Living Normally In An Abnormal World - Chapter 21: The Story of Hanae-chan's Visit

Chapter 21: The Story of Hanae-chan’s Visit

On a holiday,

“Nii-cha~, Hanae-chan is coming today!”

Yuuna suddenly said to me.

“Understood.”

However, I had no problem with this. I had no plans or anything, and I was bored.

Besides, it was the first time Yuuna was bringing a friend home. I couldn’t be happier. I’m sure she couldn’t invite anyone over because I, a man, was here. I might have been a nuisance to her.

So I should entertain her properly.

“By the way, do you know what Hanae-chan likes to eat?”

“Eh? … She likes pancakes.”

“I see. I’ll make some for her!”

“Yay!”

“I’ll even add ice cream!”

“I love it!!!”

Yuuna hugged me from the front.

“Hahaha! That won’t increase your favorability, you know!”

“It’s good to be energetic in the morning! Include me too~”

And before I knew it, Mana was hugging me from behind.

This was the completion of the Kinoshita sandwich.

From the side, it was undoubtedly a heartwarming scene. Or rather… Is it okay to be so lovey-dovey early in the morning? Well, it’s fine. It’s not a problem.

After that, I drank black coffee, which was out of character for me.

“Sweet!”

The taste was very sweet.

“Nii-cha, that’s my cocoa.”

“Sorry.”

So it was cocoa… Well, that explains the sweetness.

“Then I’ll drink Nii-cha’s.”

“Ah…”

“It’s bitter.”

That’s to be expected.

“Hello, Onii-san! Today is a beautiful day, isn’t it?”

“Yes, it’s a nice day today. Welcome.”

“Welcome, Hanae-chan!”

“Yes! I’m here!”

Hanae-chan arrived around lunchtime. She’s a polite and cute girl.

“Come on… Make yourself at home.”

“Yes… Thank you for having me!”

I invited Hanae-chan into the house and led her to the living room. However, I might be an intrusion. The two girls probably have a lot to talk about.

“Yuuna… I’ll leave you two alone. Call me if you need anything.”

“Eh!??”

They looked at me with a “Why are you leaving?” expression, so I

“Eh?”

responded.

“I thought you two might want some girl time, so I was going to leave, but is that not the case?”

“No (stay)!”

“We want to play with you!”

“So… that’s how it is.”

I was a little flustered because they insisted so strongly. Besides, Yuna, if you wanted me to stay, you should have told me earlier.

“So, what are we going to do?”

“Well, there’s this otome game that came out a few weeks ago, and there’s a character in it who looks a lot like you, Nii-cha. We thought we’d try playing it.”

…Huh. To say that to the person the character is based on…

“Quite bold of you to do so.”

“I can’t help it. I have desires too!”

“It’s human to restrain those desires, isn’t it?”

“But Yuuna-chan said it’s fine as long as there are no erotic scenes.”

“Well, that’s true.”

I stared intently at Yuuna.

Yuuna noticed my gaze and said,

“I told you I sometimes play otome games with her, Nii-cha, so today we’re going to play Hanae-chan’s game.”

“I see. Got it.”

I’ll keep that in mind, but I’ve never seen Yuuna play otome games alone. And you always play together, huh?

In this world, where women outnumber men, dating simulation games are more popular than action games. The annual sales cumulative rankings are usually dominated by otome games. The character in question was also said to be based on a real man.

However, the way Yuuna plays otome games feels a bit odd to me. Maybe I should have played a gal game or two in my previous life as well.

[Don’t misunderstand, I wasn’t waiting for you.]

“Then why are you talking to me?”

“Yuuna, that’s tsundere.”

“Tsundere?”

“It’s an attribute where you can’t be honest with your feelings and end up acting cold towards the person you like…”

“If you can’t be honest, how will your feelings be conveyed? If you expect me to read your mind, you might as well ask why we created language in the first place.”

“Yuuna, you’re so smart.”

