Operation: Stop Being The Little Sister

Rokurō spent about two hours translating Misuzu’s explanation into English and relaying it to Chris.

Once they finished talking, the three of them moved somewhere else and continued the interview. Only Riichi and Yūha remained at the restaurant.

After lunchtime, the place settled down into a quiet café and became a gathering spot for the local ladies. Complaints about their husbands could be heard from every direction, but that was probably the same everywhere. Yūha had grown completely used to it and went about her work while responding sympathetically to the ladies.

“Sorry. You wanted to go with Roku and the others too, didn’t you, Yūha-san?”

Riichi said that while they were clearing the table of a customer who had just paid.

Yūha shook her head as she washed plates and glasses at the sink.

“It’s fine. Rokurō would probably have a harder time doing it if I were watching.”

“You think so?”

That was a lie.

Yūha had actually wanted to go with them, but she had decided that work should come first. Rokurō would fulfill his role whether she was there or not. Unlike Yūha, who felt pressure when people watched her, that man didn’t care about things like that.

Seeing him speak English was the kind of rare, premium spectacle she normally never got to witness. But Yūha had work to do. Doing her job properly here was what she had decided she needed to do in order to support Rokurō.

She kept telling herself that, and somehow managed to stay where she was.

“You really trust Roku, don’t you?”

“Yes.”

She had answered just as she always did, yet her cheeks felt faintly warm. To keep him from noticing, she focused on the coldness of the tap water.

“If you don’t mind, could you tell me what kind of life Roku leads?”

“Normally?”

“Yeah. I want to know what he does outside this village.”

“I’ve only recently started finding out myself. If that’s okay with you.”

Rokurō had always been disliked by boys his own age.

That was because he never hid his disgust toward the people around him, while also being above average in both academics and athletics. A little jealousy combined with their everyday frustrations, and people had distanced themselves from him more than necessary.

There had been the exceptional case of Keiji Nitta, but Yūha didn’t know of any other friends he had.

So she had been happy when she learned that he seemed close to Riichi.

Little by little, Yūha began telling him what she knew.

“Rokurō mostly works on his computer. He used to deliver newspapers too, but ever since he started living with me, he only does that in the evenings. …How should I put it? He adjusts all sorts of things around me.”

“That’s just like him.”

Hearing that this kindness was simply part of who Rokurō was made warmth spread through Yūha’s chest.

This man truly understood him.

“Riichi-san, what made you become friends with Rokurō?”

“I wouldn’t say there was some particular trigger. I heard about him from Misuzu and thought he sounded interesting.”

“What did she tell you?”

“She said, ‘There’s this guy who’s got an absolutely awful personality, but he’s a really good person.’ It was the first time Misuzu had ever started by telling me someone’s flaw, so I got curious.”

Riichi narrowed his eyes as though reminiscing about that time.

The Misuzu that Riichi had known since long ago had been a girl with a narrow perspective. She tended to judge everything as either good or evil, and when it came to people, only “good people” and “bad people” existed in her world.

And yet Misuzu—

The first person she had ever described as “bad, but good” had been Rokurō.

“She seems to have realized around then that everyone is like that in one way or another. I’m grateful to Roku for that.”

“…Misuzu-san is important to you, isn’t she?”

When Yūha narrowed her eyes, Riichi scratched the back of his neck.

“She’s like a much younger sister to me. I worry about her too much to take my eyes off her.”

For some reason, the word sister made Yūha’s chest ache. The way he said it almost sounded as though he had excluded Misuzu from being a romantic possibility—but she immediately stopped herself, realizing that wasn’t something she had any right to pry into.

Even so, the vague unease that had formed deep in her chest refused to disappear.

(What am I—to Rokurō?)

She doesn’t want him to think of her as his little sister.

“I’m… weak!”

During our free time that night, I lay sprawled out on the tatami, painfully aware of my own powerlessness.

That was my conclusion after acting all cool and trying to speak English with Chris-san, only to be exposed to his real, authentic English.

A fluent wave of sounds delivered in a crisp, confident tone. My brain glitched when words I knew were used in ways I didn’t. And because I wanted to use all the difficult vocabulary I’d studied, my grammar turned into a complete mess.

Every part of it had been hopeless. I’d only barely managed to get my meaning across because Chris-san knew so much about Japan. At this rate, working in English was still nothing more than a distant dream.

I’d expected as much, but actually seeing how low my level was still killed my motivation.

I pulled my textbook over and ran my eyes across it like a wandering corpse.

…But now I knew there was a limit to this method.

There were abilities you couldn’t develop without speaking, without being exposed to the real thing. Scoring well on exams mattered. But what came after that wasn’t written in textbooks.

Maybe I really should attend an English conversation school. Those things were expensive, though.

It costs money to make money. That was just how the world worked.

“What am I supposed to do…”

I stared blankly at the ceiling. Since that wasn’t accomplishing anything, I lifted the textbook and looked at it again.

No good. I was too shocked for any of it to sink in.

“Yūhaaa.”

“Mm? What is it?”

The moment I called her name, the sliding door opened. She came over with quick, light footsteps and sat down, looking down at me where I lay.

“That was fast. Were you waiting for me to call?”

