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Little sister??
Little sister!!
Unlike Bokue Keikain, who was still in a daze upon the pillow, Kuroka instantly perked up upon catching that crucial word from the faint voice on the phone.
She practically sprang up in a single heartbeat, throwing aside the blankets and sitting straight, towering above him, staring down at the young man beneath her with wide, rounded golden cat eyes.
Her intention was crystal clear:
"You went and picked up another little sister outside?!"
Bokue lightly flicked the forehead of the cat-eared girl, whispering as quietly as possible:
"Dummy, she's my biological sister, not soone picked up outside—Yura. I've ntioned her before."
But despite his caution, the subtle commotion was still detected by the keen-eared Onmyōji girl on the other end of the call.
"What's wrong, Onii-sama? Is soone else with you right now?"
"Uh..."
Bokue vaguely humd a reply, pulling the slightly mollified Kuroka back into his embrace with his free arm.
"So, what exactly do you need so early? It's still morning, you know—I was planning on getting so more sleep."
"...Sleep?"
The voice on the other end instantly rose in volu by two notches, and was unmistakably tinged with irritation:
"Ah yes, I nearly forgot. Onii-sama's life in Tokyo is so carefree these days. As the family's acting head, you don't need to handle even a single duty, unlike , the future head. I've already had to attend two hours of etings since getting dragged out of bed at five in the morning."
"eting?"
At first, Bokue didn't quite react. It took another two or three seconds before he finally recalled sothing. Yesterday, that old man Gakuganji had ntioned they'd be heading to Kyoto to discuss the cooperation early today.
"Ah~ They arrived at your place that early?"
"Of course!"
The girl's voice on the line grew even more exasperated:
"For a mont, I actually believed that you had completely forgotten your own promises. Those people from the Jujutsu Association arrived on our doorstep at six in the morning! You knew about this beforehand but didn't even bother to call and warn —so I was rudely dragged out of bed by Ryūji when I was still sleeping so soundly..."
Yura's voice abruptly stopped. Sensing the oddity, Bokue raised an eyebrow:
"Didn't you just say you woke up at five?"
By now, Bokue's mind had finally cleared up enough to catch the contradiction in his little sister's story—like a spot of ink glaringly visible on pure white paper.
"Yura, don't tell you got up to use the bathroom at five and imdiately went back to sleep, counting that as 'getting up.'"
"..."
The silence answered it perfectly.
After a second's hesitation, the young Onmyōji girl on the other end coughed slightly, forcibly shifting her tone back to its authoritative manner:
"My point is, next ti sothing like this happens, you should at least call ho and give a heads-up. It's rude for our family to still be in bed when guests arrive."
"I'd say the ruder person is the one waking others up so early. There's an entire day ahead—no need to rush things like a damn morning court."
Bokue yawned sleepily.
"Anyway, how did the negotiations end up? Did it go smoothly?"
"Well, I suppose so."
Yura's tone beca slightly puzzled.
Based on historical records, the relationship between Onmyōji and Jujutsu Sorcerers had always been notoriously terrible—each group viewed the other with disdain. Onmyōji thought Jujutsu Sorcerers were amateurs always ddling unnecessarily, while Jujutsu Sorcerers considered Onmyōji arrogant, elitist snobs. Thus, traditionally, their interactions were mostly limited to mutual disdain.
Yet, surprisingly, today's visiting sorcerers were exceptionally humble and respectful—their posture was so low it felt as though they were practically kneeling in front of the Onmyōji. Even the terms they offered were ridiculously generous towards the Keikain Clan.
It was almost as if NVIDIA had personally visited a small graphics-card manufacturer, offering nearly all the profit margin and taking only a trivial fee for themselves.
Could it be that her brother had done sothing to these Jujutsu Sorcerers beforehand?
Just as Yura pondered this oddity, Bokue's voice ca through once more:
"If it all worked out, then that's great. You should go catch so sleep after the eting wraps up. Don't fall for that 'no need to sleep now, we have forever to rest after death' nonsense. That was just sothing cooked up by those old-tirs to trick young people into working like slaves. Keep pulling all-nighters like that, and you'll end up eting your eternal rest ahead of schedule. Now, if there's nothing else, I'll hang up."
"Wait a mont!"
Yura quickly stopped him:
"There's still one… no, two more things. First, to celebrate this cooperation between Onmyōji and Jujutsu Sorcerers, we're planning to hold a joint event in Shibuya at the end of June. You should definitely attend, Onii-sama."
"Absolutely not, I'm busy—"
Hearing about another annoying, semi-performance event, Bokue's first reaction was imdiate rejection, but before he could finish his sentence, his little sister swiftly cut him off:
"It's at the end of June, right after exams and the start of sumr vacation—how can you be busy? And it's in Shibuya, close enough to the central district that distance isn't an issue, right?"
Emm…
"As Acting Head, shouldn't you at least occasionally fulfill your obligations?"
Emmm…
Quite suddenly, Bokue found himself cornered.
He cleared his throat quietly, absent-mindedly fiddling with Kuroka's ears—who was openly listening in with unabashed curiosity.
"Fine. So what's the second thing?"
"The second thing—"
Yura, who appeared cool and composed yet was secretly a bit airheaded, was effortlessly diverted by his change of topic:
"Do you still rember Irina-nee-san?"
"Ah…"
"You know, the one who lived in the church near our ho when we were little. Orange-haired, tomboyish girl—looked a bit like a boy when younger? The one who got her mouth stuffed full of snow by you the first ti we all played snowball fights? Shidou Irina-nee-san."
"Oh… I vaguely recall."
With his sister's description, an image of a spirited orange-haired tomboy slowly resurfaced in Bokue's mories.
"What about her? Didn't her family move away a long ti ago? Did they move back recently?"
"Yes," Yura responded lightly. "Just temporarily, though. She stopped by our house last night to chat, and she specifically asked about your current residence."
"...Huh?"
Bokue was suddenly stunned.
Wait—so she'd already visited Kyoto, and now planned on visiting him in Tokyo?
Before he could process further, the cat-eared girl in his arms abruptly threw aside the covers again, sitting up aggressively, claws outstretched to pounce on him.
"Hurry up and confess honestly, Bokue! Who exactly is this 'Shidou Irina-nee-san', hmm?!"
"Hold on, I'm still on the phone—"
Bokue instinctively raised a hand to block, but it was already too late.
The commotion from the bedroom was clearly transmitted over the call, and in the next instant, his little sister's voice rose sharply over the phone speaker:
"Onii-sama—don't tell there's another… woman with you right now!?"
❁❁❁❁
anwhile, inside a certain church in Kyoto, a dignified young lady with blue hair and an enormous holy sword strapped on her back stared down curiously at the bullet-train tickets in her hand, then glanced up in confusion at the twin-tailed orange-haired girl in front of her:
"Irina, if we're going from Kyoto to Tokyo by bullet train, why didn't we just land at the Tokyo airport directly? Our mission is in Tokyo anyway."
"Well~ You see," Irina smiled mischievously, snapping her fingers proudly, "Kyoto is the spiritual hotown of Japan. If you don't visit Kyoto first, sothing bad might happen."
"Such as?"
"Hmm~ A plane crash, perhaps? Or maybe even a fox's curse!"
"...But we landed at the Osaka airport, didn't we?"
"Osaka counts too! It's basically right next to Kyoto—sa thing!"
…You just wanted an excuse to visit your hotown again, didn't you?
Fortunately, the pure-hearted blue-haired sword maiden didn't think that far.
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