji responded in kind, telling her about the things he and his friends did in school.
"Seriously Seiji, you're way too smart to be carelessly falling asleep in class like that." Haruka said scoldingly.
Seiji chuckled, "Yeah, a classmate of mine gives me a lot of flack for that. She's always waking me up the moment I close my eyes." He said, remembering how Alya would always make it her duty to not let me sleep.
"Oh, she? Is this someone special to you? A girlfriend perhaps?" Haruka teased while subtly probing for information.
Seiji saw this but didn't really care as it wasn't anything to get defensive over. He waved his hand dismissively, "Nah, she's a friend of mine. Fun fact we transferred at the same time, and she didn't like me all that much."
"Oh and who is this mysterious girl?" Haruka asked with the same teasing smile.
"Pfft- Mysterious is one word to call her." Seiji said laughing and that's when the door to Seiji's door was open.
"Seiji, we're here, are you feeling better?!" Masachika announced their presence. Upon hearing his voice Haruka perked up, "Oh, Masachika is that you?" She asked happily.
"It's nice to see you again, Aunt Haruka." Masachika said with a small genuine smile on his face.
"Oh, my! And Yuki as well, look how beautiful you've grown!" Haruka exclaimed seeing Yuki, then her eyes landed on Alya, who was with them. "And you must be one of their friends?"
"It's nice to see you too, Aunt Haruka. You look as beautiful as the last I saw you as well." Yuki said politely, yet you can see the genuine way her eyes lit up upon seeing someone familiar.
Alya froze in nervousness at being called out by Haruka, who she thought was Seiji's mom based on the reaction from both Masachika and Yuki. "A-Ah, excuse me for intruding ma'am, I'm Alisa Mikahilovna Kujou, a classmate of Seiji's. It's very nice to meet you." Alya introduced herself nervously.
"Its kinda funny, really. We were just talking about you" Seiji said to Alya, surprising her a little.
"Ah, this is the girl that gives you a lot of flak for sleeping in class." Haruka said, now looking at Alya in a new light.
Alya was speechless, she didn't know how to react to that. On one hand Seiji was talking about her to his mom, or someone she thought was his mom, on the other hand Seiji was making her to be a stickler for rules.
"What are you cooking aunt Haruka? Do you need any help?" Yuki asked politely as she stepped closer to the kitchen.
Haruka's eyes widened almost as if she just now remembered something, "Ah, the food! I almost forgot I was cooking when I was talking to you all. Hmm, I made a little extra, would you all want some?"
"Yes, please!" Masachika and Yuki said at the same time.
"Make it extra spicy!" Yuki exclaimed, letting her other "personality" slip out for a second before she remembered that Alya was there and reigned it in.
"Please don't, there are two other people that need to eat without your weird spicy kink." Seiji deadpanned, despite growing up with Masachika and Yuki, he had never been good with spicy things like them, in fact it was the opposite.
"Stop calling it a kink, it's not a sexual preference." Masachika said.
"Isn't that what it is? What else do you call something that makes someone like their tongues being brutally violated by spicy foods? Masochism maybe?" Seiji replied back, causing Yuki to begin to laugh while pointing at Masachika, but Seiji shut that down too.
"Why are you laughing? I'm talking about you too." Yuki immediately stopped laughing after that, and the three childhood friends began arguing on whether people's love for spicy food was considered a kink.
Alya sat there watching the three with a sense of longing, 'They're all really close aren't they?' She thought bitterly.
After a while Haruka was done with the cooking and the four Seirei Academy students sat at the table discussing things, mostly about school.
"Say, Alya. What exactly do you do in your free time?" Seiji asked, causing Alya to look at him confused. They were just talking about school until Seiji suddenly asked her that question.
"I mean, we all have things we do in our free time, like hobbies. For me recently it's been watching anime. Masachika here does the same thing, as for Yuki…" Seiji paused when he got to Yuki, "She's not that important." He finished getting an indignant "Hey!" From said girl.
"Actually, I'm really curious as well Kujou, in school you're always so serious that it's kinda hard to imagine you actually having fun." Masachika added, now curious.
Alya on the other hand looked offended, 'Fun? I could have fun doing things in my free time like…' she drew a blank. She couldn't think of anything, ever since she could remember she was always focused on being the best so much so that she never had the time to pick up a hobby or two.
