Bride (?) Versus Brother (?)

Thus it came to pass that Nayuta would stay at Itsuki’s place for a little bit. She already had a suitcase filled with clothes and toiletries in the room, humming to herself as she put her wardrobe in the closet and placed her toothbrush into the stand by the sink.

She grinned, taking a moment to admire the sight of her and Itsuki’s toothbrushes lined up next to each other from multiple angles. Then she returned to the living room, smiling warmly as she stared at Itsuki. She was at the kotatsu table; he was by his desk, banging away at his novel. Or would be, if he didn’t feel her eyes on him.

“…Could you not stare at me so much? You’re breaking my focus.”

“Are you working on Sisterly Combat, Volume Five?”

“Yeah.”

“I’d like to read whatever you’ve done so far.”

“…I’ll print it out.”

“Whoo-hoo!”

Itsuki turned on the printer and started the job. Nayuta’s eyes sparkled as she hovered over it, grabbing each page the moment it was spat out. When it was done, she immediately sat back at the table and began reading.

It was more than pure love that drove Nayuta to stay so close to Itsuki. She was also a huge fan of Itsuki Hashima, the novelist. Reading his debut work during her stint as a shut-in dropout inspired her to write a novel and pursue a writing career of her own; she had since read all his subsequent work over many times. Itsuki had given her the chance to read works in progress before, but Nayuta—unlike his editor Toki, or Haruto and his sharp analytical skills—tended to give a thumbs-up to everything he did, so it never helped him very much. Getting complimented certainly did wonders for his mood and motivation, though, so it wasn’t a waste of his time.

“Oooh… This is really killer stuff, this time! Hurry up and write more!”

After nearly an hour, Nayuta finished reading and began pumping Itsuki for more, like a dog begging for food. He appreciated the expected praise, but he was still blunt with her.

“Pfft… This isn’t something I can hurry, you know. Just shut up and wait. By the way, do you have your work stuff with you?”

The question popped into his mind. Nayuta had yet to do any work inside his place, but if she was going to be here for two weeks, he doubted she could get away with zero work progress during that time.

“Oh, yeah. I do, pretty much.”

Out from her suitcase came a flat, rectangular device, about the same size as a Nintendo 3DS XL. Opening it up revealed a display and a foldable keyboard, giving the impression of a rather tiny notebook PC. This was a Pomera, a portable device geared specifically for writing text, and it had none of the variety of apps you’d see on a PC or smartphone. It could save whatever you wrote in plaintext format, you could send the files to a PC, and that was it.

The Pomera was originally meant for situations like note-taking at business meetings, but being so stripped of features make it both a quick performer and very cheap. It also kept the user from being distracted by the Internet or gaming while trying to write, making it a popular gadget for novelists or game script writers. It only works with bare-bones text, however, so it isn’t too well-suited for novels that do a lot of fancy crap like this with their manuscripts or require further explanation for certain things¹.

“You write with a Pomera?” Itsuki asked, a bit surprised.

“Oh, I don’t care that much what I write on. I can write on a PC or a smartphone just fine, and sometimes I even write out longhand in a notebook. But having a keyboard makes it go faster, and this is really light and doesn’t get hot at all, so I can put it in my lap when I’m using it. It’s been the best fit for me out of anything so far.”

“…Nice how you’re able to write with any tool handy like that.”

It filled Itsuki with jealousy.

Every author had their own tool for writing. Even in the realm of personal computers, some people liked desktop PCs while others stuck with laptops. Others wrote on iPads and other tablets, while some people tapped away on their phones like they were texting. The old method of breaking out a pen and some writing paper was almost unheard of in the light novel industry, but a small group of diehards carried on with it in literary circles.

