August 8, AD 2092

Okinawa

Beach House

Our Okinawa vacation had been a source of troubles since day one, but it had regained its peacefulness yesterday. Today had been another quiet day—at least so far. Letting our summer vacation be boring was a concern, but if it was going to do nothing but give me headaches, I’d pass on it.

Four days after our arrival in Okinawa, we were finally able to enjoy a tropical day off. The problem was, I wasn’t sure if we included my brother.

It was currently one PM. Instead of taking a nap, I was just reading at the desk in my room, idly browsing a rare hard copy book on magic that Miss Sakurai had found for me.

Who cares if it’s just idle browsing? It isn’t like I can perfectly understand it anyway.

The only guides on magic that people took the time to put on paper were highly specialized ones. Even magic high school students would have trouble with them. I would have to be a narcissist to think that I, a first-year middle school student, could decode it in a single read through.

He might be able to figure it out, of course.

He—my brother—was, or so I assumed, in his own room, fervently typing away at the workstation he’d brought here, those CADs connected to it.

He’d received a pair of handgun CADs from the lieutenant the day before yesterday. At first, they’d been talking about only letting him borrow them, but at some point, they’d turned into gifts. It made me want to complain about how lax the JDF seemed. I was certainly smart enough to understand their intent was to make a prior investment, but unfortunately, that venture was certain to fail completely. He was my Guardian, after all. He couldn’t become a soldier.

He didn’t have any reason to refuse something given to him, either, but they were still only prototypes. They couldn’t have intended them as any more than souvenirs for a visitor with a bright future ahead of him.

Nevertheless, he seemed to like them an awful lot. Between that day and today, he’d been fiddling with the CADs’ systems whenever he had a free moment. He’d never even hinted that he could do tuning on CADs. This must not have been giving him much time to rest.

Didn’t he get bored of it? Was tinkering with CADs really that interesting for him? Well, I said tuning, but he was probably only rearranging the buttons and things like that…

The next thing I knew, I was standing in front of his door.

Umm, what did I come here for again? What was I doing?

Despite my inner confusion, my right hand lifted up to knock upon the door.

And in agreement with my inner confusion, my hand stopped just before knocking on the door.

I started to feel like I was a clown with no audience. A third-rate clown, at that. I sighed and lowered my hand. I was about to turn right around and leave, but I was a little too late.

The swinging door clicked and then quietly opened—slowly, in consideration for someone in its path. Thanks to that, it didn’t end up hitting me in the nose. What a clichéd skit that would have been. Unfortunately, I had no time to feign ignorance and run away.

“Did you need something?” asked my brother as soon as his face appeared from behind the door, looking like he’d known I was standing there—and he probably had, in fact.

“I, umm, well…”

“Yes?”

He waited very patiently for me to stammer out a reply. With that poker face, which didn’t even make you feel like he was waiting, he watched me. His cold gaze accelerated my discomfort.

“Umm, may I come in?!”

I felt overwhelmed by a sense of crisis that if this kept going I would panic, so I decided to push the words out before that happened. After I said it, I thought, What do I need to go into his room for?! but it was already too late to do anything about it.

I was probably blushing at the time. Even my brother’s eyes widened as I glared at him red-faced—I really didn’t mean to glare—but he showed no further surprise, then held open the door for me to enter.

Like always, his room was simple—or rather, empty. The quietly operating workstation in the vacant room loudly made its presence known.

“What did you need?”

I couldn’t answer his question. At the time, my mind was glued to the half-disassembled CADs connected to the workstation via bare cords and the endless stream of letters and numbers covering his monitor.

But this is just like a CAD development lab… I was honestly floored.

But the next two words he said tore my mind away immediately.

“My lady?”

“Please don’t call me that!” I shouted angrily.

He gave a start and froze. It was really unusual to see him at a loss for words, but I couldn’t blame him.

I surprised myself. After all…my voice had come out practically a shriek. It made me sound like I was on the verge of tears. “Oh, I…”

“…”

“Umm, well… You see! If you don’t get used to it normally, you could still slip up when you don’t expect it, right?”

His expression changed from shock to suspicion. His dubious look seemed unsure of my sanity. It was disheartening, but I rallied my motivation and went through with my lame excuse.

“So please call me M…Miyuki!”

But that was as far as I could go. It took all I had just to say that, and I shut my eyes tightly. With them closed, I clenched my fists like a small child scared of being scolded, without even knowing what I was scared of. That, too, was akin to a small child, unconditionally frightened of a parent’s displeasure.

“…All right, Miyuki. Is this better?”

His answer was gentle. He spoke not in that mature, stiff tone but in a more casual way, like how you’d hear friends talk to each other.

This was probably what he sounded like when he talked to others besides me, to his friends and underclassmen at school.

He spoke to me gently and watched me with a gentle expression.

“…That will be fine.”

And this time, I really felt like I was about to cry. It took everything I had just to hold back the tears.

“Excuse me. I’ll return to my room.”

I didn’t think my endurance would hold out, so I ran away from him. I fled into my room and buried my face in a pillow.

Because now I knew.

Even his kindness was nothing but an act. Even those short words a brother would naturally say to a sister in a normal relationship were just the output of cold calculation.

I didn’t have a reason, but now I knew.

After all, I was his sister.

I hated our relationship, hated how we understood each other only at times like this. I stifled my voice with the pillow and cried.