Chapter 4: Chapter 4 – Uncle & Kindergarten!

After waiting for an eternity (Probably like 10 minutes), the doorbell rings.

My eyes dart to my father, giving him the cutest puppy eyes a human can make.

My father gets off the couch laughing and heads to the door. I get head pats as well!

The front door is unlocked, after which a playful voice reaches my ears.

"Yo, Leo, how's it been goin'?"

The casual tone momentarily dumbfounded me.

My Father always speaks politely, like most Japanese people, excluding the servile tone they use, so I was thrown off for a moment.

"It's been great, Theo. Have you prepared the passage fee?"

My father replies while moving on to the most important topic with a wry smile.

"You betcha, I heard a little princess is fond of trying all kinds of different food, and as a loyal knight, I scoured the lands seeking the highest of delicacies man has made."

My uncle replies in a loud voice, while the sound of rustling is heard outside.

Ah, this should be the sound of food, right? Awesome!

"All right, this should suffice as a first-time offering. However, you must prepare different offerings in the future, Sir Theo."

Exactly! Taste changes with age after all.

Accordingly, different offerings must be prepared to appease me each time hehe.

My father returns inside accompanied by a handsome man that could’ve easily been mistaken as a celebrity in my previous life.

He is a head taller than my father with long light brown hair, deep blue eyes, and tanned skin.

Apparently, my grandmother had been a foreigner who visited Japan as a tourist. She got lost sometime during the tour and was surrounded by gangsters.

You know the cliche, my grandfather performed the legendary hero saving the beauty and escorted her back to her hotel.

The next time she visited Japan, she called him up to hang out, then they fell in love, got married, had two children, and lived happily ever after.

Both my father and uncle inherited my grandmother's blue eyes. The same goes for me as well.

The man, my uncle was wearing casual summer clothes with a pair of sunglasses resting over his on top of his head.

Theodore Grant is a man who adores food so much that he’d go through any hardships for a delicious snack.

After my grandparents passed away, he easily helped my father take control of their company. That was only because my father promised him a feast if he did it.

Other than that, he’s a hopeless man who’s too lazy to do anything.

He spots my mother first as he comes in.

What can I say, her beauty is very eye-catching. You win this time, mom, just wait until I grow up and snatch that limelight back.

“Hey there Kaori, how are you doing? Did that guy upset you in any way? You can always complain to me if he ever neglects you yeah?”

He greets mom and then starts fussing about her well-being and bombarding her with questions like a worried mother.

Oy uncle, your personality settings are broken you know?!

I later heard that my mother had always supported my father and uncle through the hard times after my grandparents’ passing.

“It’s been a while, Theo, how’d your last trip go?”

“Ah, it was wonderful! I found a bunch of different new hidden stores in some places I had been to before. I brought back a lot of sweets for the princess.”

Uncle’s face brightens up at the mention of his trip, then his vision shifts down to me.

I quickly let out the air from my puffed cheeks and put on the most innocent look I can muster.

“Hello, uncle, um… My name is Tomoko, umm… Welcome back?”

I blink my eyes and hide behind mom tugging on her sleeves while looking up at him.

A full score for acting if I do say so myself.

I give myself a high-five in my mind and eagerly await his reply.

“Greetings, your highness Tomoko, it’s my pleasure to finally meet you… I believe it should do you good to at least wipe the drool off your face and stop your eyes from shifting to my luggage if you wish to succeed with your act.”

He replies reverently while giving me a knight’s bow.

I was initially proud of myself until I heard the second half of his words, then my face froze, and my ears turned red.

My parents snicker and that only adds to my embarrassment, now my entire face is red.

It’s not my fault you know! Whatever’s in that bag smells too good for me to control myself! I tried my best okay!

I turn my face the other way and look at the ground ignoring the snickers that have turned into full-blown laughter by now and the camera flashes coming from my mother’s hands somehow.

Seriously, did she get some of my space talent or something? You have dimensional storage don’t you, mommy?!

Also, where did your serious personality go, dad?! Your doting father trait has been intensifying over the years you know?!

Theo suddenly carried my small body and spun me around and led me to his luggage.

I immediately forget about my embarrassment and stare intently at a specific bag while drool starts coming out of my mouth again.

He bends down and unzips it, and the aroma of food spreads to basically the entire neighborhood, he then removes the box from the bag and hands it to me with a smile.

 I quickly snatch it from his hand and open it, swiveled cakes with some brownish sauce filling them appear in my vision.

Wait, these ate just cinnamon rolls, right? Why do they smell so good…?!!

I shift my eyes to his face, asking for permission to eat. Without forgetting to give him puppy eyes, of course.

Asking for permission is important, can’t waste precious food time getting lectured by mommy after all.

He seems surprised for a moment and then nods with a smile.

