I somehow managed to clear up Itsuka-kun’s misunderstanding after it had gone off in a weird direction.
When you ask whether the process went smoothly, though, I can’t exactly say it did.
"Me!? As if I’d ever go after Mana!?"
At Itsuka-kun’s words, I waved my hands and said there was no way that could be true.
That part should have been fine, but the problem was that Mana had to go and say something weird.
"Th-there’s no need to say it that strongly..."
That one line was enough to make Itsuka-kun’s face twist into something like a demon’s, and I had a hell of a time restraining him when he lunged at me.
It’s still amazing how people change so much when it involves their little sister.
"Itsuka-kun, have you calmed down now?"
"I’ve calmed down, so could you please stop playing that video...?"
The video I was currently playing to calm Itsuka-kun down was a kind of compilation of the times he had gone on the offensive toward other girls while he was rampaging.
It was an enormous piece of black history, and for Itsuka-kun specifically, it was my strongest weapon with an almost perfect matchup.
"Like I said, I told you. I’ve never gone after Mana."
"...I get it, so please stop playing it!"
"Oh? Did you just raise your voice?"
"Please..."
In the end, Itsuka-kun surrendered to his own past and wore a pained expression.
At this point, he probably had enough regret, so I stopped the video and patted his shoulder.
"It’s all right. After all, everyone goes through puberty in life."
"...Are you really the one who should be saying that?"
When he pointed out whether it was really right for the person who had played the video to be comforting him, I shrugged, and Itsuka-kun’s expression rotted in real time.
Huh? Why is he making that face?
So I put my hand back on the play button, and he immediately broke into a smile that looked extremely pathetic.
"Anyway, why were Mana and the commander here?"
"You’re asking that awfully late."
At my question, the commander crossed her arms and said,
"Mana’s body has a lot of problems because DEM forcibly enhanced it. So she needs treatment, but..."
"That’s why Kotori keeps trying to make me get examined! Even when I tell her I’m fine, she still keeps trying to stop me from going out! Mana wants to be useful too!"
I roughly understood what was going on.
The commander had been holding onto Mana’s clothes so she could examine her and treat her body, and Mana had apparently been struggling to get away, which left her clothes half-stripped.
And then I had walked in at exactly that moment.
In every possible way, the timing had been terrible.
"Then get examined! I’ll thoroughly check every place you don’t even know about!"
Saying that, the commander grabbed Mana by the shoulder and shoved her flat onto the examination table.
"Big brother! Hii-san! Help me!!!"
Of course, the trapped Mana called for our help, but if we helped here, the fallout might end up splashing onto us.
"Itsuka-kun, shall we go?"
"Let’s."
Ignoring Mana’s cries for rescue, we left the examination room.
"Don’t go!!!"
I thought I could hear a voice behind us, sounding like Mana was in despair at our betrayal, but let’s just move on.
"By the way, Hieta. Why did you come here?"
After leaving the second examination room and getting into the elevator, Itsuka-kun asked me with a puzzled look.
Come to think of it, I had never told him why I had come.
Before I could even explain, we had to clear up the misunderstanding that had already happened, so when would I have had the chance to talk?
"Well, nothing special. I just heard that Itsuka-kun’s examination was over, so I thought I’d check on your condition and, while I was at it, ask about your hobbies."
"Hobbies?"
"Yes. I was thinking you might want to try something besides cooking and games."
"Hmm, if you call it a hobby, cooking is really the only one I have, so I’m probably not much help."
Itsuka-kun said that with an apologetic look.
The fact that he was apologizing over something that wasn’t even his fault showed just how kind he was.
To put it nicely, he was kind. To put it badly, he was a pushover, and I just hoped he wouldn’t get scammed later on.
"By the way, where are you going, Itsuka-kun?"
After getting off the elevator and leaving the building, I followed Itsuka-kun as he headed somewhere and asked where we were going.
But the answer I got was shocking.
"Huh? I was following you."
"Huh?"
"Huh?"
It was a bizarre situation where we had been following each other.
We had just been walking aimlessly without deciding on any destination, which sounded absurd, but it was the sort of thing that sometimes happened when you wandered around without thinking too hard, so I could accept it.
Though I didn’t know if that still applied when there were two people involved.
"Ugh..."
As I was swallowing a dry laugh at the absurdity of it all, I heard a human voice from somewhere.
The sound came from the alley to our left.
Both Itsuka-kun and I turned our eyes toward the alley at the same time.
"Itsuka-kun, just now..."
"I heard it. That was a human voice, right?"
So it hadn’t just been me.
Once we realized it really had been a human voice, we immediately went into the alley to find the owner of the voice.
What we found was one person lying on the ground.
