Chapter 11: Why… why hasn’t onii-chan been home since yesterday…

Hello. I’m Nariki Kinjiro’s little sister, Nariki Kiriko.

Since yesterday… since Friday night, onii-chan hasn’t come home.

Onii-chan is in his second year of high school, and I’m in my third year of middle school. He wasn’t home when I got back from school. Well, he usually gets home later than I do, so I didn’t think anything of it at the time…

6 PM. Dad came home from work. Apparently, he got off early today. Mom was in the kitchen making dinner. Onii-chan usually comes home around this time, too… maybe he’s hanging out with friends?

8 PM. Onii-chan still wasn’t home. We’d already finished dinner. Mom and Dad said, “He’ll be back eventually,” but…

10 PM. Still not home. Even my parents must’ve started worrying, because they decided to send a text. Why a text? Wouldn’t a call be better? I said as much, but,

“Eh, knowing that guy, he’ll waltz back in like nothing happened! A text is plenty, plenty!”

…is what he said. Plenty for what, exactly…

11 PM. A text came in from onii-chan. It said:

“Sorry, I’m late getting back to you. Staying at a friend’s tonight.”

That was it. And Mom and Dad’s reply was:

“Yeah, figured. Have fun out there.”

And hit send.

Something’s wrong. Something is definitely wrong. First, why did onii-chan take this long to message us?

Onii-chan cares about his family. He’s kind to Mom and Dad, of course, and also to me, his little sister.

A brother like that wouldn’t be this late. Something is off.

And, strangely, he didn’t say when he’ll be back.

Onii-chan is actually pretty responsible. Well, he’s also kind of a doofus in his own way… but he’d say things like that properly.

And besides… it kind of feels like… um…

I sense a woman.

Strongly. My intuition is telling me so. I can’t shake it.

Sure, onii-chan is kind of a dummy, but he’s manly, and he’s kind, and he’s funny, and his looks? He’s so handsome, like seriously, completely handsome, and yet when he smiles his face goes all childlike and innocent, in this way that just tickles a girl’s maternal instincts, but but but when his face turns serious it’s cool and sexy and so grown-up, the kind of presence that makes a girl feel like she could lean on him, and his voice has all this sex appeal too, you know! When he laughs or when he speaks all calm-like, you just go, “ahh, I love him.” His voice matches that sweet face of his absolutely perfectly, and with a face and a voice like that, there isn’t a woman on earth who could resist falling for him, no wait, I don’t want them to fall for him. Still, if he ever called me “cute,” I would absolutely-absolutely-absolutely-absolutely fall in love.

And every woman who falls for him would absolutely want to keep him all to herself.

Right? Of course they would.

I want to, too.

Maybe onii-chan really has been caught by some woman somewhere. No, I’m sure of it.

So at 2 AM, once I made sure Mom and Dad were sound asleep, I slipped out of the house to look for onii-chan.

For the next eight hours, I searched. I asked people. And eventually, I got a tip.

Apparently, on Friday evening, a woman in a business suit was seen driving off with what appeared to be a high school boy in her car. The boy, the witness said, was hanging limp on her back as she carried him in.

That’s onii-chan. No question. She kidnapped him. Definitely.

That text wasn’t from onii-chan either. The woman sent it herself.

Unforgivable. Absolutely unforgivable.

Apparently, the car was a pale-blue kei car. And no one saw her face.

I’ll find her. I’ll absolutely find onii-chan. Hang in there, onii-chan! I’m coming for you! And then…

I’ll lock you up and keep you safe from danger, okay? ♡

“Eep.”

“Hm? Something wrong, Nariki-kun?”

“Ah, no, I just got a little shiver…”

“What?! A cold?! Quick, the thermometer—”

“No, no! It’s not that bad, seriously!”

“Oh… okay then…”

‘Sup. Nariki Kinjiro here, the guy who just shivered for no reason.

I’m wearing a collar, the leash is in Tamiya-sensei’s hand, and we’re sitting on the couch watching the Bruised Bride anime. Wait, this thing has an anime? Didn’t know.

“Tsuchinosuke…”

“What is it, Surimi…”

“You’d better… take responsibility!”

“Heh heh heh, it’s pretty good, this Bruised Bride anime.”

She said, eyes still on the screen.

“Sensei, so you knew about it this whole time… Bruised Bride…”

“Yeah, you watch it, so I started watching it too. We’re kind of like a couple, aren’t we?”

“Huh? In what universe are we a coup—”

“Did you say something?”

Tamiya-sensei pulled out a stun gun with her free hand.

“N-n-nothing! Nothing at all~ Ha ha ha…”

Yikes, this teacher is genuinely terrifying. She’s a whole level past Yamamoto Akimi.