Itsuki went with a Let’s Note, a Japanese brand of notebooks released by Panasonic. It had a 12.1-inch screen and came equipped with Ichitaro, a word processor specially geared for the Japanese language and writing in Asian-style vertical text. He wrote his first novel on his dad’s old Let’s Note, which had the same screen size, and he had been selecting the same design footprint ever since. A creature of habit, he’d immediately start making typos whenever faced with a keyboard sized differently, or with a slightly unfamiliar layout. It was his intention to stick with what he liked for the rest of his career.

“Well, anything works, really, tool-wise, but…”

Nayuta hesitated a bit. Itsuki took this to mean that she had a hang-up of a different sort.

“Do you, like, have to be out of the home to write?”

Just as with the tools, writers toiled in a wide number of environments. Some people wrote only in cafés or diners since there was too much to divert their attention at home, while others found it impossible to proceed if anyone was physically present nearby. There were writers who couldn’t work without music in the background, writers who needed a lit cigarette at the ready, writers who required coffee, writers who needed a chair, writers who needed a floor seat, and writers who needed to stand up. A bit of everything.

In contrast to his computer setup, Itsuki didn’t care much about the environment around him. Unless there was a sexy girl taking a shower right by him, he could work in his apartment, in a café, on the train—no place posed any major challenges.

“No, I don’t care where I am, really…but, well, I guess the location is important. Like, really…”

Itsuki turned a puzzled eye to this vague response.

“How do you mean?”

Nayuta’s cheeks flushed a bit.

“…I can’t write while I’m wearing any clothes.”

“Huhgh?”

Itsuki’s mind went blank, unable to follow the meaning of this. It just made Nayuta turn redder.

“I mean, I can’t write novels while I have clothes on.”

“What?!”

“And I can’t really explain why I can’t…but I’m always naked whenever I’m writing. Like, you know, being in the nude helps you focus more, right?”

“No, I don’t know that. Quit acting like that’s normal. I’ve never heard anything like that before,” Itsuki retorted, eyeing her with dismay.

“When I was just sitting in my room all day, mostly I played video games, but…for example, I might have a tough game I couldn’t beat clothed, but the moment I stripped, I was able to finish it. Usually I’m lucky if I can get through three loops of Spelunker, but naked I managed to go on for dozens of loops. And not just games, too. When I read naked, I can grasp the concepts behind what I read so much more easily.”

“…So you write naked, too?”

“Yeah. Writing novels takes tremendous concentration for me, so I can’t get anywhere with it unless I’m in the nude.”

“Hmm…”

This made little sense to Itsuki, given that he’d never tried it before, but it sounded pretty plausible to him. Maybe it’s an actual thing, he thought. Everyone had their own writing styles—it wouldn’t be weird to find a writer who couldn’t work while dressed.

“…I guess the location would be important, yeah.”

It would certainly eliminate the café and diner options, anyway.

“So what’re you gonna do about work while you’re staying here?”

Nayuta peered into Itsuki’s eyes.

“Itsuki…?”

“Wh-what…?”

“Is it okay if I work naked in here?”

“Of course not, you asshole,” he immediately responded.

“Come on!”

“Shut up!”

If she stripped naked in the same room, it’d affect Itsuki’s workflow a lot more than hers.

“…So do you hate naked women or something?”

“Yes! Except for little sisters!”

That’s what Itsuki claimed, but as a male, he was generally a fan of any attractive naked woman, sister or not. That applied to both the 2-D and 3-D world. A big-breasted beauty willing to wear her birthday suit would be an awesome, awesome experience. How much is Kanikou going to wear down my defenses before she’s satisfied? Itsuki thought, although he didn’t dare say it.

“Well, can I at least go without underwear?”

“Why is that okay?!”

“I don’t like feeling constrained. It makes me all jumpy. I’ll make sure to wear, you know, really baggy stuff.”

“You don’t like feeling constrained…?”

The statement reminded Itsuki of a dog or cat struggling to wriggle out of a piece of pet clothing.

“…Well, as long as you got clothes covering you, all right.”

