Kawaikereba Hentai demo Suki ni Natte Kuremasu ka? Volume 11 Chapter 5

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A certain calligraphy club’s snowy mountain trip

Weekend had arrived, and it was around noon. The members of the calligraphy club were greeted by a silver world.

“It’s the mountaaaaaaains!”

“So cold! White! And full of snow!”

The weather had blessed this ski resort, Keki and Yuika were brimming with energy at the sight of it.

“If you keep screaming like that, you’ll cause an avalanche.”

“Sheesh, you two are acting like kids.”

In response, Sayuki and Mao were acting like their parents. The final one to comment was Mizuha, who just shivered from the cold and groaned. They had taken the bus early in the morning, and after arriving at the lodge, they immediately headed to the ski resort.

They all were in perfect ski attire, with Keiki wearing grey, Sayuki blue, Yuika pink, Mao orange, and Mizuha green. Naturally, they were all wearing headgear and gloves to protect themselves against the cold.

“We’ll have to thank Ootori-san for letting us borrow her residence here.”

“Right. I’ll let her know the next time I see her.”

Just like before, they were residing in yet another house belonging to the Ootori Family. Apparently, they had quite a few residences like this, which was quite an impressive thought.

“Nii-san, Nii-san.”

“Hmm? What’s wrong, Mizuha?”

Keiki’s little sister pulled on his sleeve and pointed to the ski center building they had just come from.

“Can I just read books inside?”

“You’re dead-set on not going outside, huh?”

Of course, Keiki himself fought hard to withstand the stabbing cold hitting his skin. For someone like Mizuha, who was more vulnerable to the cold, this must be even greater suffering. But the person who answered Mizuha was Sayuki instead.

“I’m not allowing anyone to stay inside. Everyone will be participating.”

“Ehhh…?”

“Since we’re here already, I want to have some fun with you, Mizuha.”

“If you say so, Nii-san.”

Thanks to their skilled persuasion, Mizuha agreed to participate. You rarely would see snowy mountains like these where they were from, so it’d be a waste to spend that time inside.

“Still, it’s pretty hard to move in this ski outfit. On top of that, it feels like the girl power is way too low compared to a swimsuit or something like that.”

“Girl power? Well, that’s just how it is.”

“Why don’t we wear swimsuits all winter to entrance Keiki-kun all year?”

“You’ll die, so stop that.”

Keiki didn’t want to see a frozen dead body wearing a swimsuit. The goal of these clothes was to protect against the cold, so it couldn’t be helped if they didn’t look quite as fashionable.

“Forget the swimsuits, how about we go ahead? We’re just wasting time here.”

“Yes! Yuika wants to have a snowball fight!”

“But we’re at a ski resort.”

“Yuika has never skied before.”

“Yeah, I guess it hardly ever snows in our town.”

The most they had gotten all year was the small amount on Christmas Eve. And it all melted soon after.

“I have a bit before, but it’s been a hot minute.”

“You can ski, Mao-senpai?”

“Mama would sometimes take me to a ski resort when I was little.”

“Nanjou can basically do anything.”

“You can borrow skis and sleds. Since I can’t ski at all, I think I’ll gallantly ride a sled.”

“How is that gallant?” Yuika gave the proud Sayuki a cold gaze, and then Mao called out to her.

“Why not try some skiing after the snowball fight? I can teach you.”

“Really?”

“Yup. I’d be lonely skiing all on my own.”

“Thank you very much! Yuika is actually a bit interested.”

The unathletic Sayuki chose the sled, whereas Yuika challenged the ski slopes with the assistance of Mao.

“I guess I’ll try some skiing myself. How about you, Mizuha?”

“I’ll just make a snow man over there.”

“That actually sounds pretty fun.”

Mizuha was the type of person who could work on something alone, which made this a perfect fit for her. After everyone made their choices, they started.

“Oh, this is pretty fun.” Keiki was a beginner at skiing, but just sliding down a hill wasn’t as hard as he had imagined, and he managed to be fairly successful.

The wind blowing past him gave him a rush. He felt like he could get used to this. After enjoying his time alone a bit, he found himself back at the bottom. Mao and Yuika walked towards him with skis and ski poles in hand.

“Oh, you’re doing pretty good, Kiryuu.”

“Yeah, you just have to get used to the basics.”

“Yuika is still a bit scared…”

“Yeah, I guess you can’t ski that well yet.”

“Are you ignoring Nanjou’s advice?” Keiki asked, and Yuika made an awkward face in response.

“Mao-senpai is showing Yuika the basics, but it’s still too hard for Yuika…”

“Ugh…Sorry…”

“Well, Nanjou is mostly skiing by intuition alone, I guess.”

