46: Back Home

"Who are you?" Rui stared at him blankly.

Natsuo slipped on his slippers and walked over to her. He patted her head as if he were talking to a little kid and said, "Rui-chan, you've grown up. You actually forgot me? I'm your uncle!"

"That's not funny." Rui slapped his hand away and looked him up and down. "What happened to you? Did you get cosmetic surgery?"

Although Natsuo had tried to hide his changes by wearing oversized clothes, it was still somewhat difficult to conceal everything. He had become taller, to the point that Rui now had to raise her head to look at him when they spoke. His face had also lost some of its youthful softness, making his features sharper and more defined. Even his hair looked shinier, while his eyes had become noticeably brighter and more radiant.

"What are you talking about? Even if I wanted to undergo cosmetic surgery, do you know how long it would take to recover? Months!" Natsuo walked past her and entered the living room. "Where's Father?"

"They still haven't come back from work." Rui followed him and sat down beside him. "Aren't you going to answer my question? Are you taking some kind of peptides? You've changed so much."

"I don't know what you're talking about. I've only been working out a bit lately. I've been too busy with work and renovating my place." Natsuo shook his head helplessly, acting as though he was just as surprised by his sudden transformation into a super soldier. "I already went to the doctor. He told me it's just a normal growth spurt."

That was, of course, a big, fat lie.

"Is that so?" Rui poked his arms and face, looking at him as if he were some Kryptonian who had just fallen from the sky in a spaceship.

"Anyways, how is Hina-nee doing?" Natsuo quickly changed the subject.

He had been chatting with Rui this whole time, and she told him that Hina had broken up with her boyfriend. Apparently, however, Hina seemed to think that Natsuo had left the house because of her, and she had been blaming herself for it.

"She..." Rui was about to answer when she was suddenly interrupted.

"Natsuo!" Hina came down the stairs and glanced toward the sofa. The moment she saw him, her eyes widened. She rushed over and hugged him from behind. "You're back!"

"This is great! Really great!"

She hugged him tightly, and Natsuo could feel her breasts pressing against the back of his head. He became painfully conscious of them, especially with Rui watching him with such a judgmental gaze.

"I am back, Hina-nee." Natsuo stood up, walked around the sofa, and hugged her back with a gentle smile. He honestly hadn't expected her to be this emotional after seeing him. He had only thought that perhaps she felt guilty, believing that he had left the house because he was disappointed in her or something.

"Alright, you're an adult. You shouldn't cry." He wiped her tears with a smile.

"Emm!" Hina nodded vigorously, staring at him with a happy smile. But her smile froze when she saw Natsuo take out his phone and snap a photo of her tear stained face. "What are you doing?!"

"Taking a picture, of course. It's very rare to see Hina-nee crying like a child, so I gotta keep it." Natsuo chuckled and raised his arm high when she tried to snatch the phone from him.

"Delete it!"

"Nah! I'm not doing it!"

"Give it to me!"

Rui watched with a smile as Natsuo ran around the table while Hina chased after him, desperately trying to snatch the phone from his hand. When Hina finally became tired and couldn't chase him anymore, Rui said, "It's about time for dinner. Mom and Akihito-san will be coming back soon."

"I'll help!" Hina pouted and glared at Natsuo one last time before raising her hand like a diligent student at school. She then ran over to her little sister, pulled her toward the kitchen, and spoke to him. "You just got back. You should change your clothes and get some rest."

"Alright." Natsuo nodded and walked up the stairs. He was actually curious about which one of them had been in his room earlier, but he hadn't had the opportunity to ask.

When he entered his room, Natsuo found it clean and tidy. A faint fragrance lingered in the air, and there were a few wrinkles on the bedsheets, as if someone had recently been lying there.

He walked over to his closet, took some clothes out of his Inventory, and put them away before changing into something more comfortable.

Inventory was incredibly convenient. He didn't need to carry bags everywhere he went, nor did he have to worry about losing anything. More importantly, he could carry firearms without worrying about being caught with them. After all, he had quite a collection of guns and ammunition stored in his Inventory.

They might not be as useful as his magic spells, but they were still convenient to have.

"Hina-nee, what are you doing? That's sugar!"

"Are you trying to peel the potato or dismantle it?!"

"Put down the mustard!"

Natsuo walked down the stairs and saw Rui making dinner while scolding her older sister. The corners of his lips twitched. Hina was kind and reliable, but it seemed that she was a terrible cook. "I'll help."

"Natsuo! Help! Rui-chan is bullying me!" As soon as Hina saw him, she ran behind him and pointed at her little sister while complaining.

"If you're dumb enough to not be able to tell the difference between sugar and salt, then you deserve to be bullied." Natsuo flicked her forehead and laughed.

