Chapter 1

It's been a long time since Betoy felt this good in a Monday morning. Even though it was summer, Betoy didn't usually wake up on this time of the day and when he does, he usually tells himself to sleep five more minutes, and those five minutes would sometimes turn into one whole hour. Today was different, for some odd reason he was eager to go out of his room then downstairs to eat breakfast. His feet touched the floor and his hands stretched to the air. His body wasn't aching, and his breathing was normal. No drool was coming out of his mouth nor did he feel the icky feeling of expired saliva on the side of his cheek.

He placed his hands on his hips, opened his mouth to inhale and puffed it all out from his nose,

"Today's gonna be a good day!" He declared while pointing a finger at the ceiling.

He marched outside his room and went downstairs humming a joyful tune without even trying to fix his messy bed and his room. Each step coming from his feet stomped louder than the last, and the louder the stomping were, the more his spirits rose.

He jumped from the fourth staircase and landed on the floor with his hands open wide, doing a pose as if he has done an entertaining circus trick. All he was thinking on the way downstairs was breakfast. The day would be even better if he gets to eat his favorite! Fried Tilapia seasoned with salt combined with sliced tomatoes! Skipping across the living room, he sang the family prayer like a rap god.

As expected, his favorite meal was the first thing he saw when he reached the kitchen. That wasn't the only thing he noticed, there was also the meal he liked the least, rice soup with ginger. He was focusing too much on the food, only when he went closer that he saw an unfamiliar figure sitting on a stool at the dinner table. It was a little girl wearing pajamas.

Betoy's movements fell into a halt. His eyes squinted, scanning the girl from top to bottom.

"Dad, why is there a girl at the dinner table?" He asked.

A normal person would ask, 'who is she?' or 'where did she come from?'. Betoy was as normal as any other 17-year old, but his energetic mind coming from a refreshing day couldn't stop his mouth from flapping the first words that pops on the back of his head.

"Oh." Kanor cut inside his son's field of vision, readjusted his glasses and glanced at the girl, "Apparently, your pet Tilapia reincarnated into a 12-year-old girl and now she's living her life as your little sister." He said bluntly as he steps away so that Betoy could have another clear view of their new family member.

Apparently.

His pet Tilapia, who died two days ago, reincarnated into a 12-year-old girl…

A 12-year-old-girl… who actually looks like a 9-year old….

And now. She's living her second life.

As his little sister.

He has a little sister now.

Both Betoy and his father stared at the small girl, with their eyebrows raised and lips forming a straight line. The girl wasn't moving from her stool, her gaze hasn't shifted from their breakfast set on the table for quite a long while.

"This's a bad time to cook the fish isn't it?" The father uttered. Both him and Betoy glanced at the fried Tilapia served in a plate. Serving the same species where the girl reincarnated from as a meal is just bad timing, really. Nobody knew that their pet Tilapia would be reincarnated the same time Kanor would serve a fried Tilapia as a dish, nobody!

Kanor started mumbling to himself,

"Holy hell Kanor you did it again! Another child, traumatized!" His palm met his forehead.

The girl finally made a move and touched the fish using a fork, "Ama, does this count as cannibalism?" A somewhat mature femi9 voice came out from the mouth of the small girl, her eyes not leaving the delicious meal right in front of her.

"Maybe." Betoy's gave his first exchange with his little sister.

Kanor placed his hand on Betoy's shoulder and leaned towards his ear, "I'll cook another breakfast, you should take her to your room while waiting, I don't want her to have an existential crisis a few minutes after her resurrection."

Betoy nodded in response then faced to the small girl. He folded his hands and sounded one loud clap to get her attention and gave her his best formal smile. "What's your name again, was it Fishy? Let's go to our room shall we?" The big brother held the hand of his little sister to help her stand. Fishy nodded. She slowly looked away from her delicious fried relative and rose from her seat.

Following her big brother, who was already near the staircase, Fishy took a few steps and immediately she tripped over nothing. The girl tried getting up but soon fell to the floor again. She let out an embarrassed giggle, "I'm used to swimming, call this my baby steps."