She was the type of person to do things with natural talent, so teaching this might not be the easiest thing for her to do. Keiki felt a bit bad for Mao, but at this rate, neither of them would be able to enjoy skiing.

“Then why don’t I teach her, and you go ski some, Nanjou?”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I feel like taking a break anyway.”

“Really? Then please do.” Mao gave a slightly defeated apology and went up towards the higher-skilled course.

After seeing her off, Keiki turned towards his student.

“Then should we start the lesson?”

“Please do, Keiki-sensei!”

Yuika formed fists and gripped her ski poles in determination.

“For starters, forget everything Nanjou taught you. It probably won’t be of much use.”

“Understood. Yuika figured as much.”

“You won’t be able to turn into a natural in just a day, so let’s focus on the beginner course for now.”

“Understood.”

“For now, we’ll start with the ハ posture…”

Keiki started with a basic lecture, teaching her what he had learned from watching others and trying himself.

“Since you can’t stand fully upright right after you start skiing, you have to drop your center of gravity some more. Lower your waist a bit.” He explained, using the mental picture he had.

“Like this?”

“Um… a bit more like this…” Keiki moved next to the girl, putting his hand on her hip.

“Hya?!”

“Like this. You have to angle your knees a bit more.”

“Ah… O-Okay…” Yuika started fidgeting, but she obeyed Keiki’s advice.

“Yeah, that’s great. Then next is how you hold the ski poles.” Keiki confirmed the improvement in her posture and went on to check how she was holding her poles.

This time, he walked around behind her back, grabbing both her hands and moving them back and forth.

“When you’re skiing, you hold the tips of the sticks behind you—”

“A-Aren’t you a bit too close…? Y-Yuika can feel your breath!”

“…Huh? Yuika-chan?”

Realizing that something was off with his student, Keiki put the lesson on hold. When he walked around the girl to face her, he was greeted by her beet red face. It looked like a ripe apple.

“Are you okay? Your face is burning red.”

“Whose fault do you think this is?!”

“Huh?! You mean it’s mine?!”

“You’re way too close! You’re touching Yuika’s hip, embracing her from behind like it’s natural, and your breath was tickling Yuika’s neck that entire time!”

“O-Oh. Sorry…”

Maybe Keiki had been a bit too close after all.

“I just saw parents teaching their children like this before, so I used that as a reference.”

“Basically, you were treating Yuika like a child, and that’s why you got so close.”

“Uh…” Keiki didn’t know how to respond.

Yuika however didn’t dwell too much on it. She just fixed her hair.

“…Well, Senpai acting so clingy wasn’t half bad either. Yuika was a bit surprised, but it felt like we’re a lovey-dovey couple…”

“A lovey-dovey couple?!”

Keiki was surprised, but she wasn’t wrong. A one-on-one lesson between boy and girl could easily be interpreted like that. Keiki kept that in mind during the teaching afterwards, and after a few ups and downs, Yuika managed to ski for around one hour without falling over.

Keiki finished coaching his Kouhai, and after he took off his skis, he went back to the ski resort to take a break. He spotted Mizuha near the building, taking pictures of two snowmen. They were about the size of grade school children, with small branches as limbs.

“Yo.”

“Ah, Nii-san.”

“So you made two snowmen, huh?”

“I was thinking of only making one, but then it might have felt lonely, so I made them a couple.”

“I see.” Keiki said. “But since they’re a couple, why not give them some children as well?”

“Ah, that sounds nice.”

Keiki just blurted out the first thing that came to mind, but Mizuha immediately agreed. She put away her smartphone and flashed a smile as she stood in front of him.

“Will you help me, Nii-san?”

“Sure thing.”

“Then let’s make some children together, okay?”

“Phrasing!”

That could sound like something entirely different depending on context.

“I’m always ready to go, you know?”

“You’re talking about snowmen, right?!”

After that, they made lots of children.

After making some (snowmen) children with Mizuha, Keiki took a quick bathroom break inside the skiing center, and when he came back out Sayuki called out to him, pulling a sled after her.

“Ah, Keiki-kun, were you taking a break?”

“Yes. What about you, Senpai?”

“I’ve been riding solo on my sled this entire time, so I wanted to go down from a bit higher up. Why don’t you join me, Keiki-kun?”

“Sounds good.”

He had been planning on skiing some more, but riding on a sled didn’t sound too bad. With that decided, the two sat on the lift and slowly moved up towards the summit. All the other guests around them were equipped with skis or snowboards, making Keiki and Sayuki the only ones with a sled.

