Chapter 27: Fashion Show, All Kasugai Brand

「It hasn't changed! It hasn't changed! It hasn't changed! It hasn't changed, Kasugai-kun!」

Right from the opening line, it's noisy this early morning.

My precious sleep was interrupted.

Orimoto's voice mercilessly pounds against my eardrums, and my consciousness surfaces. She's too loud.

「...What is it?」

Slight irritation. I have a headache.

Probably because I was forcibly woken up.

My comfortable sleep was disturbed.

「Wake uuup!」

Saturday, early morning.

Orimoto rips off my blanket.

Receiving the cold air from the AC, I curl up slightly while opening my eyes and glared at her.

「What are you doing this early in the morning, you bastard?」

「Look, Kasugai-kun! This!」

She's so excited her arms and legs are flailing around restlessly. What is Orimoto getting so worked up about?

I strain my eyes to focus──and notice.

「...Ah.」

My voice catching the incongruity.

Orimoto's clothing is──still the sleepwear.

She's clearly wide awake.

My drowsiness is instantly blown away. According to what Orimoto and Michikusa told me, there should have been a reset.

「Did you notice?! Isn't this crazy?!」

「...So noisy. ...You mean the sleepwear?」

「Yes! It hasn't changed!」

The rugged sleepwear Orimoto is wearing. It's an item lacking in design appeal for a girl to wear.

But──such things are trivial matters.

(...What does this mean?)

I sit up and contemplate. I stifled a yawn that my oxygen-seeking body triggered.

Orimoto and Michikusa had been resetting every night.

But this morning was different.

「──Suzuka, you're noisy.」

Toddling along, such sound effects suit her.

With sleepy eyes──or rather, with her eyelids not even half open, Michikusa hurls cold harsh words. Her tongue doesn't seem to be working properly either.

Yawn. Rubs her eyes. Another yawn.

Michikusa was in the midst of a struggle with drowsiness.

She too was──in sleepwear.

Dragging the hem just like last night, and her arms were about half-hidden in the sleeves.

But it was definitely a continuation from last night.

They are still in that continuation.

It was my first time witnessing the reset in person. But when I opened the lid, the result was anticlimactic.

(I can't imagine they'd tell such a lame lie...)

I had previously confirmed details like the smartphone battery level. Then the reset must be an undeniable fact.

After all, the fixed uniform and yukata situation makes that clear.

「As expected, Inori too...! Usually when I wake up, there's a light that appears, it's true!」

「I'm not doubting you. Relax.」

「......Good morning.」

Michikusa, who had been listening to my conversation with Orimoto, let slip a morning greeting after a pause of several beats.

Apparently she won her struggle with dreams.

「Good morning, Inori. Did you hear what we were saying?」

「Mm, more or less. About this.」

Michikusa waved her sleeve around.

Though her voice was gradually becoming clearer, she still had an expression like half her consciousness was still in dreamland.

「Not yukata. Been a while.」

Not the flashy orange yukata.

Rugged──men's sleepwear.

That was all I had available to lend.

Orimoto's height posed no problem.

But Michikusa's case was difficult. The excess sleeves and hem made her petite frame stand out even more.

「Easy to move in. Helpful.」

「Same clothes all the time gets boring, right?」

「Uniform and yukata, functionality, bad.」

Two beautiful girls frolicking in sleepwear.

And it's in my house. The sense of incongruity is tremendous.

Even just waking up, their appearances are impeccably put together. I found myself staring unconsciously.

「Being stared at like that is embarrassing.」

「Ahh, no. That wasn't my intention.」

「My hair is all messy and stuff...」

Orimoto fiddles with her bangs.

I think if she minds that much, she should have tidied up her appearance before coming to report to me.

But I'm not in a position to say that, being equally unconcerned about such things.

I tried to steer the conversation back on track.

「Anyway, what do you think is the cause?」

At my question, Orimoto stops playing with her hair and begins groaning with a "Hmm~".

But nothing comes to mind.

「Did you do anything different from usual yesterday?」

「...Different from... usual. ...Mumumu.」

「Remember. Even the smallest things.」

When I press Orimoto, after several seconds of silence, she tilts her head and tugs at her collar.

「......This?」

「"This"? It's just sleepwear.」

「But usually──yes, major crime.」

Orimoto stared at me and hugged her body protectively. ...Oi, that's leading the witness.

「I'm not particularly interested anyway!!」

「...That's kind of annoying in its own way, though.」

「...What a pain you are.」

I sighed in exasperation.

「Anything else? Got anything else?」

「...You just brushed past that. Well, whatever though?」

Orimoto puffed out her cheeks with dissatisfaction and fell back into thought. ──That's when it happened.

Swaying golden hair came into my field of vision.

「The smartphone's charge is back.」

Michikusa, who had slipped away at some point, returned and spoke matter-of-factly with smartphone in hand.

The LCD screen thrust toward me──I see.

The magically modified smartphone is unchanged, then.

In other words, the smartphone has been reset, meaning she's on a limited extension of sorts, apparently.

「So that means, in other words...?」

Orimoto puts her fingertips to her temple.

「Probably only clothes weren't reset.」

「Inori, eh, is that what it means?」

Michikusa, an equally mysterious girl who prefers mysterious phrasing, is unexpectedly clever.

