Sisters (2) - 18

Walking up to them, I could see the apprehensive looks on their faces as they looked at the tall, slim figure, wearing a definitely creepy mask approaching them.

"What do you want?"

I almost laughed after hearing those words coming from my Onee-sama's mouth, as that tone that she used sounded exactly like the tone that she used to talk to me in the year before she stopped all interactions with me.

Using mana, I changed my voice to one that was higher than my usual voice, and had a voice modulator quality to it.

"I just wanted to greet my fellow teammates and maybe learn more about them."

"Just go away and don't bother us, or I'll cut off your fucking balls!"

Hearing these harsh words, I smiled sadly under my mask and walked away, back to my spot.

<Little Sister's POV> (A/N: We don't know her name yet.)

"Onee-san, why did you push him away so quickly? We could have at least been able to glean some information from him. After all, he should be one of the anonymous', who are at the top of the leaderboard in both level and Tower Coins, it also wouldn't be bad to form an alliance with him."

"Just shut it. A young adult like you who has just been exposed to the outside world knows nothing. All men are either flaccid like that useless Onii-chan of yours or they are just beasts, lusting over our bodies. That man over there was probably only interested in us due to our bodies, there would've been no good in us even talking with that guy. That is why the best approach when dealing with men is to just threaten them to go away."

'But Onii-chan isn't useless! He was genius enough to make this game and it was only by using the knowledge that he told me about that we are able to get this far.'

Of course, I was sad that I couldn't voice these thoughts directly.

Onee-san was a really good big sister, it was just that she got really pissed off with matters involving men and was even more pissed whenever I mentioned Onii-chan, so I had long been only voicing these thoughts inside my head.

'That reminds me, I wonder how Onii-chan is doing right now? I guess that he could have died by now due to his lack of muscle, but I will always have hope in my Onii-chan!'

<Shinobu's POV>

Even though I was in my spot which was more than 50 meters away from my sisters, I could still effectively hear their entire conversation with my high perception stat.

'I guess that my Onee-sama really hates me, but that hate shouldn't extend to all men in general. I guess something must have happened when I was gone between her and a man for the distrust to be that immense.'

On the other hand, my little sister seemed to be hiding the fact that she was using my knowledge to climb the tower, but that was probably just because she was afraid of mentioning my name in front of Onee-sama.

Looking back at them again, I finally noticed their physical changes, as I had been too absorbed in my own thoughts and feeling for the past hour and a half to really notice those things.

Looking at them now, I couldn't help but reminisce back to the past.

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<Shinobu's POV - Age 10>

"Onee-san! Hurry up with your yakuta or we'll be late to the festival!" <Shinobu>

"Okay, okay Shi-chan, just let my finish with my hair and then we'll get going."

That day had been a hot summer day, but the house was bustling as we were all excited to go to the summer festival, especially us kids.

When we had gotten to the festival, our parents had given each of us some money to buy food and other things, and then had let us go our separate way together.

My little sister and I had been overwhelmed by all of the stimulation around us, only being able to stare at all of the beautiful madness with wide, saucer like, eyes.

My Onee-chan had led us through the many stalls, pointing out the most delicious foods and showing us the best games.

After a few hours working our way through all of the stalls, we went to a small hill in our area that overlooked a lake, backdropped by the city.

We had stood there, holding each other's hands tightly, afraid of letting the feeling go as we eagerly anticipated the start of the fireworks.

Then the fireworks had started.

We all watched with our mouths hanging open, but with no sound coming out as we were just completely absorbed by the dazzling display.

We would each tighten our grips on each other's hands whenever something spectacular happened and our hands were all bruised with fingermarks by the end of the finale.

Not noticing this, we all walked hand-in-hand again back to our house.

"Do you guys want to make a promise with each other?" My Onee-chan suddenly said.

"What is a pwomise?" Asked my little sister, her big eyes looking up at us.

"It is something you keep in your heart, never breaking it until the day you die."

"Oh, les's make a pwomise, les's make a pwomise!" My little sister said giddily.

(A/N: If you couldn't understand that, that says "Oh, let's make a promise, let's make a promise!")

