Chapter 9: Volume 1 - CH 2.3

“…Onee-chan, Onee-chan.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Kind of exciting, isn’t it? A multi-floor building like this is nowhere near home.”

“Rather than a multi-floor building, it’s an apartment, okay?”

Upon passing through the entrance, Miki suddenly began to gingerly look around. It seemed to spark her interest as apparently there was no such apartment near Yuizaki’s home.

Yuizaki’s home was an hour’s train ride away; Sandai remembered hearing about it. Further out of the suburbs distance-wise… that would be a bit rural already.

In many ways, it seemed to be a new experience for Miki who was still very young and probably also got little opportunities to go out into the urban area.

“…You shouldn’t look around so much like that, Miki. It’s not like near our home. I don’t care if someone gets mad at you, okay?”

“Who’s gonna get mad? For now, Onii-chan doesn’t look angry, you know? Then that means just a little bit is okay, isn’t it?”

Miki’s deduction wasn’t mistaken; Sandai wasn’t bothered by Miki’s behavior because in this apartment there was an unspoken agreement of mutual nonintervention between residents.

No one would frown just because a very young child was unable to calm down.

Yet, earlier than Sandai could defend Miki’s words and actions, “But still,” Shino flicked Miki’s forehead.

“Owie… What’re you doing, Onee-chan?”

“Even if no one cares or is angry, it doesn’t mean bad manners are A-OK.”

“Unlike how you look, you are straight-laced on the inside, huh, Onee-chan… haahh… Maybe smoochie smooch is impossible.”

“Smoochie smooch is… err well…”

Smoochie smooch or something—Sandai wasn’t really sure what Shino and Miki were talking about halfway through, but anyway, although late, he told Shino why he didn’t mind Miki’s behavior.

Though, despite hearing what Sandai said, “Nuh-uh,” Shino shook her head, not yielding. “Even if no one cares, bad manners aren’t good,” said Shino.

Both in terms of morals and education towards children, Shino was on the right. Sandai kept silent, as he was unable to make any counterargument and felt that putting up a petty resistance might cause unnecessary discord.

Upon entering his home and heading for the kitchen, Shino began pulling out various cooking utensils from the wicker basket she had brought while humming a tune.

“Ooh… So these are utensils for making confectionaries. It uses various things, huh.”

“Well yeah. Now all we need is an oven.”

“Oven? There’s probably none here.”

“There is, y’know?”

“How could you know?”

“I made breakfast here last time, right? I found the oven then, so I know there’s one. It’s this one.” Tap-tap, Shino tapped a box in the corner of the kitchen. 

If Sandai wasn’t mistaken, that box had always been there according to his memory.

He wasn’t certain since when it had been there, and had only been aware that it was a box he didn’t really know that looked like a microwave oven but somehow different, however…

“So that was an oven, huh…”

“Eh? You didn’t kno… wait, come to think of it you don’t cook and stuff, don’t you? Then I guess it can’t be helped if you don’t know since you don’t use it…”

“I’m extremely happy to have your understanding.”

“No shame?”

“I don’t really care about that. More importantly, something is kinda bothering me…”

“…Something is bothering you?”

“I don’t see Miki-chan anywhere. So where did she go?”

For some reason Sandai couldn’t find Miki anywhere; though, Sandai had noticed after arriving at the kitchen. 

“Huh?” Shino tilted her head, apparently noticing it once Sandai pointed it out. “You’re right. I wonder where she went…”

“She should’ve been with us when we passed the front door, so I think she’s probably somewhere in here, but… I’m gonna go look over there.”

“Okay, please do.”

They split into two and began the search for Miki.

There were multiple rooms, but it wasn’t as big as a detached house, so Miki was found rather quickly. Sandai spotted her lying down on the sofa in the living room.

“There you are, Miki-chan.”

“Wuh?”

“She is here!”

“Okaaay!”

Shino rushed over in response to Sandai’s finding report; then narrowed her eyes in displeasure the second she saw Miki.

She was angry.

“Miki…”

“You’re making scary face, Onee-chan…”

“Listen here, this is not your home, Miki. It’s this Onii-chan’s. It would be rude and just causing trouble if you acted like it’s your own home, right?”

“Even if you say that.”

“Even if I say it… what?”

“No, it’s nothing. That aside, Miki’s specialty is eating, so you two go ahead and make it, ‘kay?”

