It has been five years since I've last seen Onii-chan, officially that is.
I have an A-tier skill called Hypersensitivity which enhances my five senses to the extent of almost rivaling the strongest predators in the world.
But that alone isn't enough to classify a skill to be in the A-tier.
Instead, it was the sixth sense that it enhanced which gave the skill its ranking.
What is the sixth sense?
Most people don't realize that they have a sixth sense but in simple terms, it's the ability to recognize and perceive when someone is looking at you.
My enhanced sixth sense not only allows me to make out where they are as well as who it is that is looking at me but also acts somewhat as a radar.
In my head, there's a mental 3D picture of my surroundings that extends are far as 100 meters in all directions.
With my skill, I can see vague silhouettes of every person in that 3D rendering and when the person looks at me, it informs me of which silhouettes are doing so.
Standing in line in order of our last names, my sister and I were obviously standing next to each other.
One by one, the new students were entering the arena dome of the academy, otherwise known as Arthur Dome (named after the academy).
When it was my turn, I immediately felt uncomfortable as most of the silhouettes in my mental rendering suddenly turned in the direction of myself and my sister.
I could feel and see each person who was looking at me.
My big sister older than me by a few minutes, Yena, could sense that I was feeling uncomfortable so she grabbed my hand and whispered, "Take deep breaths. If you're this distracted, how are you ever going to find Onii-chan in the crowd of thousands?"
"...You're right," I said as I let out a heavy exhale.
Once the two of us sat down, it took a while but the number of people looking at us began to decrease.
The novelty must've started to run out.
"But what if he isn't looking at us?" I asked Yena who was seated beside me, already scanning the crowd up on the stands.
"Are you calling Onii-chan a liar?" she asked me.
Quickly, I shook my head.
"He promised that he'll never forget us. I bet he's staring at two of us right now, surprised that we are here. Hahaha," Yena began laughing.
Nodding my head in agreement, I concentrated on my Hypersensitivity skill and shortened the distance that I could render to fit the size of the total arena.
By doing so, the image of the silhouettes became more clear.
I could now distinguish whether or not the person was a female or male which immediately removed half of the people that I had to check out.
Then after eliminating those who were too short, too tall, too fat, and those with long hair, I was left with only forty or so people I had to look at with my own eyes.
'Not him. Not him. Definitely not him. Ew... ugly. Sorry Onii-chan for even looking at him. No. Nope. Not him either. Not that person. Not...'
Two of the people I meant to look at were sitting near each other so when I looked at the first one, I knew it wasn't the person I was searching for but the second person sitting nearby—
"I found him," I told Yena who was looking up at the stands opposite of where Onii-chan was actually sitting.
The two of us turned our heads and looked up at our Onii-chan, Kory Kilefair.
We had just seen him the day before secretly while he was sleeping but still, neither of us was able to contain our excitement.
It seemed he also noticed that we were looking at him because he waved at us.
As one of the teachers at the academy was instructing us about the code of conduct, we couldn't make a sound but quietly, we tapped our feet on the ground like happy ballerinas.
"He's looking at us," grinned Yena.
"He remembers us Onee-chan," I muttered, feeling a tear forming in my eye.
"Of course, he would. He promised he wouldn't forget and Onii-chan never breaks a promise."
A girl sitting in the row in front of us turned around and gestured for us to be quiet with a finger over her mouth.
Yena and I closed our mouth and held hands to prevent each other from freaking out.
After five long years.
After five painstaking years where we were separated from Onii-chan because our father found a new job in a different city.
After five years of fantasizing about the day we'd reunite, the day when I could bury myself in his embrace again — the day had finally come.
* * *
Our relationship with Onii-chan, or as most people know him, Kory, began when we were eight years old.
My sister and I at the time had just moved to a new city because our father was offered a position at his childhood friend's company.
Our days were extremely boring.
I was too smart for the other students in my new school and it felt like I was hanging out with toddlers instead of fellow kids.
