CH 93

Chapter 3 — Dry scrape, burn and perforate! • Episode 3–3 — Little Sister ⑥

Translated by KaiesV

Edited by KaiesV

The regulations and team assignments for the main Witch Cup competition were announced, and time passed quickly as we spent our time in strategy meetings and coordination training, and before we knew it, it was the day before the main competition.

Doppelganger-san’s intention was not to push too hard the day before and leave the participants too fatigued for the race, so today was a day to rest from training and meetings and to recharge for tomorrow’s match.

That said, I was going to go back and watch the other team’s witch video as a final check, because I was getting restless doing nothing…

「Sorry for barging in at lunchtime, Ryō-chan. I bought a lot of ingredients, so if you don’t mind, will you let me cook for you?」

I was interrupted by Futaba, who came to visit me at an inopportune time. I could have used my voicemail, or I could have told her I was busy today and that I would see her another time, but on second thought, since she left abruptly without much to say the last time I saw her, I decided to leave that, I reluctantly let her up to my house, thinking that if Chisaki-san later asked me what we were talking about, I might not be able to answer her and she might think I had broken my promise.

I mean, how can she come back to visit me again as if nothing happened after such a long time has passed since we parted like that the other day? Is her heart made of steel or something?

「…Have it your way.」

「I see, thank goodness. Is there anything you can’t eat?」

「Nothing, really.」

Since I was going to order pre-purchased cup noodles or home delivery anyway, if she wanted to make them, let her make them. It kills two birds with one stone: it saves on food costs and the time and effort of cooking.

I don’t have to deal with Futaba until lunch is complete, so I can watch videos in the meantime, but I don’t think I can concentrate, I decided to put off watching it because I would have to interrupt when I started eating, and if I stopped halfway through, I would be too busy talking about the rest of the story. There is no need to rush, since I can see it later.

But then, what are we supposed to do until lunch is ready, I can’t concentrate on anything with Futaba around, I started up a game to kill time for the first time in a while. I’ve been so busy these days with training, meetings, and Diest hunting that I haven’t been able to play at all. It's time to hunt monsters.

As I was playing the game with the sound of Futaba chopping vegetables and frying ingredients as background music, a stuffed elephant suddenly came into view, and I wondered what Chisaki-san was doing now, and I felt a sense of loneliness that made my heart ache. One of the reasons I was so busy that I didn’t have time to play games was that otherwise I would’ve been overwhelmed by the loneliness of not being able to see or talk to Chisaki-san. Even though I am fired up to do my best because Chisaki-san is doing her best, when I lose my temper like this, what I have been enduring until now comes crashing down on me all at once. My heart clenches in fear of what will happen if I am forgotten by Chisaki-san, or what if she never comes back.

「Chisaki-san…」

I noticed that my vision was blurred and I couldn’t see the game screen well.

I hurriedly wiped my eyes with the sleeve of my dress and resumed the game as if nothing had happened. If Futaba sees me like this, she might say something troublesome again. Chisaki-san wanted me to believe her. She said we are friends even though we are apart. I can’t fool myself into thinking that I’m lonely, but to doubt Chisaki-san because of that is such a no-no. I believe in her. Chisaki-san will definitely come back.

「Here you go, Ryo! I made shougayaki today! Bon appétit!」

「…Thank you very much. By the way, what can I do for you today?」

After about an hour, including the time to cook the rice, Futaba’s cooking was completed, and the white rice, shougayaki, salad, and miso soup were placed on the table. My feelings had long since calmed down by then, and Futaba didn’t know that I had cried a little.

I’m amazed that she made so many dishes in that small kitchen. There must be a housekeeper at home, and I don’t think she has the opportunity to cook that much, but maybe it’s a hobby or something. At least 8 years ago Futaba should never have cooked anything as far as I know… Well, if that’s all there is to it, people change a little bit, don’t they?

「We’ll talk after we finish eating. Itadakimasu.」

I can’t go against it if the person who made the meal says so. I wanted to tell her to get to the point and go home, but I decided to wait until we finished eating our meal.