“The view up here is something else.”

“Yes, we’re pretty high up.”

“Are we going to be fine going down all this way with a sled?”

“Sure thing. Let’s hop on.”

“Yessir.”

Sayuki took the lead, and Keiki got on the sled after her.

“Hold on to me, okay?”

“Will do.”

Safety first, after all. They both tightly held onto the grips on their left and right. After checking that everything was ready to go, they started descending. They slowly picked up speed.

“Ohh, this is pretty fun.”

“Right?”

You couldn’t make any precise moves steering-wise, but it had a different type of enjoyment than skiing. It made sense that this was popular with children.

“I always admired the idea of riding a bike with two people.”

“A sled is a lot different from a bike, don’t you think?”

“Really? Maybe you’re right.”

“By the way, aren’t we going a bit too fast?”

“Indeed we are. Maybe we started a bit too high up.”

“Also… if we don’t take a right soon, won’t we go off-course?”

The sled was hugging the left side of the course, sliding down at quite an impressive speed. If they kept going the way they were headed they’d end up in a thicket.

“Sayuki-senpai, turn right! You have to turn right now!”

“Turn? Can you even do that with a sled?”

“…Huh?” Keiki’s brain was filled with fear after hearing that. “Senpai, stop! Stop!”

“I don’t know how to use the brakes!”

“Are you kidding me?!”

Their only saving grace was that no cliff was in front of them. But the fact that they were sledding at high speed didn’t make it any less dangerous.

“Ouaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah?!”

“S-Stooooooooooooop!!”

Their desperate attempts to stop proved to be futile, and they dove straight into the thicket ahead of them.

*

In a deep forest covered with snow, Sayuki and Keiki finally came to a halt and got up from the sled.

“I thought I was going to die…”

“Same here…”

If possible, Keiki would rather not experience that again.

“Sayuki-senpai, are you hurt anywhere?”

“I’m fine. What about you, Keiki-kun?”

“Same here.”

After moving his body to check for injuries, he found nothing out of the ordinary. Instead, he was just tired because of the near-death experience.

“We’ve gone down quite a bit.”

“That’s right…”

They looked up at the place they fell down from. Although it wasn’t a vertical wall, climbing up that slope…

“That looks like it’d be be quite difficult.”

“Indeed…”

If they lost their footing in the process, things might go downhill. Literally and figuratively.

“Then let’s take a detour and go back to the ski resort.”

“That’s all we can do, I guess.”

It would mean they had to walk through the forest, but it’d be much safer than trying the risky way up.

“What about the sled?”

“Let’s leave it here. This is an emergency situation, so I’ll explain it to the staff later.”

“Understood.”

Thus, the two started walking back towards the ski lodge. Although they had gone off-course by quite a bit, the area wasn’t too large to begin with, so they should make it back soon. That being said, after they had walked for a few minutes, that naive thinking was blown away. Unlike the ski resort, which controlled the snow in the vicinity, here it was left all alone. The snow could even reach up to their knees depending on the location, making this quite tiresome work.

“Sayuki-senpai, it’s pretty deep over here, so be careful.”

“Thank you.”

Since Keiki was taller than the girl, he walked in front and made a path. It proved to be the right choice to leave behind the sled. They wouldn’t be able to make it through here carrying something that big. But their surroundings started to change.

“Woah, it’s starting to snow…”

“No way…”

The clear sky was suddenly filled with thick clouds, and just when Keiki was thinking about the cold breeze that blew past them, particles of snow came falling down from the sky.

“That’s the mountains for you. The weather changes as quickly as the temper of a cheating husband.”

“You really couldn’t have thought of any better example?”

Then again, this wasn’t the time to joke around. Keiki glared up at the snow falling down, muttering to himself.

“This might actually be really bad…”

And, a few minutes later, his bad premonition turned out to be true. While they were on the move, the weather turned bad really quickly, and the gentle snowfall started to turn into a storm. The wind grew stronger, and the temperature dropped significantly. However, the biggest problem wasn’t even the wind or temperature, but the endlessly-falling snow. Because of this, their field of view grew much smaller, and they soon lost track of the direction back to the ski resort.

“……”

“……”

The boy and girl stood still.

“Keiki-kun…”

“Sayuki-senpai…”

“Isn’t this…?”

“Indeed it is…”

““The ‘Stranded in the Snowy Mountains’ event?!””

Let’s talk about this. A ‘stranded in the snowy mountains event’ is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. It’s a life-threatening situation. You often see such developments in manga or dramas, but most people seldom run into one in reality.

“Ehhh?! W-What should we do?! What do we do about this?!”