No, like, for real.

Chapter 12: Wait, am I seriously not getting out of this house? Is nobody coming to save me? Wait…

Yo~ It’s me, Nariki Kinjiro~!

Still going strong in captivity~!

Yep. For real, captive. Mhm.

So, uh, right now I’m in the bedroom by myself, and there is no escaping this place.

Like, why doesn’t this room have a window?! Bedrooms have windows!

This is apparently Tamiya-sensei’s bedroom, so… how the hell does she wake up in the morning?

Like, waking up to morning sunlight, that’s the whole point of being alive! That’s the human way of life!!! How does she even wake up?

Oh, there’s an alarm clock by the pillow. Right, that’s how she wakes up. Wait, isn’t that how most people wake up? Yeah, that’s basically how everyone does it. I wake up that way, too. The hell am I even saying?

It’s noon. Tamiya-sensei’s downstairs making lunch, but other than meals and bathroom breaks, that woman absolutely will not let me out of this room.

And at lunch she’s glued to my side the whole time, and at bathroom breaks…

“Nariki-kun, I’m coming into the bathroom with you.”

“Sensei, please don’t… that’s bad on so many levels…”

“Huh? But what if someone kidnaps you while you’re in the bathroom?”

“Not happening! One hundred percent not happening! How do you even kidnap someone out of a bathroom?! And the one who kidnapped me was you, lady!”

That’s the kind of thing I’m dealing with. Like, kidnapped in the bathroom? What does that even mean? A kidnapper crawling up out of the septic tank? That’s a horror movie. Actually, that’s totally a horror movie that probably exists somewhere. I kinda want to watch it.

Oh, by the way, the bathroom didn’t have a window either. And while I was, you know, going, Tamiya-sensei stood right outside the door.

Ding-dong.

So while I was thinking those dumbass thoughts, the doorbell rang.

“Coming~ One sec~”

I heard Sensei’s voice, and then…

BA-BOOOOOM!!!!

…also an explosion.

Hah?! An explosion?!

Heavy footsteps came thundering up the stairs, and the bedroom door flew open.

“Nariki-kun, we’ve got hostiles. We’re leaving the house, now.”

“Wait, what? Hostiles?”

“Yes. We need to get out of here right—”

KA-BLAAAAM!!!!

The bedroom wall suddenly exploded and blew clean off.

“Wha?! Huh?! Ehhhh?!”

“Tch.”

Tamiya-sensei looked outside through the now wide-open view. Well, through the spot where the wall used to be before it got blown to bits.

And then she jumped right out of it! For the record, we’re on the second floor! Gutsy lady, that teacher!

I was curious about what was going on, too, so I jumped out after her.

“Are you the woman who kidnapped my onii-chan?”

“No, I’m the woman who took him into protective custody.”

Sensei spat out that lie like it was nothing, and my little sister, Nariki Kiriko, was glaring daggers at her. While holding a rocket launcher.

“Wait, Kiriko?”

“Onii-chan! I knew you’d be here!”

Kiriko said, beaming, rocket launcher still in hand.

“Nariki-kun, who’s that girl?”

“That’s my little sister, Kiriko.”

“Onii-chan, who’s that woman?”

“She’s a teacher from my school. Tamiya-sensei.”

“Hmmm…” “Hmmm…”

They both said it at the same time, glaring at each other.

“Onii-chan, you’ve got handcuffs on.”

“Y-yeah… ’cause I’m being held captive…”

Oh yeah, forgot to mention. After leaving the bathroom, I tried to shove past Tamiya-sensei and bolt for the front door, but she caught me in like two seconds flat and slapped these handcuffs on me. And I cannot, for the life of me, snap them off. These cuffs? No joke.

“Wrong. I’m just keeping him safe.”

“Tamiya-sensei, you literally cannot sell that one anymore.”

“…locked up… locked up… locked up…”

Kiriko was acting weird. She’s normally sweet and on the quiet side, the kind of girl who definitely would not be carrying a rocket launcher around…

“…unforgivable… unforgivable…”

Yeah… this. This is one of those situations. Bad situation. This was the situation with Taeko and Uchida, too, wasn’t it?

“How dare you lock up onii-chan…”

“Like I said…”

Oh crap. Crap, crap, I gotta stop this. These two are about to kill each other.

“Unforgivable!!!!!!“

“I said it’s not kidnapping!!!!!!“

Kiriko tossed the rocket launcher aside and drew a survival knife. Tamiya-sensei pulled out her stun gun. And they charged at each other.

By then, it was already too late to stop them.

Sigh. Oka-P, man. Why is everyone around me like this? Help me out here, Oka-P!!!