Nidome no Yuusha

If it’s true, I’d very much like to take counseling with her together.

Her apparent excessive dependency on me probably have something to do with it.

「…… That’s not true, you’re a pretty cute sister」

When I see my sister like a wine glass put on a thin needle, I hesitated a little and then I answered thus.

However, setting that aside, the point right now is not the appearance of the younger sister whose beauty is as astonishing as ever, but the state of a younger sister who just came out of the same bath as me.

By the way, since we are an ordinary house, we do not have two baths.

「But, Mai, today’s definitely out, it’s out! 」 (TLN: Reference to baseball, in a different context it simply means “out of the question, inconceivable, intolerable…)

「Out? What do you mean?」

「Our bath is not mixed bathing!　Don’t just go in nonchalantly! 」

That’s right, the first time, she stormed into the bath wearing a one-piece swimsuit.

Her pretext being, 『If you do something unusual that you have never done until now, it might stimulate your memory』 was what she asserts, 『As long as dear brother is not a deviant who would devour his younger sister, there should be no problem?』, as she smiled and have her way.

However, now that I think about it, I should have rejected it at the time with a resolute attitude.

Ever since the day I allowed it, she’s intruded upon me in the bath every day, and every few days she’s been in a bikini, a swimsuit with a separator, and today she’s rolled up in a big towel.

There is no longer any room for hesitation, there should be a limit.

「We used to go in together without any clothes in the past. We’re brothers and sisters, so there’s no problem」

「Oh, but there is a problem dear sister!　Where on earth did your shyness go? 」

「Is it, not okay?」

「No it’s not!!」

In a gesture that calculated and forecasts how my actions look like, it strongly asserts that this can’t go on anymore from the way Mai sadly cast her eyes down.

「Phew, it can’t be helped, I don’t want to be scolded any more than this, so Mai will go to bed now」

「Eh? Oh, hey wait, don’t run away! 」

It was a very dignified escape proclamation, that for a moment there, I was flabbergasted.

I tried reaching out in a hurry to grab her hand, but Mai dodges it skillfully.

「I am not running away, there’s a date to go to the movies with me tomorrow, so I am going to bed early so as not to oversleep. Well then, good night, dear brother」

She makes the declaration as if suppressing the opinion, and swiftly exits the room.

「……Aaaaaaaaahhh」

In the quiet room, I Sighed Out Loud.

Feeling overwhelmed by a strange feeling exhaustion, I threw myself down on the oblong sofa.

It’s been two weeks since the day I saw the inside of the drawer in Mai’s room.

I have been unable to ask what that blackened dry bloodstained knife was.

I decided to act as if I didn’t see all of it, and it’s taking everything I have to keep Mai from noticing.

While I thought that it was not something that could be left unattended, if I asked about that knife in the current state of Mai, I felt like the normal daily life that is returning back to me would be broken to such an extent beyond repair this time.

Then, while watching and doing nothing, Mai went down the slope little by little.

While some little cog-wheel were dropping from my heart.

(Damn, I’m so pathetic, I can’t even support my one and only sister properly……)

「Dad, Mom, what should I do?」

I ask the portrait photographs of father and mother that were decorated on the Buddhist altar.

It was only after they were gone that I understood, how much our parents had supported us.

The responsibility is to heavy for me alone that, I don’t even know what to do.

I hesitate, and hesitate, and hesitate, and just end up doing nothing.

At that time, the house phone rang.

「…… Hello」

「『Oh, pardon me for the late night call. I’m Onishi from the Iizuka station, am I speaking with Ukei Kaito-san?』」

The call was from the police.

When I reply that it is him, the young detective who became acquaintance, his tone became a little friendly.