In the week leading up to Sammi’s departure, we were both very busy. She was of course getting stuff together for leaving, while for me… well I made stuff.

I’d always had an interest in crafting something like this, but had just not done so since I didn’t need it. However, since Sammi wouldn’t be with me, she’d be able to use it.

Graduation came and we headed to the school to attend it. Unlike on Earth, we didn’t wear silly robes and hats. I’m not even sure where those came from. The hats, not the robes, those had been a symbol of scholars since forever, though they’d become ornamental, but those caps were just weird. Instead, graduates just dressed up nicely and received a badge while taking their diploma.

The badge held the image of an open book on it, symbolizing that we’d conquered mandatory education. I’d laughed when I first heard about it, since the first badge trainers tended to get was from from them passing gym class.

We’d hung out with the other grads in the stadium for a bit before heading off to the graduation party we’d chosen to attend. That the party was one my family had a large hand in meant that it was held at our house/mansion. Mom and dad hadn’t thrown parties for my brothers, but they’d decided to do so for us, and our brothers had helped with the prep. Plenty of people had been invited, but only those I knew weren’t dangerous, and attendees had to show their invitation. No plus anythings. We didn’t want unknowns in our home.

This year there had been more graduates than normal for one reason. Me.

Since I’d been tutoring people, more people had passed the early exams and graduated early. Because I’d prioritized my classmates slightly, many of them that normally wouldn’t have passed, had.

Especially when I’d been able to expand beyond one-on-one tutoring. Over time, I’d become able to handle up to four people at a time, though it was only the last three months I’d reached that number. I kept the session lengths to twenty minutes real time a week, eight hours subjectively.

The graduation party was the first one I’d ever participated in as the host, and at least to my eyes it was amazing. We had over a hundred grads there, had a catering service providing us with delicious treats, games and activities for amusement, even some pokémon battles.

Yep! Since the grads were almost all those who were sixteen, many of them had their pokémon, so we let them attend with their partners. This let people show off their companions where only those closest to them had been able to see them before. Sure, there’d been some bragging, but seeing was believing.

We had a mini-arena set up for those who wanted to battle, and there were many who were interested, causing a line to form. Mom’s gardevoir was the referee, as well as the one maintaining a barrier so no random shots would hurt the spectators. I helped as well, though not so as to be noticed, deflecting stuff right before it hit the barrier to reduce the strain on her.

The party went late into the night, only ending when mom and dad started kicking everyone out some time after midnight. Many of the participants were only sixteen or seventeen, though there were a few of us who were fifteen, with me being the only one who wouldn’t turn sixteen before autumn.

People had been trickling away for a while, with a few collecting the prizes they’d won from a raffle we’d held earlier, with donations by an unnamed source. Mom gave me the look, which I pretended not to see.

A few people had stayed to help with cleanup, our closest friends, ones that Sammi was intending on traveling with when she set out in a couple of days, but it wasn’t until nearly two that we gave up for the night. Most of the place had been returned to normal. There was still work to be done, but it could wait till morning. Or afternoon.

Sammi and I slept together that night, for the first time in a long time. It would have been better if we’d done so in an actual bed rather than the couch, since we woke up mid-morning somewhat stiff because of it. Sammi’s pokémon had even joined us, with Lori sleeping in a location that made her seem like she was mine rather than Sammi’s.

Of course mom had taken pictures of us like that to add to the family photo album. Well, I could objectively say it was a pretty picture, even if it was somewhat embarrassing to get caught like that. We looked more like lovers than sisters.

I loved my sister, and she loved me, but it wasn’t romantic love. We were extremely close, but our personalities didn’t mesh well enough to go beyond a familial relationship. Plus there was the fact that my sister was straight, so no girlfriends for her. I was bi, so I’d had both girl and boy friends, though none of my relationships lasted very long.

Psychics had a hard time finding the right romantic partner due to the fact that we could read our partner, especially when in close contact. It was easy to tell when someone didn’t mesh with you.

After we rose in the morning, and were thoroughly embarrassed by the picture mother had set to be displayed on the TV right in front of us… we had breakfast and finished cleaning up the place.

Sammi spent the rest of the day double, triple, then quadruple checking her supplies and fussing around with her pokémon, making sure they were brushed out and healthy so they could leave the next day.

As dinner was ending, I told everyone I had something I needed to talk to them about, so we finished up and headed to the study. They’d been headed for the family room, but I redirected them because what needed to be said required a secure environment, and there was no better place for it then there.

I was really anxious about what I was about to do, and though I tried not to show it, I failed. Mom and sis sandwiched me in a hug as we took seats on the couch.

It was hard to get started, but they waited for me, knowing that whatever I had to say was something that was really important, but they didn’t want to try and force me to speak, making me clam up.

Taking a deep breath, I was able to start.

“You know how I said I don’t remember my parents?” Nods all around. “That was both truth and a lie. I have no idea who my parents are, but I remember who they were. Umm, so you know how I seemed to know a lot about stuff, even when I was really young?”