“Let’s calm down for a moment! We have to contact someone in times like these!”

“T-That’s right, we have the weapon of civilization—namely a smartphone—with us!”

Indeed, it’s always a bad idea to panic. If you start acting rashly based on anxiety, you’ll lose sight of what’s around you. The perfect counter to emergencies is to stay calm. For starters, they just had to contact their friends and request help.

“Ah.” Sayuki grew pale.

“What’s wrong?”

“I thought it’d be bad if I lost it, so I left my smartphone in my room…”

“Ah, me too!” Keiki screamed in despair.

Keiki knew his luck so he had left his phone in his room for safety reasons.

“…It’s my fault. I said we should ride the sled down from the summit.”

“No, I’m at fault just as much, since I didn’t think of the danger and just joined you.”

“But…”

“Also, let’s focus on getting home safely for now.”

“…That’s right.”

Casting blame in a situation like this wouldn’t do any good. Keiki felt relieved that Sayuki didn’t stay in a disheartened mood.

But thanks to this blizzard, I can’t even see right in front of me…

These were really snowy mountains, so if they walked over a cliff without realizing it, that’d be an immediate game over. Now that they had lost their way, wandering around carelessly might make their situation even worse. If only they could at least find a spot to wait out the storm…

“Keiki-kun!”

“What is it?”

“There’s a building over there!”

“Eh?”

When Keiki looked over to where Sayuki was pointing, he spotted a black shadow. He couldn’t make out the exact shape because of the blizzard, but judging from the size and general form, it should be a house or building.

“Perfect timing! Let’s go, Sayuki-senpai!”

It was a ray of hope in this disastrous situation. They rushed over to the building, only to find out that it was a small mountain hut. Compared to its small size, it had relatively big windows. It was a perfect place to seek refuge.

“Excuse me! Is someone in there?!” Keiki knocked on the door, but no response came.

Apparently, it was deserted.

“It doesn’t seem like anybody is here, so let’s use this to shelter ourselves from the blizzard.” Keiki said. He brushed the snow away from in front of the door.

“Let me help you.”

They cleared away the snow until the door opened, and Sayuki turned the doorknob. They hurriedly went inside and closed the door behind them.

“Ahhh, we’re saved…”

“Luckily the door wasn’t locked.”

“I wonder if we’ll get scolded for just entering.”

“It was an emergency situation. I’m sure they’ll forgive us.”

“For now, we’ll just have to stay on stand by until the snow stops. It’d be great if they had something warm in here.”

“Probably not. It’s just a small mountain hut, after all.”

“Right…”

A small hut like this wasn’t made to live in, so it was more like they were now inside a freezer. The floor was solid concrete, and there was a big shelf standing in a corner. The room was roughly twelve square meters, and unfamiliar tools most likely used to deal with excessive snow were scattered about. Since this wasn’t a place made to live in, there wasn’t anything to be found to warm oneself. It was a great place for protection against the blizzard, but staying here for too long wasn’t an option either. On top of that—

“This isn’t good. My clothes are wet from the snow…”

“Same here…”

Sayuki looked down at herself, and Keiki nodded. Since they had been walking through the blizzard, water had built up inside their clothes. The same went for their headgear and gloves, quickly robbing the two of them of the last bit of warmth they had. At this rate, the situation would only get worse.

“At this rate, we’ll freeze to death.”

“Even if there’s no heater in here, we might find some towels or other clothes. Let’s look around.” Keiki tried to stay positive.

However, nothing of great value was found. There was no stove and no matches. It was of little surprise that they couldn’t find any clothes.

“There’s nothing to warm us up…”

“Ah, I found some blankets, Sayuki-senpai!”

“Eh, really?!”

“Yes. But…” Keiki continued as he showed her the blanket. “There was only one.”

“……”

At the sight of that, Sayuki lost her ability to speak. They needed two blankets for two people.

“Hey, Keiki-kun…”

“Yes…”

“I know of one method to survive this situation…”

“What a coincidence. So do I…”

If they continued to wear their drenched clothes, they would eventually freeze to death. With the blanket Keiki found, they could warm their undressed bodies, but with only one available…

“Basically… we have to warm each other’s bodies…”

“………”

Sayuki spoke with an embarrassed tone, which only added to Keiki’s own embarrassment.

“…This is embarrassing, so I’d prefer it if you didn’t look at me.”

“Of course.”

“My underwear today isn’t cute at all.”

“That’s what you’re embarrassed about?!”

A few minutes passed after they found the item, and Keiki and Sayuki were sitting next to each other under the blanket. Of course, below this blanket they were only wearing their underwear, so they were basically naked.

