It doesn’t matter how much darker the night gets, the dawn will still come. It doesn’t matter how much you don’t want tomorrow to come, the morning will still come.
That’s why I was looking at the clock in my room. The time is currently seven o’clock. If I don’t wake up soon, I will be late for school.
From outside the window came the sound of the rain. Until last night, it didn’t look like it would rain, but this morning the weather seemed as melancholic as my heart.
By the way, the manner in which I wake up is usually worse, coming close to asphyxiation. It looks like I have the unconscious habit of pressing my face into the floor while waking up. Since entering this year, I should have died and broken down into five pieces already. Maybe one day, I will be killed while waking up.
Right, I can say that I have never been late to a class. It’s an almost disgusting never-been-late attendance. I don’t want to be proud, but it could win a perfect attendance award.
Why?
It’s easy.
In my house, there is one more strong alarm clock.
“Nii-saaaaaaaaaan— Morniiiiiiiing!!!”
Together with a firecracker-like voice, *Dogaaan* the door of my room was flung open.
Standing there wearing a Rouran Academy uniform was a first year middle school girl with short hair. Her face was a little cute, but still childish, especially her eyes. Her two pupils were shining innocently. Without a hint of sadness, she had a brilliant expression on her face and a cheerful attitude. Her strong points were sports and her lively energy.
Sakamachi Kureha.
Yeah, without a doubt- my little sister.
“Uryaaaa!!”
After that first speech upon opening the door, Kureha jumped, yelling with a high tensioned voice. Her thin body was dancing in the air. As you know, this isn’t an open air space; this is my room.
But there’s no way that the jump would continue for long because she was falling at an acute angle. Naturally, the angle and the elevation were leading to my abdomen—.
“Guabha!”
Diving-elbow-drop. My body was hit by that one blow and incredibly took the form of the letter V.
Normally, an unconscious person would be immediately resuscitated with this blow. Rather, I think normal people would be sent directly to the ICU with this. Getting hit was also unavoidable. I could avoid the attack, but the one time that I had, the bed I had bought at the second-hand shop was broken into the shape of the letter U. That move has the destructive power of a great ballistic missile.
“Good morning, Nii-san!”
Kureha changed to the next technique while smiling, looking as if she was playing. Unfortunately, a little sister who went so far as to take the trouble to jump on me from across the room isn’t kind. At an incredible speed, she grabbed the futon that I was under and decided my body’s movements for me.
“Hey—! Solid Ankle Lock!”
“Guhaaa!”
“Continuing on, STF!”
“Wa— Wait a— gunyaaah!”
“And now for the choke!”
“……uh! ……h! ……h! (My voice won’t come out!)”
“For the final blow! Arm Crush Reverse Ten Symbol!”
“Guhaaaaaaaa!”
“……Aah… Sorry, Nii-san… I broke your elbow…”
“Uwaaaaaaaaaah?!”
“Tehe. That was a joke.”
“……………”
“But… Today’s target was your artery…”
“As expected from a triangle chop—uh?”
………
My mornings are always like this.
I am already used to it.
“Once again- morning, Nii-san. How did I do this morning?”
Like always, while wiping the nosebleed off of my face with a tissue, Kureha asked that.
“Aah, I had the shit beaten out of me as always. Thanks to that, I almost got to sleep a second time.”
That’s not a lie. The last one was dangerous. A little more and I would have gone to a flower garden to meet my dad who had died 10 years ago.
“Nyahaha. Yosh, the morning training is over.”
Kureha left the bed with a large smile on her face.
By the way, she is in the handicrafts club. No, seriously. I also thought she was going to enter the karate club or the pro wrestling research group, but she herself decided to join the handicrafts club. The school has everything to polish a woman, but what do they do for the morning training of the handicrafts club?
“Iyaa, but the handicrafts club is full of energy. Every morning we do physical strength training.”
“Physical strength training?”
“Yeah. It’s awesome. Buchou-san can break a concrete block with one finger.”
What a problem, God. Right after the school admission, my little sister ended up entering a strange group.
“We are going to the mountains for the Golden Week(1) training camp. They said that we are going to stay for three days and two nights for a survival camp. Sounds like too much fun. Right?”
“……Something is seriously wrong with your club activities.”
I have never heard about such a handicrafts club. In no time, you could have been brainwashed and become a green beret. By the time you realized it, you could already be fighting in the Middle East.
“I wanted to fight with a bear at least once; that’s why I am thankful for it.”
“Stop that. Even if it is you, you are going to die.”
“Eh—, I am serious here. Mom wrote in her last letter that she fought with a tiger in India.”
“Please, don’t try to be like Mom. That person stopped being human a while ago.”
My mother is so strong that she left her enemies crying in the ring, and half a year ago, she left on a journey to strengthen her fighting skills.
