2
Nevertheless, Komachi Hikigaya won’t give up on getting a sister-in-law.
The season was still midwinter. The new calendar had only finally ticked out one day’s worth of time.
The day after going to visit the shrine, I accomplished the promise I’d made Yuigahama there—to go buy a birthday present for Yukinoshita—and then hurried home on my own.
My breath looked even whiter than usual, maybe because it was just that heavy and deep. My exhalation under the cold sky came slowly, unlike my restlessly moving feet. It was just one breath, but it formed a trail you could mistake for smoke, wafting along just a moment before it disappeared in the wind. The inclining rays of the sunset gave it a ruddy color, with an added flicker of neon blue, before it eventually melted into the darkness. It was like all the sighs of the day condensed into one.
The time spent shopping and having a trivial conversation with Yuigahama, for example, and those little moments that brought us closer—they were a lot like the color of the sunset. But then running into Haruno and Hayama had felt weirdly tense, like the indigo blue of the darkening sky. Then after that, when Yukinoshita and her mother had come, I’d sensed the black of night.
I looked up at the sky, as if searching for a ray of light far in the distance, where the curtain had descended.
I couldn’t know what I would eventually see there, but even so, my feet never stopped, making at least a little progress toward where I should go, to the place I should return, to the answers I should come to.
That’s how I—how we have walked through this past year and begun the new one.
Thinking about that now, it hadn’t been much time since the beginning of the new year, but things had gone pretty well for me.
I’d managed to finish shopping with Yuigahama and hand over Yukinoshita’s present without any problems, after all. You could call that mission complete. You could get a reward to use on a gacha pull.
I had mission-completed so perfectly, I wouldn’t be surprised to hear the voice of a younger girl cheering, You did it! Love those girls…
The younger girl in my life is the type to have no problem saying something like Wanna spend it now? Act now, and if you pull enough times, you’re guaranteed a five-star!…
After our family had finished our New Year’s traditions, it was just Komachi, Kamakura, and me in the living room.
Drinking the after-dinner coffee that Komachi had made for me at the kotatsu, I was just about to attend to some lucky bag gacha when Komachi, who was petting Kamakura, cleared her throat with an ahem.
“…Well then, Bro, how’d it go?”
I understood what she was trying to ask. She’d come with us for half the shopping trip that day. She’d absconded afterwards, probably in some needless attempt to be considerate…
In other words, she was asking how things had gone after she’d left. This was the same as that time I’d come back from the shrine.
So then it was self-evident that my answer would also be the same thing. “Nothing much. Normal,” I said.
Komachi breathed a big sigh. “Aghhhhh. Listen, Bro. In Komachi terms, Yui is in one of the top spots on the list of big sister candidates, you know? There aren’t that many people who are so perfect for being a big sister as her these days, okay?”
“Uh, like I said before, cut it out. No more of this ‘sister-in-law candidates’ list that completely ignores what I actually want. Send it for immediate disposal. Learn from the prime minister’s cherry-blossom-event invitation list.” By introducing such social satire, I’m emphasizing that I have an active interest in politics and that I’m aiming to be Chiba prefectural governor next term (hi, that’s me). We will build an even greater Chiba…
But it seemed Komachi still wasn’t really interested in politics, as she didn’t listen to my election manifesto for prefectural governor and moved the discussion along without me. “Komachi thinks if Yui were my sister-in-law, she’d also be a very, very good bride for you, Bro.”
“No, no, no,” I said, immediately raising my hand. Objection! “Obviously, Yuigahama would be a good bride no matter who she was married to. There’s no need to limit her partner to me in this. Therefore, proposals under the presently established conditions are not worthy of debate. Aaand I take the W.”
The disgust on Komachi’s face seemed pretty real. “Whoa, you’re so obnoxious… This is the reason Komachi’s struggling to set you up, you know?”
When I heard her tone turn a little serious, my head drooped. “Yeah…” I had no choice but to settle down.
Satisfied to see my contrition, Komachi collected herself and continued. “Ummm, so then, the second-choice competitor…”
“Huhhh… Your drafting session is still going?” I said, more than half weirded out.
But Komachi was actually puffing up with pride. “Of course! Komachi still has lots more cards to play, you know!”
“Hey? Could you stop talking about my marriage like this is a duel? Even if you send your big bro to the graveyard, you can’t summon a big sister. The summon cost of a wife is high, and immediate divorce is possible, too.” On my end, I laid the three cards of divorce, division of property, and alimony on the table and ended my turn. And now, if she activated the trap card mismatch of personalities, the divorce and return to parents’ house combo was complete.
But Komachi ignored that combo, used her hands to set an invisible box to the side, and continued. “Hmm, well, leaving that aside…why don’t we go off the beaten path here and say Miura?”