"You are so mean, Natsuo-chan!" Hina's face turned red as she pouted. But soon, she noticed something. She placed her hands on his body and exclaimed, "Wait! What happened to you?! Since when did you become this jacked?!"

"Wait! You grew taller too!"

"And why do you look, ehem... a bit more handsome?"

Because she had been so happy to see him earlier, Hina hadn't paid much attention to the changes in his appearance. But now, standing behind him and touching his body, she finally realized just how much he had changed beneath his baggy clothes.

"Are you curious?" Natsuo asked.

"Emm!" Hina nodded vigorously.

"You want to hear the truth?" he asked seriously.

"Yes! Tell me!" Hina nodded again.

"Alright, to tell you the truth, for the past two weeks, I was participating in a government program," Natsuo said with a completely straight face, looking dead serious. "They injected me with a Super Soldier Serum."

"..." Hina and Rui stared at him blankly.

"Watching too many Marvel movies must've done something to your brain."

"I am telling the truth!" Natsuo protested, feeling wronged. He was actually telling the truth, so why didn't they want to believe him?

"Yeah, me too. I'll tell you a secret. I'm Black Widow. I'm here to invite you to the Justice League."

"The Justice League is from DC. Shouldn't you be inviting me to the Avengers?"

"The Avengers are just cannon fodder for Thanos. The Justice League is the future. We've got Superman and Batman to cover for us!"

"Hmm, sounds legit!"

The three of them worked together to prepare dinner. Well, it was really just Rui and Natsuo doing the work while keeping Hina from screwing anything up.

Natsuo had the Cooking skill, which he had bought for 500 points. Even though it was the cheapest Cooking skill available in the Chat Group, it was still very good. By the time he finished cooking, the delicious aroma filling the kitchen was enough to make Hina start drooling.

"Since when did you learn how to cook?" Rui asked as the three of them placed the dishes on the table.

"I live with a single father who's often working. Who do you think makes the food?" Natsuo placed another dish on the table and looked at her with a 'You're stupid' expression.

"I asked because I've never seen you cook before." She gave him a 'Stop being childish' look as she spoke.

"I just wasn't in the mood to cook. Anyways, it's very convenient having free labor like you around." Natsuo said with a smug grin.

"...Ah! I suddenly remembered that I strained my wrist." Rui stopped moving and held her forehead, letting out a long groan. She stared at her wrist and said with a straight face, "I don't think I'll be able to cook tomorrow."

"Hmm, I'll go with you to see a doctor tomorrow. As for the cooking, Hina-nee can handle it." Natsuo nodded calmly. He glanced at Hina and gave her a confident look. "I think she's a great cook."

"Hmm! Leave it to me!" Hina patted her chest confidently.

"I suddenly think my wrist doesn't hurt anymore." Rui gave the two of them a disgusted look and sat down.

"Noice!" Natsuo and Hina exchanged a look before giving each other a thumbs-up.

The three of them sat together, watching TV and chatting until their parents came home. As soon as they returned, Natsuo's father started crying like a child, much worse than Hina had earlier. Natsuo had to push him away with a disgusted look when he noticed snot on his shirt.

He immediately ran back to his room to change it.

"Father, Tsukiko-san, aren't you two planning on going on a honeymoon?" Natsuo suddenly asked while eating.

"Work has been busy these days, so it's very hard to take a vacation. We're planning to go to a hot spring this weekend." Natsuo's father, Akihito, shook his head, but a happy smile quickly appeared on his face. "We can all go together. It'll be our first family trip!"

"Sure." Natsuo agreed, then asked, "Why don't you both quit your jobs?"

"Quit our jobs? Why?" Tsukiko looked surprised by the suggestion.

"You may not know this, but I'm actually rich. You can both stop working and go on a world trip or something. Consider it early retirement. You've both been working quite a bit of overtime recently, and it's not good for your health." Natsuo made the suggestion. He really didn't want his father to keep working like a corporate slave until his late sixties, only to end up with hemorrhoids, pelvic problems, and chronic back pain.

"Even if you say so..." Akihito looked troubled. Although he knew that Natsuo was making good money from writing novels, he had no idea how much he had actually earned. He also didn't know that Natsuo had several other businesses on the side. "How much do you have?"

"I don't know exactly." Natsuo shook his head before adding, "But I recently bought a house, so I'll be moving out."

He had a couple of small businesses that brought him a decent income, but his main source of wealth was still the Bitcoin he had invested in back in 2012, 3 years ago. He had only sold a very small portion of it; he knew that its value would be much, much higher in the future.

***

If you'd like to support me and read up to 30 chapters in advance, feel free to check out my :

https://.com/ImmortalCockroach

Discord link for illustrations: .gg/WtF6XTgefR