Vol 12 Chapter 1 (1/2)

Chapter 01: The Two in the Photo Alb.u.m

…Apparently the bad feeling I had the other day turned out to be unfounded.

Sure, Kaorun’s stay here made things a bit more noisy at first. But what might have gone threw Kaorun’s head while she witnessed the lively life of the other girls with her own eyes in the past way days?

Sometimes Kaorun clouded her expression, didn’t even pull her usual pranks and I realized that she was sighing a lot.

She was obviously behaving strange. And to my sorrow, I didn’t know the reason for it. But I wanted to cheer her up even a bit, which leads to a certain afternoon. I picked four recommendable novels from my bookshelf, left my room and went to the guest room, where Kaorun was staying at.

If my memory was correct, Kaorun should love reading. I hoped it would help her regain her spirit even a bit. With that in mind, I came to the guest room, but as my timing was bad, Kaorun wasn’t there and I suddenly heard the faint sound of a door closing from the entrance hall.

…Did someone go out? When I headed over there a bit curious, I now could hear Luna and Machina talking to each other in the living room.

Mhm, I should ask them where Kaorun is for starters. I opened the door of the living room and started talking with “Hey, have you seen…”, but I inadvertently stopped my words midway. For the time being, it was like I expected it to be: There were two girls in the living room.

One was a beautiful girl with s.h.i.+ning blonde hair, Luna. Opposite to her neat aura, she happened to be a devil, but that didn’t change the fact that she was the reliable older sister of our household.

The other girl was a fascinating beauty with red hair, Machina Liebelei Orangelo. She was Luna little stepsister, a hybrid devil and a resident of our house.

But just what were they doing?

Regardless of being in the living room, Luna was boldly pulling up the top she was wearing and exposing her voluminous b.r.e.a.s.t.s clad in a white bra.s.siere. From the side, I could very well catch the volume of her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, but my vision naturally wandered over to Machina’s hands.

Whatever she was trying to do from now on, Machina went behind Luna’s back. She put her hands on Luna’s bra.s.siere and on a closer look, I could see that the bra was unhooked.

…I was just looking for Kaorun, yet I had stumbled into this outrageous scene. When I carelessly dropped the novels I was carrying onto the floor, Luna and Machina widened their eyes as soon as they noticed me, and stopped all movements like that.

On the other hand, I dared to make a fuzzy smile and averted my eyes from them with a little joke.

“…Sorry for interrupting. Please go on.”

While saying so, I closed the door halfway and checked upon them with a glance, whereupon the two of them instantly turned red as expected and Luna raised a surprised voice at once.

“Please wait, s.h.i.+n.o.bu-san! I think you have gotten the wrong idea! Kaoru-san said—”

“H- Hey Sister, if you move so suddenly your bra will— Ah…”

With her bra still unhooked, Luna turned around with att.i.tude to stop me.

She must have been in quite a panic. Machina’s warning was futile and Luna’s ripe fruits bounced stimulating in line with her movements, spilling out of her bra.

There was nothing covering them anymore. Two hills that resembled huge melons. As her round b.r.e.a.s.t.s defied gravity, they stood up proudly with lovely pink buds at the pinnacle… wait, this wasn’t the time to forget myself.

This certainly was bad. Machina must have been thinking the same as me. She quickly let go of the bra’s hook and covered Luna’s b.r.e.a.s.t.s with a clutch from behind.

However, Luna’s b.r.e.a.s.t.s were building themselves with an overwhelming volume. Needless to say, they didn’t fit into Machina’s small palms, still exposing their juicy upper and under parts.

…It was a quite suggestive and bewitching bra.s.siere of hands.

Machina must have been agitated too without doubt. The white bra gentle fell onto the floor when she let go off it, and Luna was trembling her slender shoulders in a s.h.i.+ver due to her b.r.e.a.s.t.s being grabbed.

“Yahn… Machina… If you grab me so tight… Uhn…”

“Ah, I’m sorry, Sister. It must have hurt… wait, this is amazing.”

