Too Many Sisters.

Two days after the Kamakura trip, Haruto and Miyako paid a visit to Itsuki’s place while he and Chihiro were having dinner. Apparently, they had left the publisher’s office at the same time.

“Here. Something from Kamakura for you.”

Itsuki handed over a packet of pork jerky purchased at the Kamakura Ham outlet.

“Ooh, thanks.”

“I was wavering between this and Excalibur for you,” he joked, “but you’re not quite worth the price, so…”

“Excalibur? You mean the one on sale at Sankaido?”

“You know it?”

“Yeah, I’ve been there before. Like, I own it, so…”

“You own Excalibur? You bought it from there?!”

“Yep.”

“Really…?”

Seeing all those weapons and gear on display had made Itsuki wonder who actually bought any of that stuff. Now there was a customer right in front of him.

“Stop looking at me like I’m a grade schooler who bought a wooden sword on a field trip. It’s reference material for my books.”

Haruto’s Chevalier of the Absolute World featured weapons called Calibres that transformed into giant robots. Excalibur was the Calibre the hero wielded.

“But isn’t the Excalibur design from Chevalier totally different?” Itsuki pointed out.

“Well, yeah, but—you know, having a real weapon on hand can help a lot. Like, actually holding a sword when you’re working on a battle scene.”

“So you swing a sword around at home, Fuwa?” a curious Chihiro asked.

Haruto’s face reddened a bit. “For work, yes!”

“Yeah,” added Itsuki, “it’s common for people to act out the scenes they’re writing.”

“Right. And you went fully nude when— Ah, never mind.”

Miyako recalled the time she caught Itsuki naked in the bath, acting out a love-confession scene involving his main heroine. It made her blush as well.

“Did you get anything for Miyako?” Haruto asked.

“Oh, Nayu already gave it to me… Thanks again for it. Kaiko liked hers a lot, too.”

“Sure thing,” said Itsuki.

He had purchased a set of oil-absorbing facial sheets for Miyako. For Kaiko, he purchased a fundoshi, a traditional sort of Japanese loincloth, except this one was meant for women. Miyako wondered how wise it was for a man to buy underwear for a woman he wasn’t even dating, but Kaiko didn’t care at all—it was another piece for her collection, and she was excited to have it.

Chihiro, by the way, received some Enoshima Aquarium stationery, as well as a full-sized Kamakura ham for the family. Aoba Kasamatsu, who had been swapping kitchen duties with Chihiro as of late, received both of those as well—and the boundlessly cute Nadeshiko Kiso received an equally cute plush otter. Finally, for the GF editorial office, Itsuki purchased a box of Kamakura hangetsu, half-moon-shaped crispy wafers with a sweet filling inside.

“I had no idea you were so conscientious about souvenir-giving,” said Haruto, half-impressed and half-surprised.

“…Well,” Itsuki replied half-heartedly, “I’ve caused a lot of trouble for a lot of people, so…”

As she whipped up some sardine pasta for Haruto and Miyako, Chihiro decided to heat up some thick-sliced Kamakura ham and sausage as well, lightly seasoning them with salt and pepper. They all toasted it over more Kamakura beer.

“Man, Chihiro, you are just such a good cook!” Haruto’s praise was delivered with his mouth partly full.

“Th-thank you very much,” Chihiro replied with a bit of bashful fidgeting.

Once they were done with the pasta, Chihiro collected their dishes. “Okay,” she said, “I’ll wrap up the washing real quick.”

“Such a great little sister,” Haruto whispered as he watched Chihiro walk away from the table. It made her blush again.

“…You’re right,” Itsuki said, too softly for anyone to hear. “And that’s why…”

“Oh, I got a present for you, too, Itsuki.” Haruto took a small cardboard box from his bag.

“A present?” Itsuki accepted the package. Inside was a box labeled “Too Many Sisters.,” complete with an illustration featuring several girls.

“What’s this? A game?”

“Yeah. Kind of a reskin of Too Many Cinderellas, I think. I already have the original game, so you can have this version.”

