NOVEL WEB 30 – Introductions
"This is Kurosaki Masaki, she's a friend I found that might be able to help you with your powers." he said with a wide smile.
It didn't take Reina long to go from suspicious to excited at the though of improving.
"And this is Saito Reina, my little sister also..." Hisashi started saying.
"Uhm...could I borrow the shower or something first. I feel so gross." Masaki interrupted, a little impatient now that the worst of the shock and fear had worn off.
Reina nodded in understanding "Of course come in...come in." she said leading her inside to the bathroom.
Hisashi was quickly left behind by the two women. He decided to do a quick hunt nearby since he had been out of town for quite some time now.
Reina ended up grabbing some of her own clothes for Masaki as the ones she was wearing probably weren't salvageable. She ended up grabbing her a skirt, because most of her pants would probably be too long and fit awkwardly due to Masaki's short stature when compared to herself.
Masaki just got out of the shower after changing into the new clothes feeling refreshed and like a human again. Hisashi was still out patrolling so Reina lead Masaki to the living room still quite confused and intrigued by this new person. They made sure to keep down since it was still the middle of the night and they didn't want to wake her parents.
"Thanks for that." Masaki said.
"Of course." Reina replied with a wide smile.
'Since she is training me and can see brother obviously she should have some power right?' she thought.
"So...what can you do?" she asked excitedly.
Rather than the answer she expected instead Masaki looked kind of uncomfortable and awkward.
"Nothing anymore." she answers with a slightly forced awkward smile.
"I'm sorry." Reina quickly answered noticing she had stepped on a slightly sensitive topic.
Masaki looked up and sighed before relaxing her shoulders.
"No it's okay. I used to have powers, but lost them. Since I'll be teaching you how about telling me a little about yourself?" she said.
"Well I'm 20 now. Uhm, before brother came back two years ago things were pretty normal. We struggled for quite a few years after he was killed... well our parents still do at times." she says with a sigh. She wishes she could tell them, but she understood that unless they had a way for their parents to see her brother without having to gain high spirit power or if they were capable of protecting them if they did that telling them wasn't smart since they would probably just think she was being delusional due to grief or stress.
"They don't know?" Masaki asked.
"No, they're still normal people." she said.
"So growing up I was spoiled a lot by mom and Hisashi. Pretty normal really. At home I liked playing with Hisashi, he sometime made games on his computer for us to play together. At the time I was doing quite well at school. Then Hisashi died. For a while it was difficult. I had trouble going to school, sometimes I was just sad other times angry. I lost quite a few of my friends and my grades dropped. I relied a lot on my mom to get through that time or maybe we got through it together I guess." she takes a deep breath and pauses for a few moments.
Masaki struggles to hold back her own tears due to feeling she is partly to blame for what Reina and her family had gone through, but this wasn't her moment so she pushed it down.
"Things slowly got better and my grades started picking up by middle school. I started making some new friends. Things were slowly returning to somewhat normal again. Then about a few years ago I was assaulted by some scum, but before they could do too much I was protected. I couldn't really make out what saved me though and it was all blurry." she explained about how Hisashi returned.
"From then I noticed the same blur would show up near our house or follow me around at times. At first I was terrified, but as time went on I noticed it didn't mean any harm and even felt vaguely familiar. Over time he kept becoming clearer until I could recognise him well as you've seen him." she said not sure how to describe him.
Masaki nodded remaining silent to let her complete her story. This was useful information for her and so far Hisashi's story was checking out to the extent she could verify from his sister at least.
"Although he become clear enough for me to recognise and even hear him though he couldn't really talk back then I acted like I couldn't see him. Then our house was attacked by two other Hollow and he protected us. I ran after him afterwards and found out he could talk. That's how I found out that he was actually my brother." she has a gentle smile as she reminisces.
"Then he taught me how the operating system he had written before dying worked and how to update it. With his software as the base I updated it and founded Isshoni to release it."
"Wait, I know that name! My computer runs that! Wait you said Hisashi originally made it? But he was only 16 at the time!?" she said extremely surprised at this massive revelation.
Reina chuckles "Well, like the name of the company I like to think we made it together, but the core of the operating system was indeed completely made by him over 14 years ago." she answered.
Masaki could tell how proud she was of both her brother, herself and what they were able to accomplish just from the look on her face.
"I dropped out of college and worked full time on the company. Not long after the company became a big success I was kidnapped. Brother did come to save me, but before he did I awoke my powers. Then he left two months ago and came back with you..." Reina finished.
"Well that was long, but covered anything important. What about you?" she asked.
Masaki was happy to find out that it sounded like Hisashi was telling the truth and was really the kid from back then. That would be the only way for him to be able to explain the program he wrote himself to her so he couldn't be tricking her. She still wasn't sure how much to say about herself though.
"I grew up in a special family that is full of people with special powers and was trained to fight Hollow. Then I was attacked by a Hollow and he saved me. Then as thanks I agreed to help him by training you." she said giving a very simplified version of the events for now, not comfortable sharing much about her own life yet.
