Hentai Ouji to Warawanai Neko. Volume 2 Chapter 3

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Welcome, My friend

Let me talk a bit about my family. Do you all have parents or siblings still? I do, and it feels like the norm to me. I have a father who likes vehicles, a mother who likes to travel, and an older sister who likes photography. We quarrel because of the most foolish things because we’re so close. That’s why we always went on vacations. It was the same this summer.

In that sense, we’re probably nothing more than flawless guinea pigs abducted by aliens, seeing how we perfectly fit the human template of the solar system’s third planet’s far east island country’s inhabitants. Though I never really thought that this was something to be happy about, I certainly wasn’t missing anything.

We just lived together as a normal family. Whether normal is best, or not being normal is something amazing, I don’t dare state my opinion. It’s just like how I can’t decide what excites me more between pure love spats videos (Normal) or competitive swimming videos (Not normal). It all depends on the package or the actresses. But going into detail about all that would take too long.

Just, as someone who stands firmly on the side of ‘normal’, there’s a great distance between me and those who don’t lead a normal life.

“…In the end, that’s what happened.”

‘What exactly is this? Is there any deeper meaning to this that I can’t see for you to tell me about your dilemma on which video is normal?’

“Well basically, I’m thinking that people who enjoy ‘normal’ videos shouldn’t just disregard and differentiate other parties who enjoy these ‘deviant’ videos. On top of that, I was wondering if you were still angry at me, and if I could stay over again today and maaaaybe use the bath?”

Acting like I left the Tsutsukakushi Household, I snuck inside again and called Tsutsukakushi. What came from the phone was a long silence.

“…Hello? Tsutsukakushi-san, are you still there?”

‘Just do whatever you feel like.’

And thus, she hung up on me. So… is my lady still angry at me? I really don’t like this either, you know. Either way, I quickly cleaned myself off inside the excessively spacious bath. Once I returned to the walkways outside, I came up with something to do during this typhoon. Namely, the game of arriving at the storehouse without being drenched by the rain or falling over from the wind. There’s even the option of cooling your feet in the drenched ground, and the strong wind shaking the tiled roof creates some flashy BGM to go along with the whole thing.

By the time I made it to the double doors, my body was as drenched as a mop is before you wring it out.

“I guess it’s a full twelve-course typhoon meal, huh?”

Once evening came around—if you could even tell it was evening–thunderous roars filled the sky as if to announce the arrival of the dark age. The cut-out canvas of a window frame inside the storehouse was ink black.

‘A typhoon? It’ll be fine, totally fine~ It’ll clear up soon enough!’

Or so the weather report said. I swear, this weather Onee-san had better be stripping soon. With these dark feelings dwelling inside of me, I wiped my body dry with a towel and changed into some fresh clothes. There’s no need to feel hesitant here. It’s the towel that’s in my house, with the clothes that belong to me.

“No matter how I look at it, my house was totally teleported here…” I muttered to myself, but naturally no response came from the giant cat statue.

Thanks to the massive, bulky walls around me, I was protected from the typhoon, making me feel like I was protected by the wings of a foreign butterfly. Only the cat statue and I were in this storehouse. The Stony Cat kept its non-existent expression as always, standing tall above me.

…The cat statue up on the hill with the cedar tree would take something you don’t need and give it to someone else. In contrast to that, this cat statue was probably more like a true beckoning cat. It takes something important and brings it to another location. That’s what I think, at least. It grants wishes for people in a way that they didn’t wish for. That’s probably one of the supernatural powers of the Cat God.

After praying to this thing, Tsutsukakushi Tsukushi received a chisel and a log. Thanks to that, she managed to make up with her little sister.

But what is my current situation about, then?

I didn’t pray to it, but my house was brought here. Thanks to that, I had been scorned several times by Tsukiko, and had almost been killed several times by Steel-san. Basically, my latent desires for being scolded by a small girl and being scolded by a girl with big tits had started leaking? Breaking news! Yokodera-kun actually totally loves sadists!

“…It’s the worst!”

I am. No wait, the cat statue is. If that really was my wish being granted, I’d share this masochism with the cat statue and have it turn into cat food. I kneeled down at the feet of the cat statue. Before giving this cat statue some good punishment, I should probably see its effect for myself. What should I pray for? Something related to the weather Onee-san? Maybe about the track-and-field club? Or maybe…

‘It’s the same with the family. It’s the same with Tsukiko. I won’t lose against anything.’

The Steel Kings words came back to my mind. In other words, she wouldn’t lose in our battle to win Tsutsukakushi as a younger sister. I thought that I definitely had an edge, considering how much I acted like a worthy older brother, but that Onee-san actually has stronger emotions than I had previously imagined. Possibly even more than I do.

“No… No no no… this is impossible.”

I was a bit flustered. No, that was a lie. I was panicking like crazy. I have to become a worthy older brother for Tsutsukakushi. Not only making her angry all the time, but making her happy all the same. Then there’s only one thing I should wish for her!

“I wish that Tsutsukakushi—”

Would get her expressions back. That is what I wished for from the bottom of my heart. Tsutsukakushi had been someone like Azuki Azusa, who wore her heart on her sleeve. Tsutsukakushi would smile and get angry. When the three of us would go out to play, it’d definitely get noisy. But it sounds fun. That reminds me. I wonder what Azuki Azusa is doing right now. She should be about to leave Okinawa soon.

“…I hope Azuki Azusa makes it home safely.”

Just when I was about to wish from the bottom of my heart, I got distracted and just muttered something that came to mind. Immediately after, I heard a thud.

“Eh.”

“Eh?”

The voice I heard behind me clearly wasn’t my voice. When I turned around, a girl was sitting on my bed, wearing a bikini.

“…Eh, eh?”

Her long, wavy hair was in twin tails, dripping with water. Almost as if she had been at the beach only a second ago. Her shoulders were red from the sunshine, and a scent of sand and salty water came wafting to my nose. Like a gull that had just been hit by a peashooter, her eyes were observing her surroundings in a confused daze. She finally looked over at me, looked down at herself, and finally gulped audibly.

She once again looked at her surroundings, pointed at me, and confirmed one more time she was wearing a bikini. Her eyes were spinning in her sockets like sushi rolls, and tears started building up in the corners. I recognized this crybaby of a girl. It was—

“—Azuki Azusa?!”

“K-Kyaa…”

Ah, she’s gonna cry. The moment I thought that, however…

“Noooooo!”

Contrary to my expectations, Azuki Azusa’s reaction was to escape into my bed. Pulling the blanket up to her shoulders, she looked like an inhabitant of the desert.

“W-W-Where is this?! Why?! What is going on?!” She started bawling like a puppy.

Thanks to her panicking, I found myself calming down more, my head gradually cooling. According to Azuki Azusa, she had just finished swimming in the ocean and was in the middle of taking a shower. The world in front of her turned black for a moment, and she found herself transported here. As if there had been a staged blackout. She felt no pain nor effects of a jump. Wow, the Stony Cat really is impressively powerful.

“…It’s so powerful that I got wrapped up in the mess here?”

“That’s probably what this is… Sorry…”

“I’m used to it, so it’s fine. If you want to apologize, do that for the other things.”