She seems good at rational judgments.

「So the clothes are the reason──thinking that way is the natural flow. Kasugai, whose clothes are these?」

「"Whose"? They're just sleepwear.」

「For example, who used to wear them?」

At Michikusa's matter-of-fact words, I falter. I see, if that's the cause, it makes some sense.

A fact I didn't mention because it was too troublesome.

Last night's exchange passed through my mind.

The sleepwear I casually lent them.

I omitted unnecessary explanations and even lied that they were family hand-me-downs. Because Orimoto would make a fuss.

The sleepwear was "my old clothes", and if that became known, she'd make a huge commotion.

「......」

I look at the two without answering immediately.

Orimoto, properly awake.

On the other hand, the ever-drowsy Michikusa.

「Come to think of it, Kasugai-kun.」

「...What is it?」

「Why are they men's clothes?」

Orimoto spins around.

The sleepwear flutters up slightly. Her healthy navel almost became visible.

Navy blue as the base color, with no flair.

It was men's sleepwear.

I scrutinized them from every angle──and held my head in my hands. It's self-evident that piling on poor excuses would be found out.

I reluctantly resigned myself to Orimoto's question.

It's better than digging my own grave.

「I casually borrowed them yesterday, but this isn't your mother's──is it?」

Gulp, I swallow my saliva.

What kind of reaction will I get? There's no way I'd have women's sleepwear.

「...Actually.」

Orimoto tilts her head with a confused look.

「Actually?」

「They're mine. If I told you, I figured you'd just chirp and squawk noisily anyway...」

What can I say, um, sorry.

I added that.

The air stopped. Orimoto's face rapidly dyed red. Like an apple.

「W-What's that supposed to mean?! E-hhhhh?! Then, I'm... wearing Kasugai-kun's...!」

「...Figured this would happen.」

「Of course it would?! So embarrassing! Eh, this is embarrassing! You should have told me yesterday...!」

The sound pierces through my eardrums.

「I didn't have any other sleepwear to lend.」

「T-Then I would've slept in my uniform!」

「...What about Michikusa then?」

Michikusa says it like it's nothing.

「I always sleep in my underwear──」

「Okay stop Inori! That's also not okay!」

「Mugu, can't breathe...」

Orimoto hurriedly covered Michikusa's mouth while deftly staring at me. Her face is especially red.

「I'm returning them! I'm returning them right now!!」

Orimoto flails her sleeves around.

Meanwhile, Michikusa, who had escaped from the restraint, spoke nonchalantly again.

「Inori had figured it out.」

「Eh?! I-Inori?! Really?!」

「Suzuka is just oblivious.」

「...Nuaah!」

Even Orimoto's ears turn bright red.

She held her head and crouched down on the floor.

「Haaah... I'm gonna die, seriously gonna die...」

「No, that's way too dramatic.」

「It's not dramatic!」

I offered a minimum amount of follow-up.

「Don't worry about it. They've been washed.」

「That's not the issue!」

Orimoto wails with teary eyes.

Michikusa gives a small shrug.

「...But they're easy to move in.」

「Inori, this isn't the time to be wearing them so comfortably!」

「Suzuka overreacts to everything.」

This won't get anywhere. ──I quietly stated my conclusion while pressing my forehead.

「The reset definitely happened. It's just that only the sleepwear I lent was an exception. Right?」

「...That's true, but... mumu.」

Orimoto, cheeks still not losing their redness, pouts her lips. Michikusa only nods.

It was an unusually heated morning.

─────

After things calmed down, around the time we settled on the plan to go search for the key again today.

「Ah, geta. Inori isn't wearing them.」

The change actually wasn't limited to clothing.

Michikusa's geta were lined up at the entrance. Normally she'd be wearing them the moment she woke up, she said.

Her appearance returns to how it was at the time of disappearance.

──I think this is pretty much confirmed now.

The timing of disappearance occurs some time after being rejected by Sera Keiichi──in that interval.

「Kasugai, can I borrow your shoes?」

「I won't say no, but won't they be hard to walk in?」

「...That's true too. Giving up.」

I asked Michikusa in front of the entrance.

「...Hey Michikusa, come to think of it, couldn't you have just borrowed shoes from Orimoto?」

「There wasn't a size I could wear.」

「You really are small.」

「One word too many.」

Whether the items I lent are outside the reset's scope, or whether the phenomenon only applies to things inside the house.

The mystery grows somewhat, but not in a bad direction.

I think this is a sign of improvement.

The problem was with Orimoto.

The loafers she was using were merely borrowed discreetly from family members.

Michikusa's geta were her own belongings.

Could that be the difference──?

「Well, just bear with it for today.」

「...Wearing Kasugai-kun's shoes too...」

「If you don't like it, wait at home.」

「That's not okay! I'm the one who dropped it, so of course I should go out.」

「...You're so conscientious about that, aren't you?」

After some back-and-forth, Orimoto compromised and I lent her relatively clean shoes.

I had kept ones from middle school.

I was too lazy to throw them away. I never thought such a slovenly personality would prove useful here.

──That's right. That's how it was.

Things were still peaceful at this time.

Because I hadn't been told anything about the meaning behind the loafers Orimoto was wearing, or about Michikusa's family circumstances.