Since we receive a letter from her once a month with allowance, I know she is alive, but her current location is still a mystery. But I’m pretty sure that she would be somewhere around Egypt fighting with a mummy.
“Now that I realize it, Nii-san. The regions around your eyes are dark, didn’t you sleep enough?”
You can’t even say that I didn’t sleep enough. I stayed awake the whole night.
“Aah, I am only wondering a little about human relationships.”
“Nya?”
My little sister looked at me with fuzzy eyes, like she had seen a yeti on a snowy mountain.
“What’s that? I’m also in high school. I have problems.”
“Nii-san… Don’t tell me they are bullying you?”
Wrong. In fact, I don’t even know why you quickly answered with that. I felt like what had taken place in the infirmary yesterday had already surpassed bullying by about 100 kilometers. If I could, I would stop going to school.
“Then, it’s about women?”
“Well, you could put like that.”
Indeed, that’s right. But I wanted that to be wrong.
“Umm… I guess Nii-san is already at the age to worry about that.”
“Are you the neighboring Granny? Don’t say that so calmly!”
“Then, when is the wedding?”
“The conversation is going too fast. Is there a jet engine piled inside your head?”
“If it’s possible, I want a little sister.”
“That’s pitiful. I will never lay my hands on girls that are younger than you.”
“But I don’t want to become an aunt at this age.”
“…I beg of you, please believe your brother. Do I look like a person that would do that?”
Kureha became silent, looking at me with a serious face which seemed to indicate that she was in a bad mood.
Can you see it? From the eyes of my little sister, I look like a human without principles.
“But Nii-san, you are always peeking at my baths…”
“Don’t say things that could be misunderstood. I have never peeked at any of my family members’ baths!”
“Eh? But I am always peeking…”
“Okay, okay, I didn’t know about that.”
“But Nii-san, you always start washing from below your armpits.”
“You really were peeking!”
Why did she know that information? This is a top secret issue that I didn’t even talk about with my old goldfish.
“Aah, right, why don’t you take a shower? You are incredibly sleepy.”
“Don’t say that now! It sounds like you want to peek at me taking a bath!”
“Nyahaha. Indeed, that’s right!”
“That was right!?”
“That’s why we will enter together. We always used to do it, right!”
“I won’t do that! Entering the bath with you is a distant memory!”
We had bathed together until the second grade of elementary school. It’s so old an image that I can’t see it anymore.
“Hey, don’t say such harsh things.”
“That wasn’t harsh. In this age, entering the bath with your little sister is close to a crime!”
“Uuh, it’s a big problem, our father in heaven. Nii-san is entering his rebellious phase.”
Kureha was exaggerating, putting her hands together like she was praying to the heavens.
Don’t worry in the heavens, old man, I don’t have such a rebellious phase. If that happens, I would be turned into pieces by your wife and your daughter. Now I am very obedient. I am at the lowest level of the family hierarchy.
“Maa, leaving that aside. I think that you should take a shower and relax. This morning, your sleepy eyes are incredible, and your head looks strange too, Nii-san.”
“What kind of strange?”
“Err… Russian?”
“Don’t say such rude things. It could turn into an international problem, you know.”
“It’s okay. I have already managed to learn command sambo, so I think I can give a good match.”
“The incredible thing is that when you say it, I can’t take it as a joke.”
Command sambo is the name of a martial art that the Russian soldiers adopted. In Japan, it would be something like judo, and lately the number of fighters that use this martial art on the ring is growing.
Certainly, the one who taught this dangerous thing to Kureha was our mother. Lately, not only pro wrestlers but fighters from all places and kinds are using this martial art. A fearful story.
“And if it is command sambo, our coach is well known for that.”
“Coach? From the handicrafts club?”
“Yeah, his name is Sergey-san.”
“…………”
No matter how you look at it, he is a genuine Russian. I wonder if it’s okay, the handicrafts club of Rouran Academy. Perhaps in reality he is secretly a spy agent from some kind of intelligence agency. Next time, I will ask Suzutsuki.
“Then, Nii-san. I am leaving for my morning training. I have already prepared breakfast. You have to eat it all, okay?”
“By the way…… this morning’s menu is?”
I asked while trembling with fear.
That couldn’t be helped. In the last week, I haven’t eaten anything besides strange kimchi.
Gratefully, almost all of the house work here is done by Kureha, but it looks like she doesn’t have any sense for food. The number of overwhelmingly strange menus created by her is large.
“It’s okay. Today is different from usual.”
“Seriously!? Aaah, I feel relieved. There’s no way we could eat more than a week of the same thing for breakfast.”
“Yeah, I also thought that way, so I made today’s kimchi a nationalized kimchi.”
“Yay—, great, I’m so touched that I could cry—.”
Calm down. I can’t let this little thing revolt me. Even if I did that, I can’t win, and it is still better than the time Mom was together with us. Now that I think back, at that time, the dinner table was lined with nutritional supplements; that was an awkward scene.
