The Girl

“Chihiro…maybe it’s time we tell Itsuki the truth.”

On January 18, the night the All About My Little Sister anime was (officially) announced, Keisuke Hashima broached the topic to his daughter.

And as soon as he did, Chihiro blurted out:

“Oh, um, don’t you think it’s a little too soon?!”

“…You think so?”

Her father was confused, but she tried to keep her cool.

“Yeah. Itsuki is really busy with anime work and writing his novels right now, I think. If we tell him the truth, I think it’s really going to make his life really chaotic, so…”

“Ah,” Keisuke replied. “…If you say so, Chihiro, you’re probably right. I’ll let you decide when the time is right, then.”

“O-okay,” she nodded, even as her own words unnerved her.

She thought she wanted to tell him the truth right now. That she was really a girl, really his little sister, and then they could have a real family without any more pretending. She’d dreamed of this for so long—Dad, Mom, Itsuki, and her, four people around the same dinner table like everyone else’s family.

But as she commuted to his apartment and played games and stuff with his friends—Haruto, Miyako, Nayuta—the time Chihiro spent with these people besides Itsuki had grown just as important to her. If they knew she was a girl, it wouldn’t just throw Itsuki. Haruto and the others wouldn’t be able to interact with her like before, either. The thought pained her deeply.

A family’s all you need. Or so she thought. So why did it turn out like this?

—What is a brother…or a sister…like me supposed to do?

Chihiro Hashima, age seventeen. Beautiful, intelligent, sporty, a master chef, perfect with chores, empathetic, cheerful, talkative, the perfect human being…

…but still a young girl who had never been in love, the least experienced person out of this story’s whole cast.

But not even Chihiro knew that sort of secret was just too heavy for a girl like her to bear…

(The End)