Haruma-2
Just as I thought, meat without extra fat is perfect and supreme. It’s nice to have fatty meat occasionally, but you know how curry is good and all, yet osechi is a once-in-a-year treat (1)? I feel the same way here.
As our stomachs digested the beautiful sisters’ home-cooked roast beef, the three of us let out sighs of satisfaction.
At that moment, Misa leapt to her feet somewhat vigorously. “I’ll do the dishes today!”
“All right then, I’ll help you…”
As Chigusa stood up as well, Misa stopped her with her hand. Then she struck an enthusiastic pose, evidently full of motivation. “You don’t have to! Leave it to me! I love cleaning and doing the dishes!”
“Oh really? Then I suppose you can do the honours. Ah, but you’re still not allowed to clean that dirty thing over there, okay?”
Yeaaaah, Johannes’s finger was pointed straight at me… And wait, what did she mean by still? Don’t tell me she was still mad about that changing room thing.
Whether or not she understood Chigusa’s words, Misa nodded with a sheepish expression on her face and trotted off towards the sink. As I watched the pajama-clad Misa go off, a sudden thought occurred to me. “Oh yeah, is Misa-chan having trouble at school?” I asked.
We had played truant and escaped from school, having been expelled from paradise, but anyway, it bothered me that Misa was still at home.
Chigusa sighed. “Misa has a weak constitution, so she takes a day off from school whenever she’s feeling under the weather.”
“Ohh… right.”
Looking back, I did recall seeing her in the nurse’s office. I also got the feeling that Amane-chan had mentioned something about her. I got the impression that I’d said something intrusive, so I was at a loss for what to talk about.
Meanwhile, Chigusa chuckled. “Not to worry. I looked for somewhere where she could rest and take care of her medical issues, and I achieved my goal. If I take care of the money, there’s no problem,” she said matter-of-factly. She laughed as if the whole thing was extremely obvious.
“…Is that how it is?”
“That’s how it is. Have you fallen in love with me all over again? Would you go to the ends of the earth for me?”
“Nope.”
Chigusa shut her mouth, disappointed. But still, she had never uttered a word about any of this until now. If she turned that into an excuse, it would just make people look down on her out of pity.
If anyone knew this fact, then of course they would think of her that way. That she must have given her all for the sake of her little sister, or that she must have had compelling reasons for doing what she did, or that she didn’t want to use her little sister as a pretext, or that she had something she wanted to protect even if it meant sacrificing something else along the way.
“If my situation was common knowledge, there’s no doubt your affection for me would increase. What a pickle. What kind of beautiful girl would I become?” Chigusa played with her hair bashfully. It could have been a genuine attempt at covering her emotions. Or maybe it was just her bona-fide psychopathic self.
But let’s be clear—I don’t care about that. Doesn’t interest me.
Her circumstances or reasons were not important to me in the slightest. It’s not like I would feel compelled to help her out if I knew about her home life or backstory. That was all just background noise to me.
It’s just that Chigusa had a cute face. Her cuteness was enough to make me do anything for her. That’s the only reason why I would take any action.
That, my friends, is a man’s true ambition, his true worth.
As I could feel a bit of pride in my creed swell, I looked at Chigusa’s face. At that moment, Chigusa rummaged for something under the table and brought it out.
“And with that, I present you Kamon’s Little Helper!”
Chigusa was patting a giant glass jar with a “piggybank” label stuck on it. Inside, there were coins and a wad of bills, and to top it off, there was an entire wallet lumped together with everything else.
“Er, by Kamon, don’t you mean Tatsuo (2)? And hey, isn’t that my wallet?!”
So Chigusa was the one who seized my money for the sake of her little sister… That might make her seem like Gon, the Little Fox, but her methods weren’t exactly praiseworthy (3).
I reached out for my wallet, which Chigusa had confiscated at some point while I was in the bath, only for her to hide it as if it was her baby.
“This is a resource I unearthed on my private property, so evidently the ownership rights belong to me. My possessions belong to me, and your assets are mine.”
“It’d be nice if you could see me as something other than property.”
“Non! Money makes the world go round! Money! Harasho!”
“I think you mean Hamasho (4)…”
Why was this chick into all these old-timey acts? And while we’re at it, holding someone up and taking their money is pretty old-fashioned as well.
“Haruma-san, Jump! Jump, please!”
“Wait till Tuesday. Plus, all my loose change is in my wallet, so I don’t have a penny on me. Not to mention I can’t even go home if you don’t return my wallet.”
“…That is a problem,” Chigusa said after some deep thought. Then, with a genuinely pained expression, she reluctantly pulled out a crumpled 1000 yen note from the jar. Her hands were trembling as if she really didn’t want to hand it over…
Er, just return my wallet already.
Slowly, very slowly, Chigusa’s hand moved at the rate of five millimetres per second, and just when I was about to take the money, the table began vibrating.
“Whoa! What was tha—!” For a moment, Chigusa flinched, and then she calmed down. “Ah, Misa, you got a text. Your cell phone just rang,” she called out to Misa-chan as she put the 1000 yen note back in the jar as if nothing had happened.
“Onee-chan, could you look at it for me?”
“Sure.”
Upon hearing Misa’s languid response from the distance, Chigusa put the glass jar neatly back under the table and reached out for Misa-chan’s cell phone. Er, could you please return my wallet already?
“What on earth…?”
When she looked at the cell phone, Chigusa’s eyes turned wide. Then she showed me what was on the screen.
TRANSLATOR’S NOTES
(1) Osechi refers to traditional Japanese New Year foods.
(2) A reference to Kamon Tatsuo, a popular singer-songwriter.
(3) Gon, the Little Fox is a Japanese children’s story. Gon steals things and gives them to others, naively believing that he is helping people, and is eventually shot in the end. You can read a translation of the story here.
(4) Hamasho is Hamada Shogo’s nickname. He released a song called “Money” in 1984.
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