Midway in her apology, Machina widened her eyes a bit and leaked a voice of faint admiration. Apparently she was fascinated by the sensation on both her arms. She rested her chin on Luna’s shoulder and started to shake the b.r.e.a.s.t.s with her hands still acting as a bra.s.siere to confirm the elasticity… There was no longer a point in her hands covering the b.r.e.a.s.t.s.

The soft b.r.e.a.s.t.s bounced surging and sometimes a pink bud temptingly peeked out between the gaps of Machina’s fingers. Luna probably noticed that as well. Even while flus.h.i.+ng her cheeks embarra.s.sed, she softly rebuked Machina.

“Mm, Machina, stop playing with my b.r.e.a.s.t.s. s.h.i.+n.o.bu-san is watching.”

“Don’t worry, Sister. It’s s.h.i.+n.o.bu we’re talking about. I’m sure he’s averting his— wait, he’s totally staring!?”

…Yes, I was watching. Sorry. I had totally forgotten about asking about Kaorun and was fascinated by the bewitching swellings, whereupon Machina s.h.i.+fted her gaze towards me and said with a low voice.

“…This might be weird coming from me, but what’re you doing there in front of the door for a while now, s.h.i.+n.o.bu?”

“Just what it looks like: Appreciating beauty. Sorry, but please be quiet. You’re disturbing me.”

“Ah, sorry for that. Please go on— as if I would say that! What you mean beauty! You’re just gawking at my sister’s b.r.e.a.s.t.s brazenfaced! If you want to come inside, just do so, but quickly close the door and turn the other way!”

…So I was allowed into the room. Quite the lenient treatment. A bit surprised, I lowered my head with “I’m really sorry”, turned around and closed the door of the living room like I was told. Meanwhile I picked up the novels I dropped earlier and asked my initial question to the two of them.

“Hey, sorry to interrupt your usual flirting, but have you seen Kaorun? She wasn’t in her room…”

“Ehm, we are not exactly flirting around here, but you just missed her. She left the house just now.”

That was some bad timing. While I made a sigh in my heart, Luna apparently finished dressing during her speech and called out to me with “s.h.i.+n.o.bu-san, you can turn around now.”, so I turned around in front of the door for now.

For some reason, Luna and Machina had rather gloomy expressions.

What was up with them? I was doubtful, but first sat down on the sofa in the living room and put the novels I was carrying on the table, whereupon the girls looked at each other, then Luna started talking reserved with “Uhm, s.h.i.+n.o.bu-san,”.

“I was talking about it already with Machina earlier, but Kaoru-san is a bit strange lately, is she not?”

“Well, yeah. Lately she’s more of a pretty girl in sorrow instead of a perverted maid. She’s not playing her weird pranks either…”, I replied with agreeing words to Luna, whereupon Machina next to her knitted her eyebrows a bit and interjected with “Yeah.”.

“Earlier Kaoru was with us here in the living room, but she certainly looked down. My sister asked her ‘What is the matter? Are you alright?’ and then…”

Temporarily stopping her words, Machina continued with a sigh.

“She cracked a ‘I am Cha-la Head-Cha-la.’ joke for whatever reason and suddenly unhooked my sister’s bra.”

“…She unhooked it over the clothes? That’s an incredible technique, but a lousy way to bluff her way out for Kaorun.”

But now I understood. So Machina was helping to re-hook the bra. I a.s.serted to myself in my heart, whereas Machina dropped her voice with a depressed expression for some reason.

“Even if it was lousy, I didn’t notice at all. I just got angry with ‘What’re you doing!’ like always.”

“Nah, don’t get so depressed. I think it’s alright to reprimand her like that.”

“But after I got angry, she honestly lowered her head without joking around, you know? On top of that, she said ‘I will go shopping for dinner to make amends for it.’ and left without time for us to stop her. Somehow it made me feel sorry for reprimanding her.”

“…Judging by that, Kaorun surely is acting out of character.”

