Slowly opening her eyes, Shiika looked up at me with hooded eyes.
“Myan… Arrangement…? Pre-bedtime?”
“It’s fine. Just get up. Walk to the bathroom by yourself, please.”
“…” Thunk.
“No, don’t fall back asleep! Agh, whatever. Stay half-asleep. Just come here… Gah!”
Grunting in desperation, I removed the headphones from Shiika’s head, put one of her arms over my shoulders, and dragged her to her feet.
Good thing I work out every day. The young men who aspire to live with their sisters don’t anticipate how much physical strength it can take to care for one.
I dragged her weak, heavy body to the bathroom and propped it in front of the mirror.
I put some toothpaste on her toothbrush and stuck it in Shiika’s little mouth.
“Glop… Gurgle…”
“Don’t resist, now. Yes, yes, right into the corners. Look. Scrub-a-dub-dub.”
“Shcrub-a-dub-dub. Schrub…”
“You don’t need to say it, too. Just keep quiet.”
I adjusted Shiika’s face, preventing the white foam at the corners of her mouth from spilling onto her clothes.
“Yes, open your mouth wide. Have to properly brush the back teeth, too.”
“Ahhh… Chomp, chomp.”
“Don’t move!”
“Foamy sounds…yellow… So fun…”
She obeyed me meekly, despite being half-asleep. Muscle memory.
Such a hopeless little sister… But terribly cute.
That’s how I feel, but I have to say, I think things are a lot better than they were before this April.
Shiika’s terrible everyday habits are the same, but when she goes out, she does care at least somewhat about her appearance (even though it’s always me and Akiba getting her ready), and she’s able to go to bed before midnight now. Those are big changes.
Of course, Shiika’s improved lifestyle wasn’t due to her own will, but thanks to the new school environment. Instead of relying on me so much, she’s now totally independent… Or at least, the first step toward it. But that’s good enough for her.
Because she’s not an ordinary person like you or me. She’s a genius.
Some say that people should develop their strengths rather than fix their weaknesses—I feel the same way.
And Shiika has a special talent.
She has synesthesia, which means she perceives sounds as colors. She can see colors in sounds and view paintings within songs.
She can perceive subtle differences in sounds that others can’t hear and can express them with her own singing.
Because of this, even within the Music Department of Ryouran High School, she’s beginning to carve out a reputation for herself as a genius.
If you have an overwhelming strength, you can turn a blind eye to any weaknesses.
Shiika was fine just being Shiika. If she lacked anything, I could make up for it with my role as her manager and support staff.
While I was thinking about that, I helped Shiika rinse her mouth and wiped her face with a towel. That was when I felt something vibrating against my leg. It was my phone in my pants pocket.
“Hmm, a message?”
I wiped Shiika’s face roughly with one hand and looked at my phone with the other. A new message in the Shibuya Gang group chat.
The group chat was composed of five people who became friends after a dispute during the midterm exam and decided to work together: me, Shiika, Mana Akihabara, Erio Shibuya, and Nokia Komae.
The name of our group, which up until a little while ago was Ryouran High Music Department (working title), had been changed to Shibuya Gang, in honor of Erio, who had the biggest numbers of us all.
And the sender was the Erio Shibuya in question.
“What does she want, at this hour? Tch, what a bad student.”
But my complaining had no bite to it. I was really just teasing as I skimmed Shibuya’s message.
“…Huh?”
Unable to believe my eyes, I stiffened.
“Mmm. Gak, what’s wrong?”
“…”
Half-awake, Shiika turned and looked up at me as I stood there, frozen, staring at my screen.
“HAVE YOU SEEN THE SCHOOL PORTAL SITE? ISN’T IT CRAZY?”
A very short sentence from Erio Shibuya and a copied-and-pasted URL.
I clicked the link, and it went straight to the portal site, a home page accessible only to students of Ryouran High.
“FOR THE FINAL MUSIC DEPARTMENT EXAM, ONE IS REQUIRED TO POST A DANCE VIDEO.”
Dance.
Those five letters were deadly enough to knock me to the very brink of despair.
People have inherent strengths and weaknesses.
Shiika has demonstrated outstanding talent in singing, writing lyrics, and composing music, and she worked on her appearance to meet the bare minimum requirements, but at her core, she’s a shut-in weirdo.
And her coordination is, as ever…appalling. A little light muscle training, and she collapses from exhaustion.
Dance requires all sorts of abilities: stamina, nimbleness, flexibility, power, muscle, and cardio strength…
Clinging to a sliver of hope, I looked at Shiika.
“Shiika, did you wake up one day and, without me realizing, master the art of dance?”
“Um, no.”
“I thought not…”
And I knew that already.
Ever since we entered Ryouran High School in April, I’ve been by her side at all times, as her older brother and her manager. I haven’t seen her learning any new techniques, and even when we take our regular walks and do some light muscle training on the weekends to stave off inactivity, she never seems to improve much.
“After we passed the midterm exam, and now that your view counts and popularity have stabilized, I thought things were going well, but…”
I clutched my head, writhing.
Pretentious adults claim that since humans have inherent strengths and weaknesses, we should develop our strengths rather than try to fix our weaknesses.
I’d like to have those irresponsible people answer this one question:
If you can’t escape from facing your weaknesses, what should you do?
But it’s not like I was expecting anyone to answer.
Darn it. This IS bad.