"No... wait! It changed out of nowhere? It's no longer a giant forest like before, it's... I'm not sure what it is" said Diane, confused.
"Yeah... it doesn't matter anymore, I do know" Kaito murmured as he looked around.
They were no longer in the forest that would make even a giant feel small, so it seems either Diane is really simple and talking about her problems worked, or leaving that forest is very easy.
Instead, they were in a city.
The most curious thing is that both of them were now the same size and were fully dressed in the middle of a street.
"What? I'm small?! And I have clothes" said Diane in surprise, looking around with curiosity. "Where are we?"
"That damn Bartra lied to me" Kaito complained.
If at this moment someone told him he accidentally entered a forest that does this and that he is not actually in a psychological trial, Kaito would tell them to go to hell directly. Who would believe that?
"Kaito, do you know where we are?" Diane repeated while observing her own normal sized body with interest, along with the, for her, strange environment. "If the giant forest was for me, then this must be yours"
Kaito thought for a moment about whether to speak or not.
"You better not be thinking about not telling me. I told you my story, and I still don't know why you were looking for me" Diane said quickly, noticing Kaito's intentions.
"...I guess... it's not like it really matters" Kaito shrugged and told her why he was there.
By the time he finished, Diane's eyes were shining with curiosity.
"Another world... incredible" she murmured, astonished. "But, why isn't it disappearing?"
"I'd love to know" Kaito replied.
'System'
[You didn't really think telling your situation would make you overcome it, right? That would only work on someone naive like Diane.
More importantly, Diane told her problems, you just told your life in general]
'And what are my problems? How am I supposed to tell them if I don't even know what they are?'
[I don't know, you'll have to figure it out if you want to leave this place]
"Waaah! What just happened?"
While Kaito was thinking, he heard Diane's surprised scream, followed by many more.
"Be careful!"
"What's happening?"
"Mom? Mom?! Where are you?"
"My son! Has anyone seen my son?! He's..."
Before anyone could react, the situation had already turned into chaos.
Cars on the road went out of control, people panicked, explosions started to be heard everywhere.
Total chaos.
"I know where we are" Kaito murmured, recognizing the situation around him.
"Ah! S-she... she just stopped a car with her hands?"
"Incredible, is she a superhero?!"
While Kaito observed the surroundings, Diane did not stay still.
Nearby, a driverless car was about to run over a little girl, a situation that was avoided because Diane literally stopped the car with her hands.
"T-thank you" the girl, somewhat shy, tried to thank Diane, but by the time she looked again, Diane was no longer there.
...
"What just happened?"
"There was a lot of chaos, so I moved us away from there" Kaito replied.
"Incredible, you said you were fast but that speed is insane." Diane said, surprised. "By the way, where are we? And what is happening?"
"It's my house" Kaito replied. "As for what's happening, it should be the first summoning to Gaia"
"Summoning? That thing you said when most people were taken to another world, right?"
"Yes"
"And what are we doing here?"
"I have no idea"
"You have no idea? This is supposed to have something to do with your problems" Diane said.
"Yeah, but I also have no idea what's going on" Kaito admitted.
'This is my problem? I hope they don't just show me my life and expect me to guess. That would take too long' he complained mentally.
And as if the world itself had heard him, at that moment everything around them changed, like a video speeding forward until night.
"And now?" Diane asked, confused.
"I know as much as you do, so asking me is pointless"
Without understanding the situation, Kaito focused on investigating his surroundings.
He quickly discovered that it was exactly 12 hours after the last time, exactly at the moment when Kaito returned from university, or from Gaia to be precise.
He also discovered that they were like ghosts, they could not interact with his family members.
However, this was not absolute, Kaito could perfectly interfere with strangers or the environment, it was simply his family and, especially, himself, who did not seem to see them.
Thus, it seemed that the world wanted to show him himself, so Kaito simply decided to go along with it and waited in the living room until he heard the front door.
Something Kaito did not know the last time was his family's situation, both Sayuri and Sora were glued to the television, where throughout the day they had been broadcasting news about the situation.
Once the Lords returned, just three minutes later the news was already being broadcast.
"Mom!" Upon seeing the news, Sora got up happily from the sofa, heading to the door.