Miki didn’t seem to feel guilty to a surprising degree, and Shino glared at her. Though, that was only for an instant.

Shino gradually lost vigor and hung her head down, her face somehow looking like she could cry at any moment.

“…What is it you want, what am I gonna do if even I the big sister got seen as a selfish woman because you’re like that. What am I gonna do if Fujiwara hates me…”

The words spilled out by Shino sounded slightly shaky; furthermore, the volume was too low making Sandai unable to hear them clearly.

Nevertheless, having thought that he should cheer Shino up if she was down despite not knowing what she said, Sandai tried to say something to her.

However, his mouth didn’t move for some reason—his hand did.

The hand moved on its own, and Sandai found himself patting Shino’s head. That was truly an unconscious action.

“Eh… Wai…”

By suddenly getting patted on the head, although obvious, Shino was surprised, but she immediately blushed and cast her eyes down.

There was no sign of her resisting.

“…”

“…”

“Miki hasn’t eaten any sweets yet, but Miki’s belly seems full already… If it’s like this, maybe smoochie smooch will be pretty easy?”

It was when Miki sniffled that Sandai realized what he was doing. He hurriedly withdrew his hand and quickly stepped away from Shino.

“I…”

Sandai swallowed a gulp of his saliva and stared intently at his own hand. What he suddenly recalled was Nakaoka’s words.

★

‘What a troublesome guy you are… Have you got no assertiveness? Huh? Have the guts to forcefully make her look back at you. Show enough desire to get her into a good mood and ravish her. Be a wolf! Rawr! Rawr rawr!’

★

Sandai wasn’t taking Nakaoka’s words that seriously.

Something certainly did come to his mind; nevertheless, the thought of not wanting to make a dark past by making a move just as he was being fired up was stronger.

Part of him also didn’t want to put Shino on the spot by making a weird misunderstanding.

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Despite all that, his body had moved on its own.

Sandai was becoming increasingly confused about what was going on. He desperately tried to think and find the reason for his own action, but no matter how hard he tried to, he couldn’t arrive at the right answer.

As a last resort, Sandai now decided to forcibly change the subject to run away from this question.

He thought: if the topic changes, the mood will change; if the mood changes, he won’t think of unnecessary things; and then he should be back to his usual self.

“Come to think of it… there’s no ingredients for confectionery making!”

“…I was thinking of going shopping while asking you about your taste preferences.”

“I see! Then we’ve gotta go do some shopping!”

“…Okay.”

Shino looked at him with puppy eyes. Her eyes were teary-eyed, and Sandai recoiled back and turned his face away in response.

He felt like he wouldn’t be able to retain his sanity were he to continue looking at her in the eyes.

“…Even though it was just so close~,” Miki whispered to herself, shrugging her shoulders as she watched their closeness. “Onii-chan, he sure got surprisingly strong self-kontrol. No, just barely?”

4

Upon heading out to buy ingredients for confections, Sandai began to calm down as he felt the mood had somehow changed.

It seemed he was right in the judgment of: if the topic changes, the mood will change.

However, whereas Sandai was feeling relieved, Miki said she wanted to go to a big place that also got a game arcade—to a large commercial complex—as opposed to Shino who tried to go to a store specializing in confectionery ingredients, leading to almost another quarrel between two sisters.

However, a quarrel to the point of a definite fallout never occurred, and the next thing he knew, Shino and Miki made up and began having a stealthy secret talk.

“Geez… Come on, just be a good girl, I’m asking you.”

“Hmm?”

“W-What?”

“The mood earlier was good, wasn’t it? Miki doing what she pleases, and when you got down, Onii-chan patted you, wasn’t it?”

“…Somehow you sounded like you were aiming for that, though?”

“Miki was, though?”

“Eh? Realsies?”

“Realsies.”

“Hm-Hmm…?”

“And so, ‘good news’ for you, Onee-chan… Earlier Onii-chan looked like he fell, you know? He was making a falling-in-love face when patting your head. That’s why this is when you go for an attack. Cover it as an accident, then ‘smooch.’ Nothing to get scared of. Momentum is important, okay?”

“Miki… aren’t you kinda enjoying it?”

“It’s fine too if you think that way. ‘Cause you’re the one who chooses, Onee-chan. It’s just… you can cover it up as a natural accident better at bigger stores, you know? And Miki can go play at the game arcade to stay away, too. Gotta get some money to play games, though.”