For my sister, she was better at putting on a mask than I was.
She didn't make it known that she was bored and I could tell that whenever she raced with the other kids, she was slowing down on purpose to keep it "competitive".
If my sister wanted to, she could've won every race by over ten seconds.
However, she made sure that each of her victories separated her and second place by one or two seconds.
"How are you able to enjoy yourself around those kids?" I asked.
"...Does it look like I'm enjoying myself?" she returned the question.
The two of us had just come home on a hot sunny day of school.
Mother was out buying groceries and because she trusted us to take care of ourselves at home, she didn't feel the need to hire a maid or anything to watch us.
So it was just me and Yena alone in our new house.
"If that's what it seems like to you then I've done a great job with my acting," she smirked as she took off her shoes and walked towards the living room.
The two of us were communicating in a language that the majority of people in the country were unable to speak.
It was our mother's mother tongue.
Our mother is Japanese and our father is a mix of Western countries.
Although we were born in our father's homeland, we still knew how to speak our mother's language because she had taught it to us at a young age and told us always to practice it whenever we could.
"I can't wait to turn ten years old and awaken our skills," Yena said. "At least then, we can leave the normal schools and apply for those hero academies. Maybe there we'll meet people who won't bore us."
"You're assuming that we're guaranteed to awaken our skills. What if we're skillless like the majority of humans?"
Yena laughed. "The two of us both know that we're different from the rest. We're not cut from the same cloth as those idiotic kids."
After thinking for a while, I wanted to say that just because some people are born talented and are either smart or athletic, that doesn't mean they were granted to be special and be a skill-user.
But I didn't feel like arguing with Yena so I just shrugged.
Watching television while eating a late lunch with the leftovers that our mother had left in the fridge, we heard the sound of the door unlocking.
"Mom's home," I said as I got down from the table and began walking over to the front door to help out Mother with her groceries.
Yena also followed along shortly after taking another bite of her food.
Just as I was about to greet our mother who was holding the door open with one hand and was holding a few plastic bags with the other, I saw someone standing behind her.
It was a boy who looked to be a few years older than us.
In both of his hands were the rest of the groceries that our mother had bought.
"Thank you for the help," Mother said as she walked inside and held the door open for the boy who came in.
"No problem ma'am," he said respectfully as he looked at the shoes on the ground and understood that our household was a shoeless one.
Taking his shoes off, he looked at Yena and me who were sort of frozen where we were standing.
"Hello," he smiled at us. "Nice to meet you. I'm Kory."
I could tell that both I and my sister were confused about this stranger who had walked into our home.
Why was he here?
How did our mother encounter him?
Why is he helping our mother carry the groceries inside?
How did Mother convince him to help her?
And why did he follow her to her home?
Is he not wary of strangers?
Already, I was worried that the boy in front of me was like those idiots at school who knew nothing about the real world and the dangers that existed.
"Hi," Yena was the first to respond. "I'm Yena Arata."
"I'm Arisha Arata."
"Arata? Ma'am," he turned to Mother, "are you Japanese?"
Mother nodded as she locked the door.
"Cool," he said before asking where to put the groceries.
"You can just put them down in front of the fridge. I'll organize them myself."
"Okay," he said as he began heading to the kitchen.
As he walked past me, my first impression of his scent was that it smelled oddly like blood.
I looked at Yena who gave me a look that told me she also had smelled it.
"Mother, who's that kid over there?" Yena whispered. "He smells like blood."
Mother just chuckled and nodded her head, letting us know that she was already aware of that fact.
I would've been worried if she hadn't because the scent was rather strong.
Instead of providing an explanation or anything, she said, "I'm thinking of hiring him as your babysitter from now on."
"Wh-what? B-babysitter?" Yena stuttered, baffled by the statement.
"Mom, we don't need a babysitter," I chimed in.
"You didn't. However, after some consideration, I feel like you two should have one now," Mother said. "I'll explain everything later. For now, let me put these groceries away and discuss a few things with that kid."