Infinity Is My Affinity?!?-Chapter 156: What Could’ve Been

-Ding-Ding-Ding!

-Ding-Ding-Ding!

-Ding-Ding-Ding!

The blaring sound of my digital alarm clock ripped right through my skull, as I groaned, blindly slapping my hand against the nightstand until my palm finally hit that plastic button.

And the annoying noise died instantly.

I cracked my eyes open, the hazy white blur slowly resolving into the familiar ceiling of my childhood bedroom, but the edges of the room felt strangely soft. The walls blurred into a weird nothingness if I stared at them for too long, leaving only my bed and the nightstand in sharp detail.

I just closed my eyes again, fully ready to drift right back to sleep.

"Nico, wake up! You don’t wanna be late for the first day of university!" my mother’s chirpy, happy voice echoed up the wooden stairs.

My eyes instantly snapped wide open while my heart did a massive cartwheel.

[That’s right!] I threw the heavy covers off my legs.

"Coming!" I yelled back.

I stumbled out of bed and walked straight into the attached bathroom, flipped the light switch, and leaned over the porcelain sink to look in the mirror.

A pale, sunken, yet weirdly healthy face stared back at me. I was completely bald. I had absolutely no eyebrows. It was the undeniable look of a guy who had just spent years chained to a hospital bed fighting stage-four cancer.

And yet...

"Told you I’d beat you," I smiled smugly to my reflection before reaching for my toothbrush.

I finished freshening up and headed down the carpeted stairs, and the rich smell of sweet batter instantly hit my nose.

I stepped into the kitchen and found my mother standing by the stove, happily making pancakes without a care in the world, humming a gentle tune.

My little brother sat at the small dining table, furiously mashing the buttons on his handheld console.

I couldn’t help but stop at the bottom of the stairs, taking it all in, the scene I never thought I’d see again.

I took a deep, effortless breath, feeling my chest no longer hurting, my lungs no longer burning.

[I finally have my life back,] I thought, feeling a bright smile stretch across my face.

"Good morning, fellas~" I announced while walking into the room.

"Morning, champ," my mother smiled sweetly without taking her eyes off the frying pan.

"Mornin’," my little brother mumbled, keeping his eyes locked on the glowing screen.

"Take a seat, the pancakes are almost done," my mom said.

"Kay," I replied, pulling out a chair and sitting down next to my brother.

"So, first day at the uni," she asked, her back still turned to me. "Nervous?"

"Nah," I leaned back in the wooden chair before admitting, " Okay, a little."

She chuckled softly. "It’s okay to be nervous. God knows I was a wreck on my first day of college. You’re holding up pretty fine in comparison."

I let out a soft chuckle and looked down at my frail hands resting on my lap. "Just four more years now. I’m gonna make us so damn rich. Make you guys proud that..."

My mother turned around, walking over to the table and gently patted the top of my bald head.

"Nico," she said with an incredibly warm smile. "You’ve already won the biggest battle, and your brother and I, we’re already so proud that we’re this close to bursting..."

I looked up at her face, at the face so incredibly genuine and full of love, and relief that I felt my eyes immediately start watering.

"As for the rest..." She continued, turning to my brother, "What’d you call it again?"

"Sidequests," my brother smirked, finally looking up at me with a proud grin.

"Yea! Sidequests!" she beamed, leaning down to plant a soft kiss on my head.

"Mom," my little brother groaned.

"What? You want one too?" she asked, raising a playful eyebrow at him.

"The pancakes," he deadpanned. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

"Oh, right!" She hurried back to the frying pan. "And... this one’s ruined."

We all burst out laughing, and I never felt so warm inside.

The laughter slowly died down a few moments later.

And as it did, I reached into my sweatpants’ pocket and pulled out a sealed envelope before placing it gently on the table.

"Mom..." I said with a small smile. "I wrote this for dad. Can you..."

Her eyes landed on the envelope, and a small shadow of sadness passed over her face before she softly nodded. "I’ll handle it."

"Dude!" my little brother instantly snapped, slamming his console onto the table, his eyes going wide with anger. "That coward couldn’t even bring himself to visit you once! Once! That letter better have the most creative swears you have ever written!"

I simply chuckled, instinctively shrinking down into my chair.

Slowly, an awkward silence fell over the kitchen.

Until my mother broke it by placing a stack of fresh pancakes directly in front of me before quietly taking the envelope off the table and slipping it into the apron.

"You eat first..." I pushed the plate toward my little brother. "I literally just woke up."

He let out a sharp hmpf before grabbing a fork and furiously digging into the food.

And as I sat there watching him eat, a weird sensation crawled up the back of my neck.