"Wait, Sora, what are you doing?"
"I'll go get him" Sora replied immediately.
"No, let's wait for him here" Sayuri shook her head.
"But..."
"Listen, trust me, this situation is too strange, it's best to wait here until he comes back."
Sayuri knew much more about how these things worked, so she knew that a public institution like the university would be a waiting point for authorities and that everyone would be questioned, without knowing the situation, going there now would only cause problems.
And although Sora did not understand the situation, she trusted her mother and waited there just as she was told.
While Kaito observed this, he simply sat on the sofa, right next to his mother. Of course, she never saw him.
"You have a good family" Diane said, sitting at his side.
"Yeah" Kaito nodded.
Finally, after about twenty minutes, Kaito returned and both of them stood up to greet him with affection and concern.
"That's you? You look completely different!" Diane exclaimed in surprise.
"Yeah, the Kaito from the past was different"
"You mean your past self?"
"Yeah... that"
Once Kaito went up to his room, time sped up again.
The situation repeated six more times without anything special, thus ending the first week.
Finally, on the seventh day, something was different.
That day, Sora returned excited as always from school and connected to the network.
Shortly after the usual return time, she came down excited to talk to Sayuri.
"Mom, we have to welcome Kaito"
"Mmm? Why? Isn't he used to it already?" Sayuri asked with curiosity, maintaining her usual gentle smile.
"It's different, this time he went to another world"
"Another world?"
"Yes, or something like that, and he was there for a long time. I heard that most people were there for a month, even though only a day passed here, we have to welcome him"
"A month, huh? How strange" Sayuri murmured without acting surprised.
"Yeah" Sora nodded while nervously glancing at the stairs from time to time with anticipation and something else.
"What's wrong?" Sayuri asked.
"Well, a month is a long time, right?" Sora said hesitantly "and even though it seems like a game, Gaia is another world, do you think Kaito will change at some point?"
At her question, Sayuri just laughed and lightly tapped her forehead. "Don't be silly, Kaito will always be Kaito"
"Yeah... you're right" Sora murmured.
What followed, Kaito already knew, the first time he returned from the tower of worlds he was received with a hug from his mother that he needed much more than he was willing to admit.
However, once the past Kaito returned to his room after dinner, the current Kaito watched as Sora looked at him with concern.
Kaito easily realized why, unlike before, this Kaito looked fake.
He knew why, at that moment it was when he started using the avatar, somehow he felt he was not the same, so he tried to act as always, but for Sora and Sayuri it was very easy to notice that something was different, even if they did not know what.
"What just happened?" Diane, at his side, also asked.
"The Kaito from the past was using a disguise skill, so he didn't know how to behave" Kaito explained.
"But isn't that just a disguise? You're still you, right?"
"No. I already look different. I was using a disguise of the Kaito from before that" Kaito tried to explain.
"Oh! So at that moment you already looked like you do now but you disguised yourself as how you looked before??"
"Yeah"
Time moves forward, the past Kaito did not take long to get used to it and started acting normal again.
His family stopped suspecting, or at least it seemed so. From that day on, Sora's questions about Gaia increased exponentially, she also shared information she found on the internet, even if she tried to hide it, it was clear that she worried much more about Kaito than before, fearing that something bad might happen to him.
One day, something was different, time sped up for longer, it did not stop at night like always, it moved forward even more.
The reason was clear.
"Big brother? Why didn't you come back yesterday?"
"Oh! Sora, don't worry, I just had some matters, it's likely that I'll start staying longer in Gaia in the future"
"I-I see" Sora simply nodded and left, confusing Kaito a bit.
From that day on, time started advancing more and more, Kaito returned home less and less.
"So, your problem is that you abandoned your family?" Diane asked while observing.
"No" Kaito replied immediately.
Even if Sora might feel a bit abandoned, it is part of growing up, everyone leaves their home at some point when they grow up, not to mention that Kaito did not really do it, he used to come back from time to time.
But more importantly, Kaito had not even thought about that before, so it could not be his problem.
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+15 chapters in advance on Patreon.
p-atreon.com/IAMME26
(just delete the hyphen)
80 power stones = 1 extra chapter (cumulative)