“So what do we do now? Are you going to chop those two up?”
Kitahara Minakaze glanced at the two people on the ground, then finally turned his gaze to his stepsister, who had inexplicably started apologizing.
“No…”
Natsume Mio raised her head and shook it.
Then, for a moment, she didn’t know what to say either.
Tick, tock, tick.
Suddenly, Kitahara Minakaze heard a sound like a ticking clock.
“It’s ending,” Natsume Mio said softly.
As soon as she spoke.
Accompanied by the final tick.
Kitahara Minakaze noticed that the frozen time began to flow again.
But not forward.
It was rewinding.
Including himself.
He watched helplessly as his body lifted a leg out of his control, stepped over the Salaryman Uncle on the ground, and slowly moved backward.
The unconscious Salaryman Uncle and the Frivolous Youth began to move like marionettes, repeating their previous actions in reverse.
The thick smoke and rubble began to shrink back to their origin.
His sister dropped the sword back onto the ground…
then picked it back up, retreating to the corner.
The entire world seemed to have the rewind button pressed.
It was a very strange feeling.
Especially when rewinding to the exact moment he was blown away by the explosion, and Kitahara Minakaze rolled back along his original path with his butt in the air…
He truly realized…
just how ungraceful his posture was when he got blasted away.
Everything returned to the starting point.
Kitahara Minakaze was squatting at the station, and Natsume Mio was standing in front of him.
Their outstretched hands were clasped together once more.
Buzz.
Time resumed its normal flow, and the people around them began to move.
The quiet environment suddenly became noisy.
Kitahara Minakaze held his stepsister’s hand and looked up at her.
Natsume Mio held her stepbrother’s hand, looking down at him as well, and then…
she turned her head away, her cheeks slightly red.
By the way, the way she looked when she was blown away was also quite a mess.
Not much better than Kitahara Minakaze, who had fallen flat on his face with his butt in the air.
Beautiful girls didn’t have any special privileges in this regard.
And Kitahara Minakaze had clearly seen all of it just now.
“So…” After a moment of silence, Kitahara Minakaze was the first to speak.
“Hmm?” Natsume Mio turned her head back.
“…What was your name again?” Kitahara Minakaze hesitated a bit, but finally asked.
Natsume Mio bit her lip.
“My father and your Auntie have been together for half a year!”
“And?”
“You lived with me for half a year!”
“I get it. Sorry, I thought you were too gloomy back then, so I didn’t bother remembering your name.”
“That’s too much! You’re the worst!”
Perhaps because the two of them could barely be considered comrades-in-arms now, Natsume Mio glared at her stepbrother with a charmingly naive expression, showing her disgust without any reservation.
“Sorry.” Kitahara Minakaze readily apologized again, then asked, “So, your name is…?”
“Mio, Natsume Mio!” She slightly raised her voice and announced her name.
“Ah, I remember now. Then my name is…”
“I know, Kitahara Minakaze. The name Minakaze is hard to pronounce, so it left a deep impression.”
Natsume Mio interrupted her stepbrother’s self-introduction, stating his name directly.
With a slight pull, she hauled Kitahara Minakaze, who was still squatting at the station exit, to his feet.
After all, in broad daylight with a crowd around, one of them standing and the other squatting while holding hands—no matter how you looked at it, it wasn’t normal.
Kitahara Minakaze took the opportunity to stand up.
Then, perhaps because of what had just happened, Natsume Mio suddenly felt that her stepbrother was very tall.
Although she wasn’t short herself—being over 1.6 meters was quite good for a girl.
But in front of her stepbrother, she still seemed very petite.
He had to be at least 1.9 meters tall.
Looking at the tall figure in front of her, for some reason, she inexplicably felt a strong sense of security.
Kitahara Minakaze didn’t know what his stepsister was thinking.
The moment he stood up, he immediately asked the question he was most interested in.
“Now that the introductions are out of the way… well, so, can you explain to me now? About what just happened.”
…
Although Kanagawa Prefecture was part of the Greater Tokyo Area—one of Japan’s three major metropolitan areas—and was a massive prefecture ranking third in population density, right behind Tokyo and Osaka.
But this wasn’t Tokyo after all.
Aside from Yokohama and Kawasaki, the two top-tier cities in the east, the other cities still retained a considerable amount of natural scenery.
Kitahara Minakaze’s current location was Fujisawa City, a famous tourist city that gazed at Mount Fuji from afar and boasted Enoshima, one of the most renowned scenic spots.
Of course, many people probably didn’t have a deep impression of this city, at least not as deep as its neighbor, Kamakura.
After all, that was the filming location for Slam Dunk.
The railway crossing in front of Kamakura High School where Sakuragi Hanamichi and Akagi Haruko met was deeply rooted in people’s hearts.
After figuring out where he was, Kitahara Minakaze kind of wanted to go take a look.
However, considering his current situation and what had just happened, he ultimately dropped the idea.
It was better to figure out the situation first.
Hiss~
The bus slowly came to a stop, the air brakes letting out a loud noise.