“It’s much warmer now.”

“That it is.”

“But this is really embarrassing…”

“That it is…”

“Our only saving grace is that our underwear was dry enough to keep on.”

“If not for that, I’m pretty sure that my reason would break down.”

Keiki could thank his lucky stars for that. Then again, this situation was already dangerous enough for his reason.

“But we’ve shared a time like this together before, so this is nothing special.”

“Eh, really?”

“When we went to the pool together during the summer break. My bikini top was washed away in the wave pool and you covered my chest.”

“Ah, I remember now.”

Keiki couldn’t allow the girl to be publicly embarrassed like that, so he resorted to a last-ditch effort of embracing her face-to-face.

“Thinking back on it, I did something outrageous there, didn’t I…?”

“But I was really happy.” The girl showed a kind smile. “Keiki-kun will always protect me. Even today when I was riddled with anxiety… Even though you’re younger than me, you’re very reliable.”

“I-I see.” He felt embarrassed to be told that so directly.

He didn’t know how to handle this.

“Fufu. I really love you, Keiki-kun.”

“Huh? S-Sayuki-senpai?!”

The girl gently leaned against Keiki, putting her head on his shoulder. Yet again, Keiki felt like his reason was about to break apart like a glass falling to the ground.

“I imagined it every single day. A future I spend with you, Keiki-kun. Not just right now, but the two of us being together forever. I realized just how fun it would be.”

“Sayuki-senpai…”

“Since I’m a masochist, I like it when someone treats me roughly, but… If it’s Keiki-kun, then I probably would be just as happy with normal love.”

“………”

When Keiki heard this, he didn’t know what to say. He had never thought that the girl would ever tell him this.

Again.

Keiki felt happy, but yet something stung right in his chest.

It’s the same as with Yuika-chan…

Even though he felt happy hearing this, he also couldn’t fully accept the feeling.

Sayuki-senpai said that she would become a normal girl for me. That should make me happy, and yet I feel so gloomy…

He felt gloomy, and his chest tightened up. Every time he received affection from them, every time he felt attracted to them, this unfamiliar feeling would appear. Keiki had assumed that this might be the reason he couldn’t find an answer to their individual confessions, but…

Do I actually not want the two of them to become normal girls?

That hypothesis could explain this reaction. Even though Keiki thought it was idiotic, that idea wouldn’t go away.

“—Keiki-senpai! Witch-senpai! Are you okay?!”

“…Huh?”

The door to the cabin swung open and Yuika jumped inside, bringing Keiki’s thoughts to a screeching halt.

“Ah, there they are! Mao-senpai! Mizuha-senpai!”

The blonde-haired girl turned towards the door again, and both Mao and Mizuha stepped inside.

“Ah, you’re right. Both of them.”

“Thank goodness…”

They spotted the two lost people and sighed in relief. Of course, this is where you would normally que an emotional reunion, but Yuika made a cold gaze as she looked at the inside of the cabin.

“…You two. Why do you look like that?”

“Ah…”

Naturally, Keiki and Sayuki were still almost naked. Even if they were covered in the blanket, you could still see what was beneath. The clothes they had taken off were right next to them as swell, so trying to deny it wouldn’t work.

“We came here rushing out of worry… and then we find you like this?! How shameless can you be!”

“That’s not it, Yuika-chan!”

“It was an emergency situation. Our clothes were drenched because of the blizzard.”

“Hmph…”

“Then again, I can’t say I disliked the situation.”

“You really are a pervert through and through, Witch-senpai!” Yuika vehemently complained at the sight of her two upperclassmen. Keiki ignored her, however, and asked his Kouhai a question.

“Still, I’m surprised you found this place in the middle of that blizzard.”

“What are you talking about? It already stopped snowing.”

“Huh? No way!”

Keiki glanced outside and saw the sun shining like that blizzard just now had been a joke.

“How fickle can the weather up here be?” Keiki muttered in disbelief, when Sayuki spoke up.

“By the way, how did you know we were here?”

“What a stupid question. Once it stopped snowing and we returned to the cottage, we could see two tracks outside, so we didn’t even have to search for long.”

“Wait, the cottage?”

“What do you mean?”

“This is right behind Ootori-senpai’s private residence.”

““What did you say?!””

After that exclamation, Yuika and the others waited for them to change, and once they went outside, Keiki and Sayuki saw that this small cabin was a mere ten meters away from the Ootori residence.

*

Around thirty minutes after they had been saved, Keiki was warming himself up in front of the stove inside the living room, and Sayuki came back, having just finished her bath.

