Chapter Three

Strip X Tease

“Man, my fingers are worn out. I’ve never used scissors for so long,” I complained out loud.

While Shigure was in the bathroom cleaning the bathtub, I was preparing her new living space.

I was currently in the entryway, juggling bags of garbage from my dad’s room. Since he’d instructed me to throw out everything except for my mom’s mementos, I’d stuffed everything in the near vicinity into said trash bags. Unfortunately, I couldn’t just cram his clothes in there as they were. Due to a certain rule in this area, I needed to cut them up as finely as possible before I could add them to the burnable trash pile.

The fabric scissors I struggled with were a memento of my mom’s. I cut my dad’s clothes—all of which had dinosaur prints—into small strips of gaudy cloth. And just as the base of my fingers started to cramp up, I finally finished the job.

That was one thing down, and about a dozen more to go.

“That still leaves the curtain,” I grumbled to myself. A little earlier, I’d ended up unearthing an enormous curtain from the closet. Dealing with that would be a major pain in the ass, and since my fingers were already exhausted, I decided to take a short break.

I gazed pensively at the mountain of trash piled up in the entryway. We had all sorts of garbage: burnable, unburnable, bulk, and more. Then there was the issue of my dad’s dinosaur figures. I considered asking for Shigure’s help in taking these to a pawn shop—hopefully they could provide us with a little extra money for the household.

As I was busy mulling things over, Shigure suddenly called out to me. “Big Bro! We’ve got a problem.”

“What is it? Do you not know how to heat the bath?” I asked.

“No issues there. My old place had the same setup.”

“Then what’s up?”

“Well, here’s the thing—I just noticed that this apartment doesn’t have a changing room!”

Oh, yeah.

This apartment’s bathroom was directly connected to the wood-paneled section of the kitchen. Likewise, there was no door between the kitchen and living room, the latter of which also served as my bedroom. In short, the bathroom was directly connected to my bedroom. Since the household had consisted of just me and Dad until then, it hadn’t really mattered and ended up completely slipping my mind. But now that Shigure was here, the lack of a changing room was a huge problem.

“Don’t we have a curtain rail in there, though?” I asked.

“Um… There is one, but there’s nothing hanging from it.”

“Maybe we can use this, then?” I asked, holding up the curtain I was initially planning to throw away.

If it were usable, I wouldn’t have to cut it up—I’d take care of two birds with one stone. I hung the curtain from the rail and checked its length.

Hmm, it’s kinda short.

The width was fine, but the hem hung a little over a foot from the ground. Still, this would have to suffice for the time being.

“Your knees will show, but at least it’s dark; that means it’s not see-through,” I said. “Are you comfortable using this for now?”

“I don’t mind, but will you be all right with that?” she asked.

“Huh? I’m a guy. We don’t really sweat that sort of thing.”

“Hmm, really now?” she replied with the same mocking grin she wore before. A slight chill ran down my spine when I saw it. Just as I thought, it was nothing like an expression Haruka would ever make.

“Wh-What’s with that suggestive grin?” I squeaked.

“Nothing at all. If you don’t have a problem with it, neither do I. Well, the bath’s heated and ready to go. I’ll jump in first.”

“Take your time,” I said, waving my hand lightly.

With that, I returned to the living room and turned on the television.

Man, I lucked out.

Since the curtain had found some sort of use, that meant I’d finished cleaning. After Shigure was finished with the bath, I could wash up, go to sleep, and pull the metaphorical curtain on the most exhausting day of my entire life. There were still things I needed to consider, but for the time being, everything was all right.

I sat in the living room and zoned out to the variety show I usually watched. Due to the layout of my apartment, I could catch glimpses of the bathroom from the corner of my eye. That was when I spotted Shigure removing her socks, revealing her thin legs and bare feet.

“Ah,” I gasped, then quickly checked myself.

Wait, what am I getting so worked up over? I’d just seen her legs, right? I might’ve been a virgin, but I wasn’t that pent up. Girls showed their bare legs off everywhere—both in the city and at school. It was hardly a rare sight. So why did I feel the urge to avert my gaze? I needed to get a grip—there was no reason to be so sheepish over a simple pair of legs. And with my rather flimsy, makeshift wall of stubbornness erect, I forced myself to return my attention to the television.

Flop.

The skirt that Shigure had been wearing traveled down her legs before falling to the floor.

“Ugh!”

At that moment, I cursed my own thoughtlessness.

A little over one foot from the ground, huh?

