Asakura stepped down from the old Ford car with somewhat unsteady steps.
Sure enough, the decision made yesterday on a whim to undergo a genesis union with Asagumo was far too reckless; the moment that she pulled an unopened box of 0.01 out of her small satchel without any warning, he should have realized that he was actually the prey.
"Let me check the address..."
Ayase's birthday party was not being held at her home, but was instead arranged at a luxurious hotel near the outskirts of Chiba that occupied a quite astonishing amount of land.
Judging by the luxury cars surrounding the old Ford—which formed a stark contrast to it and looked highly expensive at a first glance—one could tell that the user base of this hotel belonged almost entirely to high society.
"Asakura-nii!"
Just as Asakura was carrying the gift (the complete BD set of Stardust Witch Meruru) and preparing to locate his destination by following the clues written on the slip of paper brought by the Golden Snitch, Ayase had already run over on her own initiative.
"Ayase?" Asakura was somewhat taken aback: "Why are you receiving guests outside? Isn't today your birthday?"
Having to be dispatched for work on one's own birthday was truly a bit too miserable.
"Because I figured Asakura-nii would be arriving around now, so I specifically ran out to wait."
With her hands clasped behind her back, the girl looked at Asakura with a playful smile: "Besides, I didn't ask too many people to attend the birthday party, so it doesn't really matter even if I wait for you outside."
"Is that so? Aside from me and Kirino-cha... that Kosaka Kirino, who else is coming?"
"No one else. It's just the two of you." The girl shook her head, her black long hair swaying continuously with her movements: "Although I initially did want to invite more classmates over to have fun—otherwise I wouldn't have reserved such a high-end hotel—I later felt that since we agreed to reconcile with Kirino this time, and Kirino's situation isn't quite suitable for others... especially friends at school, to know about, I only looked for you two in the end."
"Then rather than a birthday party, this feels more like a Trojan Horse."
"Don't worry, no matter what, Kirino was my best friend at our old school, so I certainly won't harm her."
"It's fine, I was never worried."
Asakura waved his hand.
In any case, he wasn't close with little Kirino either; his willingness to help out was mostly just out of respect for Ruri, who was on quite good terms with her.
"Though it's a bit strange for me to say this, are you really fine with it, Ayase? After all, you used to dislike otaku-oriented things so much..."
Asakura asked curiously.
"To be honest, if I said that my heart holds absolutely no hard feelings toward those things right now, that would definitely be a lie... but if even Asakura-nii thinks those things are fine, I will still work hard to make myself understand them..."
Ayase replied earnestly.
"It doesn't matter even if you can't understand them," Asakura shook his head, "there's no rule in this world stating that to be friends, you must absolutely understand and love the other person's hobbies."
"But I still want to give it a try... after all, if possible, I really want to be friends with Kirino... and Asakura-nii for a lifetime!"
"For a lifetime? I don't really mind, but won't that be a bit too heavy for that Kirino?"
Asakura asked with amusement.
Although the essence of his current life was still human, Asakura wouldn't believe it if someone said he could only possess the same lifespan as an ordinary person. Therefore, the girl's agreement for "a lifetime" was merely a fraction of life to him, and wasn't all that heavy to bear.
Wait, come to think of it, Ayase's vitality already seemed to be outside the normal range as well; could it be that she can live for a very long time too?
"Then we can only adapt to it slowly." The girl let out a sigh, looking seemingly a bit distressed as well.
After chatting for a little while in the private room reserved by the girl, Kirino finally arrived in a hurry.
However, unlike what was anticipated, the young girl did not come alone this time; behind her, she was also followed by a male youth with a background-character face.
"It's Kirino's older brother." Ayase whispered softly in Asakura's ear: "I saw him when I went to play at Kirino's house before."
"I know him too."
Asakura nodded with understanding: "We met before when attending an offline meetup."
It appeared that regarding today's meeting, Kirino's heart must still be completely filled with anxiety. Therefore, even though she looked no different from the past on the surface, she had specifically found her older brother to accompany her and boost her courage.
"Long time no see." The youth with the background-character face took the lead in greeting Asakura, "The weather is quite nice today..."
"Are you some kind of socially anxious person who absolutely cannot find any topic of conversation outside of a weather card deck?" Asakura complained.