“Phew. A hot bath after being lost in the woods is the best.”

“How ironic, huh?”

“What about MIzuha-san and the others?”

“They’re out getting the ingredients for dinner. There’s apparently a supermarket a few minutes away.”

“Oh really? Ah, the bath is open, so feel free to use it.”

“Thanks~”

“Thank you for letting me go first.”

“‘Ladies first,’ as they say.”

Keiki went up the stairs to his bedroom, put on a change of clothes, and headed to the bath. While engulfed in the calm scent of warm water, he took off his clothes. When he passed by the mirror in the changing room, he remembered what happened in the cabin.

“Sayuki-senpai sure was beautiful…”

The softness of her skin, her sweet scent… It all came rushing back to Keiki’s mind.

“…Not good.” He forced his head clear of these impure thoughts.

If he dwelled on it any longer, things would get awkward once he saw Sayuki again. For now, taking a bath comes first, he thought, and he took off the rest of his clothes and headed into the bath.

“Woah, this is pretty big.”

The cottage’s bath was a sight to behold. It was more than two times the size of an average family bath. It had a much larger bathtub, which would be able to fit maybe four girls at the same time. After Keiki washed his hair and body with the provided shampoo, he headed towards the warm water. A milky-flavored scent filled the area, which helped Keiki relax even more.

“Ahhhh, I’m coming back to life…”

Keiki had been tired to the bone after getting lost before. The bath water healed his exhaustion to a level where he felt he could fall asleep any second.

“Oh right. I wonder what’s for dinner today.”

“We’re making paella.”

“Ah, really? That sounds great…”

………Hm?

“Excuse me for a second~”

“…Wueh? Huh? Mizuha?!”

The door had opened without Keiki even realizing it, and Mizuha entered. And, of course, she was naked. She was covering her body with a bath towel, but that didn’t exactly cover much.

“Hold on a darn second?!”

“Hm?”

“I am! Taking a bath! Right now!”

“Yup. I knew that before I came in.”

“You just admitted to your crimes?!”

What a ridiculous turn of events. Ignoring the fact that this wasn’t even their own home—No, even then it would be weird—she was invading the bath of her older brother during such a situation. That was too bold even for Mizuha.

“I heard that Nii-san was taking a bath when we came back from the shopping trip, so I thought I might join you.”

“Please don’t!”

“Should you really be saying that? If I scream, the others will come running.”

“What kind of threat is that supposed to be?!”

What made her think of saying something like that?

“So wait just a second until I wash my body.”

“…Can I leave first?”

“Eh? Did you say something just now?”

“I was wondering if I could leave first.”

“Hm? Did you say something?”

“Are you some kind of deaf NPC?!”

From the sounds of it, Keiki was not allowed to leave.

What in the world is going on?

Keiki made sure that he wouldn’t see anything by turning his back towards his little sister. That removed the risk, yes, but…

The sound of the shower behind me still makes it exciting…

The sound of the water hitting the ground tickled Keiki’s ears. Because he had averted his field of view, his ears must have grown more sensitive. Inside his head, Keiki chanted Mizuha is my little sister. Mizuha is my little sister. Eventually the sounds of water stopped and Mizuha walked towards Keiki with the bath towel wrapped around her. With no reservation whatsoever, she sat down facing her older brother.

“…Ah, this feels great, right?”

“R-Right?”

“Why aren’t you looking at me?”

“Well, I thought it’d be bad if I looked too much…”

“You can if you want to. I’m already shoulders-deep in the water, and the bath salt makes it hard to see, right?”

“………” Keiki gave in to Mizuha’s logic and faced her directly.

Just as she had said, Keiki really couldn’t see much below her shoulders.

“Fufu. You finally looked at me.”

“…Mizuha?”

The smile Mizuha gave Keiki inflicted him with a feeling of discomfort. It didn’t look like her usual relieved one. It was more like she was forcing herself to smile.

“What’s wrong? You’re acting weird, Mizuha.”

“Weird? …Yeah, I guess I really am acting weird right now.”

When she stopped her fake smile, she looked like a lost child.

“Hey, Nii-san. I was really scared today.”

“Scared of what?”

“The weather at the ski resort turned bad really quickly, and Mao-chan left with Yuika-chan inside, but Nii-san didn’t come home… And then we talked about how you might have gotten lost somewhere… and Mao-chan said we should just check the cottage…” She hugged her shoulders tightly as she spoke.

“While we were heading back here, I was really scared… Scared that Nii-san… that even Nii-san would vanish from my side.”

