If the clock and calendar on the wall are correct, it's been a month since our birth.

  By now, we're staying awake for longer but also sleeping longer. Our sleep cycle has become a bit more stable compared to before.

  Also...

  Something is happening.

  We're currently in a wheeled crib and are being moved along a corridor towards an undisclosed location. This is the first time we've left our room, thank god, no more monotone boring ass room.

  While being with my sister helped, there's a limit to how long I could handle that monotone lifestyle with my developed brain.

  Still:

  I'm worried.

  Our birth was already so irregur, so I don't know what they might do to us.

  I don't mind if something happens to me, but if they touch my sister...

  Taking a deep breath, I calmed my panicking brain and looked at my curious-eyed sister. Her bzing, golden eyes were intrigued and running over everything they could take in:

  The people wheeling us, the paintings on the distant walls, the massive crystal lights...

  This world's light technology is interesting. Instead of light bulbs, it uses brilliantly shining crystals. Because of the method used to carve them intricately, they look much more aesthetically pleasing than light bulbs.

  Fixing my attention on our route, I rested my right hand on my sister's belly. I don't think I can do much to stop them from doing anything to her but...

  Anything is better than nothing.

  Feeling her tiny palm overp mine, my face rexed with a comforted smile.

  Yes, neither of us are alone.

  We'll do this together.

  Although I'm the older one here, I should be the one taking care of her.

  With tension gripping my heart, our crib eventually reached its destination.

  -----

  We y on the edge of a murky, liquid-filled container.

  My heart is almost pounding out of my chest, meanwhile my sister has a happy-go-lucky smile as though everything is great in the world.

  Fortunately I'm the only one with intelligence, otherwise I don't know how she'd be feeling at the moment.

  ...Actually.

  I do know what she'd be feeling.

  Fear.

  "Ichor temperature, set."

  "Ichor completion rate, 99.2%"

  "Mana Gel has been injected."

  ...

  Hearing these alien words ring out in the same unknown nguage that I've been hearing since the start, that I can understand for some reason, I steeled myself.

  [Ichor]

  That's the name of the liquid within the container.

  Their pn?

  Dunk us in the liquid to absorb as much as possible.

  The longer we st below before naturally ascending due to inherent limits in our body, the better.

  These people are crazy.

  Who submerges babies under 'water'?

  What if we run out of oxygen and die? What if we don't ascend? What if something else goes wrong? What if-

  Ugh.

  'Biting' my lips with toothless gums, I squeezed every muscle fibre in me to shuffle closer to my sister. She instinctively grabbed me with her familiar bright smile and I returned the embrace.

  I can't let go of her.

  Moments ter-

  Spash!

  -we were thrown into the liquid with our bodies stuck close to each other.

  Holding my breath, I struggled to keep my eyes open in the lightly stinging liquid. My sister's confused face was the only thing I could make out in the quagmire. As the liquid enveloped us, I sensed it digging into my flesh through my skin. But it wasn't a painful sensation, only a slight itch tickled me from the inside out; it was bearable.

  As I endured with my held breath, I realised something I had forgotten.

  My sister is ticklish.

  And I'm embracing her at the moment, squirming as I embrace her.

  Just like that...

  I saw her mouth open under 'water', I watched as the liquid flowed into her mouth and through her nose; I could only helplessly watch as she drowned.

  But then a second passed.

  Then two.

  And...

  Her smile remained, she continued giggling underwater with muffled noises.

  What?

  But seeing that, I realised something.

  And so I released my held breath.

  Then, fighting through my instincts to not breathe in liquids, I took a deep breath. I clenched my fists in anticipation but-

  So soothing.

  The liquid felt satisfying to my body, invigorating even.

  I could breathe freely within this liquid.

  With only the itching remaining, I remained in my sister's embrace.

  We clung to each other as time slowly passed.

  ...

  I don't know how long it's been.

  5 minutes?

  10?

  There's no way to be sure.

  But the itching in my body has begun to subside, the liquid's effects on me are starting to fade.

  Gently bobbing up and down in the Ichor, I remained mostly still... Unlike my lively baby sister, all of her energy was being sucked up to cuddle me as much as she could.

  After another few minutes, once the itching subsided, arms reached down through the Ichor and grabbed us, lifting us out of the Ichor. The voices of men and women burst into our ears as we exited the dreary liquid.

  Overwhelmed by the voices, I noticed my sister was about to cry her lungs out.