"Then the only option left is to open with 'Have you eaten?' as a greeting." Kyousuke said distressfully, though his gaze looked a bit strange, as if he were trying to gauge the relationship between Asakura and Ayase.
Asakura, on the other hand, did not care about this attitude of his; after all, his own appearance was indeed quite suspicious—not only was he wearing an eyepatch, an exclusive piece of chuunibyou equipment, but his face also carried a sort of pale complexion from overindulgence...
"Kosaka-nii."
Ayase also nodded in acknowledgement to him, and only then looked toward her former best friend, Kirino.
"Kirino..."
"Ayase—listen to me..."
Originally, Asakura thought Ayase would be the first to break the ice in this relationship, since he could tell the girl truly cared deeply about her best friend. However, the one who gathered up her courage to speak first was actually Kirino.
Seeing this, Ayase, who had already been preparing to speak, said nothing. She simply watched Kirino quietly and intently.
"...As for me, I own a whole ton of those manga that you called filthy and disgusting, Ayase, and galgames that make you sick to your stomach. I absolutely love that stuff. I never get tired of watching anime with lots of cute girls in it, no matter how many times I watch, and just looking at the merchandise I've collected makes me feel incredibly happy. I really like this stuff, I can even say I love it. No matter what eyes other people look at me with, that is who I am."
Struggling to the point that even the observing Asakura felt it was a bit clumsy, Kirino poured her heart out to Ayase:
"So even though I know you're very worried about me, Ayase, I still won't give it up. I absolutely do not want to give up my hobbies, because I just really like them! The things I like are the things I like. If I give them up or lose them, I won't be me anymore..."
"Even if it means breaking off our friendship, you still think this stuff is more important than me?" Ayase asked calmly.
"How could that ever be possible!" Kirino shouted at the top of her lungs with all her might, drowning out what Ayase was about to say next. "I like you just as much as I like eroge! That sentence is absolutely not a lie! Why can't you just understand? If I could just choose one side, I wouldn't have been this troubled from the very beginning! My school friends and my otaku hobbies—both sides are incredibly important and incredibly precious to me. It's precisely because I can't give up either side that things turned into the situation they are today!"
"I don't accept that." Ayase said coldly.
"Ayase..." Kirino had a completely hurt expression on her face.
Seeing this, Kyousuke wanted to say something on behalf of his younger sister, but Asakura stopped him with a glance.
"...While I really wanted to say that, after Asakura-nii's guidance, I can probably understand your feelings a little bit now."
Ayase said softly, "When it came to that otaku stuff... I really was influenced by the outside world. I accepted those negative views, which are almost entirely stereotypes, completely without a second thought. I even took those bad names that other people forced onto otakus and used them to criticize you without doing any investigation of my own, and I said some really terrible things because of that... I admit all of that was my fault. I apologize to you, really—I am so sorry."
"Ayase..."
The expression on Kirino's face instantly went from cloudy to bright, and she suddenly began to beam.
"I really admired you, Kirino... When we went shopping together, when guys bothered us on the street, when there was something I didn't understand in our schoolwork, when I felt troubled because I wasn't used to modeling work, when performing at the cultural festival... No matter when it was, you would always help me... you would always be with me... I used to admire that kind of Kirino. But admiration really is the emotion furthest away from understanding..."
Ayase looked at her intently, "So let's interact on a more equal footing. I want to make up with you too, Kirino."
"Ayase!"
"Ah, right, eroge is still a no-go though. After all, it's R18, so it's just wrong from a legal standpoint."
"Uh..."
Kirino froze up entirely.
After all, this point was simply too much of a valid argument. Standing from a legal perspective, Ayase was completely unassailable. Kirino could only desperately wink at her older brother, seemingly wanting him to help save the situation.
"Let's not interfere in a heart-to-heart talk between girls, us guys."
Before Kyousuke could make any response, Asakura smiled and pulled him away first, "This hotel is quite interesting, you know. Their drinks menu has a lot of beverages you can't find anywhere else, like 300% concentrated peach juice, curry juice, canned-herring-flavored soda... it's quite creative."
"Rather than calling it creative, isn't it more like they've completely lost their way in terms of direction?! I mean, isn't this one of the top luxury hotels in Chiba? What on earth is up with a combination that sounds like peanut butter and squid tentacles?!"
