“5?” Feeling mom’s oppressive atmosphere, I lowered my head.

 

“How bold of you Xi, why didn’t you say something about your dimension energy being stuck at 5?” Mom showed a slight panicked look mixed with anger.

 

“...Mom you never asked...and I only checked it once after you left…” I lowered my head, while expecting Mom to continue scolding me.

 

However all I heard was a sigh before she brought me into a hug, “in the end it’s Mom’s fault…”

 

Hearing her voice filled with self-blame, I shook my head, “it’s not Mom’s fault!” 

 

While hugging each other, eventually Mom calmed down and asked me if anything aside from my hair changed.

 

“I’ve gotten stronger….” for some reason, after I said that I felt like I had messed up. 

 

“...” Mom didn’t reply even after awhile. Looking upwards, I found that her cheeks were completely dyed red.

 

Upon seeing me look at her, she turned even more red, “why didn’t you tell me earlier, you made Mom worried for nothing.”

 

“Hehe…I forgot to…” 

 

Mom pouted before covering my eyes with her hand, however it’s too late Mom…. 

 

“Xi, do you know what is the difference between a dimension monster and a fighter?” Mom suddenly asked, however her hand was still covering my eyes.

 

“A fighter has spirit weapons and are humans?”

 

“...” perhaps the answer wasn’t what she was looking for as she asked another, “what is the difference between the pork you eat and the dimension boar outside the base?”

 

“I don’t know,” I couldn’t think with Mom covering my eyes, I wanted to see!

 

“Body composition. Even if they have flesh and blood, in the end it's made up of dimension energy, while we are carbon based lifeforms. In other words, you’re changing into a dimension monster.” 

 

“Mom... I’m not going to turn into a dimension boar?” 

 

“...”

 

“You’re not scared?” After a period of silence, I heard Mom ask.

 

“I’m scared of turning into a dimension boar!” 

 

Mom laughed at my reply, however she didn’t remove her hand, causing me to feel an itchy feeling in my heart.

 

“Xi, do people turn into pigs from eating them?”

 

“No…” 

 

“Dimension beasts are the same, just because they ate a dimension boar, it doesn’t mean they’ll turn into one. It’s getting late, go sleep.” 

 

Letting go of me at last, I looked up to find that Mom had returned to normal. She flicked my forehead before sending me around.

 

Upon returning to my room, under the dim moonlight, I found that Little Fish was still waiting for me. Climbing into the bed, I pulled the blankets over us.

 

“Were you waiting for me Little Fish?”

 

Facing her, I smiled as I looked at her, seeing her blush before turning the other way, I felt a happy feeling in my heart before taking her into a hug.

 

I wonder if Little Fish will hate me if I turn into a dimension monster… while having such a thought, I eventually drifted off to dreamland.

 

***

 

The next day, getting up, I went to the bathroom before finding that Mom was currently in the living room. Seeing that she hadn’t left, I happily ran towards her.

 

While sitting next to each other, we didn’t say anything towards each other. Although I enjoyed Mom’s presence, I didn’t know what a daughter should do.

 

“What do you do these days?” eventually Mom asked. 

 

“Watching shop with grandpa… oh, there’s Big Brother’s tournament. Aside from that… playing with Little Fish?” while I said that, Little Fish had coincidentally entered the living room. She came towards us before sitting down while we stared off towards empty space.

Although I felt partway through Mom changed her focus towards me, feeling unaccustomed to being looked at by Mom like this, I decided to get up and go downstairs with Little Fish.

 

Sitting on the counter, I found Grandpa sitting while staring off into empty space.

 

“Grandpa, shouldn’t we find something to do?”

 

“This is called training your patience and composure,” grandpa suddenly went into profound mode as he gave me a lecture on life, “a dimension fighter’s lifespan will increase drastically after they hit level 50, if you don’t train your heart, how will you survive the long passage of time?”

 

Although I felt something odd about what he said, I decided to join him on ‘training’ while staring out the window. 

 

It had started to drizzle before pouring. Hearing the heavy sound of rain hitting the ground through the glass, I yawned. For some reason rain made me sleepy. 

 

*Ding*

 

Right as I was about to fall asleep, the doorbell rang. A man wearing a raincoat came inside along with a garbage bag.

 

“Do you buy books?” coming straight to the counter, 

 

“Mhm, 20 credits for one regardless of what it is.” grandpa said while interlocking his fingers in front of him, his elbows resting on the counter.

 

Seeing grandpa like this, I couldn’t bear to look at him and turned the other way.

 

The man placed it on the table for grandpa to count before passing it the credits over. Afterwards, he quickly left the store.

 

“Xi, sort them out,” grandpa handed the stack over.

 

“Kay~” happily taking them upstairs, I started to look through them while Little Fish gave me a weird look.

 

Mom also came over to look. After finding that there wasn’t a treasure in this stack, she grabbed a random book to read, while I did the same.