Chapter 29

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Kisshouin Takateru//Momozono Imari

Apparently my sister has begun dieting. It looks like she’s doing stretches in the living room. She doesn’t look particularly fat though, you know? Rather, isn’t she a bit too skinny? When I told her not to overdo things, she smiled happily at me. Simple-minded as usual. And I also know the truth about the weird yells coming from my sister’s room. I didn’t hear what words she was actually saying, but I’m worried now that she’s shouting strange things again.

“I can hear your shouts from outside your room, you know?” I casually told her, and in response she replied “Eh-, you heard me? Oh gosh, I need to be careful.” in shock. Yeah, I heard you, alright. And not just your yells. I heard your weird moans too, and it’s scary. I managed to solve another one of the problems caused by my sister’s weird behaviour. I am technically taking my university exams this year, so I’d appreciate it if she behaved.

*imouto*

*imouto*

One day, my sister brought me some zousui rice soup in the name of a late-night snack. It hadn’t been too long since dinner, so I honestly wasn’t hungry at all. It’s not like I had been planning on studying all night, and I had planned to sleep an hour later. So if I ate it, it would probably be bad for my body instead&h.e.l.lip;

But my sister looked my way expectantly, wanting me to hurry and eat. I’m troubled&h.e.l.lip; This pot is big enough for two people’s worth, isn’t it. My sister’s eyes were completely glittering. Can’t be helped&h.e.l.lip;

Preparing myself for the worst, I opened the lid, and found a steaming egg zousui with spring onions spread about. I scooped some into a bowl, and with a soup spoon, I brought some to my mouth.

&h.e.l.lip;Salty.

You’ve put way too much salt, my little sister! My tongue is tingling from it. I want some water, now. Ah c.r.a.p, there’s no water. All she gave me was hot tea. Hot food, and hot drinks. &h.e.l.lip;Little sister.

I hurriedly pulled out some cold water from a small fridge in my room and gulped it down. Thank goodness for putting a refrigerator here. I bought it in the past. It’s so that if I want a drink, I don’t have to risk heading outside and encountering some of my sister’s weird behaviours.

“How was it, Oniisama?”

It was salty. You put in too much salt. Did you even taste-test this?

“&h.e.l.lip;It was delicious.”

When she looked at me with those round eyes, I couldn’t tell the truth. Honestly, how troubling. Rather than tasteless chocolate, the hurdle is higher for salty zousui. I don’t have the confidence to finish the stuff I ladled into the bowl. But&h.e.l.lip;

My sister simply believed me, and smiled happily. Can’t be helped&h.e.l.lip; I guess I’ll try my best to at least finish the stuff in the bowl.

Without letting it show, I desperately ate. The 500ml bottle was gone in an instant. I immediately opened another bottle. As you’d expect, I couldn’t finish the stuff left in the pot, so I apologised and told her that I wasn’t so hungry at night. Saying something like “Maybe I should have some too&h.e.l.lip;”, she took a spoon to her mouth.

“Hmm? I wonder if it’s a little salty.”

So you’ve noticed, little sister!? But this isn’t at the level where you’d call it ‘a little’, you know. Even so, my sister continued eat(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});ing with an unconcerned expression. My sister’s sense of taste is wayy too rough. And what about her diet? Carbohydrates before bed are scarier than monsters, you know.

In the end, my sister finished all of the leftovers. At this rate, I might have to continue to suffer this h.e.l.l of supper attacks. What do I do.

“Reika, thanks for making me a snack tonight. But eating makes me sleepy, so you don’t have to worry about it from now on. I won’t be studying too late either.”

“Is that so?”

“Yeah. I’m happy with just your feelings. And also, I might get fat eating before sleep, right?”

“Ah-, that is true!”

Looks like it had quite an effect on my dieting sister. Thank goodness&h.e.l.lip; After seeing out my sister with the pot, my stomach was bloated from all the water, and I was exhausted.

I feel sick from all the water&h.e.l.lip; Maybe it might feel better if I just throw it up. But she did try her very best making that, so I’d feel sorry for her if I went and did that. And so that night, I fought with my nausea until I somehow managed to digest it.

As for the tasteless, yearly Valentine’s Chocolates, I discussed it with Minadzuki-san, who I went to an amus.e.m.e.nt park with last year.

“My sister’s handmade chocolates are too flavourless, so I was wondering what I could do about it. I feel bad for her when she tries so hard to make them, so I’m sorry about this, but could I perhaps get you to casually teach her how to make them, Minadzuki-san?”

When I asked her this, although she asked “flavourless chocolates?” confusedly, she happily agreed, and some time later they made chocolates together at our home.