“…”

“It’ll probably annoy Onii-chan if you decide so slowly, and it’s better to quickly decide if you don’t wanna get hated, y’know?”

“I-I got it. There’s some point in what you said, too… I’m in. Getting all indecisive isn’t in my nature anyway, so I’m seriously gonna do it. I’ve made up my mind.”

“Nn.”

What they could’ve been whispering about? Sandai had not the slightest idea, but was told only that they’d decided to go according to Miki’s demand.

They arrived at a large commercial complex, and Miki immediately started to look for the game arcade. The game arcade was on the second floor.

Miki raised a voice of delight at the sight of the rows of flashing machines.

“Nyufufu, now then, Miki will go play here alone until you two are done shopping.”

“…It’s late but are you gonna be fine alone?”

“There’s a person at the counter just right there, so it’s fine. You go worry about yourself instead of Miki.”

“You cheeky mouth…”

“Money.”

“Here 500 yen.”

“500 yen, huh… You can only play the crane game a few times with this. Miki just can’t kill time with this unless it’s a medal game. No, maybe it’s still gonna be tough.”

“Don’t go saying selfish things. I mean, I’m not rich either.”

“Yeah Miki knows…”

Miki frowned and groaned. She seemed to not be satisfied with the amount of spending money given by Shino, but well, it was also true that the amount of time she could spend playing wouldn’t be that big.

Sandai didn’t plan to go shopping for a long time, but he felt finishing it in five or ten minutes would also be tough.

Shino had said she would ask about his preferences and stuff. In other words, that meant they wouldn’t go buying ingredients decided beforehand, so finishing it in a flash would be impossible.

Almost certain that Miki would use up the money and wait for them, but… Sandai imagined such a sight of Miki and began to somewhat feel pity for her, so he took out a 500 yen coin from his own wallet and made her hold it in her hand.

“Onii-chan…?”

“That makes it a thousand yen. Now you can play a little longer, can’t you?”

“Thank you! …Fufufu, alright, then Miki will tell you something nice as thanks, Onii-chan.”

“Something nice…?”

“Lend Miki your ear.”

Despite tilting his head quizzically, Sandai lent her his ear as told.

“…You see, Onee-chan is surprisingly scatterbrained. She sometimes misses her step on the stairs or something. That’s why at that time you go ‘squeeze’ her, and protect her so she doesn’t get hurt, okay? Miki thinks she’ll miss her step today.”

That was such strangely specific advice—as if she knew what would happen, so to speak.

Sandai tilted his head even further only for Miki to just gallop away into the game arcade.

“…You don’t have to give Miki money. She’ll learn she can get it if she complains.”

Shino let out a sigh next to him.

It was probably true that it was bad for education, but in Sandai’s eyes Miki just looked oh-so pitiful.

Besides, “It’s not like I’m doing it everyday, and in the first place weren’t you also giving Miki-chan spending money?”

“There’s… a reason…”

“Reason? Now I don’t know about all that, but you certainly can’t say anything about me when you yourself are also giving her spending money. Well, I mean, look, wanting to play when going out is what kids do, so don’t you think it’s fine just for today?”

“…You seem like you would spoil your kid so much if you had one, huh, Fujiwara.”

“Is that so?”

“Sure is. I can somehow imagine your life after marriage. I feel like you’ll be a kind papa.”

“So you say, but I sure don’t think I can even get a girlfriend before the marriage, though. I’m a loner. Not even do I encounter anyone.”

“I think there are also loners who have a girlfriend or are married, though? I mean, even you had an encounter. Don’t you feel like … that other person is very close by right now?”

That was very a suggestive remark, and it made Sandai want to ask back what that meant.

However, he felt like there ultimately would be no turning back once he knew the answer, making him get cold feet and unable to ask.

“I feel like… there is, but… I also feel like there… isn’t.” Such a reply was the best he could give.

“I see… like there is, and there isn’t?”

“Tha-That’s right. It’s like that.”

“…Hmmmm?” Shino narrowed her eyes; her expression was as if to examine, to probe. At the end of that gaze was Sandai’s lips, but the person being looked at was unaware of it.

He was sensing only that the air around Shino had changed slightly, but that was all.

Though, no matter how dense Sandai might be, if the things called feelings were to actually be put into action, he would have no choice but to understand them.

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