She sat down on the bed and looked at me as if she was expecting something.

“…Other things?” I replied in confusion. In response, she averted her gaze and busied herself with wrapping herself up in the towel.

The legs peeking out from below looked like baked bread. So delicious.

“Could you not look at me like a starving panther!”

“I-I wasn’t staring like that!”

Her fingernails were biting into the towel she was holding onto.

“Also, why are you this wary of me? Weren’t you planning on showing me that swimsuit?”

“That’s different! S-Since you talked about starting with my body and all that, I can’t help but be wary, okay…?” Azuki Azusa bit her lip, fidgeting beneath the towel she had wrapped herself in.

I talked about that? Did she run into a pervert on the beach back there? What a disaster.

“You don’t have to worry about that! Most of them just use figures of speech!”

“What is that supposed to mean? I don’t get it. Also, why are you so cheerful? My heart is in shambles, you nitwit of a flying squirrel!”

I was trying to comfort her, but got yelled at instead. Youth really are disrespectful and scary nowadays.

“…Whatever. It’s not like I was expecting anything from a pervert like you. Hmph.” Azuki Azusa sighed as if she had resigned herself to something. “So you say this is really the storehouse outside Tsutsukakushi-san’s home? If so, then it really is messy…” Her attention was diverted elsewhere, as she looked at her feet with a suspicious gaze.

A DVD package was laying on the wrinkled sheets. It must have been part of my secret collection which Tsutsukakushi had been throwing around befo—

“Hold on a damn second!”

“Kyaaaa?!”

I slid into my bed head-first. With incredible speed, I shoved the dangerous object into the safe zone under the bed. I don’t need to be scorned and scolded yet again about this!

“I just saw something about pudding or melons on there…”

“It’s a long story! A lot of weird things are lying around here, but this is definitely the Tsutsukakushi family’s storehouse, so please believe me!”

“Even if you say that… Mm. Stay still. Don’t move. Act like an elephant that’s fallen asleep.”

“Huh?”

Azuki Azusa opened her hand right in front of my face to stop me and made a sniffing sound. She closed her eyes, slowly bringing her face closer to mine, and sniffed me once again with her nose right against my cheek.

“A-Azuki Azusa? You’re tickling me…”

“…You smell like Tsutsukakushi-san.”

“Whaaa?!”

When did you develop such a skill?! Do you like cats and dogs so much that you finally turned into one!? I jumped back, which caused the bed to creak audibly. Azuki Azusa was unfazed by this, however, and slowly raised her eyelids.

“You must have used the same shampoo as her. Did you just take a shower?”

“Ah, that’s what it was! See? It’s just proof that we’re in the Tsutsukakushi Household!”

“…I see. I wonder why you’re at Tsutsukakushi-san’s house, and why you even borrowed her bath. I guess that shows how close you’ve gotten during the time you sent me off to Okinawa all alone. Fufu, fufufu…”

“Um… why are you crying?”

“Shut up! I’m not crying!”

Azuki Azusa grabbed a tissue nearby and blew her nose. She shook her head, directing her gaze up towards the wall. There, she met eyes with the giant cat statue.

“In the end, it’s all because of that cat statue, huh?”

“Yup.”

“So while you were busy flirting with Tsutsukakushi-san, you happened to remember me like the useless tail end of a pig, and the cat statue read the mood and teleported me here.”

“Yup. Wait. The details are correct, but I really understand what you’ve been talking about for a while now.”

“…Why wouldn’t you ask to have a better wish granted?” Azuki Azusa muttered, still gazing at the cat statue.

Though I don’t know why she’s fixated on the quality of wishes, it’s true that the cat statue definitely grants wishes. But not in the orthodox way.

“I-If I were to wish for something, then…”

Still sitting on the bed, Azuki Azusa put her hands together and started muttering something, which I assumed to be a prayer. Following that, I heard a rustling sound. Suddenly, something appeared in front of me—dull silver handcuffs. They weren’t the type of handcuffs the police would use to restrain criminals; they were more like something you could buy at a discount store.

“The heck is this?” I titled my head in confusion.

Azuki Azusa didn’t notice this strange phenomenon, though. She was still busy passionately looking up at the cat statue.

“Kyaaa?”

I pulled her defenseless back towards me and pushed her to the bed. For some reason, I had the sudden urge to do so. Lying on her back, Azuki Azusa looked at me with a confused gaze. I quickly grabbed her arms, pulling them up towards the bed’s headboard and used the handcuffs to restrain her arms. She shook and struggled, but she had no means of escaping.

“This should do it.”

“W-What? What is this? Why are there handcuffs?!”

Azuki Azusa blinked several times in confusion. If I were to put it in her terms, she looked like a rabbit being put on a cutting board. I sat down next to her on the bed. I felt like I had to do this no matter what, so it couldn’t be helped. I removed the towel from her body, and I was greeted by her white limbs and the thin fabric covering her important areas.

“Wow…”

“—Eh, ehhh?!”

It was my first time seeing an actual 3D girl in her bikini up this close. Whether it be her attractive navel or the mole right beneath her collarbone, all of the things I could never see normally were great. But most of all, my eyes naturally drifted towards her triangular bikini.

Just as Azuki Azusa had said before, I could tell that this was quite a bold design. Her modest bumps on her chest were emphasized, no matter how small they were. She’s actually working pretty hard, huh? Maybe there’s some magic cast on this swimsuit as well. I subconsciously moved my finger towards one of those places (and was greeted by a soft sensation)…

“Hyaa?! W-What are you doing?! W-What is thish?!”

“Hahaha, so you have a lisp now. How funny.”

“T-Thish ishn’t the time to laugh—Hyauu?!” Azuki Azusa’s body jolted up like a jack-in-the-box.

But, with the handcuffs restricting her movement, she had to stop halfway. It really felt like I shouldn’t be doing this. But, even stronger than that feeling, I felt an odd urge that told me to keep going.

“Listen. During the phone call, I said something that hurt you. That if it’s impossible for you alone, we should try and find you a good bikini together.”

“W-We’re going to talk about that here?! C-Can’t you choose a more romantic time to say that?!”

“But it wasn’t impossible at all. You look really charming right now.”

“Char… ming?”

Azuki Azusa opened her teary eyes wide, staring at me. Like a puppy who happened to run into its owner, she made a gleeful smile, her cheeks slightly flushed. But soon after, her cheeks stiffened up again. She closed her eyelids as if distancing herself from her feelings. After a short silence, she met my gaze again. Her eyes had a fierce light gathered inside of them.

“…This is nothing but a lie!” She screamed.

“W-What is?!”

“All of this! I’m not happy about this in the slightest! If I wanted to win in such a pathetic way, I would have slowly worked on it like a swallow building its nest! So—I take back that wish!”

A fierce impact hit my chest, pushing me off the bed. Why did this happen? That was obvious. The handcuffs that should have been restraining Azuki Azusa had disappeared without a trace, like a sorcerer’s familiar that had vanished after finishing its work. Now free, the rabbit on the cutting board quickly covered her body with the towel again, as well as a bath towel, some curtains, and a tablecloth. She grabbed anything that was within reach, and used it to protect herself.

