10 Red Strings At Your Service

“I’m home…” I muttered, wringing out the last bit of energy left in me after that exhausting day.

After I got out of the bathroom, I saw them already on their way out of the building.

I waited until they were far enough before stepping outside myself.

As I exited, I saw the transfer student seated in a sleek, black, expensive-looking car, saying her goodbyes to the group. After a few seconds, the car window closed with a soft hiss, and it quietly made its way down the road.

I continued watching the group from a distance until they disappeared from my view.

From the looks of it, the two had temporarily made up, probably thanks to Rihito acting as a mediator between them.

After spending a few minutes talking to Lily—probably looking like a crazy person talking to himself to anyone passing by—I finally made my way home.

I took off my shoes and lined them up neatly by the entrance.

Surprisingly, no loud TV greeted me this time. Just complete silence.

When I stepped into the living room, I saw my little sister sitting in seiza on the floor, looking absolutely terrified.

“W-What’s wrong, Akari?” I asked, though I already had a pretty good idea why she looked like she was about to cry.

“O-Onii-chan…! What did you do!? Mom came home looking really angry and went straight to your room!” Akari said, trembling.

“C-Ca-Calm down, Akari…! Don’t worry, leave it to your Onii-chan!” I said, sounding not so reliable at all.

Mom finally saw the broken window from outside, huh?

This is bad. Really bad.

My head had been so full of the transfer student that I completely forgot there was another boss fight waiting for me at home—the final boss.

“Akai-sama, what’s wrong? Why are you and Akari-sama panicking?” Lily asked innocently, like this wasn’t her fault to begin with.

What should I do? Should I go straight into a dogeza before explaining myself? Yeah, that sounds right. Dogeza first—excuses later. And then…!

A chill ran down my spine.

I feel it.

She’s getting closer.

Even Akari, still sitting upright in seiza like a war criminal awaiting judgment, was visibly shaking even though the bloodlust wasn’t even directed at her.

“A. KA. I…!”

Mom’s voice rumbled from the hallway like thunder. She stepped into the living room with steam practically hissing from her mouth and her eyes glowing bright red. No joke. That’s just how intense the aura she’s giving off. If this were a fighting game, her presence alone would’ve drained half my HP.

“Eek!?” Lily shrieked, finally understanding the catastrophic danger we were in.

There was no time to think.

With the fluid grace of a seasoned survivor, I dropped to my knees and slid into a dogeza so smooth it would’ve made a shogun weep. Hands and forehead pressed to the floor, posture perfect. A true masterpiece.

“PLEASE FORGIVE YOUR USELESS SON!!” I shouted with all the sincerity I could muster.

After a moment of heavy silence, Mom finally spoke.

“Akai.”

“Yes, Mother!” I replied with the utmost respect, my forehead still pressed flat against the floor.

Her voice was cold. Calm. Which made it all the more terrifying.

“What exactly did you do to the window for it to be broken to that extent?”

“About that…” I hesitated. There was no getting out of this unscathed. So if I was going down anyway…

I might as well go down with style.

“You see, Mother,” I began solemnly, “a strange girl with wings fell from the sky and crash-landed right into my room. She might’ve been from Heavenly Realm.”

This is the absolute truth.

Silence.

I slowly glanced up.

Mom’s eyebrow twitched.

“…You’re telling me a window broke,” she said, her voice trembling with suppressed fury, “Because an angel from heaven crashed herself into your room?”

“That is correct,” I said without hesitation. “I think she might be here to help me with a mission or something. I’m still piecing it together.”

There was a long pause.

Then

SLAM!

My head was suddenly embedded into the floor from a perfectly executed Iron Claw.

“NO ALLOWANCE FOR TWO MONTHS!!”

“Gghrk—!?”

—∆—∆—∆—∆—∆—∆—

After taking the Iron Claw and begging for forgiveness, I was officially punished with two months of no allowance. Apparently, all of it was going toward the repair cost of the shattered window. Which is fair, I guess.

