Ch.2 End of a New Beginning Pt. II

Chapter Two:

End of a New Beginning Pt. II

It's been six months now. When I returned back to Earth, I returned to my home in Japan. Me, my brother Jai, and mother moved here when we were young after my father died.

We live in a small apartment on the tenth floor of a huge complex. With three rooms for each of us and our balcony contains a whole view of the downtown area of Tokyo. We were foreigners to the people who lived here, but we were still given a lot of love with our situation. Jai and I went to a small academy in Tokyo and were extremely popular until I returned home, and I changed.

"To be continued? That is such bull, man." I threw the manga I was reading onto the ground under the bridge, I sat under at my school. Upset, I held both of my hands on my head. I kept wondering why romance manga always leaves a cliffhanger at the end. A normal teenager stressor to be upset over a manga.

I heard footsteps with my face watching over the sky. I dropped my head after I heard my manga getting kicked and disappearing from the ground.

"Love is love?" A voice spoke that he owned the leg that kicked the manga to reveal its cover.

The criminal was my overzealo us little brother Jai, who wore his athletic attire instead of our school's uniform. Jai wrapped his dreads in a small bun, but they still were coming down from behind his shoulders. About six feet tall, when he didn't slouch. He is still a couple inches shorter than me, always carrying a great physique.

Jai held a smirk on his face, so I knew there was going to be trouble. "You're getting that desperate for love advice, Omar? I guess you really are hopeless now."

He smacked himself on the back of his head, from my own embarrassment. Jai always tries to one up me no matter what I do. Since I returned, he has noticed I have been different. I no longer engaged in the sibling rivalry, which had fueled our relationship since we were kids. Instead, I tried to keep my distance.

It was a difficult adjustment when I came back to earth from Eukaperok. Faced with overwhelming challenges that you would likely see in a soldier with post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD. Anyone in my situation would agree. This is not your comm on trauma. I mean, I fought a fulI-scale war in another world, with only my life on the line.

This feeling made me feel as if I needed to isolate myself from who I was before the summoning. The grades and sports that defined my life at our academy no longer held any meaning to me. Jai was angered and beyond frustrated at this point by the sudden change in my behavior. I never told him what truly happened, so he took the reins and delt his frustration into sports to prove to be better than I ever was.

It was a strange transition because the amount of time I disappeared felt like years to me. Truth be toId, I remained in Eukaperok for only seven minutes according to the gym clock. I disappeared and reappeared in the basketball gym of our school after hours. Which was normal for me when I still cared to be the very best athlete. Staying later than anyone else, a gym- rat mentality is what I would call it. The mamba mentality.

The passion that had driven me before into competition, killed by my experiences in Eukaperok. I could no longer muster the desire to practice a sport when my mind could only question the universe. I turned my attention back to Jai after reflecting on that fateful day.

"Could you hand me my book back, Jai?" I asked him as nicely as possible. That is when he called his friends over. I sighed because I knew this situation was going to take a turn for the worse.

One of our family friends from back when we were younger appeared suddenly behind me. Her name was Lucy Bell, and she came from the United Kingdom. She had silky, smooth blonde hair with a flushed look on her face . Her eyes were a gorgeous deep-sea blue, and she was petite with the exception of her hourglass figure, but her kind- hearted, soft- spoken manner always remained her most endearing trait.

"Heya Omar! What did you want to show me, Jai?" She said as she bent over to read the cover and saw the manga he had been reading, which Jai still held hostage.

"Love is Love", I love that one so much, but it leaves too many cliffhangers for my taste. I need a story that is quick and to the point these days." Jai's jaw dropped to the ground, looking completely shocked and flustered. I chuckled to myself after seeing Ja i's reaction.

"Heh!? Not you too!"

Something we can agree on...

She proceeded to get in my face and try to whisper something, but her breasts pressed against me and became distracting. I put my hand calmly on her shoulders and pushed her back gently.