“That’s way off the beaten path… No way, never gonna happen. Impossible. This is Miura, okay? Never gonna happen. Take this a little more seriously, Komachi, even if you’re joking. Maybe this is just idle chitchat to you, but your brother’s future is hanging on this.”
“Wow, you really shot that one down, Bro… It makes it sound like you actually really like her…”
Well, I do like that idea quite a bit, for what it is… She is a good person… But if I said that, even as a joke, Komachi would jump on it, so I cleared my throat with a gefum, gefum. “Well, whatever I think about her, she really hates me, so…”
“Yeah, I think most people hate you, so leaving that aside…,” she said casually, once again placing an invisible box at the edge of the table.
I wasn’t about to let that one go. “Hey now? I mean, I know that, so I’ll let that one go.” If she kept putting things aside like that, she’d wind up with a huge pile of invisible boxes.
“I feel like Miura would be a good mom, though,” said Komachi.
“Yeah, she would. And her kids would get really long mullets. And then around fifth grade, she’d go and dye their hair and cause a dispute with their school.”
“Yeahhh…the type you see at the discount store a lot before they get married, and then once they have families, they’re at the department store…”
“Uh, that’s Kawasaki, if anything. Miura’s more fashionable than that. She’d normally go to the outlet mall and then once a year go to Isetan or something.”
“I don’t get the difference… Then on to the next candidate,” Komachi said with a sigh, sweeping that discussion aside. She slurped at her coffee for a moment before saying, as if it had just occurred to her, “Oh, then what about Ebina?”
That wasn’t a name I was expecting. I fell into thought. “Ahhh… Well, we’re both totally disinterested. But since we’re not involved with each other at all and don’t interfere with each other’s lives, maybe it wouldn’t be out of the question. With the assumption that we wouldn’t have a domestic life together, if we shared the benefits in terms of societal lifestyle, I feel like it would be contractually viable,” I said.
Komachi made a sour-looking eugh face. “The way you say that is way too modern couple… By the way, what kind of benefits do you mean?”
“It’s apparently easier to get a loan if you’re married. Then there’s the tax consolidation, exemplified by the dependent tax exemption. Additionally, you can use it as a shield against the harsh social criticism singles receive,” I said, presenting my smattering of knowledge on the matter.
Komachi seemed taken aback, her expression gradually turning sadder before becoming pity. “…………You don’t think your view of marriage is totally broken, Bro?”
“I mean, this is ultimately just one example. I’m merely saying this is one progressive way of thinking about it, you know?” I may not look it, but I’m aiming for future prefectural governor of Chiba. I have to show acceptance toward more liberal lifestyles, not only the traditional image of a couple.
After hearing some more of the Chiba Prefectural Governor Election Manifesto I hadn’t mentioned before, Komachi started pondering. Then she seemed almost convinced. “I see… Well, worst case, if you wind up marrying Hayama, Komachi will be understanding.”
“No, not happening. Not Hayama. More important than sex or whatever, our personalities wouldn’t work together,” I answered in seconds, remembering to be inclusive in the process. So that I wouldn’t get whacked by the Treasured Tool that was the Staff of Political Correctness, I rejected it for the reason that, ultimately, Hayama and I were not compatible.
Komachi must have understood that as well, because she moved on to the next candidate. “Oh, then what about To—?”
“I love him,” I answered in seconds. This was beyond logic. Forget Chiba prefectural governor—I was ready to shoot straight to national politics and revise the law.
But I must have been a bit too enthusiastic. “That was too fast, Bro,” said Komachi, aghast. “I still haven’t said the whole name… I was about to say Tobe…”
“Oh, really…? Wait, who’s Tobe?” I said.
Komachi sighed deeply once more. The room was too warm for that slow exhalation to turn into white mist, but I could still see in it the many colors to express her feelings. “Well, so long as you’re happy, Bro, Komachi’s fine with anything.”
“Then I’ve got to make you happy first, since that’s my ticket to happiness. That was worth a lot of points, in Hachiman terms.”
After I stole her bit, Komachi gave me a puzzled look. But just for an instant, before she broke into an exasperated smile. “There’s still a long road ahead…,” she said with deep resignation, then took the mugs, stood from the kotatsu with a hup, and headed to the kitchen.
Watching her go, I was feeling similarly earnest emotions. Sorry to your future sister-in-law, but I want to keep you as my little sister for a little while longer.
While I was waiting for the water to boil in the kitchen, I watched my big brother, who was in the kotatsu playing with the kitty.
I’d brought up several different options, but I wasn’t actually all that worried, in Komachi terms. When you’ve been observing him at close range for a whole fifteen years, you will find some decently good things about him—even if he really is kind of garbage—and you kinda think maybe someone great might notice those things, too.
Someone who will pull him up from above, or push him up from below, or be involved with him in some other way…
Komachi doesn’t know what form that might take, but I’ve got the feeling someone’s gonna take his hand either way.
Until that day, Komachi will continue to look for a (provisional) sister-in-law.
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