As long as it wasn’t clear at a passing glance that she was undergarment-free, Itsuki figured it wouldn’t bother him much. The agreement came reluctantly, but it came nonetheless.

With permission to fling off her undies granted, Nayuta immediately took off her clothes, tossed her bra and panties into the laundry hamper, and put on a large, roomy T-shirt that covered her entire body. She wore this as around-the-house gear all the time; it was big on her, but it was still just a T-shirt, so it didn’t cover her thighs much. Some vigorous exercise, and you’d get a peek at her panties in short order. But as she wasn’t wearing any, there was no fear of that.

She was excited about this, of course, sitting by the kotatsu and blurting out “I can’t believe I’m wearing something so scandalous in Itsuki’s house” to herself. If this had been a normal table, not a kotatsu, which had a duvet covering the sides, the lower part of her body would be totally visible. She wanted Itsuki to look—and get turned on. She wanted him to touch her legs, take off her clothes, get her all sweaty and messed up.

Blissfully unaware of these intense delusions, Itsuki kept working. Just then, the doorbell rang.

“…Hello.”

“Hey.”

A handsome, slightly androgynous young man in a windbreaker joined them in the room. This was Chihiro Hashima, Itsuki’s stepbrother, and he had a bag from the grocery store in hand. The sight of Nayuta at the kotatsu made his face tense up.

“Hello, my future brother.”

“I’m not your future brother… Hello, Ms. Kani.”

With a bow, Chihiro placed his groceries in the refrigerator and began washing a knife and a cutting board.

“Are you making dinner?” Nayuta asked.

“That’s right.”

“Lemme help out, then, as his wife.”

“You’re not my wife, dumbass.”

Itsuki’s eyes remained on his screen. Nayuta stood up, ignoring him.

“Oh, no, there’s really no need to—”

Chihiro froze midsentence as he noticed her choice of clothing.

“Wh-what kind of outfit is that, Ms. Kani?”

“Oooh… Maybe a little too provocative for a teenage boy like you?”

She grabbed her shirt at the hem, making it billow as Chihiro blushed hard.

“Kn-knock it off!”

“Could you stop sexually harassing my brother, please?!” As Chihiro looked away, Itsuki scolded Nayuta with his eyes on the screen to ensure she didn’t enter his visual range.

Nayuta smiled villainously at Chihiro. “Hee-hee-hee! My body is Itsuki’s and Itsuki’s alone, but you can feel free to serve me up when you need…inspiration.”

“Inspiration?”

“I mean fap material.”

“What’s…fap material?” came the blank reply. It made Nayuta redden, for a change.

“…How is this boy so pure-hearted? I’m starting to think I’m the dirtiest girl around…”

She slinked back to the kotatsu, ashamed of herself, as Chihiro gave her a confused look.

“…? Um, hey, bro, what’s fap material?”

“Huh?! I, um…”

As Itsuki floundered, Chihiro continued, befuddled. “If she said ‘serve me up,’ does she mean food? Do you like getting served up fap material, too?”

“Well, erm, I suppose I’d always be open to it, I guess.” Itsuki blushed.

“Huh… So you like this fap material?”

“Well, ummmmmm… It depends?”

“Oh. So there’s different types of it?”

“Yeah, um… Lots.”

Little-sister themed, big-breast themed, shrine-priestess themed, student-council-president themed. You name it.

“Ohh. Neat. Well, when I get around to serving that up, I’ll make sure to pick some good stuff.”

“S-sure…”

Hearing his younger brother speak so earnestly about fap material and the like made Itsuki feel like he was a corrupting influence.

“So how do you eat fap material, anyway?”

“……Well, maybe it’s best if you research that yourself— Wait, don’t! Don’t!”

“Huh?”

Imagining the shock at being exposed to the Internet search results made Itsuki correct himself.

“Look, so… When the right, uh, time comes for you to know, I’ll tell you myself, so… Don’t go looking on the net about it, all right? No matter what.”

“All right. I’ll look forward to that.”

