"Divine—punishnt!"
"—Pffwah!"
A heavy impact struck his abdon through the blanket, forcing the boy awake with a pained cry.
When he opened his eyes, morning sunlight was streaming into the room through a gap in the curtains. His younger sister—Takamiya Mana—stood there holding the bamboo sword used for her club activities, Greed Wolf-maru, and looking at him with a rather displeased expression.
"Good morning, Nii-sama."
"Good morning… my dear little sister Mana." (TL:this is so familiar~)
Clutching his still throbbing stomach, the boy forced out an ugly smile as he looked at her.
"Say… wasn't today's greeting a little too extre? No matter how you look at it, waking soone up with a bamboo sword is too much."
"No need to worry. I used the back of the blade."
Mana coldly imitated a samurai from a dayti period drama.
"There's basically no difference!"
Seeing his little sister seemingly following in his own footsteps from middle school, the boy let out a long, helpless sigh.
"Seriously, spare . Your brother spent most of yesterday walking. I probably walk more than twenty kiloters, and my whole body is still sore."
"Hmph… Then did you ever consider how I felt? A spacequake happened at noon yesterday. I couldn't contact Nii-sama at all. I ran all over the city worrying about you, and when I finally ca ho in the morning, I found Nii-sama lying in bed, sleeping as peacefully as could be!"
"I…"
The boy was left speechless.
Only then did he notice the dark circles beneath Mana's eyes. Although she was pretending to be calm, the slight trembling of the bamboo sword in her hands revealed how uneasy she truly felt.
Though they were technically a family of four, their parents were overseas for work most of the ti. In practice, only he and Mana lived in this house. If he had really gotten caught in the spacequake, Mana would have been left alone.
"Sorry… I was wrong… I made you worry…"
The boy lowered his head in sha and apologized to Mana.
"Hmph… fine. As long as Nii-sama understands his mistake."
After sniffling once, Mana's anger gradually settled.
"Now then, would you please explain properly? Where did you go yesterday? And who exactly is that girl beside your pillow?"
"Uh… well…"
Hearing Mana's words, the corners of the boy's mouth twitched slightly. His gaze shifted toward the side of the bed, where a silver haired beautiful girl was sleeping soundly.
Additional note: aside from the boy's jacket draped over her, she was completely naked.
Yesterday, after the boy found this girl at the center of the spacequake, he had carried her out of the disaster zone and back into the city.
Originally, he had considered taking her to a hospital for an examination, but he discovered that the nearby hospital had been destroyed by the spacequake.
By the ti he returned to the city, it was already midnight. Going to a hospital in the neighboring town would have taken far too long. Left with no other choice, he brought the girl back to his room for the ti being.
Because he had been completely exhausted, he had not even confird whether Mana was ho. He simply collapsed into bed and fell dead asleep.
The boy was sowhat troubled over how to explain it.
Of course, he had done nothing guilty. Out of courtesy, the mont he found the girl, he had imdiately acted like a gentleman and draped his jacket over her. However, he had carried her on his back for over ten kiloters. Along the way, inevitably, places that should and should not have been touched had been touched quite a few tis.
Although his conscience was clear, there was still an indescribable mixture of excitent and guilt, making it rather hard to speak of. He was afraid that once he said it out loud, it would damage his dignity as an older brother.
Seeing her brother's hesitant, wishy washy attitude, Mana could not help finding him suspicious.
"A naked woman sharing your bed… staying out all night with no word… Nii-sama's entire body sore from intense exercise… Could it be…"
Suddenly, Mana seed to understand sothing, and her expression turned incomparably sorrowful.
"…It's all right. I will always be on Nii-sama's side. Please turn yourself in quickly and properly atone for your cri."
"That's completely wrong! Didn't I just say my muscle pain is because I walked too far?!"
The boy roared in protest, trying to clear himself of the false accusation.
"And even if this were a misunderstanding, shouldn't your first thought be, 'My, I never expected Nii-sama to get a girlfriend and climb the stairs into adulthood's instead?!"