Too Many Cinderellas had been played in this apartment many times. In it, players become important townsfolk in a kingdom, trying to convince the somewhat dimwitted prince that the girl from their family is the real Cinderella. Featuring simple rules and fast play times, it’s an approachable card game with surprisingly deep tactics.

“Wow, they actually put out something like this?”

“It was a bonus included with this book I bought yesterday.”

“Oh. Pretty rare to include a whole game for the limited edition,” Miyako commented.

A lot of them featured drama CDs or exclusive booklets, but games were almost unheard of. How many did they produce, and how much did each set cost them to make…? For Miyako, already deeply involved in editorial work at GF Bunko, it was a curious question.

“Wanna give it a play?” she offered. Itsuki and Haruto agreed, so Itsuki promptly unboxed the contents. Inside was an instruction manual, eighteen cards, and nine cardboard chips.

“Um, here’s the story,” Itsuki read out. “‘A popular novelist who hit it big with a little-sister-themed book has unfortunately been involved in a traffic accident. He survived, luckily, but has lost part of his memory—and after reading his own novel, he’s become convinced he has a beloved little sister of his own. Sadly, he has only the vaguest idea of what this sister looks like.’”

“Well, yeah,” noted Miyako. “She doesn’t exist in the first place!”

“…‘Several publishers are interested in signing this author to their label, so they each prepare their own ‘little sister’ for him, in hopes of scoring his next novel. The players of this game are publishing agents, employing informants and providing information on their ‘little sister’ to the novelist. The object is to convince him that the sister you’re touting is the real one and get him to join your label.’”

“…”

Silence dominated for a few moments after he read out the backstory.

“There’s certainly…a lot to chew on, huh?” Haruto said with a chuckle.

“Trying to headhunt a writer with amnesia… That’s just cruel!” Itsuki’s face turned grim. “…But if this novelist was Kanikou, for example, I bet they really would do anything to score her…”

“You have a point… I could totally imagine Mr. Godo doing something like that…”

The image of the yakuza-like Satoshi Godo in his mind was enough to convince Haruto.

“The EIC’s really a nicer man than he looks,” Miyako felt obliged to add with a chuckle.

Itsuki skimmed through the rest of the manual. “So, yeah, apart from the backstory, and the characters and terms, it really is just a reskinned Cinderella.”

Too Many Sisters. worked as follows:

In essence, the idea is to use your informants to shoot down the little-sister candidates your opponents might try to play, while using your chips to cancel out any rumors going against your own candidates. Your ultimate mission is to create a stronger sister candidate than any other player. (The instructions include a visual gallery of all the cards, which players can consult at any time.)

When the game is played by seasoned publishing agents, it becomes important for them to deduce which sister their opponents are setting up for victory, based on what rumors they spread and which they play a “No” chip for. Depending on your choice of tactics, you may even try to deceive your opponents by spreading a rumor that hurts your side or placing a “No” chip on a card you just played yourself.

“All right, shall we get going?”

With a practiced hand, Haruto shuffled the cards, dealt out four each to himself, Itsuki, and Miyako, then stacked the remaining six cards facedown on the table.

“Hmmm…”

“Huh…”

“Whuhhh…?”

Scoping out their hands, all three players began to ponder their positions.

Itsuki Hashima’s hand

Hmmm… Not the strongest hand…

Itsuki groaned to himself. The highest-ranking card he had was #5, the girl with the sword, and everything else was in the double digits. How was he ever going to convince anyone that a middle-aged housekeeper is the correct little sister? And, Itsuki noted, this lady looked a lot like Ms. Mitahora, the woman who’d helped around the house back when he was a kid. He remembered her—and her daughter, Ayane Mitahora. The bittersweet middle school memory made him frown.

Haruto Fuwa’s hand

This is gonna work great, isn’t it?

Haruto internally gloated, making sure nobody else noticed. Possessing cards #2 and #3 meant he had two powerful sister candidates, giving him a good advantage to start with—but card #1 might be in someone else’s hand, so it was too early to celebrate,

Miyako Shirakawa’s hand

Hmm… What am I gonna do with this…?

