Umbra Frontier Online – A Casual Playthrough of the Umbra Witch

It is evening. The sun is setting. Hikari and Himeji had just finished their club activities for the day and were on the way back home by bus.

The two girls were being awfully excited. Mainly for one reason.

They are about to play UFO with Yoruto starting tonight, which will begin once they return to Hikari's home and have dinner together with him.

However, the reason for their excitement was completely different.

Hikari was excited because she can't wait to see what her big brother's character in the game looks like. That, and she also can't wait to learn the secrets of her big brother's success in the game.

As for Himeji, she's excited because she can't wait to play the game together with not just Hikari, but with Yoruto too. That, and she can't wait to see what Yoruto has cooked up for dinner tonight. Plus the fact that she got permission from her mother and Yoruto to sleep over at Yoruto's place again.

While the two girls were just scrolling through reddit on their phones, they eventually reached their stop and got off the bus. Making the rest of the way back on foot.

"Oh boy! I can't wait to see what my brother will look like in the game." Hikari estatically ran her mouth. "He told me that he's a Dark Elf, so I'm expecting a really hot character when we meet. Aren't you excited about that too, Himeji?"

"Huh? What did you say, Hikari?"

A piercing narrow gaze was then given to Himeji. Along with a slightly smug look on Hikari's face.

"Still imagining tonight's dinner, are we? You glutton."

"Well... that's because it's Big Brother Yoruto's cooking. I can't help but to think what he'll make whenever I come over to your place for dinner."

"Yeaaahh, bro's cooking is really good. He says it's just normal, but hell no, it isn't. The stuff he makes are divine! And gosh, now I'm hungry just thinking about it." Hikari turned to her friend. "Come on, Himeji. Let's hurry back home."

"Ok!"

A few minutes later. The girls reached back home.

"I'm home, bro! And Himeji's with me!" Hikari announced her return, as she and Himeji removed their shoes by the entrance.

That's when an unknown woman walked in, greeting them both.

"Welcome back. Dinner will be ready soon. The both of you can go take a bath in the meantime."

""Okay~!"" Hikari and Himeji naturally replied, before realising a second later that the person they had responded to was not Yoruto.

"Eh?"

"What the...?"

They both were stunned, staring blankly at the woman whom they didn't recognise. Resulting in Hikari shouting a few seconds later, "Who the heck are you!?" while pointing her finger at her.

"What are you talking about, Hikari? It's me. Yoruto, your brother."

"Huh!?"

"Say what!?"

"Yes... Somehow, I became a woman. It happened right after you and Himeji left for school." the woman then sighed. "I guess you're stuck with a big sister now." she added.

"No way... This can't be real...." said Hikari, unable to accept it.

"Big Brother Yoruto is now... Big Sister Yoruto?" Himeji questioned, flabbergasted by what she's hearing.

Meanwhile, the woman was trying her best to stifle her laughter upon seeing their reactions.

And then, Yoruto walked in to ruin the fun.

"Sanae, if you're done messing with them. Mind helping me out here?"

"What the— Wait. If bro is there, then who the heck are you!?"

"Oh my~ Looks like the cat's out of the bag." Sanae chuckled, amused and slightly disappointed that her fun was over. Then, she introduced herself to Hikari.

"Nice to meet you, Hikari. My name is Sanae. I'm your brother's...." she looked at Yoruto. "...girlfriend?"

"Why was that a question?"

"Well, it's just that we have professed our love for each other and have gone on several dates on our day-offs, but... it's not like we're actually boyfriend and girlfriend or anything, are we?"

Yoruto sighed.

"She's my girlfriend." he stated.

"Made official, just now!" Sanae added with a peace sign.

Hikari gave the couple a dumbfounded look as she didn't know how to react to them. Himeji, on the other hand, was still trying to wrap her head around what she's hearing.

