Chapter One: Hopes of a Reunion

“What the hell?! Has grandma been alivethis whole time?!”

Under the starry sky, my screamed words echoed through the quiet streets of Ninoritch. There I was, standing in the backyard of my shop, screaming “Grandma!” into the night air like a madman. My poor neighbors. I can only apologize.

“Sh-Shiro? What’s wrong?” Karen said, utterly shocked by my sudden outburst.

But I wasn’t finished. “If you’re alive, why didn’t youtell me?! I thought you weredead!” I yelled at the top of my lungs. I eventually ran out of breath, and I let myself slump to the ground. The gentle evening breeze tenderly caressed my cheeks.

“Sh-Shiro, are you all right?” Karen tried again. “What was all that about?”

“For several years now, I’ve thought my grandma was dead,” I explained. “But here you are telling me she’s not, and well...” I paused as I tried to sum up my emotions. “I guess all the feelings I’d been bottling up just kinda overflowed back there.”

“Hm. Do you want to talk about it?” Karen offered. “It might make you feel better.”

“I appreciate your concern,” I said sincerely. “Well, I guess if you don’t mind listening to me prattle on about my issues for a little bit...”

“No, of course I don’t mind,” she assured me. “And it doesn’t just need to be ‘for a little bit’ either. You can talk for as long as you like. It’s fine.”

“I’ll take you up on that,” I said, then promptly launched into my tale. “It all happened seven years ago. At some point, grandma just suddenly stopped answering my calls and...”

I recounted the tragedy that had befallen the Amata family seven years prior: grandma’s sudden disappearance that had led our entire family and all of her neighbors to assume she must be dead, the ensuing family dispute over what to do with her house... I basically told her everything. Well, except for the fact that I was from another world, of course.

“I see. So Alice the Immortal