My Younger Stepsister with whom I have never spoken to is an online friend from a game into which I have been fooling around for years. - Chapter 8.5
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Chapter 8: An Usual Event
Translated by: White Fanatic
Edited by: SevenTails
(Part 5)
At most, the girls were there for what, 10 minutes? To forcefully be made to listen to a conversation you couldn’t bear to hear was the first time I learned that it was tantamount to torture. I wanted to jump out and to be honest, the thought of jumping out in the middle had crossed my mind not once or twice. But every time when I was about to, I was kept put strongly by Nanjo Rin.
Even if I did, I’m sure I would have just been brushed off. I lacked the words to say anything to those girls, and all in all, I wouldn’t get to the root of the problem. For now, all I could do was hold my breath and find out what they were up to. It was so frustrating, but it couldn’t be helped.
“…”
“…”
Silence passed between me and Nanjo Rin.
I can tell that, in our chests, we are both raging with unprocessable emotions.
“Fufuuu.”
“… Nanjo?”
Nanjo Rin smiled coldly and played with his phone.
What in the world was happening to her…?
“Say, Kurai.”
“…”
“You see, because I’m like this, I got beaten up behind my back to some degree, more or less. That is why I’m used to it to some extent, and I think that’s how it’s supposed to be with them and me… But not for someone like Yoshida-san, who has never said or done anything bad to anyone.
“… Ah.”
We have lived together for long after all. So I know that rather than being someone who says things about others, she is the type of girl who uses her energy for himself. That’s why I want to support her more and more.
“I’m going to crush them beyond repair. Kurai, you’ll help me too, right?”
“Of course, I will.”
With that determination, we shook hands firmly.
Looking at Nanjo Rin’s face, with a ferocious smile, she looked even more dependable than ever before.
“Nn… ugh.”
“What’s wrong, Nanjo?”
“I was just admiring that you actually had a good look on your face right now.”
‘… I see.’
While we shook hands, for some reason, I got laughed at by Nanjo Rin.
And then she looked at me squarely in the eyes with an upturned serious look.
As my blood rushed into my head because I was concerned about Hiyori, I didn’t pay much attention to it until just a few minutes ago. When I thought about my present situation more clearly, I was still in the state of having my hands together with Nanjo Rin’s hand right now.
As I suddenly became aware of it, my face immediately lit up red in embarrassment. I took my hand back and looked away.
“Are you…”
“… Nanjo?”
At that moment, Nanjo Rin also blurted out something, but I couldn’t grasp it all too well.
Given that the person in question, Nanjo Rin, was in a state of surprise, going and asking her about that made me a little reluctant.
Just that, her face, which looked like she was somehow okay with it, somehow left an impression on me.
“You are really a weird fellow. You know that?”
“Un? What’s with that all of a sudden?”
The tone of her voice was gentle. I felt my cheeks heat up while looking at the smile I had never seen before.
Nanjo Rin said she would investigate Hiraori’s case exclusively with utmost importance. Apparently, she wants to find out the hidden information of who exactly pulled the strings and with what intention from behind the scenes.
I’m curious about that too, but since it’s a matter that happened between girls, there’s not much I can do or help about it, all in all. I have no choice but depend on Nanjo Rin completely for this.
Besides this, something else bothered me more than anything else.
Sakaguchi Kenta—A member of the soccer club, studying in the same grade.
He is over 180 cm tall, athletically toned, and with a fresh-energetic face. He was said to be quite popular among the girls, looking at him as he devotes himself to his club activities.
Furthermore, his grades are not at all bad. No matter how you look at it, he is a guy who seems to be popular with the girls, but there have never been talks regarding him having a girlfriend or any such affair there rotating in the public.
I just couldn’t help but doubt why there were rumors that he had a crush on Hiraori.
Hiraori is not a member of any club and is also in a different class altogether. And more of all, there’s no link between the two. Although there is a possibility that it was love at first sight, looking at the personality of the person in question, from what I can deduce from rumors, it seems unlikely either.
However, there is no fire without smoke. Surely there must be some basis for such rumor. With that thought in mind, I went onto check on Sakaguchi Kenta’s class during the afternoon break.