“Let’s go.”
Natsume Mio stepped off the bus, watched it drive away, and then turned her head, leading Kitahara Minakaze forward along the Sagami River.
“So, can you tell me now?” Kitahara Minakaze asked again, following behind her.
Just now, Natsume Mio had made an excuse, saying there were too many people around, dodging Kitahara Minakaze’s question and tricking him into coming here.
If the original owner’s memory wasn’t wrong, this should be the only way home.
“There’s no rush, we can talk about it when we get home. We’re almost there anyway, right?”
Natsume Mio turned around, her hands behind her back, holding her shoulder bag.
She walked backward while smiling brightly at her stepbrother.
She looked very sunny.
But for some reason.
Minakaze couldn’t shake the feeling that this bratty sister was playing him.
“Didn’t we agree at the station? I promised to go home with you, and you’d explain things a bit. You complained there were too many people at the station, and now there’s not a single soul around here.”
Minakaze asked suspiciously.
“Isn’t that a person over there?” Natsume Mio pointed at an elementary school student wearing a red backpack, waiting at the traffic light.
“…”
Kitahara Minakaze fell silent for a moment, then turned around to leave.
“Goodbye!”
“Hey, hey, hey…”
Natsume Mio quickly jogged to catch up with him, grabbed his hand, and pulled him back.
“I’ll tell you, I’ll definitely tell you when we get back, so just come back with me first.”
“Don’t lie to me.” Kitahara Minakaze didn’t actually intend to leave.
As a transmigrator, he wasn’t the original owner filled with overwhelming resentment.
Although he was confident he could survive if he ran away from home, it was best not to do something as brain-dead as refusing to go home when he had one.
Natsume Mio asked in a small voice, “…What happens if I lie to you?”
“I’ll beat you up.”
“Understood. I won’t lie to you, so please come home with me.”
Natsume Mio nodded earnestly, holding Kitahara Minakaze’s hand.
She looked up at him, seemingly afraid that he would turn around and leave over a single disagreement.
She struggled internally for a while, thinking of the way Kitahara Minakaze looked at her and the half-year they had spent together.
After a moment of hesitation, she finally let go of Kitahara Minakaze’s hand and instead linked her arm through his.
Then, she forcefully dragged him forward.
“Let’s go.”
“…”
What kind of garbage development is this?
Kitahara Minakaze really wanted to complain.
Other people went out and picked up girls, but it felt like he was the one being picked up by a girl.
However…
he was indeed very interested in the supernatural phenomenon that had just occurred right before his eyes.
This wasn’t just simple human curiosity.
How should he put it?
There was a voice guiding him to investigate it thoroughly.
Yes, a voice.
It wasn’t like there was a voice; there was actually a voice whispering in his ear.
[Guidance Quest, go ask for clarification; Guidance Quest, go ask for clarification; Guidance Quest, go ask for clarification…]
An emotionless, neutral voice whispered in his ear.
If he focused his attention on listening to it, it became very clear.
If he didn’t pay attention to it, it became very blurry.
But when it was blurry, it sounded more like the whispers of some evil god, carrying a hint of temptation.
“Brother.”
Natsume Mio’s soft call snapped Kitahara Minakaze out of his frowning contemplation.
Kitahara Minakaze temporarily ignored the voice in his head, looking down at her with a questioning gaze.
“I actually wanted to ask earlier, how did you do it?”
“How did I do what?”
“Those two people, how did you… beat them to the ground?”
“Oh, that.”
Speaking of this.
Kitahara Minakaze got excited.
He revealed a proud expression and said:
“I’m not bragging, but I have quite a knack for staying out of trouble! If I can dump troublesome matters onto others, I will. I never take the blame alone if I can share it. When the boss is around, I act more diligent than anyone else, and when they’re not, I slack off harder than anyone. When someone asks me for a favor, I’m full of motivation, but when it’s time to actually do the work, I drag it out for as long as possible…”
Natsume Mio’s beautiful eyes widened in shock, and she interrupted, “Wait, what the heck is up with this corporate slave speech!? And what does that have to do with you beating those two up?”
“It does.” Kitahara Minakaze smiled.
“When I encounter unexpected situations, I solve problems following this exact line of thought. To tell you the truth, the moment you started fighting those two, I thought about falling to the ground and playing dead. But I eventually rejected that idea, because I wasn’t sure if that Salaryman Uncle would fire an explosion at me while I was playing dead. So I could only pray that you would win. Of course, in the end, you didn’t. It was so disappointing.”
Hearing his words, Natsume Mio’s expression turned weird.
Kitahara Minakaze continued to talk eloquently.
“And by that time, it was too late to play dead, so I could only find a way to solve the problem. Run. That was the first solution I thought of, but considering the time-stopping situation around us, my image in your heart, and the fact that you were going to give me money… It wouldn’t work. Having reached that conclusion, there was no other way. If I can’t solve the problem and I can’t run away from it, then I can only eliminate the people causing the problem. So I went in, and then I won.”
