Infinite Dendrogram - Volume 10 - Chapter 3

Episode Three: Sister 
April 4th, 2045, Reiji Mukudori 
I returned home from college to find something in the mail: the foreign sweets I’d asked my sister to send me. 
It was pretty fast, considering she’d just called two days ago. It was also delivered by a company I never heard of, but that wasn’t that strange — my sister had connections. 
Just to be safe, I looked up the confectioner and product online, and sure enough, got a decent number of search results. After confirming it wasn’t weird in some way, I threw one in my mouth, and it was a proper, delicious sweet. 
Nothing weird happened even after a few minutes post-eating, so I was now completely sure it was safe. A part of me thought I was being too wary of my own sister, but this was necessary. She was the one who’d casually asked me if I wanted to go to the jungle, and then actually taken me there when I’d said yes. 
I still wondered how she’d taken me to South America when I hadn’t even had a passport. Honestly, it felt like I’d just... suddenly found myself flying over a jungle in a small plane, and then... 
“Gh... Thinking about it makes my head hurt.” 
The point was that I’d learned to exercise an appropriate amount of caution when dealing with her. However, I didn’t think that she bore any ill will. Whatever she did with me, she did out of kindness. 
Even that traumatizing trip had probably been nothing more than her taking advantage of her work trip to South America to show her little brother what jungles were like. She certainly hadn’t intended to endanger my life and chastity. 
I still didn’t really know why I had been chased around by Amazons or why the jungle had ended up on fire. 
It was probably a rude thing to think... but my sister was quite abnormal as a living being. That probably affected her standard for me. There was also the fact that her first little brother, Shu, was also quite the superhuman. 

Compared to them, I was pretty normal, so I knew I always had to be cautious with her. I felt that it was an inviolable rule necessary to my survival. 
Still, I wouldn’t forget to send a “thank you” email to her. She scared me like hell, but she was a dear part of my family and not a bad person. 
“I’ve gotta say, these are pretty good,” I muttered. Since they looked really safe so far, I began trying out the sweets for real. 
I’d just had some chou à la crèmes at the college’s café, but these were simple chocolates, so I still had plenty of room for them. College had exhausted my brain more than I’d expected, so my body needed the sugar, too. 
I also hadn’t rested at all in the café because of Miss Eldritch. 
“Speaking of chocolate... there’s Valentine’s Day in Dendro, right?” I murmured. 
Special as it was with its full-dive capabilities, Infinite Dendrogram had planned events, just like any common MMO. Most were based on real seasonal events, such as Christmas or Valentine’s Day. I’d started in the latter half of March, though, so I’d missed both Valentine’s and White Day. 
I had yet to experience any seasonal event, actually. There had been two Valentine’s Day events so far, and I had no idea what they were like. 
“Did Shu and the others participate?” I wondered. 
Shu, Figaro, and Miss Eldritch had been playing since launch, so they must’ve seen a whole bunch of events. 
“I wonder what Valentine’s was like... I’ll have to ask them.” 
Valentine’s Day was associated with love, so it must’ve been a peaceful, sweet time.