“Mizuha, you…”

The girl was crying. Keiki’s little sister who rarely, if ever, cried, was now holding her shaking shoulders as big round tears fell from her cheeks and vanished into the warm water. When Keiki saw that face, he understood the crime he had committed.

I’m a moron.

When Mizuha had still been young, she lost her real parents in an accident. She knew the pain of never seeing someone precious to you ever again. And yet Keiki had made her truly fear that yet again.

“…! Mizuha!”

“?!”

Before he realized it, he was already embracing the girl.

“I’m sorry for making you worry…”

“Ah…”

For a brief moment, it didn’t matter that they were naked in a bath. Keiki just felt like the girl would break if he didn’t do anything.

“I’m safe, okay? I definitely won’t leave you alone, so… stop crying, please.”

“…Nii-san.”

“I’m sorry, Mizuha.”

“…Okay.” Mizuha’s body relaxed in Keiki’s arms. “I’m really glad that you all were okay…”

She must have been worried even after Keiki and Sayuki were found. She had probably come to check up on him in the bath to try to cope with this anxiety. Keiki decided to stay like this until her anxiety went away. Time passed as he embraced his cute little sister. Then it happened.

“Keiki-kun…”

“Keiki-senpai…”

“Kiryuu…”

“Huh?! Everyone?!”

The door to the bath had happened without a sound. Sayuki, Yuika, and Mao were all standing behind it.

“Taking a bath with your little sister is one thing, but hugging her while you’re both totally naked…”

“Maybe Keiki-senpai is actually the biggest pervert in the calligraphy club?”

“You’re crossing the line that siscons aren’t supposed to cross here, Kiryuu.”

“Hold on! You’ve got the wrong idea about this!” Keiki was attacked by a fear of death and ostracization from society.

He moved away from Mizuha as he tried to think of an excuse.

Sayuki spoke up. “We don’t need any excuses. Mizuha-san must have tried to seduce you again, right? She said she went to the bathroom, but I never thought she’d take such a drastic detour.”

“I’m sorry. I decided to try to seduce Nii-san for a bit.”

“Mizuha?!”

“Ah, but Nii-san was the one who hugged me.”

“Hold on?!”

“““……”””

When they heard these words, the gazes of Yuika and the others turned colder than any blizzard. What made things even worse was that Keiki couldn’t argue back, since it was the truth.

“…Hey Keiki-kun?”

“Yes.”

“Just because you two are a siscon and brocon doesn’t mean you can take baths together forever, okay?”

“Indeed.” Keiki couldn’t think of anything else to say.

Of course, it took a lot of time to clear up this misunderstanding.

They finished eating their dinner made by master chef Mizuha, played some card games in the living room, talked about this and that, and eventually all headed to their individual rooms. Since they had three rooms to sleep in, they split up into pairs like they did back during summer camp. Keiki slept alone, Sayuki and Yuika were in one room, and Mizuha and Mao were in the other.

Keiki turned off the light in his room and lay face-up on his bed, thinking about what had happened that day.

“In the end, I couldn’t think of how to respond…”

The incidents with Sayuki and Mizuha were too hectic, and Keiki had no time to come up with his response to the confessions.

“…Hm?”

Keiki’s smartphone vibrated. He turned over on his bed and found a single unread message.

“Nanjou?”

The sender turned out to be Nanjou Mao. The message read:

‘Can you come to the porch right now?’

“What does she want at this hour?”

She didn’t mention the reason, but Keiki couldn’t sleep either way, so it didn’t matter. Keiki put on a hoodie and headed out to the porch. When he walked down the hallway and opened the door, he was greeted by the girl, her hair down, wearing a cardigan. She turned around to face him, giving a quiet ‘Yo’ as a greeting.

“I’m glad you’re still awake.”

“Yeah, I couldn’t really sleep. How’s Mizuha doing?”

“She fell asleep right away.”

“I see.”

“It must have been a real shock for her to hear that you got lost.”

“It seems like it.”

“Don’t worry Mizuha too much, will you?”

“I know. I’m reflecting on it.”

They had been lucky this time. Next time, things might not end so happily. If Mizuha were the one who had ended up lost, Keiki would have probably gone crazy.

“Well, it wasn’t anybody’s fault, so there’s no use getting hung up on it.”

“Yeah, thanks.”

“It’s fine. We’re good friends after all, Kiryuu.” Mao said nonchalantly.

When Keiki heard her say that, he felt relieved.

“Oh yeah, did you have any reason why you called me here?”

“Ah, that’s right…” Mao suddenly started fidgeting. “I want you to take a look at this, Kiryuu…”

“Is there something you want to show me?”

