Chapter 11

In j.a.pan, the piano song, The Flea Waltz, is known as ‘I stepped on a cat’. Sometimes it comes with lyrics.

Kisshouin Takateru

I have a sister 7 years my junior. Lately she’s been acting strangely.

Because of her upbringing at the hands of my pampering parents, my sister was a wilful and brazen child. Because mother was always around her, mother’s influence affected her tastes and thoughts, and she turned into a miniature version of mother. As I watched all this happen with slightly cool eyes, I thought, ‘At this rate she’s going to to turn out like those haughty rich girls at the school that I go to, isn’t she’.

I do respect my parents, and I cherish my family too. But my parents, and the way they look down on people below them is just something I can’t get used to. Even though, it’s those same people that they look down on who are the ones supporting our company, you know? I’m the first son, and one day I’ll take over the family and company. When it happens, I might oppose my father’s way of doing things.

Anyway, about my sister. The girl that I thought was a miniature version of mother changed around the time she entered the primary section of my school. How do I say this, she turned into an idiot. In a good way. Should I call it innocent instead? And she seems to be sneakily up to something.

Apparently her grades aren’t bad. She’s even diligently attending the lessons that she used to skip because she felt like it. Even though she’s only six, she knows right from wrong now, and occasionally she even says things that would be difficult for a child her age. Seeing just this, you would think that she’s a talented girl. But well, she really does do weird things on occasion, and I find it a little funny. Recently I’ve taken to observing my little sister.

My sister has always been attached to me, but recently her attachment has become quite intense. Whenever she sees me, her face lights up and she runs to me. She’s kind of like a puppy. Her invisible tail wags about. And well, she’s being this open about her attachment to me, and she’s my real sister after all, so as you’d expect it’s quite adorable. And when I’m kind to her because of it, she gets even more attached. The spot next to me on the sofa has basically become her default seat.

One day she suddenly said that she wanted to go to cram school. She insisted that she wanted cram school, and not a tutor. The reason she gave was a fishy one. But that enthusiasm was real, so I just helped convince our parents a little, and she thanked me with a broad smile. When I questioned her a little because I felt like teasing her, as expected, her eyes began to swim. So she really did have some other motive. Well, that’s fine though. When I told her that her eyes were giving her away, she stiffened enough that anybody could tell.

My sister’s reactions are really too interesting.

Because she looked foolish with her mouth hanging open like a haniwa statue, I couldn’t help but laugh. The next time she turns into a haniwa statue, maybe I’ll try throwing candy into her mouth.

I was telling the truth about her looking upwards to the right, but there’s actually another habit that she doesn’t even notice herself. When my sister tries to bluff through something with a smile, her dimples twitch. It’s something I’ve noticed because we’ve been spending more time together recently. I’m pretty sure she has no idea herself. But I’m not going to tell her. It’s more interesting this way.

On our summer trips so far, under my mother’s influence, my sister would avoid the beach because she didn’t want a tan. This year, that same girl ran to get there first. Perhaps she wanted to show off the results of swimming school, because she enthusiastically started swimming, but immediately drowned. It was such a perfect example of drowning that it’s a mystery why she was so confident.

What the heck are you doing, little sister.

I became worried about her after that so I was always keeping an eye on her. At some point she discovered the technique of climbing onto my back to make things easier. Because she conceitedly told me to go here and there while clinging to my back, I occasionally sank into a wave on purpose. She looked like an idiot being drenched by the waves, and was quite funny. When I apologised for not noticing, she told me that the wave was the bad one, not me. It really is true, what they say about stupid kids being cuter…

Even though up until last year, she almost never went to the beach, this year she did nothing but, and got darker and darker. I thought that mother was going to get angry later, so I told her to properly reapply her sunscreen, but she just said ‘yep, yep’ and went back into the sea. As expected, she flew into a panic because of mother’s shock at her black skin though. That’s why I told her. Honestly, what an idiot.

I came back home one day, and found that my parents were out. When I headed to the piano room, I don’t know why, but my sister was playing Der Flohwalzer, ridiculously happily. She even added “Bun cha cha~” and weird lyrics like that, and cheerfully swayed her body to the music. But later that evening when mother asked her what she was doing, she nonchalantly said “I practised my piano. The music set for my piano recital.” Liar! What you played was Der Flohwalzer! When did that turn into the recital piece!

When my sister is by herself, I have no idea what she’s doing, but it’s incredibly suspicious.

On Valentine’s Day, she was careful to check through the chocolates I brought home. She demanded that I show her our grade photo, but definitely not. She kept smirking at me. It was a little gross. I also got what was allegedly a hand-made chocolate from her, but because I was preparing for my year-end exams, I was hesitant to eat it. She insisted that it would be okay because she got one of the maids to help, so I found my determination and ate it but… …it didn’t have any taste. What the heck is a tasteless chocolate. My sister waited for my impressions with a completely confident smile. For now, I just decided to tell her that it was delicious, and thanked her.

I wonder if next years’ is also going to be hand-made… year I have my high school section entrance exams as well, so if possible I want to find some skilful way of avoiding it.

The clincher for her weird behaviour was this: One night, I woke up and went to get a gla.s.s of water. The door to my sister’s room was a little open, and I could hear a weird voice from inside. Wondering what was going on, I peeked through the gap and found that in the room with only the bedlight on, sitting on the ground between the bed and closet with her back to me, was my sister, laughing eerily.

…I thought it was a youkai or something.

Not realising I was there, my sister was muttering something as she laughed. It was scary, so I just quietly shut the door and went back to my room.

I wonder if something weird has taken ahold of her.

I’ve decided to watch over her for now. And make sure to absolutely never go near her bedroom at night.