“Uuuu…! Uuuuuuu…!” Only her head peeked out from this wall of cloth, intimidating me like a frilled lizard.

“W-What’s wrong?! C-Come on, I’m not scary or anything! I didn’t do… anything…?”

Or so I wanted to say, but the troubling feeling in my head from a few moments ago had vanished, allowing me to think clearly again. Think about it. Where did I touch her just now? I was a complete gentleman, but I did in reality all the things I had always merely dreamed of doing. To a friend of mine. We had even gotten close to crossing the line.

“Uuuu… uuuu…”

When I met eyes with Azuki Azusa, her eyes were filled with tears, and sweat started pouring out from every opening of my body.

“A-Ahhhh, what did I just…? I’m sorry, I’m so sorry! Hello, police officer! And goodbye, my friend!”

“It’s fine! So don’t say any more than this!”

Right when I went to call the police on my own, a palm of a hand appeared from inside the fort where Azuki Azusa hid inside. She stopped me and also spoke like she blamed herself for all of this.

“…I understand the power of the cat statue now. It’s all because I wished for something weird.”

“R-Really?”

“Ignore everything that just happened. This is worse than some stupid nightmare being eaten by Mo¹. I can’t help but laugh. Even though I knew beforehand that I’d get the short end of the stick…”

Just what did Azuki Azusa wish for? Maybe her dream is to become a female police officer. A girl’s feelings really are too complicated for me to understand. But for now, since the girl was trying to dismiss everything that had happened, I felt the need to say something.

“Not all of what I did was wrong.”

“……Eh?”

“It’s true that I thought that you’re charming. I still do. My heart is still pounding.”

“E-Eh…!” She froze up for a brief second. “H-Huh, is that so…? Well, I expected as much… Ehehehe!” She laughed in a flustered manner, and her anxiety and fear seemed to have melted away like the snow after winter.

Though I still wasn’t sure what had even happened during the incident, it was more important than anything else that she seemed to have calmed down now. The End.

…Or so I would like to say, but my heart was still racing. Even though she’s nothing but a flatty, the bikini looked unbelievably good on her. I was still thinking of the effort the person who made the bikini must have gone through. I couldn’t help but still feel a bit aroused.

*

After everything was done and dealt with, we had to somehow take care of Azuki Azusa’s luggage and her friends that were still on Okinawa. We considered the idea of wishing them here with the help of the cat statue, but knowing cat’s trickery by now, it might have just summoned the entire plane here like ‘See? Now be thankful.’ I’d rather not rely on the cat without knowing how it would grant wishes.

So that’s why Azuki Azusa decided to just call her friends and explain the situation to them.

“But, will they really believe you if you just call them like that?”

“It’s fine. They’ll believe me.”

When I saw her smile confidently, I felt happy. I was relieved to see that an important friend of mine had managed to make more friends. Lending Azuki Azusa my phone, I stepped out of the storehouse. Trying to beat my high score in the Typhoon Passageways game, I rushed towards the main house.

“Going home in this rain is probably too dangerous…”

There was a high chance that the private railway wasn’t working. I judged that having Azuki Azusa stay over here would be the safest choice, so I decided to notify the lord of the house. Speaking of which, who’s the actual lord here? Tsutsukakushi Tsukiko or Tsutsukakushi Tsukushi? If you think about it rationally, it has to be the little sister (also because a death game would start the second her older sister sees me), but considering what happened before, it’s really hard to bring it up. I just hope she doesn’t get angry at me.

I tried to silently sneak past the King’s room to see if Tsutsukakushi was present, but the lights weren’t on.

“…Where did she go?” I tilted my head in confusion.

Then, a nice scent drifted up to my nose. At the same time, my stomach rumbled. Because of the sky being dark grey outside, I didn’t even realize that evening was approaching. I followed the dark labyrinthine hallways, blindly chasing the scent in front of me. I had been carried here before. The floor beneath my feet, and the planetarium-like skylight. The sink that suited the size of the user perfectly. As if to counter the newest fashion, the tableware had an old feeling to it.

Inside the Tsutsukakushi kitchen, I was greeted by someone’s small back. As if she was trying to drown out drumming of the pouring rain hitting the window, she made a light staccato with the kitchen knives. During spare moments, she would stir the contents of a hot pot or put something inside the oven. She did all of this with fluent dancing moves.

I was entranced by this seemingless movement as she worked in the kitchen, but when I listened closely, the girl was humming to herself.

“One day~ Inside the forest~ A bear came and said~”

It was undoubtedly Tsutsukakushi’s voice. She hummed a song with no intonation whatsoever as she worked on the food. As if a substitute for an apron, she wore a shirt too large for her tiny body, and her slippers clapped along with her humming.

Thank goodness. She seems to be in a good mood! I wonder if something good happened. I felt like smiling myself, as I watched her from the shadows, when—

“Young lady, please wait a moment~ ‘She is just so cute that I had trouble breathing’ Hmm~ Fufufufu~”

“…Hm?”

I felt like I heard some familiar words in between her humming.

“Hmm, hmmm~ ‘I am so deeply moved by the beauty of your little sister that it would even make the most magnificent flower feel shame!’ Oh my, dear bear, I am happy to hear that. ‘She would reign the charts with her cuteness’ Stop, I’m going to blush~ Mmm… Hmmm~”

Tsutsukakushi was holding a duet with herself. During the intermission, she would bury her face in the collar of the shirt, humming. But how do I say it… you know… that really is an innovative and original way to sing without changing pitch there… I guess even the utility player Tsutsukakushi has things she’s bad at.

“Still, it’s good to know that Tsutsukakushi gets happy when you praise her.”

“La la la~ There’s no person in the world who’d hate being praised. But the reason I’m so happy is because the one who praised me was Yoko—”

“Yoko?”

Bang!

I heard the sound of a plate clattering to the ground, and the humming came to a sudden halt, like her power had been cut. After a long lag time of rebooting her system, Tsutsukakushi Android Version 0.1 turned around.

“Yoko… Yoko… I’m happy the most because I’m being praised by people who have the highest rank in sumo, which is called yokozuna.”

“Ahh, so you like sumo! I like it as well! Now dosukoi!”

“Dosukoi. Wait, no, why are you here? Weren’t you on your way to take a bath? Not even an hour has passed. Yesterday, it took you more than two whole hours, or was that actually a trap?” I heard an indifferent weeping voice.

The expressionless girl had apparently given up on her dream to become a diva and was now attempting to reach yokozuna. She flapped her small arms in front of her chest. It looked like she was attempting some sumo slapping attacks. Dosukoi dosukoi, cute cute.

“I was pondering life’s most important questions yesterday, so I happened to spend a bit more time in the bath. Normally, I’m much faster. Anyway, about dinner…”

“In case you were thinking something weird about me, I want to reassure you that this is just a misunderstanding. I’m not always singing or dancing like this.”

“Yeah, I know. So anyway, how many portions of food do we have?”

“Also, eavesdropping in on me isn’t fair, don’t you think? You exploited the difference in your bath times to attack me. I firmly protest that this is foolish and despicable.”