Lightly shrugging my shoulders and giving Machina an agreeable response, I crossed my arms and looked up to the ceiling.

Let’s see, according to Machina, Kaorun went out shopping… She must have gone to the nearby shopping district? Then I should check upon her while I take a stroll. If I meet her, I can carry the bags and if not, I can just drop by the bookstore.

Such thoughts crossed my mind, whereupon Luna dropped her gaze on the novels on the table, so I told her “If you want, take one”, then I quickly left the house and headed for the shopping district…

A somewhat melancholic evening. Under the fleeting orange sky, I walked home all by myself.

I had gone out, but I didn’t run into Kaorun at the supermarket or the shopping district and I didn’t want to call her on her cell phone for no good reason, so I only stopped by the bookstore and was no on my way home, but… where had we pa.s.sed each other this time?

In my field of vision was Kaorun holding a shopping bag from the supermarket from which she apparently returned now. But for whatever reason, she peeked into our garden from the gate to examine the situation in it.

She appeared really suspicious. When I proceeded with a wry smile, Kaorun seemed to notice me too. Suddenly she s.h.i.+fted her gaze to me and made a small bow.

“Welcome home, s.h.i.+n.o.bu-sama. I see that you had gone out.”

“Yeah, I was looking for your smile all over.”

“Hah, how hard-working of you…”

Eh? What was up with that reaction? Not giving the usual sharp retort to play along with my joke, Kaorun gave a half-hearted reply and resumed peeking into the garden. Just what she was looking at? A bit curious, I followed her lead and s.h.i.+fted my gaze towards the garden too.

By the way, our garden currently had a flowerbed that was maintained by Luna. As she was in the middle of tending to it, my vision fell on the smiling Luna in front of the flowerbed. Moreover, next to her I could see a brightly smiling girl with silver hair.

Radiant silver hair from the evening sun. It tied up in twintails, this girl was Elni. The fool and mood maker of our house. And also the kind second daughter.

Elni was crouching down in front of the flowerbed together with Luna and they apparently were happily chit-chatting with each other. While we watched over them, Luna looked at Elni and animated her voice, still smiling.

“I can barely wait. I am sure that once spring comes, a lot of flowers will bloom.”

“A lot? I really can’t wait for it. By the way, can you… eat these flowers?”

“E- Elni-chan? You must not, even if you want to! What if you upset your stomach? Please do not eat them, okay?”

Luna softly called out to Elni in a little panic.

“They go through all the trouble to bloom, so enjoy looking at them instead of eating them. We will have flowers in our garden, you know? It must be wonderful when it is all vivid and florid. Do you not feel really happy when you think that s.h.i.+n.o.bu-san and the others will smile upon seeing them?”

“Mhm~ I imagined it for a bit and somehow, I suddenly can’t wait for spring to come now! Well, inside my head it’s always spring, though!”

“How heart-warming.”

“Y- Yeah! A nice breeze blows through it! A flower might even bloom inside my head eventually!”

Luna ignored Elni’s foolery with a gentle smile. She herself must have wanted no harm, but Elni smiled vaguely and awkwardly changed the topic with “Anyway,”.

“You’re often tending to the flowerbed, Luna. I guess you love flowers?”

“Yes. You know how flowers blossom beautiful if you pour your love into them? It is like they are responding to your feelings, which makes me kind of happy.”

“I’ll respond to your feelings too, you know? So pour your love into me too.”

Like competing with the flowers, Elni tightly clung onto Luna.

I got the feeling that ever since Christmas, Elni had started to increase her physical contact like that with us other family members. Seeing Elni change like that, Luna lightly kissed her cheek to respond to the hug. Following she showed a bright smile.

“Elni-chan, actually I love both looking at and raising flowers. You yourself are like a sunflower, so I would like to have you by my side forever.”

“Sounds like s.h.i.+n.o.bu would get jealous over that… but I see, you love looking at flowers.”

