The next day after school, of all people, I received a direct summons from the Student Council President—Yuuki-senpai himself. Being called out over the school broadcast was way too malicious, wasn’t it? And I really wished he hadn’t apologized on the air. Now the looks-obsessed nympho girls like Koga and Murata were staring at me with bloodshot eyes.
“Damn it… I got stuck helping until after school…”
It wasn’t that I’d gone out of my way to help just so I could save on lunch money. Nope… Though it really had been delicious. I still wondered what those black grains on the rice were. They had a nice, savory saltiness.
Even so, losing my after-school time left me with a definite sense of loss. If I’d been doing club activities or working my part-time job, I probably wouldn’t have felt it at all. Ichinose was working her shift today… I hoped she was managing okay. If I stopped by to check on her, the old man would probably slap a labor contract into my hands on the spot. Better not risk it.
I changed out of my indoor shoes at the school entrance while scrolling through my phone. This had become my favorite healing time—checking game app news and web novel updates.
“…Ah……………”
“Hm?”
It was an awkward hour with only a sparse trickle of students heading home. As I blended in with them, I heard a voice that clearly belonged to someone who had spotted me. When I turned around, my posture straightened on instinct.
“G-Good afternoon…”
“Why are you greeting me so formally?”
The hand I’d raised in a friendly wave immediately lost its purpose. After floundering in the air, it dropped limply to my side. Natsukawa slowly approached. She was coming closer…? What was I supposed to do? The atmosphere felt strangely tense.
“Uh… this is about the Cultural Festival Executive Committee, right?”
“…Yeah. It sounds like we’ve reached the critical stage.”
“You’ve been at it since summer vacation, though.”
“………”
“………? ”
I’d meant it as “That must be tough,” but Natsukawa’s face clouded with clear exhaustion. Was it really that bad? No matter how I looked at it, putting first-years under that kind of pressure seemed pretty harsh. I could have sworn I’d heard it wasn’t supposed to be that intense. Sasaki seemed like the type who would proactively take work off her plate, too.
While I was absentmindedly framing the scene of Natsukawa in my mind like a painting, the beauty inside it suddenly vanished. Before I could look around, I felt a tug on my sleeve.
“…Hey. Want to walk home together?”
“Huh?”
There she was on my left.
Ehh, ehh, ehh. What was that slightly hesitant, almost spoiled gesture? Did she really mean walk home together? Right? I wasn’t misunderstanding this, was I? If I was wrong I’d die. I would literally die.
“………”
“O-Okay…”
The surprise attack delayed my proper response. I hurriedly finished changing my shoes and stepped out of the school entrance, but because I’d let my guard down, I ended up walking several steps ahead of her. Matching a girl’s pace was harder than it looked…
I stopped and waited. Natsukawa silently came up beside me and halted as well.
“Um… sorry.”
“No, it’s totally fine.”
Side by side. Natsukawa was right beside me. Overwhelmingly beside me. In other words, we were “walking next to each other.” I still wasn’t used to it. Nearly all my memories consisted of chasing after her back. I had never imagined a day would come when we could calmly walk side-by-side like this. So boys and girls could end up like this even without dating… The thought made me tense.
This was the first time since that middle school trial enrollment day… This was bad. I felt like I was being subjected to some kind of ordeal. If I ruined Natsukawa’s mood, the game-over screen would be immediate. Wait, why were so many dirty jokes popping into my head at the worst possible moment? What was wrong with my brain…? Could we please stop with this mysterious plot convenience where the rival is always the type with terrible compatibility with the protagonist?
“It’s been a while… or rather, it’s pretty rare. Walking home together like this.”
“…I suppose so.”
“…?”
I’d almost said something like “It really has been a long time since we walked home together,” the way old childhood friends who had grown apart might, but then I realized we barely had any memories like that to begin with. That’s right. The one I used to walk home beside every day was that girl on the screen who looked like Natsukawa. I wondered if she was doing well… Though since time had stopped for her, “doing well” didn’t really apply.
Even so, something felt off. Setting aside the fresh tension, I couldn’t shake a sense of discomfort. Our relationship might have changed a little since the days when I was constantly clinging to her, but had Natsukawa always been this quiet? Maybe she really was tired…? Even if I said so myself, I thought she’d probably be more relaxed walking home without me. There was no way I wouldn’t talk to her, after all.
“…You seem pretty busy lately.”
“But I’m not in any clubs. Compared to Kei, this is nothing.”
“Well, the degree to which something feels like a burden depends on each person’s habits, doesn’t it? Compared to Ashida, there’s about as much difference in stamina as between a housewife and a professional athlete.”
“D-Don’t call me a housewife.”