“This…” Mao handeed Keiki her smartphone.

Reflected on the phone screen under the starry night was a familiar magazine cover.

“It came out today. The magazine that has my oneshot.”

“Oh? Seriously?”

“It’s only the digital version. I couldn’t bring the physical copy with me.”

“It’s fine. I’ll buy it myself once we get back.”

“Thanks.”

“So this has the manga you were working on before?”

“Yup. The one I finished when you helped me.”

That must have been around the end of the sports festival. Mao’s first manga for the magazine had been turned down, which put Mao in a slump. Keiki helped her gather data, and they had stayed over at a hotel. On that night, Mao finished the manuscript.

“I made several changes after that with the help of my editor, so it took some time.”

“I see.”

“But it was fun. Every time I fixed it, it got more and more interesting. Though I got seriously close to running out of time towards the end.”

“Oh yeah, you’ve been really busy as of late.”

Not only was the BL manga on her schedule, but she also had to focus on the oneshot for the magazine.

“There’s lots of reviews out already. I just checked them.”

“And?”

“Hee hee, what do you think?”

Keiki could guess, thanks to her confident smile.

“All great. Even my editor praised me. They told me that a serialization might not be far away at this rate.”

“Seriously?!”

“Seriously. And it’s all thanks to Kiryuu.”

“Me?”

“I could power through it because you stayed with me. I thought I was done for back then, but I’m glad I kept going.”

“I see…”

“So thank you. I’m really glad we met each other.”

“I-I see…” Keiki’s heart skipped a beat when he saw the girl’s oddly innocent smile.

Keiki knew he didn’t do much. He had just helped her out a bit, and most of this was thanks to her hard work. But he felt happy knowing that he could support the girl just a bit.

“If my manga ends up getting serialized, you’d better buy a hundred volumes of it, okay?”

“Don’t get ahead of yourself there… But I’ll definitely buy it.” Keiki said. He felt like she might be able to do it.

He knew that she had enough raw talent, and that she had the desire to improve herself.

“Ah, but I’m not going to stop being a BL mangaka either. I still need you to flirt with Akiyama more.”

“I’ll have to pass on that.”

All that serious talk from just now had been ruined. But Keiki felt relieved to see that Mao was acting like her usual perverted self.

…Huh? Why do I feel relieved?

Why would Keiki feel relieved that the girl was remaining a pervert? This thought soon turned into a strong feeling of discomfort.

I felt so gloomy when Yuika-chan and Sayuki-senpai said they’d stop being perverts, but I feel relieved to hear that Nanjou will continue being a BL mangaka…

That was a clear contradiction.

No, it was weird from the very beginning. I had been hoping for the perverts to become normal people, but I couldn’t fully accept Yuika-chan acting normal.

He felt happy after hearing their feelings. The sweet sensation in his chest after hearing they were willing to become normal girls wasn’t fake, either.

So why couldn’t I choose one of them?

Why couldn’t Keiki find an answer? Why did he hesitate for so long? If only he had a small hint…

“…Nanjou?”

“What?”

“If the person you liked didn’t accept that hobby of yours, would you give up on it just for the person you like?”

“Huh? Where did that come from?”

“Just tell me.”

“Ehhh? Hmmm…” The girl thought about it for a second, and eventually made a serious expression. “When we went to the sea together before, we were looking at the stars, right?”

“Yeah, during summer camp.”

“It feels like it’s been such a long time. Then again, half a year has passed since then.”

“Oh yeah, because of Sayuki-senpai’s chocolate—”

“We’re not going to talk about that, Kiryuu.”

“…Right.”

Keiki decided to not remember the tragedy that had occured.

“Back then, I asked you what you’d think if I stopped drawing BL books, right?”

“Yeah, now that you mention it…” Keiki faintly remembered that.

It was a question like if Keiki could fall in love with her in that scenario.

“I won’t joke about that any longer. BL is my everything. It’s my reason for living.”

Under the starry sky, the girl made a confident smile and continued.

“That’s why I won’t stop doing it, even for the boy I like!”

“……”

These words felt like a falling star falling into Keiki’s chest. There’s no need to change yourself, nor to give up on the things you like.

Mao’s words repeated inside Keiki’s head.

“Ah, I finally understand…”

Everything connected inside his mind. The reason why he couldn’t respond to Yuika and Sayuki’s confessions, and the origin of that gloomy feeling inside his chest. It all clicked. The final piece he needed finally filled in the puzzle.

*

On the morning of the new week, Keiki got up from his bed and sent a single email. He kept it short. ‘Please come to the library room today after school’. It was time to give his Kouhai a response to her confession.