"Only in Nii-sama's case is that absolutely impossible! I have not been your little sister all these years for nothing!"
"You're really saying that with full confidence, huh!!"
"Then is that what happened?"
"…It is not."
"So she really was abducted?"
"I told you she wasn't! Damn it… what is this feeling of being exhausted and wanting to cry at the sa ti?"
After wasting a large amount of calories arguing with Mana, the boy let out a powerless breath and confessed the truth.
"There was a spacequake yesterday, right? I found her at the center of the explosion… She seems to be a survivor. Since the nearby hospital vanished, I temporarily brought her ho."
Hearing the boy's words, Mana froze.
"Really? I thought they said that once a spacequake happens, it's absolutely impossible for anyone within its range to survive."
"How would I know? In any case, I really did find her there."
"Mm… It is rather hard to believe. But for now, I will trust Nii-sama's words. That said, Nii-sama, you went to such a dangerous place again? Mother and Father would be angry if they knew."
"Uh… it's fine. They won't be back for a while anyway. Besides, I went to save soone. I didn't do anything wrong."
"I do not think that is the issue…"
At that mont, perhaps awakened by the voices of the Takamiya siblings, the girl let out a faint murmur and slowly opened her eyes.
"Ah, ah? S-sorry, did we wake you?"
Thump, thump. His heartbeat clearly sped up. The mont their eyes t, the boy's body stiffened, and he stamred.
"Hm? Why did your voice suddenly change, Nii-sama? And why are you using polite speech?"
"Shut up. Show so consideration for your brother, who has been single for seventeen years."
"…"
The girl slowly sat up on the bed, looking at Mana and the boy in a daze without saying a word.
"Hello. My na is Takamiya Mana. Please take care of ."
"…"
Seeing no response from the girl, Mana could not help feeling surprised.
"Nii-sama, could she be…"
"Mm. She can't speak."
The boy nodded with a complicated expression.
"She was already like this when I found her. It's probably aftereffects from the disaster. She also seems to have lost so of her mories. She can hear sounds, but no matter what I ask, she only looks lost."
"…I see."
Mana could not help feeling sympathy.
"Anyway, I'll take her to a hospital in the neighboring city in a few days. Until then, I want to let her stay at our house temporarily."
"Mm, no problem. Extending a hand to one in need is the righteousness of a samurai. I have no objection."
"Thanks…"
The boy sighed in relief, then turned his gaze back to the girl.
Like a chick that had just broken out of its shell, the girl was looking curiously at everything in the room. Her carefree, innocent movents naturally brought a smile to the boy's face.
(And also…)
His gaze slowly slid downward along her silken silver hair and inevitably ca to rest on the round, abundant fruit wrapped beneath his jacket.
As naturally as gravity existed on Earth, his gaze was bound by the gravity of that fruit.
(So white… so big…)
A terribly vocabulary-poor impression floated through his mind. Staring into the bottomless valley beneath the collar, the boy could not help swallowing secretly.
"Nii-sama… where exactly are your eyes looking?"
"Cough, cough!"
Sensing Mana's rather piercing gaze, the boy quickly raised his head, cleared his throat, and said with feigned seriousness.
"Mana, sorry. Could you lend her so of your clothes? It would be bad if she caught a cold."
"Mm… even if Nii-sama says that, my clothes probably won't fit her. I wonder if Mother's clothes would work?"
Mana scratched her cheek in slight distress.
"…Mm, ah…"
At that mont, the girl suddenly reacted to Mana's words, shifting her gaze onto Mana.
After a brief pause, sothing strange happened.
Brilliant motes of light appeared around the girl. The particles tangled with each other, intertwined, stitched themselves together, and finally transford into a sailor uniform identical in style to the one Mana was wearing.
"…Mm."
"Hah…?"
"…Eh?"
Unlike the girl, who showed a satisfied smile, the boy and Mana were left dumbfounded by the supernatural phenonon before their eyes, staring at each other in disbelief.
And in that mont, "Takamiya Shinji" understood.
The mysteries fictionalized in stories truly did exist in this world.
User Comments
0 comments from readers