Her expression and tone were as blasé as ever, but there were subtle hints of anxiety that Yukinari was able to discern.
It would have been a lie to say he didn’t see Dasa as a member of the opposite sex. It was the same with Berta. Even Ulrike—when he had seen her at her “morning exercises,” buck naked, he had felt a certain sexual stirring. He was an angel now, but if he wanted to, he could probably have sexual intercourse just like when he’d been human. But...
“Arrgh,” he groaned.
Berta wasn’t finished yet. “I’m the shrine maiden who’s been offered to you, so I want to help you in any way I can. If I can change myself to suit your tastes better, I will.”
“Look, it’s like I said before, it’s not your duty to—”
“This isn’t about duty!” Berta said hotly—before turning red again and looking at the ground.
He had never known Berta to be so forward. Something had changed within her. Now that Yukinari thought about it, he realized how long it had been since the two of them had talked face-to-face like this, what with Berta living at the Schillings mansion to look after Angela ever since the last battle. Maybe the key lay somewhere in that fight.
What am I gonna do?
Quite apart from his instinctual physical desires, Yukinari cared deeply for all the women in front of him. But was that reason enough to make love to them?
What the heck... is going on here...?
Despite the question he asked himself, Yukinari had a fairly good idea of the truth of things. He had trouble picturing himself in that sort of relationship with Dasa or Berta, or for that matter Ulrike. It just didn’t seem real, somehow.
Who would do, then? One image floated up in his mind...
An outstretched hand. Inviting. Healing.
The hand belonged to Jirina, the first person he’d seen when he arrived in this world, and it belonged to the last person he’d seen in his previous one.
Big Sis...
Amano Hatsune. His older sister by blood.
Of course, carnal desire for one’s own sister was not something that was normally smiled upon. So who was he to criticize Ulrike if her ideas seemed a little off?
But at the moment immediately before his “transference,” immediately before the Amano household was engulfed in flames, it had been full of a strange atmosphere. One that made common sense madness, and madness common sense. The place somehow turned systems of value on their head, caused taboos to lose their force.
Common sense wouldn’t make them happy. Common sense held no salvation for them.
Yukinari, and Hatsune, too, had understood that all too clearly.
That was why they had spent their days in each other’s arms. That was why—
Suddenly, it came to Yukinari. The guilt. The sense that he had been wrong.
Hatsune was long dead now. If that was his punishment for allowing improper feelings between siblings... then how could he go on to be happy with someone else, as though he had simply forgotten what happened?
“Well, uh...” he said. “Honestly, I’ve just been so busy lately... I haven’t had time to think about it.”
So he forced a smile onto his face, at least for now.