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Observer Hiiragi-chan and Her Overflowing Miasma
After spending my weekend at Hiiragi-chan’s place, I went back at home.
She was supposed to be busy making tests and stuff for next week, so it seemed like she couldn’t hang out this weekend. Must be tough for her. Or that’s what I thought at least.
Hiiragi-chan was teary-eyed when I told her, “It’s just one or two days over the weekend. It’s not that big of a deal.”
“When we meet at school, it’s Hiiragi-sensei. Seeing you as Haruka Hiiragi is only over the weekend…”
Or so she said, but she was clearly lonely. Since Hiiragi-chan doesn’t have an inside-out character, whether she’s a teacher or my girlfriend, it doesn’t change to me. But, the person in question doesn’t seem to believe this.
“Nii-san…? Where did you go?”
As I was reminiscing about the fun weekend I had in that room, Sana stealthily peeked inside.
“Where did I go? I just went out with some friends…”
“By friend… do you mean a girlfriend…?”
“No, not a girlfriend. You wouldn’t know because you don’t have any friends. The fun of hanging out with friends all night.
“Sana also plays all night.”
“You were probably just playing games all night.”
“How did you know that?”
Maybe because you said you had lots of online friends.
“Anyways, do you need something?”
“Not really…”
She was fidgeting and rubbing her knees together, seeming like she wanted to say something.
If she didn’t have any business here, she wouldn’t have gone out of her way to come to my room. As I waited for her to say something, Sana came inside and sat down on my favorite two-seat sofa.
“Actually, Sana wanted you to come along to a place Sana wanted to go to this week, but Nii-san went out and never came back.”
Awfully meek. This is how she turns out whenever she has something to ask of me.
“So then… did you want me to help pick out your underwear?”
“N-No! That’s not what Sana wanted you to come along for!” Sana started hitting the cushions.
“Stop that. I was just joking. Don’t be so angry.”
“It’s because you made such a weird joke! Sana was talking about things like pre-ordering games, buying newly published manga, or other stuff! Next week! Since this week didn’t work out!”
“Can’t you just go by yourself?”
“If Sana was seen by someone, she’d be found out that she’s a lonely otaku.”
Isn’t that already well-known?
“If Nii-san is there, then Sana can make an excuse.”
“Saying something like you’re coming along with your brother’s shopping?”
“That’s right.”
The heck. Why are you trying to put the blame on me?
“Why not go out with Ii-san instead?”
“That’s still a little bit… inviting someone to go out is…”
Hanging out with someone you want to get along with makes you very anxious. I understand that. What if it was just the two of you and the conversation just goes blank? What if you step on a land mine of theirs that you didn’t know about? If this were to happen, nobody would be able to help.
“Is it because you’re so close to getting along that you’re more careful?”
“Sa-Sana doesn’t know.”
“Okay then, how about we go with the three of us, including Ii-san.”
If it’s like this, Sana won’t resist. I don’t think I’ll be of any use, but it’ll be easier for Sana if it’s the three of us.
“Kana-chan again… Sana wanted it to be just the two of us…” Sana whispered uninterestedly. Then she struck her hands together. “Ah that’s right. Kana-chan said that she’d have plans next week.”
“Sounds like a bad excuse, are you sure…?”
“It’s true, really!”
I’m pretty interested in browsing games and manga, so I didn’t really have a reason to not go.
Hiiragi-chan is also busy this weekend.
“Got it? Then, next Saturday, okay?”
“You probably won’t have any plans anyways. Sana understands that.” Sara straight-up dissed me with a shit-eating grin.
It was a nice smile that I haven’t seen recently.
* Hiiragi Haruka
“Hey, Seiji-kun. What are you doing Saturday?”
“Ahh, tomorrow I”m going out with Sana to go shopping for games, manga, and stuff.”
“I see. Have fun~”
So I said, but I can’t help but be curious…No matter how I think about it, Sana-chan doesn’t see herself as Seiji-kun’s little sister. I saw her during that decisive scene after all, and the way she acted around Seji-kun didn’t exactly make her seem like a little sister.
“Brother and sister relationship is definitely much worse than a student-teacher relationship, Sana-chan.”
The staff room clock just passed 11 am. There were surprisingly lots of other teachers that came in to work on Saturday. Where there’s teachers who come in early for club guidance, and do work later, I just find myself cleaning up the rest of work I left untouched. I’m the latter. If I could finish work faster, I would’ve been able to play with Seiji-kun this week… I can’t help but think about what he’s doing right now. Despite coming in at 8 am in the morning, I haven’t made any progress at all. Even though I was going to give it my all today and then play with Seiji-kun tomorrow…
“Muuuun… I can’t finish anything…”
Ever since I started going out with Seiji-kun, I still joined the drinking parties on Fridays, but I stopped drinking alcohol during these. If I got really drunk, I would definitely spurt out that I have a boyfriend. If I said I had a boyfriend, people would ask how old he is or what kind of career he has.
