I Raised A Black Dragon

The last time she’d come back, she’d arrived at a different time from the time that the world had passed. It had been two years for her, but less than a week had passed here. How was it now? More time could have passed than she’d thought, or it could be that not even one day had passed.

It was simple just to grab someone walking by and ask them what year it was now. Somehow her lips wouldn’t move.

But there wasn’t really a need for that. After the green light above the crosswalk flashed, a wave of people started walking in her direction. Unfamiliar faces drew closer. Among the dozens of strangers, there was one face she recognized.

“Oh…”

She could recognize her at once even though she was now tall and quite mature-looking. It was her younger sister; the biological daughter of her foster parents; a child ten years younger than Noah.

She was wearing her school uniform. However, it wasn’t the same middle school uniform that Noah remembered. From the looks of the unfamiliar uniform and earphones in her ears, she was wearing a backpack that seemed to be empty. Her expressionless face drew closer to Noah. Her face was still young, but there was a world of difference from the last time she’d seen her.

So, she is now a high school student, Noah thought.

If so, Noah could now measure approximately how much time had passed. It had been as short as a year or as long as three years since she last left.

Noah’s younger sister didn’t see her and zipped past her in the sea of strangers. Noah turned around as if someone had spun a thread around her body. She broke through the crowd, following her sister.

It wasn’t like she wanted to grab her and start a conversation. Noah could count on her fingers how many times she’d talked to her sister.

After becoming independent, whenever Noah met her every three or four months, it had only been to give her pocket money, and they’d say goodbye immediately after eating. Memories of her calling Noah sister were now a blur.

Since their relationship was so awkward, there was nothing to say even if they faced each other. The reason for Noah chasing her was simply because of suspicions that’d just happened to come to mind.

‘She’s not going to school?’

Morning on a weekday. For a typical high schooler, the fourth period was just finishing, and it was time to skip to the cafeteria for lunch.

Noah couldn’t tell if her sister was skipping school or if she’d left early, but from the looks of her short-cut skirt, jacket, and light bag shaking helplessly on her back, it seemed to be the former.

When she was in elementary school and middle school, Noah had heard from her mom that her younger sister was a good student, but had she gone down the wrong path? Noah came back to earth after pondering on that for a while.

I’m worrying pointlessly again.

Now, she wasn’t shocked at her own pitifulness anymore. She had felt out of place around the house, but why was she worried about them? Her reason for coming back to this world was not to liberate them from pain. It was to finally look back on where she’d lived for 24 years and say goodbye.

But she didn’t stop going after her sister.

The sister stopped at a bus stop like she was about to ride the bus. Noah hid behind some roadside trees behind the bust stop.

Oh… now that she’d thought of it, it seemed that she’d done this before. The sister had been ahead of Noah, looking at her, and Noah had been restless because she couldn't approach her and talk to her. That was during her young days when she had had a compulsion to approach her younger sister kindly because she was the older sister.

The bus came. Noah’s sister got on and sat in a window seat on the left. Noah was watching her, when an unknown impulse yanked her from behind the trees.

She got on the same bus, tapping her transit card on the ticket machine. Despite her not knowing which card she’d used, a ring came from the machine, signaling her that her card worked.

Perhaps her sister had no interest in the other bus passengers since her eyes were fixated on the view outside the window. She was motionless with her eyes half-closed despite her older sister having walked past her. Noah plopped down in the seat directly behind her.

Alright, now she had to go with her instincts whether there was another dullness at the end of this or nothing else.

A yellow butterfly outside the window flew up in a circular motion. When Noah opened the window and reached out, it gently landed on her index finger.

[Worry.]

The subject was omitted, but she could understand immediately. This meant that her companion was worried about her, saying, “She'll just look around her world after noticing that I want to be alone for a while."

She cracked a tiny smile, signaling that she was fine. Perri, who seemed to be looking back at her, soon flew back into the sky above the crowded street.

The bus took off.