They were facedown, so we could only see the back of their head and couldn’t tell whether they were male or female, but it was obvious they needed help.
"H-hey?"
"Are you okay!?"
I hurried over to the collapsed person, turned their body over, and shook them awake in a panic.
If they had lost consciousness, that would have been bad, so I held my breath and waited for their mouth to move... .
"Huu...ng..."
Fortunately, they didn’t seem to have passed out, because although their eyes were closed, their lips moved.
"Y-yes?"
"Hun...gry..."
Grrr...
I hadn’t expected the answer to be that they were hungry.
*******
Itsuka-kun and I rescued the collapsed person, did some shopping, and were now on our way to the person’s house.
Of course, they said they were so hungry they didn’t even have the strength to walk, so I was carrying the woman on my back while Itsuka-kun carried the shopping bags.
"Sorry, boys."
"There’s no need to apologize, but are you really all right?"
"I’m fine, I’m fine. It’s not like anything hurts or anything."
I did wonder whether someone who had gone without food for several days could really be fine, but seeing how Murasame-san also barely slept and still functioned perfectly well made me think her words were probably true.
The people in this world are weird in a very particular way.
"More importantly, you don’t have to use polite speech. I hate stiff atmospheres."
"It’s just stuck to my tongue, that’s all."
"Ehh... That’s way too stiff."
The woman complained that my polite speech was bothering her.
Still, it couldn’t be helped. Polite speech had stuck to my tongue, so unless there was some special reason not to, it had become my default setting.
"Hahaha, but is it really okay to let total strangers like us into your place?"
At Itsuka-kun’s worried question from beside me as he carried the shopping bags, the woman replied with her head resting on my shoulder.
"Does it really matter? If you’re willing to help a woman who collapsed in the street, you probably aren’t bad people."
"What if we had rescued you with bad intentions...?"
"If you boys were that kind of people, you wouldn’t have asked that question just now~"
It was oddly accurate, so I couldn’t argue.
"By the way, you know~"
Ah, here we go again.
"I’ve been pressing against you as my minimum reward this whole time, and you haven’t reacted at all. Should I poke your butt instead?"
This person had been pressing her breasts against my back the whole time.
I could guess what kind of reaction she wanted, but... .
"Could you stop talking nonsense? Is that really something you say to someone you just met?"
Having already gone through other experiences, it was hard for me to show the reaction the woman wanted.
How should I put it? After spending time around women, I’d strangely built up some resistance.
Come to think of it, compared to when I first came to this world, I really had changed a lot.
"Ah, wait, are you one of those huge-breast purists? The kind who won’t count anything under 80 centimeters as a real chest? Sorry~ but that’s not something I can control."
What on earth was wrong with this woman’s sense of morality that she could just say things like that to someone she had just met?
Besides, if I were that kind of person, I wouldn’t have suffered a shock death back when I saw Yoshino-chan in a swimsuit.
"Please ask the blue-haired boy next to you about that. I can’t answer it carelessly."
"W-what!?"
"Ah~ passing the buck, huh~ Fine, then what about you, boy?"
"Like hell I am!"
Oh, he’s shouting at someone he just met.
Itsuka-kun was pretty bold too.
Well, considering the mental state of the person asking was deeply concerning to begin with, I couldn’t exactly say Itsuka-kun was wrong.
"Ah, this is the mansion."
After that strange conversation, the woman looked at a building and announced that it was her destination.
"...Tall."
She lives in a building that tall?
*******
It really was a tall mansion where the woman lived.
Judging by the height, it looked incredibly expensive, so she must be pretty well off.
"Thanks, boys~"
As soon as we arrived, the woman sitting in a chair said that.
Since I hadn’t done it to get thanked, I gave an awkward smile and looked around, and when I saw several chairs and a desk covered with manuscript paper and pens, I could identify the woman’s profession.
"Are you a manga artist, by any chance?"
"That’s right~ I got so focused on work that I forgot to eat, you know? I went outside to head to a convenience store or something, but then I realized Earth’s gravity is pretty strong..."
This kind of person was a manga artist?
From the fact that she lived in a place like this, it was obvious her manga sold incredibly well, and once again I was reminded that people who are good at something always seem to have one screw loose.
"...Huh? This, could it be...?"
"Itsuka-kun? Don’t just grab other people’s stuff like tha—"
"Silver Bullet!?"
"What."
Just as I was about to warn Itsuka-kun for carelessly picking up someone else’s things, the name of a manga I knew very well burst out of his mouth.
What he was holding wasn’t a manga volume, but manuscript paper.
Then could it be that this person was... .
"Oh~ you know it well. Are you a reader? Thanks as always~"
"Wait a second, are you Honjo Soji...?"
"Yep, that’s right~"
That day, my world came crashing down.
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