For a moment, Kyousuke was so shocked by the hotel's unconventional drink options that he even forgot to bail out his younger sister, allowing himself to be dragged out of the room by Asakura just like that.
Only when they reached the hallway did he realize he had missed the opportunity to cover for his sister.
At the thought of how she would complain about him when they got home later, he couldn't help but let out a long sigh, "Sigh..."
"If you keep sighing, even your drinks will start to taste bad."
"Even if you say that..."
"Canned herring soda."
"That would definitely taste terrible even if I didn't sigh!"
"So, what is the trump card you prepared?" Asakura asked curiously.
"What trump card?"
Caught completely off guard by his sudden question, Kyousuke failed to keep a straight face, and he froze up quite unnaturally for a moment.
"The trump card to make your sister and Ayase make up."
The corners of Asakura's mouth curled up, "You definitely have one prepared. Can you tell me what it is?"
"Hmm... You're overthinking it. There's nothing like that."
Kyousuke played dumb, all the while looking for an opportunity to slip away.
However, Asakura's terrifying gaze, like that of a snake about to swallow its prey, made cold sweat break out on his forehead despite himself. Damn it! He only has one eye, so why does he look so fierce?!
Barely thirty seconds later, Kyousuke crumbled under the sheer intensity of Asakura's stare.
"Alright, fine... it's this."
He handed the women's shoulder bag he had been carrying over to Asakura.
"So, this wasn't something you were just holding for your sister after all..."
The moment he took the bag, Asakura noticed it had quite a bit of heft to it. He opened it up to take a look, only to discover that it was actually packed with several books.
"Japanese Mythology, The Odyssey, Osiris and Isis... Hmm? And also... a True Sister Massacre doujinshi?"
Asakura shifted his gaze from the slim little booklet—titled I Want to Do It With My Brother and Sister—up to Kyousuke's face. "...A siscon?"
"No, no, no! It's just that Kirino said all the eroge Ayase has ever caught her playing happened to be 'sister-themed' ones! So I came up with this method to explain things... Well, okay, I guess it's not really an 'explanation,' per se."
Resigning himself to his fate, Kyousuke threw caution to the wind and blurted out: "You know how Ayase is, she's such a straight-laced kid, right? So, the plan was to show her mythology books first... After all, plenty of myths across the world feature plots involving brothers and sisters doing that sort of thing. She couldn't possibly dismiss mythology, something that has become an integral part of human culture, as something 'indecent.' Once I've established that, all I have to do is try to prove that these myths and this"—he gave the booklet a little shake—"are essentially no different."
"And did it never cross your mind that you might just end up shooting yourself in the foot—and make her hate this stuff even more?" Asakura pressed on, his curiosity piqued.
"It's fine; all of this belongs to me."
"Oh?"
"Don't look at me like that! Tch... Alright, fine. Technically, all of this does belong to Kirino. But if I just claim it's mine, Ayase's animosity—which was originally directed at Kirino—will shift onto me instead, right? That way, the obstacle standing in the way of their reconciliation vanishes. In fact, in her efforts to protect Kirino from a 'depraved' older brother—the kind who buys sister themed doujinshi—Ayase's bond with her will likely only grow stronger."
"That's quite a resolve you've got there. But won't it bother you—letting such a misunderstanding persist?"
"Of course it will! Who in their right mind would want to be saddled with such a bizarre, baseless accusation?!" Kyousuke blurted out indignantly. Yet, almost immediately, he added—with a tone suggesting it was the most natural thing in the world: "But... taking the fall for your little sister... in a sense, I suppose that's just a natural duty of being an older brother... At least, that's how I see it."
"Oho."
"Why am I telling all this to someone I've only just met...? Anyway, I assume you don't have any more questions for me?"
"Hmm, your answer is unexpectedly good. Originally, I was planning that if you two siblings wanted to use a method like 'Ayase-chan, you wouldn't want X XX...', I would be more than happy to teach you a lesson."
Asakura nodded with satisfaction: "It seems that although Kirino's temper is a bit terrible, both of you siblings are pretty good individuals. This sets my mind at ease."
"At ease?" Kyousuke was taken aback.
"Don't worry about it," Asakura laughed heartily and patted his shoulder, "if I say too much, I'll have to treat you to roasted pig brains."
"What kind of dish is that? It sounds so experimental?!"