Whenever there’s people, absolutely no-go. Seiji-kun would always say that. Though amassing lies can backfire immensely, if I start with a big lie, such as having no boyfriend, I can avoid the smaller ones.
Oh, Seiji-kun. I thought you were a genius.
When I think about him, I keep wanting to see him more…
………………
I’ll just have to take work home. I closed my laptop and brought all of my luggage into my car.
Even if I wanted to see him, he’s supposed to be out with Sana-chan, right…? If it’s games and manga, then the place is…
“It should be around the town center. It’s the only place they could be at.”
For things like games, manga, and anime, any shops specified in this are located in that area. I drove my car there, parked it in the nearby neighbourhood parking lot, and headed out. And thus, I discovered my beloved Seiji-kun.
“Lucky~ I found him.”
Uuun… I want to call out to him. However, since I told him that I’d be working, he’d probably ask “What are you doing in a place like this?” with a scary face.
Seiji-kun is a serious person and I’m clumsy, so he’d probably say “Do your work properly,” and get mad at me. Seiji-kun almost feels like a strict Senpai, always looking over me. Even though he’s a high school student. It’s because of Seiji-kun that I’m able to try my hardest at work.
As I was thinking of excuses for Seiji-kun in my head, Sana-chan arrived with a crepe in her hand.
“Why did you buy such a fancy thing?”
“Because Nii-san was staring at it the whole time. Nii-san wants to eat it, right?”
“I guess.”
Sana-chan smoothly grabbed Seiji-kuns arm and began to walk with him. Auuuuuuuu. I want to do something like that with Seiji-kun tooooooooooo. Since we don’t know who would end up seeing us if we were on a date, Seiji-kun forbid it, so we can’t do stuff like that…
More importantly, why are you holding his arm like that!? Aren’t you siblings!? Crossing arms and eating one crepe while walking together; that’s not something siblings would do! No matter how you look at it, they’re like a couple!! I’m soooo jealooooous.
If I was a maid, I’d be biting the hem of my apron. Ugh, I’m angry. Seiji-kun, just because I wouldn’t see this, you shouldn’t be so close with Sana-chan.
‘I’m watching you… always forever watching you…’
The sound of my camera clicking resounded, and I sent the message with the picture I took of them. I decided to watch over them from out of sight.
“──!?!?”
Ah, looks like Seiji-kun just saw the message I sent. He began to shake his head, looking around everywhere. Seems like he’s looking for his beloved Haruka-san~
“Nii-san? What’s wrong?”
“N-n-nothing. Today… didn’t she say she was supposed to be busy… That being the case, looks like she skipped out and decided to tail us.”
Ugee! He found out. Well, however…
‘You look handsome in your casual clothes. Sensei thinks it suits you well.’
I sent another text. If I praise him, I can probably change the topic of the conversation. Seiji-kun manipulated his phone and replied back quickly.
‘Please do your work.’
So distaaaant!
‘We won’t be able to play next week, right?’
That won’t be gooood! As he looked around his surroundings, he quickly finished the crepe and went inside a store. But I’m still curious… I’ll just keep tailing them~
* Seiji Sanada
“What’s wrong, Nii-san?” Sana asked shortly after entering the game store.
Judging from my frantic searching, Sana took notice and also began to look around. Hiiragi-chan didn’t follow me inside the store, right? …Ah. Something rustled from the store entrance. I only saw a shadow, but it was definitely Hiiragi-chan. You’re usually rather slow, so stop trying to act so agile.
“Nope, it was nothing.”
“Is that so?” Sana tilted her neck, crossed arms with me again and said, “Nii-san, over here.” as she pulled me away.
Sana seems to be so lively today.
“Here’s a game that you can play with two people! Recently, Sana has thought it was interesting and all but…”
Based on my standards ten years ago. I’ve never gone shopping with Sana like this before. As far as going out with Sana, we never crossed arms nor shared a crepe together. History is said to be exaggerated, but lots of weird things have happened since I started dating Hiiragi-chan.
“Ahh… alright then.”
Where are you, Hiiragi-chan? Matter of fact, what happened with work? She probably left her work behind to watch over us. As an adult, I’ll have to warn Hiiragi-chan later. My phone started to vibrate. Just as I thought, it was a message from Hiiragi-chan.
‘If I meet up with you, I can have the willpower to do my work, so I came here!’
Right off the bat with an excuse! It’s not that I want to be careful of us meeting up; I want to be careful of her skipping work. Honestly, I’m happy that my loving girlfriend would come to visit me. However, that’s a different story.
Can’t just let this slip, or else it won’t help her at all. There are good traits to be found in this, but there are bad ones too.
‘As a teacher, please properly do your job! We can play after!’