Her brother headed to the kitchen again to assist her on standing. He wrapped her arms around him as if she has done some fair share of bullet-taking in World War II. "No one is judging you, don't be alarmed." Betoy replied.

Kanor watched them from when they were in the kitchen to the staircase and then proceeded to his task.

Right after heading upstairs, the siblings went straight to their now-shared bedroom. Betoy and Fishy immediately flopped on their now-shared bed.

A male and a female shouldn't be sharing a bed, even if they were siblings. Betoy could sleep on the floor, with cardboards covered by a blanket serve as his mattress, but of course he couldn't pass the opportunity to sleep with his little sister.

Clenching his fists in excitement Betoy screamed internally. The last thing he would expect was getting a little sister, and sure enough that was the thing that came to him! The girl was small, she was cute, she looked poofy because of her pajamas and that weird-looking hat of hers and what else? She had short hair!

Fishy tugged the clothing of her big brother to get his attention and slightly tilted her head "Kuya, is Fishy really my name?"

But her mature feminine voice was surely a turn off… Putting her voice aside, she was the ideal little sister any big brother reeeally could've hoped for!

"If you don't want your current name, let's change it." Betoy offered, "How about Tina or Lapia?"

The girl turned to the ceiling for a while as if thinking. Then she reverted to her brother.

"We're living inside the Land of the Free right? It's my name and I should be the one choosing, and I don't want my choices to be limited!" The girl stared at Betoy menacingly.

The boy fell silent for a moment. A little girl talking about freedom and stuff… Not exactly what he was looking for. "Okay, so what do you want your name to be?" He asked.

"I don't know, I can't think of any ideas…" The girl shook her head and shrugged, "Do you have any?"

Betoy exerted one long sigh, and an inaudible mumble came out from his mouth. There was a smirk on the face of the small girl. She was playing with him. The sad thing was, it wasn't the adorable type of playing, like playing tag or hide and seek, or a cute tease, it was an annoying type of tease.

"Your name is Tina Lapia G. Rayuno." Betoy mumbled, clear enough to be understood.

"Okay then." Tina formed a smug smile.

Silence took over.

She's…

She's not what Betoy was hoping for her to be.

Just a few exchanges and Betoy already knew his sister would be a pain to be with. She's irritating, and not the bubbly kind of irritating like how younger sisters are supposed to be. All the anime he watched, the manga and the light novels he read were a little misleading.

"Onii-chan daisuki!" (I love you, big brother!) those were the words he was waiting to hear from her, even if her mature feminine voice wouldn't fit, he was still hoping for those words to come out from her mouth. It wasn't too late for her to say the things Betoy wanted to hear, but judging from their conversation a while ago, she's not the type of person to say such cute things, or maybe she's not the type to do cute things in general.

He wanted her to slide near him, give him a nuzzle, and ask for a head pat!

He wanted her to surprise him from behind and cuddle him!

He wanted her to squeal every time she's startled!

But those things… Those cute things that cute little sisters do… Wouldn't be expected coming from Tina… Betoy's little sister…

His expectations were light-years away from being met.

There was also something about Tina that he finds disturbing…

Is it because Tina used to be his pet Tilapia and now, she's a little sister of his? How did that happen in the first place? She's a fish, reincarnated straight into a 12-year-old girl, not a baby, no, a 12-year-old girl! And does that mean the Hindus were correct all along? No, that didn't make sense at all. How did Kanor know that Tina used to be their pet fish? She might be a phony! Did she magically appear sitting at the table and then said, "Hey ama, I used to be a pet Tilapia and now I reincarnated into a cute little girl!"? This fish was speaking in English, when did she get the time to learn the vocabularies? Not only that, she was also using words from another language, an extinct language only the Rayuno family should know. She called Betoy kuya (older brother), and he remembered her calling Kanor ama (father).

"If she's not calling me by my first name then she should call me onii-chan instead!" Betoy screamed internally, not from excitement, but from anguish this time.

Why not call him onii-chan? It wouldn't hurt, would it? Maybe she didn't know the word onii-chan… If it was true, then how come she knows a bunch of words a fish normally didn't know? How can a fish understand human language anyway? There were a lot of questions storming inside Betoy's head, most of them will never be answered.

