Sisterly Relations

Aoko Aozaki's ability to perform the outrageous magecraft she named "Burning Form: Blue" primarily stems from her temporary, forced unification of all Aoko Aozaki instances across all timelines into her main body through the use of Fifth Magic.

This differs from Zelretch's Second Magic; Aoko's method is actually closer to Goetia's. In other words, by "burning" a small portion of the universe's lifespan, she forcibly gathered unrelated parallel worldlines centered around the point of "Aoko Alter."

Therefore, Aoko doesn't need to worry about her personality being influenced by other Aokos in parallel worlds, as she's merely using her parallel selves as temporary "ammo packs." Can a person be possessed by a bullet?

With a single Light Cannon blast that burned through a small mountain, Aoko felt like she was on top of the world. No wonder so many people in this world loved using Light Cannons.

That being said, Aoko still believed that Fifth Magic shouldn't be used too frequently.

After all, every time she truly used Fifth Magic on a large scale, some bizarre individuals would pop out, claiming to uphold world justice and fighting her to the death. It was truly a headache for her.

In contrast, although the power she gained from the Weave Fragment system was far from the power of a Mage, the advantage was that it was a system that could be accumulated over time with no side effects.

As long as her Sorcerer level was high enough and combined with conventional magecraft, she believed she could easily handle most enemies.

When Aoko dealt with Touko, even though she won with seemingly effortless ease, Aoko was actually very careful with her output control after using Fifth Magic.

After all, she didn't actually intend to kill Touko. The final Light Cannon blast was just meant to look intimidating and make Touko suffer a bit; the main force of this Light Cannon was carefully aimed to miss Touko's position.

The Aoko Aozaki of the original timeline was extremely twisted. It could be said that she was raised by that old geezer to be someone with almost no morals or familial affection, prone to outbursts that were quite terrifying.

However, through the efforts of this timeline, while Touko couldn't be said to be a normal person, she was definitely much cuter than the "Scarred Red" from the original timeline who was devoid of blood and tears. As a sister, she was passable.

Still, Aoko was not entirely satisfied with her "educational results," so this time she decided to use some special methods...

Pushing open a door in a building near the battle site, Aoko instantly returned to the living room of the Kuonji Residence through the barrier effect of the Mirror of Slumber.

She tossed the bundle tied up like a zongzi on her shoulder onto the sofa and then collapsed beside it like a salaried worker who had worked all day, looking utterly useless.

"You won?" Alice, her housemate, asked as she came down the stairs, seeing Aoko return.

"Just Touko, easy peasy!" Aoko boasted, making a "V" gesture.

"What is this?" Alice asked, looking at the 'zongzi' on the sofa.

"This is Touko," Aoko replied concisely. She pulled aside one end of the bundle, revealing someone's cute little face inside, unfortunately still unconscious.

"...How did she end up like this?" Alice also walked over curiously, pinching Touko's delicate cheek.

"I gave her a membership-only mysterious drink!" Aoko said proudly, looking extremely happy that her idea had been realized.

Aoko's noisy commotion eventually woke Touko, who had only been temporarily unconscious. She let out a particularly cute "eep" and gradually woke up.

Little Touko first struggled to open her eyes, then found Aoko and Alice staring at her with schadenfreude, which immediately startled her into full alertness!

She struggled to jump up but realized she was completely wrapped in some kind of cloth, with the rope swaying its end at her like a snake.

"Aoko!" Touko questioned Aoko in a slightly high-pitched, childish voice, "What's going on?!"

"Ah ha," Aoko teased, looking at Touko, "Of course, we're going to do something fun."

"But first, Touko, you need to change how you address me," Aoko said with a wicked grin. "From today onwards, you'll call me 'Big Sister Aoko'."

"Huh?" Touko looked at Aoko with an expression of "Why is this bratty sister suddenly acting so crazy?", completely bewildered.

Aoko didn't bother explaining further. She simply snapped her fingers, and the Animating Rope binding Touko untied itself and coiled into a circle, staying to the side.

Seeing this, Touko quickly struggled to free herself from the cloths that wrapped her.

As soon as she was out, she saw that she was completely naked...

Touko's cheeks instantly flushed red. She immediately hugged herself with both hands, looking at Aoko in front of her with embarrassed rage.

However, Touko was surprised to find that neither Aoko nor Alice showed any reaction of "seeing a peer's naked body." Instead...

Touko immediately let go of her hands and looked down at her chest.

...It was flat, with nothing there.

Although Touko's figure wasn't as good as Aoko's, it was definitely not considered "small." But now, she found herself reduced to a flat board again...

Not only was she flat, but she realized that even standing on the carpet, her perspective still required her to look up at Aoko and Alice, which was too terrifying.

Touko raised her arm and looked at her tender pink hands, as well as her young, short limbs. She immediately understood what had happened to her.

She, Touko Aozaki, had been de-aged.

"What did you give me to drink?!" Little Touko picked up the cloths again and wrapped herself up. Regardless of whether she was a child now, being naked was still not good.

"This is your punishment, Touko," Aoko said, holding up the suspicious glass bottle with only half the liquid remaining. "This is the old man's precious collection. What do you think, do you like it?"

Touko desperately searched her knowledge, trying to figure out what strange thing she had been fed. Finally, with a dark expression, she concluded that this was likely a legendary elixir of rejuvenation from Mesopotamian Mythology! How could that old geezer have such a thing?!

"Why did you do this?" Touko asked, forcing a serious expression onto her exquisitely carved little face, though she already knew the answer in her heart.

Aoko and Alice beside her were both amused by the sight. Who would have thought that the Touko of now could become so cute?

"Because I think you've gone astray, Touko, and it's all because I didn't educate you properly," Aoko said, feigning self-reproach with a hypocritical expression, shaking her head and sighing. "So I've decided to become your older sister and re-educate you, to make you a better person!"

This sibling relationship is too twisted.

Alice, sitting on the side, calmly drank her black tea and thought to herself, completely uninvolved.