"You don't have any hobbies do you." Yuki teased causing Alya to blush in embarrassment, so to save a little bit of face Alya blurted out the one thing she always does in her "free time"
"I…study…" she said quietly, so quietly that they almost didn't hear her.
"Pfft-"
"Seiji why you trying not to laugh, bruh! That's disrespectful as shi-" Masachika exclaimed trying not to laugh himself.
Alya glared at the two as they continued to try not to laugh at her. Yuki managed it better as she smiled at Alya, then she perked up and a sudden idea struck her, "Ah, I have an idea! Why don't we take Alisa out this weekend to find her a hobby."
Seiji stopped laughing and looked at Yuki, "That's actually a good idea, Yuki." Then he looked at Alya "So Alya, you up for it?" He asked.
"A-Are you guys sure? I mean won't I be…bothering you all?" She asked hesitantly, the memory of the three childhood friends still arguing and laughing together repeating in her head.
"Hmm? Why would you think you're bothering us, after all you're now a part of the group, right guys?" Seiji said, looking at Masachika and Yuki.
Alya looked surprised as Masachika and Yuki nodded at her while smiling, "Yeah, definitely! Now I won't just be the only girl around here." She giggled then looked at Alya, "I hope we can be the best of friends Alisa!" She exclaimed.
Both Masachika and Seiji looked at Yuki weirdly, they both knew the thing about being the only girl in the group was utterly bullshit, after all there was Ayano and Renako but we don't talk about her relationship with the latter.
"Y-Yeah…" Alya said shyly, but genuinely happy to finally have friends, especially being able to get closer to … she discreetly looked at Seiji as he and Masachika were chatting.
It was only after another hour or two until both Alya and Haruka left, with Seiji calling Alya a Taxi as he didn't want her walking all the way home alone.
~Seiji Fujiwara POV ~
'So that's where she went.' I thought looking at Ai who was sleeping on my bed, which brings up a question, do ghosts even need to sleep, can they even sleep? Was she just pretending?
"Is she on your bed right now?" The voice came from my right, Masachika asked.
I nodded, still looking at the peacefully sleeping? Idol. "Yeah, can ghosts even sleep?" I asked, and this time Yuki, who was to my left answered, she too was looking at the bed where Ai slept.
The only difference was that she couldn't see her like I could.
"I don't think so, maybe she's pretending to sleep…" Yuki guessed.
"See that's what I was thinking too, but-" I was cut off by the spirit we were currently talking about.
"Can you guys not talk about me like I'm not here?" She said, opening her eyes before sitting up straight.
"I mean you're not here technically…you're a ghost." I said to her through our telepathic link momentarily forgetting that Masachika and Yuki were right beside me.
She deadpanned, seemingly not amused at the joke. "Ha Ha, I'm laughing so loud right now, can you hear it?" She said dryly.
"I didn't find the joke funny though…"
Her eyebrow twitched, "You-!" She was interrupted by Masachika who looked at Seiji curiously.
"Is she talking to you?" He asked me, causing me to remember that I had them with me.
"Huh?"
"The Idol, is she talking to you right now?" He repeated.
"Oh, yeah. We have a telepathic link, where I can speak to her without having to use my mouth…that sounded a little freaky~" Is my mind that dirty? Am I gay? Are we gay? The correlation is there.
[A/N: What is he talking about?]
"I see, we'll get to the Idol in a minute, what I wanna know, Seiji, is about the Race Evolution, you said you used it didn't you?" Masachika asked me eagerly.
"Race Evolution? Seiji, you used the race evolution card? Is that why you left school early?" Yuki asked me.
I shook my head, "I left school early because of Ai, my bound spirit. Getting sent home just gave me the opportunity to integrate the race evolution card. Hurt like a bitch though, 0 out of 10 wouldn't recommend it." I explained.
"I see, so what does it give you?" She asked.
I explained to them the perks of being a High Human, the superhuman physical abilities, the better eyesight, better senses, and most importantly eidetic memory.
"So you're like Captain America?" Yuki wondered.
"Nah, I think he's more like Spider-man. I mean think about it, he can lift 10 tons. I don't think Captain America can lift that much." Masachika said.
Ai and I were just watching the argument over which superhuman hero I was more like, "I still think you're more like Super-Man." She said suddenly.
