Volume 10 - CH 34

Akechi Hideyori Holds

“Kyahhhh! Hideyori-kun, so cute!”

“……….”

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The moment she opened the album, Emi screamed.

“Look Look!” she tucks on my sleeve.

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“There was a time when our heights weren’t all that different, see! Why!? How did the gap widen so much!? Kyahh! Hideyori-kun and I are at the same height, so cute!!! It’s so nostalgic! I want to pat your head!”

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I don’t remember when this was taken but the picture Emi is getting excited about is one where Emi and I are standing next to each other.

It’s probably Emi’s Mama who took this……..

I do remember her giving me a few pictures a long time ago.

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“Ah, look, it’s Takeru!”

“Kyahhhh! You’re so cute dressed up, Hideyori-kun! What’s this!? WOW, it’s not everyday I get to see you like this!”

“Ri, Risa’s here t—–…….”

“This Hideyori-kun is so grumpy! Even when Hideyori-kun gets angry you never look scary!”

“………..”

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Emi is teasing me……..

It seems like she has no plan to comment on Takeru and Risa at all.

……I’m not scary even when I’m angry?

For some reason, that comment of hers made me snap.

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“Were these taken by auntie? There are a lot of pictures at your home, the park, and the station I’ve never seen before.”

“Right. In the first half of elementary school, Oba-san did take pictures of me sometimes.”

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I don’t see my uncle in any of the pictures but that’s a given.

He’s not in any of the pictures but since there are several that have my aunt and me together, you’d probably assume that he was the one who took those.

But those are probably taken by some passerby though……..

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“This one is me and Hideyori-kun playing Smash together! I wonder when this was taken.”

“You, you always use the same character as me whenever we play Smash huh.”

“It’s a coincidence.”

“There’s no way a hundred straight mirror matches is a coincidence right!”

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To put it simply, Emi never chooses her character first.

She’d always wait for me to pick mine.

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Even when I tried making her pick hers first, she would change her character when I picked mine while saying [Yup, I’m changing.] and we would end up with the same character anyway.

She’s been like that throughout our elementary school days.

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On the other hand, if Emi and I have to play games where we have to choose different characters like Mario Party or Mario Kart, she’d start to pout and complain that the game’s boring.

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That’s why when it comes to party games, Emi would default to Smash Bros.

Sometimes I tried saying [Hey, this cute girl is way better than this dude right] but she would always go [No! I want the same character as Hideyori-kun!]. She was pretty stubborn.

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For a while, I thought that I could never understand what was going on in her head.

I still can’t do that even now so nothing actually changed though…….

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“Ah, look, isn’t this when Takeru and I bought a wooden sword on the school trip?”

“Auntie was troubled about what to do with them wasn’t she.”

“Haha……, she was…….”

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Rather, it’s just like when I was scolded by my mom in my previous life.

But it was the school trip’s magic that compelled me to buy that wooden sword.

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“Uwah……, isn’t this from the men’s bath? Oba-san, what was she thinking……..”

“I can’t, I can’t see…….”

“What are you trying to look at?”

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Emi’s staring at the picture of me with the boys in the men’s bath. Her eyes were clearly focused on my lower body.

As I thought, girls do have interests in that kind of thing after all huh…….

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………should I, take it out right now?

……..yeah, there’s no way I can say that…….

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She’s going to call the police on me.

My pants’ zipper vainly stands up.

I’m seeing Emi as a girl so my heart is racing.

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“Nnn. By the way.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Why does this album only have pictures from the time after I met you?”

“Eh? What do you mean?”

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For a different reason, my heart beat faster.

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“I mean, why are there only pictures of Hideyori-kun after my family moved in next door here?”

“Eh?”

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I recall the first picture in the album.

Emi was already there in the earliest picture.

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“Th, the rest must have been in a different album right.”

“There’s no other album here you know. The pictures here already have me or Juumonji-kun in them. I know it can’t be helped if there are no pictures of the time before Hideyori-kun and Seiko-chan got separated but there’s nothing here that belongs to before Hideyori-kun met me at all…….”

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There’s no way something like that would exist…….

After all, the woman who took all these pictures was too terrified of her husband to do anything back then………

[Don’t you dare waste time on that damn brat!] That trash would always say that……..

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“Abuse……”

“Eh?”

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Emi muttered something.

My uncle, my aunt, Master, and Eimi. Those were the only people who knew that I was abused.

I’ve never told anyone else about it.

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Did someone talk?

No, that’s impossible.

It’s not something that you would casually bring up in a conversation………

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—the dream!?

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I knew that Emi too saw the dream of what happened in the game but could it be that she actually remembered its content too……..?

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The dream where I stole Risa from Takeru.

The dream where I tricked Mishima to lose control of her Energy Drain.

The dream where I made Eien-chan murder her family.

The dream where I tortured Yurika to death and camouflaged it as a suicide.

The dreams where I mistreated Emi and killed her over and over.

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10 years.

I’ve had many dreams where I destroy people’s lives.

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Did Emi also see the dreams of the games as clearly as I did……..?

If Emi’s dream self took control of her then wouldn’t that make the current Emi, not the Emi I know…….?

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I’m scared…….

It was like Emi is going to disappear right in front of me so I hugged her tight.

Author Note: For Emi’s Smash Bros mirror match please see V8C5

The next chapter is not so serious.