"Onee-chan is the worst! I don't like her anymore!"
In the room acting as a temporary cell, Lin Xuena—who looked like a model student after putting her glasses back on—was pacing frantically in circles. Facing Akiko's complaints, she was so anxious she couldn't get a single word out.
As the saying goes, a family shouldn't let a grudge last overnight, but there are some things you just shouldn't say, even in a fit of rage!
"That... um... Akiko, why don't we find some books to read?"
"Pfft! Xuena, your way of changing the subject is terrible! You should really take those glasses off~"
"I can't help it!"
Waving her small hands frantically and complaining loudly, Lin Xuena didn't want to look like a silly girl either, but she was severely nearsighted. Living without glasses was extremely inconvenient.
However, once she put them on and could see her surroundings clearly, she could also see people's faces—which automatically toggled her brain into "shy model student" mode.
"In any case, let's find something to distract us! I'm sure your sister didn't mean to be so mean!"
"Not true!"
At the mention of her sister, Busujima Akiko slumped into a corner in disappointment. She hugged her knees, curling herself into a small ball and burying her face deep into the crook of her arms.
She had originally thought they were kindred spirits, that her sister would surely empathize with her inner feelings. In the end, it was no different.
Granted, her sister had finally managed to escape only to be dragged back to Tokyo by her, so she likely had some emotions about that, too—but understanding and acceptance were two different things!
"She's just like those two who ruined our band. They're all selfish jerks who only care about themselves..."
"You can't say that!"
Lin Xuena lunged forward and pulled Akiko into a hug. She might be shy, but the fact that she could carry a piano group to the subway station on her own spoke volumes. While she might not be the brightest, she certainly wasn't lacking in strength!
Akiko only had time to widen her eyes before her mouth was covered, and the two of them tumbled across the floor. By the time Akiko regained her bearings, she found that Xuena had rolled them into a dark space.
Her hand brushed against the bedsheet tassels touching the floor. She felt lucky that a rich person's bed was high-quality; if she had hit a wooden bedframe unprepared, she probably would have cried from the pain!
"Mmph! Okay! I stop! I won't say it anymore!"
"Ev-Even though Onee-chan can be out of line sometimes, they surely have their own struggles..."
"Yes, yes~ you obedient little dummy."
As her eyes gradually adjusted to the darkness under the bed, Akiko tapped Xuena's nose helplessly by the faint light filtering through the sheets.
She knew Xuena's sister; she had been a top student since childhood. She heard she'd even joined the Student Council in college. Anyway, she was far better than Akiko's own sister.
"Anyway, this is someone else's house. Let's go out first..."
With a sigh, Akiko resigned herself to her fate. Comparison is the thief of joy, as they say. She adjusted her position, intending to crawl out from under the bed.
However, a movement in the corner of her eye caught her attention. She suddenly saw a stack of... magazines that she had knocked over?
Feeling guilty for messing up someone's private property, she reached out and pulled one from beneath her, flipping it over to clean it up. But as the magazine turned, a "pink holy light" full of corruptive energy instantly illuminated the space under the bed!
Their eyes instinctively locked onto a "large and white" area. Akiko and Lin Xuena's mouths hung open. Two seconds later, an astounding scream erupted from their throats—"Eeeeeeek!!!"
"Ah~ found you. Honestly, even if you're family friends, don't just go crawling under people's beds!"
Miyazawa Yuu had been wondering why there was noise in the room before he opened the door, only for two living human beings to vanish the moment it swung open. It turned out they were hiding under the bed.
However, as he lifted the bedsheet, the way these two girls looked at him was unexpectedly terrifying, as if they had seen a lust demon.
"What's with that look?"
"N-Nothing, Oniichan! Gwah!"
"We definitely won't discriminate against you just because we know you like big Onee-chans! Ow! Pain!"
Two crisp thuds of heads hitting the bedframe echoed in succession. Watching the two silly girls clutching their heads in agony, Yu wordlessly dragged them out by their ankles, his eyes narrowed into half-moons.
Seriously, their heads weren't that bright to begin with; they really shouldn't be so reckless with them. He hoped they hadn't turned stupid, or he wouldn't know how to explain it to their parents.