The silence continued. The whole time, Tina was watching Betoy murmuring to himself, gritting his teeth, and scratching the back of his head. Not knowing how to continue the conversation, Tina turned her head and looked around the room. It was really messy. There were plushies lying around the floor There were anime posters hanging on the walls, a small desk located near the footboard of the bed, hiding below it was a stool, and on top of it were action figures with big heads and at the other side of the of the room were two open closets, one full of clothes, one full of stuffed-toys and even more plushies.

The small girl glanced at her big brother, "I live here under the same roof for quite some time now and this is the first time I've seen your room." she then continued looking around.

Met with Tina's words were Betoy's silence.

He never took his pet Tilapia to his room, her fish tank never left downstairs. Now that he realized it, after getting Tina from the fish pond his family owns, his pet never left the tank the whole time until it was time for its burial. The fish tank was still stored somewhere inside the house, good thing it's hidden or else Tina would've got the equivalent of Vietnam war flashbacks when she sees it again.

While her big brother was busy pondering about historical wars, the awkward silence was killing her. All she was hearing were her older brother's constant murmuring and occasional grunts.

"You know, kuya, you can be open to me if you want to." Tina sent out a friendly smile, desperately attempting to keep the conversation alive.

But Betoy still didn't reply.

Tina scurried on her seat and glanced around vigorously for a few seconds. She closed her eyes and grimaced, trying hard to think of a good topic to discuss. She rose her index finger in the air with an imaginary light bulb floating above her head.

"Nice room you have here!" Perhaps she was a little too desperate.

Betoy made eye contact, he stared at her eyes for quite some time which made Tina a little bit uncomfortable. A few seconds later he finally opened his mouth, "Now that you're here, it's not my room anymore, it's ours." He said with a hint of dismay.

Tina flinched. Betoy did become open to her, and she already regretted telling him to do it. She figured he didn't want to share a room with her. Though a while ago back in the kitchen, Betoy was welcoming of her. Maybe she figured wrong.

"You want to play a game?" Tina asked. Maybe games would make him communicate with her.

Her brother shrugged in reaction.

"You have any playing cards?" She paused. "You play Go Fish?"

"Oh, am I supposed to be laughing now?" Betoy rolled his eyes. He was bothered, no, he was absolutely disgusted. He knew that somewhere along the line that she was going to make a fish joke. Once he heard the word 'cards', he knew she was going to say it, he was waiting for it, and braced for it, but it was too much for him to handle. The worst part is, he didn't even know how to play Go Fish!

Realizing she just made a horrible fish joke, Tina scowled and started growling like the fish she really was. The attitude of his big brother is irredeemable! She wasn't trying to be funny, she just wanted to play cards, specifically Go Fish!

"The only reason why I reincarnated it's because you asked for it, if you don't want me here then fine!" She stood from their bed trying to walk out but immediately collapsed to the floor.

"I asked for what exactly?" Another question flew to Betoy's mind, that for sure, will never get answered, and it made him more bothered than before.

Betoy rose and towered over her,

"For your information, I never asked to resurrect you from the dead nor did I ask to have a pet fish. I wanted to have a dog, not you."

The reincarnated girl tried standing up by herself. She was still struggling to get the hand of using her legs, her limbs were shaking like crazy. "And why did you ask for a dog exactly?" she managed to get to back on her feet.

"Dogs are cool, fish don't do nothing but swim around and get eaten!" Betoy lashed out. Keep in mind, this boy is a seventeen-year-old.

Tina was very much aware of the food chain, what she didn't know was why Betoy was acting such a pile of carp.

"You're..." She thought of the words for a second,

"You're a god-awful person!" Tina made the greatest comeback in all of history.

Betoy grunted and clenched his hands into fishts.

"Betoy, Fishy, breakfast is ready! (again)" Kanor called from downstairs.

Tina cleared her throat and turned around towards the door with a grin on her face, "My name is Tina now by the way!" She chimed.

Betoy puffed and left the room. "Good luck getting down on your own." He left his little sister behind, who still trying hard to stand on two legs and walk across the room.