Sure, let's go home

By the time Marco had left the school, he was already terrified of what he might find at his home.

At first, when it was just Nina, he figured he could have been starring in an ecchi romance series. The story could have been the two of them having their random encounters and eventually growing closer. But... But then he had had a similar encounter with Mizore, and they were in a club together. Now he knew this was more than just an ecchi romance. This was a harem series. And that meant there was one thing almost guaranteed to be waiting for him at home.

A sister.

He had no idea why it was, but most of the harem series he knew had them. The main character always had a sister - or a cousin who was so close she was almost like a sister - who was hot enough to be part of the harem. They'd have the same level of sexy encounters as any of the other girls, but with the added... benefit... of them living together. If there was one thing Marco was not into, it was ****, so he pretty much had **** other than to hope that he didn't have a sister.

He was maybe five feet away from the school when a girl's voice called out, "Marco!" For a second, he thought it was Mizore, but this voice was different, a little lower.

The girl appeared beside him. "Marco-kun, is something wrong?"

"Uh, no," he said. "Just walking home."

"Without me? But we always walk home together, Marco-kun."

"Right, sorry, I think I was just dazed." Oh, God, was this his sister? He surreptitiously looked her over. She was certainly pretty enough to be part of the standard harem lineup. A slender frame, waist-length black hair, a very friendly smile on a face that exuded innocence. She definitely looked younger than the other girls, a little shorter and with significantly smaller breasts. Oh, God, she was, wasn't she?

No, he told himself. In so many anime like this one, people always jumped to conclusions and assumed the worst, and it always ended badly for the harem lead. He didn't know for sure that she was his sister. Just because she knew him, there was an age difference, and they lived close enough that they walk home together daily didn't mean they were related. Okay, when all the evidence was lain out like that, it seemed pretty likely.

Okay then, he reasoned. Just focus on the parts that suggest otherwise.

She didn't really look like him. Her eyes were a very bright green and her skin was darker than his. Not by much, but hers was a solid wood brown, as opposed to his generic Japanese/universal shade that most anime characters seemed to have.

So if she wasn't his sister, was she then... a childhood friend? That was also a staple of harem anime, the friend since childhood who has a preexisting relationship with the hero that develops into something more when she turns out to have a secret crush or something. That one, at least, Marco could understand. What straight male writer didn't have fantasies about a cute girl next door that they wanted to escape into?

"So, Marco-kun," the girl said cheerfully. "You remember that project I told you about, the one my father was working on?"

My father, she had said. Not our. So she wasn't a sister, but she could still be a cousin. Or a half-sister, he supposed.

"Vaguely," he replied. He had no idea about the project, but she clearly wanted him to. Why couldn't he remember any of the details of Marco 1.0's life?

"The animal interface?" she prompted. "The one that's supposed to lead to interspecies communication?"

"Right, that one." He nodded.

She frowned, and her eyebrows formed a peak. "You don't remember at all, do you?"

Oh, God. She looked so hurt. He was supposed to be her friend since childhood - or possibly her half-brother - and he couldn't remember a presumably recent conversation, or the fact that they walk home together every day. Hell, he couldn't even remember her name. He knew it wasn't his fault, but just the look on her face made him want to apologize and do everything in his power to make it up to her.

"I'm really sorry," he said sincerely. "It's not you, I swear. I've been really off with everything today. I almost forgot about the club meeting until one of the others reminded me."

"Oh," she said, relief evident in her tone. "Well, last night, the project had its first successful test. I talked to a frog."

"Wow. That's honestly impressive."

She nodded, her eyes shining with the gleam of genuine passion. "It didn't have much to say. Nowhere near the cognitive ability of a human and all. But they proved that it could understand everything I told it."

Marco blinked. "That's not just impressive. That's... revolutionary."

"I know, right? Next week, we're trying with a cat. I'm so excited."

"Congratulations. I'm really happy for you." And he was. He may not know this girl, but she was doing something amazing and he wanted to support his childhood friend.

Except she wasn't actually his childhood friend. He knew nothing about her other than the stuff she just told him, the fact that she was probably 1.0's friend, and his own irrational urge to stop walking right there on the pavement and...