“…Um, Tsutsukakushi, are you fine making dinner by yourself?”

“Why do you want dinner now? We’re not talking about that. Are you trying to change the topic? What a hopeless person you are, dosukoi.”

“…Dosukoi…”

I’m being scolded by some kind of wrestler now. I know that I’ve done a lot of things that deserve an apology on my end, and that probably won’t change for a while, but complaining about this right now is a bit ridiculous, don’t you think? Also, now that I take a closer look at this motion she’s making right now, it’s not actually a slapping attack. It’s more like Tsutsukakushi is struggling with her arms forward, desperately trying to take off that shirt she’s wearing. I feel like I’ve seen those English letters printed on it before—

“Huh? Isn’t that my shirt you’re wearing?”

There’s no mistaking it. I took that off yesterday when I went to take a bath, and it just hasn’t turned up ever since. No wonder I thought her shirt was too large for her.

“………”

The mini sumo wrestler in front of me, looking like she was seeing the end of the world, nearly collapsed. She only barely managed to keep herself standing.

“…An apron.”

“Huh?”

“…An apron. I couldn’t find one, and I just so happened to put on the next best thing I saw. It was very careless of me. I’m about to take it off right away. There’s no deeper meaning to it.”

“I’m glad you were careless!” I felt like crying from gratitude.

I thought that my shirt had been stolen from me or something like that, but now that I saw it being used somewhere it was needed, I felt relieved. It was time to praise the person who found it, Tsutsukakushi.

“No matter how many great things you do, it never goes to your head. I might not say it often enough, but I really am thankful for everything you do.”

“…No, that’s…” For some reason she just shook her head.

“It’s the truth. If it helps you out, feel free to use any of my belongings.”

“…Is that really fine?”

“Of course. In one of the games I played a long time ago, one of the girls would wear the protagonist’s clothes and say things like ‘Wearing your clothes full of your scent makes me so happy.’ When you compare those perverts to you, you seem like a goddess! Haha.”

“………”

“Tsutsukakushi?”

“I was the one at fault… Please forgive me…” The future yokozuna tried to turn around, but faltered not even halfway.

“W-What’s wrong? By ‘perverts,’ I mean those crazy girls in those games, and not someone who’s always clever and righteous like you.”

“…I will go on a journey. Please don’t search for me.”

“Why are you so hurt by this?!”

She pulled my shirt up to her face, hiding it fully, almost falling over like a hornworm as she tried to run away. What should I do? Tsutsukakushi-san had turned even smaller. I reached out my hand to help, but—

“—It seems like you’re enjoying yourself quite a bit.”

“?!”

A hand was gently placed on my shoulder. I didn’t even have to turn around. The familiar smell of death tickled my nose. How many times do I have to go through this?!

“P-Please at least not my head!”

“You don’t have to be this scared. It’s not like I am always angry at you.”

“…Eh?”

Behind me stood none other than the Steel King. Though I don’t know what kind of disaster led to it, she was wearing a beautiful yukata. Her eyes were narrowed, and she was showing a gentle smile. The hand on my shoulder didn’t attempt to crush my bones. Instead, she gently massaged me.

“It seems like you’ve shamelessly returned. Ah, no… you… you²…? You finally came back. I was excited to see you again.”

“H-Huh?! Excited?!”

“I’ve been meaning to get on better terms with you—the younger Yokodera brother. It seems like there have been some unfortunate events and misunderstandings between the two of us. This is the perfect timing, so why don’t you stay over for dinner today?”

“Eh, ah, okay…”

It seemed like even Tsutsukakushi was taken by surprise by this sudden development, and the hornworm stopped moving entirely. Instead, a sense of discomfort ran up my back like an actual hornworm. Something bad is going to happen, isn’t it?

*

Dinner in the Tsutsukakushi Household always happens in the middle of the banquet hall. Things turned out considerably well regarding Azuki Azusa. When I told the Steel King about her, she just mostly ignored her with ‘A friend? Go right ahead,’ which made things a lot easier. She even gave her a jersey top to wear above her bikini. Everybody sat in a circle at the table, illuminated by the lamps in the corners of the room, and it made this feel like an enjoyable banquet. It was considerably different from the hell that occurred last night.

“My, your sake cup is empty. I’m sorry for not realizing it earlier.”

“No, I’ve already had enough… You don’t need to pour me tea or anything…”

“What are you holding back for? We’re close enough to do this, right?”

Bang!

While making a weird sound, the Steel King closed one eye. Was that supposed to be a wink? Or was she trying to immediate the one-eyed dragon? Please let it be the one-eyed dragon³. She clung to my right side like she was desperately clinging to life, pouring tea into my cup. I lost count on how many cups this makes. The instant I finished one, she would pour the next, and if I didn’t finish the cup immediately, she would cling to me from a zero-meter distance, glaring at me with her one open eye. Silently asking for help, I turned towards the one girl wearing a big shirt and the other girl wearing a jersey top.

“………”

“………”

Absolute silence. Tsutsukakushi and Azuki Azusa both had their eyes glued to the dining table in front of them, wordlessly eating with their chopsticks.

—Umm, why do I feel the air around me getting cold?

If I had to say, tonight feels even more uncomfortable than yesterday. I get vibes that I’m being punished for something. I can’t even taste the delicious food Tsukiko-chan made.

“What’s wrong? You’ve stopped eating. Are the rolled eggs too big? Should I split them for you? This is the kind of teamwork that life demands, right?”

“No, um…”

“Mm… There… Oh, this is quite difficult. They’ve turned into a mess. In return, I will give you some of mine. It’s like we’re sharing the very essence of our life.”

“No, ehm…”

After basically slaughtering my delicious-looking eggs, the Steel King pushed her plate with her own eggs towards me. Even though she’s crazy clumsy at this sort of thing, she’s being very aggressive. Almost like a girlfriend crazy in love. Is the King sick or something? Did she get exchanged with someone else? And why is she suddenly—?

“On top of being kind, I am considerate as well. I’ve never even had a boyfriend before.”

Bang! (Wink?)

“I basically am an excellent newly-built construction, totally untouched, and I was thinking I desperately needed an inhabitant soon.”

Bang! (Wink?)

“If a man were to request company, I might just accept immediately…”

Bang! (Wink?)

The one-eyed dragon was pushing me for an answer. The collar of her yukata was slightly open, revealing one of the great three hollow places of the human body, the collarbone. It made this look awfully indecent. With her taking this zero-security approach, my heart was about to be stolen—Wait, stolen?

“Don’t tell me…”

I remembered.

‘Looking fancy and being kind is an effective method, I’ve heard!’

‘Now that’s interesting. I see, I see.’

The sight of her running her pencil through her notebook came flying back to mind. Is she actually trying this out right now? The relationship-ender plan where she’s trying to pull away her younger sister from the younger Yokodera brother? But she’s using it not on her little sister, but on me. Although she was making a fatal flaw in following the plan itself, it was effective nonetheless.

Tsutsukakushi’s gaze kept getting colder and colder, so much that the air around her started to freeze. She cut the grilled fish on her plate to a size you could feed small birds with. It seemed like this had quite the effect on her.