"So are you two just going to stand there by the entrance, or are you going to come in?" Yoruto asked his sister and her friend. "Dinner's almost ready. Hurry up and take a bath so that you can eat while the food is hot. Also Hikari, there's no spicy food today. I forgot to buy more hot spices at the supermarket." he said, heading back to the kitchen to finish cooking.

"Oh. Okay..."

Hikari finally snapped out of it and entered her own house with Himeji following suit. Sanae then put her hand out to Hikari as a friendly gesture.

"I hope we can get along well, little sister." she said with a lovely smile.

Hikari, however, stares back at Sanae with a frown.

"I don't approve of you." she said.

But Sanae was still smiling.

"Is that so? By the way, I've bought you ten premium quality puddings and left them in the fridge."

"I approve of you. Welcome to the family, sis." Hikari shook Sanae's hand. Her mind was quickly changed.

"Yoruto was right. It did work." Sanae thought, hiding her surprise behind her smile as the start of her relationship with Hikari kicked off quite well.

She then looked at Himeji who was feeling out of place and reached out her hand to her as well.

"You are Himeji, correct? Yoruto told me about you. You can call me Sanae, so let's get along as well, alright?"

"Umm, yes. It's... nice to meet you too." Himeji nervously shook Sanae's hand.

With their first meeting now over, Hikari and Himeji went up to put down their bags and go take a bath, while Sanae went to help Yoruto in the kitchen. And a little while later, the four of them had dinner together.

"Thank you for the meal! Gosh, I'm so full, I don't think I can move."

Sanae leaned back on her chair. Her stomach was bloated from the amount of dishes she'd stuffed in her belly.

"You shouldn't have ate too much then." Yoruto retorted, blaming her for eating so much to begin with.

"How could I not?" Sanae argued. "Everything you made was so delicious, I couldn't help but to stuff myself. Although, I did not expect someone to be able to chow all of these down." she said, looking directly at Himeji who was busy stuffing her face with food.

"She's like a hamster." she remarked.

"I know. It's pretty cute if you think about it." Yoruto added.

"Yeah... I can see why her chest is so big for a junior high school student."

"Where are you looking, Sanae...?"

"Nowhere. Nowhere at all." Sanae shifted her gaze to Hikari, watching her happily eat the pudding she had bought for her.

Ignoring Sanae's gaze on her, Hikari then asked Yoruto. "By the way, is sis gonna stay over or what?"

"She is. For tonight and the weekend."

"I see. Then are we still gonna play together later?" Hikari became concerned. "Wouldn't it be bad if we just left your girlfriend all alone in the house while we three play?"

"Play what?" Sanae intejected, asking Yoruto.

"A VRMMORPG game. Remember the other day when I told you about buying a Dive Gear and a game for Hikari? Well, I've actually bought one more copy of that same game for myself after we won another Dive Gear from a lucky draw. And today, I'm going to be playing with Hikari and Himeji in that game."

"Oh. Really?"

"Yup. I managed to convince my brother to play with me when we got that second Dive Gear."

"More like you begged me to after we got it. Speaking of which, how's your study been lately, Hikari?"

"Eh? Oh, uh.... Pretty good. I got a barely passable mark on our last quiz."

"Next time, get a more distinctive mark or I'm limiting your playtime to just two hours."

"No! Anything but that! Two hours is too short!"

"Hahahahaha!"

While Yoruto and Hikari were having their conversation, Sanae started laughing whereas Himeji was still eating.

"What's wrong, Sanae?"

"Sorry. It's just that you and Hikari act more like parent and child rather than siblings. It's quite funny." Sanae stated, as she continued laughing.

"I know, right?" Hikari agreed with her statement. "Bro just loves to act like he's my dad or something." she said.

But then Yoruto retorted.

"Girl, I raised you when you were a baby. I'm practically your dad at this point."

"So does that mean I should start calling 'Daddy' then?" Sanae jokingly asked.

"Nah. Bro's more like a Mommy than a Daddy."

