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That day, I hurried back home, and as soon as I entered my old house, I dashed for Allicia’s bedroom door, and knocked on it.

“Allicia! Let’s have dinner together!”

“…”, no one answered from the other side. Instead, I felt something vibrating inside my pocket: “Brr! Brr!”

[What are you gonna prepare today?]

“Spaghetti and meatballs.”

[Oooh ヽ(o♡o)/

Alright, I’ll do you a favor, and I’ll allow you to eat it alongside me, you siscon brother *kusu kusu!]

“What is ‘siscon’?”

[It is…]

[Well…]

[( ;ↀ⌓ↀ)]

[Just forget about it…]

“Anyway, I’ll be back soon!”, I dashed down the stairs, and straight to the kitchen. I put on my apron, and started to prepare the dish.

Water, salt, the pasta (unbroken), and then the sauce. It was mostly tomato sauce, with herbs and a generous amount of garlic. The meatballs were seasoned too, and then shaped by hand, before being taken to the oven and baked. Finally, I assembled everything in two steaming dishes, one of them with a cupcake on the side, put them on the table, and one hour later, I was back at my little sister’s door.

“Allicia! Dinner is ready.”

[Alright, bring it here.]

“Uh? But-But you said that we could eat together today…”, shit, I knew it. I had messed up yesterday. She was too angry at me to let me see her again. That meant she would probably escape her bedroom through the window, and elope with a motorcycle gang member, get involved with drugs, get in debt, and finally be sold to an evil organization when she will be turned into a cyborg of war filled with nothing but hate towards her big brother…!

[I can’t eat without YouTube. Come on, bring our food here, I’ll unlock the door.]

“Ah! I see! Alright, I’ll be back right away!”

I quickly got the plates back on the first floor, and climbed up the stairs once more.

“I’m here!”

“H-He he… Don’t-Don’t think you’ll be as lucky as the last time”, my little sister slowly opened the door with a crooked smile on her face; this time, she was wearing a white pajama.

It was the first time I entered that bedroom in about five years, and it had changed drastically since that time. Gone were all the girly plushies and makeup lining up the dressers, and in their place stood hundreds of little toys looking like characters straight out of a Japanese animated series, as well as books and even pillows with similar drawings. And, concerning enough, her clothes were scattered all round the bedroom, and pilled on top of her bed, and there was a specially big amount of glasses half empty and cans of coke and energy drinks on her desk.

I couldn’t help but sigh. We’d have to deal with that in the near future, for sure.

“Alright, so what exactly do you want to watch?”, I asked Allicia.

“Dunno, whatever is on the recommended page and looks interesting”, she sighed, opened her internet browser on the powerful, shiny PC she had, and typed the address of the site she wanted to visit on the search bar.

Then, once she opened YouTube, and the recommended videos loaded, I saw exactly what kinds of videos the algorithm thought she’d like to watch. They were mostly narrated “Reddit” and “4chan” stories, and they went a bit like this: “How I impregnated my twin sister”, or “I eloped with my boyfriend/brother. Ask me anything”, or “>be me. >Have crush on big sister since I was a kid”. There were some reviews in there too, mostly about Japanese animations, and the titles were like “Oreimo, the king of siscon animes”, and “Yosuga no Sora, a Masterpiece”, “Kiss x Sis, I Wish I had a Family like That!”.

I was gaping, staring still at the monitor; meanwhile, Allicia screamed, and pressed the power button of her computer, turning it off immediately.

“What the hell was all of that…?”

“A bug! A virus! My account has actually been hacked by a twisted pervert, and he messed up my YouTube recommendation videos to make me look like a loser, but I’m obviously not into any of those things! My date is being stolen because I forgot to use a VPN, Elon Musk wants to make copies of me and sell them as perfect little sisters robots!”

“I… see…”

“…Somehow, the silence is worse”, looking down, with her shoulders slanted, Allicia turned around, and turned the PC back on.

She opened her browser anonymously, and accessed YouTube again, but this time there were no weird recommendations, only music videos, sports, documentaries, and pranks and challenges videos.

“Yeah, this is the type of normie shit that I love. He. He. He…”, she laughed robotically. Turning to me almost with tears in her eyes, she asked: “So… what do you want to watch while eating?”

“Uhm… Tha-That fig wasp documentary sounds cool enough?”

She clicked on the video, and we ate a lukewarm pasta and meatballs while sharing a single chair. Still, I was happy for finally being able to eat side by side with my little sister again.

She was far from healed from her so-called “hikikomori” condition, but I knew we were making progress! And I was somewhat excited to see what would happen next? What could I do to help her get out of her bedroom?