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“I had tons of fun today chatting with you. Let’s chat again some other time.” The purple-haired beauty had a soft and alluring expression in her eyes as she gazed at Seiji’s handsome face.
“Yes… I had lots of fun as well.” Seiji felt rather itchy from being looked at like this.
Yukari finally retracted her gaze and looked back at Mika and Chiaki one last time.
“Goodbye, the three of you,” she said. She turned around and left after saying goodbye.
The three of them watched her leave. After she was gone from sight, Mika and Chiaki both sighed in unison.
“She’s… such a strong enemy, Mika.”
“Yeah,” Mika agreed, “as expected of the ‘Princess.’”
Both girls seemed fatigued as if they had just fought a difficult battle as they muttered to each other.
Seiji was rendered speechless. He decided to pretend ignorance.
“After this… how about going together somewhere for lunch?” he tried asking.
Mika and Chiaki still had fatigued expressions as they looked towards him.
“I want to go home,” Mika said.
“Mika… I haven’t been to your home in so long, can I come over?” Chiaki asked.
“You’re more than welcome to… let’s eat some desserts together and listen to some music.”
“Yes, let desserts and music heal our bodies and hearts.”
The two of them talked only to each other and completely ignored Seiji as they turned around and left just like that.
Seiji was left absolutely speechless.
Forget it… he decided to give a call to Shika to see what she wanted to eat for lunch, and he would purchase some takeout and bring it home for lunch.
…
“I’m home,” Seiji called as he entered the apartment, the takeout in his hands.
Shika was laying on the tatami, her black hair slightly scattered. Both hands were folded on her chest as she slept there with a calm expression.
This was a beautiful scene, at the level of an idol’s picture.
‘Is she really asleep?’ Seiji doubted it, as they had just been talking over the cell phone.
“I brought back lunch,” he said to the “sleeping” Shika. “Even though it’s a bit early, let’s eat it while it’s still hot.”
Seiji put two lunchboxes down on the table and opened them, causing a marvelous aroma to spread through the air as the heat escaped from the food.
“Shika-chan…” He turned around to call his adopted younger sister, but discovered that she had already disappeared. Then, he suddenly felt someone hugging him.
The black-haired girl had soundlessly approached his back and was hugging him from behind.
“Shika-chan?” he asked. “What’s the matter?”
“I’m sorry… Brother Seiji.”
“Eh? Why are you apologizing?” Seiji was surprised for a moment, then he figured it out. “Is it because you told Mika and the others about the time and place that I was going to meet Asamiya-san?”
“Yeah…” Shika admitted.
“I suspected so,” Seiji said, sighing. “This action of yours… is a bit of a problem, but it isn’t too big of a deal, since it isn’t anything that’s a secret.”
He was rather surprised that his adopted younger sister “exposed” him, but he wasn’t angry at her about it.
While chatting at the coffee cafe, Seiji had already put this behind him. If Shika-chan didn’t bring it up by herself, he probably wouldn’t have mentioned it until after finishing lunch.
“It’s fine as long as you apologize; just pay more attention in the future… let’s eat lunch.”
Shika didn’t let go; her arms were still wrapped around him with no signs of loosening.
‘She must be more worried about this than I am,’ Seiji thought.
“Do you really mind that you did such a thing? If you yourself think that it’s wrong, then why did you do it?”
Shika remained silent and only hugged him even tighter than earlier.
“Shika-chan… I said this already the first time that we met in the park,” Seiji told her in a soft voice. “I don’t have the ability to read minds, so if you don’t say anything, I won’t understand anything. Whatever you’re thinking, just say it. No matter what it is, I’ll listen to you.” His voice was as gentle as he could possibly make it.
Shika felt this gentleness from him, and she couldn’t help but rub her face against his back, as if she could absorb gentleness from him by doing so.
‘It’s so wondrous… so delicious… almost like a drug.’
She felt that she was addicted to this “drug”; she didn’t think she could live without.
She didn’t want to let go; she didn’t want to lose it, and she wanted to always have it for herself.