Interjecting a small agreeable response, Elni put her hand onto her chin, then let her voice overflow with warmth.

“I wish I could show it to you then. So far I have travelled to various places on earth, but in a certain place I found a beautiful sunflower field. The bright yellow flowers were in full bloom over the whole place, which gave the impression of a smiling sun. I still remember it now. It was such a big sunflower field.”

Spreading her arms as wide as she could, Elni smiled faintly and looked up the evening sky with “And not just that.”.

“A vivid tulip field. A castle with lots of cats, which Nazuna would love. A country where the evening sun looks really bright red, not bitter orange like here. The world is full of wonderful places. I want all of you to see the precious things I found too. I want to see them together with you next time.”

Gently spinning her words, Elni suddenly closed her mouth, only to stand up with att.i.tude and an “Oh right”, showing a smile to Luna like that.

“Hey Luna, I just thought of it now, but why don’t we take an overseas trip with everyone one day? It can wait until s.h.i.+n.o.bu and the others have graduated and university has long vacations, right? I think we’ll have enough chances for a happy trip from now on.”

“Fufu, you are right. I would like to see your precious things too.”

“Good! Then I’ll definitely show them to you! A family trip with you, s.h.i.+n.o.bu, Machina, Nazuna and Tomoe-san! Of course we’ll invite Hijiri and Kaorun too! By the way, no need to worry about travel expenses! I’ll somehow save up the money for it! It’s my present for my beloved ones!”

“Ehm, but all by yourself that will be hard, right? Please let me help you. I somehow want to repay the others as well.”

“Okay! Then we’ll work together! Let’s make a lot of family vacation memories! So, where are we going first? I know so many good places that it’s hard to pick one…”

The mild scarlet sun light bathed the garden. Illuminated by the evening sun, their smiles never broke and Luna and Elni continued their chit-chat in front of the flowerbed. Looking at these two, who appeared like sisters… Kaorun must have thought of something after all.

“…Elni-san has changed a bit.”

Still standing in front of the gate, Kaorun said isolated.

“Not long ago, she called Nazuna-chan with ‘Nazucat’ like a friend, but now she treats her like her little sister, calling her with her name. She also calls Tomoe-san with ‘Mom’ and sometimes clings to her spoiled… Elni-san really became part of this family.”

“It sure took it’s time, though.”

When I interjected with a faint smile, Kaorun s.h.i.+fted her gaze to me and smiled somewhat fleeting.

“You have an amazing person in your family, s.h.i.+n.o.bu-sama. I am sure that Elni-san is capable of doing various things for her family. Laughing and crying together, supporting each other and when you consider that this bright smile is waiting for you at home, you cannot hurry home fast enough every day.”

“…I don’t think you’re in no way inferior to Elni.”

Just like I was proud to have Luna and the other as my family, Hijiri considered Kaorun as her precious older sister too without doubt. I could say that with confidence. But my words might only have been a burden for Kaorun now.

“It is no good…”

Shaking her head powerless, she tightly squeezed the shopping bag in her hand.

“I cannot see myself… becoming like… Elni-san or Luna-san.”

A quiet cracked voice. A fragile smile. Before I could say anything to her, Kaorun set food into the garden to end the conversation.

There Luna and Elni apparently noticed her.

They both came over to Kaorun and after saying the words “Welcome back”, they each asked about dinner… On a glance, that was a rather harmonious scene. But Kaorun was looking somewhat envious at the two and her expression didn’t brighten up…

…Instead of cheering her up, I made it worse. What was I doing?

Recalling my conversation with Kaorun earlier, I reflected a bit on my actions. I finished my daily training in the garden and renewing my spirits, I wanted to recommend Kaorun a novel this time for sure, so I headed for the guest room.

By the way, on my way, Luna called out to me that she was borrowing one of the four novels that I had left in the living room and that she had apparently taken over the role to prepare dinner from Kaorun, but that aside. The important point was that Kaorun wasn’t in the guest room again.