It’s not like I’m a big spender anyway, I’ve got savings too, but still… no allowance just makes me even less motivated to go to school than I already was.

“I’m so sorry, Akai-sama…” Lily apologized once again.

She’d been apologizing non-stop after that. She must really be feeling guilty about it.

“What’s done is done. No point dwelling on it,” I said, waving her off. “Anyway, before I forgot, I need to look something up.”

This had been lingering in the back of my mind ever since I heard the name of the transfer student.

Himemori.

I swear I’ve heard it somewhere before, I just can’t quite pinpoint when or where.

I grabbed my phone and turned it on.

“Woah.” I flinched as I was instantly bombarded by a flood of notifications, completely covering my beautiful lock screen wallpaper.

Tch, I can’t even see Liselotte properly like this.

Most of the notifications were just coupon ads or manga update alerts from one of the apps I’m registered to. But what really caught my eye were the 74+ messages on Discord.

With a sigh, I entered my passcode. The phone unlocked, revealing a new wallpaper, of course, featuring my beloved heroines again.

I reluctantly tapped the Discord app and opened my DMs—the one with the glowing red 74 badge screaming at me like a neglected pet.

I began scrolling down through the messages, trying to skim as much as I could. But after a few seconds of reading, I picked up the pace, realizing it was all useless nonsense.

[Hey, hey, you alive?]

[It’s been 3 hours and still no reply… Don’t tell me you’re actually dead?]

[Wait… did you isekai yourself without telling me!? You traitor!]

The messages kept coming. It was like watching a one-man stand-up show unfold in text format. Anime screenshots from this season scattered without spoiler tags, no less. Even though I hadn’t caught up yet.

She’s definitely ticked off I left her on read this long.

After reaching the end of the messages, I finally started typing my reply.

[Calm down. Unlike you, I have a life]

Which I can now say with a hint of confidence.

After all, I—Ito Akai, certified background character—just spent after school at karaoke with the class’s most popular group.

I’m practically a normie now.

Just as I was about to close the app and get back to my original objective of actually searching for information. Just then.

The greyed-out invisible status had suddenly flickered to online.

And within a mere seconds—’Citrus’ is typing.

Citrus
[Hey! Why’ve you been ignoring me the entire day!?]

Moerai
[I’m not ignoring you, idiot. I just don’t have time to check my phone.]

Citrus
[You, of all people don’t have time for their phone? Yeah, right]

Moerai
[Hmph. I wouldn’t expect someone with no friends IRL to understand.]

Citrus
[Excuse me!? I have friends, thank you very much!]
[When did you even get IRL friends to begin with? You sure it’s not just another one of your delusions?]

Moerai
[More importantly—didn’t we already talked about spoiler-tagging stuff one of us haven’t seen yet?]

Citrus
[Don’t change the subject!!]
[And, the screenshots are from yesterday’s episodes! Don’t tell me you still haven’t watched it?]

Moerai
[You could’ve guessed from the fact that I haven’t said a word about it!]

Citrus
[Well maybe I would’ve known that if that certain someone hadn’t been ignoring me!]

Moerai
[For the last time—I wasn’t ignoring you!]

“Akai-sama, you look like you’re having fun,” Lily said with a gentle smile.

“Hm? Really now.”

I touched the corner of my mouth. The muscles around my jaw and lips were definitely a little more relaxed than usual.

“…Maybe I am.”

Citrus and I met online two years ago, in a random thread discussing a certain series. One thing led to another, we started arguing over our differences in opinion.

Our opinions on the show didn’t align. They were so out of sync we might as well have been watching entirely different shows.

I thought that was the end of it.

Then, by some unfortunate coincidence, we ran into each other again—this time in a completely different thread, about a completely different series.

You can probably guess what happened after that.

It kept happening. Over and over. Our tastes somehow always clashed. Sure, there were rare occasions where we have the same take to the show or character, but those moments were so few and far between, they were basically drowned out by all the bickering.