“Why aren’t you eating anything? Ah, I see how it is. You want that, right? Very well. What a troublesome fellow you are.” The Steel King picked up a rolled egg with her chopsticks and held it in front of my eyes. “Here, open wide.”

“H-Huh?!”

“Yes. Open wide, I’m trying to feed you… Ah? It won’t fit. There. There!”

You can’t just force food into my mouth like this! And that isn’t my mouth, either!

But then…

Smack! I heard the sound of something exploding. Apparently, that was the result of chopsticks being slammed against the dining table, but the exploding part of my depiction might have not been too far off…

“Will you give it a rest already…?”

From the sounds of it, she couldn’t hold back her rage anymore. Sitting across the table, Azuki Azusa had her eyes furrowed in anger as she glared at the two of us.

“Who are you, even?! Why are you forcing him like that!? Tsutsukakushi-san aside, a black kite stealing deep-fried food is pretty unfair, don’t you think?!”

…I don’t quite get what she’s complaining about. But I guess she’s not angry at me, so I’ll take it. Thanks to this opening she created, and the Steel King withdrawing her chopsticks from my face, I could escape from this torture.

“Hm…”

“Uuu…!”

In the meantime, the two girls were exchanging fierce glares, and I was acting as the neutral zone in between. Wait, what is this atmosphere? This calm world is starting to warm up!

“…What an unexpected greeting. You may stop trying to get between this boy and me.”

“‘T-This boy’?! What is that way of addressing him?! You weren’t that close before, were you?!”

“Ohh, so you knew about us? But fate finds charm in the unexpected, you could say. Yesterday we hated each other, and now we are close enough to love each other. That logic is not poor, is it?”

“It is poor! Excessively poor! You completely skipped so many steps⁴!”

“Skipped steps? I don’t understand. If you are Japanese, then speak like one. We may only exchange words if we speak a common language.”

“If you’re an inexperienced kite, then give the falcon a turn first!”

“…That made even less sense. In addition, what gives you the right to speak so overbearingly to me in my home? What kind of relationship do you have with this man? You must have quite the qualifications if you wish to make bold claims.”

“Don’t be surprised when you hear this. In reality, we’re actually frie—”

“You don’t mean to say you act in such a way when you two are merely friends, right? Nobody would be satisfied with such a relationship… Hm, I feel an odd sense of deja vu in this.”

“W-We aren’t actually friends…” With wet eyes, Azuki Azusa looked over at me.

I just returned a smile. I never thought that the crybaby Azuki Azusa would try to battle the Steel King, and would even refuse to step down like this. You can do it, Azuki Azusa! I’ll support you with all I can! Though that’s about all I can do.

“Yokodera is my… No, he’s like… That’s not it…” The (fake) noble lady started blushing furiously like a ripe apple, only to finally arrive at a solution (?). “A pet! He’s my private pet!” She screamed in despair as a last attempt.

“So I’m still a pet…?!”

How cruel. Oh so cruel. I know that everyone has their own perception of their relationships to others, but this feels like I’ve been denied by a friend.

“And that’s why, as his owner, I can say whatever I want! Now you should be satisfied, right!”

“No no no, I for one am not! Why are you still saying that I’m your pet?” I resisted.

“Once you’ve become a pet of mine, you stay one forever! We are friends, but if the time asks for it, you are my pet! And someday…!”

“I’ve been lured into some kind of flexible opportunistic friendship!”

The Steel King narrowed her eyes in suspicion, observing the two of us closely.

“It seems to me as if there is an inconsistency between the two of you. It almost looks like the self-proclaimed ‘owner’ is forcing something onto the ‘pet’.”

“O-O-O-Of course not. Hey, puppy, let’s do the usual ‘Paw’, okay…?”

What do you mean by ‘usual’?!

Though I definitely couldn’t say that. Azuki Azusa eyebrows were furrowed, and she was biting her lip. She looked exactly like a puppy in this scenario, so I wanted to go along with this nonsense for her sake. Without being manipulated by anybody or anything. Out of my own free will. There was also a part of me that wanted to get a closer look at her triangle bikini one more time, which was currently hidden beneath the jersey top. Men are always helpless against girls in swimsuits.

“Woof…”

On all fours, I slowly made my way towards Azuki Azusa until I arrived at her side. I put one hand on her lap, which led to her expression lighting up.

“Ehehehe! S-See?!”

She spoke with pure joy as she boldly patted me on the head. She apparently didn’t know how to hold back, and she used a bit too much force, inflicting a bit of pain, but after seeing how happily her hair shook, I put up with it. Seriously, you can’t tell who’s the pet here. What a helpless friend she is.

“…Hmmm… that totally ruins the mission of breaking between them and strangling him to death…”

On the other hand, Steel-san clearly didn’t appreciate this development. She even talked about strangling someone (probably me) to death. She was clicking her tongue in irradiation, as her kind Onee-san act started slowly but steadily crumbling away.

“Hehe, our bonds are comparable to mandarin ducks!”

“But wait a second. Isn’t this just a category of discipline?”

“Discipline is part of important bonds! ‘Paw’, ‘Sit’, ‘Wait’, ‘Lie down’, ‘Cuddle’, ‘Lick’… He does everything! That’s how amazing of a pet he is!”

“I don’t remember ever doing that last command! What are you talking about?!”

“Grrrr…”

Azuki Azusa emerged as the apparent winner, and the Steel King grit her teeth like a gambler who had lost his fortune.

“Even I can do that!” She picked up the plate with the dessert on it.

Matching the season, said dessert was homemade almond gelatin, which she put on the palm of her hand.

“I’ll let you do your favorite ‘Lick’ command, then. Come on! If you don’t hurry, it might fall to the tatami mats!”

“W-What are you doing?! We have just as much of that over here! You definitely can’t go! Stay! Sit! Wait!”

“No seriously, what are you two doing?!”

Yukata vs. bikini + swimsuit. Thank you very much for this amazing choice. If possible, I would have loved to watch over this from the seats in the audience. Seriously, what is going on here?! My body was pulled left and right, about to split in two. Please, somebody help—

“—I hate people who waste their food,” Tsutsukakushi, who had stayed quiet this entire time, spoke up.

She words sharper than needles. She intently stared at the three pairs of chopsticks that hadn’t been eating for a while now. After that, the cook of the day sighed and averted her gaze.

“……”

“……”

“……”

The three of us froze in place like water had been poured on us.

“W-Woah! That meat and potato stew is overflowing with taste like a school swimsuit just plunging into the water! My cheeks are relaxing all on their own, Azuki Azusa!”

“R-R-R-Right?! How do I put it? The spinach gives me a refreshing feeling like the grass of the Savanna whenever I bite into it, Onee-san!”

“I-Indeed! The fragrant scent of the miso soup is as sweet and delectable as Tsukiko’s scent herself! You agree, right?!”

We started eating our dinner so quickly it was as if we were competing.

“What an enjoyable banquet!” I said in a futile last attempt.

“Is that so?” Tsutsukakushi nodded, nothing more.

…It was actually delicious, so that wasn’t a lie. But half of it was us exchanging glances and trying to figure out who would take the blame for all of this.

