It all started with a promise under a sky full of fake, animated stars.
I was seven, and Rina was six. We were glued to the TV, our faces illuminated by the final episode of our favorite anime, "Starlight Paladin." The heroine, Princess Astra, stood victorious, her celestial sword glowing as she protected her kingdom.
"Wow..." I breathed out, my eyes sparkling. "She's so cool. When I grow up, I'm gonna be a hero just like her and save everyone!"
Beside me, Rina clutched a worn-out plushie of Astra's magical sidekick. She wasn't looking at the bad guys Astra defeated. She was looking only at Astra. Her little voice was full of a weird, intense seriousness.
"I don't wanna be like her," she declared. "I wanna be her."
I just laughed. "You can't be her, dummy. She's not real."
Rina just shook her head, her long black hair swishing. "You'll see."
Ten years later, I'm pretty sure I haven't saved the world yet. My daily heroic act consists of wrestling the last piece of tamagoyaki from my sister at the breakfast table.
"Onii-chan, give it back!"
"No way. I woke up first. First dibs," I mumbled through a mouthful of rice.
Rina, now a sixteen-year-old high schooler, pouted, her cheeks puffed out. This was the Rina I knew. With her long, straight black hair usually tied in a simple ponytail and her face completely bare of makeup, she was... well, she was my cute, but decidedly average, little sister. She was the type of girl you'd pass on the street and forget two seconds later. Clingy, a bit of a crybaby, and a total "normie" who spent her time talking about pop music and fashion with her friends.
"Fine! But you have to walk me to the station today," she demanded, pointing her chopsticks at me.
"Like I have a choice," I sighed, ruffling her hair. "You stick to me like glue anyway."
Our parents are almost never home. Work trips, late nights at the office-you name it. It's been just me and Rina holding down the fort for years. I cook, I do the laundry, I make sure she does her homework. It's our normal.
As we walked to school, my phone buzzed. I glanced down. A new post from 'Ectiqa.' My heart did a little jump. It was a photo from her latest shoot, portraying the demon queen from the game "Abyssal Throne." The costume was insane-intricate black armor, glowing red runes, and a majestic, deadly aura. But it was her expression that got me. The cold, lonely look in her eyes... she nailed it. Ectiqa wasn't just wearing a costume; she became the character.
"Who are you looking at, Onii-chan? You're making a weird face," Rina said, peeking at my screen.
I quickly locked my phone. "N-nothing. Just a news article."
"Liar. It was that cosplayer again, wasn't it? Ectiqa?" she said, her tone flat. "You're obsessed."
"I'm not obsessed! I'm a supporter. An admirer of the craft," I defended myself, my cheeks getting hot.
"Whatever," she sighed, linking her arm with mine. "Don't get too into it. People online are never who they seem to be."
If only she knew.
The school day was brutally normal. My best friend, Kenji Tanaka, spent the entire lunch break shoving his phone in my face, gushing over the exact same Ectiqa picture.
"Dude, look at the detail on that pauldron! And her makeup! She looks like she walked straight out of the game! She's a goddess! A 2D character brought to life!"
"I know, I saw it," I said, trying to act cool and detached, as if my phone's wallpaper wasn't a different picture of Ectiqa.
Rina, on the other hand, was always surrounded by her friends, laughing about some new cafe or a TV drama. It was like we lived in two different worlds, even though we shared the same house.
That evening, I was making curry when Rina came home. It was almost 9 PM.
"I'm home..." she mumbled, dropping her bag by the door and slumping onto the sofa. She looked completely drained.
"Late night at the cafe again?" I asked, stirring the pot.
"Yeah... We were short-staffed," she said, her voice muffled by a cushion. "So, so tired."
Her part-time job was the one mysterious thing about her. She said she worked at a trendy cafe downtown, but she was always exhausted, sometimes had weird stains on her clothes-like paint or glitter-and her pay seemed way too good for a simple barista gig. But whenever I asked for details, she'd get vague.
"Don't worry about it, Onii-chan. It's just a normal job."
I finished dinner and we ate mostly in silence. After she went to her room, supposedly to collapse into bed, I cleaned up and retreated to my own sanctuary.
Flipping open my laptop, I logged into my account. Not as Rui Hinamata, average high school student, but as 'Starlight_Knight_01.'
Ectiqa was doing a surprise livestream to celebrate her new photo set reaching 100,000 likes. She was out of costume, wearing a simple hoodie with the hood pulled up, her face obscured by a cute Kitsune mask. Even her "normal" voice was enchanting.
"...thank you all so much for the support! It really means the world to me," she was saying.
My heart ached with a weird mix of admiration and protectiveness. This amazing artist, praised by millions, seemed so humble and hardworking.
I opened the donation tab. I'd been saving up my own part-time job money for this. I clicked the highest amount.
[Starlight_Knight_01 has donated ¥50,000!]
The chat exploded.
Ectiqa herself gasped. "W-wow! Knight-san! You're back! That's... that's too much, really!"
I started typing my message, my fingers flying across the keyboard.
"It's never too much for someone who brings fantasy to life. Your portrayal of the Demon Queen wasn't just cool, you captured her sorrow. Thank you for your hard work, Ectiqa-sama. Please rest well."
She read my message aloud, her voice soft. "Her sorrow... you understood. Thank you, Knight-san. Truly."
A warm feeling spread through my chest. This was my role. I couldn't be a real hero, but I could be a hero to my hero. I could be her number one supporter.
A notification popped up on my phone. A text from Rina.
Rina: Onii-chan, I'm out of shampoo. Can you pick some up tomorrow?
I looked at the text, then back at the masked goddess on my screen who was thanking me profusely. My clingy, normie little sister and the charismatic, talented cosplayer.
They lived in completely different worlds. And I was determined to keep it that way.