That was why.
“I… don’t want Brother Seiji to get a girlfriend so quickly,” Shika said in a soft voice.
“Hmm?”
“Yukari Asamiya… is a beautiful and incredible girl. If I just leave her alone and let her have dates with Brother… something definitely might happen. I don’t want that to happen… I don’t want Brother to take it quickly with her and become her boyfriend.
“Because I… want things to be just like this… so that I can be together with Brother.”
She wanted the status quo to continue a little longer, so that she could have her adopted brother’s gentleness to herself for a little longer.
Seiji didn’t know what to say for a while at this.
This was his adopted sister acting spoiled towards him. He felt her intentions.
As for how he responded, he…
“I understand,” Seiji told her gently. “I promise you that I won’t be getting a girlfriend anytime soon. Originally, I didn’t intend on getting a girlfriend anyway… because of various things.”
He wanted to write his novel, to learn spells, and he was concerned about his family. He also wanted to increase his Spiritual Power and become a Yin-Yang Master…
“I’d like to just stay like this and be with Shika-chan for a lot longer… I feel the same way as Shika-chan in this matter.”
‘That’s why you don’t need to worry. I’ll do a good job in accompanying you.’
“Brother Seiji…” Shika sensed the intention behind his words and felt something welling up within her. It transformed into something warm in her eyes and caused her vision to grow hazy. “Thank you…”
Seiji smiled. “What are you saying? We’re family, after all.”
There was no need to be polite with each other or concerned about anything. Just say whatever it was out loud and have proper communication—that’s how family was supposed to be to him.
…
“I feel as if we were taken advantage of.”
Chiaki, who was currently lazing about in Mika’s room, suddenly said this.
“Eh?”
“Thinking it over more carefully, didn’t Kagura-san next door basically take advantage of us? All she did was give us the information, and we ended up working so hard to face off against such a strong enemy. In the end, she benefited the most because Seiji ended up returning home together with her.”
Mika was rendered speechless.
“Even second year middle-school girls like her will have their plots… and she’s no ordinary girl to begin with. Perhaps Kagura-san is actually the scariest hidden boss of all,” Chiaki said casually as she rolled over like a lazy cat.
“Kagura-san… doesn’t seem like that type of girl,” Mika protested.
“But you don’t know just exactly what type of person she is.”
Mika remained silent.
Chiaki smiled at her. “Don’t mind me; I’m just saying Kagura-san definitely isn’t a bad girl, otherwise Seiji wouldn’t have accepted her as his adopted younger sister. Judging by her contacting you, my deduction is that she was worried that her adopted brother Seiji would be taken away by some other girl, so he would no longer pay as much attention to her, which led to her taking action to balance things out.
“She definitely has plots of her own, but whether that is all there is to it, or if she will reveal herself to be a bad type, I don’t know. At any rate, you should pay more attention.
“Besides, the current greatest threat is still that ‘Princess.’” Chiaki changed the topic of conversation back to their opponent from earlier this morning.
“Yes, Asamiya-san… she’s really too amazing,” Mika said, sighing.
“She’s beautiful, confident, resolute, and smart. But,” Chiaki said slowly, “the most critical of all is—”
“She’s an otaku!” the two of them said in unison.
During their conversation this morning, Chiaki and Mika learned that Yukari Asamiya was very fond of light novels and vastly experienced as well as fond of anime and manga and equally experienced in these areas.
This was rather shocking to Mika and Chiaki. It gave them a lot of pressure.
“At first, I thought that they just had similar personalities. I didn’t expect that they even had the same hobbies! Being so similar to Seiji, is just…” Chiaki let out a huge sigh.
She had previously said that Yukari Asamiya was like a weaker version of Seigo Harano… but she didn’t expect that her phrase would be so accurate!
“She’s… basically like a female version of Seiji.” Mika also heaved a deep sigh.
They perfectly understood why Yukari Asamiya would like Seigo Harano so much.
Subjective factors aside, when only talking about objective factors… Seigo Harano and Yukari Asamiya seemed like a match made in heaven!