Kurisumasu.

(Months without Yuuno : 1-

"HO HO HO! GUESS WHO'S BACK!" The doors to the main hall were pushed apart and gusts of cold wind came in. Covered in snow, steam from her body stood a silhouette of a stick figure covered with a thick coat.

There she was an 8-year-old in the flesh, a 25-year-old in mind.

"Did you miss me?~" She ran towards me and pushed me around. Just like old times, huh? For some reason, I felt nostalgic even though the last time she pushed me around was only a year ago. Wait, was I already conditioned to her pushing me around?

"Sooo, did you miss me? Huh? I bet you did! You get lonely really easily after all. Did you?" Was that the first thing she'll say to me after 11 whole months of staying apart?

"At the very least I did notice your absence. But judging by your excitement it's way more likely that you were the one who missed me."

"Pfft-Of course not. But I did notice that I didn't have anyone to hand me an extra plate of food." She said while taking her coat off. And dear lord was I surprised. She lost like half her weight. The chubby Yuuno I remembered was no more!

"Why do you look so thin? Have you been eating alright?" I turned her around to inspect her. How was an 8-year-old this toned?! "You shouldn't work out so much, or you'll remain tiny!"

"That's a myth. And I look thinner because I DID get taller." She swished her hand to compare her height. "Hah. Pipsqueak."

"Shut up! Girls just grow faster than boys!" I retaliated.

"Whatever you say, midget."

"Screw you. I'm calling your parents!" Now… what was the most convenient way of calling everyone here? Ah! "RUNE! YUUNO'S HERE!" I shouted moderately loudly.

All of a sudden I could hear the sounds of heavy footsteps and then a figure jumped off the top of the staircase, got some serious airtime and landed straight on the little girl.

"MOM! DAD! ALEZ! HIME! YUUNO'S BACK!" Yep, his voice was plenty loud to call everyone back.

The next second, legit everyone jumped off the second floor and to the first one. Hime left her makeup off halfway and came down. Ultimately, everyone was cheek to cheek with the lone travel. Unfortunately, that included me, who got sandwiched in between as well.

[I was expecting a welcome but not this kind of a welcome.] She transmitted directly to me within our ball of people.

[What did you expect? These people barely got through the year without you.]

[AT THE VERY LEAST I DID NOT EXPECT TO BE TURNED INTO A STRESS BALL!]

Her pouty face became abundantly cut- hilarious in my eyes. I couldn't help but laugh.

She was clearly enjoying all this attention deep down.

The whole charade lasted for what seemed like an hour before Yuuno went to wash up and the rest went to prepare for the Christmas dinner. I, on the other hand, was busy putting lights up on the tree.

After a while, the group of the two families was seated across the large table with a feast of fried chicken in sight. Back in my previous life, we didn't have Christmas… because three thousand years before now was before the Christian era even began. But based on what I've noticed, it was a festival that evolved two thousand years ago to celebrate the birth of a God.

None of us on the table here are Christians so the religious aspects of the festivals didn't matter to us as much as the festivities do to us. And let me tell you, the fried chicken in front of us was great. What was better was the fact that I had a whole bucket to myself. I have grown quite fond of satisfying my flavourlust.

Of course, I jog around with Clintarou to burn off anything excess. My goal was to be weak, not obese.

So I started downing the bucket as we all sat across the table. Clintarou was seated under.

"Weren't you supposed to come tomorrow?" Sadou Jou asked while taking a sip of her red wine.

"I was but I asked for an early leave because I would much prefer to be here for Christmas eve than be a present on Christmas day."

"And they let you do that? I'll have to have a word with the staff." Sadou Jii butted in.

"Not like it matter. Not a single one of them was capable of protecting me anyway."

"Did you get stronger again?" Dad asked her.

"Yep! I can use multichant for EX grade spells."

"Ah, I see. So there really was no point for them to guard you." At that statement, everyone on the table sighed, secretly calling her a monster in their head.

"Unnhnn." Of course, she didn't understand, so she just nodded along.

I could feel a little bit of her aura leak out and it was impressive, to say the least. In her previous life, she got strong enough to fight me in 5 or 6 years. Granted I did not use all my strength, was outnumbered, and was planning to die in the first place, she still put up a decent fight.

In this life not only did she have the knowledge from her past life but also a decent amount of time she could spend practising without having to ward off enemies.

She might become a notable existence in the future at this rate.

I took a piece of chicken and took a large bite of it. The insides were juicy and the outside crisp as crisp can be.

Since the staff had the day off, Dad and Hime-nee were the ones that took charge of the kitchen and the taste bore witness to that.

The dinner ended rather quickly, which was pretty obvious given that all we had was fried chicken.

Right after it did, the group split up by age. The fathers and mothers headed out to drink some more. Rune had a Tiyur tournament that he planned since he didn't know that Yuu-chan would come back today.

Of course, he protested and contemplated plenty of times before finally concluding that he had invested too much to give up. He, after apologising, left eventually. And Hime-nee and Alez were going out with their fiancees.

{a/n: Tiyur is the VRMMORPG of this era. Cuz of course there is a VRMMORPG in this era. Does this mean that there might be a VRMMORPG arc in the future? Perhaps.}

So the only ones left alone were the two of us.

"Want to head to my room?" I got up and pushed the chair back in.

"Sure. I'll come back after changing."

After tidying up, I headed back up by myself. The stairs felt a little longer but I got to catch up with my mind. We were going to be together for 9 whole years starting now.

I opened the door and the room clad in moonlight presented itself to me.

The next thing I knew I was hopping back on the bed while pursing my lips, I put my wrist on my forehead.

A few moments passed and the sound of the door reverberated in the room.

"I'm here." She said while wearing her pyjamas. Blue, cotton, bigger, and incredibly cheap looking. I could almost tell that the reason why she bought oversized pyjamas was that her body was growing.

I wonder when she'll grow out of that mindset. She needed to have the disposition of a princess after all. If a noble in the dorm saw her like this it would bring shame to our house. If another country's member saw her, this land would become a laughing stock.

Little things like these become the centre of attention when you're in a position this high.

She jumped onto the bed and we both stared at the ceiling.

"Give me your hand." I said.

"Mental transmission?"

"Yep."

Her hand hugged mine rather tightly and we continued to stare at the ceiling.

The accumulated pain started to melt away.

[Your mind really is the best.] I sighed.

[Why do you say that?]

[Because you feel pain from excessive joy.]

[Maybe sleeping next to a psychopath isn't a good idea. I should head back to my room.]

[Shut up and sl..p]

That was probably the best night's worth of sleep I had in the previous year.

*** Asama Shiina's perspective ***

We might have gone a little too hard on the booze yesterday. I can barely remember what happened. I should get my make-up cleaned off, drink some water, and sleep some more.

But I have to say, the old school songs really hit. I mean it has been years since I heard Psy come on anywhere. Last night was banging.

I climbed up the stairs and approached the room.

"Hufff..." I must be getting old to get tired by that.

I opened the door and the bright sunlight came in through the fluttering curtains. It was warm for a day that proceeded a snowstorm.

I cleaned off the make-up and got refreshed before heading to bed.

"Ara~"

There were two kids sleeping, facing each other. Mao's hands gripping Yuuno's and both their legs tucked in a foetal position.

Haha... that was pretty cute. The sunlight from outside shone down their faces but neither of them showed any signs of wanting to wake up.

'I can't sleep here now, can I?'

I covered their tummies up with their clothes and put a blanket over them.

'Guess I'll sleep with Jou-chan.'

(Months without Yuuno : 0)