Miyako almost brought a hand to her brow.

Her strongest card was #4, but the rest were no great shakes. A normal strategy would call for setting #4 up as her little sister—problem was, all three of her other cards knocked #4 off the candidate list. She’d have to back #4 while hoping someone applied “No” chips to her other plays, or hope the other players’ top candidates knocked each other out and opened the way for #8 or #9 in her deck. Either approach, however, required a decent amount of luck to work.

After a rock-paper-scissors round, Haruto was picked to go first, followed by Miyako and Itsuki.

“Okay, let’s start with this.”

Haruto played his weakest candidate, card #18—the panties-on-head weirdo. The visuals on the card looked familiar, but no need to think too deeply about that.

The rumor on that card called for reversing the ranks—in other words, the higher the card number, the stronger a candidate it was. Haruto picked it in an attempt to reveal who was holding card #1. What was once the most powerful card in the deck had now become the weakest, and if you held #1, you definitely wanted to banish that rumor.

Meanwhile, he knew that card #1 was an A-cup teen who likes shrimp and dogs—and his #6 card took dog lovers out of the game. Players could only use a “No” chip once per game, so if the #1 holder used theirs to knock out #18, there’s nothing they could do if Haruto played #6 on turn two. At the same time, if no player held #1 and card #18’s rumor stayed in effect, he could just play #2 next, place a “No” chip on #18, and he’d be all set.

“Okay, let’s see if this rumor passes or not.”

The three of them each held a chip in their closed hands, then opened them up all at once. Haruto, Itsuki, and Miyako all carried “Yes” chips—and so, for this game, the higher the number on the card, the stronger it was.

…Wait. Do I have a chance now?

Internally, Miyako rejoiced. If the ranks were now reversed, then card #15, the innocent little boy in her hand, suddenly became a powerful little-sister candidate. (Whether his gender precluded him from being a “sister” was a debate for another time.)

“Okay, I’ll play this. The little sister doesn’t like rabbits.”

Miyako took out card #9. All three players showed “Yes” chips in response, so the anti-bunny stance took effect.

Hee-hee… Luck’s on my side, it looks like.

Like Miyako, the rank reversals were a godsend for Itsuki. Number 18 was already played on the table, so if Haruto or Miyako weren’t carrying #17, then #16 in his hand was the strongest candidate in play. Number 17, by the way, was a grown man who reminded him of Kenjiro Toki a bit (the question of why he was a “sister” candidate was a debate for another time). He had an A-cup (??), was adult in age, liked crab, and was male.

“Here.”

So Itsuki played #5 as a rumor card.

“The girl…isn’t into crabs!”

If this rumor was accepted, that knocked off the crab-loving #17 from the list. It passed without dissent.

W-wait! Whoa, I’m in trouble!

It was Haruto’s turn again, and he was deeply concerned. He was so focused on keeping the player holding #1 from winning he totally missed the possibility that nobody held it at all—and, instead, that they held low-rank cards like #15, #16, or #17. It’d meant the tables were turned. If he held so many high-rank cards, it was only natural that the worse ones went to other players…but he didn’t think about that.

I was watching out for #1 too much…!

He’d been wary of #1 and had the cards to fully shut it down—and that gave him tunnel vision. It was a punishing error of judgment, a rare one to see from Haruto. The college student on card #2 looked kind of like Miyako in his eyes, so maybe he was too focused on having her win.

Oh, man… Oh, man…!

With some trepidation, Haruto played his sole remaining thread of hope—the #2 card. This allowed him to place a “No” chip on anything previously played on the table without giving up the “No” in his own possession—but that, of course, was contingent on the other players approving of the card.

“I’m going to say ‘No’ to number eighteen here… This panties-wearing weirdo had the wrong idea the whole time, I think…”

“What?!

“Didn’t you play number eighteen, Fuwa?!”