Sure, I hadn’t seen anything too scandalous. The girls at school would often pull the waistbands of their skirts up to impossibly short lengths, revealing their thighs. They would show way more skin than what I’d witnessed just now. Despite that, this situation was completely different. The movement of Shigure’s pale legs and her falling clothes had relayed a vivid truth to me—just beyond the curtain, a girl with the same face as Haruka was slowly revealing her nude body one piece of clothing at a time.

Good lord, this had been a horrible miscalculation on my part. I hadn’t taken my incredibly active imagination into account. Based on the glimpse I’d caught from the small foot-long gap, my mind could easily fill in the rest.

Shit, what should I do? Go into my dad’s room behind the screen door?

No, that wouldn’t work. That room now belonged to Shigure. After we’d eaten dinner, she’d set about organizing her personal belongings in there. That meant I could no longer enter without permission.

Sh-Should I go hide in the restroom?

From the gap in the curtain, I witnessed Shigure’s hands sliding down her legs, pulling down a thin, white piece of cloth. That small slip of fabric was it—the straw that broke the camel’s back, and my body slumped over the tea table. My heart was pounding so loudly, I thought my eardrums might burst from within.

All right, that settles it. Tomorrow for sure.

The following day, I would go to the hardware store and buy a curtain; a proper one that trailed all the way to the ground. By God, I would lay claim to that holy artifact, come hell or high water!

“Umm, excuse me,” Shigure spoke up. “Are you there, Big Bro?”

“Whoa! Wh-What’s up?!”

As I jerked my head up, Shigure poked her face out from the corner of the curtain and studied me suspiciously.

“What are you freaking out over?” she asked.

“I-I’m not freaking out! I was just taking a nap, and hearing your voice startled me! So, what’s up?” I desperately tried to cover for myself.

“Sorry to disturb your sleep, but could you fetch me the shampoo and conditioner from my suitcase? I forgot to grab them before coming in here.”

“Y-You’re cool with me opening your bag?”

“Of course. I’ve already put away my underwear and the like. No need to worry about that.”

“G-Got it.”

Virtually fleeing from Shigure’s gaze, I entered her room and retrieved two pink bottles from the suitcase lying against the wall. I took several deep breaths in an attempt to calm my nerves. When it was clear that hadn’t helped in the slightest, I decided to feign composure instead. I returned to the living room with the best poker face I could muster and handed the two bottles over to Shigure.

“Eheh,” she giggled with a suggestive grin. “Thank you ever so much, Big Bro.”

“Wh-Why are you making that face?”

“What? Oh, it’s nothing. Nothing at all.”

Shigure retreated back inside the curtain. I heard the bathroom door open and close. After I’d returned to the safety of the tea table, I let out a massive sigh.

What was with that expression just now?

Despite the uncanny resemblance to Haruka, such an odd smile would never appear on my girlfriend’s face. With that provocative expression fresh in my mind, Shigure’s earlier words resurfaced and repeated themselves.

“I don’t mind, but will you be all right with that?” she had asked.

Perhaps Shigure had known how I’d react. Despite knowing that she’d become the subject of my vulgar fantasies, she hadn’t even remotely attempted to put a stop to things. The very concept sent a shiver down my spine, causing alarm bells to go off in my head.

Could she be trying to…?

“Nope, stop right there. Don’t jump to conclusions,” I scolded myself out loud. I couldn’t make any assumptions about her simply based on my own imagination. After all, Shigure had done her best to meet me halfway. I was a complete stranger who had just become her brother as of a few hours ago. There was no need to play the victim based on zero evidence.

Brushing aside the sinister premonition that had arisen in the back of my mind, I decided to distract myself by studying. I placed my notebooks atop the tea table and began preparing for tomorrow’s lessons.

I always studied in my free time—there was never a downside to learning new things, regardless of what they were. I would say that was the only good lesson my bastard of an old man had ever instilled in me. Whenever I focused on my notebooks, irrelevant thoughts disappeared from my mind. Through being so absorbed in the material, I managed to regain my composure.

“I ended up sweating a ton today from the move,” Shigure sighed. “Nothing like hot water to make you feel better. The bath is all yours now.”

“All right, then. I’ll hop in soon,” I replied automatically. Until she’d spoken to me, I hadn’t even noticed Shigure return from the bathroom. Studying had never once failed me—thanks, Dad.

I unfolded my legs and stood up, then promptly froze in place.