A few days later, the chocolates that my sister gave me were sweet like they were supposed to be.

Just what kind of magic did Minadzuki-san use, to make that girl’s chocolates actually taste sweet. When I asked her this she replied, “I don’t know for sure what the reason was, but she heated the chocolate in water for too long, which dispersed it, and well, just a whole bunch of other mistakes. But it’s fine now. Reika-san seems to know what to do, and what not to do in making chocolates now, so from next year the chocolates should be delicious as they should be.” I was relieved.

Should I get Minadzuki-san to help this time as well? But my little sister really looks up to her. If she shows her mistakes in front of her adored senpai, she might get depressed. For the sake of her future as well, perhaps I should casually recommend cooking cla.s.ses to her.

*imouto*

*imouto*

In public, my sister does quite a good job in playing the ojousama. Like somebody truly befitting the name of the Kisshouin family’s daughter. My parents haven’t noticed either that she’s actually rather disappointing(pitiful) on the inside. Anyhow, as time goes on, her mask comes off more and more when she’s in front of me, and the stupidity and silliness on the inside is really starting to show. She’s probably just that trusting of me, but if she does something too weird it’ll scare me, so I wish she would stop.

And little sister, don’t try and do chin-ups inside your closet. It’s scary.

My friend, Kisshouin Takateru, is a pretty splendid guy. To begin with, he rarely gets angry. I’ve almost never seen him get emotional, and he basically treats everybody politely. In the archery club he’s captain too, and all the undercla.s.smen rely on him. His results are always in the high ranks, but he’s never shown off about this.

He almost seems like a human with no flaws, but he’s actually pretty black-hearted, and he uses his gentle-looking smile to get people to do what he wants. At a glance he looks like a kind person who’ll accept everyone, but the number of people he actually let’s down his guard around are pretty few. But at heart, he’s a straight-forward guy. Somehow or other, he’s just good at taking care of others. For people he considers friends, he definitely won’t ever betray them. It’s these parts of him that I like.

*imouto*

Anyhow, that Takateru has a little sister.

She’s a cute girl, who looks like a well-made western doll. When she’s quiet, she looks just like one, but when she smiles her dimples come out, and it’s cute. Whenever I bring -chan a present, she always seems to smile happily from the bottom of her heart. Unlike her brother, she doesn’t have a hidden side to her. Sometimes the three of us chat together, and she happily eats the sweets I bring her. I guess she likes sweets, huh. A while back when I went with her to an amus.e.m.e.nt park, her eyes shot between this stall and that stall, and when I bought her sweets that I thought she would like, she was so grateful to me that it was shocking. Just a few hundred Yen’s worth of food is enough to get her eyes sparkling and saying “Thank you very much, Imari-sama!” so it made me want to tell her that I’d buy her any food she wanted. It felt like feeding a bird chick.

-chan always happily listens to my stories about Takateru. She really loves him. I could totally feel her feelings towards her “beloved Oniisama”.

*imouto*

And as for Takateru, he totally dotes on her. Takateru is a guy who hates people who stick to him without a sense of distance. But apparently it’s a different story when it comes to his own sister. -chan is adorable. She really thinks that Takateru is a gentle, wonderful Oniisama. She doesn’t notice that he occasionally plays with her reactions. She just dances on his palms as much as he wants.

Apparently Takateru doesn’t think of himself as a siscon, but from my eyes, he’s plenty siscon enough. When they’re sitting on the couch in the living room, he always has her sit next to him. Never, ever next to me. When he listens to her talk, it’s not some statue’s archaic smile, but an actual smile that he has. When -chan gets her head patted by Takateru she smiles happily in response. These siblings really do get along. All I have is a c.o.c.ky little brother, so sometimes I get jealous of him when I wonder how things would be if I had a cute little sister attached to me too.

One day in the Pivoine salon, I heard Takateru discussing “handmade chocolates” with Aira-chan. When I asked him about that, he told me “I asked her to teach my sister how to make handmade chocolates for Valentine’s”. Valentine’s huh. Apparently he gets handmade chocolates from -chan each year. When I said “I wonder if this year I’ll get some from -chan too~”, he just stared blankly at me and asked back “Why does my sister have to give a Valentine’s chocolate to you?”. d.a.m.n siscon&h.e.l.lip;

Once when I thought about teasing this siscon and joked with a smile, “If -chan and I got married, you’d end up as my Oniichan as well, huh~ What should I do?”, I ended up eating a strong hook to the solar plexus. &h.e.l.lip;Sorry, I won’t say it again.

They’re a funny pair of siblings. Rather, when -chan gets involved, Takateru immediately becomes funnier. Today as well, I’m heading to the Kisshouin house with sweets in hand.