More nods, and some confusion. Another deep breath before I continued in a rush.

“Imnotoriginallyfromthisworldbutwasrebornhereafterdyingonanotherone.”

The confusion grew as they tried to understand what I said. Sammi was the first one to put it together. We shared novels we’d read with each other, so she’d read some of my collection which included isekai novels.

“You were reincarnated?”

I nodded, shrinking back in my seat slightly.

Nothing was said for a moment, then I got sandwiched again.

“Thank you for telling us. Though I do wish you’d done so earlier. It would have saved us a lot of confusion.”

I nodded into her shoulder. She was right, but it had taken a lot of courage to be able to say even this much… and I wasn’t done yet. Funnily enough, it was Sammi who brought it up.

“Ooh, if you got reincarnated, did you get cheats?”

Instead of replying verbally, I reached a hand into thin air and pulled out what I’d prepared for her as a going away present.

It was a backpack. One with lots of little pockets and a couple of big ones.

She already had something like this, since the same technology that allows pokéballs to shrink pokémon had been applied to high-end bags to allow people to carry lots of stuff that was reduced in size and weight.

But those had nothing on the one I’d created. At most, those would reduce size and weight to ten percent. Mine reduced size to a hundredth of norm, and negated all weight and the passage of time. Though that only affected the size and weight of the stuff in the main pocket. The smaller ones weren’t affected. Then add to that the fact that I’d added another enchantment to make the thing nearly indestructible and able to be summoned by the owner in case it was lost or stolen, and you had the best backpack in the world.

Of course my family didn’t know that since all they saw was me pulling something out of the air.

Sammi squealed.

“So that’s how you did it! I’d wondered how you always seemed to have exactly what you needed in your bag or purse or whatever, even when it was something no normal person would carry!”

“Well now you know. And this is yours. Though I need you to put a drop of blood here on this crystal.”

She gave me a look. Then comprehension dawned on her.

“You don’t just have an item box, but can enchant stuff as well?!”

I nodded.

“Yeah. I can’t do anything about other people digging into it, but the owner, you after you finalize the enchantment with your blood, can teleport it to you from wherever. Or that’s how it should work. Not sure of the range, since I couldn’t test that. Oh, and it’s a compression backpack with time stop.”

She stared at me wide eyed and unmoving. For a long time. I think I broke my sister.

Since she was out of commission, my attention was drawn to the rest of my family. Dad had gone into research mode and pulled a pad of paper out of nowhere and was writing down his thought before he forgot them. My brothers were whispering among themselves, and mom? She smiled and hugged me, stroking my hair.

“It doesn’t matter where you came from. You are our daughter and we love you. But there’s more isn’t there?”

I froze. This was as far as I intended to go, but mom saw through me.

“Don’t worry, we’ll keep your secrets, and won’t force you to tell us things you don’t want to.”

I knew there was little chance of them spilling secrets. Part of the reason the League hadn’t been able to use my family against me was that they were all trained in mental defense. Having psychic pokémon assist made it better, but they’d gotten training from me as well as other psychics to be able to keep people out of their minds. It wasn’t perfect, nothing was, not even my defenses, but it made it incredibly hard to infiltrate their minds, and impossible to do so undetected.

Sighing, I gave up and spoke.

“Yes there’s more, but I can’t tell you all of it right now. I’m not yet strong enough to defend myself if it gets out. There’s one more thing I’ll tell you now. It’s related to my reincarnation.”

I paused to take a deep breath.

“I’m trans.”

“Trans? You’re a boy on the inside?”

“No! I’m a girl! Inside and out! But… before… I wasn’t. Not on the outside anyway.”

“Oh, so you were reborn with the correct body this time.”

“Yeah. Oh! You pulled yourself back together, Sammi.”

My sister, who’d been staring off into space for the last little bit was joining the battle… conversation.

She smacked me lightly upside the head.

“It’s your fault for being a ridiculous person.”

“Being a ridiculous person is not a fault. It just means I’m eccentric. I got mad skillz.”

“Yeah, yeah. Thanks for the present, though.”

YAY! More hugs. Warm hugs were the best.

After that, she started interrogating me about my past life. What the world was like and who I’d been. The conversation took a long time, and I’d mostly spoken about general stuff, with a few specifics here and there.

We also talked about my theory regarding other worlds and how they came to be known outside of their own. It went like this. People get glimpses of other worlds, and if they are good enough, can turn those glimpses into books, movies, games, and art. There are other theories that say worlds are created when writers imagine a new story, or that the gods take things they are interested in and make them a reality, but I like the Peering into the Multiverse theory myself.

Sadly, our conversation had to come to an end. Sammi had plans tomorrow, and she couldn’t afford to miss out on sleep the night before she left on the start of her journey as a Pokémon Trainer.

We slept together again, though mommy was with us as well. And we used a bed this time. But why was I in the middle?! It should have been Sammi since she was the one leaving!