As time passed, online forums started dying out. Everyone began migrating to messaging apps like Discord, and naturally, so did I. I still browsed threads occasionally here and there, but Discord slowly became my new hang out.

I’m not sure whether to call it fate or misfortune, but we ended up meeting again.

The way they typed—the exact tone, the bizarre complaints, the oddly specific hot takes—there was no mistaking it. Just a few back-and-forths, and I was sure. It was them.

Citrus apparently realized it too—somewhere in the middle of our usual bickering, they suddenly paused and dropped a single line:
[Wait a sec… it’s you, isn’t it?]

Maybe I should’ve expected this. There are only so many niche anime servers out there back then for weirdos like us. It was only a matter of time.

Moerai
[Hey, Citrus. I have questions for you. You’re weirdly informative, after all.]

Citrus
[Changing the subject again… Welp, I’ll forgive you this time.]

Just who do you think you are?

Citrus
[So, what is it?]
[Ah! Is it about Shinamon-sensei’s new doujinshi!? That was really erotic, right~]

Moerai
[No, you idiot!]

Though, I was interested in that too.
I’ll check that out later.

Moerai
[Have you heard of the name ‘Himemori’ somewhere else?]

Citrus
[Hm? Isn’t that the surname of the owner of the MORI:hime brand?]

Ah.
It finally clicked.

I don’t know anything about the owner or the company background whatnot, but the brand is so ridiculously famous that even someone like me who lives a life approximately five planets away from the fashion industry has heard of it.

Apparently, they handle everything from clothes to makeup, skincare to accessories.
Come to think of it, I vaguely remember Akari begging Mom to buy her something from that brand. Something limited, probably.

Citrus
[What’s with the sudden interest? Are you finally trying to dress up properly? Isn’t it a little late for that lol]

Why am I automatically being assumed I’m a loser in real life?
I mean, it’s true, but still!

Moerai
[Nah]

Hmm. Might as well toss this one in too, just in case.

Moerai
[Moving on. Any idea how to get close to a girl you already made mad at you on the first meeting?]

I’m not expecting any useful advice, honestly. But even a different perspective might help right now.

At first, I thought maybe I could just leave her alone now that I’ve confirmed she can’t see the red strings. But thinking it over… there’s still too much I don’t know. And right now, the transfer student is the only lead I’ve got.

Like, why was she chosen as one of the nine? Is there any pattern or randomly?

Was it really just a coincidence she ended up in my class?

What happens to the red string if she ends up hating me? Will it disappear? Go back to her original fated partner?

Or perhaps… she has some connection to the one who caused all this?

Those are just some of the theories bouncing around in my head.

Until I can start ruling things out, I have to keep considering every possibility.

Hm?

The usual Citrus who replies within seconds is quiet.

Maybe my question actually caught him off guard?

About a minute later, a response finally came in.

Citrus
[Hahaha, what now? Are you playing a new visual novel where you have to win over a heroine with a terrible first meeting trope? lol]
[Anyway, I’m off. Cya~]

And just like that, the conversation ended.

“…What’s up with him?”

Here I was, bracing myself to be teased

“Akai-sama.”

“Woah!?”

I nearly jumped. Lily’s voice suddenly echoed right next to my ear. It was completely different from when she usually speaks inside my head. This time, I could actually feel her breath against my skin, and her voice resonated through my eardrums.

I thought I was experiencing Angel Whispering In Your Ears Binaural ASMR in real life for a second there.

Wait. I am.

“What, Lily?” I asked, regaining my composure.

I turned slightly and saw her peeking from behind my back, cheek practically pressed to mine as she squinted at the screen of my phone.

Apparently, she’d sneaked up behind me and now reading our conversation.

“What is doujinshi?” Lily asked, tilting her head innocently.

…Seriously?
After everything she just read, that’s the part that caught her interest?
As expected of Lily.

Just then, I noticed the red string on my right index finger doing its usual wavy movements representing the feeling of anxious.

But since that’s nothing new, I ignored it and proceeded to explain to Lily the greatness of doujinshi.
Of course, the SFW ones.