‘Uuuu… So formal…cruel…’
Sana began to look at me with curious eyes.
“Nii-san, which one is better?”
“Eh?”
“Mou, you never listen.” Sana puffed her cheeks.
Sana is cute when she’s in a good mood, but…Calling her a brocon is accurate, so much that I’d cross my arms and nod along.
“Nii-san focus on choosing a game. There’s Battlefield and Elysium.” Sana scavenges used games on sale from the wagon sale.
Seems like she wants a game to kill time for newer games to come out. Just buy any of these?
“Aren’t that expensive, are they.”
“What are you talking about? Sana’s pride won’t allow any failure.”
“My dear little sister. Aren’t they being discounted because they aren’t good games? But, for high school students, a hundred yen to a thousand yen is quite the value.”
“There are tons of games and they’re cheap!”
Over at another wagon sale, a lady that out loud in a monotonous voice. For a game store or similar places, she was wearing nice clothes that seemed out of place. It was Hiiragi-chan.
Peek. Peek peek. She is totally looking this way! If I were to talk to her now, I feel like she’d offer to buy a game for me. Wooow, what a coincidence to meet you here, Sensei~ As if that’d work!
“Should I buy two or three…?”
Peek. Peek peek. She’s showing that she just came here by coincidence. She’s inviting me. Inviting me to initiate the conversation with a ‘Ah, Sensei, you’re buying a game too?’ If I don’t talk to her first…
“Ah, Sanada-kun and Sana-chan. What a coincidence. Have you had lunch already? I’ll treat you both! Let’s go let’s go!”
It will definitely end up like that. Sana used a little bit more strength and squeezed my arm.
“Hiiragi-sensei is here. Does she also love video games?”
“Uhh, I wonder about that.”
I completely pretended to ignore her. I wish Hiiragi-chan would hurry up and go home to finish her work. Will just burden her and us anyway.
“Sensei also hides the fact that she likes games, anime and manga like Sana does.”
Wrong, my little sister.
“Coming out on a day off alone as a girl while getting excited over a wagon sale. That must be the case.”
You’re misunderstanding this Hiiragi-chan. Oh well.
Suddenly, I found a game with a price label of five-hundred yen. It seems it’s an action RPG with cooperative gameplay, just as Sana wanted. Maker Logo… This is made from the company future Sana works at. In this time, it’s just a minor studio, but they’ll start making lots of popular hits.
“Sana, how about this?”
Analyzing it as if it was an antique, she checked every part of its packaging.
“Seems fine.”
“Ok, I’ll buy this for you.”
“Huh? Wai- really?”
“It’s only five-hundred yen.”
“If Nii-san says so… then please buy it.”
After replying with an “okay,” I brought the game towards the register. On the way, I found an evil looking person oozing with a dark aura. It was like at a level where you would get scared simply as you passed by. At least not for me, but for other customers.
“Me too… I want a present too… Only Sana-chan getting one is unfair…!”
I was wondering who this dark aura sneaking up to me belonged to; it was Hiiragi-chan. I took a detour, lined up, and paid for the game. Then as I was trying to head out, Sana came after me.
“Nii-san, it’s bad.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Hiiragi-sensei is staring at the wagon and letting off some scary aura.”
Yup. I knew that.
“I bet it’s because Sensei didn’t find anything good.”
Sure… let’s leave it at that. Ah. That’s right.
‘If you do your work properly, I’ll give you a present, so do your best!’ I sent her a message.
The dark aura that was permeated through to the exit of the store vanished. Thud thud thud thud thud. Hiiragi-chan exited the store at an amazing speed. What kind of present do you even want!? Don’t leave me hanging like this after putting me into this situation! My phone vibrated; it was a message from Hiiragi-chan.
‘I’ll do my best!’
‘Haruka-san, you got this!’
‘Yup. Seiji-kun, I love you~’
As a teacher or as an adult, Hiiragi-chan is probably still clumsy. Vroom~ I saw Hiiragi-chan’s car leave a nearby parking lot and went back home. Sana said she understands. She understands and nodded.
“And just like that, Hiiragi-chan is off to the next battlefield…”
Yeah. That’s wrong maybe? I was wondering what to buy for her, but in the end, I bought a scrunchie for her. Her hairstyle is usually a ponytail at school. For an easy to use scrunchie at school, I got her a plain one. I secretly bought it, so Sana wouldn’t find out.
Around the evening, we boarded a train and headed home. On our way, Sana continued to embrace the game that I had bought for her.
“Nii-san, Sana will take good care of this… you bought it for Sana afterall.”
“It’s fine. You could have just bought a new one online, right?”
Sana was sitting next to me, smoothly grabbed my arm, squeezed my hand.
“It’s okay. J-just like this… It’s fine…”
The shining sunset on Sana’s face was bright red.
CClaw Translations 