Something felt weird, completely out of place. Like something was missing... something crucial, that I can’t do without.

I rubbed my forehead, trying incredibly hard to think through the morning fog until the realization finally clicked into place.

I snapped my fingers. "Mom, where’s Nom and Peko?"

The entire table froze the instant those words left my mouth.

My brother stopped chewing. My mother stopped moving by the stove.

Slowly, they turned to look at each other with completely blank expressions.

My mother eventually tilted her head, her voice losing a bit of its warmth. "They should be here by now. Wonder if they got stuck in traffic."

And right on cue, the doorbell rang through the house.

"Ah, speak of the devil, there they are!" she chirped, completely returning to normal. "Nico, would you go get that, please?"

"Yeah, about time," I chuckled, pushing my chair back and getting up.

I walked out of the kitchen and headed down the narrow hallway toward the front door, feeling genuinely excited to see them.

[Come on, dude, you saw them yesterday...] I chuckled, stretching my arms as I walked, taking another deep breath, and appreciating the absolute freedom of possessing a healthy body.

I could actually do normal stuff now. I could go on hikes. I could run. I could even play football.

And most of all, I could finally buy a bike. A Ducati XDiavel.

Yeah, that was the dream!

I smiled to myself, imagining going on long joy rides along the highway. Imagined feeling the wild winds screaming and the raw power vibrating beneath me.

I couldn’t help but snicker like a kid.

As I reached the entryway, the doorbell rang again.

"C’mon, Nico! We’re not that late!" Nom-Nom’s voice called out from the other side.

I froze completely, feeling a cold chill wash over my skin.

My brain could not comprehend exactly why, but Nom-Nom calling me by my actual name felt... just wrong.

It felt like something she would absolutely never do.

And just then, the doorbell rang a third time.

"We’re sorry, Nico. Can you please open the door?" Peko’s soft voice followed up.

For reasons, I couldn’t comprehend that wrongness intensified into sheer panic. My instincts screamed at me that Peko and Nom-Nom would never call me by my name.

But no matter how hard I racked my brain, I could not figure out why it even mattered.

After all, if not by my name, what’re they even supposed to call me?

"What’s taking so long, Nico?" my mom called out from the kitchen behind me.

I raised my hand and reached for the knob, and instantly my fingers started trembling, and I broke into a cold sweat, a thick layer breaking out across my forehead, while my heart began hammering wildly in my chest.

"Nico, open up!" Nom-Nom demanded.

My trembling hand clamped down on the knob, gripping it so tight that my knuckles turned white.

"Nico?" Peko’s voice sounded much closer now.

I didn’t even realise when I had begun hyperventilating, struggling to pull air into my lungs.

"Nico! If you don’t open the door now, we’re leaving!" Nom-Nom shouted.

My mind completely locked up. I desperately wanted to twist the knob, but a deep part of my brain absolutely refused to let my wrist turn.

"Nico! What’s taking so long?" my mom’s voice echoed down the hallway.

"Nico!"

"Nico!"

"Nico!"

Their voices resounded inside my skull, blending together into a chaotic chorus of my name, each urging me to open the damn door.

And god knows how badly I wanted to, but my mind, even overwhelmed, simply refused.

I couldn’t even tell left from right now. My body screamed to twist the handle while my instincts begged me to let go.

But, slowly, under the constant shouts of my name, my trembling wrist began to turn the knob.

And just it did-

"Nico!" a faint, guttural roar of a man echoed in the back of my mind, overlapping the three familiar voices calling out my name.

[Huh...?]

Before I could even process the strange sound, it came again.

"Nico!" The man’s voice sounded significantly louder this time, coming from my left, desperate as though he was dying.

I snapped my head to the left, looking at the hallway wall, and found absolutely nothing but framed family photos hanging on the wallpaper.

And just as I was about to turn my head back toward the front door.

"NICO! YOU STUPID CUNT! DON’T OPEN IT!!!"

[Garek!]

Reality violently snapped as though the entire world was yanked out from under my feet.

"NICOOO!!!!"

The bright hallway instantly vanished, and I found myself standing in a freezing, dimly lit room.

And I was staring straight at the man pinned against the far wall.

Thick, writhing roots stabbed through his body in multiple places, pinning him to the wall while he hung there bleeding onto the floorboards, completely unable to move his trapped limbs.

And yet, he still desperately screamed my name with blood bubbling past his lips.

My head instinctively snapped forward to check my surroundings, and I found myself holding the iron handle of the mess hall’s door, right about to pull it open, while the massive iron locking bar lay discarded on the floorboards beside my boots.

And right through the door, Mitsuki’s muffled scream of agony echoed from the freezing darkness outside.