"You no longer are allowed to have an opinion." I told her, catching the attention of Masachika and Yuki.
"Huh? Why not!?" She asked, offended.
I ignored her and clapped, catching the attention of Masachika and Yuki, "Alright, forget Spider-Man, forget Captain America, forget Ai." I got an indignant 'Hey!' From said Idol but ignored her again and continued.
"Forget everything, don't you all remember. I have a mission in 6, almost 5 days. I need to go on an anime spree, with my eidetic memory everything I watch can be fresh in my mind."
"But that's the thing, we don't know which universe you're going to, and there are thousands of anime, you can't possibly watch a thousand anime in 6 days, hell you can't watch one piece in 6 days." Yuki said, bringing up a good argument, I gotta admit.
I silently cursed my past self for not watching anime before the end of my first life.
"No, watching other anime could still be a little bit advantageous to him." Masachika suddenly spoke up causing us to all look at him. "Even though we don't know which world he's going to, he could possibly apply other things from anime to the universe he goes to." He explained.
Yuki looked at him confused but I think I got the idea of what he was saying.
"You mean like if the universe I go to is say, Frieren, I could make the Rasengan using mana instead of chakra?" I confirmed and Masachika just nodded with a smile.
"Oh, I get it now!" Yuki said, slapping her fist against her palm.
Masachika just nodded with a smile, "So you both know what that means don't you?" He said with a mysterious smile that Yuki mirrored.
I was confused, what did this mean? Ai too, was confused on what these two siblings were smiling about.
"No…what does this mean?" I was confused.
"ANIME MONTAGE!!!!" They both yelled excitedly simultaneously. Their excitement was infectious which caused me to get excited and yell with them.
"YAY! ANIME MONTAGE!" Ai yelled too.
"What are you getting happy about?" I said side eyeing her.
"What is your problem with me!?" Ai sweat dropped.
~ Narrator POV ~
The anime montage didn't even last a few hours before Sakura Fujiwara, Seiji's mom, burst through the front door yelling Seiji's name.
"Seiji! My beautiful boy, mommy's home!" Sakura announced, it didn't take long for Sakura to find her precious son sitting on the living room couch with Masachika and Yuki before she immediately glomped on him, ignoring the other two.
"Gah!" Seiji didn't have time to react, between her bursting through the door and her glomping him was all about a micro second, how could she achieve such speeds?!
"It's been forever since I saw you…" she said.
Seiji tried to say something but was completely muffled by his mothers breast. His eyebrow twitched and he pinched her waist not hard due to his newfound strength but it was still enough to make Sakura jolt in pain.
"Ow! Seiji…" she looked at him for a moment before her eyes started watering.
Seiji, already knowing what's about to happen, decided to try and put a stop to it before it could happen, "No! We are NOT doing that. Nuh-uh!"
Sakura only furthered her performance, her eyes got even more watery as she gazed at Seiji with those bright pink sakura eyes of hers.
"Nuh-uh you're not gonna make me feel guilty." He said, turning his back to her. When he hears her whining like a little puppy, Seiji has to fight the urge to face her and let her continue suffocating him with those weapons of mass suffocation.
When Seiji didn't turn around, Sakura fell to her knees and let the water works come out, "WAAAAAHHHHH! SEIJI DOESN'T LOVE ME ANYMORE!!" She wailed.
I heard a gasp from Yuki before she seemingly teleported to Sakura's side comforting her, "How could you Seiji, she's still your mother!" She said scoldingly.
Seiji's eyebrow twitched, but didn't offer any words.
"Yeah Seiji, how can you treat Aunt Sakura that way? She hasn't seen you in years, and this is how you treat her?" Masachika butted in, now on the other side of Sakura comforting her along with Yuki.
Seiji's eyebrow continued to twitch and tick mark formed in his forehead, but he stayed strong, he wasn't gonna let their words get to him-
"Yeah Seiji, how could you call yourself a son!" Ai chimed in, standing behind Sakura comforting her even though she couldn't feel or see her.
"Yo, who invited you!" He said to Ai through their telepathic link.
"Wha!!! Why'd you only respond to me!" She shouted indignantly.
~
Chapter End.
This is probably my shortest chapter 3.2k words, man am I goated or is Glorious gay? Let that sink in.