As Itsuki gravely explained, Chihiro gave him a smile and began working on dinner.

“When’s the right time for someone to learn about dirty words?” Nayuta whispered.

“…I don’t know,” Itsuki whispered back.

“And didn’t your family ever give him any sex education?”

“Yeah… I’m a little worried about that, too.”

When Itsuki was in high school, he was absorbing all kinds of obscene words and concepts. Nobody had to go out of their way to tell him about it all. Maybe all Chihiro knew was the stuff they taught him in health class.

…Though, given what he knew about Chihiro’s mother, that would come as a bit of a surprise.

After the three of them finished dinner, Chihiro went to check on the laundry once he finished washing the dishes.

Itsuki occasionally did the laundry himself, but he tended to just toss everything in the same load—sweaters, patterned clothes, it didn’t matter—dump a random amount of detergent inside, press a bunch of buttons, then leave it in there for days after forgetting about it. Chihiro, as a result, had to check on him regularly and do the wash for him once it piled up. There were several days’ worth of clothing in the hamper right now.

“Man, my brother never learns,” Chihiro said to himself, smiling a bit as he saw what was inside. Then:

“Huh…? Whoa…!”

He went silent, picking up the casually tossed women’s underwear—a white bra with a bit of modest embroidery on it, and a pair of panties that were little more than a couple of strings sewn together. They were both lacy, racy, and see-through.

“Um, b-b-bro?!”

He walked right away from the washing machine, red as a beet as he carried the underwear with him.

“Wh-what?” the surprised Itsuki asked.

“Th-this! What’s this?”

“Oh, that’s my undies,” Nayuta blithely replied. “Did you want them?”

“No thank you!” Chihiro shouted. “Wh-why is Ms. Kani’s underwear in the laundry hamper?!”

“I took them off.”

“Huh…?! Why did you take your underwear off in this apartment?!”

Nayuta cupped both hands around her mouth. “Oooh, you shouldn’t ask something like that. It’s so embarrassing!”

“Were you doing something embarrassing?!”

“Tee-hee… I’ll leave that to my future little brother’s imagination.”

“Will you stop acting so goddamn suggestive?!” Itsuki chimed in. “Here’s the deal. So, umm…”

Then he explained to Chihiro that Nayuta would be staying over for about two weeks, omitting the part about his Frieza imitation in front of the bathroom mirror.

“Wow… Two whole weeks with her…?”

It came as a clear shock to Chihiro. He took a deep breath and timidly asked, “Um, you and Ms. Kani… Are…are you kind of an item now?”

“Yes!”

“No, we’re not!”

Nayuta’s reply was as immediate as it was serious. Itsuki had to quickly step in to deny it.

Chihiro turned a judgmental eye to Itsuki. “…Why would you live together with a girl if you aren’t in a relationship with her?”

“W-we’re not living together! I’m just letting her crash for a little bit! It’s kind of, like…you know, like I’m pet-sitting for someone!”

Nayuta immediately curled her index fingers above her temples, imitating a cat’s ears. “Mee-yow! That’s right; I’m your purr-fect little pet!”

“W-will you shut up?!”

The sudden, unexpected outburst of cuteness made Itsuki panic. It also did nothing to convince Chihiro about his brother’s intentions.

“Look, bro, you can’t do this! You just can’t! I—I just don’t think it’s the right thing to do! You can’t!”

“Mmh…”

Itsuki fully understood that inviting a non-girlfriend to his place to stay for two weeks wasn’t exactly normal behavior. He had tried to dodge it as much as he could. But having the decision so flatly rejected like this made him want to rebel a bit.

“…Why do you have any say in it?”

“Huh?”

The slightly peeved tone of Itsuki’s voice made Chihiro freeze, as if in shock.

“I’m free to have anyone I want stay here, aren’t I? It’s not like I’m causing trouble for anyone.”

