The car stopped in front of a two story summer home located overlooking the lake. 

“Well, son. We’re here.” 

“Yeah…” I say a little daunted.

 While I was used to living alone, that was eleven years ago. After I got reincarnated, the thought of being alone was a little nerve wracking. Though I steeled my self, and got out of the car with all my luggage.

“So, the house has been cleaned. The house has two floors as you can tell…” he gestures to the building as he tells me about the details of the house.

…

…“Here in this brief case is about one million yen and this debit card has abou-“ He stops as he sees my ‘Are you serious’ face

…

“What? Too much?”

“Yeah, a little…” I say as I rub my temple.

“Well, better safe than sorry that’s the Shirou family way. HAHAHAHA!” He laughs, but seeing that I don’t do the same, he relents and lets me take only a wad cash of around two hundred thousand yen from the briefcase and  the debit card just in case.

“Well, call if you need anything. And don’t spend it all in one place.”

“Yeah, Dad, I know.”

“Well see you after summer vacation, when pick you up.” He says reluctantly.

“Bye Kazuya! Be careful!” he shouts as he drives off waving.

…

‘And now we’re alone.’ 

a feminine voice says from my shoulder

…

‘Feels weird.’

‘Yeah… It’s kinda lonely...’

We stood there for a few minutes contemplating.

‘Wanna go home?’ 

…

‘No.’ I say and grab my luggage and enter the house. 

Now the house was a modern-looking house having two floors with white brick for the outer walls of the first floor, and vertical lined pine for the second, topped off with a flat steel dark grey roof. 

On the first floor was the kitchen, living room and a bathroom. The kitchen’s fridge was fully stocked with ingredients and utensils for cooking, courtesy of the people dad brought in probably. The living room had a television connected to a dish at the roof, a comfy brown sofa and a landline telephone. The bathroom was more of a comfort room, only having a shower, toilet and sink. 

The second floor had two rooms, the master bedroom, and a guest room, plus a bathroom with an actual bathtub. The master bedroom was equipped with double bed, a desktop computer, a wooden shelf, drawers, with ursus rug decorating the floor complemented by the white paneled walls and a doorway leading to the balcony overlooking the beautiful lake and the windmills in the distance. While the guest room was pretty basic with two beds. All the rooms had air conditioning, and thankfully Wi-Fi connectivity. 

 The long drive took us until evening to arrive. And after unpacking, I was exhausted, so I took a bath, and proceeded to have diner. 

I prepared pork stew, made by tossing pork cubes in flour, with some salt and pepper. Heating oil over medium high heat. Placing the pork the in. Browning for three minutes. Turn each and repeat. After you are satisfied put the pork aside for later.  Add leeks, shallots, and garlic and sauté until the leeks are wilted. Add wine and stir to deglaze the pan, scraping the bottom of the pot to remove browned bits. Then adding carrots, potatoes, chicken stock, tomatoes, vinegar, bay leaves, basil, oregano, thyme, some more salt and pepper salt. Bring to a boil, mixing well. Reduce heat to low and simmer for five minutes. Add the pork, cover, and simmer for to 40 minutes. Add mushrooms and continue simmering until vegetables are tender. Adjust seasoning and voilà you’re done.

Yeah, I am a chef, deal with it.

I put away the leftovers. Then after I finished the meal. I felt… lonely, there was no family banter like normal, Dad’s jokes, Mom’s smile and Kanon’s stories about school, it was only silence. Well, there was Angelica actually. She was on the table sitting in front of me.

“Pretty awesome place. And we are here alone. Like man and woman and on a honeymoon. Doesn’t that make your heart race?”  she says with seductive smile.

“Well, a 11 year old boy, and a self proclaimed angel actually”

“Hmpf! Spoil sport! I miss the days you were more… Fun…”

“Is that so? Well, if you want fun close your eyes.”

‘You aren’t gonna kiss me are you?’ she winks.

“Maybe? You just have to find out.”

“Hoho… Well, you do deserve a reward…” she closes her eyes and puckers out her lips.

… 

I flicked her forehead then proceeded to do the dishes.

“Hiyah! Hey! What was that?”

“What? Did you really expect a kiss?” I flash a grin at her then continued to wash the dishes.

“Ow ow. No. But I didn’t expect to get flicked on the head. That hurt… Sigh*” she says as she rubs her head. It must have really hurt.

“Sorry about that.” then I proceed to rub her tiny head

“Hehe… so, you can be nice if you want to” she teases as she smiles brightly at me. That made me smile as well, somehow. 

After the doing the dishes, I went to lay on my bed then closed my eyes. I thought I felt something warm as my consciousness faded…

_________________________________________

…

I wake up to an unfamiliar ceiling as rays of dawn enter through the cracks of the brown window curtains and I recalled what happened these past few days.

 I had somehow convinced my parents to let me take a five week vacation, alone in our family lodging at Kazeguara. Using these five weeks, I have to somehow get close to Aoi and the others to be easily integrated once the game starts. I roll over in my bed to find a angel sleeping next to me. She looked beautiful with her flawless pale skin, blonde hair strewn about though not too messy and her silver wings glimmered whilst tucked at her back as her chest bobbed up and down, she looked innocent and gentle. At least until you wake her up. I admire the sight for a while.

