Even when a game player added stuff to her schedule and made her busy as hell, Tsukiori obediently acted the way they wanted her to without a single complaint.
I never had the impression that she liked to sleep, but the background material might have said she could learn while she slept, and it was true that, for some reason, her ability values went up after getting some sleep.
“…Yeah.”
“Oh, hey!! Go to bed if you’re going to take a nap!”
She became horizontal and began to sleep peacefully in my lap.
Her beautiful chestnut-colored hair spread out and tickled my thighs and calves.
I was captivated and tried combing my fingers through her hair. It didn’t have a single split end, and it passed through my fingers smoothly without resistance, like a natural fiber that all of humankind would have wanted.
She stirred and buried her face in my stomach, her head moving as if digging a hole in my body like a hare nesting in its burrow.
I figured she must have been tired, since she’d lately been spending a lot of time in dungeons. She was going to have to make numerous heroines fall in love with her, so I thought I’d let her get some rest.
I smiled—and heard a knock on the door.
“Hey, Sakura, are you awake? Of course you are at this hour. I’m coming in.”
It was Lapis.
Panicked, I set out to lower Tsukiori’s head from my body—and the door opened—and I quickly activated my optical camouflage.
“It’s about time you got up—huh?! Have you been sleeping like that lately?! Do you have some bug in your body?!”
Because I’d made Tsukiori invisible while continuing to hold her head, she floated in the air and looked like she was sleeping acrobatically.
“What’s the matter, Lapis? It’s bad manners to shout like that. No matter how startled you may be, you should at least train yourself to maintain your composure—don’t you think?!”
Rei walked into the room and screamed.
“Do the Japanese like to work their bodies, even when they’re sleeping?! Isn’t that going overboard with the corporate animal mentality?! Is the concept of labor a national sport or something?!”
“U-um, no, it’s more like Sakura’s different here. Perhaps she’s a forerunner in extreme sports, pushing herself even while she sleeps. Maybe we can call it extreme sleep…?”
“Extreme sleep?!”
As Rei and Lapis went on screaming, I desperately continued to support Tsukiori’s body in the air.
Dang. If they saw me here, it would look as if Tsukiori brought me, a guy, into her room. I doubted if I could show myself at this point and settle things without causing a misunderstanding. It would be the end of my yuri dreams if they thought she and I were an item. I had to find a way to bluff my way out of the room!
I quickly lowered Tsukiori’s head to the floor when the two others looked away.
“Lapis, Sakura’s head seems to have remembered gravity. Maybe it was just an issue with the angle that made her look like she was in a strange position.”
“Oh, you’re right. Huh. I guess we were seeing things.”
I stuck to the wall as Lapis and Rei stepped farther into the room.
“Come on, Sakura, wake up. We’re going downstairs to have dinner, aren’t we?”
Lapis shook her, and Tsukiori lazily raised her upper body and stretched.
“…Huh? Where’s Hiiro?”
“My brother? We haven’t seen a shadow of him anywhere.”
“He was sneaking in here a moment ago… I guess I was dreaming.”
“O-oh, come now. Hiiro wouldn’t do that. He’s nice. He’s the type who hates things like that.”
“Is that how you see him in your dreams, Lapis?”
Rei grinned.
“My brother is a man of action. I believe that if he had a partner whom he loved from the bottom of his heart, he would take her in his arms whether or not she complained. He’s come to my rescue many times, you know.”
“I know he’s a man of action. But isn’t he shy when it comes to relationships? H-he probably wouldn’t do anything unless the other person started it.”
Lapis blushed and cast down her eyes, and Tsukiori yawned.
“So, Lapis, you’re saying you’d take the initiative to seduce him, huh?”
“Wh-what? What are you talking about? I don’t understand what you’re saying. H-Hiiro and I are good rivals…nothing more and nothing less…I think.”
Lapis slowly turned red from her neck to her cheeks.
Standing next to her, Rei cleared her throat and clasped her hands tightly in front of her chest.
“I want to pay my brother back for all he’s done for me. I don’t know what these feelings I have for him mean…but it’s the first time I’ve felt this way about someone.”
Tsukiori, Rei, and Lapis continued talking about me.
Thirty minutes later, the girls were still talking about me. My hands were clamped over my mouth, my eyes wide open in despair, and my knees were shaking as they trembled.
Whoa…! Wasn’t I too popular among these girls…?
They were going on and on about how I saved them, what I did, what I liked, and so on. It was like an endless Ring Road game as they kept chatting away about Hiiro Sanjo.
My sense of doom grew stronger and stronger.
I looked up at the ceiling, struggling to hold back my sobs as tears flowed down my cheeks.
J-just how far…did I have to make them like me less…? Tell me, Yuri God…what was I supposed to do now…?
“Oh, hey, let’s go and eat now,” Tsukiori said, and hope finally returned to my face.
I was finally free—
“We’ll talk about him more at dinner.”
That sounded like a casual ad, where the advertiser said, Read the next installment online! My spirit—my dignity—was shredded to pieces.
“Shall we invite my brother to join us? For some reason, he never comes to dinner on these occasions, but I’m sure he’ll come if I, his beloved sister, plead.”
Rei fidgeted as she made the call—and a screen appeared before my eyes, with a ridiculously loud ringtone echoing through the room.
“…Huh?”
Lapis was beet red as she turned to the side, her movement stiff like a robot that needed oil. I gave up and appeared at the end of her gaze.
“…H-hi.”
Tears welled up in her eyes. Rei covered her blushing face with her hands, and Tsukiori yawned.
With a fake smile on my face, I walked past them and quietly made my way out of the room.
“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! I’m going to die!!”
“…How can I ever face my brother again?”
“So, I wasn’t dreaming. He’d sneaked into my room after all.”
I could hear the commotion in the room. I made myself invisible with my optical camouflage, forgot everything, and ran off to a yet unseen tomorrow.
After classes the next day, the air was fresh, and the sky was crystal clear.
Having donned a custom-made suit, I stood in front of a skyscraper-like high-rise building with Hizumi, who was wearing a disguise.
It was an all-glass office building that stood out from the surrounding buildings, which housed the Magic Association in its Conceptual Structure.
I loosened my tie in front of the huge building.
“Shall we go?”
“Let’s get to work.”
Hizumi whispered into her radio—and I stepped into the building where the genius magic handler, Chris Esse Eisbert, waited for us.