“Then, I’m going, Nii-san. Let’s meet at school again.”
Kureha noisily left my room while shaking her skirt uniform. High energy as always. Way different from me. Are we really connected by blood?
Then, shall I take a shower?
I took my towel and went straight to the shower room. It’s not like I am following the orders of my little sister, but from here on I should change my attitude and tighten my feelings.
Whatever, from today onwards, it’s starting: my healing program.
“Fighting spirit… I have to wear it.”
I murmured it to myself.
Yesterday in the infirmary, I somehow managed to run away, but there are no more places for me to rest my heart at in the school. My last oasis will be my house, so I have to enjoy myself to the fullest.
I followed the way to the shower room, reaching the dressing room.
For the time being, I will take a bath and relax.
I thought that and opened the door.
In the dressing room was a beauty that I didn’t know.
She was completely naked.
“Whaaaaaaaat?”
It was so sudden that I raised a strange high-pitched voice.
What is with this situation? Is this paradise? Did Kureha’s elbow finally send me to the heavens!? Shit, it’s a shame that I’m not wearing my glasses! Thanks to that, my vision is blurred……!
“…………”
Iya, cool down, cool down. Calm down a little. Get back to yourself. This is not the time to think about imprudent things.
Her wet skin and hair. Looks like she was taking a shower, as she was wiping her wet hair with a bath towel. The unripe body of a young girl. It was still a little childish, but this was the verge of the emergence of the butterfly, when the beauty is still hidden. This was the feeling being given off.
“Ha, hey—.”
Why am I so calmly depicting her naked body in front of my eyes?
While petrified and astonished in front of my eyes, the girl used the bath towel that she was using to wipe her hair to wrap her body. At that moment, her pupils looked straight at me.
“Close.”
“Ha?”
“Close your eyes!”
Like she said, I closed my eyes right away. For some reason, I felt an absolutely strong power telling me that it would be bad if I didn’t do that.
And.
I felt a chill above both of my eyelids.
What is it? A finger? But what would a finger be doing—.
“Guaha—!”
A queer voice came out of my throat. The thing that was above my eyelids pressured my eyes with a tremendous strength.
“Gyaaaaaaa! My eyes! My eyes!”
While screaming in the usual tone, I rolled around the floor of the dressing room.
Iya, wait. I remember the feeling of this ruthless violence.
My body— My body remembers this feeling. What a merciless behavior. The only one who could do something so cruel so calmly is……!
“Humph. You should be grateful for the fact that you haven’t become blind.”
An alto voice resounded. I have unpleasant memories of this terrible, blunt feeling.
“Konoe! What are you doing in my house!?”
I screamed while pressing down on both of my hurt eyes with my hands. The person who was in the dressing room of my house this time was, without a doubt, Konoe Subaru.
“I came here a little while ago, and a girl who claimed to be your little sister came and told me to ‘Please enter and take a shower’. That’s what happened.”
“Why, why would such a thi—”
“I’m pretty sure that she was worried about me catching a cold. I got very wet from the rain while coming here, and my body was soaked. I took advantage of her courtesy.”
“………..”
Iya, this is absolutely wrong. Shit… Damn Kureha, she planned this through.
This is probably a foolish prank by Kureha. When I would go to take a shower, I would encounter my male classmate. It’s the type of useless surprise that she would come up with. Usually, I would laugh and leave it alone without any harm being done, but Konoe wasn’t a man.
“Why did you come to my house so early in the morning!?”
“Ojou-sama’s orders. For the sake of not letting you spread my secret, I was ordered to keep an eye on you. So I came to your house to go to school together and keep an eye on you.”
That devil Suzutsuki. I don’t think she planned that together with Kureha, but I’m certain that she thought that sending Konoe to my house would make a fun (for her) event happen. I felt like I could hear her loud laughter. Her plan was a great success.
“Leaving that aside… You saw me naked, didn’t you?”
Guh.
“Did you know? My household has an amnesia inducing technique passed down through the generations.”
I definitely know that. Yesterday, I got hit a lot by that. Because of that, my head still hurts.
“You have earned the right to be hit by that technique!”
“No, I will pass this time. You should give this right to the people who helped you through the year.”
I think that this could be sold at a net auction. This kind of enthusiastic idea sells for a lot on the internet, doesn’t it? A premier tag should fit well.
On the other side of the darkness of my eyelids. A mysterious, intimidating feeling was rising.
Killing intent.
When I felt the same cold feeling from yesterday running through my skin, I finally understood.
In this world, there are no more places for me to rest calmly.
“…that was my first time.”
Unexpectedly, I had the feeling that I heard an annoyed voice.
“Eh?” by the time I tried to ask the meaning of those words, my consciousness was blown into the darkness.
♀♂
TRANSLATOR NOTES
(1) Golden week is a holiday week in Japan. It lasts from April 29th to May 5th.