“Huh!? I wasn’t waiting!”

Since she was looking down at me, her expression was hidden in shadow and hard to see. But judging from her tone, she was probably absolutely delighted. Probably.

“So you weren’t doing anything? You weren’t even messing around on your phone…?”

“Sometimes maidens have moments when they do nothing at all.”

“Don’t think calling yourself a maiden excuses everything. …Jeez. Whatever.”

I tried to haul myself upright, but for some reason she pushed me in the chest and knocked me back onto the tatami.

Thump.

I remained lying there, still looking up at Yūha.

Assuming it had been some kind of mistake, I tried getting up again.

This time, she pressed my forehead and laid me back down on the tatami.

“Why?”

“No reason.”

“Give me a reason.”

“I said, no reason.”

For an instant, the fluorescent light broke through the shadow and illuminated Yūha’s face.

She was smiling like crazy.

Scary.

A smile seen from below was really scary.

“So? What’s wrong? You called me, so I came.”

“Do I seriously have to talk to you like this?”

“Yeah.”

There was an unshakable determination in her voice. I felt like something terrible would happen if I tried getting up, so I gave in and let my arms and legs fall limp.

Once I relaxed, I felt strangely at ease, and the words started spilling out of me.

“It’s nothing major, really… I tried speaking English with Chris-san today. And, well… I realized I’m not good enough.”

“What do you mean, not good enough?”

“Experience. Someone like me won’t get hired unless I’m already ready to contribute immediately. The positions where they train you are probably going to college graduates. …Though maybe that’s just me being pessimistic.”

Realizing I was being unnecessarily negative, I tried to correct course.

But even that came out weakly.

Why was it that lying here with Yūha looking down at me felt so incredibly calming?

“Rokurō has it hard.”

“It’s not just me. This kind of thing happens all the time.”

“But it’s still hard.”

“Well… yeah, I guess it is…”

Yūha reached out and gently touched my hair.

Then her hand moved back and forth several times in slow, careful strokes.

It took me about ten seconds to realize she was patting my head.

I raised my right hand to make her stop, but she smoothly dodged it and kept going.

Since I was still lying down, I couldn’t move properly. No matter the difference in strength between a man and a woman, my position was just too disadvantageous.

“Hey, what the hell are you doing while I’m distracted—stop. Cut it out.”

“No.”

“Why all of a sudden!? Weren’t you the kind of person who wanted to be patted, not the one doing the patting?”

“Both!”

“Greedy little thing!”

I tried to get up, and Yūha tried to stop me. We wrestled like children, until eventually, disadvantaged as I was, I got pushed flat onto my back.

Thud.

A shock ran through my back.

Then the weight of an entire person dropped onto my chest.

“Urgh.”

The air was crushed out of my lungs, forcing a groan from me.

Beautiful black hair was right in front of my face. Strands had fallen across my cheeks, and I could directly feel their smooth texture and smell the scent of shampoo.

There was a soft weight resting against everything below my neck, and my thoughts slowed.

“Hey, are you okay?”

“—Y-yeah. I’m okay.”

She sprang upright, turned away, and vigorously shook her head from side to side. Her hair fluttered around like a merry-go-round.

While Yūha was still flustered, I sat back up and settled myself.

“Seriously, why’d you suddenly start doing this?”

“…Because you…”

“Because I what?”

“You looked like you wanted someone to pat your head.”

“I did not.”

What kind of insane logic was that?

“Besides, I’ve never even had my head patted before. There’s no way I’d suddenly want something like that.”

“That’s why I did it.”

“That’s different from what you said a second ago.”

“Who cares!? Why do you always obsess over such pointless little details, Rokurō?”

“How did this become my fault…?”

Yūha suddenly ramped up the pressure, throwing my thoughts off balance.

I had no idea why, but my mind hadn’t been working properly for a while now. It felt loose and floaty, like my brain had melted.

“I’m going to spoil you, Rokurō.”

“You’re heading off in another weird direction again.”

She wasn’t quite running completely wild, but she was definitely losing her way.

Just what in the world was Yūha trying to become?

As I held my forehead in exasperation, she finally looked at me again.

Her lips were slightly pursed, and determination burned in her eyes.

I had yet to win even once against her when she made that face.

“You looked like you were enjoying it.”

“……………………No?”

“You hesitated! You definitely hesitated just now!”

“Tch. I told you, that’s not what it was.”

“You’re lying! You’re lying right now, aren’t you?!”

“Shut up, shut up. Kagari’s having a bad influence on you.”

I hated how her energy and bluntness were starting to resemble Kagari’s. Kagari needed to get taken in by Riichi-san and locked away in his house as soon as possible.

“You were satisfied with me, weren’t you?!”

“Use proper Japanese! If you leave words out, that can be taken to mean something completely different!”

“I don’t know what you mean!”

“Good! You don’t need to!”

I was actually relieved she hadn’t understood.

I’d blurted that out instinctively, but it would’ve gotten pretty awkward if she had.

“Rokurō, you liar.”

“…………”

Leaving only those words behind, Yūha returned to her room.

I couldn’t argue with that last one at all.

Being a liar really did have nothing but downsides.