「Is it delicious?」

「…Not really, just mediocre.」

「Fufuh, I’m glad it was to your liking.」

It was a little bit embarrassing to give a straight answer to Futaba who asked me with a proud look on her face, so I answered her with a bit of a muddled answer, but she smiled happily and started to put her hands on her portion.

After the meal began, there was no conversation, and the chopsticks went down silently for about ten minutes, Futaba, who started eating later than I did, finished first and came staring at me. A little later, I finished eating, too. Then Futaba joined hands with me to say thanks for the meal and naturally gathered up the dishes and took them to the sink.

「…」

I called out to Futaba as she began to wash the dishes.

「You eat it, fast.」

「Eh? Ah, was I? Ryō-chan’s mouth is still small, so maybe that’s the difference.」

The amount of food itself is less than in the original body, but the time it takes to complete the meal has not changed much. Even if I were to go back to being a man, the time it would take Futaba to finish the meal would probably be faster.

For what it’s worth, it used to be the other way around. That may be exactly what Futaba just said, but when Futaba was smaller, she was a slower eater. Before Futaba entered elementary school, I was standing next to her as she slowly ate her meals with a sticky mess around her mouth. If I don’t, Futaba will cry. I have to wait for Futaba to finish eating even if I finish faster than her.

「I’ll do the dishes.」

「Eh, it’s alright, it’s alright. I was the one who made so I’ll do it.」

「Just go ahead and rest, Futaba-san.」

It’s not that I forgave Futaba just because she made me dinner. It doesn’t mean that I was bonded with her. It was just that I didn’t like the idea of receiving charity one way or the other.

「Ryō-chan, just now…」

「…What is it?」

「No, I’ll gladly take it.」

I silenced Futaba, who was about to say something, by glaring at her with half-open eyes. I didn’t have any other intention in calling her by her name, just that I didn’t feel comfortable calling her “aunt” or something like that. But Futaba was smiling happily and went back to her room. Tch, she definitely has some convenient misunderstanding.

「Huh? Is that…?」

When I finished washing up and returned to my room, I found Futaba there with a difficult look on her face, holding some kind of game console in her hand. For a moment I thought she was playing my game without my permission, but the hardware was a different color. And it has a brand new look to it, or rather, a small clean look overall. So does that mean it’s Futaba’s?

「Help me, Ryō-chan～ This is too hard to beat～」

「What is this at all…? I mean, it’s Monster Hunt, isn’t it? Futaba-san, you play games, don’t you?」

I was playing an action game in which I hunted monsters, made weapons and armor out of their materials, and then went hunting for them again. She seems to be struggling against the monster, which is the first difficulty in the game, and just when I peeked in, the monster got them. An announcement was made that the mission had failed, and a scene of deportation to the base was played.

In the past, I would not have been interested in games at all. I wondered earlier if these 8 years had changed Futaba.

「Let me see a little bit… What is this equipment? It’s almost the same as the initial equipment, it hasn’t been reinforced, and because there is no unity or planning, even the techniques haven’t been activated.」

「Enhancement? Techniques?」

「I’ll start with a whole set of the same monstrous equipment for the whole body. It can’t be helped then. Let me assist you.」

「Are you playing this game too, Ryō-chan?」

「The grade is maxed out.」

「Grade?」

She seems to be rather advanced in the game but has little knowledge of the game, perhaps a pattern of being invited by a friend to start but not knowing much about it. If she doesn’t want to do it, I think she should be left alone, but if she wants me to help her, I’ll help her, even though I don’t want to help her in the slightest.

I turned on the game console that I had left out and was about to start communicating, really reluctantly and unavoidably, when a muffled Diest occurrence notification rang out.

「Tsk, bad timing…」

「Eh? What did you say, Ryō-chan?」

「No, please do this base mission first.」

While allowing Futaba to begin her one-person mission, I took out the magiphone that is under the quilt.