“B-but you can’t! Like…it might lead to some kind of mistake…”

“Oof…”

It was a concern of Itsuki’s. A single night was one thing, but he wasn’t too sure having this girl around all hours of the day was something he could withstand.

“The most wonderful kind of mistake!” Nayuta purred. Itsuki ignored her.

“I’m sure both of our dads would be worried about it, too…”

Chihiro’s sudden protest made Itsuki wince a bit. “So what?” he said. “We can worry about it if it comes up.”

“…Yeah?”

“Look, I’m a grown man. I’m doing relatively okay with my career; I’m paying my taxes and everything. I think I can take responsibility for myself, you know?”

“Y-yeah, but…!”

“Mwah-ha-ha. Just give it up, my future in-law!” Nayuta interjected. “Whatever a grown man and a grown woman get up to, it’s not going to be a problem for anyone else.”

“Well, maybe not, but…mmmhh…”

“Um, Chihiro…?”

Itsuki was suddenly alarmed by Chihiro, who looked ready to burst into tears. His little brother gave him a long, firm look.

“…But that assumes you two are mentally grown up! Which you aren’t!”

“Huh?”

“Wh-what?”

“I mean, okay, maybe you’ve got some money saved up! But you can’t cook, you can’t clean; you can’t do the laundry! You dress like slobs, you spend entire days without leaving the apartment, you go on vacations on a total whim, you’re drinking beer in the middle of a weekday afternoon, you can’t keep a steady schedule to save your lives, and all you do is screw around until you have to crunch to meet a deadline… I really wouldn’t call that ‘grown up,’ you know!”

“Oof…”

Itsuki had nothing to refute that assessment with. It was absolutely correct.

“Mmm…”

Nayuta, for her part, also hated chores and was even less capable of caring for herself than Itsuki. It made her feel a twinge of regret.

“I’m just saying, Itsuki, as your younger brother, I can’t just sit here and watch you get even worse! So you two can’t live together!”

Itsuki caved under the pressure of Chihiro’s final pronouncement.

“…Well, you heard him, Kanikou. I guess I can’t have you here.”

“…Oh, all right,” responded a clearly peeved Nayuta. “I don’t want my future brother-in-law to resent me right from the outset, so I’ll just take my leave.”

Then she took out her phone and called her editor, asking for a hotel room for two weeks so she could have a “writer’s retreat.” They immediately reserved one near the station for her.

And so, by the narrowest of margins, Itsuki and Nayuta didn’t have to shack up after all.

Once the other two left, Itsuki went back to work. Hilde still needed to confess her love for Sieg, and he still needed to accept her—as his sister, and as a woman. Now, without any naked mirror theatrics, he thought he was ready to write this rather important scene.

“…I am a Dark Knight. I’ve walked the line between life and death more than a few times. I’ve mastered the art of the Hellpyre sword, and I can stand up and defend my own actions.”

Though his words were cold, Hilde replied, “Of course, my brother. I’m sure you’re just as powerful as you say you are! But you can’t cook, and you pay hardly any attention to your clothes! You go running off into battle on a moment’s notice—you never come back home, always fighting in that Dark World, bereft of day or night… Do you have any idea how helpless I feel, waiting for you? As a person, Sieg, you’re just no good at all!”

“Ngh…”

Sieg felt himself falter at this telling blow.

“Seeing you hurt yourself like this… As your younger sister, I just can’t—no. As the girl who loves you, I can’t just sit here and watch that happen…!”

With that, Hilde tossed away the milky-white dress that covered her…

To Hilde, Sieg was no noble Dark Knight, no grand hero who saved the lives of thousands. She saw him for what he was—just a guy, and nothing more.

“Whew…”

It was a really nice scene, Itsuki thought. This was one of the biggest climaxes in the whole Sisterly Combat series, and he thought the writing lived up to it. He was satisfied.

If there was only one issue to bring up:

“Man, if Chihiro reads this, I’m gonna die from how awkward it’ll get…”