For the time being I did a small search inside the house, but I couldn’t find her anywhere, so I could only return to my own room with the novels…. There were the lights on for some reason and I even sensed someone’s presence.

…Someone was inside? While tilting my head, I got inside and there she was, the one I had been looking for, Kaorun. She had crawled into my bed, rested her cheek on my pillow and was smiling somewhat cosily. She seemed a wee bit happy.

When I proceeded with an inadvertent wry smile, she wouldn’t get off my bed even after noticing me and opened her mouth somewhat absent-minded while still resting her cheek on the pillow.

“Welcome, s.h.i.+n.o.bu-sama. It is a bit small, but please make yourself at home.”

“…Now that’s quite the greeting.”

Even small, it’s still my beloved room. Actually, what’re you doing on my bed? Holding back such a retort, I continued my words somewhat softly.

“Anyway, what’s up with you? Relaxing here?”

“Yes, in a s.e.xual way— is what I would like to say, but actually I am heartbroken from all that has happened lately. So I am engulfing myself in your nice smell here for some comfort.”

“Don’t take too long, okay? It would be troublesome if your scent gets carried over and I can’t sleep from excitement.”

“…s.h.i.+n.o.bu-sama, can you not say anything more tactful?”

That was my attempt of being tactful, but Kaorun puckered her lips a bit.

“I am really hurt, you know? Here you should be emphatically pull me into an embrace while you wildly approach me with ‘Kaoru, if you want my smell, get it directly’, or am I wrong?”

“Ah, but I’m all sweaty from my earlier training…”

“Then please sweetly whisper me a ‘I love you, Kaoru’ and place a gentle kiss on my forehead. On this occasion, you even may place it on my b.r.e.a.s.t.s.”

“Sorry, but somehow I’m craving for some a.s.s today.”

“I could not ask for anything better.”

“…I have nothing to return.”

And our conversation died just like that.

Kaorun cracked her jokes like usually, but her tone lacked will-power and due to that, both my foolery and retort remained boring. My wry smile spread and for now I put the novels I was carrying onto my desk. Then I sat down on the corner of the bed and softly reached out my hand for Kaorun.

She herself had said she was heartbroken, but I didn’t know how to comfort her. I could only silently pet her head. Even so, Kaorun faintly flushed her cheeks and didn’t resist in particular while she hid half of face with the blanket. After a while, she quietly spun her words.

“…s.h.i.+n.o.bu-sama, I may not look like it or rather, as you can see, I am a perfect maid that does about everything flawless, has a sharp mind, got excellent looks and is quite athletic.”

“That’s going a bit too far, but I can’t deny it.”

“I know, right? So I should be able to do anything. However, I cannot seem to become what I want to be. I thought I would learn something by coming here, but… I only learned about the things I lack myself.”

Slightly dropping her voice, Kaorun narrowed her eyes a little bit sadly.

“I do want to change myself a bit, though.”

“…I don’t really see the need to force yourself to change.”

“But Elni-san has changed, right? So did Luna-san and Machina. All of them became the older sisters of this household. I believe you are pleased about that change as well, s.h.i.+n.o.bu-sama.”

Objecting somewhat powerless, she tightly squeezed the hem of the blanket.

“If I can become like Luna-san and the others, I am sure even Hijiri-chan will be…”

She surely didn’t want me to see her smudgy expression. Kaorun slowly raised up the blanket and covered her whole face. Like that, she kept her mouth shut for a short while, but then she suddenly sighed affected through the blanket to change the atmosphere.

“I felt like crying out of self-hatred from all the things that happened and restlessly came to your room, but before I noticed it, I was looking for your perverted books. I must be truly sick.”

“I don’t know if it’s a sickness or just normal in your case.”

“…Normally I would go for your bed first instead of the books, you know? It is just, lately a lot of mails come from Hijiri-chan asking if I am alright…”

“With that dog emoticon added?”

