"Nuo." Asakura said, throwing out the last card in his hand under Hinata's astonished gaze: "That's five consecutive victories."
"Onii-chan, you're too petty! Do you have to go all out against a kid like me?"
Gokou Hinata protested aggrievedly.
She felt like she was playing Yu-Gi-Oh with Asakura, but the kind of "prison" where only Asakura could play alone.
"Who told you to start by provoking me with that strange tone?" Asakura shuffled the cards with ease, saying with a fake smile: "To think you were so arrogant earlier, saying things like 'small fry', I have to set you right!"
Beside them, Gokou Tamaki seemed to find it very interesting to see her older sister suffer and started giggling.
"Darn it, I don't believe I can't win even once against Onii-chan! Again!"
Gokou Hinata said unwillingly: "This time, I'll deal the cards!"
Asakura put down the cards in his hand and made a "Please" gesture.
"Tamaki wants to play too~" Gokou Tamaki had probably understood the rules from watching, and said happily.
"OK! Tamaki, come help me fight against the Greater Demon King Onii-chan together!"
Hinata said happily.
"No, I want to help onii-chan defeat Hinata-nee."
"Why?!"
On the other side of the room, Gokou Ruri took in the interaction between Asakura and the two noisy little ones.
The girl lowered her head slightly, a smile playing at the corners of her mouth, her eyes full of tenderness, yet the needlework in her hands did not pause in the slightest.
The afternoon sunlight poured into the room from the floor-to-ceiling windows of the balcony, bathing the interior in a warm, melting hue.
The air seemed to be baked through, every breath filled with the fluffy warm scent of sunlight embracing cotton fibers, the dryness of the tatami, and an occasional hint of refreshing camphor—this was the most reassuring scent fermented from ordinary life.
Asakura also enjoyed this atmosphere very much.
So he happily played the last card in his hand, once again "exploding" the two little ones of the Gokou family.
"Ugh, why can't I win..." Gokou Hinata lay on the table, something like a mochi-shaped soul seemed to float out of her mouth.
As for Gokou Tamaki, who wasn't so obsessed with winning or losing, she just giggled happily.
Looking at Hinata's tragic appearance, Asakura also began to calculate in his heart that it was about time to let her win a round.
"Darn it, at this point, I can only use Ruri-nee's 'Seduction (Harmonized) Technique'!" Gokou Hinata quickly cheered up again, her face wearing that cute expression of a child pretending to be an adult, speaking in a very death-seeking way.
"Hinata."
Gokou Ruri, who had already finished all the parts that needed modification, had at some point brought out an iron and an ironing board, presumably about to smooth out some unsightly wrinkles on the formal dress: "Seiza."
"Eh? But..." The little fellow seemed to want to argue further.
But Gokou Ruri had already pressed a certain button on the iron with a fake smile, and the iron let out a "hissing" sound as it sprayed a powerful jet of steam: "Seiza."
"Yes."
Overwhelmed by her eldest sister's majesty, Gokou Hinata knelt tremblingly on the tatami, and desperately signaled Asakura with her eyes, wanting him to save her.
Deterred by Gokou Ruri's aura, Asakura could only silently turn away, taking out a deck of poker cards from his pocket and pretending to seriously teach Gokou Tamaki how to play.
'Onii-chan, you traitor—!'
Although Hinata didn't say anything, the little fellow's indignant eyes seemed to be crying out like this.
☆
"Ugh, my legs are numb..."
When Gokou Ruri finally finished ironing the formal dress and took the iron back to the storage room, the finally liberated Gokou Hinata sniffled and glared at Asakura with fierce eyes: "Onii-chan, you didn't even come to save me!"
"At a time like that, even if I went in, it would just be one more person kneeling." Asakura said with great conviction.
"...Onii-chan, if you get married in the future, you'll definitely be henpecked." The little fellow looked at him sideways.
"There's no such thing, don't look down on my masculinity." Asakura seriously defended his dignity.
"That kind of thing, I haven't seen it from the start." Hinata rolled her eyes cutely.
"Because that's not for our own people, I only strike out heavily against things I dislike."
"If my knees weren't still hurting, Onii-chan, those words would actually be quite touching."
"Should I rub some medicine on you?"
"What medicine? Iodine? Hydrogen peroxide?"
"White Flower Oil."
"Something I've never heard of before?!"
While Asakura and Hinata were whispering there, Tamaki also squeezed between the two: "Tamaki wants to chat too!"
Asakura and Hinata very tacitly rubbed the little fellow's head together, and the latter squinted her eyes with an expression of happiness, looking very much enjoying this "head pat" action.
At this moment, the door to the room was pulled open.
Gokou Hinata knelt on the tatami with a "thud" almost as a conditioned reflex.
Appearing at the door was Gokou Ruri, who had changed into her formal dress.
The dark-toned princess dress wrapped around the girl's slender figure, making her skin, which was already whiter than most, look as dazzling as snow-white jade, like the color scheme of a cosmos. The layers of lotus leaf edges and the lace tassels embellished with a small amount of detail gave an overall impression of mystery without losing high elegance, further setting off the girl as stunning as Kaguya-hime from the Tale of the Bamboo Cutter.
"How is it?" A faint pink appeared on the girl's face. It could be heard that she was trying hard to maintain her usual calm voice, but even so, Asakura could still hear a bit of shyness.
"Sister, super beautiful!"
Gokou Tamaki's eyes sparkled, and her small face was full of yearning as she shouted: "Just like a princess!"
By the way, the title "Sister-sama" seemed to be a way of calling that Gokou Ruri had instilled into Tamaki while she was obsessed with a certain new anime. Although she hadn't called her that much recently, it would still pop up occasionally.
"Ruri-chan... you've grown up." Gokou Hinata wiped non-existent tears from the corner of her eyes in a mock-serious manner.
Gokou Ruri's face turned dark, and she was about to go and teach this sister who never learned her lesson a lesson, but Asakura desperately stopped her.
"Ruri, forget it, forget it..."
Seeing that it was almost time to leave, Asakura called the Ford old-timer car to the door while the two little ones weren't paying attention, and prepared to head out with Ruri.
It's worth mentioning that Asakura's clothes had long been prepared and were currently in the car. He planned to change when they reached the outside of the hotel. After all, unlike the princess dress Ruri was wearing, it's very convenient to put on a man's suit.
"Ruri-chan, good luck!"
The moment before the door closed, Hinata suddenly shouted loudly.
Then, before the other party could react, she slammed the door shut with a "bang..." shutting Gokou Ruri—who had a look of astonishment on her face and was about to vent her embarrassment and anger—inside the door.