After we finished eating dinner, Tsutsukakushi picked up the plates and headed towards the kitchen. The rest of us took our own roles like an ordinary family. The Steel King and Azuki Azusa went to take a bath, as if to show Tsutsukakushi that they were on better terms. I helped wash the dishes and tried to get her in a better mood.

“I’ll wash anything! I don’t even mind washing your entire body for you!”

“How about you wash that rotten brain of yours first?”

Following Tsutsukakushi’s orders, I use the detergent and the hot water at my disposal to make the tableware sparkling clean. That was all I had to do. Tsutsukakushi, who made her way around the kitchen like she was in her element, took care of the plates and various frying pans from cooking for four people. Basically, she was so fast that an amateur like me didn’t have much of a chance to help.

The whole time, it was comfortably calm. Only the sound of the rain outside and the running water inside could be heard. How many years has Tsutsukakushi been listening to this sound now, I wonder? I felt the urge to say something, so I just said the first thing that came to mind.

“…The food was hella delicious. Thanks.”

“Is that so?” Tsutsukakushi gave a noncommittal response.

The profile of hers next to me didn’t move in the slightest. Her frozen cheeks were illuminated by the white light, looking even more unmovable than usual. The eyes that had judged us before during dinner, overflowing with serenity, were the same now. But her hands were different. Her thumb and index finger were twirling the tip of her hair-tail. If I remember correctly, this gesture indicates—

“…It was delicious for me as well.”

“Eh?”

“With Senpai around, the house gets so lively. I feel like I can eat a lot more.” Tsutsukakushi looked up at me, and without making any expression, she gently patted herself on the belly in satisfaction.

The sight of that made me start laughing.

“How many cups did you have? Four, five? You had a lot of refills, as well. There’s no doubt you’ll start growing in no time.”

“…Where are you looking? What is going to grow? Good grief, you turn into a pervert the instant I show an opening.”

“I-I just happened to look there! I wasn’t imagining anything specific!”

“So you’re saying you had no impure intentions at all. Can you really say you didn’t feel anything at all when Nee-san was clearly trying to woo you over? Will you swear on all of those weird DVDs you have? Then you should have no complaints if I throw all of them right into the trash.”

“Eh. H-Huh? I suddenly don’t have any place to run away to anymore?!”

“…I’m joking. It was a fun dinner. I think eating with other people always makes things taste better.” Tsutsukakushi said. She turned towards the kitchen door.

Past there was a long, dimly-lit hallway connecting to the banquet hall. I wonder if the other two made it to the bath. I’m a bit worried…

“…Is it true that Azuki-san was transported here after you spoke to the cat statue in the storehouse? And not whatever you told Nee-san to cover it up?”

I was listening intently to check if I heard any distant quarrelling sounds when Tsutsukakushi suddenly spoke up. Now that she mentioned it, I had never given her a proper explanation, had I? I decided to tell her about everything that was important, naturally leaving out the whole thing with the handcuffs. About the Cat God who would give you whatever you wished for, but in a very twisted way.

“Then—” Tsutsukakushi spoke with her usual indifferent tone. “The incident about your house. I might have been the trigger for that,” she said like it was nothing special to her.

“…You are? How?”

“The cat statue grant people’s wishes, right? Then this must be my wish.”

“You were hoping that the Yokodera Household would just vanish? D-Do you hate me that much?”

“It’s better than all the times I felt like killing you.”

“Ah, I thought so…”

“Stop putting a rope around your neck, Senpai. I was just joking. I just thought that your house was pretty far away, and that it would be nice if we could eat dinner together. It must have picked up on that and turned it into something weird.”

…I was at a complete loss. No, I mean, I understood the words she was saying. But I don’t know how it would end up like that. She could have just invited me over for dinner if she really wanted it. But much less being invited over, she hasn’t even been allowing me to escort her home, and she always stays fairly distanced from me. Isn’t this the exact opposite of what she’s thinking?

“That doesn’t add up. If you wanted that to happen, you could have invited me any time. I’d even stay over for the dessert at night. Actually, I’d stay over for dessert more than anything!”

“Please explain why you repeated that last part twice.”

“O-Ouch?! Why are you biting me?! It was a joke! It’s an Arabian joke!”

“You’d better take responsibility if an internal dispute happens because of this.” Tsutsukakushi sighed, shaking her head.

There’s several types of sighs that Tsutsukakushi lets out on a regular basis. Right now was probably—Resignation. Not in response to what I had said, but in response to something bigger, as if she were competing against something bigger and stronger.

“…No matter how many times you send me off, you can’t always stay with me, Senpai. There are times when you have to go to your own home.”

“I mean, that’s true, but…”

“—Approaching someone or something with half-baked feelings will only result in pain,” She muttered, looking down at her hands.

The color in her eyes was a clear blue. Like the lake slumbering deep inside a cave, her eyes seemed to possess something deep inside them. She held them cast downwards towards the palms of her hands, and they shook ever so slightly. I felt like a fish about to get sucked inside them.

“Once summer break comes to an end, we won’t be able to spend as much time together anymore. We have to get used to this distance now while we still can. If not, I’ll keep suffering as I look up the stairs at school.”

So that’s why she’s been so distant as of late? The second-years at school are located on the second floor, whereas the first-years are on the first floor. A difference in school year basically means that we live in an entirely different environment. You have to have a good amount of courage to try to cross that. Tsutsukakushi blinked, but before I could respond, Tsutsukakushi simply bowed.

“But, and I’ll say it again, dinner today was really fun. Very much so.”

“…Tsutsukakushi?”

“My wish has been granted. Now everything is resolved. I’m sorry that I caused you trouble like this.”

Her hands, drenched from the water in the sink, looked infinitely more tiny than mine, like she was a baby about to break out in tears. I knew I had to say something, but I was unable to come up with anything. All that left my mouth was a short ‘I see’, which brought our time together to a quick end as well.

*

I’m staying over at the Tsutsukakushi Household again today. Azuki’s Mother wholeheartedly welcomed the idea of Azuki Azusa staying over, as well. As for me, though I couldn’t complain about it, I felt the opposing gaze of a certain someone, so I decided to sleep in the storehouse. I have my own bed there, after all!

That was nothing but a facade, of course. In reality, once night came around, I was planning on sneaking over to the main house and starting a heart-throbbing sleepover where I would accidentally slip into the wrong bed to meet a girl. After that, the whole ‘Whose leg is this?’ event and all that would start!

…Or so I had planned before.

My beloved Typhoon Attraction had gotten worse, so by the time I made it to the storehouse, I didn’t feel like taking another step outside. I just fell over onto my bed, dripping wet from the rain. They should have put on weather alerts for this mess. If things don’t calm down by the time morning comes, I don’t know how that start-of-term ceremony will even happen. Well, since I’m here, I definitely won’t be bored even if we get one more day of summer break.

“I guess that won’t work out, huh?”

I met eyes with the giant cat statue and lifted myself up from the bed. Thanks to Tsutsukakushi, I understood the origin—the reason why my house had been summoned here. That’s a good thing. But that’s about it. It doesn’t take care of anything at all.

