Chapter 147: Siblings Quarrel – part two

(Komari’s PoV)

After dodging the needle that my sister threw at me, I fired an arrow towards her, but she repelled it with another poison needle throw. I expected her to dodge it, but I definitely didn’t expect her to hit my arrow mid-air with a needle…

Her flurry of blows against Masa were also giving him a pretty hard time. He tried to make use of his bigger range to get an advantage, but the difference in our levels and on our skill levels is just too high, so it’s hard to compensate for that no matter what we try.

Still, I kept shooting arrows aimed towards her eyes or legs to limit how much pressure she could put on Masa. I don’t think we’d still be standing if she was going all-out, but our sister seems to be holding back right now, so we’re having a fight chance here… Then, let’s keep going! We’ll both do our best!

“Did you know that love letters are really popular in my school right now?” I asked her.

“Yeah…?” She replied as she dodged the arrow I shot towards her forehead. She seemed to be suspicious of something, but that was fine.

Masa also tried to behead her, but she ducked below the blow and attempted to land a kick at his side. I used the <Arrow Rain> skill to stop her attack and give Masa some time to regain balance though. The problem is that this skill has a high cooldown, but it’s still useful for gaining time.

“You see, there was a boy that really liked a girl who was a year older than him. He thought about talking to her on VR, but there was no way to know her contact information online, so that was impossible.” I continued talking to our sister by saying this.

“What are you talking about…?” She said in response.

Masa then used some <Water Magic> to make the ground wet and make sis lose balance. I also used <Wind Magic> to push her and make it even harder to dodge the <Arrow Rain> that was still falling… Yet she kept on avoiding every single one of our blows. I also tried using <Random Shots> to throw a bunch of arrows aimed at random parts of her body, but she parried them all with ease.

“However, that boy really wanted to convey his feelings to the person he liked, so he decided to send an old-fashioned love letter to the girl he cared for.” I told sis.

“Oh, I remember that. Turns out the senior really liked classic literature, so she started dating the boy after she was enraptured by such a passionate and poetic love letter.” Masa complemented.

“I have no idea what you two are trying to convey…” Our sister said as she attacked Masa with the <Super Heavy Blow> skill. He was able to block her attack with the <Water Mirror> skill, however.

“And because of that, there are now a bunch of girls that are eagerly waiting to receive handwritten love letters.” I concluded.

“And the boys are also practicing a lot on writing letters, which is something they weren’t really used to.” Masa also said.

“Oh, this also led to a lot of people getting higher than usual scores in the Japanese language exams.” I remembered that perchance, so I told this trivia to sis too.

“I don’t get the purpose of this conversation…” Our sister said.

This time I tried shooting an arrow at sis while using <Wind Magic> to make it change directions and hit her from the back, but she was able to block it just fine. I was a little hopeful that this would work since it’s a technique I used on my first battle against other players, but it seems like this much wasn’t enough to hit her.

“Hey, sister-in-law, what’s trendy at your school right now?” I asked her.

“I don’t really pay attention to trends…” She replied.

“Then what do you do when spending time with your friends? I have a close friend called Kako that is really shy and reserved, but I really like her.” I told sis as I shot more arrows at her with the <Random Shots> and the <Invisible Arrow> skills. She’d probably be able to block those too by using some sort of detection skill, but it’s enough if this keeps her occupied and unable to land a good blow against Masa.

Our sister didn’t really reply to my last comment, so I continued, “Kako looks really cute, but she always hides her face with big glasses and some bangs. Kako also used to read books by herself in every break, you know? She looked so lonely at those times, so I ended up deciding to start talking and getting to know her better, you get what I’m saying?”

Still no reply… It’s alright, let’s keep talking, “And I found out that Kako is really nice, you know? She always listens to me attentively no matter how much I’m talking. Even when I’m talking so much, to the point that it would make anyone else tell me to stop, Kako always kept on hearing be go on and on and on. I feel like I can really be myself near her and that she’ll always be there to support me when I need. She’s a very special friend that I care a lot for.”

Some players attacked us every now and then during the fight. They were all aiming their attacks at my sister, so they actually served as good distractions that made things easier for us. I felt a bit guilty when I saw them die one after another without really accomplishing anything though.

“And you know, Kako is not only a wonderful supportive person, but she is also really knowledgeable! She reads a lot and learned a ton of nice things from the books she read! She always helps me out when I’m in trouble with something I don’t know!” I told that to sis too.

She still didn’t reply, so I told her a bit more, “And you know… Sometimes I even wonder if she’s a bit too selfless. It wouldn’t hurt her to be a bit more selfish, you know? To take care of herself first before worrying about me.”

As we ran out of player decoys to distract sis, Masa used his <Five Moons Slash> skill and I used the <Arrow Rain> skill to try attacking our sister.

“That said, Kako can sometimes be really stubborn! It’s really cute when she refuses to budge, but it can also be so frustrating!

“I do think it’s wonderful that she can be honest to herself like that though… I really don’t think I could have asked for a better friend.” I told that to sis too.

I thought she still wouldn’t answer, but this time she did say something, “Yuu and Maria are better friends!” she exclaimed.

And as she said those words, my <Arrow Rain> was repelled by some threads that came out of nowhere, and Masa’s <Five Moons Slash> was blocked by multiple shadows that came from the ground below sis’ feet. She also kicked Masa and sent him flying towards me.

“My friends are nice, differently from you two… And what’s up with this conversation in the first place!?” Sis seemed to be angry as she said that, but…

We laughed. And as I laughed, I said, “Seems like you really care for your friends, don’t you?”

“It’s not like we’re trying to compete on friend quality, you know?” Masa also said.

Sis didn’t reply, so I gave Masa a potion. Both of us were smiling right now, as we were finally able to have a proper talk with our sister. A talk where she actually gave us a reply that told us her honest thoughts instead of just hiding her feelings behind a mask like she usually did.

“Just what is the purpose of this farce!?” Our sister asked. She seemed to be really angry, but was also almost pouting. It felt more like a childish anger than some deep unbreakable grudge right now.

I wonder if this is because she is finally facing us properly instead of avoiding us like she always did? Or perhaps it is because we’re talking about friendship when her friends are not by her side right now? It was hard to be sure.

More importantly than that though, I should answer her question, “There’s no purpose… We’re just chatting.” I said.

Now is where things get serious. I think sis was worried that Blossom might interfere, so she wasn’t fighting us seriously due to her wariness of a sneak attack. This might also have been why she was actually answering our comments at first.

But since Blossom did nothing up until now, she probably realized that she had no reason to hesitate, hence why she started using more than just her shortsword to fight.

It’s fine though, because, “We just want to be together.” Both me and Masa said in unison.

The things we talked about so far didn’t have any big meaning behind them. We just wanted to talk about how we spent our time at school. We understood that this wouldn’t suddenly make sis get a change of heart, but… This much was fine.

Because like this, we were talking, we were interacting. We were starting to look like a ‘normal family’. A family that tells each other what happened during the day, as we eat at the dinner table. A family that just spends a day-to-day life together… Having those random conversations is already plenty.

Even if our sister doesn’t see us as family yet, I want her to know more about us. I can’t accept being designated as her ‘enemy’ without even trying to get closer first.

And therefore, “Could you please tell us more about yourself?” Me and Masa asked her together.

This was just a start. But if we can go from strangers to acquaintances, then we can eventually become family.