But speaking of which, the last time he was here, he had asked Nanaka-san to help pack away his "books." When he returned to Grand Blue, he noticed quite a few were missing. It turned out she had hidden them in his room.
"So-Sorry! We didn't mean to flip through these things!"
"Please forgive us!"
Realizing Yu was looking at the "manga" in her hand, Busujima Akiko immediately performed a dogeza, presenting it with both hands. She hoped the evil Great Demon King wouldn't lay his demonic claws on her!
"It's fine~ My interest is in older sisters. I could never lay a hand on an imouto..."
Seeing exactly what was going on in their little heads, Yu naturally took back the "erotica" without a change in expression. Since it was just "common currency," he felt no shame in taking it!
However, Akiko and Xuena were innocent little sisters who only had sisters at home; it was perfectly normal for them not to know that boys hid such things.
"Back to the point. Akiko, can I have a private chat with you? The kind where the whole thing is recorded."
"Is it about the school refusal?"
Her shoulders trembled. Akiko gave a bitter smile and looked up, nodding generously. "No problem! But there's no need for recording. We all trust Rin's brother."
"Then I shall take my leave! Sorry for the intrusion!"
Akiko at least had a bit of a gyaru attribute because of her sister, but Lin Xuena could be described as a pure snow lotus on a mountain.
Growing up in a scholarly household meant her knowledge of such "adult" books was limited to rumors. As a result, even though she only caught a glimpse, her blood was still rushing frantically to her head.
Hearing that Yu wanted a private chat with Akiko, she immediately used a "once-in-a-lifetime teleportation" and bolted out the door, giving Akiko no chance to call her a traitor!
"Is her reaction really that big? Whatever..."
His eyes couldn't keep up with the girl's speed. Yu looked at the door, which she hadn't forgotten to close tightly even while fleeing, and nodded repeatedly. A well-mannered sister like that was hard to come by nowadays!
However, rather than envying someone else's obedient imouto, he soon turned his attention back to Busujima Akiko.
"Akiko, first, can you tell me why you don't want to go to school? Verbal bullying, physical altercations, or the silent treatment?"
"Eh? So direct? Usually, aren't you supposed to slowly get to know each other..."
"Emmm, as you said, that's 'usually'~"
Since she was his sister's friend and Sakurako's imouto, Yu didn't beat around the bush. Instead, he folded his arms and commanded seriously, "How about this: just think of me as an angry older brother whose sister was bullied, ready to find those 'bratty kids' and get justice back..."
"Wait! They're all seventeen or eighteen-year-old girls! One punch from Oniichan's muscles would literally kill someone!"
"So, you're not denying being bullied?"
Flustered, she instantly put her hands on the seams of her skirt. Akiko locked eyes with Yu for two seconds before finally admitting defeat.
"Yes."
"Just as I thought. You're just like your sister... What's the extent? Has it escalated to physical contact?"
It was to be expected. Having been an outlier in high school for two years, Yu had seen it all. He knew exactly how much Tokyo's high school culture could crush a person.
To put it simply, if you applied Big Busujima's temper and personality to Little Busujima proportionally, Akiko would be lucky if she wasn't "pranked" twice a day.
"Not before..."
Lowering her head and gripping her skirt, Akiko wasn't sure if her judgment was correct, but since she was facing Rin's Oniichan, speaking her mind should be fine—
"But before break, people were always bumping into me in P.E. class. Dodgeballs were flying at my face, too..."
"So, silent treatment turned physical~ using 'accidents' to test the waters. Such childish tactics."
Yu sat on the bed and crossed his legs, handing down his verdict without hesitation, like a "mustachioed detective" who identifies the culprit the moment he arrives at the scene.
But that's how bullying works. It starts with frequent "accidental" bumps and later evolves into overt violence.
"Hey~ Akiko, did you know? I was also given the silent treatment for a long time in high school~"
"Eh? No way. Someone with muscles like Oniichan's... how could a good person like you be?"
"You were about to say 'muscle-head,' weren't you!"
His gaze sharpened. Yu patted the spot beside him, signaling the impolite girl to sit closer for "supervision."
He regretted being a bit impulsive on the train, resulting in his clothes still being on "cooldown." Otherwise, he would definitely tell all of Tokyo that he had a "normal" form!
