“I liked your old self”

“Iori, you were sleeping, right?”

Her eyes were wide open, staring down at me. Trapped beneath her, there was no way to escape.

“Iori? Hey, Iori…”

Come to think of it, I haven’t really talked to her much lately. Well, it’s not like I haven’t tried, but she’s been avoiding conversation.

“Why won’t you just listen to me, onii-chan?”

“Huh?”

She said it in a quiet voice.

That sounds familiar. Wasn’t that…?

[Onii-chan, you have to do as I say… Otherwise, otherwise…]

“onii-chan, are you listening?”

“Huh, oh, yeah, I’m listening. But, you know, I have my own life too…”

“Even so! Even so, my words should take priority!!”

Her grip on me tightened.

I don’t understand… I haven’t been able to figure out what’s been on Iori’s mind lately.

“……..If so, then I’ll have to….onii-chan..mumble mumble…”

She bit her finger and muttered with a frightening expression.

I don’t understand… I don’t understand Iori anymore.

“Hey, Iori. I don’t get you lately. Why are you in such a bad mood…? Did I do something wrong…?”

“Shut up, onii-chan!! You never listen to me anyway!”

She yelled at me.

I was just trying to understand Iori even a little bit.

She doesn’t tell me anything, not even about the negative fifteen points of affection towards her brother or the frequent demands for money.

“I-Iori…?”

“You don’t understand… You don’t understand me at all! You have no idea how I feel or how I treat you!”

So I try to understand, try to ask… But she won’t tell me anything. She just stays silent or gets mad.

What am I supposed to do? How can I be a good older brother to you?

…Tell me. I don’t want to follow your orders; I want to understand.

A feeling I’ve never experienced before bubbles up inside me. This is… anger.

“If that’s how it’s gonna be, then I’ll have to use force… onii-chan, are you listening…? From now on, you absolutely can’t get close to other girls, you can’t talk to them. Especially not to Setsu Katayama—”

“Cut it out already!!”

“Wha—!?”

Our positions reversed. This time, Iori was the one pushed down onto the bed.

“Oni… ichan…”

Iori’s eyes widened in surprise. My raised voice must have startled her.

In an instant, flashes of what Iori had been doing ran through my mind like a slideshow.

She pushes almost all the housework onto me, gets way more allowance than me, and she expects me to listen to her…?

I don’t know what she’s trying to do, but she’s spreading rumors about the ‘Brother with a negative 15 affection rating’ thing. I can still hear the giggling voices in my ear, as if they were agreeing with her.

But because I was her big brother, I kept enduring it.

But…

Huh? Wait a minute. Isn’t it because I’m her big brother that I’ve been putting on a brave face…? Despite being treated terribly by my own sister. Despite being treated terribly, why was I… okay with it, even laughing it off?

『Shuugo-kun, is it okay for you to just keep taking it? Just because you’re her big brother doesn’t mean you have to be nice to her.』

『Weird nicknames being spread around, and having your allowance taken every month… Even for siblings, that’s beyond common sense. Maybe you’ve gotten used to it, but it’s not right, you know? 』

『Shuugo-kun, you need to calm down and think about it. It’s because you’ve been thinking like that and spoiling Iori that she’s become such a spoiled princess.

『I’ve said it before, but just because you’re her big brother doesn’t mean you have to be nice to her. If I had a brother like that, I’d probably smack some sense into him.』

What Katayama said finally started to make sense to me.

Suddenly, my mind, which had been swirling in confusion, became clear.

No— I snapped out of it.

“I… I liked your old self.”

Before I knew it, the words were out of my mouth.