“Hehe!”

[Hey, why are you talking to guys other than me? You’re mine, aren’t you?]

(Oh… Is she a yandere?)

“Treating people like objects is the worst.”

(…That’s right.)

“If it were me, you’d be mine and only mine!”

(Such a pure child!)

“What would Nii-cha say?”

“Hmm? I think it’s fine for you to like whoever you want…”

“Why are you assuming I’ll be rejected?”

“I don’t know.”

[I like you the most in the world! I want to be by your side forever!]

“Sorry, the spot next to me is reserved for Nii-cha~♪”

“Oh dear, how sad.”

“…I want to be confessed to in a more heart-fluttering way.”

“I like you.”

“Kyun!”

“That’s too simple.”

“Kyun!”

“Why?”

“I love you, Nii-cha!”

“Kyun!”

…Now that I think about it, it was wrong from the start for us to play an otome game together.

“Let’s get ready.”

“Yes.”

We turned on the game console, inserted the disc, and sat a little away from the TV in a cross-legged position.

Then, as usual, Yuuna sat on my lap. When Hanae-chan saw this, she

“That’s unfair, Yuuna-chan! I want to sit there too!”

tried to push Yuna away.

“Hmph… Too early, Hanae-chan. To do that, you need to raise Nii-cha’s favorability a bit more.”

Well, that’s not true.

“What!? But it’s unfair, Onii-chan!”

“It’s not that I don’t want to, but there’s not enough space for two people, so please settle for a lap pillow. Yuuna, is that okay?”

Otherwise, we won’t be able to play the game.

“…I guess I have no choice. Okay.”

“Is the lap pillow on Onii-san’s thighs soft?”

“Customer, this pillow is made of natural materials, so we cannot guarantee its softness.”

“It would be scary if it were artificial.”

“I am Wood Under Yuuto Cyborg!”

“Kinoshita Yuto Cyborg! Go! Rocket Punch!”

“You’re asking me to take off my arm, Yuuna.”

“Is this how it usually is?”

“It’s always like this, always like this.”

“Then, excuse me…”

Hanae-chan laid on my right, and Yuna on my left, using my thighs as a pillow.

“Nii-cha’s lap pillow is nice…”

“Haaaiiii…”

For some reason, I could see pink aura and petals coming from Hanae-chan. Could it be that I’m catching a cold?

By the way, I was in charge of the game controls. When it came to choosing options, we would discuss and decide by majority vote. A typical otome game focuses on the story… you could say it’s like a novel with voice acting for the dialogue.

“Hanae-chan, let’s begin?”

“Haaaiiii…”

Hmm?

“…Yuuna, let’s start.”

“Zzz…”

…So, you want me to play alone? Well, I need to bring Hanae-chan back to reality. As for Yuuna, I’ll let her sleep. It would be rude to wake her up now.

“Hanae-chan, you can stay like that, but let’s do it.”

“Do it!? What are you going to do, Onii-san!?”

“Play the game.”

“Ah… I see.”

She likes dirty jokes quite a bit. However, if I go too far, people might think I’m weird… I was already called a nutcase in my previous life. This girl probably knows about that too, so I’ll hold back on the dirty jokes.

…Do men in this world make lewd jokes?

[Hey, it’s a beautiful day today too.]

Right from the start, the character who looked like me,

“This character looks like you, Onii-san. He’s the main character on the package, but the event occurrence rate is extremely low, and the difficulty of capturing him is so high that there’s an endless stream of anti-comments. Even now, the capture group hasn’t figured out how to capture him.”

…Did the person who made this game hate me?

[This person is my classmate, Kinoshita Yuuta. He’s too nice to everyone, so he’s quite popular. Rumor has it that his fan club has over ten thousand members. He lives alone, and it seems he goes home to his mother and sister once a week, as they get along very well.]

…The setting is quite risky. The character looked almost exactly like me, with only the hairstyle being different.

