Kapitel 19: The Apartment

Kazuya couldn't help but give a facepalm. he did a double after hearing her rambling. Certainly this version smiles a lot and is more cheerful. The version of her he got used to would be hard to read yet this version would always say what was on her mind. Even the ones that shouldn't be mentioned at times.

"He's even putting my used panties on his face" she pinched herself harder but could still feel pain.

He then remembered the fabric he was folding was still in his hand. He quickly folded it before adding it to the pile already folded.

"I was just cleaning up big sis. Your place is as messy as always" he tried explaining himself.

"As always? How did you get in? She didn't miss the eyebrow raising comment.

"Your birthday doesn't count as a safe password" this was an issue he wanted to bring up.

"but it's backwards! My Kazu is still here and pinching myself hurts. Come to big sis and try Kazu" Mei who still believed she was dreaming beckoned.

"You're not dreaming big sis. You should go get dressed before you catch a cold" He was still looking sideways while talking to her so he raised the most pressing issue instead.

"Oh" she looked at herself who had only been wearing the white shirt she wore to work. "big sis doesn't mind at all you know" Mei stuck out her tongue to tease the shy looking boy. Ever since he woke up in the hospital, she found it harder to get him to react like the past.

"I know you don't. We're at your place after all" he sighed again. Kazuya had been trying to keep himself calm in front of her and using his own mana to numb specific parts of his body. He might not have hit puberty age-wise, but his mind definitely has been stuck in the middle of it for a long time. His responses were hurried and gave Mei a lot of information as well as satisfaction, but Kazuya didn't notice this and kept concentrating on his own body's status. This was his first time doing this so he just hoped and focused.

"Looks like you really do know a lot about your big sis" Mei gave a satisfied smile.

"That's a given. You are the wife I've always dreamed about after all. Why aren't you getting dressed?"

"You should pick out my clothes Kazu. I've been looking for my towel but I can't find it anywhere. Look at my hair, it's still dripping wet!"

"I'll go get you some clothes then. Did you check the shelf near the laundry area?" He turned to quickly head for Mei's bedroom. Mei silently watched him confidently make his way to her room before turning towards the laundry room.

At this point Kazuya didn't care about what he said anymore. He got her a matching set of underwear together with a pair of black training gear that looked unused. He turned around and found Mei drying her hair with her towel but now the now wet white shirt's buttons were undone.

"Help me dress up Kazu. You need to do this for me a lot of times in the future too okay?"

Yet another part of her that he was familiar with. She would usually act this spoiled only when she was drunk. It was very potent poison to the version of him going through puberty. He would steel his resolve and think of other thoughts whenever he did this. Luckily she was only like this in the past when she drank alcohol.

"Okay" disagreeing with her at this point would only lead to torturing himself because this was not the first time she asked him for this in his previous life. He unfolded the clothes and slowly helped her dress up. Mei who was smiling mischievously intentionally made it a little harder for him because Kazuya in her eyes right now looked extremely cute while trying to hide his embarrassment.

"The straps feel a little bit too tight Kazu. Can you fix them for me? My hair's not dry enough yet"

"That shouldn't be right… this underwear size is a little big for big sis" his eyes were sharper than they were in this life so of course he noticed the inaccuracy of her claims.

"Hey! Are you saying that my breasts are small? They may not be as big as kyouko-san's but there's still room for growth since I haven't reached my peak yet!" she posed in front of him.

"They're perfect actually" he gave his honest opinion. They were indeed not too big nor too small.

"You sure know how to make your big sis happy" Mei calmed down and smiled. She was satisfied with his evaluation.

"I'm not lying. I wouldn't dare lie to you big sis (at least not about something like this)"

"This is not your first time here right? Why are you even here?" Mei stared at him waiting for a response.

"!!" Kazuya was caught off guard and started to think of an excuse.

"You said you wouldn't lie to me. Was that a lie?" she followed up as she noticed his troubled expression. She wanted an honest answer since both Kyouko and her have talked about this issue before. Kyouko blamed her for taking him to her place without her consent but she clearly had never done a thing before.

"I saw mom's car parked here when I was heading home from school. I thought that she would be here so I rang the bell a few times but there was no answer"

"You haven't answered everything. You've recovered your memories, haven't you?" She actually gave him a hint he could use.

"Only some of them. Though most of them are bad ones" He rode her train of thought. This was a good way to buy himself some time.

"Bad ones? Do they have to do anything with me and how you know so much about me?" she gave a concerned and worried look.

"To be honest I really liked big sis back then. I was scared at first because your face was scary when I first met you but that changed when you were nice to me and treated me well" he answered with the first impression he had of her when they met in his previous life.

"Then why were you always hiding and avoided me"

"It was because…" the perfect idea hit him but hesitated since he hasn't thought it through. "it was Hashiyama Lee who made me do a lot of things I didn't like" he decided to involve Lee since he played a big part in an event involving Mei in his previous life.

"What did he make you do?" Mei didn't expect Hashiyama Lee's name to come up so she continued to dig further. This was the perfect chance to answer a few questions that have been bugging her and the current Kazuya rarely gave her the upper hand.

"I don't remember everything… but he likes big sis too. He would ask me to gather a lot of information about you and he took me here a few times to try and guess the code for your door. Unfortunately, I was able to guess what it was and we got to enter your apartment" he frowned. He remembered the first time he saw Lee in front of the door looking for trouble.

"What did he do here?" she tried to calm herself but she couldn't help but let out some bloodlust herself.

"We went around your apartment and he went through your stuff"

"Did he take anything?" trying to think if she lost anything, Mei crossed her arms.