In the blink of an eye, I’d lost the ability to move. It felt as though ice had replaced the blood that flowed through my veins, and yet, at the same time, my red-hot face threatened to burst into flames at any second. But who could blame me? After all, when I’d finally looked up, I’d found Shigure standing there in nothing but a bath towel!

“Wh-What the hell are you thinking, coming out here like that?!” I cried, unable to contain the frantically high pitch in my voice.

Shigure, on the other hand, merely cocked her head.

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“‘What am I thinking?’” she echoed in a puzzled voice. “Do you not wear a towel after getting out of the bath, Big Bro? Seems normal enough to me.”

“If this was your home, then sure, but—”

“This is my apartment, though,” she cut me off.

“Yeah! Yeah, you’re right, but hurry up and put some clothes on! Even blood-related siblings show more discretion at this age! Sure, we need to make a conscious effort to make things work out for both of us, but this is taking things way too far!”

“Heh… Teehee. Aha. Ahaha!” Shigure bent over and started laughing.

Wh-What’s with this girl?

“What’s so funny?!” I yelled.

“Don’t lose your head. Look, I’m wearing a camisole under the towel.”

“Huh?” I blurted out after a stupified pause.

Shigure threw open the front of her bath towel, revealing a thin camisole and shorts. Upon seeing my dumbfounded expression, she burst into laughter.

“Ahaha. What, you didn’t even notice the camisole’s straps? What a riot. Your mind’s been polluted by all that dirty manga, Big Bro. Even if we are stepsiblings, I’d never wear only a bath towel in front of a boy I’d just met—unfortunately, girls like that don't exist in the three-dimensional world,” Shigure managed to spit out between peels of laughter, her shoulders shaking. All the while, that mean-spirited smile—which was the complete opposite of Haruka’s—was plastered on her face.

She can’t get away with this!

“You… You’ve crossed a line here,” I muttered angrily.

“Huh? I was just messing with you. Think of it like a kitten batting at your ankles, okay? Anyways, you certainly seemed to be getting all worked up by your lonesome.”

“But what if I’d gotten too worked up?” I pointed out. “What if I’d done something irredeemable? Yeah, I might be terrified of women, but I can’t make any promises.”

“Aha! What, so you have no confidence in your ability to stay level-headed? At least you’re honest. But you don’t need to worry about that.”

“Why not?” I asked.

“Take a look at this,” she indicated. She picked up a piece of paper I’d left on the table for note-taking and tossed it into the air. Within the blink of an eye, she managed to split the floating leaflet in half with the world’s most precise roundhouse kick.

“There’s a good chance I’m a lot stronger than you, Big Bro,” she stated confidently.

“Ugh...”

“So if you’re ever in the mood, feel free to come after me—I dare you. But just know one thing: I’ll fight back with everything I have.”

Shigure lifted one of her legs to demonstrate, making the already-sinfully short shorts roll up further. She patted her thigh as if to make a point, causing a pleasant slapping sound to ring out.

I should’ve known. Her little show just now had conveyed the presence of thoroughly developed muscles. Given her strength and agility, I wouldn’t be surprised if she was experienced in martial arts. In other words, Shigure had teased me knowing full well that she could easily overpower me. The premonition I’d felt earlier as a chill running down my spine had now transformed into a certainty.

“Even you’re forcing yourself to make this work, huh?” I repeated her words from earlier. “You’re nothing but a liar!”

“Oh, are my pants on fire?” she retorted.

“No, but you’re about to hang from a telephone wire!”

I was certain now—although she was outwardly identical to my sincere and innocent Haruka, she was the complete antithesis on the inside. Before, she’d compared herself to a kitten playfully batting at my ankles. That had been the perfect metaphor. Cats would purposefully keep their weakened prey alive—swiping at them with carefully retracted claws and soft nips—and turn them into playthings. Shigure fit that image perfectly.

“I’ve always wanted an older brother or sister,” she added. “Someone who would listen to all of my selfish requests. Now that you have an adorable little sister, you’re going to spoil her absolutely rotten, aren’t you?”

A malicious aura radiated from Shigure’s smile—an expression far removed from my sweet Haruka. Without a doubt, this girl was a bully to her very core.

I’m screwed, aren’t I?

What would happen if this sadist ever found out that I had a girlfriend who looked exactly like her? Obviously, I’d be up shit creek without a paddle. I had no doubt in my mind that she’d find a way to take advantage of their resemblance and push things even further.

In the wake of a future that was all too vivid in my mind, I could no longer lie to myself—I was downright terrified.