Itsuki and Miyako couldn’t hide their shock and surprise. Both had already committed to playing a low-ranked card as their little sister, and taking #18 off the board would ruin those plans. And as expected, Itsuki and Miyako both played “No” chips at the same time, knocking card #2 out.

Ooh… I sure messed that one up…

It was Miyako’s second turn now, and she bitterly regretted playing that “No” chip. If she had known Itsuki was going to play his, she could’ve saved hers for now—but there was no turning back. She’d hers to switch gears and deal with it.

If Itsuki played a “No” back there, that means he’s trying to win with a low-ranked card too, doesn’t it…? Number 17 likes crab, so he can’t use her anymore…so #16, then…?

If Itsuki was building up card #16 as his candidate, Miyako had nothing to stop him with. Her #4 card stated that the little sister didn’t like shrimp; playing that would knock out #16, but it’d also take her own #15 and #8 (both shrimp fans) from working as candidates. Playing #15 (“The little sister’s not a D-cup”) would also eliminate #16, but it’d leave Miyako with nothing but #8 as a candidate. If Itsuki or Haruto had card #9 or better, she was out.

Hmmmmmmmm…

After a great deal of anguish, Miyako bet on Itsuki not holding #16 and played the high schooler on #8 as a rumor card. The rumor stated that cards #1 through #4 weren’t the sister—only Haruto had a “No” chip left to play, and he declined to.

Ha-ha-ha! This one’s mine…!

Now Itsuki felt sure of victory. If Miyako played a “No” chip on Haruto’s last rumor, she must’ve been angling to win with a low-rank card as well. Right now, though, the most likely winner—the homely housekeeper on card #16—was in his possession. Between that and Haruto apparently suiciding himself out of the game, his victory was now all but certain…!

A breezy expression on his face, Itsuki played #12, the black-haired beauty. It dictated that the sister wasn’t a Loli. Haruto’s remaining two cards were likely both Lolis, so he was all but forced to play his “No” chip, but that didn’t hurt Itsuki’s standing one bit.

Now they had gone around the table twice. All that remained was to draw a card from the deck to serve as the secret informant.

“Okay, time for the final informant!”

With a smile, Itsuki flipped the card and placed it on the table. It was a young girl with boyish looks—card #1, normally the most powerful one of all. Boasting A-cup, teenage, shrimp, and dog stats, the rumor on it stated that…

“The little sister’s not #16, #17, or #18— Whaaat?!”

Itsuki’s voice ratcheted up to a scream as he read the card. His grandiose plan to make the housekeeper on #16 his little sister was in tatters.

“Huh? Oh, no way! Nice!”

Meanwhile, Miyako was overjoyed. With #16 through #18 out of the picture, that made her own #15 the best candidate left on the board.

“Hnngh… I could’ve blocked that if I didn’t just use my ‘No’ card…”

Itsuki wailed in anguish as Haruto laughed.

“Ha-ha-ha… Okay, let’s all play our little-sister candidates, then. Putting all the rumors together, our sister is the card with the highest number that hates rabbits, hates crab, and isn’t number one, number two, number three, number four, number sixteen, number seventeen, or number eighteen.”

They all revealed their choices. For Miyako, it was #15, the young boy. For Itsuki, it was #11, the cross-dressing (?) boy. Haruto had nothing to match those conditions, so he couldn’t play any candidate.

“This boy,” Miyako crowed, “is your real little sister!” And with that, she successfully signed the forgetful novelist to her own publishing firm.

“Hee… I did, like, nothing to deserve this, but I win!”

“Ugh… Completely ridiculous…”

Miyako basked in her victory, as Itsuki hung his head in shock. That was the scene Chihiro saw when she came back from washing the dishes.

“Ha-ha… Too bad, Itsuki,” she said.

“Yeah… Well, this happens, so…”

Chihiro had kept an ear open to the game from the kitchen and tried to comfort her brother. All Itsuki could do was smile back. It was true. This happens. Sometimes, an unexpected fact comes out of nowhere and turns everything upside down. It can really happen.