“Yes. I am receiving a lot of these adorable mails. I wanted to reply to it with ‘I am reading aloud the perverted books hidden in s.h.i.+n.o.bu-sama’s room right now~’ to conceal my depression, but no matter where and how hard I looked, I could not find the treasures in question.”

“That means I’m the only treasure in this room. Sorry, but give up.” I replied with such a joke, whereupon Kaorun raised a dissatisfied voice through the blanket for some reason.

“I am so disappointed! Not only am I unable to send my wonderful mail, I am also unable to tell Hijiri-chan about your preferences! What are you going to do about that!”

“…Let me ask instead, what do you want me to do?”

“I will send Hijiri-chan a mail now saying ‘I am taking a rest in s.h.i.+n.o.bu-sama’s bed right now~ s.h.i.+n.o.bu-sama is next to me, petting my head. It does not seem like I will get any sleep tonight <3’, so=”” please=”” tolerate=”” it=”” with=”” a=””>

“What’re you doing under the blanket? It only gives me stormy premonition, so stop it.”

But well, she could joke around like that. So it should be fine now. At the same time of my retort, I reached out my hand and jerked the blanket. Against my expectations, Kaorun wasn’t holding her cell phone and instead she was holding a single photo alb.u.m against her chest.

She must have hidden it for a while now. When I dropped my gaze onto the alb.u.m, I could read the random long t.i.tle “Prologue issue of s.h.i.+n.o.bu-kun’s fleeting, heartrending, but beautiful memories ~A few years after his grandiose birth, the memories might turn into a legend~” that my father gave it.

Still holding onto that alb.u.m, Kaorun straightened up her upper body and opened her mouth reserved.

“I found this when I was looking for the perverted books earlier, but may I drool over it?”

“…I don’t mind if you read it normally.”

Actually, she was looking for the p.o.r.n as she pleased, but she properly asked for permission to look at the alb.u.m, huh. It was questionable if she had manners or not, but for now I consented and Kaorun curiously opened the alb.u.m, whereas I peeked down at her hands with a wry smile.

The alb.u.m showed me in my olden days when I was around five or six years old. My younger self was smiling like an angel, but Kaorun tilted her head wondering for whatever she was thinking about my photos.

“This is your photo alb.u.m, is it not, s.h.i.+n.o.bu-sama? It is showing a different person already on the first page. Who might this pretty boy be?”

“Face me for a bit. Then you’ll see that pretty boy right away.”

“…Time is a cruel thing. Where did that devilish face come from? It has no shred of cuteness anymore. Well, I like your current self better, though.”

Looking at me, she gave me a wink while ranting. Following, she s.h.i.+fted her gaze back to her hands and slowly flipped through the pages… While looking at the alb.u.m, she giggled.

“Somehow, there are a lot of pictures together with Nazuna-chan. Be it at home or outside, Nazuna-chan is always by your side, often clinging to you.”

“Ever since I can remember, she has been spouting nonsense like ‘Without Brother it’s no good’ and has always followed me around.”

While I interjected a warm agreeable response, Kaorun, still looking at the alb.u.m, brightened her smile and filled her tone with warmth.

“I am sure she wanted to stay with her brother as long as possible. In every picture with you, Nazuna-chan is smiling so happily… wait, huh? Only in this picture Nazuna-chan is crying waterfalls. Did something happen there?”

Kaorun suddenly stopped her hands from flipping the pages. When I followed her gaze, Nazuna-chan in the picture had opened her mouth widely and was spilling endless tears from her eyes. And the boy next to her, me in my younger years, petted his little sister’s head with teary eyes for some reason… Not cool at all.

Why had I been about to cry as well? When I looked at the picture a bit shocked, the memories from back then suddenly resurfaced and I inadvertently snorted a bit.

“Now I know, it was when I was stung by a bee. Reminds me, Nazuna was shouting ‘Brother! It’s a bee! It’s looking at me with a dangerous glint in it’s eyes!’ and hastily ran to my side…”

“So Nazuna-chan has always been a funny girl.”