"Some of your underwear. He would keep one in his bag, so I was able to retrieve them from him. I went back here a few times to return them"

"That pervert!" She felt disgusted. She sometimes had some problems looking for things in her room and wouldn't think too much of it because she thought no one else would have taken them. Now that Kazuya told her of this, she immediately put the blame on her missing items onto Lee.

"When I finally returned everything, he asked me to come with him here again but I refused. He beat me up and said that he would do it himself but would hurt me more if I told anyone"

"He can't get away with this! Kyouko should know!"

"I'm sorry for being a coward big sis. I really wanted to get close to you a long time ago, but he made me avoid you. I… was waiting for an opportunity to be able to fight back so I wouldn't have to stay away from you anymore but that… was when I lost my memory" Mei couldn't help but hug him tightly. She wouldn't have wanted him to remember if she knew that it would be this bad. Mei regretted interrogating him like this.

"You don't have to worry about that bastard Lee. Big sis will protect you from him I promise" she gently combed his hair with her hand.

"No… I failed to protect big sis from him and I won't let that happen again" This was an oath he made for himself. Never again will he let anyone mess with him or the people around him as long as he was still breathing.

"Is that why you started training yourself and joined that dojo?" Mei smiled after thinking that it was for her sake that he busied himself like this.

"I—" before he could answer, a loud noise was heard from outside Mei's bedroom.

*BAM* *BAM*

"MEI OPEN UP!"

"Looks like time is up" Mei sighed. "You stay here while I tell her about what you just told me" she left the room and answered the door. Kyouko immediately barged in and pulled Kazuya away from her.

"You! Where is he? Where's my Kazuya? What do you think you're doing to my son dressed like that?" Kyouko immediately went in and looked around.

"Me? This is not you're first time here so do you need me to answer? More importantly, there's something that you should know" She had more pressing matters to tell her about so she tried hard not to tease this overprotective mother.

"Tell me where my son is immedia—"

"Kazu recovered more of his memories. He's in my room right now and I didn't want him thinking about it when I told you because it's mostly painful one. They answer a lot of questions we've talked about" Kyouko saw the serious expression on her assistant's face. She instantly understood from the lack of her usual playfulness that it was a matter she needed to hear.

"Tell me" the two sat down and Mei began to retell the story using her own flair. She added a lot of curses and insults whenever Lee came up to vent some anger. Kyouko clenched her fists as well and felt guilty about not noticing anything until it was already too late.

"To protect his beloved big sis, Kazu's been training himself and joined that dojo too" Mei added at the end with a playful smile.

"Where is he?" Kyouko ignored it and was more concerned about her son and the memories he recovered.

"He's probably still in my room"

Kyouko still had a few questions so she looked for her son. The two of them, especially Mei was shocked when she entered her own room.

"Are you two done with your talk?" Kazuya spoke as he finished putting away all the clothes that was left inside the room and labeled them in boxes accordingly.

"Mei you… you made him pack your stuff for you!?"

"Hey don't look at me! When I discovered him in my apartment, he was already folding away the clothes I left in the living room"

"and here I thought you were actually making progress in packing" Kyouko sighed.

"It's okay mom, big sis didn't ask me to do this. I wanted to help so that big sis can move in with us before Lee comes to steal her stuff again"

"That's right! Only my Kazu is allowed to take my underwear!"

"Shut up Mei" she turned to her son and asked "When did you remember Mei?"

"When I saw big sis at the hospital. I already knew a lot of things about her even though they were incomplete. I only remembered the bad stuff that happened when Lee came but it made my head hurt a lot"

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I felt ashamed of how I used to be. I didn't want to be a coward anymore so I tried to change myself"

"You silly boy, of course you can be scared, you're still a child! That's nothing to be afraid of" Kyouko tried to comfort him. The change in her son after what happened made her miss how sweet and innocent he used to be.

"Kazu" Mei pulled him close their noses touched. They looked each other in the eye. "Always remember that no matter what, your big sis is always on your side. No matter what you do or what you become, your big sis will never abandon you"

Kyouko looked at them silently. It was rare to see Mei this serious when she is around Kazuya. He was initially scared of her when they first met because of Mei's usual demeanor. That was why she would stop putting off that face whenever he was around and the Mei that would express herself openly would appear. Kyouko believed that this was her assistant's real personality. From the time Mei started to work for her, she was known as the CEO's trusted executioner even though she such was a nice girl.

Keeping up her facade made others fear and respect her. Even though she was young, her prowess and talent were so apparent that no one could say anything. She knew that Mei had been under a lot of stress which was why she never really rebuked her when she would act the opposite way whenever Kazuya was present. She hoped that in the future, Mei could act more like herself freely.

"Big sis…" tears gathered in his eyes no matter how much he tried to hold them back.

Kazuya couldn't help it. These words both relieved and hurt him at the same time. He was reassured because these were the words that he wanted to hear from her for the longest time. Mei had no idea but she would be over the moon if she ever found out how much she had been regarded by her Kazu. His world used to revolve around her to the point that every major decision he made usually had her in mind first.

Though at the same time her words placed him in another predicament. A sharp pain would assail him every time he remembered. He felt that she was not lying and could feel the attachment she had for him. This was not only in this instance, whenever he indulged himself when Mei showed affection, he would feel a little bit of pain. A question that scarred him because he was never able to ask always crept up in his head even before he had died the first time. This scar was then continuously opened up when he was forced to watch his previous go by life countless times.

"(Why… why did you abandon me back then?)"

Knowing that the person wouldn't be able to answer his question he wept. He hugged the Mei in front of him tightly and cried to his heart's content. He swore in his heart that he would die without ever fulfilling his revenge if he let that same future ever come to pass.