It’s Kuro. What’s there to worry about...? Herscherik tried to convince himself. He had been an infamous spy, after all. No matter how many times he reminded himself of that, though, Herscherik couldn’t help but worry. Despite being told to go to bed, Herscherik decided to stay up until Kuro’s return. He brought the blanket over from the bed since the room was still a little chilly, even with the fireplace lit. Don’t want to catch a cold. He curled up in the blanket on the sofa and stared into the flickering orange flames... which turned out to be to his detriment. Partially from the exhaustion of the trip, Herscherik began nodding off in a matter of minutes.
“Ryoko, you’ll catch a cold if you sleep at the kotatsu!”
Ryoko woke up from her dream, starting violently. Apparently, she had fallen asleep at the kotatsu at her parents’ house playing a video game. Her mother gave her head a light pat and left the room grumbling. Since Ryoko was there for her own birthday celebration, she wasn’t asked to help with anything. Even her mother, who often nagged her about this and that, left Ryoko to spend a lazy afternoon lounging about the house. Ryoko turned her portable video game console on from sleep mode. A character appeared on the screen—the hottie she was working on scoring in her dating sim.
“Hm-hm-hm...” A muffled, creepy laugh escaped her lips. Anyone would have given her the side eye if they’d heard.
This one’s a huge hit! Yes, oh, yes! Ryoko silently applauded the game, pulling up the stats of the game’s player-character. Alongside the stats, the screen showed her progress in winning over the object of her affection. Lately, many of the female-led dating sims consisted of simply choosing dialog options. Ryoko, a seasoned gamer, wasn’t too happy about that trend. I guess it works for people who just want to look at cute boys.
This new title, however, was perfectly challenging. The player chose from a selection of three potential female protagonists before improving their stats and growing closer to their target hottie. Some events didn’t trigger if the protagonist’s stats were lacking or if the player made the wrong choice. Some events triggered entirely by chance. To boot, the game provided a fruitful selection of twelve sexy men to choose and conquer. In addition to masterful artwork, the game boasted a diverse voice cast, from established industry stars to up-and-coming talent. With an incredible three possible endings per hottie, Ryoko couldn’t help but be impressed by the full potential of the developers. She could nearly hear the joyous cries of other gamers imagining the money and effort that had gone into the game’s creation. To top it all off, there was one love interest that only became available after conquering all twelve hotties and acquiring all the skills available in the game.
Lately, Ryoko had been playing this game nonstop, even cutting into her sleep schedule. Just as she was starting to enjoy her game and creepily chuckling, a voice and a sound came from the front door, though Ryoko was too deeply enthralled to realize.
“...That’s gross, Sis.” The middle sister of the family had peeked into the room from the hallway, looking down at her older sister at the kotatsu.
Ryoko looked up from her console screen. “Welcome home!”
“Aunt Ryoko!” Ryoko’s niece poked her head out from behind her mother.
“What’s up, kiddo?”
Ryoko’s brother-in-law appeared beside them and gave a little nod, at which Ryoko rushed to correct her posture and return a bow.
“We’re here for your birthday,” Ryoko’s sister remarked. “What are you being a walrus for?”
“Who’re you calling a walrus? Is it time, already?” Ryoko checked the clock on the wall to find that it was half past three. They had decided on an early dinner at four.
The front door could be heard opening again, with a voice saying, “I’m home!”
“Stop saying that every time you come over,” Ryoko’s mother responded. “You’re married now!”
Ryoko sussed out that the first voice belonged to their youngest sister.
“I’m home, Sis,” she said, turning the corner into the living room. “Ready to celebrate your descent into your forties?”
“Welcome home. Now shut up.” Ryoko gave a little snarl.
Her youngest sister laughed. While her husband seemed a little nervous behind her, a little back-and-forth like this was merely some sisterly bonding. Since the youngest sister had just married the year before last, Ryoko had not had a long relationship with her husband, who was only a year younger than Ryoko. Because of their considerable age difference, Ryoko’s youngest sister had hesitated a while before marrying her now-husband.
When her sister approached her with the topic, Ryoko had declared, “I don’t care if he’s the same age or even older than me. He will respect me as the oldest sister.” Her youngest sister looked dumbfounded. She must have felt silly to even worry about the age difference after that, as she’d gone ahead with the marriage in the blink of an eye.
