The knock on the door startled me awake. I jerked upright in my chair, blinking hard as a woman's voice drifted through the door, calling my name.
"Kenta. Kenta!" she said, knocking again.
Ah crap. I hadn't gone down to eat breakfast yet. "I'll come in a minute!" I called back, my voice still rough from sleep.
The person at the door stopped knocking. "Come fast, it's already past 9," she said before footsteps faded away from the hall.
I sighed, rubbing my temples. "Okay…" I muttered, trying to shake the grogginess out of my head. But when I looked straight ahead at my desk, all thoughts of breakfast died.
"The… fuck?" I whispered, staring at the thing in front of me.
I stood up so fast the chair creaked. "This… this…" My brain refused to finish the sentence. Words were jumbled messes in my mouth. My eyes darted back to the computer before me — except it wasn't my computer. Not anymore.
It was some old, boxy beast straight out of my middle school computer lab. Big beige monitor, fat keyboard, whirring tower. The kind of relic they'd show in those "history of technology" PowerPoints.
"No, no, no…" I rubbed my eyes hard. This had to be a dream. It had to. "Wake up, you idiot," I muttered to myself and slapped my own cheek—hard.
"OW! Ow, my jaw!" I yelped. I'd forgotten to hold back. The sting throbbed hot under my fingers.
But the computer didn't vanish. It was still there. Still ancient. Still very, very real.
"What the fuck is going on…" I whispered. The last thing I remembered was clicking No on that weird golden pop-up before I blacked out.
And then a voice — a soft, melodious woman's voice — rolled through the room. It wasn't coming from the computer. It wasn't coming from the door. It was just there.
"Congratulations," it said, warm and soothing, like someone humming right against my ear. "The system is fully installed. You have awakened your other world's memories into this world."
"Huh?" I spun around, scanning the room. "What do you mean? Where are you?"
The voice laughed softly, a sound that made goosebumps ripple across my arms. For some reason, I didn't hate hearing it. In fact, I kind of wanted to hear more.
"Are you an idiot?" it teased. "Of course I'm the system assistant. How could I have a form? I'm inside you."
"Inside… me?" I repeated, staring blankly at the old computer. My brain scrambled to find the right question. I knew what a 'system' was. I wasn't some newbie to isekai tropes or system novels. Hell, I'd read and played enough of them. But this—this was happening.
I took a deep breath and asked anyway. "What do you mean 'other world'? Where am I now? And why the hell is my computer this old?"
The voice chuckled again, like it was enjoying my confusion. "Basically, you're in another world. The world where you played that game—the one that made you go limp because of some unexpected actions. You still exist there, but the system copied your memories from that you and replaced them with the memories of this you, in this timeline. As for the computer being old—well, that's because this world is from a year far older than your memories."
"Copy me? Replace myself with myself? Older world than my memories?" My head throbbed. "The fuck are you talking about?"
This piece-of-work system was talking like some final boss speaking in riddles. And I was in no mood for riddles.
"Hey, come on, I can't just dump everything on you at once," the voice said, suddenly gentle. "For now, go downstairs and eat your breakfast. While you do, I'll explain what's going on. Otherwise your aunt is going to come up here again."
"What the…" I muttered, startled. "There's a system that actually cares if its host eats?"
This was insane. All of it. But my mouth was dry, my throat felt parched, and my stomach had been growling for hours.
"Alright, fine," I sighed, pushing myself up. "Breakfast first. Or at least some water. Then we're talking."
And I just did that. First, I made sure to throw on some clothes—I didn't want anyone seeing me walking around in just my boxers. Then I headed downstairs, stopped by the bathroom to wash up, and finally made my way into the living room where the dining table sat.
To my surprise, someone was already there.
"Heena?" I asked as I walked closer. "Why are you eating breakfast now?"
She looked up at me with a mouth full of fried rice. "Why are you having breakfast now?" she shot back after swallowing.
I scratched the back of my head as I sat opposite to her. "I woke up earlier, but I fell asleep again. It's Sunday, you know."
Heena nodded in agreement, scooping up another chopstick full of fried rice. "Well, same case for me too," she said, popping it into her mouth and chewing slowly.
And then—The damn system's voice rang out in my head.
"Wow, what a tomboy beauty we have here. Any man or woman would definitely want to get in her pants."
"The heck—!" I blurted out before I could stop myself.
My sudden outburst startled Heena. She almost dropped her chopsticks as she turned to me. "What happened?"
Crap. What do I even say? "Uh… sorry, it was just a bug," I muttered, waving it off.
Her eyes narrowed. She looked me up and down like I'd just said the dumbest shit imaginable. "…Why would someone your size be afraid of tiny cute buggies?"
"Cute? Buggies?" I repeated, staring at her. "Are you okay? You're calling bugs cute?"
Heena shook her head as if I was the crazy one. "They're cute, of course. Aren't they beautiful too? Like butterflies, ladybugs, things like that?"
I sighed. "Well… if we're talking about those, then yeah, sure, they're cute. Beautiful too."
"See? That's why I said they're cute." She chewed her food and even pointed at me with her chopsticks like she was proving some kind of point.
"I see," I said, nodding slowly. "But I wasn't talking about those. I was talking about cock—"
Before I could even finish, Heena suddenly jumped up, rushed to me, and—what the hell—sat right down on my lap. Her legs lifted off the ground like she was scared of stepping on something.
"Where? Where is it?" she asked, voice trembling.
I froze. My brain short-circuited. "Uh—what just happened? What are you—what's going on?"
"Where is that thing?!" she snapped, glaring at me with eyes full of panic.
"What… thing?" I asked, dumbfounded.
"The thing you were about to say!" she pressed, gripping my shirt.
Oh. Right. "Oh yeah, cock—"
Before the word could even escape, Heena clamped her hand over my mouth so tightly I couldn't breathe. Her eyes widened, voice deadly serious as she hissed, "Never say that name! If you do, it will appear here."
'The fuck?' I thought, staring at her. She was actually terrified. Of cockroaches. That explained it. But right now, my lungs were burning because she was cutting off my air.
I nodded frantically until she finally let go, allowing me to suck in a desperate breath.
"Where are they?" she demanded again, her expression grim, like she was about to fight the final boss of some horror game.
"It… went away. Not here anymore," I said quickly.
"You're sure?"
"Totally sure," I nodded, trying not to roll my eyes. And honestly, it was true. Our house didn't even have cockroaches. Aunt Haruka and my big sister Aiko made damn sure of that.
Heena let out a long breath of relief, finally sliding off my lap and back into her own chair. She picked up her chopsticks again and started eating, though her ears were red as hell. She was obviously realizing what she'd just done. The speed of her chewing doubled, her chopsticks moving faster than before like she was trying to distract herself.
I glanced over toward the kitchen. Nobody else was around. "Uh… where's my breakfast?" I asked.
That made Heena stiffen for a second, but she forced herself to keep her face straight. "It's on the kitchen platform," she said flatly.
"Oh." I got up, grabbed my own plate of fried rice, and came back to sit at the table. By then Heena had already finished her food.
"I'm going," she said abruptly, standing up.
"Yeah," I replied, already digging into my plate.
She washed her dish quickly, then went upstairs to her room. Her plan for the day was simple—study first, then nap, and later go out when the weather cooled down.
Meanwhile, I shoveled fried rice into my mouth, still half-shocked about what just happened.