“And a bit stupid, though. That said, I was the stupid one back then, I guess.”

While recalling the old days, I naturally spilled a sigh.

“To be honest, I was scared of the bee too, but I was in front of my little sister after all. While I boasted about trivia with ‘Listen, Nazuna, a bee always gives a warning before stinging someone. If you pay attention to that, you’ll be fine. No problem.’… the bee got me big time.”

“What can I say… How regrettably.”

“Yeah, it was uncool and hurt like h.e.l.l. I was about to cry for various reasons, whereupon Nazuna broke down crying with ‘Brother’s going to die!’. My father was with us then… and he took the picture with a very loud laughter.”

“You have quite the amusing father…”

Dropping her gaze down on the picture again with a wry smile, Kaorun calmly continued her words.

“It is no wonder Nazuna-chan started to cry. Considering something happened to her beloved brother, she did not know what to do and was full of worry, so she spilled tears like that…”

A sudden change of her soft expression. The picture of me being stung by a bee and Nazuna crying. While looking at it, she changed her expression and now looked through the alb.u.m without saying anything. I was a bit perplexed by her reaction, so I t.i.tled my head and called out to her.

“…What’s up so suddenly? Why the serious face?”

“Ah, no, I was just remembering a bit from the past…”

Even while she replied so, she didn’t raise her head and continued to look at the pictures staring… Afterwards she showed no real interested in the novels I recommended and looked through the alb.u.m again and again until it was time for dinner. But what got her so concerned?

After looking at the alb.u.m, Kaorun’s behaviour became even stranger.

She was absent-minded the whole time during dinner. Even if the girls called out to her, she only repeated half-hearted replies and she even left most of her food untouched. As she was pondering about something, she even got dizzy in the bath… It was rather worrisome for me.

But whatever I said had little effect, as she apparently was really pondering about something. In the end, still only getting half-hearted replies from her, I went back to my own room by leaving behind the words “You can come to talk to me anytime” and opened the earlier alb.u.m on my bed.

…What did the alb.u.m do to her? After looking at it, Kaorun had became weird. It bothered me a lot. In search for the reason of her weirdness, I looked through the alb.u.m until I fell asleep…

After a long time, I had a dream about my childhood again, probably due to having looked at the alb.u.m.

About my incredible weak self that had no talent for martial arts compared to my little sister. After being bullied at my grandfather’s dojo and fleeing from there… I still remained weak.

Because of me, Nazuna got into a traffic accident and I even hurt my precious childhood friend that visited her in the hospital. Thinking back on it, I might have considered summoning a devil because I couldn’t forgive myself for that.

Of course I had the desire to help Nazuna as well. That was for sure. However, it was a fact that I was fine with the devil taking my soul in exchange for my wish.

Nazuna was everyone’s star at my grandfather’s dojo. She was a genius like our father.

My little sister with such talent was lying in a hospital bed without waking up, whereas I, a useless guy without a shred of talent, lived sound and safe… That was why I thought: I should have been in that accident. I should just disappear…

I told this to the devil, to Luna, who I summoned back then.

You can have my soul. If it makes my sister smile again, I don’t mind. Besides, everyone prefers Nazuna’s smile over mine…

I couldn’t forgive my weak self. I seriously believed that it was fine that my sister smiled in my stead. However, Luna did not only save Nazuna, but me as well.

---It is okay. It is all okay now.

The hand petting my head was gentle and the warmth of her embrace heated up my chest. I was so happy about her words… so the tears didn’t stop flowing.

What I received from her. Her words to me that filled up my chest. These warm words. To my shame, I forgot them once, but I might have always remembered them somewhere in the corner of my heart.

I never thought again that I should disappear.

The words Luna told me on that day were---

Mhm~ The words Luna told me back then were… Mh? Weird. I got the feeling that my body was strangely shaking for a while now. On top of that, someone’s voice was resounded somewhat distant, but oh well. Anyway, the words Luna told me back then were…

“---If you do not get up soon, I will kiss you all over.”