That same day, late at night at the Natsume residence.
“So, how did the job hunt go?”
Fresh out of the shower and dressed in a T-shirt and hot pants, Natsume Mio stood prettily behind Kitahara Minakaze.
She gently dried his wet hair with a towel as she asked the question.
It would have been fine if she hadn’t brought it up, but the moment she did…
Minakaze’s entire demeanor deflated.
“It was alright.”
“What do you mean by ‘alright’?”
“It seems like no one is really willing to hire high schoolers lately, so most places turned me down.”
Mio paused her drying.
“So, Brother… you didn’t find a job?”
“Why do you look so happy about that?”
Minakaze tilted his head slightly, asking with a suspicious look.
“I’m not, not at all.” Gripping the towel, Mio rubbed his hair vigorously, then paused again.
“So… you didn’t find one?”
Minakaze hesitated.
“I mean, I did find one…”
Mio prompted, “But…?”
“But it was a really small shop run by an older couple.
They were too busy to handle everything themselves, so they were willing to take me on.
However, because it was such a small place, the building was…
how should I put it?
Very short, and not very sturdy.
“I bumped into the doorframe on my way in, and bumped into it again on my way out, completely knocking it off. The couple was very superstitious. They said it was an ominous omen, that I was too big and intimidating, and that their little shop couldn’t contain me. I was fired ten minutes into the job…”
Minakaze put on a helpless expression and threw his hands up.
“Pfft—”
The moment he finished speaking.
A sudden snort of laughter came from behind him.
The hands that had been holding the towel on his head had mysteriously vanished.
“Hey, could you spare a thought for my pride?”
Minakaze pulled the towel off his head and turned around.
Sure enough, he saw Mio with one hand covering her mouth and the other clutching her stomach, looking like she was desperately trying to hold back her laughter but was on the verge of failing.
“Phew… Brother, are you an idiot? I’ve never even heard of someone getting fired for breaking a doorframe because they were too tall. Couldn’t you have just ducked when you walked in?”
Ultimately, remembering that Grandpa was still sleeping upstairs, Mio managed to suppress the urge to burst into loud laughter.
However, even without laughing out loud, her amusement was incredibly obvious.
“I did duck, but the doorframe was just too low. So it wasn’t my fault.”
“Pfft… I can’t take it, Brother, stop talking.”
Mio couldn’t help but let out another giggle.
She forcefully held it in, covering her cheeks with both hands.
“If you say anything else, I’m really going to burst out laughing. Oh no, I think I’ve awakened to some weird sense of humor. Especially when I imagine you bumping into the doorframe on your way in and out, finally breaking it, and then turning around to look at the poor shop owners with an innocent face… Oh no, now I’m finding it weirdly cute, too.”
As she spoke, Mio truly couldn’t hold it back anymore.
She suddenly grabbed Minakaze’s T-shirt and buried her face in his back.
Her bitterly suppressed laughter spilled out.
Minakaze: “…”
What the hell kind of sense of humor is that?
A good while later.
When the laughter finally subsided.
Minakaze suddenly spoke up.
“I think you got drool on my shirt.”
“I did not!”
Her cheeks were slightly flushed, but she had regained her composure.
In truth, she had finished laughing a while ago; the only reason she hadn’t gotten up was out of embarrassment.
However, despite her verbal denial, Mio subconsciously reached out a small hand and patted Minakaze’s back.
“See? I told you there wasn’t any… By the way, Brother, your shoulders are really broad. I wanted to mention it earlier. You don’t look particularly buff, but your shoulders are just really wide.”
Mio’s fingers traced across Minakaze’s shoulder blades as she couldn’t help but marvel.
“Is your heart fluttering?”
“It hasn’t quite reached the fluttering stage yet.” Mio pulled her hand away, drew out the chair next to Minakaze, and sat down.
“But honestly, it’s pretty fascinating. I feel like ever since you came back, you’ve become a completely different person. You used to never talk to me at all, but now you can keep a straight face while saying borderline-harassing things like ‘is your heart fluttering’.”
Minakaze asked in surprise, “That counts as harassment?”
“I don’t mind it, but it’s best not to say things like that to other girls.
Even though there’s nothing inherently wrong with the words themselves, given your reputation, it will absolutely be treated as harassment.
“Even I suspected you might be the type to peek at people in the shower when Auntie first married into the family…”
“?” Minakaze’s eyes widened as he slowly formed a mental question mark.
“Gomen!” Mio clapped her hands together, apologizing with utmost sincerity.
“Tch.”
“I couldn’t help it.”
Mio leaned half her weight against him, resting her head on his shoulder with a smile.
“First impressions and reputations can determine a lot of things. It’s not strange that I thought that way. I don’t think like that anymore, though. Even if your reputation at school is still terrible—so terrible that people worry about the safety of their bathrooms.”