“Won’t any of my daughters come help me?” her mother called from the kitchen. “And you better not make your husbands lift a finger!”
Everyone save for Ryoko moved to their places. Ryoko called her niece to the kotatsu. She climbed right under.
“So,” Ryoko started, “how’s it going between mommy and daddy?”
Her niece answered with silence, which Ryoko met with a chuckle. Despite having no children of her own, Ryoko had been asked for advice regarding this niece. She recalled how, when she was her niece’s age, she had followed her mother around like a puppy dog. The second sister of the family had already been born at the time, but Ryoko had been excited about her mother telling her to “take care of her younger sister.” Ryoko wondered if children nowadays reached their rebellious phase early, since they grew up faster.
“Mom gets mad all the time. Dad’s super annoying.”
“Oh, really?” Ryoko shrugged at her niece’s age-appropriate assessment. “Your mom only tells you to do things because she loves you. If she didn’t like you, she wouldn’t bother with it at all. And don’t you call your father annoying. Without him working hard, you won’t have food to eat, nice clothes to wear, or even be able to go to school. But you know all that already, don’t you?”
Her niece frowned. There would be no rebellious teens left in this world if all of them could control their emotions with logic. Ryoko called her over with a gesture and grasped the girl’s face with both hands. Ryoko met her niece eye to eye, keeping her from looking away. “Your mommy and daddy are human, too. They’ll have some bad days and things that bother them. So, sometimes they might be harsher to you than they should be.” No parent was perfect. In fact, parents grew with their children. Ryoko knew that her sister and her husband were figuring things out through their first experience of raising a child, so she tried to take every opportunity to assist in that area as much as she could. “So, I want you to help them a little bit. Promise your auntie that you won’t call your mom or dad annoying anymore. It makes me sad, too, when you do that.” Her niece tried in vain to escape Ryoko’s grasp and turn away. After a few moments, the girl relented and nodded. “Good girl. I’m a proud auntie!” Ryoko released her niece.
The girl muttered, “I wish you were my mom.”
“Now, now. The only reason I can be this way is because I’m your auntie. I have the special privilege to spoil my little niece as much as I want. But parents don’t have that same privilege. Parents have to raise their children right. If you were my daughter, I’d be so worried that I’d nag you with things every day.” Ryoko understood that she had no real responsibility. How her niece would turn out was entirely on the shoulder of her parents. She considered anything beyond spoiling her niece to be overstepping her boundaries, including the little talking-to she’d just given. Still, she couldn’t help but try if her words had a chance of affecting her niece in any capacity so her sister’s life would be easier at home. “Try asking your mom how I was when we were kids. I bet she’ll tell you that I was a nagging Nancy.”
Ryoko had always been the one to scold her sisters at every turn. While her parents had scolded their children too, Ryoko could imagine how annoying it must have been to have an older sister who would scold them for hours on end, repeating the same point over and over until she lost her train of thought and started crying. In fact, she couldn’t imagine anyone more annoying than her younger self. That was a time in her life she wished she could erase from history.
“I’m going to go to the bathroom,” Ryoko declared in embarrassment and left her niece at the kotatsu.
She turned into the hallway to find her two brothers-in-law hiding around the corner. They let out a chuckle as their eyes met Ryoko’s.
“I’m sorry about that,” her niece’s father apologized.
Ryoko shook her head. “You’re raising a child. I know it’s tough. You can talk to me about anything you want. She’s my niece, and you two are my brothers. You can always come to me.” She patted the shoulder of her niece’s father.
“My wife’s pregnant, too,” the husband of the youngest sister said. “We don’t know if it’s a boy or a girl, but, well... we’ll take you up on that.”
“Congratulations!” Ryoko cried. “Why are we bothering with a silly birthday party for me, then?” Ryoko clapped her hands.
Just as she was about to ask what to get them for the baby shower, a voice called out from the dining room. Dinner was ready. Ryoko’s niece turned off the kotatsu and came into the hallway. She made an awkward expression as she made eye contact with her father, but Ryoko patted the girls head and sent her along, and her brothers-in-law followed. When Ryoko finally walked into the room, her father was waiting for her, a bottle of wine in hand.