‘I might have called it here.’

I have to try to think of the reason why Tsutsukakushi would wish for that. I see! So Tsutsukakushi wanted to be together with me. Now that we love each other mutually as siblings, let’s proceed with the family register! Yeah, I can’t be happy about that at all. The sigh Tsutsukakushi made in the kitchen… I feel like I can figure out the reason behind it if I give it some thought. Or rather, I have to figure it out at any cost.

The small lightbulbs in the room were flickering periodically, and the cool air inside the storehouse helped me keep my thoughts moving forward. On top of that, there was barely any sound to be heard inside here. But then I heard a metallic, creaking sound. The door of the storehouse slowly opened. Somebody was there.

A black lump of mass squatted at the entrance. Dripping from the rain, it looked like something that came straight out of the shadow valley of death, slowly but steadily crawling inside. It was drenching the sill, the ground, as its dripping wet hands reached out as if to look for something.

“—?!”

My lungs could only squeeze out whatever amount of empty air they had left. The black lump of mass crawled alongside the side of the room. The instant it touched my ankle, it tightly grasped it, and the other open hand shook my body as if trying to plead with me. From inside the black hair, which I had assumed to be a black lump before, appeared a dirty face.

“…I feel over three times. I can’t see in front of me.”

The Steel King’s face was drenched with rain, dirt, and what seemed to be tears.

“Thanks for that. I will never forget the debt I owe you, younger Yokodera brother. I plan on repaying this by using my own body, to be precise.”

“Then why don’t you make an about-face, go through the door, and go back to the main house?”

“No problem… Hm? Haha, aren’t you a careless one. That makes it sound like you’re telling me to go back.”

“That’s exactly what I’m doing!”

Feeling bad for her, I gave her a towel, but that robbed me of the rest of the luck I had. Wearing her jersey, the Steel King sat down on my bed with no restraint whatsoever, gave me another “Bang!” of a wink, and restarted her one-eyed dragon seduction. Could you maybe wipe the dirt off your face first? I can already tell this is going to end horribly.

“Let me make sure of something here. What kind of business do you have with me, King?”

“You must know already… How cold of you.”

“If you’re going to fidget like that, could you do a bit more cutely! You’re just cracking your knuckles there!”

“Aren’t you poorly informed about a maiden’s heart? Stretching my body adequately is proof that I’m a young maiden in love.”

“If that’s your idea of preparation, you’re already not a maiden at all!”

“I’ll start crying if you keep saying cruel words like that.”

The Steel King embraced my pillow, acting like she was hurt as she bit into the corner of it. What kind of maiden is this? Maiden Godzilla who’d destroy a city because she’s a tsundere?

“Please just go back to your own room…”

Obviously, the King’s Cinderella Time was still far off, and the needles on the clock weren’t moving forward in the slightest. If she kept playing this game until she fell asleep, the only thing I could do was play along. I looked at the door out of the corner of my eye and tried judging how far away it was. Just when I decided it was time to escape—

“…For crying out loud, what a dull man you are.”

“Guh?!”

I was hit right into the temple with the pillow. Another strike followed, and another. Thanks to the rapid assault directed at my vital point, I felt my consciousness slowly fading away. The inside of my head feels so fluffy and cloudy now! In my confusion, I was forcefully pushed down.

“W-What are you…?!”

“After dinner comes this. How much of a late bloomer can you be? You didn’t fall for any of my invitations. I can’t stand throwing my fishing line out with nothing biting on it.”

Before I realized it, the self-proclaimed fisherman was sitting on top of me, her eyes sparkling in anticipation. This is a storehouse completely isolated from the main house. No matter how much I scream, nobody will hear me, nor will anyone come looking for me in this pouring rain.

“Fufufu. I can tell this is going to be a special night for us.”

“Don’t tell me…”

“This way, we can do it without having to hold back!”

“She’s going this far?!”

She doesn’t mind if her body gets sullied. She’s only living for the sake of her little sister. A perfect example of an older sister! The Steel King proceeded to put her hands on my shoulders, trying to forcefully take off my clothes. I heard the sound of clothes ripping, specifically around my collar. Nooo, my purest part is going to leave on an endless journey!

“Don’t fight back. Do you want to get hit again? I’ll get this over with quickly, so count the spots on the ceiling if you don’t like it.”

“Where did you even hear that line?! That’s not something a girl should say, okay?!”

“Why are you resisting? Doesn’t every boy want to be approached by a girl like this?”

I mean, I myself admire the idea of an older Onee-san showing me the ropes for my first time using her own body. I actually think that would be the most blissful first time you could imagine. But that’s only the case if there’s actual consent involved.

“Doing it after being hit and pushed down and having my clothes ripped off of me is absolutely not okay!”

“You love to complain a lot, I see. Anyway, once it’s over, none of the circumstances will matter anymore.”

“There are no feelings involved, or even a mood built up for it! If I take you to court, I’ll win!”

“No problem. I’ll make sure to teach your body properly so that you won’t even think of doing that.”

“Nooooooooo!”

No matter how much I screamed or resisted, the Steel King wouldn’t give me any room to escape. I’m done for. I’m sorry, Tsutsukakushi, but your Onii-chan might just climb the stairs of adulthood before you… or so I thought. I resigned myself to my fate, relaxing my body. I could see the King right in front of my blurry eyes. She was licking her lips like a wild beast, pushing me down like the reincarnation of a demon, as her ponytail shook like the devil.

“So, what do I do next…?”

Only for her to tilt her head in confusion like a little girl, coming to a halt entirely.

“You don’t even know?! Then get off me!”

“Wait wait, I remember. I learned it in health ed. Once the stamen and the pistil become one, a stork will appear.”

“I really don’t think they used that sort of example for high school students!”

“I studied the final action myself. But I don’t know how to get there. No matter how many questions I asked, the teacher kept using Western language to describe it. She didn’t answer my questions at all.”

“I’m pretty sure that the teacher was trying their hardest, you know?”

“Ummm, a long time ago, there was this girls’ magazine I confiscated from a member before… It said something about heightening the spirits of the boyfriend with some sweet breathing…” Deep wrinkles built between the Steel King’s eyebrows.

She dropped her eyelids as she was busy trying to remember something, only to form a circle with her lips.

“Fuu!”

Fuu? I was wondering if she had something stuck in her throat, but she actually blew into my face at full force. Is she trying to be an electric fan? Is she trying to stop global warming this way?

“How’s this? You’re more excited now, aren’t you?”

“More excited about ecology, yeah. I think you have some very key misunderstandings about things, King.”

“Mmm. So that magazine was packed with lies. It seems like I need to write them a letter of complaint. This calls for a protest against this publisher. We’ll organize a protest in the streets.”

“I see you love the protest movement! Listen, I think they meant it this way.” I slightly turned my neck as I approached the Steel King’s side, directly aiming for her ears hidden behind her black hair.

I’m sure that everyone has practiced skinship like this while facing a girl on the computer screen, and I’m the same. Using the technique I had figured out myself by doing so, I softly blew across her ear.

“Hyan!” She let out a cute shriek like any girl would, jolting up like a coiled spring.