I waste no time taking a bite, then my eyes shine. What the hell is this? How can a cinnamon roll taste so heavenly …?!

“Glad you like it, princess. Call me big brother or Theo in the future and I’ll get you more.”

I nod in a manner resembling a chicken pecking seeds and sweetly call out to him.

“Okay big brother Theo”

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Theo lets me down next to a small table used for entertaining guests and turns to face my father with a huge grin on his face.

I seem to hear my father cursing him as a fox, but I don’t care much about it as I’m enraptured by the delicacies placed in front of me.

Theo then starts catching up on life with my parents letting me indulge in the paradise of food by myself.

Thirty minutes later and with a full belly, I sit beside mom, but not before reminding her to send the rest of the food to my room. Wasting food is a bad habit, I’m a good girl.

Theo took this as a signal and started explaining the details of his last trip, from the cuisines to the scenery.

Ohhh, he’s visited a lot of places huh?

This is not even considered tourism anymore; he spends a long time scouring the area each time he settles down. He ended up more knowledgeable than the locals by the end of his stay.

He showed me many photos, mostly photos of food, or people making food.

I got his promise to let me accompany him on a trip someday, I’m really excited about that.

Halfway through, my eyes started drooping and I fell asleep leaning on mommy.

I woke up the next morning in my room, hearing loud noises downstairs, I went to ask mom and she informed me that dad is helping Theo move his belongings to a hotel temporarily until he finds a place to stay.

My drowsiness fades right away; he isn’t staying with us?? I suddenly felt my throat blocked and my eyes became watery, I started crying.

Mom panicked ng and tried appeasing me, but I couldn't hear anything by now as I was lost in my thoughts.

This is so frustrating. Why the hell am I crying?! I’m not a child, I’m just using the body of one, right??

Ahhh, Come to think of it, my memories are getting more blurred the older I am, huh?

‘Ah!’ Then I realized how stupid I am. This is an entirely new life, not some continue game kinda thing.

My old memories are someone else’s, I’ve been living in their shadow for no reason.

I’d always wondered why my parents never felt anything odd about me, and now I realize why.

I’m Tomoko Ito Grant… Another Me’s life doesn’t affect me, his existence was removed from time itself.

“I won’t leave princess; I’ll stay with you so don’t cry anymore, okay?”

I come back to my senses hearing my family’s voices fussing around me.

The panicked expression on Theo’s face was so funny at the moment, that I burst into laughter while crying.

I suddenly wanted to hug them, so I did it while revealing my real thoughts for the first time.

“I love you all, please don’t ever leave me”

They were stunned for a moment, then we got into a warm family hug.

From today on, I’m just a gifted child with a loving family, nothing more, nothing else.

I will watch over my old family when I’m strong enough.

Until then, I’ll stop worrying about these old memories.

{Archiving “Memories of a forgotten lifetime”. Set condition for revert: “Apotheosis”}

 

A few weeks have passed since then, and today is every child’s dreaded day.

Theo’s car was parked outside, and he was escorting me into a building in the distance.

It’s my first day of kindergarten…. Theo handed me to a teacher and waited until he was out of my vision to leave.

Even though I’m already on elementary school curriculum by now (actually have a college graduate’s worth of education), my parents think I need to make friends of the same age, so here I am.

While being led to class, Manager’s voice pops up in my mind announcing a successful analysis and the start of another.

{Analysis success: “Soul Barrier” ability obtained}

{Analyzing “Spatial awareness” ability. Estimated time till completion: 1 year}

Nice! That’s basic insurance for my family get-o. Spatial awareness can let me “see” in a radius around me and initially perceive space, it’s considered the entry point for any space-related knowledge.

Its succeeding ability is {Spatial Sense} which allows me to apply my other senses to this radius as well.

Enough of that, we’ve finally reached class, the teacher lets me stand outside while she announces my presence.

I was delayed a week from the entrance date because I was clinging to Theo and my parents at home.

“Okay Class, we have a new transferee, please sit down and let her introduce herself.”

She signals me to come in, I take a deep breath and enter the classroom.

There are like fifteen children sitting in a circle curiously looking at me.

Children are the purest, yet they are also the cruelest.

They can say whatever’s on their minds truthfully without any consideration of whether it’s negative or positive.

“Hello, my name is Tomoko Ito Grant, please take care of me”

I say while giving a slight nod and proceed to write my name on the whiteboard.

They remain silent for an awkward two minutes leading me to doubt whether I did something wrong, then they snapped back to their senses and then …. cheered?

“Soo pretty…”

“She can draw those weird lines adults use…”

“Very cool…”

Ahh-- right, they’re children.

“Thank you for the introduction, Tomoko-chan, you can take a seat on any empty chair”

I walk down the room and sit next to a child that somehow felt familiar. I’ll ask his name after class.

And this is the start of my social and educational life, this is getting on my nerves.