How I, a Completely Ordinary Guy with No Special Traits, Risked My Life to Save Beautiful Twin Sisters, Only to Make Both of Them, Who Turned Out to Be Yandere, Fall Madly in Love with Me (REMAKE) - 83-84

Chapter 83: NTR Is a Vile Culture, Only Pure Love Is Acceptable

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“I’m so glad we found Ryouya-kun without a hitch.”

“I got a little panicked when I realized he had somehow slipped outside the hotel.”

“Right? Seriously, all hail GPS.”

After we tracked down Ryouya, who had snuck out of the hotel, my sister and I managed to bring him safely back to his room and were now talking about it. If it hadn’t been for the remote monitoring app we secretly installed on Ryouya’s smartphone, finding him would have been extremely difficult.

“But it feels like Ryouya-kun’s problem is still the same as ever.”

“Well, the experiences he’s had up until now have shaped his current mindset, so it’s not something that can be fixed so easily.”

“Yeah, but even that part of Ryouya-kun is just so cute.”

Of course, it was no accident that we stirred up Ryouya’s complex. I had already known ahead of time that Onee-chan was going to get called out and confessed to at Arashiyama Bamboo Forest. We deliberately took Ryouya to that scene to provoke his sense of danger and urgency, which had been steadily dulling from spending so much time with us. No doubt it was a shock to him, like having a bucket of cold water dumped over his head.

The main goal was to put pressure on him—to make him feel that maybe, just maybe, Onee-chan or I could end up belonging to someone else. Not that there was ever any real chance we would choose anyone besides Ryouya.

Originally, I had planned to arrange a scene where I, too, would get confessed to. We were planning to flaunt it in front of Ryouya with Onee-chan’s help. But he had disappeared from the hotel before that could happen, so we decided to drop that plan.

I didn’t know exactly what happened between dinner and bath time that made him run off, but either way, we had maneuvered things to direct the blame subtly toward Ryouya. His reaction was well within the range of what we had expected.

“If we push too hard, though, Ryouya-kun’s mind might actually break, so we need to be careful about that.”

“NTR is a vile culture. Only pure love is acceptable.”

I felt bad for Ryouya, but if we were going to make him belong to only me and Onee-chan, then it was necessary for him to suffer a little along the way. Still, it was a sacrifice we had to make in order to reach the happy ending waiting for us.

“If Ryouya-kun won’t become ours, then I don’t want anything else.”

“Ryouya will belong to me and Onee-chan, no matter what.”

Hence why my sister and I had been working so hard together all this time. After this school trip, at the upcoming school festival, we would make our move. That was when we would finally claim Ryouya for ourselves. A complete checkmate for him. 

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Chapter 84: It Kinda Feels Like I’m Staring Into the Dark Side of Modern Society

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The night passed, and the second day of the school trip began. Today was a free day where we each visited places decided by our groups for sightseeing.

We left the hotel and now stood right in front of Yasui Konpiragu Shrine, which we had chosen as our first destination because it was close to our hotel in Shijo Kawaramachi. 

“So this is Yasui Konpiragu, huh? Even under the torii gate, it says it’s a prayer spot for cutting bad ties and forming good ones. It’s really got that kind of atmosphere.”

“Yeah, I can kind of see why it’s called the strongest enmusubi (relationship-cutting) shrine.”

“Still, there’s more people here than I thought.”

Since it was still early and this wasn’t a major tourist site that everyone knew about, I had expected it to be pretty empty.

“If you come on the weekend, the line gets long enough that you have to wait about an hour.”

“Yeah. Thanks to TV and social media, its popularity shot way up.”

“For real? I’m more surprised that so many people have ties they want to cut.”

While talking like that, we passed through the torii and walked along the approach to the shrine. On either side of the path leading to the main hall, trees lined up neatly, and red street lamps stood tall, combining with the stone-paved ground to create an incredibly beautiful scene.

We were in our school uniforms now, but if we wore kimono and walked here, it would probably look amazing. In fact, I spotted a few people who had come wearing kimono.

“By the way, it seems the ‘cutting ties’ here isn’t limited just to human relationships.”

“Not just human relationships?”

Not quite grasping what Reona meant by “other than human relationships,” I asked her to clarify. Then Riona spoke up.

“For example, you can also sever bad ties like illnesses or alcohol dependency.”

“I see, so that’s what you meant by ‘other than human relationships.’”

“Exactly, so if you have any bad habits, Ryouya-kun, this might be a good chance to cut them off.”

If that’s the case, I wanted to take this opportunity to break my old bad habit of overthinking everything negatively—a  negative trait of me that had plagued me for years. Just yesterday, I had snuck out of the hotel and made the two of them worry again.

“…By the way, is it just me, or are all the ema around here filled with some pretty hardcore stuff?”

“Ah, I was thinking the same thing.”

Along the path, there were many ema (votive plaques) hung up, but the contents were seriously unsettling, like “May the power-harassing branch manager be transferred to a remote island branch,” or “May I safely divorce my husband.” In my mind, ema were supposed to be filled with more positive and forward-looking wishes, so this was pretty shocking to see these many unsettling ema.

“Everyone’s writing things that are fitting for a ‘tie-cutting shrine.’”

“It kinda feels like I’m staring into the dark side of modern society.”

“But since the shrine also brings good matchmaking luck, it looks like there are people writing about that too.”

The ema that Reona pointed to said, “May I finally get a real, 3D girlfriend this year.” Now that I thought about it, just like it said on the torii, this shrine wasn’t just about cutting bad ties—it was also about forming good ones afterward.

While thinking about that, we arrived at the chozuya (water purification basin). As usual, I didn’t really know the proper etiquette, but I figured the feeling behind it was more important in places like this, so I didn’t worry too much. Then, after leaving the chozuya and stepping into the main shrine grounds, a mysterious object caught my eye. It was a little shorter than my height, but looked about three meters wide, and it was completely covered in a massive number of ofuda (paper talismans).

“Hey… There’s something seriously creepy over there. Do you know what that is…?”

“That’s the Enkiri Enmusubi Stone, the sacred stone of Yasui Konpiragu.”

“Our whole reason for coming here today is to pray at that Enkiri Enmusubi Stone.”

“The thing’s appearance already has way too much impact. I feel like I’ve had my fill just from looking at it.”

If you showed a photo of the Enkiri Enmusubi Stone to someone who didn’t know anything about it, they would definitely think it was some kind of cursed site sealing away something terrible under a mountain of talismans. Maybe I should try sending a picture to Mio later and see what kind of reaction I would get from her.

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