  No you don't.

  Cupping her chubby, pudding-like cheeks in my hands, I felt her face heat up warmly and the confusion melting from her bzing golden irises.

  If she does something to rouse the ire of these people...

  I don't want that to happen.

  I cut off all external noises from my simirly overwhelmed brain and glued my eyes to hers. We stared deep into each other's souls as our surroundings gradually returned to their initial conditions.

  I can't recall the exact point in time in which we ended back up in this dreary room, but-

  We should be retively safer here.

  -the odds of something vile happening to my adorable sister have diminished now that we've left that boratory-looking room.

  At that point, my sister's energy ran out and she drifted into sleep with her head facing me.

  Twisting my heavy head to gaze at the crystal illuminating our bedroom, I quietly contempted the recent turn of events. What did that Ichor do to us? Was it beneficial or another twisted ploy by that personification of madness?

  There's no way to know.

  Only time will tell.

  -----

  Another two months swiftly went by in this dreary room.

  But today is another different day.

  "Hup-!"

  Urging my back muscles to tighten and contract, my body lifted off our crib as I attempted to sit up. Squeezing all my strength, I grit my gently teething mouth and pushed my arms forward to build some momentum.

  Get up!

  As.

  Pomf~

  "Hehe~! Gyaa~!"

  My sister broke into a ughing fit when she saw me drop back like a comic relief character, the fat on my face jiggling softly from the impact.

  There's something I'm curious about.

  Language.

  I understand this world's nguage, but how will she learn the nguage? Is she in the same situation as me? Will she come to know it as she grows, or does she have to listen to people speak it and learn?

  If so, then that's a problem.

  We've been practically alone with that silent maid for 3 months.

  I'll teach her if that's the case.

  Ba-dump.

  Almost instantly I shook my head to clear away the heat threatening to flush my face.

  Close call.

  It wasn't that I was getting rid of my affections, but more so I was distracting myself with anything but the thoughts of my sister; although it's easier said than done.

  Not to mention...

  I sighed.

  It's getting harder to do so with each passing day.

  Taming the horror palpitating in the corners of my growing brain, I lightly patted my face and turned to look at my sister.

  Ba-dump.

  "Ooyuo!"

  That was meant to be a 'hello'...

  It was a good attempt.

  "Ugyo!"

  She said back to me with a comically 'stern' look on her face, those pretty eyes stared at me with determination; her head of snow-white hair had grown out enough to fill her scalp.

  No idea what she means by that though.

  We might be twins but I'm a fully grown adult on the inside, I'm sorry to say this but I'm not fluent in baby nguage.

  However, I can create a general outline of what she's implying based on her voice, facial movements, and body nguage. This handy trick was naturally developed after I spent three months near her with nothing else to entertain my mind. Thinking of it like this, I might be crazy for even learning how to do that in such a short time.

  Inwardly sighing, I refocused my efforts to lift my body.

  Today's goal:

  Sit up!

  ...

  I failed.

  -----

  I did do it a week ter though, we're 3 months and 1 week old now.

  And currently, I was...

  "Agoo!"

  Prociming my dominance before the eyes of my shocked and excited twin sister. I rose high above her with my colossal palms smming down onto her head with no mercy!

  Squish!

  And moulded her unbearably cute face into all shapes and sizes.

  "Gyauu!"

  She shouted, in an attempt to fight back against the colossus that is I.

  However!

  "Agyuu!"

  I procimed back to her, asserting my power over her lying body.

  If you wanted to win this war, you should have sat up first!

  As, it is I who is the winner. And the winners are the ones who get to write history!

  ...Oh my.

  What the hell am I doing?

  Shrivelling up in shame, I fell back with a dazed face.

  This is what boredom does to a man.

  Or technically a woman now.

  Enjoying the pitter-pattering sensation of her palms softly spping my legs as I y down from her at a 90-degree angle, I let my mind sink into the mind-numbing boredom of this room.

  How many cracks on the ceiling have I counted by now?

  70,000?

  Or is it closer to 100,000?

  No idea, honestly.

  I'm waiting out this period of nothingness. Surely at some point we'll get to read a book, or look around this pce we're staying in, or go outside.

  Surely, right?

  ...Who am I kidding, that's the delusions speaking.

  I've prepped myself for a year of solitude, I'm ready for all manners of insanity!

  Just you watch baby sis, I'll become the best homebody of all time!

  ...Fuck.