"Please don't call me either of those. It's embarrassing." Yoruto cringed at the sound of those words.

"As you wish, 'Daddy'~"

"Sanae. Stop."

"Ahhh~ Thank you for the meal!" Himeji finally finished eating just then. "Eh? What's wrong, Big Brother Yoruto? Are you feeling sick or something?"

"No... I'm fine. Thanks for your concern."

With dinner over, Hikari and Himeji placed their dishes into the sink and when upstairs to Hikari's room first to do their homework before playing UFO. Meanwhile, Yoruto was washing those dishes and Sanae was cleaning the table. Once they were done as well, the both of them when up to Yoruto's room.

"Oooh.... So this is the game, is it? Umbra Frontier Online..."

"Yeah. But I'm not going to play it yet. Hikari and Himeji are still doing their homework."

"Is that so? Well then, what should we do until they're done?" Sanae asked.

However, Yoruto looked at his ceiling as he began to think. "Hmm... I don't know." he said. "I've never really had a girl in my room before, besides Hikari and my mom..." he then looked at Sanae. "What should we do?" he asked the same question back to her.

The couple did not know what to do. As a result, they sat on the bed next to each other and thought long and hard about what they could do in this completely plain and normal room that they're in.

There are books on the shelf, but those are mainly for one's self entertainment. There are no other types of console games in the room as well, since the ones that Yoruto used to own are now properties of his sister.

The only thing that can provide some entertainment for them is the laptop.

Therefore, Yoruto suggested.

"You want to just cuddle on the bed and watch a movie on my laptop until Hikari and Himeji are done?"

"Yeah. That seems nice. Why not."

And so, they did just that. Getting nice and comfy with themselves on the bed, while they watched some second-rated movie on a pirated website.

Their level of intimacy was definitely not something one would expect from a couple who had just made their lovers relationship official, a few hours ago.

But with enough being said.

Hikari and Himeji soon finished their homeworks not long after, as the former barged into her brother's room and interrupted the couple's session.

"Bro, it's time! Quit having sex and let's start playing the game now! Himeji and I will meet you by the fountain in Lily Corvo."

"We were not having sex, Hikari."

"But we were about to!" Sanae intejected.

"No, we were not. We were just watching a movie."

"Yeah, I don't care. Just start logging in already, big brother. Oh. And once you're there, look out for a Beastman fox girl with silver hair because that's me."

"Alright. Got it. Just go already."

"Aye aye, sir! Ciao!"

After Hikari left and closed the door behind her, Yoruto paused the movie he and Sanae were watching as he grabbed his Dive Gear and put it on.

"Well, I'm going to be away in the game now." he said, shifting himself into a more comfortable position on the bed. "You can still continue watching the movie, if you want."

"No need. It's boring to watch a movie alone anyways." Sanae replied, as she then waved to Yoruto as if saying goodbye to him.

"Have fun, Yoruto~"

"Yeah, I will. See you in the next few hours, I guess."

And once again, Yoruto dived into the game.

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[Welcome back to Umbra Frontier Online.]

[Transporting to the last logout point....]

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". . ."

Now left all alone, the first thing Sanae did was to stare blankly at Yoruto lying on the bed next to her.

"Sooo... is he in the game now?" she wondered, poking Yoruto's cheeks gently to see if he reacts. Which, he did not.

Then, she tried tickling his feet. But like before, there was no reaction.

"Hmmm... So is this what it's like when a person uses this Dive Gear thingy? Kinda creepy, not gonna lie." she stated, seeing no reaction from her boyfriend whatsoever.

She then got up from the bed, placed Yoruto's laptop back on the desk and stretched her arms out.

"Now then..."

Her boyfriend is in a game, and so is his sister and her friend. Being left alone in their house now; being left alone in Yoruto's room now... there was one thing Sanae had to do first.

She took a marker from the pen holder on Yoruto's desk... and pulled off the cap with a smile.