「Blow all of heaven and earth to smithereens.」

.

The green-haired girl, who was dressed only in a T-shirt with her hair in a messy bun, transformed into beautiful twin-tail hair and vestments in the blink of an eye and vanished with the light of the transition. In the room, where the rattling of alarms had ceased and the only sound was the clicking of buttons, the Magical Girl who had mimicked and become one with the landscape revealed herself.

She wears a long, straight scarlet-colored hair and a cloak, a somewhat disastrous outfit, and is so well known in the current Magical Girl community that there is no one who doesn’t know her name: Doppelganger.

「I’m surprised. I never thought that Futaba’s niece was really a Magical Girl, beside that it was Tyrant Sylph-chan…」

Doppelganger, who had broken through the cognitive inhibitions by witnessing the Tyrant Sylph’s transformation, seemed surprised to learn that a relative of her own best friend was a well-known member of the Witch’s Tea Party. Moreover, the other party is the Wind Witch.  There is even a rumor that she opened the third gate in her first transformation, and her unfathomable talent has attracted great attention not only from Doppelganger but also from other Witches. As far as Doppelganger know, there is about one person who is paying attention to her loveliness regardless of her talent, but that’s beside the point.

Furthermore, she and Tyrant Sylph are members of the same team in the competition, and have met many times in strategy meetings for the main competition since about a week ago. Indeed, if someone ask her, Tyrant Sylph’s somewhat clerical and curt attitude was similar to her niece’s words and actions toward Futaba.

「It runs in the blood, I guess.」

Tyrant Sylph isn’t Futaba’s daughter, so strictly speaking, the meaning is somewhat different, but it is not entirely without blood ties, so it would not be wrong to say so. After all, Futaba was also a rather boisterous Magical Girl.

Doppelganger, needing to convey this fact to Futaba as soon as possible, untransformed and stood in front of her, but she seemed to be concentrating on the game screen and did not seem to notice that the opponent in front of her had changed from Sylph to Yae.

「Hey Futaba, how long are you going to keep playing games?」

「Eh? Huh!? Yae!? Where’s Ryō-chan?」

「She went out for the Diest. You guessed it, that girl was a Magical Girl.」

「…? What are you talking about? I mean, why is Yae there?」

「You are undergoing cognitive inhibition. See, this is Ryō-chan’s transformation scene. Her name is Magical Girl Tyrant Sylph.」

When Yae showed Futaba the screen of the Magiphone, she saw the transformation scene of the Tyrant Sylph in full view. Normal filming equipment cannot capture the appearance of a Magical Girl, and if you try to film a transformation scene, for example, it will be replaced by what is shown in the video before the transformation, as if nothing had happened. However, with Magiphone’s camera, the magical girl’s image can be preserved on film.

The reason why Yae is here in the first place is because Futaba informed me the other day that her niece, Ryo-chan, might be a Magical Girl. Futaba, whose suspicions were already beginning to be obscured by the effects of cognitive inhibition, decided to tell Yae just that and leave the rest to her.

Futaba, a retired Magical Girl, retains memories of her previous activities but is affected by cognitive inhibition after retirement. Therefore, Futaba is not able to go deeper by herself. However, as an active Magical Girl, Yae wouldn’t be subjected to cognitive inhibitions that would make her memories seem tainted or, well, unimportant.

Futaba then lost her suspicion that her niece might be a Magical Girl, as expected, but Yae, who had been consulted to befriend her niece, came up with a plan. Find a way to stay with that niece as long as possible and suppress the scene of her transformation into a Magical Girl. That way, at least Yae will know. Is Futaba’s niece really a Magical Girl or not?

If she’s not a Magical Girl, then a later examination of the time of the Diest occurrence in Sakira Town would prove that she was not transformed at that time.

Futaba brought in the game, and it was Yae’s idea. When she had visited this house before, Futaba had seen that the game console was left out with the charger connected. Yae asked Futaba about every detail of her niece’s house, and after hearing about the game console, she planned an operation where they were actually playing the same game.

