Chapter 131: Sister Catfight

Once we got back to the Brad Prime colony, Whisker immediately headed for the toilet to clean up, but unfortunately, her sister managed to witness the whole thing.

It turns out that Tina became suspicious because of Whisker’s conspicuous behavior, so she ended up tailing her.

“Ahahahaha!”

“Mou, stop laughing already!”

Whisker’s face turned bright red as she directed a resentful gaze at Tina, who was laughing like there was no tomorrow. I honestly had to hold myself back from laughing as well.

“No, but I never thought you’d still manage to wet yourself at your age, Whisker…… Pfft. Bahahaha!”

“Big siiiis!!!”

The red-faced Whisker finally couldn’t hold herself back and pounced on the laughing Tina in order to shut her up. But since they had the same build, it didn’t go as she wanted.

“Man. Tina was a nervous wreck earlier, but just look at her now.”

“Maybe she’s doing this precisely to forget her fear from earlier?”

“So Tina’s now leaking from above while Whisker’s was down below huh.”

“Hiro-san!!”

Whisker gave me a sharp reprimand as she wrestled with her sister. I don’t really think it’s a big deal though. Mimi was just like Whisker in the past too.

I gave Mimi a quick glance, and our eyes met. Mimi’s cheeks were slightly red and she ended up turning away with an embarrassed expression. Maybe she felt embarrassed witnessing someone who suffered the same thing as her back when she was just starting out.

Me? Maybe it’s the influence of playing the game, but I didn’t feel nervous at all, even when I just found myself stranded here. Maybe I just didn’t have enough sense of reality for my current situation though.

“Hiro……”

“Sorry for saying something rude. Guys need to act like gentlemen after all.”

“You, a gentleman? Stop joking.”

“How cruel.”

Well, even I think acting like the perfect gentleman doesn’t suit me. That’s just not me y’know. It just feels too uptight.

“Man, that was tough.”

Tina spun her shoulders around as we walked together on the colony streets. Uh, your shoulder doesn’t sound right though. Are you sure you’re okay?

“You had that coming, y’know.”

In the end, Whisker emerged as the victor of the sister spat. She performed a splendid mid-air tackle followed by a joint lock and made Tina tap out in defeat. Well, both of them looked like little kids, so it looked comical instead of being fierce.

“……”

Whisker seemed to still be indignant even if she won. It seems she still couldn’t forgive Tina for laughing at her unfortunate accident. Yeah, I guess I understand why.

“Your sister still seemed pretty angry y’know.”

“I’ll apologize to her properly later.”

“You may want to leave her alone for a bit to let her cool down.”

Tina laughing like an idiot and Whisker’s extreme reaction may be a result of the lingering tension they felt from returning after experiencing a real battle. Once one manages to overcome a life-threatening crisis and returns to safety, they’d feel jumpy for a while. It wasn’t a surprise that they acted the way they did.

How did Mimi deal with it back when she just started out, you ask? She just stuck to me like glue and had me comfort her of course. Like, really close. Of course, you guys know what will happen once she does that, right? She’s calmed down considerably nowadays, but she still had the habit of engaging in skinship with me right after battles if she could.

Elma? Elma just drank her liquor to relax. And once she’s drunk enough, she sneaks into my bed. Elma really likes drinking alcohol, but her tolerance was just so-so. A drunk Elma was pretty cute too.

“Um, what were we talking about earlier anyway? Uh, it’s about Sara-san organizing a farewell party, right?”

“The mothership will be delivered in three days after all. It’s already decided that these two will be joining us, so maybe she just wants to have a huge send-off.”

“How lavish…… Well, maybe she just wants to use this opportunity to unwind herself.”

“Well, Space Dwerg is a fairly large company after all. Maybe it’s just part of their corporate culture.”

Socialization while drinking huh.

“Huh? Isn’t it quite crowded here? I wonder what’s going on.”

“Hm?”

Mimi made such an observation when we neared the bar, so I looked around to check things out. When I did so, I saw that it was indeed crowded out front. And not just that. There were even guys who were dressed like the local security forces in the crowd.

“Did an incident happen?”

“I wonder what though. What do you think, sis?”

“Mm, I’m not sure. It doesn’t look like a fire. Is it a slasher crime incident?”

“Slasher crime…”

This dimension is firmly in an advanced space-age, so how could a slasher incident even take place here? They already mostly forgot how to cook themselves and relied on auto-cookers, so…… Oh, right. The dwarves actually cook food for themselves huh. I guess that makes it easier to get access to bladed objects like knives.

“I hope the place they reserved wasn’t involved in the incident.”

“That’s gonna be a problem.”

Both Elma and Tina were acting like it wasn’t their problem. Well, I guess they would. We’re not really part of the law enforcement and we’re certainly not heroes of justice nor charitable philanthropists. It was hard to relate even with such a gruesome incident if you weren’t directly involved in some way yourself.

With great power comes great responsibility? Like I care. One uses his or her power ultimately for his or her own benefit, regardless of intentions. I certainly don’t want anyone to push an unreasonable sense of obligation onto me just because I had power.

“It’s this place, right?”

“Yeah, I think so.”

Damn. I sense something troublesome coming along. Ugh. The bar we were invited to had police lines with the words『Keep Out』wrapped all over it. The only good thing was that it didn’t look like there were any casualties in the incident. It looks like the farewell party tonight was a big bust.

“Is Sara okay?”

“I wonder. How about calling her?”

“Yeah, okay.”

I took out my portable terminal and called her number. When I did so, a ringtone resounded from nearby. I got worried that she got caught up in the incident for a moment, but then I realized that the sound was coming from the crowd checking out the crime scene. Phew. I wouldn’t know how to react if it was coming from inside the bar.

『Yes, this is Sara speaking. I’m sorry. It looks like tonight’s party is……』

“Oh, that’s okay. We’re already here actually. We’re right in front of the place. You can probably see us if you turn around.”

『Oh, you’re right. I’m coming over then.』

A small figure squeezed through the crowd and came in front of us. It was certainly Sara, who was in her business suit.

“I’m sorry it turned out this way even though I invited you all.”

“Nah, it’s just a case of bad luck. What happened anyway?”

“It seems like there was a burglary. I don’t get why they purposely targeted a bar and restaurant though……”

After saying so, Sara made a pondering expression. Yeah. A restaurant isn’t really a prime target for a burglary, and it was now past 5 pm, so there should have been a lot of customers inside the place already. In other words, this place was probably packed and filled with potential witnesses. If the thieves wanted to break in and steal stuff in secret, they should have picked a less crowded time.

“Well, there’s no use thinking about something incomprehensible. So do you have a Plan B in mind?”

“There’s another place not far from here, but it’s not as fancy.”

“It’s okay. Tonight’s a celebration, so I’m raring to eat my fill.”

“Yeah. I’m gonna drink till I drop!”

“Yaaaaay!”

“Uh, y-yay.”

“You two are still on probation.”

Tina, who raised a whoop of joy after Elma’s declaration, was coldly shot down by Sara. Yeah, I thought so.