"Bullying has no reason. It could be because you mispronounced a singer's name and got labeled a 'country bumpkin,' or because your surname is Busujima and people chase you around shouting nonsense."
"Is that... how it is?"
It was still hard to believe a gentle brother like Yu could be bullied, but Busujima Akiko did have the experience of being given nicknames. This hit her right in the heart!
"Then Oniichan must have solved it perfectly!"
"There was no way... humans are strange creatures. Unless you leave, the collective malice of the group will never vanish!"
"Eh?"
Heroes solve all problems and bring evil to justice—those are stories from fairy tales, and Yu didn't like telling stories.
To tell a bullied girl to believe in "truth, beauty, and goodness" was no different from advising a "simp" to give their all without expecting anything in return!
"But don't worry~ I can try my best to help you solve the physical bullying issue. I can also teach you a secret technique to ensure you never get picked on again!"
"A secret technique?"
Tilting her head, Akiko's eyes flashed with confusion. After all, besides making friends with the entire world, was there really a way to never be picked on?
But since it was a senior's experience, learning it couldn't hurt, right?
"I want to learn!"
"Yoshi, then it's a deal. Oniichan helps you solve the bullying, and Akiko goes back to school and finishes high school properly?"
Yu smiled and extended his massive palm. In comparison, Akiko's "almost-spoiled" petite frame was tiny.
But when their palms met, an indescribable sense of destiny arose.
"Yes!"
"Yoshi~ Now for the second question: why are both Akiko and Sakurako unwilling to go home?"
Coaxing kids was truly exhausting work. Seeing that he had finally built trust with Akiko, Yu shifted the conversation to a deeper level—
Ultimately, the school situation was secondary. Neither Sakurako nor Akiko wanted to go home. This meant the "last safe harbor" of the family was no longer trusted. That was the real problem!
"..."
As expected, at the mention of family, Akiko went from excited to depressed. But relying on that hard-earned trust, she explained, "The Busujima family used to have a company, but it went bankrupt the year Onee-chan was in her third year of middle school..."
"And then?"
"Even though the company went bankrupt, my sister and I could still attend a twelve-year private elite high school like Rin, so..."
"Alright, that's enough..."
Tapping his temple, Yu only had one thing to say: his head hurt. After all, he did have a friend who was a "poor person among rich kids"!
The level of effort that friend put into studying—sleeping only three hours a day—spoke for itself!
"Because you couldn't make friends, you wanted to form a band and conquer the Budokan, right?"
"Yes! Those two are only focused on making money to make a comeback. They don't care about me or Onee-chan at all! So I wanted to use the guitar to prove myself! Onee-chan used to stay in her room all day practicing bass back then, too!"
"That woman actually knows an instrument? How surprising..."
No love at home plus bullying at school. Yu reviewed Sakurako's high school life in his head. Honestly, it wasn't surprising she developed a preference for "handsome rich guys."
If it were anyone else, they'd probably be a shut-in for life. Her still being willing to interact with people was a case of extremes meeting.
"Um... Oniichan!"
"Hmm? What is it?"
Now that they were familiar, her courage surged. Just like how she dragged Rin into the band, Akiko's eyes were sparkling as she looked at Rin's Oniichan!
"Actually, I have a selfish request!"
"Then don't say it. Saying it would be impolite~"
"Eh?"
"Just kidding, just kidding~"
He patted the poor kid's head twice. Yu was quite tolerant of "tasty" kids; if it wasn't an outrageous request, he usually tried his best to fulfill it!
He couldn't help it—he was the world's number one best Oniichan, after all~
"Actually, I don't want to go home this month..."
"Then just stay here. My house is quite big, so it's fine~"
"The band is still missing a drummer..."
"I'll do it—Wait!"
Suddenly realizing something was wrong, Yu turned to look at the little one whose suggestion was quite bold. The latter guiltily looked away.
"I thought we agreed you'd go back to school and study properly?"
"Please! Just one live show. Think of it as a swan song for my broken band!"
"What's in it for me? You're so young, yet you've already learned how to be a wheedler!"
"There's a benefit!"
Bursting through the door, Miyazawa Rin—who had been eavesdropping for a long time—slammed a Japanese passport in front of her Oniichan and said firmly, "I activate my Gift Card! Summoning the departed drummer from the graveyard!"