“On top of that, the developer said they didn’t intend for players to capture Yuuta-kun.”

Even though he’s the main character?

[What should we do today?]

Well… Let’s first check Yuuta-kun’s favorability level.

Favorability: 60

“It’s surprisingly high from the start.”

“But we can’t get past that 60-point wall!”

[Hey, are you free today? If you are, do you want to go out somewhere?]

Oh? Yuuta-kun took the initiative to talk to me.

“Onii-san, this is a rare event! We should take this opportunity.”

“It’s rare?”

“The chance of Yuuta-kun talking to you is about 1%, so it’s rare.”

“I see. It’s rare.”

Hanae-chan, you’ve played this a lot, haven’t you?

“Let’s aim to capture Yuuta-kun today.”

“Have you seen the endings of the other characters?”

“…… I really hate Yuuta.”

This is bad.

By the way, Yuuna,

“…… Your favorability with Nii-cha has been confiscated.”

was dreaming a wonderful dream. I’m very curious about what she was dreaming about.

As we continued the game,

“His favorability isn’t rising at all!”

“What’s with this guy!”

Yuuta’s events kept coming, but his favorability didn’t increase at all.

“Not you!”

“It’s you again!”

Before we knew it, we ended up with a different character’s ending.

[I love you! I’ll definitely make you happy.]

“Oh! He confessed!”

“Finally, Yuuta’s ending!?”

[You’re mine, so disappear?]

“I was killed!?”

“Zhuge Liang’s trap!?”

There was even a dead end.

Then,

“I really hate Yuuta.”

I can’t forgive this guy.

“Onii-san, let’s take a break for a bit.”

“Hanae-chan, I feel like the flow is about to change. Yes… a decisive flow. That will be the key to capturing him. “Don’t do that. It’s like the reason gamblers go bankrupt, so let’s take a break.”

Indeed, we were getting too heated. Let’s take a break. Well, then.

“I heard you like pancakes. I happen to have the ingredients, so let’s make and eat some.”

“Eh!? Really!? Can I!?”

“Of course.”

“Hehe… Thank you very much♪”

I got to see a cute reaction, so… I’ll make them, I guess. First,

“Yuuna, wake up.”

I woke Yuna up by poking her cheeks.

“Uhn… Hmm? Nii-cha, was I sleeping?”

“You were sleeping a lot. I’m making pancakes now, so get up.”

“Hmm… Then I’ll move.”

“Onii-san, Onii-san.”

“Hmm?”

Hanae-chan tugged at the hem of my clothes a few times.

Then, I turned to face Hanae-chan, and

Puni

she poked my cheeks with her fingers.

“Hehe… Gotcha.”

She said with a triumphant look on her face.

Her cute prank made me smile, and I

“You got me. So, Hanae-chan, could you move too?”

“Yes♪”

By the way,

“Yuuta is the only one without voice acting. Could it be that…”

“Because the original is based on you, they didn’t want to ruin the image.”

“Was that on the fan club website?”

“Yes.”

I’ll keep an eye on the fan club from time to time.

By the way, the pancakes I made were well-received by the two of them.

After that, the three of us continued our challenge to capture Yuuta.

“Thank you very much for today!”

“Yes, but we still couldn’t capture Yuta.”

“Yes… I’ll keep trying when I get home!”

“Play in moderation, okay?”

“Yes!”

That’s a good answer.

“Feel free to come again.”

“Yes! I’ll definitely come again! See you, Yuuna-chan!”

“Yes, see you later!”

“See you again, Onii-san!”

“Yes, see you.”

I felt bad leaving a girl alone, but if I stayed, I might be attacked, so I’d be more of a burden. I saw her off until she was out of sight near her home.

After Hanae-chan disappeared from view, Yuuna and I returned home.

“Nii-cha, I want to eat curry today!”

“Don’t worry, it’s mild.”

“I know♪”

Actually, I prefer medium or spicy curry, although I’m not good with very spicy food.