After a few more games of Too Many Sisters. (with Chihiro joining the fray), the group called it a night, the other three leaving Itsuki alone in his apartment.

“Okay, I’m going this way, so good night, guys.”

“Good night.”

“Have a good one.”

Miyako split off to return to the apartment she shared with Nayuta, leaving Haruto and Chihiro to walk the late-night streets by themselves.

“Hey, um, Fuwa?” Chihiro said, voice unsteady.

“Mm? What?”

“You know, my brother…not being able to write novels right now… I’m probably the cause of that, aren’t I…?”

“…”

Haruto kept silent. Chihiro opted to go on.

“Toki told me that writers get burned out sometimes after their work gets adapted into anime…but I’m not sure it’s that…”

Itsuki acted the same as always around Chihiro. But when he was facing his computer screen, he seemed frantic in a way. “Struggling” was the impression he gave. He didn’t strike her as someone totally burned out, with zero desire to work at all.

“…”

Haruto kept slowly walking along without a word. After some hesitation, he found his resolve and stopped.

“…Honestly, I think your guess about Itsuki’s slump is absolutely right.”

The words visibly startled Chihiro. She’d expected it, but having it so explicitly spelled out for her, she couldn’t stop the ache of guilt and anxiety in her chest.

“…I mean, it was super confusing for me, too, so I’m sure the shock had to be even greater for Itsuki.”

“W-well, is there anything I can do about it?! So he can start writing novels again?!”

There was an urgent tone to Chihiro’s question. Haruto returned it with a sigh and a troubled look.

“I don’t know. I don’t really understand what’s going on in his mind, either. But you know, Chihiro…”

“Yes?”

“Even if you are the cause, I think this is a problem Itsuki has to overcome through his own efforts. If Itsuki wants to keep living as a writer—or really, if he wants to be the hero—then a problem so inconsequential, so totally trivial as his stepbrother turning out to be his sister all along, is something he has to take in and deal with himself.”

The bluntness of Haruto’s words shocked Chihiro. She was dissatisfied, eager to fire back. Somewhere in her mind, she unconsciously expected Haruto to give her just the right advice she needed.

“…That’s unusually cold of you,” she said, pouting at him.

Haruto replied with a chuckle, then a mischievous grin. “Well, whether I look it or not, I believe in Itsuki Hashima as a novelist. I probably don’t believe in anyone more, in fact, except for Nayu.”

Something in Haruto’s eyes made Chihiro realize the kindness hidden within his words. That, and the fact Haruto was talking not just about Itsuki, but her as well. He’d used terms like “inconsequential” and “totally trivial” as a way of looking out for Chihiro.

And when she realized that:

Ba-dum.

Her heart skipped a beat, making her cheeks burn red.

Ah, uh, what was that?!

“Besides, Chihiro…”

“Y-yes?!”

Chihiro’s voice cracked at the sound of her name. Her chest was still beating hard.

Haruto gave her an odd look. “Instead of just worrying about Itsuki, don’t you think you should put yourself first for now?”

“Huh? M-Me?” she replied in a panic.

“It’s already November,” he softly told her. “No matter how good your grades are, I really think you need to focus on your upcoming college exams. You know, I think if his sister failed to get in anywhere, Itsuki would feel responsible for it. If there’s anything you can do for your brother right now, I think it’s getting into a university and putting his mind at ease.”

“…”

Haruto sounded like a grown-up talking to a child…or maybe a brother talking to his little sister. It made Chihiro feel a little gloomy—but getting irritated, she decided, would just make her look like a child.

“…You’re right. I want to focus on my exams for now,” she said.

She didn’t consider too deeply about why she didn’t want to look like a child.

“Good. Hang in there.”

Haruto gave Chihiro a pat on the head—casually, cheerfully; something he might do to his own sister all the time.

“Okay… ”

Ba-dum.

Ba-dum. Ba-dum.

Ba-dum. Ba-dum. Ba-dum.

The “girl” Chihiro had been holding back this whole time exploded.