Crap, I’d slipped up. Lately the dominant image of Natsukawa was her taking care of Airi-chan, so the guardian-like impression was strong. Even so, Natsukawa gave off the vibe that she could handle sports just fine. Maybe she was actually the type who would shine more in athletics than in cultural clubs? Her loungewear had been the easy-to-move-in kind, too. Yeah, it had been a truly enviable sight.
“But when it comes to you, Natsukawa, you’re as popular as an Oricon number one. Doesn’t that mean people around you automatically help out? That seems pretty amazing.”
“What is an Oricon number one supposed to mean…? Still… there are some kids who worry about me, I suppose…”
“Like Sasaki?”
“Don’t call Sasaki-kun a ‘kid.’”
Tch… I’d thought there was a slim chance he wasn’t being seen as a man at all, but it looked like she did rely on him after all.
“Sasaki-kun really is something… He’s even helping out in the classroom.”
“Ehh…? Isn’t that actually not allowed? You said, ‘I don’t want anyone to see them,’ didn’t you?”
“Why do you sound a little like a girl……… Anyway, the truth is… yeah, you’re not supposed to take them out.”
“………”
There was one part that still felt off to me. We’d only known each other since spring, but Sasaki wasn’t the type to break rules just because he was busy or caught up in the moment… If anyone was going to take committee documents out, it should have been a senior. If the committee was that swamped, the third-years running it should have been the ones panicking the most.
That’s right. On top of being handsome, the guy was serious at heart. How many times had Yamazaki and I tried messing with him only to be completely ignored and turned into the girls’ chew toys…? Well, since I’d been completely fixated on Natsukawa, I’d never really paid it any mind. Actually, we shouldn’t have been messing with him in the first place.
『───Sajou, I’m going after her for real.』
On top of that, he had gone out of his way to declare to me that he was seriously targeting Natsukawa. Well, it wasn’t so much a declaration as his face practically narrating, “Are you really okay with this?” What was that? If I were a girl, I probably would have fallen for him right there.
Because he was that handsome, I used to mess with him constantly. To keep Natsukawa from falling for him, I went along with Yamazaki’s stupid antics and did everything I could to prevent Sasaki and Natsukawa from entering each other’s field of vision. So why would a guy who looked like he was one step away from getting isekai’d be bringing prohibited documents into the classroom?
It was purely for Natsukawa’s sake.
“───You’re not the only one doing sports, are you?”
“Eh…?”
“Sasaki. He’s the Soccer Club’s promising first-year, right? Even if it’s a bit much for you, Sasaki should be able to handle it easily stamina-wise. Wouldn’t it be fine to keep relying on him?”
“If it’s really that tough, then I’ll—”
I wished I could have said that. But the documents were prohibited from being taken out. Sasaki himself had said they couldn’t be seen by anyone, so I couldn’t help. Rather than clumsily getting involved, it would probably be better to leave it to a high-spec guy like Sasaki. Not that I knew what he was capable of, but with him, some mysterious protagonist correction would probably kick in and make everything work out. After all, he also had a brocon little sister.
“S-Something like depending on others that much………”
“Depending on others is perfectly fine. And so is Sasaki. He’s still only a first-year, right? Why is the most inexperienced underclassman being forced to carry such a heavy burden?”
“That’s…”
High school lasted only three years, but the gap in ability between grades was surprisingly large. Things like the atmosphere of an organization, how to run it, or whether you could properly use a computer—the experience built up over those two extra years was on a completely different level from us first-years. Even now, classes in “that kind of subject” were already quite difficult.
“Isn’t it because you’ve unconsciously slipped into Older Sister Mode, Natsukawa? Like how you act with Airi-chan—you’ve let your meddlesome side come out, haven’t you?”
“O-Older Sister………”
Ah, crap. “Older Sister” was a forbidden phrase with Natsukawa. She had strongly told me to stop in our messages… That was scary. Knowing how much of a siscon she was only made it worse.
“…Onee… chan………”
“Ah, y-yeah, that, sorry Natsukawa. It was just a figure of speech. I didn’t mean anything weird by it. The Natsukawa Sisters are immortal for all eternity.”
What the hell was I saying? Was I Shigeo or something? I didn’t even know anything about baseball. Besides, it was questionable whether the reference even got across to Natsukawa.
I needed to be careful. I didn’t even call my own Nee-chan “Onee-chan.” “Nee-chan”… was only until before I started middle school. Wait, did that mean I had never once politely called her “Onee-chan”? No, I had probably been forced to… exactly when I needed to escape a crisis involving Nee-chan.
“……Say it one more time.”
“……Huh?”
The Natsukawa Sisters are immortal for all eternity.
Natsukawa Sisters ≠ Sasaki Siblings
Sasaki Brother : Natsukawa Sister ≒ Sasaki Sister : Sasaki Brother