‘Was she always like this?’ then gently put my hand on her cheeks.

“Kyousuke… you dummy… MmhMmh…” she says in a cute tone, which I rarely hear from her. 

‘Let’s try to be nice to her shall we? We are going to be living here together for a month.’ I chuckle to my self

Then I see her beginning to wake up as her eyes shuddered.

“What… you… laughing… at…?” She asks still half asleep.

“Hey, do you have time to be sleeping? Don’t you have work in heaven?” I asked

“Mmmm… Huh? Nah, it will be fine. They can wait.” She says as she sits up and rubs her eyes

“Wait, is that why I was floating around for a good while when I died?”

“Hehe… maybe?” She says with a wryly smile as she rubs the back of her head, still a bit drowsy

“Oh. So, what’s the plan Kyousuke? Wahhh…” she asks as she yawns and stretches.

“The plan is to have breakfast, go for a jog, then to see the town.” I stand up and do a couple of stretches and walk out the door. As I was about to go through I looked back to Angelica still sat on the bed.

“You coming?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah…” She looks at me quizzically as if shocked about something

_________________________________________

I prepared a meal of eggs, bacon, and rice, with a side of banana. While I was busy cooking, I thought.

‘Do angels need to eat or sleep?’

“No, we don’t necessarily need to eat or sleep to function, but we still can taste food. And sleeping is fun.” She says with a frank tone.

“Is that so? Well, are you fine with eggs and bacon?”

“Sure…” she says nervously but I pay no mind to it.

As I finish cooking I prepare two portions one for me and a smaller one for her.

“Here, enjoy.” I smiled then sat down and ate 

She looked at me, then the plate suspiciously. Which, I was confused to see

“What’s wrong? Don’t you like it?” I asked carefully

She poked the egg with a fork as if it was an unidentified object. Then said

 “Is this poisoned or something?”

  …

‘Eh?’ 

“Why, would I poison you? Angelica?” I ask her with a raised eye brow

She shivers and looked at me with horror.

I stand up and sat beside her.

“Is something wrong?”

“You… are… nice…” she mutters something under her breath.

“What was that?”

She suddenly stands up and points at me and shouts.

“You are being too nice! Its unnatural! And you never call me Angelica! Hence, you must be planning something…”

“Huh? So, do you not want me to? And, no, I am not planning anything.” I ask mischievously

“It’s not that, it’s just weird. You know? The usually mean Kyousuke is being… Nice…” She says embarrassed looking down with a slight tint of red on her cheeks.

This made me laugh. I pat her head, “It’s fine lets be nice to each other, because its just us now right? And I will only say this once. We are a team right.”

“Okay… Sure…” she says still looking down. She seemed to enjoy being patted on the head. 

Then, as if she just caught herself, she finally recovers and goes back to her usual façade.

She says with her trade mark mischievous smile

“So you finally fell for my feminine charms, huh? Hoho-” I flick her head.

“Ow ow ow! What was that for, I thought you were being nice now?!” she shouts then glared at me.

“I was being nice, but you did that again.” then I rubbed her head once more. 

“I did what again?” she asks, confused about what I meant

I only smiled cheeky smile and say “It’s a S-E-C-R-E-T” and poked her forehead. After doing that I make a hasty retreat and prepared for my morning jog.

“Hey! Hey! What do you mean by ‘that’? Come back here!” as she chases behind me.

_________________________________________

Continuing my morning routine, after breakfast we went for jog. It was an hour after dawn, I feel the light from the sun on my skin, and the lake side breeze as I move my body forward. The town of Kazegaura is beautiful, the lake is breathtaking and going along it was even more so. On the way, I went past many places I remembered in-game. Windmill Hill, located by an incline next to the lake. White towering windmills face the lake, turning. As well as circular solar panels receive sunlight over the grassy terrain. It is where Aoi and Kotori will meet when she throws a paper airplane. It is also where the future secret of base of soaring club is located. A hangar that used to be used by the Chairman of the board to make planes in his youth. There was also the lakeside seats and convenient store where a bunch of other things happened. But the most gorgeous place is the secret lakeside beach that Aoi and his childhood friends only know about. It is also a place where Aoi will pick an option in game on who’s swimsuit to compliment. After two or three hours of jogging and sight seeing I made it back.

“Well, that was fun. Woo! What now?” Angelica says as she wipes the non-existent sweat form her face. I shake my head at that.

Over the course of the jog she sometimes had to leave due to duty calling. For someone who said that she is very busy person, she sure does have a lot of time to spend with me though. Well, her company is fun actually.

“Well, I am gonna take a shower, want to come with” I say jokingly, then drink a bottle of RoboWater.

“Ha… Ha… very funny. Well, as much as I want to watch an eleven year old boy shower. I have work piling up, so, call me after.” She says with a smile.

“Yeah.”

“Bye.” She smiles and waves then disappears

…

I take a shower and feel the cold drips of water on my skin as I contemplate my plan.

…

“Okay, at any rate I have to go to Kazami Shopping Street as a start. And atleast meet them.” I thought out loud, as I wipe my hair and put on  black pants, a white shirt, a light blue jacket, rubber shoes and glasses.

“Time to go, Angelica ” I mutter as I hold the cross. A angel materializes in front of me.

“Took you long enough.”