For a brief moment, confusion played across her face, and then she grinned.

"Your rack was about to perform another rack attack, Lucy." If acetiously stated to her impishgrin.

"Dah! Not again... not again... I should have been born a man. Oh, wait! A cat." Her face got really red after I called out her blatant disregard for her own figure. With the thoughts of being reincarnated as something else, she scooted to my side in embarrassment.

"Maybe be born as a lion instead of a cat. Then you can rule the jungle." Jai muttered, walking a way.

Cats are technically... you know what? Never mind.

"Lucy. I was kidding, but what were you about to tell me?" I asked to politely diffuse the awkwardness of the moment.

"Jai has really been upset. You've been avoiding him since school started back in the spring. It hink you should try and talk to him about things." She said while looking at Jai. He still looked shocked from her sudden appearance and response to the manga. "I mean, you guys are brothers after all."

"She agreed with him. She betrayed me." Jai sarcastically sobbed.

My breath drew out a small sigh as I stood up slowly. "I suppose you are right. Sorry if it's been a problem."

"It's okay. We all go through rough stints in life sometimes. But you know what, Omar, one day it will all be better. I promise!" Lucy happily advised, placing both of her hands like she planned to pray.

She had a point, I finally made my way to my brother and grabbed his shoulder.

"You want to talk, well we have ten minutes of lunch left, so come on." I said, opening a door, I wasn't sure I wanted to walk, though. For family, though, there should never be a door you do not walk through for them. I could see him get flustered as if he had been waiting for me to say these words so he could speak his mind.

We walked close to the cafeteria into an area with only us two in it. He attempted to walk around and tough, with his chest puffed out, head held high, but I wasn't buying it.

"What do you want to know, Jai ? Lucy said you had something to get off your chest, so speak." Jai looked away into the distance as if this subject suddenly became very awkward to him.

"Umm... well." Jai stumbled on his words.

"Speak man!"

"Is puberty bad...?" Jai asked. My eyes rolled to the back of my head.

"Huh!?"

"I mean, you are so different, I don't even recognize you," he finally blurted out. "What the hell happened to you? Did the horm ones in your brain really make you collapse into a loser who reads bad manga?" He flushed as he looked away.

"Puberty..." I laughed.

Jai looked at me, like I appeared to be an idiot. "Really!? That is aIl you can give me. Wow..." Jai whiffed, disappointed, easily seeing that I was holding back.

I had no choice but to lie. Ever since I returned, life has changed . My mind only has questions that can never be answered. Sometimes, it feels nothing more than a lost cause, in this thing called life. Eukaperok has scared me . I wake up from bad dreams with scratches all over me. I had no words for the horrors playing in my memory within me since I returned from Eukaperok. And it is not like you would believe me, little brother. It would sound ridiculous!

It was a minor miracle when I texted Magnus number AFK, and he replied with our guild motto. The confirmation that Eukaper ok had not been a dream of some kind made the experience even more real at that moment.

We talked monthly about the events in that world and how we coped in these situations because of Magnus's crazy work schedule. At times, the conversations helped, but overall, isolating myself from everyone that was not inside Eukaperok seems to be the best course of action until I could regain my composure. I knew, eventually, I would have to tell someone about what happened.

It was fake it until you made it.

Anytime Magnus and I discussed what happened to us, I would be somewhere secluded. I mostly would go to my favorite park down the street from my apartment. The bench I sat on, which usually did not see, and people came by. Which meant I was free to discuss what I could not discuss with anyone else who had not been there and lived through those experiences with me. I was glad I remembered his number before we left Eukaperok.

"I am sorry, Jai, about everything. I promise that when we get home today, I will tell you everything even if you don't believe me. Puberty really changes the game." He looked at me, and the relief on his face was obvious.

"Now that is what I am talking about!" He said as he handed the manga back to me. "I am going to hear you out! We are in this together!"

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