The problem was that she didn’t know what game her niece was playing, and from what Futaba told her, she was a girl with twinkle in her eye, and if it was known that she had started playing games to make a connection with her, she could bend her navel and be immediately kicked out.

For the latter reason, it was undesirable to ask her niece what games she was playing. On the contrary, it would be better to adopt an attitude of not even knowing that she was playing games. To begin with, this house is Futaba’s brother’s house, and the fact that she saw a video game console lying around doesn’t tell her whether her niece is playing games or not. She knew, however, that the Yae would definitely be playing the game first. It was hard to imagine a child of her age not touching it when her parents had given her money without strings attached and a video game console in the house.

As a result of these thoughts, Yae was excited to do it face to face for the first time, Yae then listed a number of games that she could easily show that she was playing in her own way, and she instructed Futaba to play the game to the point where a game novice, taking into account the online reputation and feedback, can feel that she was invited by a friend and was able to advance to this point anyway.

There were still a few balls to hold, but choosing Monster Hunting Rising as the first spear seemed to be the right choice, and Futaba’s niece seemed thrilled to see it, even though her mouth was telling her that she couldn’t help it. Yae didn’t miss the look of obvious disgust on her face when the notification of the Diest occurrence rang out.

Futaba was given an explanation that this whole story was a plan to get along with her niece, but the core part of the plan, that Yae would follow along with her in her transformed state and hold up her niece’s transformation scene, received no explanation at all. Since any explanation would be played down by cognitive inhibition anyway, Yae said nothing and stayed with Futaba all along, mimicking the landscape from the beginning.

「I–I see… Hey, isn’t that a crime…?」

After watching the video and receiving a full explanation, Futaba broke through the effects of cognitive inhibition and clearly recognized that her niece was a Magical Girl, and recalled having such doubts in the past.

This is a feat made possible only by the fact that former Magical Girls are slightly less inhibited in their perception. Ordinary people, even if they are shown a transformation scene, will eventually forget about it, assuming it is a composite or CG.

「It’s definitely trespassing, but I don’t have a choice. I’ve been in and out of this house a few times since you contacted me, but she never goes outside except to pick up deliveries and take out the trash. I’d have to go into the house to see her transform, and I’d rather commend her for her common sense in waiting for you to come in.」

「But, you know, at school and stuff… That would be trespassing too…」

「That girl doesn’t go to school.」

「Eh?」

Although she thinks that Yae’s way is probably the right one from a rational point of view, Futaba is slightly dissatisfied that she had entered her niece’s house without her consent and without consulting her. She sulked like a child, saying it was unfair that even she herself had been turned away once without being allowed to come up to the house.

However, the unexpected words coming back from Yae made her forget her dissatisfaction and shouted dumbly.

「That’s why I told you earlier. I told you she doesn’t go outside at all except to pick up deliveries and take out the trash. Well, it’s not so unusual for a magical girl to miss school, but is your brother really taking care of her? I heard you say something about having money, but isn’t that what she’s earning for herself? I’ve never seen her father come home.」

「B–But there’s clothes for Onii-chan, bedding, dishes, and household items for both of them, it seems, right?」

「That’s true, but… that girl was crying, calling her friend’s name. I don’t know what happened, but if she doesn’t have her parents, and she doesn’t get along with her friends, you’re the only one who can help her, aren’t you? When you thought she might be a Magical Girl, you didn’t go out of your way to contact me to find out the truth, just out of curiosity, did you? What will you do now that you know the truth? What do you want to do? I’m going to leave now, but I’m going to take care of her.」

After deleting the video showing Sylph’s transformation scene, Yae then left the house.

The remaining Futaba told her that her niece was a Magical Girl, that she didn’t go to school, that her brother might have abandoned that girl, that she shed tears and such, with so many different pieces of information crammed into one side of her head, she didn’t know what to do, and she didn’t realize that the characters in the game had died before she knew it.