“You didn’t answer my question directly. Ah, whatever… I don’t know why, but I feel like your speech was super awful!”
Natsume Mio glared at her stepbrother.
“How was it awful?”
“I thought you’d answer something like, you saw your sister in danger so you exploded with power or something. Even if you were just tricking me, you should have said that! Who goes on a serious tangent at a time like this, explaining their mental journey of how they couldn’t escape so they had no choice but to fight! And you even threw in a corporate slave speech!”
“Hah!? What the heck? Exploding with power because I saw you in danger.”
Kitahara Minakaze looked down at her with an expression that clearly said, ‘I barely know you, keep dreaming.’
Natsume Mio showed a look of disgust.
“Tch, as expected, you’re the worst!”
Kitahara Minakaze looked completely indifferent.
Turning the other cheek was a mandatory skill for a corporate slave.
“Pfft—”
However, right after Natsume Mio finished scolding him, she suddenly seemed to think of something happy and laughed out loud.
A girl’s mood was indeed like the weather—mostly sunny with occasional showers.
Unpredictable.
“What are you doing?”
“Nothing… I just suddenly felt like we’re having a real sibling argument. Even though I only lived with you for half a year, and we didn’t speak more than ten sentences during that time, and it’s been almost half a year since we last saw each other.”
Natsume Mio linked one arm through Kitahara Minakaze’s, holding her school bag with the other.
She looked ahead, her smile slowly fading.
After a moment of silence, she continued:
“Brother, although I didn’t want to admit it before and was running away from it, I have to admit now that you are one of my only two living relatives, even if it’s just in name.”
“…”
Kitahara Minakaze looked at her pretty side profile, only then remembering the detail he had overlooked.
In that car accident, her father—the stepfather of this body—was also in the car.
Just as Kitahara Minakaze was lost in thought.
“Ah, we’re here.”
Natsume Mio’s voice pulled him back.
She breathed a sigh of relief, smiled at Kitahara Minakaze, and led him through a not-so-large torii gate.
Then, they walked up along the ishidan—the stone steps.
Kitahara Minakaze could find relevant memories about her home being a shrine.
However…
Kitahara Minakaze looked up at the end of the stone steps.
Halfway up the hill, a massive ancient tree with lush foliage completely blocked out the light.
Coupled with the fact that it was already evening, the steps at the end of the path and the approach beyond were completely obscured.
The darkness was like a thick liquid.
It felt like walking up there would lead to some mysterious realm.
Although according to Shinto culture, crossing the torii gate meant entering the realm of the gods.
But he had to say, this realm of the gods was pretty gloomy…
Kitahara Minakaze silently complained in his heart.
Meanwhile, Natsume Mio led him all the way forward, walking past the stone steps, stepping onto the approach, passing the purification pavilion, the kagura hall, the ema racks, bypassing the worship hall and the main sanctuary, before finally stopping in front of a small two-story wooden building.
“Phew…”
Natsume Mio let go of Kitahara Minakaze’s arm, breathed a sigh of relief, and smiled gently.
“Welcome home.”
“So now can you tell…” Kitahara Minakaze prepared to bring up that question again.
But before he could finish his sentence.
“Grandpa! I brought your grandson back!”
Natsume Mio suddenly shouted at the top of her lungs toward the small building.
Thump.
The sound of wooden clogs striking the floorboards immediately came from inside the house.
With a clatter, the wooden door was forcefully slid open.
“So noisy!”
A short, hunchbacked old man wearing a yukata and wooden clogs, leaning on a cane, roared with immense vigor.
A fierce aura rushed at them.
Kitahara Minakaze: “…”
“Ta-da~ Look, your grandson is back!”
Natsume Mio shifted to the side, revealing Kitahara Minakaze behind her, and made a ‘please look’ gesture toward him.
“I see him!”
The old man turned his gaze to Kitahara Minakaze and roared, “You brat! How dare you run away from home! Are you a three-year-old kid? Reflect on your actions! Don’t think I can’t teach you a lesson. Since Nami married into my family, you are this old man’s grandson! Keep that in mind! You bastard!”
Kitahara Minakaze was a bit dazed.
Mainly because his head was buzzing from the old man’s loud voice…
“That’s right, Grandpa is absolutely right. Teach him a good lesson, I’m going to go cook.”
Natsume Mio smiled gloatingly, bypassed her grandfather, and was about to head inside.
Kitahara Minakaze caught a glimpse of Natsume Mio’s back and snapped out of it.
Something wasn’t right.
Didn’t we agree that you’d explain things to me when we got home?
Why does it look like you’re trying to run away?
Kitahara Minakaze shot Natsume Mio a questioning look.
Natsume Mio seemed to feel his gaze.
She turned around, faced Kitahara Minakaze, and suddenly pressed her palms together in front of her.
She looked like she was apologizing to Kitahara Minakaze, but her face wore a highly punchable expression that seemed to say, ‘I totally played you, come hit me.’
Fucking hell.
Kitahara Minakaze cursed in his heart.
It really was a setup.