She loves to let out weird voices like that, huh? Just like back during the club. Now I’ve learned some new information that would surely prove useful in my future conquering of the King!

“Waahhh, what was that…?! I don’t really get it… but I didn’t enjoy that one bit!” She rubbed her fingers against her deeply-flushed ear, making excuses.

After she writhed in agony for a while, she approached me again.

“That was amazing! But now that I’ve seen it done, I won’t have any trouble stealing it for myself! Here I go!”

“Don’t?! Are you going to try to blow away my ears or something?!”

“Mm… L-Like this…!” She pouted, and even her cheeks turned beet red during her poor attempt.

That being said, it was far from a sweet breath. The ponytail of the young maiden shook from the effort, but it was all in vain. Seen it once, seen it all. That’s just how the older Tsutsukakushi sister is.

“Let’s stop this already.”

I felt sad, and a bit hurt for her sake, so I pushed her way. LIke a balloon without any more air, the King bent backwards, allowing me to lift my upper body.

“Why… why is it not working…?” Her last breath vanished into thin air, and only a sigh was left behind.

Her long eyelashes and sky blue eyes resembled a certain someone, and the sight of her sitting on my thighs made me think of an expressionless girl, but at the same time, she didn’t. Tsutsukakushi Tsukushi is the exact opposite of her little sister. She’s oh so very clumsy.

“It should have been a perfect plan… Where did I go wrong…?”

“If I had to guess… everywhere?”

“Do you not want to do whatever you please with my body? You were saying that my chest was a reward, right?”

“You remember the weirdest things! You shouldn’t be saying things like that to me! There’s a world you can’t even imagine out there! You’ll end up a mess!”

“…I’m fine with that.”

“Eh?”

“Just turn me into a mess then. As long as you’re satisfied, I don’t care.”

I was bewildered at her hesitant, nervous voice. When did this happen? She kept glaring like her usual steel-faced self, and yet bit her lip like a normal girl. Just by meeting eyes with me, her lips started shaking even more. Really, girls are just… Even if it’s Steel-san, if you show me a face like that, you’ll look like nothing but a hurt cat to me.

“W-What is it? Why won’t you move? Come on, aren’t you embarrassed to leave the meal in front of you out to get cold?”

“I don’t have any shame right now, so that doesn’t matter. You shouldn’t be doing this if there is no love!”

“…You’re saying things similar to my mother’s pet phrase.” As if she had gotten fed up with this, or even relieved, the caution around her mouth vanished.

Then, like she was blaming herself, she held her head. Her hair became loose, opening up behind her shoulders. It was glossy, and it was messed up here and there as she had to wipe it into a mess after the downpour. The strands of hair looked like they were in pain.

“…There’s no need to be so desperate. You don’t need to worry like that. Tsukiko-chan can take care of herself well enough, maybe even more than you think.”

“That’s wrong.”

“Why?”

“Because you’re stronger than you might think. Sooner or later, I will lose. And then Tsukiko will leave my side.”

“It’s not that big of a deal…”

“You have no way of knowing. You’ve never experienced losing someone. You’d never know. And it’ll take you a lot of time to get used to it…” The King embraced her own body, looking up towards the sky like a defeated soldier.

Her gaze roamed around the void, focusing up on one point inside the dark storehouse. The line of her lower jaw was sharp and detailed, and she had the face of a girl in her youth. It was exactly the same face I had seen in her family picture.

—Suddenly, memories that shouldn’t have been mine overlapped with her figure.

The young sisters living in this old house that continued to avoid ruin. The two of them, together on a rainy night, haunted by the pitch-black residence, scared of past ghosts. At the end of it all, she was scared enough to have the stupid dream of being bound to her little sister. If she hadn’t worried in solitude like that, the girls probably wouldn’t have been able to live through this. That’s the kind of scene I envisioned.

“…You’re wrong. I won’t take anything.”

“Lies. No, even if you don’t mean to, we won’t know what the future will bring. Just like I never imagined I would lose my parents back when they were still alive.”

The Steel King’s gaze still didn’t move. She was looking at the cat statue. The mysterious, giant lump of mass that should have been sealed.

“…I’m helpless. I can’t even seduce you. I don’t want to be left behind again. I don’t want to go through that again. If a future catastrophe can’t be avoided anymore—”

“You’re wrong! Nobody will leave you alone!”

“—Then this world can be destroyed for all I care.”

She spoke, almost like a prayer. Inside the storehouse, in the secluded space protected by the cat statue, the King wished to the God. In response, an unpleasant, ominous sound followed. It was almost like the Stony Cat was letting out a giggling voice. Of course, it hadn’t. But the sound continued.

“Uh, what is this?”

The King shivered, as did I. The floor shook, the walls shook, my view shook. The entire storehouse was shaking. I could hear the wind blowing fiercely like a wild animal’s roar. Even though the sound from the outside world should have been blocked off, it was getting louder and louder.

A beam of wood that had been supporting the center of the roof started creaking. Just when I thought that I saw dust falling down, a rift like cracking glass appeared, growing bigger and bigger as it created a line. Said line spiderwebbed out to every wall of the storehouse, and soon completed the loop, connecting one side of the line to the other.

“What’s going on…?” The King looked around at this in confusion.

“Get down already!” I yelled

“What? Have you fallen for my charm at a time like this? So I wasn’t just a defective product! But if you attack me after such a delay in time, I’ll have to mentally prepare myself again! I need to pray to purify my body and mugh!”

“Shut up for a second!” I forcefully pushed her down on the bed.

Though she resisted weakly, I didn’t let her retaliate. I covered us with the towel. I rolled up my body as best as possible and embraced her head to protect it as much as possible. After that came a thunderous roar and white smoke. I heard the impact of sound when the storehouse collapsed. Just as she had indirectly wished for, as if it would cause the destruction of her entire world, the ceiling and walls came down in a rumbling cacophony.

A ladder came crashing down only a few centimeters away from my ear. A log smashed the corner of the bed. Roof tiles pelted my back. The flower vases, DVDs, chairs, all of it was crushed. It felt like we had time-traveled back to the air raids from a time long past. I could only try to endure it.

I had no idea how much time passed before the roaring sounds around us stopped. My back continued to be hit by something. Realizing that this was merely the pouring rain, I slowly poked my head out from beneath the towel.

“Cold…!”

My face was immediately drenched. The solid storehouse had broken apart into an unrecognizable state. Instead of the drifting dust, the rampaging typhoon was running amok, violating our bodies. When we looked around, we were right beneath the storm at night, in the dead center of a mountain of wreckage.

“I-I understand your feelings… s-so let go of me… It’s hot…”

I heard an awfully relaxed voice from the King beneath my chest, but I didn’t feel like responding to her. My waist lost all strength, and I couldn’t move anymore. Everything around us had collapsed, losing all form. Only that giant thing—the Stony Cat—stood strong in the darkness, not wounded in any way. As if it alone had destroyed this miniature garden of a world.

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1 A Chinese mythical creature said to devour bad dreams

2 Steel King goes from Kisama > Omae > Kimi, which basically is the least aggressive version of the three.

3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Date_Masamune

4 Skipped steps was in English originally