Chapter 21 – Sniff, Sniff, Inhale, Exhale, Mmmph!

The next morning, I woke up and checked my phone, only to find an insane situation—a whopping fifty-six notifications. Every single one was a sticker bomb from Fujimiya-san. Scattered among them were messages clearly meant to toy with a pubescent boy, like “I’m too lonely to sleep~” or “I’m the type who wears a bra to bed. Wanna see if it’s true?” But a message that blew all of that out of the water arrived just then.

“Ah, marked as read. Morning, Takuma-kun.”

What did that mean? How had she known it was marked as read so fast? Was she watching the screen the whole time? No way… Scary.

“What are you doing today, Takuma-kun?”

“Haven’t really thought about it, I guess.”

Ignoring her completely felt wrong, so I sent just one reply and put my phone down. Face down. Then I headed downstairs.

Ping!

I heard it, but I pretended I didn’t.

Ping! Ping!

Nope, didn’t hear a thing.

“Morning.”

I called out as I entered the living room, but there was no reply. Looks like no one was home. It was already past nine, so Mom had probably gone to play pachinko first thing in the morning. She did say she’d won big the day before, after all.

“I’m hungry.”

Muttering to no one in particular in the empty house, I headed to the kitchen. On the table were rice, jam, and a note.

【It was tastier than I expected.】

…What was? I had a feeling I shouldn’t think too deeply about it.

I put the jam in the fridge, took out natto and a raw egg instead, mixed them into the rice, and ate. Yep, delicious.

After that, I just lazed around. Sprawled on the sofa, eating snacks while watching TV, and reading manga when I got bored.

Still in my pajamas, I greeted the neighborhood lady who brought the circulation board, and I answered the door when Hidaka-san and Nao-chan suddenly showed up.

……Hm?

“Otouto-kun, I’m glad you’re not walking on eggshells around us, but your future Onee-chan thinks you really ought to change clothes after you wake up.”

“Sorry. I just realized. I’ll go change real quick.”

With that, I went pitter-patter up the stairs. For some reason, I could hear another set of toddle-toddle footsteps behind me.

I looked back, and for some reason, Nao-chan was there.

“……Why are you here too, Nao-chan?”

“Think nothing of it.”

“Of what?”

“……?”

No, tilting your head in confusion right then didn’t help me at all. Oh well. I was just changing clothes—it wasn’t like I was getting naked. Besides, she’d already seen me naked anyway, even if it was against my will.

“Well, you can tag along, but don’t mess up my room.”

“As you command.”

Looks like she was mainly in samurai mode that day.

Still, it was a mystery why she was so attached to me when this was only our second day of meeting. She probably wouldn’t tell me even if I asked, though.

Entering my room, I grabbed some random clothes from the closet and changed. As for Nao-chan—

Whump!

“Mmmph! Mmmph! Inhale, exhale. Sniff, sniff… Mmmph!”

…Wait, hold on — what was she doing burrowing into my futon!?

Shocked by Nao-chan’s actions, I hurried downstairs to Hidaka-san.

“Hidaka-san! Nao-chan got into my futon and is writhing around sniffing the scent!”

I knew I was the one who said it, but what the hell was I even talking about?

“Ah, so Nao does it too. Does that mean she’s gone and fallen for you, Otouto-kun?”

What was this person talking about?

“…Come again?”

“I’m the same way, you know. When you like someone, you just absolutely crave their scent. Before I wash the clothes Kazu-kun wears and puts in the laundry, I wear them once myself, then wash them. It’s totally normal for girls, you know?”

“I-Is that so?”

So that was how it was. Normal for girls… I had no idea. Girls were so deep and complex.

“Yep, yep. So Nao probably loves your scent, Otouto-kun. And not just your scent, but you too.”

“No, I don’t think that’s it at all.”

And so, the three of us ended up hanging out in the living room, eating snacks. After that whole ordeal, Nao-chan refused to leave my futon, so Hidaka-san had to sling her over her shoulder like a sack of rice and carry her downstairs.

She’d seemed pretty unhappy about it and was groaning with a disappointed look on her face, so I gave her the pajamas I’d just been wearing. That quieted her down, so I left her be.

I see. So this was how you interact with girls. Come to think of it, Wano-sensei had been twitching and trembling while wearing my jersey, too. That was just normal behavior. I needed to apologize later for thinking it was gross.

Ah, speaking of which.

“Hidaka-san. I’ve been wondering—you were living with Nii-chan, right? So why did you and your sister move out?”

That had been bothering me for a while.

“Ah, well, you see? It seems the character Kazu-kun’s voice has gotten really popular, right? So the number of fans obsessing over the voice actor has increased. Not to brag, but I’m pretty popular myself, so if word got out that we were living together, it’d be a bit of a problem. That’s why things ended up like this.”

Made sense. It could only be that character.

“Leo Shidora, right?”

“Ah… yeah. So you figured it out~. Hm? But why? That’s a game aimed at girls, you know?”

“I realized it yesterday when I went to Anime Saito. I heard the audio of a line he practiced before, and I obviously recognize Nii-chan’s voice.”

“Makes sense~.”

“By the way, for it to get so popular, what kind of character is Nii-chan playing, and what’s the story about?”

I was definitely curious about that. Watase-san and Fujimiya-san had both been super invested in it, after all.

“To put it simply, it’s a story about Leo, the son of a candy store owner, becoming a top idol through song. Leo’s family candy store is on the verge of bankruptcy, holding a massive amount of unsold inventory due to the relentless onslaught of tapioca and maritozzo trends. Because of that, Leo’s mental health starts deteriorating. That’s when Leo gets scouted… something like that?”

A candy store owner’s son, of all things.

“Then the protagonist—meaning the player, right? The protagonist supports Leo, but she also starts deteriorating mentally due to her own family circumstances. Then Leo encourages her right back as he aims for the top. That’s the story. By the game developers and cast, the players are called this: 【Match-Pump Yanderella】.”

What an awful nickname.

“By the way, what happens to Leo Shidora’s family candy store?”

“It goes bankrupt in the opening.”

Absolutely merciless.

…Wait. Did that mean… The candy you got as a login bonus was them liquidating their stock after bankruptcy? Did that mean my prediction of Leo-kyun having his pockets stuffed full of candy wasn’t completely off the mark?

Heeeh……

It was a total trash game.