Stop it, he commanded himself. This had to be Marco 1.0's emotions leaking through. The poor girl didn't even realize she was talking to a stranger wearing her friend's face. She was just involved in what had to be a huge scientific breakthrough, even by anime standards, and she was clearly happy about it, and here was her so-called friend, whose thoughts were too preoccupied with the idea that she might be his sister and all the ways he was nevertheless imagining getting all tangled up in her underwear. He still didn't even know her name!

At this point, did he even want a sexy encounter with this girl? Well, obviously, on one level, yes. But what if she actually did have romantic feelings for Marco 1.0? He would basically be pretending to be the guy she actually likes and taking advantage of her. Then again, how is that any different from Nina and Mizore?

He supposed he could overcome the moral implications if he told this girl the truth. But what would he even say? That he lost his memories and became self aware of the fact that he's an anime character? Yeah, right. Even if she believed him, he would be telling her that the Marco she knew was gone. The last thing he wanted to do was hurt her.

"Say," he said at last. "If you were to find out tomorrow that you were living in a totally different world than you remember, but everyone around you didn't notice the difference, how would you react?"

Without hesitation she replied, "I would find Yuki Nagato. I've seen the movie too."

He laughed. "Point. Seriously, though, what if there was no Yuki Nagato. Just you and me and the people we already know. Everyone is different, but they still know you. Do you still try to find a way back, or try to just live your life there?"

She walked in silence for a moment and put her finger to her cheek. "Both, I guess. If everyone is just an alternate version of the people I know, then they're not really the people I know, and I'm not really the person they know. For all I know, my actual loved ones that I left behind are worried sick, and the people here only care about the alternate version of me. So I think I should try to get back to my original reality, and bring the alternate version of me back. But, you know, if there's no way back, if I'm stuck, I might as well try to make a new life in the other reality."

"Wow. That's really well thought out." More thought out than Marco's own questions. He hadn't even considered the people he'd left behind. Granted, he couldn't remember them any better than he could remember his past in this world. Was this girl in his old life? Was there another Nina or Mizore or Komachi or Sora? Did Marco 1.0 end up there or did he just disappear from their lives without a trace?

She shrugged modestly, only the hint of a shy blush on her smiling face. "Well, that's me. Tsuyu Midoriko, amateur philosopher."

Tsuyu Midoriko. The name felt right when he heard it. Like, of course that was obviously her name, he knew that. Even though he couldn't think of it ten seconds ago.

"We really should talk philosophy more often," he said casually.

Tsuyu smiled. "Any time."

It was then that they arrived in front of the somehow familiar building that Marco immediately knew was Tsuyu's home.

"See you tomorrow," she told him as she wrapped one arm around him in a light hug. Her hair smelled intense and delicious, a mix of carrots and potato and a hint of some kind of shellfish.

As she released him, she took a step backwards. She didn't notice the small rock just beneath her foot. Her foot shifted to the side and she fell forward. Her face hit Marco in the chest, pushing him down as well.

Marco's ass hit the ground first and he lay on his back on the ground. Tsuyu lay on her stomach. Her skirt had flipped up from the **** of the fall and was now bunched around her waist. Her ass, he now saw, was a little bigger than Nina's. It was covered by black and white striped panties that rose above the hemline of her skirt.

And her face... Tsuyu's face had landed on him. Her mouth was firmly locked around the bulge in the front of his pants.

After a few moments of processing what just happened, Tsuyu hurriedly sat up, blushed feverishly, and pulled her skirt back down. Marco sprayed blood from his nose, stood up, and offered his hand to help Tsuyu up.

"Sorry about that." Tsuyu was facing downward, not looking Marco in the eyes.

"Don't be," he replied. "It's okay." Way more than okay.

Her blush deepened, as though she had heard the unspoken words.

"I swear, I won't tell Keimi," was the last thing she said as she hurried into her house.

Who? he wanted to ask. But the name felt familiar to him, so he knew he was supposed to know that name.

With nothing else to do, Marco walked next door to his own home.

"Onisan!" a voice chimed as he opened the door. Oh, God, he forgot about this issue.

He saw the girl on the other side of the door, smiling at him. Oh, God, he did have a sister.

Oh, God, she was like seven.

Oh, God, why couldn't it have just been ****?