"You're only 5 little sis so you don't know the weight of a promise yet, but as a little bit of advice to you from your Onii-chan, don't make promises with just anyone and only make them with people you absolutely trust."

"Ok, Onii-chan, bwut what is our pwomise going to be abwout?"

"How about we each promise to get stronger, so that when we grow up, we can all protect each other, no matter the situation." Said Onee-chan putting out a pinky.

Knowing what to do, I immediately wrapped my pinky around hers and after watching us, my little sister did the same thing, making it a three way pinky promise.

"I promise to grow stronger, so that I may protect my siblings when I grow up." We all said, although some parts were a little different with each person.

"Alright, now that that's done, let us return home, as even though we had a lot of fun today, we must sleep or tomorrow won't come as quickly." Said Onee-chan, ushering us towards our house.

"Awwww, bwut I don't want to go home." Little sis said, as tears started forming in her eyes.

"We must go home little sis... Or do you wan't the tickle monster to attack you today." I said, while poking her in the sides and armpit, trying to cheer her up.

"Haaa, hahaha, haa, hahahahaha, bwudder, please haha, stop!"

"Ok, but remember to be a good girl and go to bed." I said, looking directly into her clear eyes, while using my fingers to delicately wipe the tears that had formed. I then patted her head, gently grabbed her hand, grabbed my Onee-chan's hand, and then we continued home.

<Shinobu's POV - Present Day>

That day, this memory, had been one of the happiest in my life.

Reminiscing about it now, I could feel a tear slowly falling down the right side of my face, the same side that the tear on the mask was on.

(A/N: Just saying, if you're confused about why it's the right side of the face when the mask is named "Left Tear", it's because it is the left side when looking at it from the outside, but when he's wearing it, it's on the right side of his face. So when you're looking at it from an outsider's point of view, it's left side, but when you're looking at it from the person wearing the mask's point of view, it's on the right side.)

I used my left hand to keep the mask up as I put my right hand under the mask and wiped away the one stray tear.

'They have changed so much since that time.'

Both of them had grown into beautiful young women, without a hint of their baby fat left on their face.

It was kinda weird to describe my sisters like this, so I just tried my best to look at it from an objective point of view.

They both had thick, night-black hair now, but Onee-sama had cut her hair short at the shoulders while little sister had kept her hair long with it reaching her waist.

They both had pure white skin, which almost had the color of the moon's glow, and their faces were finely sculpted, fit enough to call them both peerless beauties.

Although you could see their similarities as siblings in their elegant faces, their bodies were extremely different.

While Onee-sama had a moderately sized chest, abs and defined muscles, little sis was basically flat with only a small bulge in the clothes that she was wearing and there weren't any muscles defined on her body, so she was really skinny. But paired with those long legs and glowing skin, she was still a beauty in her own right.

'And this is just the extent of their outside growth, I wonder what their mental growth was like, especially after having to kill for the first time on the 8th floor.'

I then spent two days to take a look at their characteristics with my "Broken, Crying, Tearful Eye of Discerning"

Onee-sama's:

[Human - Berserker - Familial Love]

Little Sis's:

[Elf - Supporter - Brotherly Affection]

"Well, that was both expected and unexpected."

I had already been able to guess their positions, as it was pretty obvious with the structure of their bodies and their weapons, which was a greatsword and a staff respectively, and I already knew that Onee-sama would stay a human and had great familial love.

What surprised me was the fact that my little sister had decided to become an elf. I mean I was fine with it as it had its own set of benefits and I had even considered being an elf in the beginning, but I had disregarded it because elves always had to be on the side of "good" and that just didn't fit my character.

I was also surprised at her "main" characteristic, but I guess that made sense, as we had spent probably 70% of our time together back then, playing together, reading together, working on homework together, and even sleeping in the same bed every night, only separating when we went to school.

"Haahhh, those were good times." I said sounding like an old man.

After sorting out my thoughts on the matter, I just meditated and practiced with my mana circuit for the rest of the month, not really doing anything important. I also ignored all of the newcomers that appeared about every 3 days or so, and after seeing that I wasn't approaching them, they just distanced themselves from me, forming their own groups.

And then finally, at the end of the month, we reached the inescapable number 16.