Minakaze replied deadpan, “Well, thank you so much for that.”
“I get the feeling you’re cursing me out.”
“You’re very perceptive.”
“So petty… But considering how much you made me laugh tonight, I’ll let it slide.”
Thinking about tonight, a smile couldn’t help but surface on Mio’s face again.
She pulled away from Minakaze and stood up from her chair.
“It’s almost eleven. It’s about time for bed, right? Aren’t you going to school with me tomorrow? Even though I don’t think you have the perseverance for it, since you already told me you would, you should at least put on a show for your little sister and stick it out for a day.”
“Yeah.” Too lazy to refute her words, Minakaze simply nodded, drained the tea in his cup, and stood up.
“Well then, good night… Brother.”
Mio took a step forward, standing in front of the now-standing Minakaze.
Looking up at him, she smiled and bid him good night.
…
The next day.
After finishing a day of school life.
Minakaze resumed his job hunt.
Even though he had gotten off to a bad start yesterday and was thoroughly mocked by Mio…
he figured he was able-bodied, tall, and strong.
There was no way…
he wouldn’t be able to find a job, right?
At least, Minakaze refused to believe it.
This time, he planned to expand his search radius a bit.
…
“Might be back a little late… Eh, where did he go? What about dinner?”
Having just finished her club activities, Mio looked at the message Minakaze had sent her on her phone and muttered a quiet complaint.
“Who is it, Mio? A boyfriend?”
Seeing her like this, a good friend from her club grew curious and peeked over at her phone.
“It’s my brother… Why do you guys always ask that? There has to be a limit to being love-struck.”
Mio, who was in the middle of texting Minakaze to remind him to eat a proper dinner, looked up and rolled her eyes at her friend.
Her friend gasped in surprise.
“Eh!? Your older brother? You actually care if he eats or not? If it were that lump at my house, let alone eating, I probably wouldn’t even know if he dropped dead.”
“He’s fat. It’s disgusting.”
“Eh…”
“When it comes down to it, what high school girl actually cares whether her older brother has eaten or not?”
Her friend winked playfully.
“So, Mio, don’t tell me you have a brother complex? Is your brother handsome? Why don’t you introduce us?”
“You’re asking for death.”
Her cheeks flushing slightly, Mio felt too embarrassed to finish her text and directly chased after her friend to playfully beat her up.
The two high school girls.
Roughhoused the whole way.
“Phew… See you tomorrow then, Mio. Remember to snap a picture of your brother for me!”
Mio’s friend headed in a different direction.
From a distance, she didn’t forget to tease Mio one last time as she waved goodbye.
Mio ignored her teasing and simply waved back.
Then, she turned and continued on her way.
“Remember to eat a proper dinner, and also, don’t break anyone else’s doorframes…”
Mio adjusted the bag on her shoulder and pulled out her phone again.
She softly muttered the words she wanted to say as she typed out the message she had left unfinished earlier.
Then, she tapped send.
Seeing the ‘Sent Successfully’ notification.
Mio smiled.
She gazed at her home not too far in the distance, just as she was looking forward to a reply.
Ding.
A crisp sound rang out.
A ‘Stasis’ instantly expanded with her at its center.
Three people appeared in front of her.
A mature woman dressed in miko attire, and two ‘acquaintances’ she had crossed paths with once before.
Mio’s smile faded as she slowly came to a halt.
“Hello there, beautiful,” the Frivolous Youth said, raising a hand in greeting.
Mio ignored him.
She glanced down at her phone and murmured, “No signal, just as I thought. I’ve been meaning to say that phones never work in these situations, but you could have at least let me read his reply first. I was really looking forward to seeing Brother get flustered and angry…”
At the same time.
Among the three blocking her path, the mature-looking miko spoke up.
She pressed a hand to her forehead, seemingly a bit disappointed.
“Isn’t she alone? And here I went through all the trouble of setting up an ambush. Where is that so-called brother of hers?”
“They probably didn’t come back together,” the Salaryman Uncle said, lighting a cigarette and puffing out a cloud of smoke.
“Last time was likely just an accident. He was forcibly pulled into the ‘Stasis’. We don’t need to worry about him.”
“Fine.”
The miko lowered her hand from her forehead and looked at Mio.
At that moment, Mio also lowered her phone.
Taking a deep breath, she looked at the three people in front of her…
Squelch.
The instant their eyes met.
The miko dashed right in front of her.
Mio slowly lowered her head to look at her own abdomen.
A wakizashi was buried deep into her side.
The blood that sprayed out glistened under the setting sun.
“Little girl, this is the first and final lesson I will teach you in life: never let your guard down in front of an enemy.”
The miko patted Mio’s shoulder with one hand, while her other hand gripped the hilt of the wakizashi and slowly twisted it.
Her expression was cold and utterly ruthless.