Genhana High School’s festival ended on an upbeat note.
After school, Seiji and Mika walked back home in casual silence.
"How is it… cohabitation with Kagura-san?" Mika asked abruptly.
"It’s not cohabitation—we’re just living together!" Seiji was acutely worried about the correct wording.
This was no joke to him—he didn’t want to be thrown in jail for a minimum of three years for a certain crime.
"…Is it really only living together?" Mika gave him a sidelong glance. "You… didn’t do anything strange to her?" Her face flushed slightly after she asked this.
"I didn’t! Just how do you view me?"
‘All that happened was that I couldn’t have myself from having a few perverted… no, gentlemanly thoughts! I didn’t do anything to Shika at all; she’s perfectly fine.’
"You've previously admitted to being a sis-con."
"Ack!" Seiji had taken an arrow to his knee. "Precisely! Because I’m a sis-con and I dote on my adopted sister, I would never do anything to harm her!" He tried to justify his situation.
Mika didn’t know how to respond to this.
After a period of silence, she spoke up again. "I’d like to visit you guys; is that alright?"
"Eh? You’d like to come over? Sure," Seiji replied.
"Thank you. I’ll bring some desserts over."
"You don’t need to be so polite; we live right next door after all. Come over any time you want… Er, but…"
He suddenly remembered that Shika possessed the "Reaper’s Curse." This curse was indiscriminate and would bring calamities upon anyone that grew too close to her. Seiji was the only person who was immune to this thanks to the power from his system.
Of course, he was more than happy to have Mika come over, but if she had a calamity befall her due to this…
"But what?" Mika looked at him curiously.
"Shika-chan… she’s afraid of strangers… or, I should say that she doesn’t like coming into contact with other people… there’s a reason that’s difficult to explain," Seiji said slowly, considering each word carefully.
He couldn’t come up with a suitable explanation on the spot.
Mika watched him and thought to herself that this must be due to mystical reasons just like Sakura had told her.
"It’s because of ‘mystical’ reasons, isn’t it?"
"...Eh?"
Seiji's eyes widened in surprise. 'What did I just hear?'
"Kagura-san doesn’t want to come into contact with others… or she can’t come into contact with others... There are ‘mystical’ reasons for it, right?" Mika calmly asked again.
Seiji was rather shocked to hear this. After he regained his senses, his expression was complex.
"You… know?"
Mika nodded in response.
"The incident troubling you was related to something ‘mystical?’"
Mika nodded once again.
Seiji raised his eyebrows. This was… rather unexpected.
A moment of silence fell between them.
"The road isn’t the best place to talk; I’ll give you a good explanation after we reach your apartment," Mika said in a soft voice. "After that, could you also tell me about… the things you’ve concealed from me before. Is that alright?"
Her heart pounded nervously in her chest.
Seiji looked at her for a while and smiled.
"Sure."
He didn’t expect such a development to occur… just what could Mika have met with?
Not long after Seiji returned home, Mika knocked on the door.
Seiji opened the door for her.
"Please excuse my intrusion," she said as she entered.
"No need to be polite."
Mika stayed true to her words—she'd brought over some desserts: packaged small cakes.
Seiji had her sit down in the living room.
After sitting down, Mika's eyes fixed on Shika Kagura.
The two of them simply stared at each other and continued to do so until Seiji finished pouring tea and setting the desserts down for everyone.
"Allow me formally introduce you two—this is Mika Uehara, my classmate and good friend, as well as the landlord’s daughter.
"And this—" he gestured at Shika—"is Shika Kagura, my adopted younger sister that I’m now living together with. She was previously a student at Genhana Middle School, but now she’s left school for a certain reason."
Mika had met Shika twice before already. Once was at the drama club, and the other time was when Shika had amnesia.
At the drama club, the two of them never had an opportunity to exchange words, and when Shika had amnesia…
"Shika-chan, do you still remember meeting Mika when you had amnesia?" Seiji asked.
"Yes, but not very clearly. I vaguely recall that there was one other person with her…" Shika tilted her head slightly.
"That was Chiaki Wakaba, another one of my classmates and good friends, as well as Mika’s good friend," Seiji explained.
"Yes… I remember now."
"You’ll have an opportunity to meet later for sure… for now, let’s have a discussion with Mika."
Seiji and Shika turned their gazes to Mika.
The double-pigtailed girl felt slightly nervous being watched by the two of them like this.
She knew that it was time for her to explain what had happened to her recently.
"I… two days ago…"
Mika recounted her meeting with the legend of the school festival, the spirit girl, Sakura, who was clothed pink-colored Sakura Island garb.
Sakura had told her the truth and gave her some options.
After she considered her options, she replied to Sakura. In the end, she refused Sakura’s offer of assistance.
However, despite this, Sakura had still ended up still giving her a mysterious present.
"This is the present… come out!"
Mika reached out her right hand and placed her palm facing upwards as she said the very simple words to summon it, causing the white ball of light to suddenly jump out of her palm.
She then looked towards Seiji. Seiji turned to Shika.
"I can’t see anything… What about you, Shika-chan?"
"Hold on one moment."
Shika cast Astral Vision on herself, and her eyes turned blue. "I see it… a glowing white ball of light."
"Can you tell exactly what it is?"
The black-haired girl focused on the ball of light for a while, then shook her head. "I can’t..."
"Sakura-san told me that this is a Spirit… a Spirit Egg…" Mika recounted the details of what the silver-haired girl had told her to Seiji.
Afterwards, the living room fell into silence.
"That’s everything?"
"Yes…"
There was another short silence.
Mika could hear the loud pounding of her heart in the silence.
Her body was boiling, and her face was burning. She looked downwards, feeling embarrassed…
Why?
Because she had actually basically just confessed!
The fact that Sakura gave Mika these options, and that Mika had been frustrated, considering the options carefully before finally giving her answer… she didn’t go over this part in much detail, but she'd already expressed her intention clearly—to be together with Seiji!
She felt that Seiji was surely aware of this fact.
As Mika was talking about that part, she paid especially close attention to his expression, and she was able to ascertain that he definitely understood!
‘It’s impossible for me to not understand.’ Seiji inwardly sighed as he remained silent.
He never expected that Mika would confess to him in such a form.
Although she didn’t say the words "I like you" directly, but by recounting her experience, she was clearly sharing her feelings about him.
Seiji was only pretending to be dense and ignorant of Mika’s feelings for him. He wasn’t actually unaware of her feelings.
Since she had already said things to such a degree, if he still pretended not to realize anything… then he would be turning himself into the main character of a harem story who was as dense as a black hole!
It was impossible for him to pretend to be dense for any longer. He needed to give her a direct reply.
How should he say it? Should he even respond right here and now? Shika was still right beside him!
After mulling it over for a few moments, Seiji came to a decision.
"Mika… I’d like to go out and buy some groceries. Would you like to come together with me?" he asked in a solemn voice.
"Oh… Eh?" Mika was dazed by this unexpected topic.
Groceries? This was too much of a change of topic, so she couldn’t respond in time.
Shika blinked her eyes at this.
"Brother Seiji, I already purchased the groceries," she said.
"…Then I’ll buy groceries for tomorrow."
"I’ve already filled the entire refrigerator with groceries."
Seiji was rendered speechless.
It was good that he had a hard-working adopted younger sister now, but… she was slightly too hard-working.
The atmosphere turned somewhat awkward.
After Mika finally realized what Seiji actually wanted, she blushed furiously, but she also wanted to inwardly laugh.
‘You actually said you want to go buy some groceries… can’t you come up with any better excuses? Idiot!’